Remembering Auchengeich: the largest fatal accident in Scottish coal in the nationalised era

No abstract availabl

Remembering Auchengeich: the largest fatal accident in Scottish coal in the nationalised era

No abstract availabl

Assessing the effectiveness of NICE criteria for stratifying breast cancer risk in a UK cohort

Breast cancer risk is a common indication for referral to clinical genetics services. UK National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines use family history (FH) to stratify by 10-year risk of breast cancer from age 40. Patients are stratified into population risk (PR, 10-year risk <3%), moderate (MR, 3-8%) and high risk (HR, >8%). Women at increased risk are offered screening at or prior to age 40. To assess the clinical effectiveness of current risk stratification, FH data was obtained for all unaffected women with a FH of breast cancer aged <50, referred to cancer genetics from 2000-2010. Patients were risk stratified by NICE criteria, identifying patients who subsequently developed breast cancer. 1,409 women had 15,414 patient-years of follow up. 30 invasive breast cancers developed, 13 in MR and 13 in HR women. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated no significant difference in rate of breast cancer development between PR and MR women from ages 40-49 (Log rank p=0.431). There was a significant difference between ages 40- 49 years between PR and HR women (p=0.036), but not on exclusion of BRCA mutation carriers (p=0.136). NICE absolute 10-year risk thresholds between ages 40-49 were not met in any risk group, when risk was estimated using the guidelines (PR=0.82%, MR=1.68%, HR=3.56%). Our data suggests that improved criteria are required for risk assessment prior to age 50 and screening resources may be best focussed on those with highly penetrant mutations in cancer risk genes

Balancing act: exploring the tone of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

This paper provides an analysis of The Life Aquatic in the context of debates around tone, irony, the Smart Film, the New Sincerity and the Quirky. It argues that Anderson is one of a small but significant number of filmmakers to escape from the indiscriminate irony of fin de sie`cle cinema, and finds The Life Aquatic Aquatic a particularly interesting film in which to explore such matters because of its ready artifice, strong elements of pastiche and measuredly preposterous excesses. Offering a critical analysis, the paper balances an engagement with some of the systemic elements of the film’s tone with the detailed organisation of tonal elements in particular sequences

Nitric oxide sensing in plants is mediated by proteolytic control of group VII ERF transcription factors

Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signaling compound in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In plants, NO regulates critical developmental transitions and stress responses. Here, we identify a mechanism for NO sensing that coordinates responses throughout development based on targeted degradation of plant-specific transcriptional regulators, the group VII ethylene response factors (ERFs). We show that the N-end rule pathway of targeted proteolysis targets these proteins for destruction in the presence of NO, and we establish them as critical regulators of diverse NO-regulated processes, including seed germination, stomatal closure, and hypocotyl elongation. Furthermore, we define the molecular mechanism for NO control of germination and crosstalk with abscisic acid (ABA) signaling through ERF-regulated expression of ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE5 (ABI5). Our work demonstrates how NO sensing is integrated across multiple physiological processes by direct modulation of transcription factor stability and identifies group VII ERFs as central hubs for the perception of gaseous signals in plants

A high-resolution map of human evolutionary constraint using 29 mammals.

The comparison of related genomes has emerged as a powerful lens for genome interpretation. Here we report the sequencing and comparative analysis of 29 eutherian genomes. We confirm that at least 5.5% of the human genome has undergone purifying selection, and locate constrained elements covering ∼4.2% of the genome. We use evolutionary signatures and comparisons with experimental data sets to suggest candidate functions for ∼60% of constrained bases. These elements reveal a small number of new coding exons, candidate stop codon readthrough events and over 10,000 regions of overlapping synonymous constraint within protein-coding exons. We find 220 candidate RNA structural families, and nearly a million elements overlapping potential promoter, enhancer and insulator regions. We report specific amino acid residues that have undergone positive selection, 280,000 non-coding elements exapted from mobile elements and more than 1,000 primate- and human-accelerated elements. Overlap with disease-associated variants indicates that our findings will be relevant for studies of human biology, health and disease

Who owns a factory?: Caterpillar tractors in Uddingston, 1956-1987

This case study of the Caterpillar earthmoving-equipment factory at Uddingston in Lanarkshire from opening in 1956 to closure in 1987 contributes to debates about workforce resistance to deindustrialization by focusing on the issue of ownership. The factory was owned by the US multinational’s UK tractor-manufacturing subsidiary, but this analysis demonstrates the manner in which workers and communities asserted rights to ‘ownership’ of a valued local resource. The factory, the largest single industrial unit in Scotland during the 1960s, was established with regional assistance, and built on the site of a former mining village. Policy-makers tacitly offered a viable future with more sustainable employment than coal mining. This promise was violated, initially by the firm’s anti-union production regime which the workers overturned with a successful strike for union recognition in the winter of 1960-61; and second, when the closure of the factory was announced in 1987. Caterpillar workers responded by challenging the right of their employer to dispose freely of material assets – the factory and its equipment – that had been developed with public money and through their efforts. A 103-day occupation from January to April 1987 was led by a strong factory trade union organization that had been developed by the workers at Caterpillar, embedded in an extensive social infrastructure with powerful familial ties. Moral economy claims of communal ownership of the factory were asserted by the occupiers in the face of corporate power and private property rights. The occupation was unsuccessful but nevertheless represented an important attempt to resist the acceleration of deindustrialization in the 1980s

A study of the effects of base in and base out prism to phorias at three distances and the effects of plus and minus lens power to cross cylinder findings at the afore mentioned distances

A study of the effects of base in and base out prism to phorias at three distances and the effects of plus and minus lens power to cross cylinder findings at the afore mentioned distance