Solar cycle variation in solar f-mode frequencies and radius

Using data from the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) covering the period from 1995 to 1998, we study the change with solar activity in solar f-mode frequencies. The results are compared with similar changes detected from the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) data. We find variations in f-mode frequencies which are correlated with solar activity indices. If these changes are due to variation in solar radius then the implications are that the solar radius decreases by about 5 km from minimum to maximum activity.Comment: To appear in Solar Physic

MicroRNA expression in lymphocyte development and malignancy

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website. Copyright @ 2008 Macmillan Publishers Limited.No abstract available.The Leukemia Research Fund, the Julian Starmer-Smith Memorial Fund, and the Medical Research Council

Developing Integrated Clinical Pathways for the Management of Clinically Severe Adult Obesity: a Critique of NHS England Policy

Purpose of the Review: Pathways for obesity prevention and treatment are well documented, yet the prevalence of obesity is rising, and access to treatment (including bariatric surgery) is limited. This review seeks to assess the current integrated clinical pathway for obesity management in England and determine the major challenges. Recent Findings: Evidence for tier 2 (community-based lifestyle intervention) and tier 3 (specialist weight management services) is limited, and how it facilitates care and improve outcomes in tier 4 remains uncertain. Treatment access, rigidity in pathways, uncertain treatment outcomes and weight stigma seems to be major barriers to improved care. Summary: More emphasis must be placed on access to effective treatments, treatment flexibility, addressing stigma and ensuring treatment efficacy including long-term health outcomes. Prevention and treatment should both receive significant focus though should be considered to be largely separate pathways. A simplified system for weight management is needed to allow flexibility and the delivery of personalized care including post-bariatric surgery care for those who need it

Spontaneous Stratification in Granular Mixtures

Granular materials size segregate when exposed to external periodic perturbations such as vibrations. Moreover, mixtures of grains of different sizes spontaneously segregate in the absence of external perturbations: when a mixture is simply poured onto a pile, the large grains are more likely to be found near the base, while the small grains are more likely to be near the top. Here, we report a spontaneous phenomenon arising when we pour a mixture between two vertical plates: the mixture spontaneously stratifies into alternating layers of small and large grains whenever the large grains are rougher than the small grains. In contrast, we find only spontaneous segregation when the large grains are more rounded than the small grains. The stratification is related to the occurrence of avalanches; during each avalanche the grains comprising the avalanche spontaneously stratify into a pair of layers through a "kink" mechanism, with the small grains forming a sublayer underneath the layer of large grains.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, http://polymer.bu.edu/~hmakse/Home.htm

Climate change and health effects in Northwest Alaska

This article provides examples of adverse health effects, including weather-related injury, food insecurity, mental health issues, and water infrastructure damage, and the responses to these effects that are currently being applied in two Northwest Alaska communities

Using the MitoB method to assess levels of reactive oxygen species in ecological studies of oxidative stress

In recent years evolutionary ecologists have become increasingly interested in the effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) on the life-histories of animals. ROS levels have mostly been inferred indirectly due to the limitations of estimating ROS from in vitro methods. However, measuring ROS (hydrogen peroxide, H2O2) content in vivo is now possible using the MitoB probe. Here, we extend and refine the MitoB method to make it suitable for ecological studies of oxidative stress using the brown trout Salmo trutta as model. The MitoB method allows an evaluation of H2O2 levels in living organisms over a timescale from hours to days. The method is flexible with regard to the duration of exposure and initial concentration of the MitoB probe, and there is no transfer of the MitoB probe between fish. H2O2 levels were consistent across subsamples of the same liver but differed between muscle subsamples and between tissues of the same animal. The MitoB method provides a convenient method for measuring ROS levels in living animals over a significant period of time. Given its wide range of possible applications, it opens the opportunity to study the role of ROS in mediating life history trade-offs in ecological settings

Vaccines for COVID-19

Since the emergence of COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, at the end of 2019 there has been an explosion of vaccine development. By the 1st September 2020, a staggering number of vaccines (over 200) had started pre-clinical development of which 39 had entered clinical trials, including some approaches that have not previously been licensed for human vaccines. Vaccines have been widely considered as part of the exit strategy to enable the return to previous patterns of working, schooling and socialising. Importantly, to effectively control the COVID-19 pandemic, production needs to be scaled up from a small number of pre-clinical doses to enough filled vials to immunise the world's population, which requires close engagement with manufacturers and regulators. It will require a global effort to control the virus, necessitating equitable access for all countries to effective vaccines. This review explores the immune responses required to protect against SARS-CoV-2 and the potential for vaccine-induced immunopathology. It describes the profile of the different platforms and the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. The review also addresses the critical steps between promising pre-clinical leads and manufacturing at scale. The issues faced during this pandemic and the platforms being developed to address it will be invaluable for future outbreak control. Nine months after the outbreak began, we are at a point where pre-clinical and early clinical data is being generated for the vaccines, an overview of this important area will help our understanding of the next phases

Surface Fatigue Behaviour of a WC/aC:H Thin-Film and the Tribochemical Impact of Zinc Dialkyldithiophosphate

In wind turbine gearboxes, (near-)surface initiated fatigue is attributed to be the primary failure mechanism. In this work, the surface fatigue of a hydrogenated tungsten carbide/amorphous carbon (WC/aC:H) thin-film was tested under severe cyclic tribo-contact using PolyAlphaOlefin (PAO) and PAO + Zinc DialkylDithioPhosphate (ZDDP) lubricants. The film was characterised in terms of its structure and chemistry using X-ray diffraction, analytical Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) including Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS), as well as X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The multilayer carbon thin-film exhibited promising surface fatigue performance showing a slight change in the hybridization state of the aC:H matrix. Dehydrogenation of the thin-film and subsequent transformation of cleaved C-H bonds to non planar sp2 carbon rings were inferred from EELS and XPS results. Whilst tribo-induced changes to the aC:H matrix were not influenced by a nanometer-thick ZDDP reaction-film, the rate of oxidation of WC and its oxidation state were affected. Whilst accelerating surface fatigue on a steel surface, the ZDDP-tribofilm protected the WC/aC:H film from surface fatigue. In contrast to the formation of polyphosphates from ZDDP molecules on steel surfaces, it appeared that on the WC/aC:H thin film surface ZDDP molecules decompose to ZnO suppressing the oxidative degradation of WC

Rhetoric, organizational category dynamics and institutional change : a study of the UK Welfare State

Accounts of institutional change and categorization conventionally assume that high-status change agents can impose change, even to stable category systems, which lower-status actors accommodate in order to ensure social approval and material resources. By exploring the UK Conservative-Liberal Coalition's rhetorical efforts to reform the welfare state, how welfare providers are categorized and the subsequent response of implicated category members, we offer instead an account of institutional change that exposes the agentic limitations of high-status actors. Whilst governments may well be in a position to impose changes in the formal rules of the game through manipulation of material resources (fiscal contraction, privatization, open markets, deregulation), we find that they cannot necessarily monopolize symbolic resources (identities/cultural features). We also find that deviation from cultural expectations is not only available to large, high-status organizations, low-status actors too have discretion over their responses to institutional pressures regarding how they are categorized and subsequently judged