The reactions between active and inactive forms of wheat ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase and effectors

The processes of activation and deactivation of ribulose‐1,5‐bisphosphate carboxylase purified from wheat have been investigated. Two forms of the enzyme are indistinguishable in terms of ribulose‐1,5‐bisphosphate carboxylation and oxidation but exhibit different rates of activation. One form is slowly activated in saturating CO2 and Mg2+ at moderate temperatures (t0.5∼ 120 min at 25°C), the other form rapidly activated (t0.5∼ 8 s). In the presence of the effectors 6‐phosphogluconate or NADPH, significantly lower concentrations of the activating co‐factors can achieve full activation of both enzyme species. However, with another effector, fructose 1,6‐bisphosphate, for the slowly activating species the mode of action is the same as with 6‐phosphogluconate or NADPH, whereas the activation of the rapidly activating species is significantly inhibited. The substrate, ribulose 1,5‐bisphosphate, also inhibits this rapid activation process. A mechanism is proposed for the reactions involving activation that accounts for the differential rates of activation and the response to effectors

Enhancing the early student experience

This paper is concerned with identifying how the early student experience can be enhanced in order to improve levels of student retention and achievement. The early student experience is the focus of this project as the literature has consistently declared the first year to be the most critical in shaping persistence decisions. Programme managers of courses with high and low retention rates have been interviewed to identify activities that appear to be associated with good retention rates. The results show that there are similarities in the way programmes with high retention are run, with these features not being prevalent on programmes with low retention. Recommendations of activities that appear likely to enhance the early student experience are provided

Glioblastoma adaptation traced through decline of an IDH1 clonal driver and macro-evolution of a double-minute chromosome

In a glioblastoma tumour with multi-region sequencing before and after recurrence, we find an IDH1 mutation that is clonal in the primary but lost at recurrence. We also describe the evolution of a double-minute chromosome encoding regulators of the PI3K signalling axis that dominates at recurrence, emphasizing the challenges of an evolving and dynamic oncogenic landscape for precision medicin

Monitoring clinical quality in rare disease services – experience in England

After some well-publicised problems with paediatric cardiac surgery, there has been great interest in England in monitoring clinical quality in specialised medical services. The National Commissioning Group plans, funds and monitors a set of highly specialised services for the National Health Service in England. We have developed systems for monitoring clinical quality that perform two interrelated but distinct functions: performance measurement and performance improvement. The aim is to collect information on all patients seen during each year – a 100% consecutive case series. Generally, there is no conceptual difficulty identifying an appropriate outcome for surgical interventions: the indication for surgery usually defines the outcome to monitor. This is not so for the medical and psychiatric services, where the relevant outcome to monitor is sometimes not obvious. There are a number of problems in interpreting, and acting on, outcome data for rare conditions and treatments. These problems include statistical problems due to small numbers, the need to risk adjust data and coding problems