The hidden dimension of Brexit: Brexiting Europe

Depressing news about the effect of the Brexit vote to date and the things to come post Brexit have become a matter of routine since the vote to leave on the 23rd of June took place. This is even before the terms of Brexit have been agreed, let alone negotiated. All signs are that it is going to be a long, complicated and hazardous road before the UK leaves the EU, if at all. Whatever the final format of negotiations is and regardless of what course of action is eventually followed by the UK political circle, one missing element in the discussion is that of the EU. Yes, the EU. Brexit itself seems to be a very ‘British’ affair, in terms of what has been debated on this side of the English Channel. The word ‘Brexit’ itself connotes an exit from the EU, yet the ‘EU’ is absent from it. That said, any exit, let alone a successful one, has to be about the EU as well. Questions like what has been the effect of the vote on Brexit on EU countries, and more specifically on its people and the EU psyche are alarmingly absent from the discussion in the UK. However, understanding these questions and trying to reflect on them, it is argued, are a crucial factor in any future negotiation and whether, ultimately, Brexit is a success story as the Prime Minister is repeatedly arguing it will be. The discussion cannot solely be about the various options open to the UK, their merits and pitfalls, how the UK economy is going to be impacted and so on and so forth, unless the UK is still under the illusion that it can unilaterally decide these matters and simply expect the EU to meet the UK demands. This ‘take back control’, ‘independence day’, UK exceptionalism-rhetoric may have proved successful in (marginally) winning the hearts of the electorate in the referendum, but it is difficult to see how it can carry any force in the real world of international politics, if the UK is expecting to get anything of substance from the Brexit negotiations. That is all the more the case if one takes into account the inherently complex nature of the EU political arena, continuously shaped as it is by the often conflicting geopolitical and economic interests of its member states

The UK stewardship code: On the road to nowhere?

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Corporate Law Studies on 09/07/2015, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14735970.2015.104477

Regional coherence evaluation in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease based on adaptively extracted magnetoencephalogram rhythms

This study assesses the connectivity alterations caused by Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in magnetoencephalogram (MEG) background activity. Moreover, a novel methodology to adaptively extract brain rhythms from the MEG is introduced. This methodology relies on the ability of empirical mode decomposition to isolate local signal oscillations and constrained blind source separation to extract the activity that jointly represents a subset of channels. Inter-regional MEG connectivity was analysed for 36 AD, 18 MCI and 26 control subjects in δ, θ, α and β bands over left and right central, anterior, lateral and posterior regions with magnitude squared coherence—c(f). For the sake of comparison, c(f) was calculated from the original MEG channels and from the adaptively extracted rhythms. The results indicated that AD and MCI cause slight alterations in the MEG connectivity. Computed from the extracted rhythms, c(f) distinguished AD and MCI subjects from controls with 69.4% and 77.3% accuracies, respectively, in a full leave-one-out cross-validation evaluation. These values were higher than those obtained without the proposed extraction methodology

Peer mentorship and positive effects on student mentor and mentee retention and academic success

This study examined how the introduction of peer mentorship in an undergraduate health and social welfare programme at a large northern university affected student learning. Using an ethnographic case study approach, the study draws upon data collected from a small group of mentors and their mentees over a period of one academic year using interviews, reflective journals, assessment and course evaluation data. Analysis of the data collected identified a number of key findings: peer mentorship improves assessment performance for both mentee and mentor; reduces stress and anxiety, enhances participation and engagement in the academic community, and adds value to student outcomes

Live and recorded group music interventions with active participation for people with dementias: a systematic review

Background: This literature review examined the existing evidence base for the impact of both live and recorded music interventions involving active participation in a dementia population. Methodology: PsycINFO, Medline, CINAHL, Web of Science, PubMed and Cochrane Library were searched and 15 studies met inclusion criteria. Results: There was a positive impact on behavioural and psychological symptoms, quality of life, communication and some aspects of cognitive function; methodological limitations, however, make it difficult to offer firm conclusions. Interventions using recorded music resulted in more consistent positive behavioural and psychological outcomes, whereas interventions using live music reported a benefit to communication and relationships. Conclusions: Although live and recorded music showed benefits, and should be considered in dementia care, the use of different outcome measures made definitive comparisons problematic. In order to better understand mechanisms of change, one future research area should explore how group music interventions affect communication by more closely assessing processes during live and recorded music

Nucleosynthetic osmium isotope anomalies in acid leachates of the Murchison meteorite

We present osmium isotopic results obtained by sequential leaching of the Murchison meteorite, which reveal the existence of very large internal anomalies of nucleosynthetic origin. The Os isotopic anomalies are correlated, and can be explained by the variable contributions of components derived from the s, r and p-processes of nucleosynthesis. Much of the s-process rich osmium is released by relatively mild leaching, suggesting the existence of an easily leachable s-process rich presolar phase, or alternatively, of a chemically resistant r-process rich phase. The s-process composition of Os released by mild leaching diverges slightly from that released by aggressive digestion techniques, perhaps suggesting that the presolar phases attacked by these differing procedures condensed in different stellar environments. The correlation between 190Os and 188Os can be used to constrain the s-process 190Os/188Os ratio to be 1.275 pm 0.043. Such a ratio can be reproduced in a nuclear reaction network for a MACS value for 190Os of ~200 pm 22 mbarn at 30 keV. We also present evidence for extensive internal variation of 184Os abundances in the Murchison meteorite. This suggests that p process rich presolar grains (e.g., supernova condensates) may be present in meteorites in sufficient quantities to influence the Os isotopic compositions of the leachates.Comment: 40 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Earth and Planetary Science Letter

Nasal Outcomes of Presurgical Nasal Molding in Complete Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate

Objective. Short-term nasal forms following primary lip repair were compared between presurgical nasal molding and control groups. Aim. To compare nasal symmetry between patients that had nasal molding and lip repair with those that had only lip repair. Design. Retrospective case-control study Patients. Complete unilateral CL+P patients had basilar and frontal photographs at two time points: (1) initial (2) postsurgical. 28 nasal molding patients and 14 control patients were included. Intervention. Presurgical nasal molding was performed prior to primary lip repair in intervention group. No nasal molding was performed in control group. Hypothesis. Nasal molding combined with lip surgery repair according to the Millard procedure provides superior nasal symmetry than surgery alone for nostril height-width ratios and alar groove ratios. Statistics. Shapiro-Wilk test of normality and Student’s -tests. Results. A statistically significant difference was found for postsurgical nostril height-width ratio (<.05). No other statistically significant differences were found. Conclusions. Nasal molding and surgery resulted in more symmetrical nostril height-width ratios than surgery alone. Alar groove ratios were not statistically significantly different between groups perhaps because application of nasal molding was not early enough; postsurgical nasal splints were not utilized; overcorrection was not performed for nasal molding

Phenothiazine-mediated rescue of cognition in tau transgenic mice requires neuroprotection and reduced soluble tau burden

Abstract Background It has traditionally been thought that the pathological accumulation of tau in Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies facilitates neurodegeneration, which in turn leads to cognitive impairment. However, recent evidence suggests that tau tangles are not the entity responsible for memory loss, rather it is an intermediate tau species that disrupts neuronal function. Thus, efforts to discover therapeutics for tauopathies emphasize soluble tau reductions as well as neuroprotection. Results Here, we found that neuroprotection alone caused by methylene blue (MB), the parent compound of the anti-tau phenothiaziazine drug, Rember&#8482;, was insufficient to rescue cognition in a mouse model of the human tauopathy, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and fronto-temporal dementia with parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP17): Only when levels of soluble tau protein were concomitantly reduced by a very high concentration of MB, was cognitive improvement observed. Thus, neurodegeneration can be decoupled from tau accumulation, but phenotypic improvement is only possible when soluble tau levels are also reduced. Conclusions Neuroprotection alone is not sufficient to rescue tau-induced memory loss in a transgenic mouse model. Development of neuroprotective agents is an area of intense investigation in the tauopathy drug discovery field. This may ultimately be an unsuccessful approach if soluble toxic tau intermediates are not also reduced. Thus, MB and related compounds, despite their pleiotropic nature, may be the proverbial "magic bullet" because they not only are neuroprotective, but are also able to facilitate soluble tau clearance. Moreover, this shows that neuroprotection is possible without reducing tau levels. This indicates that there is a definitive molecular link between tau and cell death cascades that can be disrupted.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78314/1/1750-1326-5-45.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78314/2/1750-1326-5-45.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78314/3/1750-1326-5-45-S1.PDFPeer Reviewe

Proteome-based plasma biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is a common and devastating disease for which there is no readily available biomarker to aid diagnosis or to monitor disease progression. Biomarkers have been sought in CSF but no previous study has used two-dimensional gel electrophoresis coupled with mass spectrometry to seek biomarkers in peripheral tissue. We performed a case-control study of plasma using this proteomics approach to identify proteins that differ in the disease state relative to aged controls. For discovery-phase proteomics analysis, 50 people with Alzheimer's dementia were recruited through secondary services and 50 normal elderly controls through primary care. For validation purposes a total of 511 subjects with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases and normal elderly controls were examined. Image analysis of the protein distribution of the gels alone identifies disease cases with 56% sensitivity and 80% specificity. Mass spectrometric analysis of the changes observed in two-dimensional electrophoresis identified a number of proteins previously implicated in the disease pathology, including complement factor H (CFH) precursor and α-2-macroglobulin (α- 2M). Using semi-quantitative immunoblotting, the elevation of CFH and α- 2M was shown to be specific for Alzheimer's disease and to correlate with disease severity although alternative assays would be necessary to improve sensitivity and specificity. These findings suggest that blood may be a rich source for biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and that CFH, together with other proteins such as α- 2M may be a specific markers of this illness. © 2006 The Author(s).link_to_subscribed_fulltex