That Laboratory-Derived Findings Generalize to Work Teams: A Search for the Supporting Evidence

This was a full, peer-viewed conference paper accepted for presentation at the Academy of Management 2013 Annual Meeting

Institutional collaboration through national project funding

This study explores institutions’ collaborative involvement through Carrick/ALTC/OLT project funding. Encouraging collaboration was a core value of this funding body, which clearly occurred. Less clear, however, are the shapes and structures of these collaborations. Using social network analysis (SNA), this study explores emergent patterns of collaborative ties between funded institutions. The results suggest that the body’s funding has created a mostly well-connected network of collaborative ties. Some institutions, however, were found to be less integrated into the network structure, while others appear as central players

Narrative skills in deaf children who use spoken English: Dissociations between macro and microstructural devices

Previous research has highlighted that deaf children acquiring spoken English have difficulties in narrative development relative to their hearing peers both in terms of macro-structure and with micro-structural devices. The majority of previous research focused on narrative tasks designed for hearing children that depend on good receptive language skills. The current study compared narratives of 6 to 11-year-old deaf children who use spoken English (N=59) with matched for age and non-verbal intelligence hearing peers. To examine the role of general language abilities, single word vocabulary was also assessed. Narratives were elicited by the retelling of a story presented non-verbally in video format. Results showed that deaf and hearing children had equivalent macro-structure skills, but the deaf group showed poorer performance on micro-structural components. Furthermore, the deaf group gave less detailed responses to inferencing probe questions indicating poorer understanding of the story's underlying message. For deaf children, micro-level devices most strongly correlated with the vocabulary measure. These findings suggest that deaf children, despite spoken language delays, are able to convey the main elements of content and structure in narrative but have greater difficulty in using grammatical devices more dependent on finer linguistic and pragmatic skills

Complement C3 variant and the risk of age-related macular degeneration

Background: Age-related macular degeneration is the most common cause of blindness in Western populations. Susceptibility is influenced by age and by genetic and environmental factors. Complement activation is implicated in the pathogenesis.Methods: We tested for an association between age-related macular degeneration and 13 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spanning the complement genes C3 and C5 in case subjects and control subjects from the southeastern region of England. All subjects were examined by an ophthalmologist and had independent grading of fundus photographs to confirm their disease status. To test for replication of the most significant findings, we genotyped a set of Scottish cases and controls.Results: The common functional polymorphism rs2230199 (Arg80Gly) in the C3 gene, corresponding to the electrophoretic variants C3S (slow) and C3F (fast), was strongly associated with age-related macular degeneration in both the English group (603 cases and 350 controls, P=5.9 x 10(sup -5)) and the Scottish group (244 cases and 351 controls, P=5.0 x 10(sup -5)). The odds ratio for age-related macular degeneration in C3 S/F heterozygotes as compared with S/S homozygotes was 1.7 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3 to 2.1); for F/F homozygotes, the odds ratio was 2.6 (95% CI, 1.6 to 4.1). The estimated population attributable risk for C3F was 22%.Conclusions: Complement C3 is important in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration. This finding further underscores the influence of the complement pathway in the pathogenesis of this disease

Cognitive performance in light current users and ex-users of ecstasy (MDMA) and controls

Previous research has shown that heavy users of ecstasy may suffer impaired cognitive functioning, and the present study set out to investigate whether such impairment might also be found in light users or ex-users of ecstasy. Sixty subjects, comprising 20 current light users, 20 ex-users, and 20 non-users of ecstasy, were tested on an extensive battery of cognitive tests. Current light users of ecstasy achieved significantly lower scores on the overall cognitive test battery than did the non-users (p=0.011), though there were no significant differences on any individual subtests. However, the scores obtained by the ex-users of ecstasy did not differ significantly from those of the non-users. It was concluded that current light users of ecstasy show a small but significant cognitive impairment, but that no such impairment is detectable in ex-users who had abstained from the drug for at least 6 months

Fire effects on soils: the human dimension

Soils are among the most valuable non-renewable resources on the Earth. They support natural vegetation and human agro-ecosystems, represent the largest terrestrial organic carbon stock, and act as stores and filters for water. Mankind has impacted on soils from its early days in many different ways, with burning being the first human perturbation at landscape scales. Fire has long been used as a tool to fertilize soils and control plant growth, but it can also substantially change vegetation, enhance soil erosion and even cause desertification of previously productive areas. Indeed fire is now regarded by some as the seventh soil-forming factor. Here we explore the effects of fire on soils as influenced by human interference. Human-induced fires have shaped our landscape for thousands of years and they are currently the most common fires in many parts of the world. We first give an overview of fire effect on soils and then focus specifically on (i) how traditional land-use practices involving fire, such as slash-and-burn or vegetation clearing, have affected and still are affecting soils; (ii) the effects of more modern uses of fire, such as fuel reduction or ecological burns, on soils; and (iii) the ongoing and potential future effects on soils of the complex interactions between human-induced land cover changes, climate warming and fire dynamics. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’

The effects of cannabidiol on impulsivity and memory during abstinence in cigarette dependent smokers

This is the final version of the article. Available from Springer Nature via the DOI in this record.The dataset generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.Acute nicotine abstinence in cigarette smokers results in deficits in performance on specific cognitive processes, including working memory and impulsivity which are important in relapse. Cannabidiol (CBD), the non-intoxicating cannabinoid found in cannabis, has shown pro-cognitive effects and preliminary evidence has indicated it can reduce the number of cigarettes smoked in dependent smokers. However, the effects of CBD on cognition have never been tested during acute nicotine withdrawal. The present study therefore aimed to investigate if CBD can improve memory and reduce impulsivity during acute tobacco abstinence. Thirty, non-treatment seeking, dependent, cigarette smokers attended two laboratory-based sessions after overnight abstinence, in which they received either 800 mg oral CBD or placebo (PBO), in a randomised order. Abstinence was biologically verified. Participants were assessed on go/no-go, delay discounting, prose recall and N-back (0-back, 1-back, 2-back) tasks. The effects of CBD on delay discounting, prose recall and the N-back (correct responses, maintenance or manipulation) were null, confirmed by a Bayesian analysis, which found evidence for the null hypothesis. Contrary to our predictions, CBD increased commission errors on the go/no-go task. In conclusion, a single 800 mg dose of CBD does not improve verbal or spatial working memory, or impulsivity during tobacco abstinence.This research was funded by a PhD Studentship from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to the C.H. and an MRC DPFS award (MR/K015524/1) to HVC and CJAM.TPF is funded by a Senior Academic Fellowship from the Society for the Study of Addiction

A Method of Drusen Measurement Based on the Geometry of Fundus Reflectance

BACKGROUND: The hallmarks of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the developed world, are the subretinal deposits known as drusen. Drusen identification and measurement play a key role in clinical studies of this disease. Current manual methods of drusen measurement are laborious and subjective. Our purpose was to expedite clinical research with an accurate, reliable digital method. METHODS: An interactive semi-automated procedure was developed to level the macular background reflectance for the purpose of morphometric analysis of drusen. 12 color fundus photographs of patients with age-related macular degeneration and drusen were analyzed. After digitizing the photographs, the underlying background pattern in the green channel was leveled by an algorithm based on the elliptically concentric geometry of the reflectance in the normal macula: the gray scale values of all structures within defined elliptical boundaries were raised sequentially until a uniform background was obtained. Segmentation of drusen and area measurements in the central and middle subfields (1000 μm and 3000 μm diameters) were performed by uniform thresholds. Two observers using this interactive semi-automated software measured each image digitally. The mean digital measurements were compared to independent stereo fundus gradings by two expert graders (stereo Grader 1 estimated the drusen percentage in each of the 24 regions as falling into one of four standard broad ranges; stereo Grader 2 estimated drusen percentages in 1% to 5% intervals). RESULTS: The mean digital area measurements had a median standard deviation of 1.9%. The mean digital area measurements agreed with stereo Grader 1 in 22/24 cases. The 95% limits of agreement between the mean digital area measurements and the more precise stereo gradings of Grader 2 were -6.4 % to +6.8 % in the central subfield and -6.0 % to +4.5 % in the middle subfield. The mean absolute differences between the digital and stereo gradings 2 were 2.8 +/- 3.4% in the central subfield and 2.2 +/- 2.7% in the middle subfield. CONCLUSIONS: Semi-automated, supervised drusen measurements may be done reproducibly and accurately with adaptations of commercial software. This technique for macular image analysis has potential for use in clinical research

Public data and open source tools for multi-assay genomic investigation of disease

Molecular interrogation of a biological sample through DNA sequencing, RNA and microRNA profiling, proteomics and other assays, has the potential to provide a systems level approach to predicting treatment response and disease progression, and to developing precision therapies. Large publicly funded projects have generated extensive and freely available multi-assay data resources; however, bioinformatic and statistical methods for the analysis of such experiments are still nascent. We review multi-assay genomic data resources in the areas of clinical oncology, pharmacogenomics and other perturbation experiments, population genomics and regulatory genomics and other areas, and tools for data acquisition. Finally, we review bioinformatic tools that are explicitly geared toward integrative genomic data visualization and analysis. This review provides starting points for accessing publicly available data and tools to support development of needed integrative methods