Species identity dominates over environment in shaping the microbiota of small mammals

The mammalian gut microbiota is considered pivotal to host fitness, yet the determinants of community composition remain poorly understood. Laboratory studies show that environmental factors, particularly diet, are important, while comparative work emphasises host genetics. Here, we compare the influence of host genetics and the environment on the microbiota of sympatric small mammal species (mice, voles, shrews) across multiple habitats. While sharing a habitat caused some microbiota convergence, the influence of species identity dominated. In all three host genera examined, an individual's microbiota was more similar to conspecifics living elsewhere than to heterospecifics at the same site. Our results suggest this species‐specificity arises in part through host‐microbe codiversification. Stomach contents analysis suggested that diet also shapes the microbiota, but where diet is itself influenced by species identity. In this way, we can reconcile the importance of both diet and genetics, while showing that species identity is the strongest predictor of microbiota composition

Ethical issues in implementation research: a discussion of the problems in achieving informed consent

Background: Improved quality of care is a policy objective of health care systems around the world. Implementation research is the scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of clinical research findings into routine clinical practice, and hence to reduce inappropriate care. It includes the study of influences on healthcare professionals' behaviour and methods to enable them to use research findings more effectively. Cluster randomized trials represent the optimal design for evaluating the effectiveness of implementation strategies. Various codes of medical ethics, such as the Nuremberg Code and the Declaration of Helsinki inform medical research, but their relevance to cluster randomised trials in implementation research is unclear. This paper discusses the applicability of various ethical codes to obtaining consent in cluster trials in implementation research. Discussion: The appropriate application of biomedical codes to implementation research is not obvious. Discussion of the nature and practice of informed consent in implementation research cluster trials must consider the levels at which consent can be sought, and for what purpose it can be sought. The level at which an intervention is delivered can render the idea of patient level consent meaningless. Careful consideration of the ownership of information, and rights of access to and exploitation of data is required. For health care professionals and organizations, there is a balance between clinical freedom and responsibility to participate in research. Summary: While ethical justification for clinical trials relies heavily on individual consent, for implementation research aspects of distributive justice, economics, and political philosophy underlie the debate. Societies may need to trade off decisions on the choice between individualized consent and valid implementation research. We suggest that social sciences codes could usefully inform the consideration of implementation research by members of Research Ethics Committees

Improving the delivery of care for patients with diabetes through understanding optimised team work and organisation in primary care

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Academic Functioning and Mental Health in Adolescence

The current study examines patterns of academic functioning and mental health in 184 middle school children and the relation of such patterns to their prior and subsequent functioning. Data were collected from children during their second, third, fourth, eighth, and ninth grade school years. Cluster analyses were used to delineate patterns of academic functioning and mental health during eighth grade. The authors examined the relation of these patterns to academic functioning and mental health 1 year later the transition to high school, and then examined the long-term developmental roots of the eighth grade patterns using data collected during elementary school years. Results indicated variegated patterns of academic and emotional functioning at eighth grade and stability in these patterns across the high school transition. Some long-term continuity was found among children showing uniformly positive or negative functioning at eighth grade. Studying child functioning across multiple domains and time periods is discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68127/2/10.1177_0743558499142002.pd

Tunable Oscillations in the Purkinje Neuron

In this paper, we study the dynamics of slow oscillations in Purkinje neurons in vitro, and derive a strong association with a forced parametric oscillator model. We demonstrate the precise rhythmicity of the oscillations in Purkinje neurons, as well as a dynamic tunability of this oscillation using a photo-switchable compound. We show that this slow oscillation can be induced in every Purkinje neuron, having periods ranging between 10-25 seconds. Starting from a Hodgkin-Huxley model, we also demonstrate that this oscillation can be externally modulated, and that the neurons will return to their intrinsic firing frequency after the forced oscillation is concluded. These results signify an additional functional role of tunable oscillations within the cerebellum, as well as a dynamic control of a time scale in the brain in the range of seconds.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Using the theory of planned behaviour as a process evaluation tool in randomised trials of knowledge translation strategies : A case study from UK primary care

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An archival case study : revisiting the life and political economy of Lauchlin Currie

This paper forms part of a wider project to show the significance of archival material on distinguished economists, in this case Lauchlin Currie (1902-93), who studied and taught at Harvard before entering government service at the US Treasury and Federal Reserve Board as the intellectual leader of Roosevelt's New Deal, 1934-39, as FDR's White House economic adviser in peace and war, 1939-45, and as a post-war development economist. It discusses the uses made of the written and oral material available when the author was writing his intellectual biography of Currie (Duke University Press 1990) while Currie was still alive, and the significance of the material that has come to light after Currie's death