The Adventures of Miss Ross: Interventions into, and the tenacity of, romantic travel writing in Southwest Persia

This article concerns the written life of Dr Elizabeth Ness Macbean Ross (1878–1911). Ross’s posthumously published memoir about this time, A Lady Doctor in Bakhtiari Land (1921), challenges the masculine, monomythic stance of her travel-writing forebears Sir Henry Layard and Sir Richard Burton and anticipates contemporary texts in which the encounter between “traveling” self and “native” other destabilizes, rather than reaffirms, the traveler’s sense of identity and authority. The article also briefly examines a set of stories the Times ran on Dr Ross, which attempted to appropriate her for a dominant narrative of the Middle East reliant on a languid orientalism, on the one hand, and tales of derring-do, on the other

A survey of secondary school compliance with the gifted and talented mandate of House Bill 72 for grades 9-12

The purpose of the study is to determine what selected school districts throughout the state of Texas are doing to meet the Texas Gifted and Talented mandate at the high school level, grades 9-12. The study is also to help determine if more guidelines from the state are needed, or if schools are able to meet student needs and mandate requirements as they currently exist

Information policy making in the United Kingdom: the role of the information professional

Should a state have a single overarching national information policy? Currently for the United Kingdom, Buckley Owen, Cooke, and Matthews say no, and suggest that their analysis may be relevant elsewhere. Their conclusion is based on primary and secondary research including interviews with policymakers/implementers at the highest level. In their investigation into UK government policy on citizens’ access to Public Sector Information, they map responsibility for eighteen different information policy issues across nine government departments, noting the diversity of the issues. Instead of a single rule, they offer a “framework” of elements, often representing cross-cutting issues, and offer suggestions for managing their coordination. They note the influence of experts and lobbyists on this process, and see a potential role for “information professionals” who know both technology and policy, with the relevant professional body playing a leading role. The authors conclude with ten recommendations for operationalizing their approach

The development of UK Government policy on citizens' access to Public Sector Information

This paper describes research to investigate the development of United Kingdom government policy on citizens’ access to public sector information from 1996 to 2010, the first such significant project from an information science perspective. In addition to mapping UK policy documents, the main research method was the undertaking of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders from both inside and outside government. Main findings are: uneven progress in the development of citizen-centric services; the continuing need for intermediaries; and a lack of information literacy policy. The paper also charts the increase in the opening up of government data for re-use during 2009 and 2010. It is considered significant that this increase in transparency, by both main political parties, should come at a time when trust in government was low, citizens’ expectations of electronic access to information were rising and the technology was enabling new channels for engagement. The influence of individuals was found to be considerable, for example by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor Nigel Shadbolt and Tom Steinberg. Principles for citizens’ right of access to information are presented

UK government policy on citizens' access to public information

This paper is based upon early findings of PhD research at the Department of Information Science, Loughborough University, 2007-2010. The research aims to identify the different strands of UK government policies on improving citizens’ access to public sector information (PSI) over the last 10 years, investigating how policies were developed and implemented, and by whom. It will particularly look at how the 2007 Power of Information Review (Mayo and Steinberg 2007) is influencing government information provision in the era of Web 2.0. eGovernment initiatives have already transformed the provision of PSI, whether directly through digital channels or through third parties, but use of Web 2.0 has considerable potential to expand information services still further. A review of the literature has so far found that much of the academic writing on eGovernance and eGovernment relates to business/systems re-engineering – ie technological aspects rather than policy aspects – and little has been written in the UK on national information policy, as opposed to IT policy, since 2002. Where policy aspects of eGovernment are covered, they tend to have a more general focus than the specific provision of public sector information, and increasingly address eDemocracy. There seem to have been few investigations into how information policy developed over time: a gap which this research is intended to fill. Using a critical realist approach, policies will be analysed through a content analysis of the policy documents, triangulated with analysis of published comment on the policies and in-depth semistructured interviews with key stakeholders from a range of perspectives. The intention is to gain a three-dimensional picture of the policy-making process and make recommendations on how it could and should work in future. Semi-structured interviews with approximately 50 individuals with different perspectives started in March 2009. Early findings show that co-ordination of policy across government is a problem, there is a need for leadership at the heart of government to make things happen, there is a lack of clarity on who actually makes information policy, and government needs a better understanding of the nature of information and information skills. Central to the research will be identifying what mechanisms, if any, were used to evaluate the success of the relevant eGovernment policies, and how the results of the evaluation were used to develop future policy. Unlike many other studies, the focus will be on qualitative measures, not just on metrics. Drawing on experience of evaluation in other countries, it is intended to develop a framework for the evaluation of current and future eGovernment information policy on the provision of PSI to citizens. Based on the research findings, we aim to make recommendations on how policy on access to public information might be measured and evaluated, and on future directions for research in this area

Towards a comprehensive view of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine: Highlighting the intertwined roles of DNA damage and epigenetics in genomic instability

8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG), a major product of DNA oxidation, is a pre-mutagenic lesion which is prone to mispair, if left unrepaired, with 2'-deoxyadenosine during DNA replication. While unrepaired or incompletely repaired 8-oxodG has classically been associated with genome instability and cancer, it has recently been reported to have a role in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Despite the growing collection of genome-wide 8-oxodG mapping studies that have been used to provide new insight on the functional nature of 8-oxodG within the genome, a comprehensive view that brings together the epigenetic and the mutagenic nature of the 8-oxodG is still lacking. To help address this gap, this review aims to provide (i) a description of the state-of-the-art knowledge on both the mutagenic and epigenetic roles of 8-oxodG; (ii) putative molecular models through which the 8-oxodG can cause genome instability; (iii) a possible molecular model on how 8-oxodG, acting as an epigenetic signal, could cause the translocations and deletions which are associated with cancer

Can 100% Pasture-Based Livestock Farming Produce Enough Ruminant Meat to Meet the Current Consumption Demand in the UK?

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Grassland is grouped into temporary, permanent, and rough grazing types in the United Kingdom (UK), making up more than 60% of the national agricultural land area. It provides avenues for grazed fodder or ensiled forage contributing a large proportion of the diets consumed by cattle and sheep. The official agricultural census data in 2011 to 2020 showed that, on average, UK cattle and sheep farming can produce meat to satisfy 83.3 and 100.8% of domestic cattle beef and sheep meat consumption levels, respectively. Out of the large agricultural census datasets, we used the populations of cattle and sheep, as well as the UK definition of a standard livestock unit (SLU), to normalise the respective herd populations into a total standard livestock unit (TSLU). We then used the annual domestic meat production in dressed carcass weight to calculate cattle and sheep meat productivity per SLU. Using the potential herbal dry matter yields per year and areas of the different grassland types across the UK, the potential total available pasture feed was calculated. This potential production of herbal biomass was translated into the potential carrying capacity expressed in a TSLU. This total potential carrying capacity was partitioned into cattle and sheep sectors so that the routes of pasture-based-only options with which to produce ruminant meat to meet the current UK domestic consumption demands were assessed. The estimated mean potential annual pasture forage feed in 2011–2020 was approximately 82.0 million (M) metric tonnes (t), which can be translated into a potential carrying capacity of 17.9 M SLUs compared with the current mean 9.36 M SLUs in the survey data of the UK. With the ratio of sheep to cattle at 8.2:25 in the national TSLU, the UK national demands at present consumption levels of cattle and sheep meat can be arithmetically met with pasture grass utilisation rates at or above 65% and 50% by cattle and sheep farming systems, respectively.Peer reviewe

A physiological perspective on fisheries-induced evolution

There is increasing evidence that intense fishing pressure is not only depleting fish stocks but also causing evolutionary changes to fish populations. In particular, body size and fecundity in wild fish populations may be altered in response to the high and often size-selective mortality exerted by fisheries. While these effects can have serious consequences for the viability of fish populations, there are also a range of traits not directly related to body size which could also affect susceptibility to capture by fishing gears – and therefore fisheries-induced evolution (FIE) – but which have to date been ignored. For example, overlooked within the context of FIE is the likelihood that variation in physiological traits could make some individuals within species more vulnerable to capture. Specifically, traits related to energy balance (e.g. metabolic rate), swimming performance (e.g. aerobic scope), neuroendocrinology (e.g. stress responsiveness), and sensory physiology (e.g., visual acuity) are especially likely to influence vulnerability to capture through a variety of mechanisms. Selection on these traits could produce major shifts in the physiological traits within populations in response to fishing pressure that are yet to be considered but which could influence population resource requirements, resilience, species’ distributions, and responses to environmental change

Effectiveness of interventions to prevent pre-frailty and frailty progression in older adults:a systematic review

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the best available evidence regarding the effectiveness of interventions for preventing frailty progression in older adults. INTRODUCTION: Frailty is an age-related state of decreased physiological reserves characterized by an increased risk of poor clinical outcomes. Evidence supporting the malleability of frailty, its prevention and treatment, has been presented. INCLUSION CRITERIA: The review considered studies on older adults aged 65 and over, explicitly identified as pre-frail or frail, who had been undergoing interventions focusing on the prevention of frailty progression. Participants selected on the basis of specific illness or with a terminal diagnosis were excluded. The comparator was usual care, alternative therapeutic interventions or no intervention. The primary outcome was frailty. Secondary outcomes included: (i) cognition, quality of life, activities of daily living, caregiver burden, functional capacity, depression and other mental health-related outcomes, self-perceived health and social engagement; (ii) drugs and prescriptions, analytical parameters, adverse outcomes and comorbidities; (iii) costs, and/or costs relative to benefits and/or savings associated with implementing the interventions for frailty. Experimental study designs, cost effectiveness, cost benefit, cost minimization and cost utility studies were considered for inclusion. METHODS: Databases for published and unpublished studies, available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Dutch, from January 2001 to November 2015, were searched. Critical appraisal was conducted using standardized instruments from the Joanna Briggs Institute. Data was extracted using the standardized tools designed for quantitative and economic studies. Data was presented in a narrative form due to the heterogeneity of included studies. RESULTS: Twenty-one studies, all randomized controlled trials, with a total of 5275 older adults and describing 33 interventions, met the criteria for inclusion. Economic analyses were conducted in two studies. Physical exercise programs were shown to be generally effective for reducing or postponing frailty but only when conducted in groups. Favorable effects on frailty indicators were also observed after the interventions, based on physical exercise with supplementation, supplementation alone, cognitive training and combined treatment. Group meetings and home visits were not found to be universally effective. Lack of efficacy was evidenced for physical exercise performed individually or delivered one-to-one, hormone supplementation and problem solving therapy. Individually tailored management programs for clinical conditions had inconsistent effects on frailty prevalence. Economic studies demonstrated that this type of intervention, as compared to usual care, provided better value for money, particularly for very frail community-dwelling participants, and had favorable effects in some of the frailty-related outcomes in inpatient and outpatient management, without increasing costs. CONCLUSIONS: This review found mixed results regarding the effectiveness of frailty interventions. However, there is clear evidence on the usefulness of such interventions in carefully chosen evidence-based circumstances, both for frailty itself and for secondary outcomes, supporting clinical investment of resources in frailty intervention. Further research is required to reinforce current evidence and examine the impact of the initial level of frailty on the benefits of different interventions. There is also a need for economic evaluation of frailty interventions

The Lantern Vol. 10, No. 1, December 1941

• Misty • The Evils of Initiations • Ursinus, Fifty Years Ago • My Conversion • Our Gang • From Rabble to Royalty • So You Want to be an Editor! • Tempo • A Musician\u27s Allegory • Flotsam • The Years • Common Things • Sea Moods • Aunt Agatha\u27s Pillow • Peace at Autumn Twilighthttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1025/thumbnail.jp