'We're not like that': Crusader and Maverick Occupational Identity Resistance

This article explores the occupational identities of hairdressers and vehicle mechanics working in small and micro-firms. Using qualitative interview data from two UK cities, it examines the ways that workers expounded, reflected on and discursively reframed public perceptions of their occupation. A novel distinction between two types of identity reframing is proposed. ‘Crusaders’ are workers who reject characterisations as inappropriate for the occupation at large, whereas ‘mavericks’ accept that popular characterisations apply to other workers but differentiate themselves. The analysis identifies differences in occupational identity resistance strategies (crusader or maverick) when workers interact with two different publics: customers and trainees

A single low-energy, iron-poor supernova as the source of metals in the star SMSS J 031300.36-670839.3

The element abundance ratios of four low-mass stars with extremely low metallicities indicate that the gas out of which the stars formed was enriched in each case by at most a few, and potentially only one low-energy, supernova. Such supernovae yield large quantities of light elements such as carbon but very little iron. The dominance of low-energy supernovae is surprising, because it has been expected that the first stars were extremely massive, and that they disintegrated in pair-instability explosions that would rapidly enrich galaxies in iron. What has remained unclear is the yield of iron from the first supernovae, because hitherto no star is unambiguously interpreted as encapsulating the yield of a single supernova. Here we report the optical spectrum of SMSS J031300.36- 670839.3, which shows no evidence of iron (with an upper limit of 10^-7.1 times solar abundance). Based on a comparison of its abundance pattern with those of models, we conclude that the star was seeded with material from a single supernova with an original mass of ~60 Mo (and that the supernova left behind a black hole). Taken together with the previously mentioned low-metallicity stars, we conclude that low-energy supernovae were common in the early Universe, and that such supernovae yield light element enrichment with insignificant iron. Reduced stellar feedback both chemically and mechanically from low-energy supernovae would have enabled first-generation stars to form over an extended period. We speculate that such stars may perhaps have had an important role in the epoch of cosmic reionization and the chemical evolution of early galaxies.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures, Natur

Dosimetric evaluation and radioimmunotherapy of anti-tumour multivalent Fab́ fragments

We have been investigating the use of cross-linked divalent (DFM) and trivalent (TFM) versions of the anti-carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) monoclonal antibody A5B7 as possible alternatives to the parent forms (IgG and F(ab́)2) which have been used previously in clinical radioimmunotherapy (RIT) studies in colorectal carcinoma. Comparative biodistribution studies of similar sized DFM and F(ab́)2 and TFM and IgG, radiolabelled with both 131I and 90Y have been described previously using the human colorectal tumour LS174T nude mouse xenograft model (Casey et al (1996) Br J Cancer 74: 1397–1405). In this study quantitative estimates of radiation distribution and RIT in the xenograft model provided more insight into selecting the most suitable combination for future RIT. Radiation doses were significantly higher in all tissues when antibodies were labelled with 90Y. Major contributing organs were the kidneys, liver and spleen. The extremely high absorbed dose to the kidneys on injection of 90Y-labelled DFM and F(ab́)2 as a result of accumulation of the radiometal would result in extremely high toxicity. These combinations are clearly unsuitable for RIT. Cumulative dose of 90Y-TFM to the kidney was 3 times lower than the divalent forms but still twice as high as for 90Y-IgG. TFM clears faster from the blood than IgG, producing higher tumour to blood ratios. Therefore when considering only the tumour to blood ratios of the total absorbed dose, the data suggests that TFM would be the most suitable candidate. However, when corrected for equitoxic blood levels, doses to normal tissues for TFM were approximately twice the level of IgG, producing a two-fold increase in the overall tumour to normal tissue ratio. In addition RIT revealed that for a similar level of toxicity and half the administered activity, 90Y-IgG produced a greater therapeutic response. This suggests that the most promising A5B7 antibody form with the radionuclide 90Y may be IgG. Dosimetry analysis revealed that the tumour to normal tissue ratios were greater for all 131I-labelled antibodies. This suggests that 131I may be a more suitable radionuclide for RIT, in terms of lower toxicity to normal tissues. The highest tumour to blood dose and tumour to normal tissue ratio at equitoxic blood levels was 131I-labelled DFM, suggesting that 131I-DFM may be best combination of antibody and radionuclide for A5B7. The dosimetry estimates were in agreement with RIT results in that twice the activity of 131I-DFM must be administered to produce a similar therapeutic effect as 131I-TFM. The toxicity in this therapy experiment was minimal and further experiments at higher doses are required to observe if there would be any advantage of a higher initial dose rate for 131I-DFM. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

Photodisintegration of 4^4He into p+t

The two-body photodisintegration of $^4$He into a proton and a triton has been studied using the CEBAF Large-Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at Jefferson Laboratory. Real photons produced with the Hall-B bremsstrahlung-tagging system in the energy range from 0.35 to 1.55 GeV were incident on a liquid $^4$He target. This is the first measurement of the photodisintegration of $^4$He above 0.4 GeV. The differential cross sections for the $\gamma$$^4$He$\to pt$ reaction have been measured as a function of photon-beam energy and proton-scattering angle, and are compared with the latest model calculations by J.-M. Laget. At 0.6-1.2 GeV, our data are in good agreement only with the calculations that include three-body mechanisms, thus confirming their importance. These results reinforce the conclusion of our previous study of the three-body breakup of $^3$He that demonstrated the great importance of three-body mechanisms in the energy region 0.5-0.8 GeV .Comment: 13 pages submitted in one tgz file containing 2 tex file and 22 postscrip figure

Exclusive ρ0\rho^0 electroproduction on the proton at CLAS

The $e p\to e^\prime p \rho^0$ reaction has been measured, using the 5.754 GeV electron beam of Jefferson Lab and the CLAS detector. This represents the largest ever set of data for this reaction in the valence region. Integrated and differential cross sections are presented. The $W$, $Q^2$ and $t$ dependences of the cross section are compared to theoretical calculations based on $t$-channel meson-exchange Regge theory on the one hand and on quark handbag diagrams related to Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) on the other hand. The Regge approach can describe at the $\approx$ 30% level most of the features of the present data while the two GPD calculations that are presented in this article which succesfully reproduce the high energy data strongly underestimate the present data. The question is then raised whether this discrepancy originates from an incomplete or inexact way of modelling the GPDs or the associated hard scattering amplitude or whether the GPD formalism is simply inapplicable in this region due to higher-twists contributions, incalculable at present.Comment: 29 pages, 29 figure

Contrasting Patterns of Coral Bleaching Susceptibility in 2010 Suggest an Adaptive Response to Thermal Stress

Background: \ud Coral bleaching events vary in severity, however, to date, the hierarchy of susceptibility to bleaching among coral taxa has been consistent over a broad geographic range and among bleaching episodes. Here we examine the extent of spatial and temporal variation in thermal tolerance among scleractinian coral taxa and between locations during the 2010 thermally induced, large-scale bleaching event in South East Asia.\ud \ud Methodology/Principal Findings: \ud Surveys to estimate the bleaching and mortality indices of coral genera were carried out at three locations with contrasting thermal and bleaching histories. Despite the magnitude of thermal stress being similar among locations in 2010, there was a remarkable contrast in the patterns of bleaching susceptibility. Comparisons of bleaching susceptibility within coral taxa and among locations revealed no significant differences between locations with similar thermal histories, but significant differences between locations with contrasting thermal histories (Friedman = 34.97; p,0.001). Bleaching was much less severe at locations that bleached during 1998, that had greater historical temperature variability and lower rates of warming. Remarkably, Acropora and Pocillopora, taxa that are typically highly susceptible, although among the most susceptible in Pulau Weh (Sumatra, Indonesia) where respectively, 94% and 87% of colonies died, were among the least susceptible in Singapore, where only 5% and 12% of colonies died.\ud \ud Conclusions/Significance: \ud The pattern of susceptibility among coral genera documented here is unprecedented. A parsimonious explanation for these results is that coral populations that bleached during the last major warming event in 1998 have adapted and/or acclimatised to thermal stress. These data also lend support to the hypothesis that corals in regions subject to more variable temperature regimes are more resistant to thermal stress than those in less variable environments

The willingness of final year medical and dental students to perform bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation in an Asian community

Background Despite the importance of early effective chest compressions to improve the chance of survival of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victim, it is still largely unknown how willing our Malaysian population is to perform bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Aims We conducted a voluntary, anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey of a group of 164 final year medical students and 60 final year dental students to unravel their attitudes towards performing bystander CPR. Methods Using a 4-point Likert scale of “definitely yes,” “probably yes,” “probably no,” and “definitely no,” the students were asked to rate their willingness to perform bystander CPR under three categories: chest compressions with mouth-to-mouth ventilation (CC + MMV), chest compressions with mask-to-mouth ventilation (CC + PMV), and chest compressions only (CC). Under each category, the students were given ten hypothetical victim scenarios. Categorical data analysis was done using the McNemar test, chi-square test, and Fisher exact test where appropriate. For selected analysis, “definitely yes” and “probably yes” were recoded as a “positive response.” Results Generally, we found that only 51.4% of the medical and 45.5% of the dental students are willing to perform bystander CPR. When analyzed under different hypothetical scenarios, we found that, except for the scenario where the victim is their own family member, all other scenarios showed a dismally low rate of positive responses in the category of CC + MMV, but their willingness was significantly improved under the CC + PMV and CC categories. Conclusion This study shows that there are unique sociocultural factors that contribute to the reluctance of our students to perform CC + MMV. Keywords Cardiopulmonary resuscitation Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation Basic cardiac life support Asian communit

cis-Expression QTL Analysis of Established Colorectal Cancer Risk Variants in Colon Tumors and Adjacent Normal Tissue

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 19 risk variants associated with colorectal cancer. As most of these risk variants reside outside the coding regions of genes, we conducted cis-expression quantitative trait loci (cis-eQTL) analyses to investigate possible regulatory functions on the expression of neighboring genes. Forty microsatellite stable and CpG island methylator phenotype-negative colorectal tumors and paired adjacent normal colon tissues were used for genome-wide SNP and gene expression profiling. We found that three risk variants (rs10795668, rs4444235 and rs9929218, using near perfect proxies rs706771, rs11623717 and rs2059252, respectively) were significantly associated (FDR q-value ≤0.05) with expression levels of nearby genes (<2 Mb up- or down-stream). We observed an association between the low colorectal cancer risk allele (A) for rs10795668 at 10p14 and increased expression of ATP5C1 (q = 0.024) and between the colorectal cancer high risk allele (C) for rs4444235 at 14q22.2 and increased expression of DLGAP5 (q = 0.041), both in tumor samples. The colorectal cancer low risk allele (A) for rs9929218 at 16q22.1 was associated with a significant decrease in expression of both NOL3 (q = 0.017) and DDX28 (q = 0.046) in the adjacent normal colon tissue samples. Of the four genes, DLGAP5 and NOL3 have been previously reported to play a role in colon carcinogenesis and ATP5C1 and DDX28 are mitochondrial proteins involved in cellular metabolism and division, respectively. The combination of GWAS findings, prior functional studies, and the cis-eQTL analyses described here suggest putative functional activities for three of the colorectal cancer GWAS identified risk loci as regulating the expression of neighboring genes