Photosynthetic responses in the inducible mechanisms of desiccation tolerance of a liverwort and a moss

Chlorophyll fluorescence was used to study the effect of hardening treatments on aspects of desiccation tolerance in the liverwort Dumortiera hirsuta and the moss Atrichum androgynum. After desiccation the recovery of PS2 was monitored during rehydration. We show that partial dehydration and ABA treatments can increase desiccation tolerance. In A. androgynum, the increased desiccation tolerance is accompanied by increased NPQ. However, hardening decreases the efficiency of photosynthesis in unstressed plants as well. In D. hirsuta, as for Atrichum, treatment with ABA greatly increased desiccation tolerance. D. hirsuta was much more responsive to ABA hardening than Atrichum. Unlike Atrichum, increased desiccation tolerance was not accompanied by increased NPQ and decreased PS2 efficiency. While partial dehydration hardening had little effect on the liverwort before stress, hardened plants displayed a moderate (22%) but significant improvement in PS2 activity 1 h following rehydration. As for the ABA hardening treatments, improved recovery of PS2 activity was not accompanied by increased NPQ, and NPQ was actually lower in hardened plants. Partial dehydration can increase tolerance in D. hirsuta, however, the increases were less than those induced by ABA. The mechanism of the hardening-induced increases in desiccation tolerance appear quite different in the two species

Media pluralism and the overlapping instruments needed to achieve it

The authors review recent scholarly and policy initiatives in respect of media pluralism and argue that contradictions between policy objectives, in analytical approaches and deficiencies in some established methodologies mean that robust conclusions have been hard to secure. They argue that concerns about diminishing pluralism are likely to grow in consequence of changes in a dominant “legacy media” funding model as advertising revenues move online. Examining UK data, they argue that a contemporary focus of concern, growing concentration in privately owned media, is overshadowed by the striking dominance of the publicly owned BBC and suggest established analytical methodologies used to analyse market power may offer a valuable analogy in the definition and measurement of pluralism issues. They consider possible alternatives to regulation as means of enhancing pluralism and propose the use of subsidised entry

An Essential Role of the Forkhead-Box Transcription Factor Foxo1 in Control of T Cell Homeostasis and Tolerance

SummaryMembers of the Forkhead box O (Foxo) family of transcription factors are key regulators of cellular responses, but their function in the immune system remains incompletely understood. Here we showed that T cell-specific deletion of Foxo1 gene in mice led to spontaneous T cell activation, effector T cell differentiation, autoantibody production, and the induction of inflammatory bowel disease in a transfer model. In addition, Foxo1 was critical for the maintenance of naive T cells in the peripheral lymphoid organs. Transcriptome analyses of T cells identified Foxo1-regulated genes encoding, among others, cell-surface molecules, signaling proteins, and nuclear factors that control gene expression. Functional studies validated interleukin-7 receptor-α as a Foxo1 target gene essential for Foxo1 maintenance of naive T cells. These findings reveal crucial functions of Foxo1-dependent transcription in control of T cell homeostasis and tolerance

In defence of the BBC: Richard Sambrook

The head of BBC Global News Richard Sambrook has posted a response to my critique of the recent BBC cuts. He makes some interesting points that deserve bringing to your attention. It gives an insight into the view from the BBC management perspective

Living with buildings, living with microbes: Probiosis and architecture

In this paper we establish a dialogue with Living with Buildings, an exhibition organised by the Wellcome Trust, to contextualise NOTBAD (Niches for Organic Territories in Bio-Augmented Design), a multidisciplinary research project at the intersection of architecture and microbiology, sited within a wider historical discourse connecting architecture and health. We extend the historical analysis to suggest that architecture finds itself at a crossroads. Although there is a growing understanding of how much architecture influences our wellbeing, architectural thought still clings to the antibiotic turn. Following the tradition of exchange between architecture and medicine, we propose the notion of Probiotic Architecture as a way of framing the shifting understanding of health in architectural design, suggesting that the microorganisms that colonise humans (the human microbiome) and our built environment (the built environment microbiome) have the potential to influence our health and the resilience of our buildings. Against the backdrop of the design research project Niches for Organic Territories in Bio-Augmented Design (NOTBAD), we suggest the need to reverse notions that all microbes are bad, to and propose instead materials and prototypes that encourage benign microbial growt

Post-treatment survival difference between lobectomy and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy in stage I non-small cell lung cancer in England.

BACKGROUND: Approximately 15%-20% of all non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases present with stage I disease. Surgical resection traditionally offers the best chance of a cure but some patients will not have this treatment due to older age, comorbidities or personal choice. Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) has become an established curative intent treatment option for patients who are not selected for or do not choose surgery. The aim of this study is to compare survival at 90 days, 6 months, 1 year and 2 years for patients who received either lobectomy or SABR. METHODS: We used data from the 2015 National Lung Cancer Audit database and linked with Hospital Episode Statistics and the radiotherapy dataset to identify patients with NSCLC stage IA-IB and performance status (PS) 0-2 who underwent surgery or SABR treatment. We assessed the likelihood of death at 90 days, 6 months, 1 year and 2 year after diagnosis and procedure date to observe survival between two patient groups. RESULTS: We identified 2373 patients in our cohort, 476 of whom had SABR. The median difference between date of diagnosis and date of treatment for surgery patients was 17 days while for SABR patients it was 73 days. Increasing age and worsening PS were associated with having SABR rather than surgery. Survival between the two treatment modalities was similar early on but by 1-year people who had surgery did better than those who had SABR (adjusted ORs 2.12, 95% CI 1.35 to 2.31). This difference persisted at 2 years and when the analysis was restricted to patients aged <80 years and with PS 0 or 1 and stage IA only. CONCLUSION: Our analysis suggests that patients who have lobectomy have a better survival compared with SABR patients; however, we found considerable delays in patients receiving SABR which may contribute to poorer long-term outcomes with this treatment option. Reducing these delays should be a key focus in development and reorganisation of services