Breast tumor kinase (Brk/PTK6) plays a role in the differentiation of primary keratinocytes

This work was supported by a project grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, UKBreast Tumor Kinase (Brk/PTK6) has a relatively limited expression profile in normal tissue. Its expression is restricted to epithelial cells that are differentiating such as those in the epidermis, and Brk expression appears to be absent from proliferating cells in normal tissue. Also, there is now some evidence to suggest that Brk plays a functional role in the differentiation of the keratinocytes in the epidermis. We have, therefore, investigated the role that Brk/PTK6 plays in normal human primary keratinocytes by suppressing protein levels using RNA interference. We show that as primary human keratinocytes are induced to differentiate in vitro, Brk levels decrease. Decreasing Brk protein levels lead to an increase in the number of cells with a permeable plasma membrane, a decrease in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and a parallel increase in keratin 10 levels, but classical markers of apoptosis or terminal differentiation are not affected. We propose Brk, Keratin 10 and EGFR are co-regulated during differentiation and that manipulating Brk expression can influence the differentiation of normal primary human keratinocytes.This article is available through the Brunel University Open Access Publishing Fund

The Lattice β\beta-function of Quantum Spin Chains

We derive the lattice $\beta$-function for quantum spin chains, suitable for relating finite temperature Monte Carlo data to the zero temperature fixed points of the continuum nonlinear sigma model. Our main result is that the asymptotic freedom of this lattice $\beta$-function is responsible for the nonintegrable singularity in $\theta$, that prevents analytic continuation between $\theta=0$ and $\theta=\pi$.Comment: 10 page

The social geography of childcare: 'making up' the middle class child

Childcare is a condensate of disparate social forces and social processes. It is gendered and classed. It is subject to an excess of policy and political discourse. It is increasingly a focus for commercial exploitation. This is a paper reporting on work in progress in an ESRC funded research project (R000239232) on the choice and provision of pre-school childcare by middle class (service class) families in two contrasting London locations. Drawing on recent work in class analysis the paper examines the relationships between childcare choice, middle class fractions and locality. It suggests that on the evidence of the findings to date, there is some evidence of systematic differences between fractions in terms of values, perspectives and preferences for childcare, but a more powerful case for intra-class similarities, particularly when it comes to putting preferences into practice in the 'making up of a middle class child' through care and education

Impact of Discrepancies Related to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Medications on Hospital Length of Stay

Introduction: Medication reconciliation (MR) compares a patient’s self-reported medications with those in their current record or those being ordered to create a complete and accurate medication list.1 Good medication adherence has been associated with a decrease in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation (COPDe’s).2 Research Question or Hypothesis: Do discrepancies with COPD medications impact length of stay (LOS) of COPDe’s in Veteran patients ≥ 65? Study Design: retrospective cohort study Methods: MRs were completed by pharmacy personnel on the general medicine floor. Inclusion criteria: admitted for COPDe between February 2018-February 2020, able to participate in and had MR performed by pharmacy personnel, Veterans ≥65 years of age, known history of COPD listed in Problem List in electronic medical record, ≥ 1 active or expired medication indicated for COPD, primary discharge diagnosis of COPDe. Exclusion criteria: nursing home patients, not meeting inclusion criteria. Results: Thirty-two patients met inclusion criteria (mean age = 75). Reasons for discrepancies were poor adherence, change in therapy, duplicate therapy, and not refilled due to adverse drug reaction (56%, 22%, 11%, 11%, respectively). Primary outcomes results were mean LOS 11 (± 26.52) vs 4 (± 2.07) days (p= 0.440 (-25.26, 11.26)) in patients without and with discrepancies, respectively. Conclusion: Discrepancies related to COPD medications identified through MR did not have a significant impact on LOS in patients admitted for COPD exacerbations. 75% of patients who were readmitted to the hospital for a COPDe within 30 days of discharge had a COPD-related MR discrepancy. Sample size of the study population was not large enough to achieve power as defined in the protocol. Study limitations include strict COPD inclusion criteria, poor problem list documentation, and small sample size. Extreme outliers in length of stay in the patients without MR discrepancies exaggerates the difference between the groups

Augmented Reality in K-12 Education

Today the world revolves around technology in daily tasks. Society uses technology to communicate, trade, for business, politics, and to education. Through education, Augmented Reality (AR) takes on a new purpose. AR enables students to reach a higher level of education, and teachers to efficiently engage students to see real-world situations. The use of technology in classrooms is currently on the rise; but how are teachers using AR within their classrooms to engage and education children? This chapter discusses literature and research supporting the AR affordances in K-12 Education

Grobner Bases for Finite-temperature Quantum Computing and their Complexity

Following the recent approach of using order domains to construct Grobner bases from general projective varieties, we examine the parity and time-reversal arguments relating de Witt and Lyman's assertion that all path weights associated with homotopy in dimensions d <= 2 form a faithful representation of the fundamental group of a quantum system. We then show how the most general polynomial ring obtained for a fermionic quantum system does not, in fact, admit a faithful representation, and so give a general prescription for calcluating Grobner bases for finite temperature many-body quantum system and show that their complexity class is BQP

Decoupling of morphological disparity and taxic diversity during the adaptive radiation of anomodont therapsids

Adaptive radiations are central to macroevolutionary theory. Whether triggered by acquisition of new traits or ecological opportunities arising from mass extinctions, it is debated whether adaptive radiations are marked by initial expansion of taxic diversity or of morphological disparity (the range of anatomical form). If a group rediversifies following a mass extinction, it is said to have passed through a macroevolutionary bottleneck, and the loss of taxic or phylogenetic diversity may limit the amount of morphological novelty that it can subsequently generate. Anomodont therapsids, a diverse clade of Permian and Triassic herbivorous tetrapods, passed through a bottleneck during the end-Permian mass extinction. Their taxic diversity increased during the Permian, declined significantly at the Permo–Triassic boundary and rebounded during the Middle Triassic before the clade's final extinction at the end of the Triassic. By sharp contrast, disparity declined steadily during most of anomodont history. Our results highlight three main aspects of adaptive radiations: (i) diversity and disparity are generally decoupled; (ii) models of radiations following mass extinctions may differ from those triggered by other causes (e.g. trait acquisition); and (iii) the bottleneck caused by a mass extinction means that a clade can emerge lacking its original potential for generating morphological variety