Sport mega-event volunteers' motivations and postevent intention to volunteer: The Sydney World Masters Games, 2009

© 2015 Cognizant Comm. Corp. Investment in mega-sport events is frequently justified on the basis that there are infrastructure and social legacies that remain after the event. This research explores the claims of a social legacy through a pre-and post-Games survey of volunteers at the Sydney World Masters Games 2009 (SWMG). Through online surveys the research explores pre-and post-volunteer motivations, postevent volunteering intentions before the Games and actual volunteer behavior after the Games. The pre-Games survey supports previous research that a desire to be involved in the event motivates people to volunteer. However, the postevent expression of motivations shifted to a more altruistic focus. The postevent volunteering intentions as indicated in the preevent survey would support the claim of a social legacy; however, this was not supported by the postevent measures of volunteering levels. The use of a pre-and postevent survey has highlighted that the timing of measures of motivations can influence responses and one may not depend on preevent intentions as an indicator of postevent behaviors

Bad expression influences time to androgen escape in prostate cancer

<b>OBJECTIVE</b>: To assess the role of selected downstream Bcl-2 family members (Bad, Bax, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL) in the development of androgen-independent prostate cancer (AIPC), as androgen-deprivation therapy is the treatment of choice in advanced prostate cancer, yet patients generally relapse and progress to an AI state within 18–24 months. <b>PATIENTS, MATERIALS AND METHODS</b>: The patient cohort was established by retrospectively selecting patients with prostate cancer who had an initial response to androgen-deprivation therapy, but subsequently relapsed with AIPC. In all, 58 patients with prostate cancer were included with matched androgen-dependent (AD) and AI prostate tumours available for immunohistochemical analysis; two independent observers using a weighted-histoscore method scored the staining. Changes in Bad, Bax, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL expression during transition to AIPC were evaluated and then correlated to known clinical variables. <b>RESULTS</b>: High Bad expression in AD tumours was associated with an increased time to biochemical relapse (<i>P</i> = 0.007) and a trend towards improved overall survival (<i>P</i> = 0.053). There were also trends towards a decrease in Bad (<i>P</i> = 0.068) and Bax (<i>P</i> = 0.055) expression with progression to AIPC. There were no significant results for Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL. <b>CONCLUSION</b>: There is evidence to suggest that Bad expression levels at diagnosis influence time to biochemical relapse and overall survival, and that levels of pro-apoptotic proteins Bad and Bax fall during AIPC development. Bad might therefore represent a possible positive prognostic marker and potential therapeutic target for AIPC in the future

Dispersion studies on multimode polymer spiral waveguides for board-level optical interconnects

Dispersion studies are conducted on 1m long multimode polymer spiral waveguides with different refractive index profiles. Bandwidth-length products >40GHzxm are obtained from such waveguides under a 50/125 um MMF, indicating the potential of this technology.The authors would like to acknowledge Dow Corning for providing the waveguide samples and EPSRC for supporting the work.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/OIC.2015.711567

Graded-index polymer multimode waveguides for 100 Gb/s board-level data transmission

We report enhanced graded-index multimode polymer waveguides with >70GHz×m for MMF launch and >200GHz×m for restricted launch, indicating the capability of on-board waveguide transmission of >100 Gb/s. Simulations using the measured refractive index profile agree well with the experiments.The authors would like to acknowledge Dow Corning for providing the waveguide samples and EPSRC for supporting the workThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ECOC.2015.734161

Cell non-autonomy amplifies disruption of neurulation by mosaic Vangl2 deletion in mice

Post-zygotic mutations that generate tissue mosaicism are increasingly associated with severe congenital defects, including those arising from failed neural tube closure. Here we report that neural fold elevation during mouse spinal neurulation is vulnerable to deletion of the VANGL planar cell polarity protein 2 (Vangl2) gene in as few as 16% of neuroepithelial cells. Vangl2-deleted cells are typically dispersed throughout the neuroepithelium, and each non-autonomously prevents apical constriction by an average of five Vangl2-replete neighbours. This inhibition of apical constriction involves diminished myosin-II localisation on neighbour cell borders and shortening of basally-extending microtubule tails, which are known to facilitate apical constriction. Vangl2-deleted neuroepithelial cells themselves continue to apically constrict and preferentially recruit myosin-II to their apical cell cortex rather than to apical cap localisations. Such non-autonomous effects can explain how post-zygotic mutations affecting a minority of cells can cause catastrophic failure of morphogenesis leading to clinically important birth defects

Evolution of leaf-form in land plants linked to atmospheric CO2 decline in the Late Palaeozoic era

The widespread appearance of megaphyll leaves, with their branched veins and planate form, did not occur until the close of the Devonian period at about 360 Myr ago. This happened about 40 Myr after simple leafless vascular plants first colonized the land in the Late Silurian/Early Devonian, but the reason for the slow emergence of this common feature of present-day plants is presently unresolved. Here we show, in a series of quantitative analyses using fossil leaf characters and biophysical principles, that the delay was causally linked with a 90% drop in atmospheric pCO2 during the Late Palaeozoic era. In contrast to simulations for a typical Early Devonian land plant, possessing few stomata on leafless stems, those for a planate leaf with the same stomatal characteristics indicate that it would have suffered lethal overheating, because of greater interception of solar energy and low transpiration. When planate leaves first appeared in the Late Devonian and subsequently diversified in the Carboniferous period, they possessed substantially higher stomatal densities. This observation is consistent with the effects of the pCO2 on stomatal development and suggests that the evolution of planate leaves could only have occurred after an increase in stomatal density, allowing higher transpiration rates that were sufficient to maintain cool and viable leaf temperatures

Area-level deprivation and adiposity in children: is the relationship linear?

OBJECTIVE: It has been suggested that childhood obesity is inversely associated with deprivation, such that the prevalence is higher in more deprived groups. However, comparatively few studies actually use an area-level measure of deprivation, limiting the scope to assess trends in the association with obesity for this indicator. Furthermore, most assume a linear relationship. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate associations between area-level deprivation and three measures of adiposity in children: body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional study in which data were collected on three occasions a year apart (2005-2007). SUBJECTS: Data were available for 13,333 children, typically aged 11-12 years, from 37 schools and 542 lower super-output areas (LSOAs). MEASURES: Stature, mass and WC. Obesity was defined as a BMI and WC exceeding the 95th centile according to British reference data. WHtR exceeding 0.5 defined obesity. The Index of Multiple Deprivation affecting children (IDACI) was used to determine area-level deprivation. RESULTS: Considerable differences in the prevalence of obesity exist between the three different measures. However, for all measures of adiposity the highest probability of being classified as obese is in the middle of the IDACI range. This relationship is more marked in girls, such that the probability of being obese for girls living in areas at the two extremes of deprivation is around half that at the peak, occurring in the middle. CONCLUSION: These data confirm the high prevalence of obesity in children and suggest that the relationship between obesity and residential area-level deprivation is not linear. This is contrary to the 'deprivation theory' and questions the current understanding and interpretation of the relationship between obesity and deprivation in children. These results could help make informed decisions at the local level