MY Voice: A participatory action research project with men, women and young people on female genital mutilation (FGM) in Scotland

MY Voice is an innovative participatory action research project with affected communities on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Scotland. The project aims are to facilitate community engagement on FGM with women, men, young people and religious leaders, to enable their voices to be heard, and to contribute to the development of awareness-raising around FGM, as well as ensuring culturally appropriate services for Scotland. There have been multiple calls for greater community participation and leadership in the work on FGM in Scotland from those directly affected (see section 1.3). The findings from MY Voice can start to identify key issues and help determine ways in which community participation can be built in to the Scottish response to FGM more effectively.Funding was provided by the Scottish Government Violence Against Women Fund.https://www.waverleycare.orgpubpu

The livelihood impacts of cash transfers in sub-Saharan Africa: beneficiary perspectives from six countries

Cash transfers (CTs) are a social protection mechanism to reduce the poorest households’ vulnerability to shocks and build human capital by smoothing consumption and sustaining expenditure on education and social welfare. Our study examines whether and how CTs go beyond welfare objectives to promote livelihoods. Presenting a cross-case analysis using original qualitative data on beneficiary perspectives from six African countries - Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Ghana – we explore CT livelihood impacts within household economies and social networks, paying attention to gender issues. We find that a small but predictable flow of cash improves strategic livelihood choices and stimulates productive investments, including through positive effects on beneficiary entry into risk-sharing arrangements and networks for economic collaboration. Levels of household vulnerability and labour constraint nevertheless significantly mediate the ability of CTs to consolidate present livelihood outcomes. The varying availability of economic opportunities and effective programme implementation also shape livelihood impact. Incorporating beneficiary perspectives brings to the fore the multi-dimensionality of CT effects on experiences of poverty and deprivation, including gender dynamics and intangibles such as dignity and respect; they add powerful realism to the influence of the CT on both immediate survival and livelihood choices. Beyond this, they confirm wider knowledge on productive impact and bring nuance to the conditions under which, and mechanisms by which beneficiaries’ use CTs to build productive capability and assets and to make strategic livelihood choices

Ecological selection of siderophore-producing microbial taxa in response to heavy metal contamination

Some microbial public goods can provide both individual and community‐wide benefits, and are open to exploitation by non‐producing species. One such example is the production of metal‐detoxifying siderophores. Here, we investigate whether conflicting selection pressures on siderophore production by heavy metals – a detoxifying effect of siderophores, and exploitation of this detoxifying effect – result in a net increase or decrease. We show that the proportion of siderophore‐producing taxa increases along a natural heavy metal gradient. A causal link between metal contamination and siderophore production was subsequently demonstrated in a microcosm experiment in compost, in which we observed changes in community composition towards taxa that produce relatively more siderophores following copper contamination. We confirmed the selective benefit of siderophores by showing that taxa producing large amounts of siderophore suffered less growth inhibition in toxic copper. Our results suggest that ecological selection will favour siderophore‐mediated decontamination, with important consequences for potential remediation strategies

Peripheral inflammation in prodromal Alzheimer's and Lewy body dementias.

OBJECTIVES: There is growing evidence for the role of systemic inflammation in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative diseases; however the systemic inflammatory profile in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) has never before been investigated. This study aimed to characterise systemic inflammatory mediators in established DLB and AD, as well as in their prodromal, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) phases. METHODS: We obtained plasma samples from patients with DLB (n=37), AD (n=20), MCI with DLB profile (n=38), MCI with AD profile (n=20) and healthy control subjects (n=20). The following inflammatory biomarkers were measured using Roche cobas c702 and Meso Scale Discovery V-Plex Plus: high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, interferon-gamma, interleukin (IL)-10, IL-12p70, IL-13, IL-1beta, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8 and tumour necrosis factor-alpha. RESULTS: We found significantly higher levels of IL-10, IL-1beta, IL-4 and IL-2 in both MCI groups (P<0.001), while there was no significant difference in inflammatory markers between dementia groups and controls. Furthermore, increased disease severity was associated with lower levels of IL-1beta, IL-2 and IL-4 (P<0.05). INTERPRETATION: We have shown for the first time that in both DLB and AD, increased peripheral inflammation occurs early at the MCI disease stages. These data support a role for inflammation early in the disease process, and have important implications for the stage of disease where trials of anti-inflammatory medication should be focused.We would like to acknowledge our funders; the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Newcastle Biomedical Research Unit in Lewy Body Dementia based at Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle University. Thanks to The Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network (DeNDRoN). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. Eleanor King is also grateful to the Royal College of Psychiatrists Pathfinder Fellowship for the grant that was provided for this project. We would also like to thank Melanie Maitland and friends for their donations to our research in Lewy Body Dementi

Molecular analyses reveal consistent food web structure with elevation in rainforest Drosophila – parasitoid communities

The analysis of interaction networks across spatial environmental gradients is a powerful approach to investigate the responses of communities to global change. Using a combination of DNA metabarcoding and traditional molecular methods we built bipartite Drosophila-parasitoid food webs from six Australian rainforest sites across gradients spanning 850 m in elevation and 5° Celsius in mean temperature. Our cost-effective hierarchical approach to network reconstruction separated the determination of host frequencies from the detection and quantification of interactions. The food webs comprised 5-9 host and 5-11 parasitoid species at each site, and showed a lower incidence of parasitism at high elevation. Despite considerable turnover in the relative abundance of host Drosophila species, and contrary to some previous results, we did not detect significant changes to fundamental metrics of network structure including nestedness and specialisation with elevation. Advances in community ecology depend on data from a combination of methodological approaches. It is therefore especially valuable to develop model study systems for sets of closely-interacting species that are diverse enough to be representative, yet still amenable to field and laboratory experiments

The world economy [December 1992]

In the second quarter of 1992 GDP/GNP growth averaged 0.5% in the main four world economies. The position of the USA, Germany and France improved but growth slowed dramatically in Japan. This brief analysis sets out growth rates for each country and provides a provisional estimate for the major industrial economies during the second quarter

Outlook and appraisal [March 1993]

The end of the recession is at hand, but the size and timing of proposed tax increases may limit the speed of recovery and so reduce further the prospects for the three million unemployed in Britain

The Scottish economy [March 1993]

Our previous forecast of a small fall in the seasonally adjusted output index for Scottish production industries (Divisions 1 to 4 of the 1980 SIC) for the third quarter last year was not borne out by the actual outcome. This is mainly due to a large under-reporting of the index for the second quarter last year in the previous official data release. It is now clear that the prolonged recession, and particularly the substantial fall in output in the second quarter contributed significantly to the deterioration of business confidence as reported in the previous Scottish Chambers' business surveys (which should also affect the early official recording of the second quarter's output). This under-reporting leads our model to predict a further fall, although small, in the following quarter. However, the actual outcome of industrial output, total volume of sales and new orders in the third quarter turned out to be not as bad as we had been expecting (see also the following business survey section). Nevertheless, as data reveal in this paper, we are expecting a large fall in production for 1992 as a whole. There will be a further marked reduction in Scottish industrial output