Employer perspectives on ‘zero hours’ contracts in UK higher education

The use of casual and temporary labour in the UK labour market is not a new phenomenon, but an increase in the use of so-called ‘zero hours contracts’ has drawn considerable attention from pressure groups, the media and all three main political parties over the past 18 months. While official figures indicate that the majority of zero hours contracts are found in the retail, hospitality, and healthcare sectors, the use of these arrangements at higher education establishments has also attracted attention and has become an area of focus for HE trade unions. This paper begins with a review of the legal framework for these contracts and temporary work in the UK, the economic conditions that have prevailed, and the political responses to pressure from media and civil society to curb their use and, where this may be the case, abuse. The main body of the paper focuses on the use of these contracts in higher education based on research by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) and the paper concludes with reflections on the employment relations issues and tensions within the context of an increasingly competitive higher education landscape

Employer perspectives on ‘zero hours’ contracts in UK higher education

The use of casual and temporary labour in the UK labour market is not a new phenomenon, but an increase in the use of so-called ‘zero hours contracts’ has drawn considerable attention from pressure groups, the media and all three main political parties over the past 18 months. While official figures indicate that the majority of zero hours contracts are found in the retail, hospitality, and healthcare sectors, the use of these arrangements at higher education establishments has also attracted attention and has become an area of focus for HE trade unions. This paper begins with a review of the legal framework for these contracts and temporary work in the UK, the economic conditions that have prevailed, and the political responses to pressure from media and civil society to curb their use and, where this may be the case, abuse. The main body of the paper focuses on the use of these contracts in higher education based on research by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) and the paper concludes with reflections on the employment relations issues and tensions within the context of an increasingly competitive higher education landscape

Atypical non-progressive pneumonia in goats

An outbreak of severe respiratory disease in a goat herd was associated with Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, Mycoplasma arginini, Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida with mortality rates exceeding 20% in kids. Post mortem features in affected kids included severe pleuropneumonia, lung consolidation, large quantities of pleural fluid and pericarditis. This is the first report of atypical proliferative pneumonia in goats in Portugal

Brain and Cerebrospinal Fluid α-Synuclein Real-Time Quaking-Induced Conversion Identifies Lewy Body Pathology in LRRK2-PD

ABSTRACTBackground<jats:p/>The neuropathology of Parkinson's disease (PD) associated with leucine‐rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) mutations (LRRK2‐PD) is heterogeneous and varies with the type of mutation. There are only a few studies evaluating seeding aggregation assays to detect α‐synuclein (α‐syn) in patients with LRRK2‐PD.Objective<jats:p/>We aimed to investigate whether α‐syn real‐time quaking induced conversion (RT‐QuIC) is a sensitive biomarker of synucleinopathy in LRRK2‐PD.Methods<jats:p/>We studied α‐syn RT‐QuIC in brain tissue and postmortem ventricular cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of LRRK2‐PD cases with and without Lewy‐type pathology.Results<jats:p/>The accuracy of α‐syn RT‐QuIC in substantia nigra and CSF samples of patients with LRRK2‐PD was 100%. The test also obtained 100% sensitivity to detect misfolded α‐syn in substantia nigra of cases with idiopathic PD and was negative in the substantia nigra of all the control brains without Lewy‐type pathology.Conclusions<jats:p/>Substantia nigra and ventricular CSF RT‐QuIC discriminates with high sensitivity and specificity LRRK2 cases with Lewy‐type pathology from those without it. RT‐QuIC assay could be of particular interest in the selection of cases for clinical trials in this genetic form of PD. © 2022 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

Alpha-synuclein RT-QuIC in the CSF of patients with alpha-synucleinopathies

We have developed a novel real-time quaking-induced conversion RT-QuICbased assay to detect alpha-synuclein aggregation in brain and cerebrospinal fluid from dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease patients. This assay can detect alpha-synuclein aggregation in Dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease cerebrospinal fluid with sensitivities of 92% and 95%, respectively, and with an overall specificity of 100% when compared to Alzheimer and control cerebrospinal fluid. Patients with neuropathologically confirmed tauopathies (progressive supranuclear palsy; corticobasal degeneration) gave negative results. These results suggest that RT-QuiC analysis of cerebrospinal fluid is potentially useful for the early clinical assessment of patients with alpha-synucleinopathies

α-synuclein RT-QuIC in cerebrospinal fluid of LRRK2 linked Parkinson’s disease

Background: leucine-rich kinase 2 (LRRK2)-linked Parkinson's disease (PD) is clinically indistinguishable from idiopathic PD (IPD). A pleiotropic neuropathology has been recognized but the majority of studies in LRRK2 p.G2019S patients reveal Lewy-type synucleinopathy as its principal histological substrate. To date no in vivo biomarkers of synucleinopathy have been found in LRRK2 mutation carriers. Objectives: we used real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) technique to assess the presence of alpha-synuclein (a-syn) aggregates in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of LRRK2 p.G2019S carriers. Methods: CSF samples of 51 subjects were analyzed: 15 LRRK2 p.G2019S PD, 10 IPD, 16 LRRK2 p.G2019S nonmanifesting carriers (NMC) and 10 healthy controls. The presence of parkinsonism and prodromal symptoms was assessed in all study subjects. Results: forty percent (n = 6) LRRK2-PD, and 18.8% (n = 3) LRRK2-NMC had a positive a-syn RT-QuIC response. RT-QuIC detected IPD with 90% sensitivity and 80% specificity. No clinical differences were detected between LRRK2-PD patients with positive and negative RT-QuIC. A positive RT-QuIC result in LRRK2-NMC occurred in a higher proportion of subjects meeting the Movement Disorder Society research criteria for prodromal PD. Interpretation: RT-QuIC detects a-syn aggregation in CSF in a significant number of patients with LRRK2-PD, but less frequently than in IPD. A small percentage of LRRK2-NMC tested also positive. If appropriately validated in long-term studies with large number of mutation carriers, and hopefully, postmortem or in vivo confirmation of histopathology, RT-QuIC could contribute to the selection of candidates to receive disease modifying drugs, in particular treatments targeting a-syn deposition