A career of choice: attracting talented young people into house building

The purpose of this research was to establish a better understanding of how young people view house building as a career choice and to provide insights to improve recruitment of those with enthusiasm and talent into the sector. It collected the views of over 500 teenagers and young men and women between the ages of 14 and 24, and the views of those who advise them on careers.NHBC Foundatio

The ‘cross-pressured clans’ of British politics: a quarter of the electorate and their values

Having explained how clusters of the electorate have shaped the UK political landscape, Paula Surridge, Michael Turner, Robert Struthers, and Clive McDonnell focus on two of the most ‘cross-pressured’ of these groups. They analyse their political behaviour in order to illustrate why understanding voters according to their values on multiple dimensions rather than on the traditional ‘left-right’ divide is more crucial than ever

‘Values clans’: how clusters of the electorate have shaped the political landscape

To explain the divisions which permeate UK politics, Paula Surridge, Michael Turner, Robert Struthers, and Clive McDonnell introduce an approach that takes the dimensionality of voters’ preferences more seriously; and in a second piece they illustrate the political behaviour of two of these groups in more detail

Access and safety at geological sites: a manual for landowners, quarry operators and the geological visitor

Mineral Industry Research Organisation: Aggregates Sustainability Levy Fun

Strategies to reduce contribution evasion in social security financing

Summary. Ð Contribution evasion is a serious problem for social security ®nancing in many countries. A mixture of strategies may be most eective in reducing the underpayment and nonpayment of mandatory social security contributions by employers and workers. Contribution evasion can be reduced by changes in: (a) the incentives inherent in the design of social security systems, (b) employer, worker and governmental attitudes toward compliance, (c) administrative procedures that improve the eciency of contribution collection by government or reduce the cost to workers and employers of compliance, and (d) macroeconomic policies that maintain low in¯ation and provide for low unemployment with stable growth.

A first-in-human phase I study to determine the maximum tolerated dose of the oral Src/ABL inhibitor AZD0424

BACKGROUND: Src is involved in cancer invasion and metastasis. AZD0424, an oral inhibitor of Src and ABL1, has shown evidence of anti-tumour activity in pre-clinical studies. METHODS: A phase Ia, dose escalation study was performed to assess the safety of continuous oral dosing with AZD0424 in advanced solid tumours. Secondary objectives included investigation of AZD0424 pharmacokinetics, effect on Src activity using markers of bone turnover, and anti-tumour activity. RESULTS: 41 patients were treated; 34 received AZD0424 once-daily at doses ranging from 5 mg to 150 mg, and 7 received 40 mg bi-daily 41.5% of patients experienced at least one AZD0424-related adverse event that was Grade 3-5 in severity, with patients treated at doses above 60 mg per day experiencing multiple treatment-related toxicities. The most commonly observed AZD0424-related adverse events were nausea, fatigue, anorexia and alopecia. Cmaxand AUC increased linearly with dose and the mean±standard deviation t1/2was 8.4±2.8 h. Clear evidence of Src target inhibition was seen at doses ⩾20 mg per day. No responses were observed and 7 patients (17.1%) achieved stable disease lasting 6 weeks or more. CONCLUSIONS: AZD0424 displayed no evidence of efficacy as monotherapy despite a clear pharmacodynamic effect. Further evaluation of AZD0424 monotherapy in patients with solid tumours is not recommended

Making progress with the automation of systematic reviews: principles of the International Collaboration for the Automation of Systematic Reviews (ICASR)

Systematic reviews (SR) are vital to health care, but have become complicated and time-consuming, due to the rapid expansion of evidence to be synthesised. Fortunately, many tasks of systematic reviews have the potential to be automated or may be assisted by automation. Recent advances in natural language processing, text mining and machine learning have produced new algorithms that can accurately mimic human endeavour in systematic review activity, faster and more cheaply. Automation tools need to be able to work together, to exchange data and results. Therefore, we initiated the International Collaboration for the Automation of Systematic Reviews (ICASR), to successfully put all the parts of automation of systematic review production together. The first meeting was held in Vienna in October 2015. We established a set of principles to enable tools to be developed and integrated into toolkits. This paper sets out the principles devised at that meeting, which cover the need for improvement in efficiency of SR tasks, automation across the spectrum of SR tasks, continuous improvement, adherence to high quality standards, flexibility of use and combining components, the need for a collaboration and varied skills, the desire for open source, shared code and evaluation, and a requirement for replicability through rigorous and open evaluation. Automation has a great potential to improve the speed of systematic reviews. Considerable work is already being done on many of the steps involved in a review. The ‘Vienna Principles’ set out in this paper aim to guide a more coordinated effort which will allow the integration of work by separate teams and build on the experience, code and evaluations done by the many teams working across the globe

Real-time monitoring of exhaled volatiles using atmospheric pressure chemical ionization on a compact mass spectrometer

© 2016 Future Science Ltd.Aim: Breath analyses have potential to detect early signs of disease onset. Ambient ionization allows direct combination of breath gases with MS for fast, on-line analysis. Portable MS systems would facilitate field/clinic-based breath analyses. Results & methodology: Volunteers ingested peppermint oil capsules and exhaled volatile compounds were monitored over 10 h using a compact mass spectrometer. A rise and fall in exhaled menthone was observed, peaking at 60-120 min. Real-time analysis showed a gradual rise in exhaled menthone postingestion. Sensitivity was comparable to established methods, with detection in the parts per trillion range. Conclusion: Breath volatiles were readily analyzed on a portable mass spectrometer through a simple inlet modification. Induced changes in exhaled profiles were detectable with high sensitivity and measurable in real-time