The MacBride Report in Twenty-first-century Capitalism, the Age of Social Media and the BRICS Countries

The MacBride Report was published in 1980. The report communicated the need for a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). With the breakdown of what used to be called “actually existing socialism“ in the East and with the rise of the neoliberal commodification of everything, a NWICO indeed emerged, but one that looked quite different from that the MacBride commission imagined. Thirty-five years later, it is time to ask how the situation of the media and communications in society has changed. This contribution asks the question of what we can make of the MacBride Report today in a media world and society that has seen the rise of an economically driven form of globalisation that also has impacts on the media, the expansion of the information economy with a new young precariat at its core, and the emergence of the World Wide Web and its change into a highly commercialised system, including the emergence of so-called “social media“ whose capital accumulation model is based on targeted advertising

Genome-Wide Analysis of Human Disease Alleles Reveals That Their Locations Are Correlated in Paralogous Proteins

The millions of mutations and polymorphisms that occur in human populations are potential predictors of disease, of our reactions to drugs, of predisposition to microbial infections, and of age-related conditions such as impaired brain and cardiovascular functions. However, predicting the phenotypic consequences and eventual clinical significance of a sequence variant is not an easy task. Computational approaches have found perturbation of conserved amino acids to be a useful criterion for identifying variants likely to have phenotypic consequences. To our knowledge, however, no study to date has explored the potential of variants that occur at homologous positions within paralogous human proteins as a means of identifying polymorphisms with likely phenotypic consequences. In order to investigate the potential of this approach, we have assembled a unique collection of known disease-causing variants from OMIM and the Human Genome Mutation Database (HGMD) and used them to identify and characterize pairs of sequence variants that occur at homologous positions within paralogous human proteins. Our analyses demonstrate that the locations of variants are correlated in paralogous proteins. Moreover, if one member of a variant-pair is disease-causing, its partner is likely to be disease-causing as well. Thus, information about variant-pairs can be used to identify potentially disease-causing variants, extend existing procedures for polymorphism prioritization, and provide a suite of candidates for further diagnostic and therapeutic purposes

Initiatives and reforms across Scotland in recent years to improve prescribing; findings and global implications of drug prescriptions

Objective: Global expenditure on medicines is increasing driven by a number of factors. These include the launch of new premium-priced medicines for complex diseases including oncology, rise in non-communicable diseases especially with ageing populations and changes in clinical practice. There are also concerns with the rise in antimicrobial resistance due to inappropriate prescribing of antimicrobials as well as concerns with polypharmacy. Both situations increase morbidity, mortality and costs. We are aware of ongoing activities across Scotland to improve the managed entry of new medicines, including new oncology medicines, improve the prescribing of antimicrobials as well as enhance the prescribing of low-cost multiple sourced medicines and biosimilars without compromising care. In addition, seeking to address concerns with polypharmacy. Consequently, we wanted to document these multiple measures and their outcomes to provide an overview to inform all key stakeholders in Scotland as well as the global community as resource pressures grow. Methods: A narrative review of the literature documenting examples of ongoing national and regional initiatives across Scotland to influence future prescribing and their impact where known across multiple disease areas. Significant findings: The co-ordinated approach to improve the prescribing of new medicines limited the prescribing of dabigatran when first launched with recent research providing guidance on the effectiveness and safety of different direct oral anticoagulants as more are launched. The patient reported outcome measures project and other ongoing research activities, including linking datasets, is progressing under the Cancer Medicines Outcomes Programme in Scotland to improve future care with typically differences in the effectiveness of new cancer medicines in routine care versus clinical trials. The Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group is also active in Scotland instigating multiple measures to improve antimicrobial prescribing. This includes improving the dosing of gentamicin and vancomycin as well as reducing the prescribing of antibiotics for women with urinary tract infections. Multiple activities have also resulted in high International Non-proprietary Name (INN) prescribing in Scotland at between 91.4% to 100% across a range of medicines. In addition, increased the prescribing of low-cost multiple sourced medicines versus patented medicines in a class or related class, as well as biosimilars, leading to considerable savings without compromising care. There have also been initiatives to address concerns with the rising costs of combination inhalers for patients with respiratory diseases as well as areas of polypharmacy with varying success. Conclusion: Multiple and co-ordinated approaches have improved the quality and efficiency of prescribing in Scotland. Additional measures are still needed and we will continue to monitor the situation

Renewable Portfolio Standards and the Growth of Wind Power Capacity in the United States

RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARDS AND THE GROWTH OF WIND POWER CAPACITY IN THE UNITED STATES Andrew M. MacBride, B.A. Thesis Advisor: David E. Hunger, Ph.D. ABSTRACT Of existing renewable energy sources, wind power has experienced the most commercial success, to date, and in many regions of the country is economically competitive with conventional energy generated from fossil fuels. In the United States, the federal and state governments have supported the development and commercialization of wind power through various policies, one of which is a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). An RPS establishes timeframes by which a state must generate set percentages of their electricity from renewable resources. By mandating the use of renewable energy, an RPS promotes the development of wind power capacity. There are numerous factors, however, that help to explain the proliferation of wind power capacity in the United States. Alternative policies such as the federal Production Tax Credit and the Public Benefits Funds established by states also aim to hasten the development of renewables like wind power. Market factors such as fossil fuel prices, the cost and availability of wind turbines, and average electricity prices also affect the pace of wind power development. Understanding which factors have the greatest effect on wind capacity in the U.S. is valuable to both policy-makers and private investors. Renewable Portfolio Standards are an increasingly popular policy mechanism at the state level and a national RPS has been proposed in most of the energy bills drafted by the 110th Congress. Once enacted, Renewable Portfolio Standards lock energy providers into long-term requirements, the economic effects of which can not yet be fully understood. By requiring energy providers to incorporate renewable energy sources into their portfolios, states are placing a considerable financial burden on these energy providers, and their customers. With such high costs, the effectiveness of a Renewable Portfolio Standard as a catalyst for the development of renewable energy must be examined. If RPS policies are not as effective at promoting renewable energy as most governmental and academic literature purport, or if there are other forces more directly causing the growth of alternatives such as wind power capacity, there may be more efficient means of fostering investment in renewable energy. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect that state Renewable Portfolio Standards have on wind power capacity in the United States, controlling for alternative policy options and economic factors

Acetyl Perchlorate Mediated Rearrangement of Tri-<i>O</i>-benzyl-d-glucal. Evidence for a 1,6-Hydride Shift

Acetyl Perchlorate Mediated Rearrangement of Tri-O-benzyl-d-glucal. Evidence for a 1,6-Hydride Shif

Selected Class 1 SNP pairs.

<p>Columns 1 & 4 give the gene symbols for two paralogous disease-causing genes. Columns 2 & 5 give the IDs of the two variants that comprise the Class 1 pair. Columns 3 & 6 list the diseases most commonly associated with the two paralogous variants.</p

ODDs scores associated with different types of variant pairs.

<p>Genes: number of genes in the dataset. % Similarity: average value for the dataset's aligned proteins. Syn: synonymous variants. Non-syn: non-synonymous variants (pooled variants from the other classes of variant, including nonsense variants). Non-con: non-conservative substitutions. Con: conservative substitutions. Frame-shift: frameshift inducing indels. Values in the table are ODDs scores (observed number of variant pairs/expected number of variant pairs).</p