Employability Blog Series: The Big College Challenge – A Case Study Presenting Interdisciplinary Development of Employability Skills

This forms part of a regular series of Employability Blogs for the Higher Education Policy Institute. During January 2020, students of the College of Life and Natural Sciences (CLANS) at the University of Derby took part in an interdisciplinary challenge, termed “The Big Challenge”, alongside academics in their subject specialities and several leading industry professionals. This challenge aimed to support the development of key employability skills and was staged as part of a knowledge exchange activity to encourage mutual learning for both the academics and the employers involved (Reed, 2018). Since staging the Challenge, a research project has been in progress assessing the impact and the value of the Challenge on students, employers and the academics and professional services staff involved in delivering it. This piece presents early findings

Nonclassical Degrees of Freedom in the Riemann Hamiltonian

The Hilbert-Polya conjecture states that the imaginary parts of the zeros of the Riemann zeta function are eigenvalues of a quantum hamiltonian. If so, conjectures by Katz and Sarnak put this hamiltonian in Altland and Zirnbauer's universality class C. This implies that the system must have a nonclassical two-valued degree of freedom. In such a system, the dominant primitive periodic orbits contribute to the density of states with a phase factor of -1. This resolves a previously mysterious sign problem with the oscillatory contributions to the density of the Riemann zeros.Comment: 4 pages, no figures; v3-6 have minor corrections to v2, v2 has a more complete solution of the sign problem than v

The Berry-Keating Hamiltonian and the Local Riemann Hypothesis

The local Riemann hypothesis states that the zeros of the Mellin transform of a harmonic-oscillator eigenfunction (on a real or p-adic configuration space) have real part 1/2. For the real case, we show that the imaginary parts of these zeros are the eigenvalues of the Berry-Keating hamiltonian H=(xp+px)/2 projected onto the subspace of oscillator eigenfunctions of lower level. This gives a spectral proof of the local Riemann hypothesis for the reals, in the spirit of the Hilbert-Polya conjecture. The p-adic case is also discussed.Comment: 9 pages, no figures; v2 included more mathematical background, v3 has minor edits for clarit

Cereal-based dietary iron intervention for improvement of iron status in female runners

Poster presentation at The Nutrition Society Summer Meeting, Glasgow, UK, 14–17 July 2014, Carbohydrates in health: friends or foes

Variation in post-colonoscopy colorectal cancer across colonoscopy providers in English National Health Service: population based cohort study

Objectives: To quantify post-colonoscopy colorectal cancer (PCCRC) rates in England by using recent World Endoscopy Organisation guidelines, compare incidence among colonoscopy providers, and explore associated factors that could benefit from quality improvement initiatives. Design: Population based cohort study. Setting: National Health Service in England between 2005 and 2013. Population: All people undergoing colonoscopy and subsequently diagnosed as having colorectal cancer up to three years after their investigation (PCCRC-3yr). Main outcome measures: National trends in incidence of PCCRC (within 6-36 months of colonoscopy), univariable and multivariable analyses to explore factors associated with occurrence, and funnel plots to measure variation among providers. Results: The overall unadjusted PCCRC-3yr rate was 7.4% (9317/126 152), which decreased from 9.0% in 2005 to 6.5% in 2013 (P<0.01). Rates were lower for colonoscopies performed under the NHS bowel cancer screening programme (593/16 640, 3.6%), while they were higher for those conducted by non-NHS providers (187/2009, 9.3%). Rates were higher in women, in older age groups, and in people with inflammatory bowel disease or diverticular disease, in those with higher comorbidity scores, and in people with previous cancers. Substantial variation in rates among colonoscopy providers remained after adjustment for case mix. Conclusions: Wide variation exists in PCCRC-3yr rates across NHS colonoscopy providers in England. The lowest incidence was seen in colonoscopies performed under the NHS bowel cancer screening programme. Quality improvement initiatives are needed to address this variation in rates and prevent colorectal cancer by enabling earlier diagnosis, removing premalignant polyps, and therefore improving outcomes

Caracterização de acessos de pimenta-do-reino com base em sistemas enzimáticos.

Setenta e oito acessos de pimenta-do-reino, incluindo algumas espécies silvestres foram submetidos à análise eletroforética de isoenzimas em gel de poliacrilamida, visando distinguir diferenças fenotípicas que auxiliem na discriminação e seleção dos acessos. Foram utilizados os sistemas enzimáticos SKDH, GOT, ACP, ACO, PGI, FUM, 6PGDH e G6PDH. O polimorfismo de isoenzimas foi avaliado pelo número de alozimas com diferentes mobilidades por sistema enzimático, pelas freqüências de alozimas dentro de cada sistema enzimático em relação ao total de bandas do sistema e pela análise da similaridade genética, com base na ausência e presença de bandas. Todos os sistemas enzimáticos utilizados tiveram boa resolução e definição de bandas, com ênfase para SKDH, 6PGDH, PGI e ACP. Em sua totalidade, os sistemas apresentaram polimorfismo capaz de caracterizar e identificar acessos ou grupos de pequeno número de acessos, sendo que o sistema GOT foi o que apresentou maior variabilidade de alozimas e de perfis; e o que apresentou menor variabilidade foi o sistema FUM, com três alozimas e quatro perfis. Cinqüenta e sete por cento das alozimas podem ser usadas para caracterizar e identificar clones ou grupos de clones. Cerca de 64% dos acessos analisados podem ser identificados por um a seis fenótipos individuais de sistemas enzimáticos. A análise da similaridade indicou os grupos G1, G2 e G3 como os mais divergentes da coleção, os quais são indicados para cruzamentos intraespecíficos e interespecíficos visando a obtenção de clones superiores.Título em inglês: Characterization of black pepper accessions using isozymes. Publicado também on-line

Arene oxidation with malonoyl peroxides

Malonoyl peroxide 7, prepared in a single step from the commercially available diacid, is an effective reagent for the oxidation of aromatics. Reaction of an arene with peroxide 7 at room temperature leads to the corresponding protected phenol which can be unmasked by aminolysis. An ionic mechanism consistent with the experimental findings and supported by isotopic labeling, Hammett analysis, EPR investigations and reactivity profile studies is proposed

Viral genome packaging terminase cleaves DNA using the canonical RuvC-like two-metal catalysis mechanism

Bacteriophages and large dsDNA viruses encode sophisticated machinery to translocate their DNA into a preformed empty capsid. An essential part of this machine, the large terminase protein, processes viral DNA into constituent units utilizing its nuclease activity. Crystal structures of the large terminase nuclease from the thermophilic bacteriophage G20c show that it is most similar to the RuvC family of the RNase H-like endonucleases. Like RuvC proteins, the nuclease requires either Mn2+, Mg2+ or Co2+ ions for activity, but is inactive with Zn2+ and Ca2+. High resolution crystal structures of complexes with different metals reveal that in the absence of DNA, only one catalytic metal ion is accommodated in the active site. Binding of the second metal ion may be facilitated by conformational variability, which enables the two catalytic aspartic acids to be brought closer to each other. Structural comparison indicates that in common with the RuvC family, the location of the two catalytic metals differs from other members of the RNase H family. In contrast to a recently proposed mechanism, the available data do not support binding of the two metals at an ultra-short interatomic distance. Thus we postulate that viral terminases cleave DNA by the canonical RuvC-like mechanism