The food superstore revolution: changing times, changing research agendas in the UK

This paper considers the changing scope of research into UK food superstores over a 30-year period. Rather than catalogue changing market shares by format, we seek instead to show how change links to national policy agendas. Academic research has evolved to address the growing complexities of the social, technological, economic and political impacts of the superstore format. We exemplify this by tracing the progression of retail change in Portsmouth, Hampshire, over 30 years. We discover that academic research can conflict with the preconceptions of some public policymakers. The position is exacerbated by a progressive decline in public information – and a commensurate rise in factual data held by commercial data companies – that leaves policymakers with a choice of which data to believe. This casts a shadow over the objectivity of macro-policy as currently formulated. Concerns currently arise because the UK Competition Commission (2008 but ongoing) starts each inquiry afresh with a search for recent data. Furthermore, it has recently called for changes to retail planning – the very arena in which UK superstore research commenced

Weaponising microbes for peace

There is much human disadvantage and unmet need in the world, including deficits in basic resources and services considered to be human rights, such as drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, healthy nutrition, access to basic healthcare, and a clean environment. Furthermore, there are substantive asymmetries in the distribution of key resources among peoples. These deficits and asymmetries can lead to local and regional crises among peoples competing for limited resources, which, in turn, can become sources of discontent and conflict. Such conflicts have the potential to escalate into regional wars and even lead to global instability. Ergo: in addition to moral and ethical imperatives to level up, to ensure that all peoples have basic resources and services essential for healthy living and to reduce inequalities, all nations have a self-interest to pursue with determination all available avenues to promote peace through reducing sources of conflicts in the world. Microorganisms and pertinent microbial technologies have unique and exceptional abilities to provide, or contribute to the provision of, basic resources and services that are lacking in many parts of the world, and thereby address key deficits that might constitute sources of conflict. However, the deployment of such technologies to this end is seriously underexploited. Here, we highlight some of the key available and emerging technologies that demand greater consideration and exploitation in endeavours to eliminate unnecessary deprivations, enable healthy lives of all and remove preventable grounds for competition over limited resources that can escalate into conflicts in the world. We exhort central actors: microbiologists, funding agencies and philanthropic organisations, politicians worldwide and international governmental and non-governmental organisations, to engage – in full partnership – with all relevant stakeholders, to ‘weaponise’ microbes and microbial technologies to fight resource deficits and asymmetries, in particular among the most vulnerable populations, and thereby create humanitarian conditions more conducive to harmony and peace.Natural History Museum; Indian National Science Academ

Combined MYC and P53 defects emerge at medulloblastoma relapse and define rapidly progressive, therapeutically targetable disease

We undertook a comprehensive clinical and biological investigation of serial medulloblastoma biopsies obtained at diagnosis and relapse. CombinedMYCfamily amplifications and P53 pathway defects commonly emerged at relapse, and all patients in this group died of rapidly progressive disease postrelapse. To study this interaction, we investigated a transgenic model of MYCN-driven medulloblastoma and found spontaneous development ofTrp53inactivating mutations. Abrogation of p53 function in this model produced aggressive tumors that mimicked characteristics of relapsed human tumors with combined P53-MYC dysfunction. Restoration of p53 activity and genetic and therapeutic suppression of MYCN all reduced tumor growth and prolonged survival. Our findings identify P53-MYC interactions at medulloblastoma relapse as biomarkers of clinically aggressive disease that may be targeted therapeutically.Additional co-authors: Louise Howell, Colin Kwok, Abhijit Joshi, Sarah Leigh Nicholson, Stephen Crosier, David W. Ellison, Stephen B. Wharton, Keith Robson, Antony Michalski, Darren Hargrave, Thomas S. Jacques, Barry Pizer, Simon Bailey, Fredrik J. Swartling, William A. Weiss, Louis Chesler, Steven C. Cliffor

Is there a common water-activity limit for the three domains of life?

Archaea and Bacteria constitute a majority of life systems on Earth but have long been considered inferior to Eukarya in terms of solute tolerance. Whereas the most halophilic prokaryotes are known for an ability to multiply at saturated NaCl (water activity (a w) 0.755) some xerophilic fungi can germinate, usually at high-sugar concentrations, at values as low as 0.650-0.605 a w. Here, we present evidence that halophilic prokayotes can grow down to water activities of <0.755 for Halanaerobium lacusrosei (0.748), Halobacterium strain 004.1 (0.728), Halobacterium sp. NRC-1 and Halococcus morrhuae (0.717), Haloquadratum walsbyi (0.709), Halococcus salifodinae (0.693), Halobacterium noricense (0.687), Natrinema pallidum (0.681) and haloarchaeal strains GN-2 and GN-5 (0.635 a w). Furthermore, extrapolation of growth curves (prone to giving conservative estimates) indicated theoretical minima down to 0.611 a w for extreme, obligately halophilic Archaea and Bacteria. These were compared with minima for the most solute-tolerant Bacteria in high-sugar (or other non-saline) media (Mycobacterium spp., Tetragenococcus halophilus, Saccharibacter floricola, Staphylococcus aureus and so on) and eukaryotic microbes in saline (Wallemia spp., Basipetospora halophila, Dunaliella spp. and so on) and high-sugar substrates (for example, Xeromyces bisporus, Zygosaccharomyces rouxii, Aspergillus and Eurotium spp.). We also manipulated the balance of chaotropic and kosmotropic stressors for the extreme, xerophilic fungi Aspergillus penicilloides and X. bisporus and, via this approach, their established water-activity limits for mycelial growth (∼0.65) were reduced to 0.640. Furthermore, extrapolations indicated theoretical limits of 0.632 and 0.636 a w for A. penicilloides and X. bisporus, respectively. Collectively, these findings suggest that there is a common water-activity limit that is determined by physicochemical constraints for the three domains of life

A tale of two capitalisms: preliminary spatial and historical comparisons of homicide rates in Western Europe and the USA

This article examines comparative homicide rates in the United States and Western Europe in an era of increasingly globalized neoliberal economics. The main finding of this preliminary analysis is that historical and spatial correlations between distinct forms of political economy and homicide rates are consistent enough to suggest that social democratic regimes are more successful at fostering the socio-cultural conditions necessary for reduced homicide rates. Thus Western Europe and all continents and nations should approach the importation of American neo-liberal economic policies with extreme caution. The article concludes by suggesting that the indirect but crucial causal connection between political economy and homicide rates, prematurely pushed into the background of criminological thought during the ‘cultural turn’, should be returned to the foreground

The draft genome of the parasitic nematode Trichinella spiralis

Genome evolution studies for the phylum Nematoda have been limited by focusing on comparisons involving Caenorhabditis elegans. We report a draft genome sequence of Trichinella spiralis, a food-borne zoonotic parasite, which is the most common cause of human trichinellosis. This parasitic nematode is an extant member of a clade that diverged early in the evolution of the phylum, enabling identification of archetypical genes and molecular signatures exclusive to nematodes. We sequenced the 64-Mb nuclear genome,which is estimated to contain 15,808 protein-coding genes,at ~35-fold coverage using whole-genome shotgun and hierarchal map–assisted sequencing. Comparative genome analyses support intrachromosomal rearrangements across the phylum, disproportionate numbers of protein family deaths over births in parasitic compared to a non-parasitic nematode and a preponderance of gene-loss and -gain events in nematodes relative to Drosophila melanogaster. This genome sequence and the identified pan-phylum characteristics will contribute to genome evolution studies of Nematoda as well as strategies to combat global parasites of humans, food animals and crops

Antibiotic consumption and antimicrobial resistance in Poland; findings and implications

Background: The problem of inappropriate use of antibiotics and the resulting growth in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has implications for Poland and the world. The objective of this paper was to compare and contrast antibiotic resistance and antibiotic utilisation in Poland in recent years versus other European countries, including agreed quality indicators, alongside current AMR patterns and ongoing policies and initiatives in Poland to influence and improve antibiotic prescribing. Methods: A quantitative ten-year analysis (2007-2016) of the use of antibiotics based on European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) data combined with a literature review on AMR rates and antimicrobial stewardship initiatives. Results: The system of monitoring AMR and appropriate strategies to address AMR rates remain underdeveloped in Poland. The role of microbiological diagnostics and efforts to prevent infections is currently underestimated by physicians. Overall, Poland had one of the highest rates of total consumption of antibiotics in the analysed European countries. Total consumption of antibacterials for systemic use and relative consumption of beta-lactamase sensitive penicillins were characterized by small but statistically significant average annual increases between 2007 and 2016 (from 22.2DIDs to 23.9 DIDs and from 0.8% to 1.3%, respectively). Conclusions: The integrated activities around appropriate antibiotic prescribing in the pre- and post-graduate training of physicians and dentists seem to be particularly important, as well as changes in policies on prescribing antibiotics within ambulatory care. AMR and appropriate prescribing of antibiotics should be the focus of health policy actions in Poland

Consumer behaviour and the life-course: shopper reactions to self service grocery shops and supermarkets in England c.1947-1975

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this recordThe paper examines the development of self-service grocery shopping from a consumer perspective. Using qualitative data constructed through a nationwide biographical survey and oral histories, it is possible to go beyond contemporary market surveys which give insufficient attention to shopping as a socially and culturally embedded practice. The paper uses the conceptual framework of the life-course, to demonstrate how grocery shopping is a complex activity, in which the retail encounter is shaped by the specific interconnection of different retail formats with consumer characteristics and situational influences. Consumer reactions to retail modernization must be understood in relation to the development of consumer practices at points of transition and stability within the life-course. These practices are accessed by examining retrospective consumer narratives about food shopping