Campaigning against workplace ‘sexual harassment’ in the UK:Law, discourse and the news press c. 1975 – 2005

This article examines how and in what ways workplace ‘sexual harassment’ achieved social and legal recognition in the UK news press following its importation from North America in the mid-1970s. It assesses the role of feminist campaigners working within institutions (trade unions, human rights advocacy, the Equal Opportunities Commission and journalism itself) in shifting public discourse and in using the media to educate and promote social change. We demonstrate that the trajectory was far from a linear progression. Initial hostility within the popular press in the early 1980s was replaced with sympathetic coverage across the party-political spectrum by 1990. However, this consensus broke down in the 1990s as a result of politicised and polarised coverage of a series of claims brought by women in the services and armed forces against the backdrop of debates about ‘compensation culture’ and membership of the European Union. Whilst change was effected at the level of employment law, formal practice and in the human resources policies of larger employers, ‘sexual harassment myths’ were resilient as a thread within ‘everyday cultural discourse’ and, by implication, within informal workplace cultures

Genetics as a novel tool in mining impact assessment and biomonitoring of critically endangered western chimpanzees in the Nimba Mountains, Guinea

Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are Critically Endangered and Guinea is a key stronghold for this subspecies. However, Guinea is also rich in minerals with some of the highest‐grade iron‐ore deposits in the world. Specifically, the Nimba Mountains, home to western chimpanzees, is one of the sites under consideration for mining activities. To assess the impact of mining activities in the area, we used non‐invasive genetic sampling to estimate chimpanzee population size, sex ratio, community composition, and range boundaries on the western flank of the massif. The level of genetic diversity and affinity between communities was estimated and recommendations for future genetic censusing provided. Between 2003 and 2018, we collected 999 fecal samples of which 663 were analyzed using a panel of 26 microsatellites. We identified a minimum of 136 chimpanzees in four communities, with evidence of migratory events, a high level of shared ancestry and genetic diversity. We assessed sampling intensities and capture rates for each community. Saturation was reached in two communities with sampling between 3.2 and 4.3 times the estimated number of chimpanzees. Our findings highlight the utility of genetic censusing for temporal monitoring of ape abundance, as well as capturing migratory events and gauging genetic diversity and population viability over time. We recommend genetic sampling, combined with camera trapping, for use in future Environmental and Social Impact Assessments, as these methods can yield robust baselines for implementing the mitigation hierarchy, future biomonitoring and conservation management

Insights into Digit Evolution from a Fate Map Study of the Forearm Using Chameleon, a New Transgenic Chicken Line:Fate Mapping the Chicken Ulna

The cellular and genetic networks that contribute to the development of the zeugopod (radius and ulna of the forearm, tibia and fibula of the leg) are not well understood, although these bones are susceptible to loss in congenital human syndromes and to the action of teratogens such as thalidomide. Using a new fate-mapping approach with the Chameleon transgenic chicken line, we show that there is a small contribution of SHH-expressing cells to the posterior ulna, posterior carpals and digit 3. We establish that although the majority of the ulna develops in response to paracrine SHH signalling in both the chicken and mouse, there are differences in the contribution of SHH-expressing cells between mouse and chicken as well as between the chicken ulna and fibula. This is evidence that, although zeugopod bones are clearly homologous according to the fossil record, the gene regulatory networks that contribute to their development and evolution are not fixed.</p

Campaigning against workplace ‘sexual harassment’ in the UK: Law, discourse and the news press c. 1975–2005

This article examines how and in what ways workplace ‘sexual harassment’ achieved social and legal recognition in the UK news press following its importation from North America in the mid-1970s. It assesses the role of feminist campaigners working within institutions (trade unions, human rights advocacy, the Equal Opportunities Commission and journalism itself) in shifting public discourse and in using the media to educate and promote social change. We demonstrate that the trajectory was far from a linear progression. Initial hostility within the popular press in the early 1980s was replaced with sympathetic coverage across the party-political spectrum by 1990. However, this consensus broke down in the 1990s as a result of politicised and polarised coverage of a series of claims brought by women in the services and armed forces against the backdrop of debates about ‘compensation culture’ and membership of the European Union. Whilst change was effected at the level of employment law, formal practice and in the human resources policies of larger employers, ‘sexual harassment myths’ were resilient as a thread within ‘everyday cultural discourse’ and, by implication, within informal workplace cultures

Phylogeography of Panthera tigris in the mangrove forest of the Sundarbans

Tigers Panthera tigris in the Sundarbans represent the only population adapted to living in mangrove forest habitat. Several studies, based on limited morphological and genetic data, have described the population as being differentiated from the Bengal tiger subspecies P. tigris tigris. The phylogenetic ancestry of the Sundarbans population has also remained poorly understood. We generated 1263 bp of mtDNA sequences across 4 mtDNA genes for 33 tiger samples from the Bangladesh Sundarbans and compared these with 33 mtDNA haplotypes known from all subspecies of extant tigers. We detected 3 haplotypes within the Sundarbans tigers, of which one is unique to this population and the remaining 2 are shared with tiger populations inhabiting central Indian landscapes. Phylogenetic analyses using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inferences supported the Sundarbans tigers as being paraphyletic, indicating a close phylogenetic relationship with other populations of Bengal tigers, from which the Sundarbans population diverged around 26000 yr ago. Our phylogenetic analyses, together with evidence of ecological adaptation to the unique mangrove habitat, indicate that the Sundarbans population should be recognised as a separate management unit. We recommend that conservation management must focus on sustaining this representative tiger population adapted to mangrove habitat while at the same time recognising that trans-boundary conservation efforts through reintroduction or exchange of individuals, to enhance genetic diversity, might be needed in the future as a last resort for population recovery

Integration of kinase and calcium signaling at the level of chromatin underlies inducible gene activation in T cells

TCR signaling pathways cooperate to activate the inducible transcription factors NF-κB, NFAT, and AP-1. In this study, using the calcium ionophore ionomycin and/or PMA on Jurkat T cells, we show that the gene expression program associated with activation of TCR signaling is closely related to specific chromatin landscapes. We find that calcium and kinase signaling cooperate to induce chromatin remodeling at ∼2100 chromatin regions, which demonstrate enriched binding motifs for inducible factors and correlate with target gene expression. We found that these regions typically function as inducible enhancers. Many of these elements contain composite NFAT/AP-1 sites, which typically support cooperative binding, thus further reinforcing the need for cooperation between calcium and kinase signaling in the activation of genes in T cells. In contrast, treatment with PMA or ionomycin alone induces chromatin remodeling at far fewer regions (∼600 and ∼350, respectively), which mostly represent a subset of those induced by costimulation. This suggests that the integration of TCR signaling largely occurs at the level of chromatin, which we propose plays a crucial role in regulating T cell activation

Tetherin antagonism by SARS-CoV-2 ORF3a and spike protein enhances virus release

The antiviral restriction factor, tetherin, blocks the release of several different families of enveloped viruses, including the Coronaviridae. Tetherin is an interferon‐induced protein that forms parallel homodimers between the host cell and viral particles, linking viruses to the surface of infected cells and inhibiting their release. We demonstrate that SARS‐CoV‐2 infection causes tetherin downregulation and that tetherin depletion from cells enhances SARS‐CoV‐2 viral titres. We investigate the potential viral proteins involved in abrogating tetherin function and find that SARS‐CoV‐2 ORF3a reduces tetherin localisation within biosynthetic organelles where Coronaviruses bud, and increases tetherin localisation to late endocytic organelles via reduced retrograde recycling. We also find that expression of Spike protein causes a reduction in cellular tetherin levels. Our results confirm that tetherin acts as a host restriction factor for SARS‐CoV‐2 and highlight the multiple distinct mechanisms by which SARS‐CoV‐2 subverts tetherin function

High rates of unsuccessful transfer to adult care among young adults with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study aimed to describe the proportion of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) who had experienced an unsuccessful transfer from a pediatric rheumatology team to an adult rheumatologist and to compare the characteristics of those who achieved successful transfer to those who did not.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a systematic chart review of all patients with JIA who attended their final Montreal Children's Hospital JIA clinic appointment between 1992 and 2005. We tracked these patients for the two years after transfer to an adult rheumatologist. We then compared characteristics of patients with successful and unsuccessful transfers of care. Variables pertaining to disease characteristics, disease severity and psychosocial factors were examined. Univariate analyses were performed to determine if any single factor was associated with the outcome of unsuccessful transfer of care.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>52% of patients fulfilled our criteria for unsuccessful transfer. Of the variables tested, an active joint count (AJC) of zero at last visit was associated with the outcome of unsuccessful transfer (OR = 2.67 (CI 1.16-6.16; p = 0.0199)).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Despite the presence of a coordinated process of transfer from pediatric to adult health care for the majority of the patients in this study, there was a high rate of unsuccessful transfer and/or sustained follow up which is disheartening. We found that patients with less active disease at the time of transfer, as indicated by a lower AJC, were more likely to be lost to follow up. Recent literature suggests that even in the least severe categories of JIA, 50% of patients persist with active disease into adulthood. Thus educating all JIA patients about the possibility of disease flare in adulthood may improve their adherence to recommendations for sustained follow-up in the adult milieu. This may lead to improvement of longitudinal outcomes for all JIA patients.</p

Efficacy of home-based visuomotor feedback training in stroke patients with chronic hemispatial neglect

Hemispatial neglect is a severe cognitive condition frequently observed after a stroke, associated with unawareness of one side of space, disability and poor long-term outcome. Visuomotor feedback training (VFT) is a neglect rehabilitation technique that involves a simple, inexpensive and feasible training of grasping-to-lift rods at the centre. We compared the immediate and long-term effects of VFT vs. a control training when delivered in a home-based setting. Twenty participants were randomly allocated to an intervention (who received VFT) or a control group (n = 10 each). Training was delivered for two sessions by an experimenter and then patients self-administered it for 10 sessions over two weeks. Outcome measures included the Behavioural Inattention Test (BIT), line bisection, Balloons Test, Landmark task, room description task, subjective straight-ahead pointing task and the Stroke Impact Scale. The measures were obtained before, immediately after the training sessions and after four-months post-training. Significantly greater short and long-term improvements were obtained after VFT when compared to control training in line bisection, BIT and spatial bias in cancellation. VFT also produced improvements on activities of daily living. We conclude that VFT is a feasible, effective, home-based rehabilitation method for neglect patients that warrants further investigation with well-designed randomised controlled trials on a large sample of patients

The PHENIX Experiment at RHIC

The physics emphases of the PHENIX collaboration and the design and current status of the PHENIX detector are discussed. The plan of the collaboration for making the most effective use of the available luminosity in the first years of RHIC operation is also presented.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Further details of the PHENIX physics program available at http://www.rhic.bnl.gov/phenix