Establishing global eligibility criteria for a diagnosis of autism in a sporting context: availability of assessments and views of an expert panel

Section A A systematic meta-review was conducted to examine review papers on autism assessment measures for older children, adolescents, and adults. Twenty review papers were summarised and evaluated using a narrative synthesis. Twenty-eight screening and fifteen diagnostic measures for autism were identified from the reviews, and the characteristics and psychometric properties of these measures were critically evaluated. There is a need for a more thorough investigation of a wider range psychometric properties for the screening and diagnostic measures. Overall, there was little information within the reviews about where measures have been validated or what languages they have been translated into which presents an opportunity for further research. Section B This study aimed to examine the views of an expert panel on a method for establishing global eligibility criteria for a diagnosis of autism in a sporting context.Twenty-seven international participants took part in a three-round Delphi panel using online surveys. The results of the study showed that there was high consensus around a gold standard process of eligibility. There were lower levels of consensus and agreement around whether there should be an alternative process for countries that are unable to access the gold standard. Key challenges and barriers were identified including social and cultural differences, attention to co-morbidity and the heterogeneity of autism. The need for further research to explore how autism impacts performance during sports competition was discussed

What Are Students Doing When We Aren’t Looking: A Pilot Exploration of the Ways Students Interpret the Production and Risk Assessment Process when Working Independently of an Educator on Location Film Shoots

There is a gap in the knowledge in ways that educators understand how students relate to the risk assessment process when working independently on media practice film shoots in Higher Education (HE). This article maps the existing research in this area before going on to consider ways of closing the gap by exploring the findings of a pilot study. The results of the literature analysis reveal significant findings from health and safety literature of the construction industry (Lingard et al., 2015) as well as health and safety literature on HE chemistry lab work (Gibson, Schröder and Wayne, 2014; Hill and Finster, 2013) which both move the current field of film industry health and safety (H&S) literature and HE screen arts H&S literature (Kerrigan et al., 2011; Oughton, 2013) forward to explore a significant gap from which to conduct research. The article then examines the pilot study. Steeped in a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology, it utilises 360-camera capture technology, as a tool, to record the field and then re-immerse students back into the field using virtual reality headsets to re-live, reflect and re-experience their filming processes, alongside the researcher

Altering the stability of the Cdc8 overlap region modulates the ability of this tropomyosin to bind cooperatively to actin and regulate myosin.

Tropomyosin (Tm) is an evolutionarily conserved ?-helical coiled-coil protein, dimers of which form end-to-end polymers capable of associating with and stabilising actin-filaments and regulate myosin function. The fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, possesses a single essential Tm, Cdc8, which can be acetylated on its amino terminal methionine to increase its affinity for actin and enhance its ability to regulate myosin function. We have designed and generated a number of novel Cdc8 mutant proteins with amino terminal substitutions to explore how stability of the Cdc8-polymer overlap region affects the regulatory function of this Tm. By correlating the stability of each protein, its propensity to form stable polymers, its ability to associate with actin and to regulate myosin, we have shown the stability of the amino terminal of the Cdc8 ?-helix is crucial for Tm function. In addition we have identified a novel Cdc8 mutant with increased amino-terminal stability, dimers of which are capable of forming Tm-polymers significantly longer than the wild-type protein. This protein had a reduced affinity for actin with respect to wild type, and was unable to regulate actomyosin interactions. The data presented here are consistent with acetylation providing a mechanism for modulating the formation and stability of Cdc8 polymers within the fission yeast cell. The data also provide evidence for a mechanism in which Tm dimers form end-to-end polymers on the actin-filament, consistent with a cooperative model for Tm binding to actin

A randomised trial evaluating Bevacizumab as adjuvant therapy following resection of AJCC stage IIB, IIC and III cutaneous melanoma : an update

At present, there are no standard therapies for the adjuvant treatment of malignant melanoma. Patients with primary tumours with a high-Breslow thickness (stages IIB and IIC) or with resected loco-regional nodal disease (stage III) are at high risk of developing metastasis and subsequent disease-related death. Given this, it is important that novel therapies are investigated in the adjuvant melanoma setting. Since angiogenesis is essential for primary tumour growth and the development of metastasis, anti-angiogenic agents are attractive potential therapeutic candidates for clinical trials in the adjuvant setting. Therefore, we initiated a phase II trial in resected high-risk cutaneous melanoma, assessing the efficacy of bevacizumab versus observation. In the interim safety data analysis, we demonstrate that bevacizumab is a safe therapy in the adjuvant melanoma setting with no apparent increase in the surgical complication rate after either primary tumour resection and/or loco-regional lymphadenectomy

Characterization of spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta microsatellite loci

We have isolated 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci in the spotted hyena,Crocuta crocuta.The loci displayed between eight and 14 alleles in a minimum of 12 individuals tested. These loci will be used to investigate relatedness within social groups, the genetic structure of populations, sexual selection, and mate choice in spotted hyenas

PMI: A Delta Psi(m) Independent Pharmacological Regulator of Mitophagy

Mitophagy is central to mitochondrial and cellular homeostasis and operates via the PINK1/Parkin pathway targeting mitochondria devoid of membrane potential (ΔΨm) to autophagosomes. Although mitophagy is recognized as a fundamental cellular process, selective pharmacologic modulators of mitophagy are almost nonexistent. We developed a compound that increases the expression and signaling of the autophagic adaptor molecule P62/SQSTM1 and forces mitochondria into autophagy. The compound, P62-mediated mitophagy inducer (PMI), activates mitophagy without recruiting Parkin or collapsing ΔΨm and retains activity in cells devoid of a fully functional PINK1/Parkin pathway. PMI drives mitochondria to a process of quality control without compromising the bio-energetic competence of the whole network while exposing just those organelles to be recycled. Thus, PMI circumvents the toxicity and some of the nonspecific effects associated with the abrupt dissipation of ΔΨm by ionophores routinely used to induce mitophagy and represents a prototype pharmacological tool to investigate the molecular mechanisms of mitophagy

A groupoid approach to regular ∗*-semigroups

In this paper we develop a new groupoid-based structure theory for the class of regular $*$-semigroups. This class occupies something of a `sweet spot' between the important classes of inverse and regular semigroups, and contains many natural examples. Some of the most significant families include the partition, Brauer and Temperley-Lieb monoids, among other diagram monoids. Our main result is that the category of regular $*$-semigroups is isomorphic to the category of so-called `chained projection groupoids'. Such a groupoid is in fact a triple $(P,\mathcal G,\varepsilon)$, where: $\bullet$ $P$ is a projection algebra (in the sense of Imaoka and Jones), $\bullet$ $\mathcal G$ is an ordered groupoid with object set $P$, and $\bullet$ $\varepsilon:\mathscr C\to\mathcal G$ is a special functor, where $\mathscr C$ is a certain natural `chain groupoid' constructed from $P$. Roughly speaking: the groupoid $\mathcal G=\mathcal G(S)$ remembers only the `easy' products in a regular $*$-semigroup $S$; the projection algebra $P=P(S)$ remembers only the `conjugation action' of the projections of $S$; and the functor $\varepsilon=\varepsilon(S)$ tells us how $\mathcal G$ and $P$ `fit together' in order to recover the entire structure of $S$. In this way, we obtain the first completely general structure theorem for regular $*$-semigroups. As a consequence of our main result, we give a new proof of the celebrated Ehresmann--Schein--Nambooripad Theorem, which establishes an isomorphism between the categories of inverse semigroups and inductive groupoids. Other applications will be given in future works. We consider several examples along the way, and pose a number of problems that we believe are worthy of further attention.Comment: V2 (80 pages, 17 figures) is majorly revised, incorporating referee's suggestions - to appear in Adv Math. Sections on free and fundamental regular *-semigroups have been removed, and will be the subject of future papers. V1 (102 pages; 16 figures

Soft Skills Needed for the 21st-Century Workforce

Technical skills are no longer enough for workers to compete in this highly competitive global work environment. Soft skills are of paramount importance. A multiple-case-study design through the lens of emotional intelligence formed the basis of the research study. The focus of the research was identification of the successful soft skills training strategies in the logistics industry. Three logistics organization leaders in the counties of Burlington, Middlesex, and Somerset, New Jersey, were participants in the study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and the review of company documents Four themes emerged through data analysis of converging multiple data sources: (a) the use of a combination of group and individual training, (b) the identification of training needs by individual, (c) the use of a systematic method to resolve emotional behaviors at work, and (d) the importance of effective communication