Children's Databases - Safety and Privacy

This report describes in detail the policy background, the systems that are being built, the problems with them, and the legal situation in the UK. An appendix looks at Europe, and examines in particular detail how France and Germany have dealt with these issues. Our report concludes with three suggested regulatory action strategies for the Commissioner: one minimal strategy in which he tackles only the clear breaches of the law, one moderate strategy in which he seeks to educate departments and agencies and guide them towards best practice, and finally a vigorous option in which he would seek to bring UK data protection practice in these areas more in line with normal practice in Europe, and indeed with our obligations under European law

Apollo 15 rake sample microbreccias and non-mare rocks: Bulk rock, mineral and glass electron microprobe analyses

Quantitative electron microprobe data of Apollo 15 nonmare rake samples are presented. Bulk analyses of lithic fragments in the nomare rocks (expressed in oxide weight-percent) and the corresponding CIPW molecular norms are given. The mineralogy of the rocks and lithic fragments are also given; structural formulae for complete analyses and molecular end-members for all mineral analyses are included. The mineral analyses include pyroxene, olivine, plagioclase, barian K-feldspar, spinel and ilmenite, cobaltian metallic nickel-iron as well as SiO2-K2O-rich residual glass. Electron micropobe analyses (oxide weight percent) of glasses in loose fines and microbreccia samples and their CIPW molecular norms are presented along with electron microprobe data on bulk, mineral, and matrix glass from chondrules

Vulnerability of Resource Users in Louisiana’s Oyster Fishery to Environmental Hazards

Knowledge of vulnerability provides the foundation for developing actions that minimize impacts on people while maximizing the sustainability of ecosystem goods and services. As a result, it is becoming increasingly important to determine how resource-dependent people are vulnerable to environmental hazards. This idea is particularly true in coastal Louisiana, USA, where the current era of rapid land loss has the potential to undermine oyster fisheries. However, little is known about how such environmental change might differentially affect resource users and stakeholders. We examined social components of vulnerability to environmental hazards using indicators of susceptibility and adaptive capacity within the oyster fishery of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Specifically, we used structured interviews to compare three resource-user roles: oyster fishers, oyster fishers/lease owners, and oyster lease owners only. Results indicated that oyster fishers/lease owners were highly dependent and thus susceptible to changes in the fishery because of high levels of occupational identity. These same people, however, were the most adaptable to change, which was reflected in their willingness to learn about new practices and evolve over time. Higher susceptibility in this group was offset by an increased ability to adapt, cope, and respond to changes in the environment. In contrast to these findings, oyster fishers that did not own any portion of a lease or business in which they operated were bad at coping with change and frequently held negative or fatalistic views on financial planning. These attributes made them the most vulnerable to environmental hazards. Overall, the most vulnerable participants in the Terrebonne Parish oyster fishery were those with low to moderate levels of personal and financial buffers and trust, coupled with high occupational identity and a low motivation to change. Local policy actions that target these attributes are likely to be the best entry points to reducing the vulnerability of stakeholders to hazards

Variation in the risk of colorectal cancer in families with Lynch syndrome: a retrospective cohort study

doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(21)00189-3Findings 5585 families with Lynch syndrome from 22 countries were eligible for the analysis. Of these, there were insufficient numbers to estimate penetrance for Asia and South America, and for those with EPCAM variants. Therefore, we used data (collected between July 11, 2014, and Dec 31, 2018) from 5255 families (1829 MLH1, 2179 MSH2, 798 MSH6, and 449 PMS2), comprising 79 809 relatives, recruited in 15 countries in North America, Europe, and Australasia. There was strong evidence of the existence of unknown familial risk factors modifying colorectal cancer risk for Lynch syndrome carriers (p 0 center dot 0001 for each of the three three continents). These familial risk factors resulted in a wide within-gene variation in the risk of colorectal cancer for men and women from each continent who all carried pathogenic variants in the same gene or the MSH2 c.942+3A T variant. The variation was especially prominent for MLH1 and MSH2 variant carriers, depending on gene, sex and continent, with 7-56% of carriers having a colorectal cancer penetrance of less than 20%, 9-44% having a penetrance of more than 80%, and only Background Existing clinical practice guidelines for carriers of pathogenic variants of DNA mismatch repair genes (Lynch syndrome) are based on the mean age-specific cumulative risk (penetrance) of colorectal cancer for all carriers of pathogenic variants in the same gene. We aimed to estimate the variation in the penetrance of colorectal cancer between carriers of pathogenic variants in the same gene by sex and continent of residence. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, we sourced data from the International Mismatch Repair Consortium, which comprises 273 members from 122 research centres or clinics in 32 countries from six continents who are involved in Lynch syndrome research. Families with at least three members and at least one confirmed carrier of a pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant in a DNA mismatch repair gene (MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, or PMS2) were included. The families of probands with known de-novo pathogenic variants were excluded. Data were collected on the method of ascertainment of the family, sex, carrier status, cancer diagnoses, and ages at the time of pedigree collection and at last contact or death. We used a segregation analysis conditioned on ascertainment to estimate the mean penetrance of colorectal cancer and modelled unmeasured polygenic factors to estimate the variation in penetrance. The existence of unknown familial risk factors modifying colorectal cancer risk for Lynch syndrome carriers was tested by use of a Wald p value for the null hypothesis that the polygenic SD is zero. Findings 5585 families with Lynch syndrome from 22 countries were eligible for the analysis. Of these, there were insufficient numbers to estimate penetrance for Asia and South America, and for those with EPCAM variants. Therefore, we used data (collected between July 11, 2014, and Dec 31, 2018) from 5255 families (1829 MLH1, 2179 MSH2, 798 MSH6, and 449 PMS2), comprising 79 809 relatives, recruited in 15 countries in North America, Europe, and Australasia. There was strong evidence of the existence of unknown familial risk factors modifying colorectal cancer risk for Lynch syndrome carriers (pT variant. The variation was especially prominent for MLH1 and MSH2 variant carriers, depending on gene, sex and continent, with 7-56% of carriers having a colorectal cancer penetrance of less than 20%, 9-44% having a penetrance of more than 80%, and only 10-19% having a penetrance of 40-60%. Interpretation Our study findings highlight the important role of risk modifiers, which could lead to personalised risk assessments for precision prevention and early detection of colorectal cancer for people with Lynch syndrome. Funding National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia. Copyright (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, we sourced data from the International Mismatch Repair Consortium, which comprises 273 members from 122 research centres or clinics in 32 countries from six continents who are involved in Lynch syndrome research. Families with at least three members and at least one confirmed carrier of a pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant in a DNA mismatch repair gene (MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, or PMS2) were included. The families of probands with known de-novo pathogenic variants were excluded. Data were collected on the method of ascertainment of the family, sex, carrier status, cancer diagnoses, and ages at the time of pedigree collection and at last contact or death. We used a segregation analysis conditioned on ascertainment to estimate the mean penetrance of colorectal cancer and modelled unmeasured polygenic factors to estimate the variation in penetrance. The existence of unknown familial risk factors modifying colorectal cancer risk for Lynch syndrome carriers was tested by use of a Wald p value for the null hypothesis that the polygenic SD is zero.Peer reviewe

Liver monocytes and kupffer cells remain transcriptionally distinct during chronic viral infection

Due to the scarcity of immunocompetent animal models for chronic viral hepatitis, little is known about the role of the innate intrahepatic immune system during viral replication in the liver. These insights are however fundamental for the understanding of the inappropriate adaptive immune responses during the chronic phase of the infection. We apply the Lymphocytic Choriomenigitis Virus (LCMV) clone 13 mouse model to examine chronic virus-host interactions of Kupffer cells (KC) and infiltrating monocytes (IM) in an infected liver. LCMV infection induced overt cli

Electron Microprobe Analyses of Lithic Fragments and Their Minerals from Luna 20 Fines

The bulk analyses (determined with the broad beam electron microprobe technique) of lithic fragments are given in weight percentages and are arranged according to the rock classification. Within each rock group the analyses are arranged in order of increasing FeO content. Thin section and lithic fragment numbers are given at the top of each column of analysis and correspond to the numbers recorded on photo mosaics on file in the Institute of Meteoritics. CIPW molecular norms are given for each analysis. Electron microprobe mineral analyses (given in oxide weight percentages), structural formulae and molecular end member values are presented for plagioclase, olivine, pyroxene and K-feldspar. The minerals are selected mostly from lithic fragments that were also analyzed for bulk composition. Within each mineral group the analyses are presented according to the section number and lithic fragment number. Within each lithic fragment the mineral analyses are arranged as follows: Plagioclase in order of increasing CaO; olivine and pyroexene in order of increasing FeO; and K-feldspar in order of increasing K2O. The mineral grains are identified at the top of each column of analysis by grain number and lithic fragment number

Mineral chemistry of igneous melanite garnets from analcite-bearing volcanic rocks, Alberta, Canada

The mineral chemistry of melanite garnets from the Crowsnest volcanic rocks of SW Alberta, Canada, has been investigated by using electron microprobe scans, quantitative analyses and multivariate statistical analysis. The garnets occur with aegirine-augite, sanidine, analcite and rare plagioclase as phenocrysts in trachyte and phonolite flows, agglomerates and tuffs. Wavelength dispersive microprobe scans reveal complex zonation patterns, both normal and oscillatory. The results of fifty quantitative analyses were subjected to R-mode factor analysis to delineate the chemical exchanges producing the zonation. The chemical zonation of the garnets may be attributed to four independent binary exchanges; Al-Fe3+, Si-Ti, Ca-Mn and Mg-Fe2+. The stoichiometry of these garnets, based on microprobe and wet chemical Fe analyses, combined with the strongly antithetic behavior of Si and Ti lead us to infer that the Ti in these garnets is dominantly tetravalent. It is clear from this study that quantitative modelling of the processes of crystal growth and zonation of melanite garnets in alkaline, undersaturated igneous rocks should be aimed at simulating the four chemical exchanges listed above

A critical review of PASBio's argument structures for biomedical verbs

BACKGROUND: Propositional representations of biomedical knowledge are a critical component of most aspects of semantic mining in biomedicine. However, the proper set of propositions has yet to be determined. Recently, the PASBio project proposed a set of propositions and argument structures for biomedical verbs. This initial set of representations presents an opportunity for evaluating the suitability of predicate-argument structures as a scheme for representing verbal semantics in the biomedical domain. Here, we quantitatively evaluate several dimensions of the initial PASBio propositional structure repository. RESULTS: We propose a number of metrics and heuristics related to arity, role labelling, argument realization, and corpus coverage for evaluating large-scale predicate-argument structure proposals. We evaluate the metrics and heuristics by applying them to PASBio 1.0. CONCLUSION: PASBio demonstrates the suitability of predicate-argument structures for representing aspects of the semantics of biomedical verbs. Metrics related to theta-criterion violations and to the distribution of arguments are able to detect flaws in semantic representations, given a set of predicate-argument structures and a relatively small corpus annotated with them

Semi-automatic conversion of BioProp semantic annotation to PASBio annotation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Semantic role labeling (SRL) is an important text analysis technique. In SRL, sentences are represented by one or more predicate-argument structures (PAS). Each PAS is composed of a predicate (verb) and several arguments (noun phrases, adverbial phrases, etc.) with different semantic roles, including main arguments (agent or patient) as well as adjunct arguments (time, manner, or location). PropBank is the most widely used PAS corpus and annotation format in the newswire domain. In the biomedical field, however, more detailed and restrictive PAS annotation formats such as PASBio are popular. Unfortunately, due to the lack of an annotated PASBio corpus, no publicly available machine-learning (ML) based SRL systems based on PASBio have been developed. In previous work, we constructed a biomedical corpus based on the PropBank standard called BioProp, on which we developed an ML-based SRL system, BIOSMILE. In this paper, we aim to build a system to convert BIOSMILE's BioProp annotation output to PASBio annotation. Our system consists of BIOSMILE in combination with a BioProp-PASBio rule-based converter, and an additional semi-automatic rule generator.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our first experiment evaluated our rule-based converter's performance independently from BIOSMILE performance. The converter achieved an F-score of 85.29%. The second experiment evaluated combined system (BIOSMILE + rule-based converter). The system achieved an F-score of 69.08% for PASBio's 29 verbs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our approach allows PAS conversion between BioProp and PASBio annotation using BIOSMILE alongside our newly developed semi-automatic rule generator and rule-based converter. Our system can match the performance of other state-of-the-art domain-specific ML-based SRL systems and can be easily customized for PASBio application development.</p