Does diet play a role in the alleviation of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms?

This systematic review of scientific literature was undertaken to investigate the possibility of a role for diet in the alleviation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) symptoms, with an objective of highlighting specific nutrients and/or certain food groups and diets that may impact upon the symptoms of RA. Studies displaying conflicting evidence (i.e. show diets that have no effect on RA symptom alleviation) were also reviewed. A comprehensive literature search to identify relevant papers was carried out with the use of criteria, in an attempt to identify as many studies as possible, but also to minimise selection bias for those that were found. Electronic databases, library catalogues and internet search engines played key parts in paper identification. A total of 31 papers were identified after meeting selection criteria and summaries and critical appraisals were compiled for comparison. Some studies show that fish oil supplementation displayed the greatest benefits through a reduction in the number of tender joints and morning stiffness. One paper offers a dosage figure for improvement in clinical symptoms as 40mg/kg body weight/day of oil containing n-3 fatty acids (FAs) combined with <10g/day of dietary (n-6) FAs. Periods of fasting with a vegetarian diet promotes a reduction in RA symptoms. Several studies identify Gammalinolenic Acid as capable of decreasing pro-inflammatory products of Arachidonic Acid. Similarly, elemental diets and foods devoid of allergens may benefit RA activity parameters, however improvements in RA symptoms seen in response to elemental diets are not sustained on individualised diets. Many researchers recognised the influence of a Mediterranean diet, rich in anti-oxidant containing vegetables, n-3 FAs and a lower ratio of n-6 to n-3 FAs as sources of inflammation reduction. Vitamin E treatment was shown to provide a small analgesic property compared to placebo, the mechanism of which and identification of additional vitamins and food sources with such potential require further study. Further work is required on establishing most beneficial supplement dosage, duration and length of treatment interval. Knowledge of correlations of food allergies in RA sufferers to immune responses compared to food antigens in the fluid of blood and joints would be useful

Growing intimate privatepublics: Everyday utopia in the naturecultures of a young lesbian and bisexual women’s allotment

The Young Women’s Group in Manchester is a ‘young women’s peer health project, run by and for young lesbian and bisexual women’, which runs an allotment as one of its activities. At a time when interest in allotments and gardening appears to be on the increase, the existence of yet another community allotment may seem unremarkable. Yet we suggest that this queer allotment poses challenges for conventional theorisations of allotments, as well as for understandings of public and private. In this article we explore how the allotment project might be understood to be intensely engaged in ‘growing intimate publics’, or what we term ‘privatepublics’. These are paradoxical intimacies, privatepublic spaces which are not necessarily made possible in the usual private sphere of domestic homes. Here we focus on the work involved in materialising the allotment, which we understand as a queer privatepublic ‘natureculture’ (Haraway, 2008) which appears as an ‘everyday utopia’ (Cooper, 2014)

Preaching to the converted: the value of organisationally supported carbon reduction initiatives

Organisation led carbon reduction initiatives are bridging the gap between purely individual environmental action and higher level intervention and regulation. This research looks into one of those initiatives aimed at engaging employees in carbon reduction. We adopt a single case study approach following learning activities of volunteers within a UK organisation over four months. Observations of their activities were conducted, in addition to interviews with participants and organisers. Our core findings are, firstly, that rather than engaging a wide range of employees, only a very narrow group chose to participate. This group bears similarities with Barr and Gilg’s (2006) classification of ‘committed’ environmentalists which suggests that those willing to participate in these initiatives may be those for whom environmentalism is personally relevant. That there was little evidence of the initiative engaging a broader network of employees raises questions on the effectiveness of these activities in the wider population of employees. Secondly, we identified attitude behaviour gaps to varying degrees among participants who still made carbon intensive choices especially in relation to air travel, for example. We conclude by analysing the effectiveness of the intervention and the associated challenges. Recommendations are made covering several dimensions such as the potential role of technology in facilitating behaviour change, and organisational policy making with regards to employee engagement to carbon reduction

Inside Online Charter Schools

Online charter schools -- also known as virtual charters or cyber charters -- are publicly funded schools of choice that deliver student instruction via telecommunications. Today, about 200 online charter schools are operating in the United States, serving about 200,000 students at the elementary, middle, and high school grade levels. Although online instruction is increasing rapidly, there have been few studies of their operations and effects. In innovative new research funded by the Walton Family Foundation, the National Study of Online Charter Schools offers a rigorous analysis of online charter schools and their effects. Mathematica Policy Research's report provides the first nationwide data and analysis of the operations and instructional approaches of online charter schools, based on data collected in a survey completed by 127 principals of online charter schools across the country and public data from the U.S. Department of Education

Stellar and Gaseous Nuclear Disks Observed in Nearby (U)LIRGs

We present near-infrared integral field spectroscopy of the central kiloparsec of 17 nearby luminous and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies undergoing major mergers. These observations were taken with OSIRIS assisted by the Keck I and II Adaptive Optics systems, providing spatial resolutions of a few tens of parsecs. The resulting kinematic maps reveal gas disks in at least 16 out of 19 nuclei and stellar disks in 11 out of 11 nuclei observed in these galaxy merger systems. In our late-stages mergers, these disks are young (stellar ages $<30$ Myr) and likely formed as gas disks which became unstable to star formation during the merger. On average, these disks have effective radii of a few hundred parsecs, masses between $10^{8}$ and $10^{10} M_{Sun}$, and $v/\sigma$ between 1 and 5. These disks are similar to those created in high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations of gas-rich galaxy mergers, and favor short coalescence times for binary black holes. The few galaxies in our sample in earlier stages of mergers have disks which are larger ($r_{eff}\sim200-1800$ pc) and likely are remnants of the galactic disks that have not yet been completely disrupted by the merger.Comment: accepted for publication in Ap

Unblocking the Sink: Improved CID-Based Analysis of Phosphorylated Peptides by Enzymatic Removal of the Basic C-Terminal Residue

A one-step enzymatic reaction for improving the collision-induced dissociation (CID)-based tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analysis of phosphorylated peptides in an ion trap is presented. Carboxypeptidase-B (CBP-B) was used to selectively remove C-terminal arginine or lysine residues from phosphorylated tryptic/Lys-C peptides prior to their MS/MS analysis by CID with a Paul-type ion trap. Removal of this basic C-terminal residue served to limit the extent of gas-phase neutral loss of phosphoric acid (H(3)PO(4)), favoring the formation of diagnostic b and y ions as determined by an increase in both the number and relative intensities of the sequence-specific product ions. Such differential fragmentation is particularly valuable when the H(3)PO(4) elimination is so predominant that localizing the phosphorylation site on the peptide sequence is hindered. Improvement in the quality of tandem mass spectral data generated by CID upon CBP-B treatment resulted in greater confidence both in assignment of the phosphopeptide primary sequence and for pinpointing the site of phosphorylation. Higher Mascot ion scores were also generated, combined with lower expectation values and higher delta scores for improved confidence in site assignment; Ascore values also improved. These results are rationalized in accordance with the accepted mechanisms for the elimination of H(3)PO(4) upon low energy CID and insights into the factors dictating the observed dissociation pathways are presented. We anticipate this approach will be of utility in the MS analysis of phosphorylated peptides, especially when alternative electron-driven fragmentation techniques are not available. [Figure: see text] ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13361-013-0770-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users