The not-so-barren ranges

© Thesis Eleven Pty, Ltd., SAGE Publications. This is an impressionistic and informal essay written near the end of a novelist's Australia Research Council funded research project: 'Developing narratives from language and stories indigenous to the south coast of Western Australia', and informed by how that research project morphed into an emphasis on revitalization of Noongar language, and the attempt to restore connections between a particular Creation Story and landscape in an area regarded as 'massacre territory'. A sympathetic reader might think of the topic as 'The Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project meets The Barren Ranges'

Mortality after admission for acute myocardial infarction in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in New South Wales, Australia: a multilevel data linkage study

Background - Heart disease is a leading cause of the gap in burden of disease between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Our study investigated short- and long-term mortality after admission for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people admitted with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) to public hospitals in New South Wales, Australia, and examined the impact of the hospital of admission on outcomes. Methods - Admission records were linked to mortality records for 60047 patients aged 25–84 years admitted with a diagnosis of AMI between July 2001 and December 2008. Multilevel logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (AOR) for 30- and 365-day all-cause mortality. Results - Aboriginal patients admitted with an AMI were younger than non-Aboriginal patients, and more likely to be admitted to lower volume, remote hospitals without on-site angiography. Adjusting for age, sex, year and hospital, Aboriginal patients had a similar 30-day mortality risk to non-Aboriginal patients (AOR: 1.07; 95% CI 0.83-1.37) but a higher risk of dying within 365 days (AOR: 1.34; 95% CI 1.10-1.63). The latter difference did not persist after adjustment for comorbid conditions (AOR: 1.12; 95% CI 0.91-1.38). Patients admitted to more remote hospitals, those with lower patient volume and those without on-site angiography had increased risk of short and long-term mortality regardless of Aboriginal status. Conclusions - Improving access to larger hospitals and those with specialist cardiac facilities could improve outcomes following AMI for all patients. However, major efforts to boost primary and secondary prevention of AMI are required to reduce the mortality gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people

Phenotypic and genotypic differences between Indian and Scandinavian women with gestational diabetes mellitus

Objective Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a transient form of diabetes characterized by impaired insulin secretion and action during pregnancy. Population-based differences in prevalence exist which could be explained by phenotypic and genetic differences. The aim of this study was to examine these differences in pregnant women from Punjab, India and Scandinavia. Methods Eighty-five GDM/T2D loci in European and/or Indian populations from previous studies were assessed for association with GDM based on Swedish GDM criteria in 4018 Punjabi Indian and 507 Swedish pregnant women. Selected loci were replicated in Scandinavian cohorts, Radiel (N = 398, Finnish) and STORK/STORK-G (N = 780, Norwegian). Results Punjabi Indian women had higher GDM prevalence, lower insulin secretion and better insulin sensitivity than Swedish women. There were significant frequency differences of GDM/T2D risk alleles between both populations. rs7178572 at HMG20A, previously associated with GDM in South Indian and European women, was replicated in North Indian women. The T2D risk SNP rs11605924 in the CRY2 gene was associated with increased GDM risk in Scandinavian but decreased GDM risk in Punjabi Indian women. No other overlap was seen between GDM loci in both populations. Conclusions Gestational diabetes mellitus is more common in Indian than Swedish women, which partially can be attributed to differences in insulin secretion and action. There was marked heterogeneity in the GDM phenotypes between the populations which could only partially be explained by genetic differences.Peer reviewe

Molecular Phylogenetics of the Genus Neoconocephalus (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae) and the Evolution of Temperate Life Histories

BACKGROUND:The katydid genus Neoconocephalus (25+ species) has a prominent acoustic communication system and occurs in large parts of the Neotropics and Nearctic. This group has been subject of numerous behavioral, physiological, and evolutionary studies of its acoustic communication system. Two distinct life histories occur in this group: The tropical life history incorporates multiple generations/year and direct egg development without environmental triggers. Temperate life history is characterized by overwintering in the egg stage, cold trigger of egg development, and one generation/year. This study reconstructs the phylogenetic relationships within the genus to (1) determine the evolutionary history of the temperate life history, and (2) to support comparative studies of evolutionary and physiological problems in this genus. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We used Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms (AFLP), and sequences of two nuclear loci and one mitochondrial locus to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships. The analysis included 17 ingroup and two outgroup species. AFLP and mitochondrial data provided resolution at the species level while the two nuclear loci revealed only deeper nodes. The data sets were combined in a super-matrix to estimate a total evidence tree. Seven of the temperate species form a monophyletic group; however, three more temperate species were placed as siblings of tropical species. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Our analyses support the reliability of the current taxonomic treatment of the Neoconocephalus fauna of Caribbean, Central, and North America. Ancestral state reconstruction of life history traits was not conclusive, however at least four transitions between life histories occurred among our sample of species. The proposed phylogeny will strengthen conclusions from comparative work in this group

Nonequilibrium thermodynamics and energy efficiency in weight loss diets

Carbohydrate restriction as a strategy for control of obesity is based on two effects: a behavioral effect, spontaneous reduction in caloric intake and a metabolic effect, an apparent reduction in energy efficiency, greater weight loss per calorie consumed. Variable energy efficiency is established in many contexts (hormonal imbalance, weight regain and knock-out experiments in animal models), but in the area of the effect of macronutrient composition on weight loss, controversy remains. Resistance to the idea comes from a perception that variable weight loss on isocaloric diets would somehow violate the laws of thermodynamics, that is, only caloric intake is important ("a calorie is a calorie"). Previous explanations of how the phenomenon occurs, based on equilibrium thermodynamics, emphasized the inefficiencies introduced by substrate cycling and requirements for increased gluconeogenesis. Living systems, however, are maintained far from equilibrium, and metabolism is controlled by the regulation of the rates of enzymatic reactions. The principles of nonequilibrium thermodynamics which emphasize kinetic fluxes as well as thermodynamic forces should therefore also be considered

Daily magnesium fluxes regulate cellular timekeeping and energy balance

Circadian clocks are fundamental to the biology of most eukaryotes, coordinating behaviour and physiology to resonate with the environmental cycle of day and night through complex networks of clock-controlled genes1, 2, 3. A fundamental knowledge gap exists, however, between circadian gene expression cycles and the biochemical mechanisms that ultimately facilitate circadian regulation of cell biology4, 5. Here we report circadian rhythms in the intracellular concentration of magnesium ions, [Mg2+]i, which act as a cell-autonomous timekeeping component to determine key clock properties both in a human cell line and in a unicellular alga that diverged from each other more than 1 billion years ago6. Given the essential role of Mg2+ as a cofactor for ATP, a functional consequence of [Mg2+]i oscillations is dynamic regulation of cellular energy expenditure over the daily cycle. Mechanistically, we find that these rhythms provide bilateral feedback linking rhythmic metabolism to clock-controlled gene expression. The global regulation of nucleotide triphosphate turnover by intracellular Mg2+ availability has potential to impact upon many of the cell’s more than 600 MgATP-dependent enzymes7 and every cellular system where MgNTP hydrolysis becomes rate limiting. Indeed, we find that circadian control of translation by mTOR8 is regulated through [Mg2+]i oscillations. It will now be important to identify which additional biological processes are subject to this form of regulation in tissues of multicellular organisms such as plants and humans, in the context of health and disease

Forty Years On: Researching the Globalization of the Japanese Firm in the UK

Forty years have now passed since the economic relationship between Britain and Japan started to deepen beyond arms-length trading ties. This article presents an overview of research on the globalization of the Japanese firm by looking at work produced from the UK standpoint over the last four decades. By reconfiguring and re-presenting existing research on the Japanese firm, the article seeks to challenge some established orthodoxies by presenting analyses and arguments on the following three subjects: the system of employment in large Japanese organizations, industrial convergence and the ‘japanization’ of British industry thesis, and Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the UK. Although the article continues to recognise the relevance of cross-national perspectives and comparisons, it also urges scholars to take account in their discussions of socio-economic systems at the sub-national and trans-national levels of analysis