Flexible format, computer accessed telemetry system

With this system, it is possible to sample and generate two or more simultaneous formats; one can be transmitted to ground station in real time, and other is stored for later transmission. Sensor output comparison data, plus information to control format, compression algorithm, and allowable degree of sensor activity, are stored in memory

Data multiplexer using a tree switch

Self-decoding FET-hybrid or integrated-circuit tree configuration uses minimum number of components and can be sequenced by clock or computer. Redundancy features can readily be incorporated into tree configuration; as tree grows in size and more sensors are included, percentage of parts that will affect given percentage of sensors steadily decreases

A participatory action research study of key account management changes

Pure Participatory Action Research projects in the IMP research tradition are rather rare. This paper describes both the process and the outcomes of such a project carried out for a major business to retail firm in the UK. The issue at hand was, and is, Key Account Management, defined in a very broad way. The process is one of changing the ways in which the actors in the firm at different levels work together to try to coordinate the long term strategy and short term operations in relation to powerful retail customers. The outcomes for the firm have, so far, been very positive. The outcomes for the researchers are too early to fully evaluate but look very promising

Mutational analysis of the gene start sequences of pneumonia virus of mice

The transcriptional start sequence of pneumonia virus of mice is more variable than that of the other pneumoviruses, with five different nine-base gene start (GS) sequences found in the PVM genome. The sequence requirements of the PVM gene start signal, and the efficiency of transcriptional initiation of the different virus genes, was investigated using a reverse genetics approach with a minigenome construct containing two reporter genes. A series of GS mutants were created, where each of the nine bases of the gene start consensus sequence of a reporter gene was changed to every other possible base, and the resulting effect on initiation of transcription was assayed. Nucleotide positions 1, 2 and 7 were found to be most sensitive to mutation whilst positions 4, 5 and 9 were relatively insensitive. The L gene GS sequence was found to have only 20% of the activity of the consensus sequence whilst the published M2 gene start sequence was found to be non-functional. A minigenome construct in which the two reporter genes were separated by the F-M2 gene junction of PVM was used to confirm the presence of two alternative, functional, GS sequences that could both drive the transcription of the PVM M2 gene

Epidemiology of parainfluenza virus type 3 in England and Wales over a ten-year period

We have analysed data on respiratory syneytial (RS) and parainfiuenza type 3 (PF3) viruses reported to the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre. London, over the period 1978–87. These confirm the annual winter epidemic of RS virus and show that, in England and Wales, PF3 is a summer infection with regular yearly epidemics

Psychometric analysis of the UK Health and Safety Executive's Management Standards work-related stress Indicator Tool

In the UK the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) Management Standards (MS) work-related stress Indicator Tool is the standard measure that organizations use to assess workplace stress. However, no in-depth analysis has been performed to test the psychometric properties of this scale. The current study is the first to examine the factor structure of the HSE MS Indicator Tool using organizational-level data. Data collected from 39 organizations (N = 26,382) was used to perform a first-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on the original 35-item seven-factor measurement scale. The results showed an acceptable fit to the data for the instrument. A second-order CFA was also performed to test if the Indicator Tool contains a higher order uni-dimensional measure of work-related stress. These findings also revealed an acceptable fit to the data, suggesting that it may be possible to derive a single measure of work-related stress

The host-range tdCE phenotype of Chandipura virus is determined by mutations in the polymerase gene

The emerging arbovirus Chandipura virus (CV) has been implicated in epidemics of acute encephalitis in India with high mortality rates. The isolation of temperature-dependent host-range (tdCE) mutants, which are impaired in growth at 39 °C in chick embryo (CE) cells but not in monkey cells, highlights a dependence on undetermined host factors. We have characterized three tdCE mutants, each containing one or more coding mutations in the RNA polymerase gene and two containing additional mutations in the attachment protein gene. Using reverse genetics, we showed that a single amino acid change in the virus polymerase of each mutant was responsible for the host-range specificity. In CE cells at the non-permissive temperature, the discrete cytoplasmic replication complexes seen in mammalian cells or at the permissive temperature in CE cells were absent with the tdCE mutants, consistent with the tdCE lesions causing disruption of the replication complexes in a host-dependent manner

Sequence variation in the haemagglutinin-neuraminidase gene of human parainfluenza virus type 3 isolates in the UK

The sequence variation in a 934 base-pair region of the gene encoding the haemagglutinin-neuraminidase of five human parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPIV3) isolates was determined together with that of a prototype UK strain. All of the clinical isolates were from the Manchester area of the UK and were obtained in 1990. 1991 and 1993. The gene segment was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction using HPIVB-specific oligonucleotide primers. The nucleotide homology of the strains was high, around 99% and specific differences in the UK sequences when compared with that of the US prototype strain were identified. In addition, a number of isolate-specific differences were seen. No correlation was detected between the observed nucleotide mutations and the year of isolation, which supports the hypothesis that HPIV3 shows cocirculation of a heterogeneous population of viruses rather than varying with time in a linear fashion. However, the data suggested that geographically-defined genetic lineages of HPIV3 may exist

A transcriptome-wide association study among 97,898 women to identify candidate susceptibility genes for epithelial ovarian cancer risk

Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified approximately 35 loci associated with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk. The majority of GWAS-identified disease susceptibility variants are located in non-coding regions, and causal genes underlying these associations remain largely unknown. Here we performed a transcriptome-wide association study to search for novel genetic loci and plausible causal genes at known GWAS loci. We used RNA sequencing data (68 normal ovarian-tissue samples from 68 individuals and 6,124 cross-tissue samples from 369 individuals) and high-density genotyping data from European descendants of the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx V6) project to build ovarian and cross-tissue models of genetically regulated expression using elastic net methods. We evaluated 17,121 genes for their cis-predicted gene expression in relation to EOC risk using summary statistics data from GWAS of 97,898 women, including 29,396 EOC cases. With a Bonferroni-corrected significance level of P<2.2×10-6, we identified 35 genes including FZD4 at 11q14.2 (Z=5.08, P=3.83×10-7, the cross-tissue model; 1 Mb away from any GWAS-identified EOC risk variant), a potential novel locus for EOC risk. All other 34 significantly-associated genes were located within 1 Mb of known GWAS-identified loci, including 23 genes at 6 loci not previously linked to EOC risk. Upon conditioning on nearby known EOC GWAS-identified variants, the associations for 31 genes disappeared and 3 genes remained (P<1.47 x 10-3). These data identify one novel locus (FZD4) and 34 genes at 13 known EOC risk loci associated with EOC risk, providing new insights into EOC carcinogenesis.Multiple funders including Cancer Research UK and the Wellcome Trust