Comparison of the Morphological Language Skills in Normal and Language Delayed Children

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Roles of allostatic load, lifestyle and clinical risk factors in mediating the association between education and coronary heart disease risk in Europe

Background Previous studies have shown that differential exposure to lifestyle factors may mediate the association between education and coronary heart diseases (CHD). However, few studies have examined the potential roles of allostatic load (AL) or differential susceptibility. Methods 25 310 men and 26 018 women aged 35\u201374 and CHD free at baseline were identified from 21 European cohorts and followed for a median of 10 years, to investigate the mediating role of AL, as well as of smoking, alcohol use and body mass index (BMI), on educational differences in CHD incidence, applying marginal structural models and three-way decomposition. Results AL is a mediator of the association between educational status and CHD incidence, with the highest proportion mediated observed among women and largely attributable to differential exposure, (28% (95% CI 19% to 44%)), with 8% (95% CI 0% to 16%) attributable to differential susceptibility. The mediating effects of smoking, alcohol and BMI, compared with AL, were relatively small for both men and women. Conclusion Overall, the educational inequalities in CHD incidence were partially mediated through differential exposure to AL. By contrast, the mediation of the educational gradient in CHD by investigated lifestyle risk factors was limited. As differential susceptibility in men was found to have a predominant role in the accumulation of AL in low educational classes, the investigation of AL-related risk factors is warranted

Genome sequence of an Australian kangaroo, Macropus eugenii, provides insight into the evolution of mammalian reproduction and development.

BACKGROUND: We present the genome sequence of the tammar wallaby, Macropus eugenii, which is a member of the kangaroo family and the first representative of the iconic hopping mammals that symbolize Australia to be sequenced. The tammar has many unusual biological characteristics, including the longest period of embryonic diapause of any mammal, extremely synchronized seasonal breeding and prolonged and sophisticated lactation within a well-defined pouch. Like other marsupials, it gives birth to highly altricial young, and has a small number of very large chromosomes, making it a valuable model for genomics, reproduction and development. RESULTS: The genome has been sequenced to 2 × coverage using Sanger sequencing, enhanced with additional next generation sequencing and the integration of extensive physical and linkage maps to build the genome assembly. We also sequenced the tammar transcriptome across many tissues and developmental time points. Our analyses of these data shed light on mammalian reproduction, development and genome evolution: there is innovation in reproductive and lactational genes, rapid evolution of germ cell genes, and incomplete, locus-specific X inactivation. We also observe novel retrotransposons and a highly rearranged major histocompatibility complex, with many class I genes located outside the complex. Novel microRNAs in the tammar HOX clusters uncover new potential mammalian HOX regulatory elements. CONCLUSIONS: Analyses of these resources enhance our understanding of marsupial gene evolution, identify marsupial-specific conserved non-coding elements and critical genes across a range of biological systems, including reproduction, development and immunity, and provide new insight into marsupial and mammalian biology and genome evolution

From Big Society to Shared Society? Geographies of social cohesion and encounter in the UK’s National Citizen Service

This article explores and expands debates on the geographies of social cohesion and encounter, specifically in relation to young people and informal citizenship training. Three questions drive our agenda in this paper. First, how do certain youth spaces get enrolled into wider political discourses, functioning as geographical expressions of government visions to create a political legacy? Second, how are these spaces engineered and operate on-the-ground? Finally, how do young people understand their experiences of such spaces? To address these questions, we use the example of ‘National Citizen Service’ – a youth programme operating in England and Northern Ireland – to raise critical questions about the wider politics of spaces of informal education and attempts by the state to ‘make’ citizens and future neighbours. The article examines the rationale for this growing scheme, targeted at 15–17 year olds and designed to foster a ‘more cohesive, responsible and engaged society’. Drawing on original fieldwork with key architects, stakeholders and young people, we analyse the narratives that underlie NCS and its expansion – specifically around social cohesion and citizenship education. We explore the idea of ‘social mix’ as one of NCS’ guiding principles and its place as part of state narratives about the ‘Big Society’ and ‘Shared Society’

Learning together for and with the Martuwarra Fitzroy River

Co-production across scientific and Indigenous knowledge systems has become a cornerstone of research to enhance knowledge, practice, ethics, and foster sustainability transformations. However, the profound differences in world views and the complex and contested histories of nation-state colonisation on Indigenous territories, highlight both opportunities and risks for Indigenous people when engaging with knowledge co-production. This paper investigates the conditions under which knowledge co-production can lead to improved Indigenous adaptive environmental planning and management among remote land-attached Indigenous peoples through a case study with ten Traditional Owner groups in the Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) Catchment in Western Australia’s Kimberley region. The research team built a 3D map of the river and used it, together with an interactive table-top projector, to bring together both scientific and Indigenous spatial knowledge. Participatory influence mapping, aligned with Traditional Owner priorities to achieve cultural governance and management planning goals set out in the Fitzroy River Declaration, investigated power relations. An analytical framework, examining underlying mechanisms of social learning, knowledge promotion and enhancing influence, based on different theories of change, was applied to unpack the immediate outcomes from these activities. The analysis identified that knowledge co-production activities improved the accessibility of the knowledge, the experiences of the knowledge users, strengthened collective identity and partnerships, and strengthened Indigenous-led institutions. The focus on cultural governance and management planning goals in the Fitzroy River Declaration enabled the activities to directly affect key drivers of Indigenous adaptive environmental planning and management—the Indigenous-led institutions. The nation-state arrangements also gave some support to local learning and decision-making through a key Indigenous institution, Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council. Knowledge co-production with remote land-attached Indigenous peoples can improve adaptive environmental planning and management where it fosters learning together, is grounded in the Indigenous-led institutions and addresses their priorities

Phomadidacte: A Computer-Aided Training Program for the Severity Assessment of Phoma Stem Canker of Oilseed Rape

Phoma stem canker (caused by Leptosphaeria maculans) is one of the main diseases that affect oilseed rape world-wide. The disease is usually characterised by the visual assessment of the severity of cankers created by the pathogen at the crown level of infected plants. In order to avoid arbitrary categories and to maintain stsndardisation of assessment keys, a rating scale based on the percentage severity estimates of cross-section cankered crowns has been recently proposed in France. 1bis scale consists in 6 severity classes, defined as a function of the percentage of the discoloured cross-section: 1, healthy plant, no visible lesions; 2, 0-25%; 3, 25-50%; 4, 50-75%; 5, 75-100% of discoloured section; 6, section without any living tissue, plant lodged or broken at the crown level during sampling. However, like many other rating systems for the severity of diseases, assessor bias effects have been reported. The aim of this paper is first to give a description of Phomadidacte, a computer-aided training program to guide assessors on how to use this rating scale; and second, to report an evaluation of its efficacy in training assessors. The basic principle of the program consists of displaying pictures of cankered cross-sections of oilseed rape that are to be rated by the user. These pictures had been previously rated by a panel of eight experts from four different research or extension units (2 from INRA, I from CETIOM, and I from GEVES), and the mean of the severity classes assigned to each picture were taken as the ''true" or correct severity class for each picture. At the end of a training session, the program will either suggest the assessor continues with training or will declare that there was good agreement between the experts and the user, based on two evaluation thresholds: the percentage of pictures correctly rated (75%) and the percentage of pictures for which the severity class given by the user and the expert differ by more than one severity class (5%). A graph summarising the differences between the user and the experts' grades is displayed and an ASCII file containing the data of the training session is created. The user can then browse all the pictures to compare the grades that the user gave with the experts' grades. Phomadidacte runs under Windows® and an on-line version is available. An experiment was conducted to test the efficacy of Phomadidacte in improving assessor accuracy. 1bis experiment compared the grades given by two groups of ten assessors who have been evaluated either with or without using Phomadidacte with the grades assigned by a panel of three experts (INRA, CETIOM, GEVES) on actoal diseased field samples. The group evaluated without Phomadidacte used one picture per severity grade and diagrams illustrating the diversity of symptoms that can be encountered. Plants were first graded by experts who chose twenty plants for each severity grade. The plants were ordered randomly from the field and then independently rated by all assessors. The distribution of errors (experts minus the assessors' grade) was significantly different between the two groups of assessors (Kolmogorov-Smimov test, PThis proceeding is from Integrated Control in Oilseed Crops 29 (2004): 247. Posted with permission.</p

A Pharmacometric Approach to Investigate the Impact of Methylxanthine Abstinence and Caffeine Consumption on CYP1A2 activity DMD #53074 2 Running Title: Pharmacometrics of Caffeine and Paraxanthine Corresponding author

Abstract Word Count: 24