Microglia experience dramatic molecular and functional changes when transferred from the central nervous system (CNS) to a cell culture environment. Investigators largely attribute these findings to the loss of CNS-specific microenvironmental cues that dictate the gene-regulatory networks specified by master regulator transcription factors such as V-maf musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene homolog B (MafB). MafB regulates macrophage differentiation and activation by activating or repressing target genes critical to these processes. Here, we show that basal MafB levels in the BV-2 microglial cell line depend on the availability of lipids in the cell culture environment. Depletion of lipids, either by serum deprivation or the use of lipid-depleted serum, reduced MafB protein levels in BV-2 cells. Using live imaging, we also observed the engulfment of apoptotic BV-2 cell debris by neighboring BV-2 cells, highlighting an additional potential source of lipids in the cell culture environment. This observation was supported by experiments showing reduced MafB protein levels in BV-2 cells cultured with various phagocytosis inhibitors (cytochalasin D, annexin V) and reduced BV-2 cell phagocytic activity with serum deprivation. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/msc-4381.html In aggregate, our data suggest that serum exposure regulates the transcription factor MafB in BV-2 cells through direct and indirect mechanisms.Cape Verde is an island country and Sahelian, where the climatic conditions cause a rainfall deficit originating dry periods causing a fragile agricultural development. The rural world is facing various problems such as lack of land for cultivation, lack of water and soil erosion. The "apanha de areia" (sand haversting) refers to the extraction of sand and gravel from the sea and rocks. Although it is considered as an environmental crime, the activity is carried for generations and supplies the civil construction business of the country. This study analyze this activity from the perspective of women from the interior of Santiago, in the locality of Charco, in the municipality of Santa Catarina. The research was carried out based on an ethnography of long duration, with spaced field visits, since January 2009 and the monitoring of environmental and gender policies in Cape Verde. As results, we highlight women's agency in the face of a context of growing social inequalities.This article addresses the short-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy and hints at its potential long-term effects. Though many might want it to, birth does not stop during a pandemic. In emergency times, birth practices need to be adjusted to safeguard the health of birthing mothers, babies, birth providers, and the general population. In Bologna, Italy, one of the emergency measures employed by local hospitals in response to COVID-19 was to suspend women's right to be accompanied by a person of their choice for the whole duration of labor and childbirth. In this work, we look at how this measure was disputed by the local activist birth community. Through the analysis of a social campaign empowered by Voci di Nascita-an association of parents, birth providers, and activists-we examine how social actors negotiated the balance between public health and reproductive rights in a time of crisis. We argue that this process unveils several structural issues that characterize maternity care at the local and national levels, including the (re)medicalization of birth, the discourse on risk and safety, the internal fragmentation of Italian midwifery, and the fragility of reproductive rights. The Covidian experience forced the reshaping of the birth carepath during the peak of the emergency. We suggest that it also offered an opportunity to rethink how birth is conceived, experienced, and accompanied in times of unprecedented global uncertainty-and beyond.Throughout the Americas, most Indigenous people move through urban areas and make their homes in cities. Yet, the specific issues and concerns facing Indigenous people in cities, and the positive protective factors their vibrant urban communities generate are often overlooked and poorly understood. This has been particularly so under COVID-19 pandemic conditions. In the spring of 2020, the United Nations High Commissioner Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples called for information on the impacts of COVID-19 for Indigenous peoples. We took that opportunity to provide a response focused on urban Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. Here, we expand on that response and Indigenous and human rights lens to review policies and practices impacting the experience of COVID-19 for urban Indigenous communities. Our analysis integrates a discussion of historical and ongoing settler colonialism, and the strengths of Indigenous community-building, as these shape the urban Indigenous experience with COVID-19. Mindful of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we highlight the perspectives of Indigenous organizations which are the lifeline of urban Indigenous communities, focusing on challenges that miscounting poses to data collection and information sharing, and the exacerbation of intersectional discrimination and human rights infringements specific to the urban context. We include Indigenous critiques of the implications of structural oppressions exposed by COVID-19, and the resulting recommendations which have emerged from Indigenous urban adaptations to lockdown isolation, the provision of safety, and delivery of services grounded in Indigenous initiatives and traditional practices.Vaccination encounters multiple context-specific challenges-socio-cultural, economic, and political-that substantially affect its uptake. Likewise, natural disasters and health emergencies considerably impact immunization endeavors, such as the coronaviurs 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that has overwhelmed the entire world. It was already anticipated that the pandemic would severely affect Pakistan's vaccination programs due to interruptions in routine vaccination and the overstretching of healthcare systems. Consequently, there are anticipations of outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). Yet empirical evidence is missing. Drawing on qualitative research, this article focuses on the impact of COVID-19 on routine vaccination programs in Pakistan. Our data come from a small village located in Pakistan's Sindh province where local people refused the routine polio vaccine that was stopped for a while, then resumed in July 2020. They suspected both the vaccine and COVID-19 to be a "Western plot." We argue that these perceptions and practices can be seen against the backdrop of economic, socio-cultural, and (geo)political forces, which are encoded in "societal memory.