Aspects of rocky shore pollution on sections of the north east coast between Redcar and Whitby

Not availabl

Reconciling diverse lacustrine and terrestrial system response to penultimate deglacial warming in southern Europe

Unlike the most recent deglaciation, the regional expression of climate changes during the penultimate deglaciation remains understudied, even though it led into a period of excess warmth with estimates of global average temperature 1–2 °C, and sea level ∼6 m, above pre-industrial values. We present the first complete high-resolution southern European diatom record capturing the penultimate glacial-interglacial transition, from Lake Ioannina (northwest Greece). It forms part of a suite of proxies selected to assess the character and phase relationships of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem response to rapid climate warming, and to resolve apparent conflicts in proxy evidence for regional paleohydrology. The diatom data suggest a complex penultimate deglaciation driven primarily by multiple oscillations in lake level, and provide firm evidence for the regional influence of abrupt changes in North Atlantic conditions. There is diachroneity in lake and terrestrial ecosystem response to warming at the onset of the last interglacial, with an abrupt increase in lake level occurring ∼2.7 k.y. prior to sustained forest expansion with peak precipitation. We identify the potentially important role of direct input of snow melt and glacial meltwater transfer to the subterranean karst system in response to warming, which would cause rising regional groundwater levels. This explanation, and the greater sensitivity of diatoms to subtle changes in temperature, reconciles the divergent lacustrine and terrestrial proxy evidence and highlights the sensitivity of lakes situated in mountainous karstic environments to past climate warming

Towards a middle-range theory of mental health and well-being effects of employment transitions: Findings from a qualitative study on unemployment during the 2009-2010 economic recession.

This article builds upon previous theoretical work on job loss as a status passage to help explain how people's experiences of involuntary unemployment affected their mental well-being during the 2009-2010 economic recession. It proposes a middle-range theory that interprets employment transitions as status passages and suggests that their health and well-being effects depend on the personal and social meanings that people give to them, which are called properties of the transitions. The analyses, which used a thematic approach, are based on the findings of a qualitative study undertaken in Bradford (North England) consisting of 73 people interviewed in 16 focus groups. The study found that the participants experienced their job losses as divestment passages characterised by three main properties: experiences of reduced agency, disruption of role-based identities, for example, personal identity crises, and experiences of 'spoiled identities', for example, experiences of stigma. The proposed middle-range theory allows us to federate these findings together in a coherent framework which makes a contribution to illuminating not just the intra-personal consequences of unemployment, that is, its impact on subjective well-being and common mental health problems, but also its inter-personal consequences, that is, the hidden and often overlooked social processes that affect unemployed people's social well-being. This article discusses how the study findings and the proposed middle-range theory can help to address the theoretical weaknesses and often contradictory empirical findings from studies that use alternative frameworks, for example, deprivation models and 'incentive theory' of unemployment

The significance of work allocation in the professional apprenticeship of solicitors

It is a peculiarity of the solicitors’ profession that it has historically relied on methods of pre-qualification ‘training’ by way of apprenticeship and that an entirely respectable non-graduate route into the profession remains. In a political context, however, where the profession is called upon positively to demonstrate its standards of performance, the professional regulator seeks to attach a competence framework to the existing model; shifting the focus from how the trainee learns to what the trainee learns. This paper will explore the period of traineeship from the perspective of the trainees themselves, drawing on two small qualitative studies, focussing on the fundamental context factor of the allocation and structuring of their work. In the first study the context for this evaluation is the set of outcomes being tested by the professional regulator and in the second, the perceptions of qualified individuals looking back at their apprenticeship, The paper concludes that there remains work for the profession to do not only in fostering supportive and expansive apprenticeships, but in attending, however, supportive the surrounding environment, to the work being carried out by trainees and its relationship with the work carried out by newly qualified solicitors

A microarray analysis of gene expression in the free-living stages of the parasitic nematode Strongyloides ratti

BACKGROUND: The nematode Strongyloides ratti has two adult phases in its lifecycle: one obligate, female and parasitic and one facultative, dioecious and free-living. The molecular control of the development of this free-living generation remains to be elucidated. RESULTS: We have constructed an S. ratti cDNA microarray and used it to interrogate changes in gene expression during the free-living phase of the S. ratti life-cycle. We have found very extensive differences in gene expression between first-stage larvae (L1) passed in faeces and infective L3s preparing to infect hosts. In L1 stages there was comparatively greater expression of genes involved in growth. We have also compared gene expression in L2 stages destined to develop directly into infective L3s with those destined to develop indirectly into free-living adults. This revealed relatively small differences in gene expression. We find little evidence for the conservation of transcription profiles between S. ratti and S. stercoralis or C. elegans. CONCLUSION: This is the first multi-gene study of gene expression in S. ratti. This has shown that robust data can be generated, with consistent measures of expression within computationally determined clusters and contigs. We find inconsistencies between EST representation data and microarray hybridization data in the identification of genes with stage-specific expression and highly expressed genes. Many of the genes whose expression is significantly different between L1 and iL3s stages are unknown beyond alignments to predicted genes. This highlights the forthcoming challenge in actually determining the role of these genes in the life of S. ratti

Rapid reduction versus abrupt quitting for smokers who want to stop soon: a randomised controlled non-inferiority trial

Background: The standard way to stop smoking is to stop abruptly on a quit day with no prior reduction in consumption of cigarettes. Many smokers feel that reduction is natural and if reduction programmes were offered, many more might take up treatment. Few trials of reduction versus abrupt cessation have been completed. Most are small, do not use pharmacotherapy, and do not meet the standards necessary to obtain a marketing authorisation for a pharmacotherapy.\ud Design/Methods: We will conduct a non-inferiority andomised trial of rapid reduction versus standard abrupt cessation among smokers who want to stop smoking. In the reduction arm,participants will be advised to reduce smoking consumption by half in the first week and to 25% of baseline in the second, leading up to a quit day at which participants will stop smoking completely.This will be assisted by nicotine patches and an acute form of nicotine replacement therapy. In the abrupt arm participants will use nicotine patches only, whilst smoking as normal, for two weeks prior to a quit day, at which they will also stop smoking completely. Smokers in either arm will have standard withdrawal orientated behavioural support programme with a combination of nicotine patches and acute nicotine replacement therapy post-cessation.\ud Outcomes/Follow-up: The primary outcome of interest will be prolonged abstinence from smoking, with secondary trial outcomes of point prevalence, urges to smoke and withdrawal\ud symptoms. Follow up will take place at 4 weeks, 8 weeks and 6 months post-quit day

Demonstration of a novel technique to quantitatively assess inflammatory mediators and cells in rat knee joints

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The inflammation that accompanies the pain and swelling associated with osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis is mediated by complex interactions of inflammatory mediators. Cytokines play a pivotal role in orchestrating many of these processes, including inflammatory cell recruitment, adhesion and activation. In addition, prostaglandins are secreted into the synovial cavity and are involved in perpetuation of local inflammation, vasodilatation and vasoconstriction, and also with bone resorption. Pre-clinical models have been developed in order to correlate to the human disease and principle among these is the adjuvant-induced arthritis model in the rat.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We have developed a technique to quantitatively assess the contents of synovial fluid samples from rat joints. Two needles joined together are inserted into the knee joint of anaesthetised rats and connected to a Watson-Marlow perfusion pump. Sterile saline is infused and withdrawn at 100 μl min^-1until a 250 μl sample is collected.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our results demonstrate up to 125 fold increases in synovial IL1α and IL1β concentrations, approximately 30 fold increases in levels of IL6 and IL10 and a 200–300 fold elevation in synovial concentrations of TNFα during FCA-induced experimental arthritis. Finally, this novel technique has demonstrated a dose-response relationship between FCA and the total cell counts of synovial perfusates.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In summary, this new technique provides a robust method for quantifying inflammatory mediators and cells from the synovial cavity itself, thereby detailing the inflammatory processes from within the capsule and excluding those processes occurring in other tissues surrounding the entire articulation.</p

The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP). III. Spiral Structures in the Millimeter Continuum of the Elias 27, IM Lup, and WaOph 6 Disks

We present an analysis of Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array 1.25 mm continuum observations of spiral structures in three protoplanetary disks from the Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project. See full text for full abstract

Characterization of IgA response among women with incident HPV 16 infection

AbstractPrevious studies have characterized the prevalence and duration of serum IgG antibodies to human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV 16) in a well-studied cohort of college women, using viruslike particle- (VLP) based ELISAs. In this study IgA antibodies in cervical secretions and sera were examined using a newly developed capsomer-based ELISA and the patterns observed for serum IgG, serum IgA, and cervical IgA antibodies were compared. The median time to antibody detection from the first detection of HPV 16 DNA was 10.5 months for IgA in cervical secretions and 19.1 months for serum IgA. Serum IgA antibody conversion was observed less frequently and occurred later than IgA conversion in cervical secretions (P = 0.011) or serum IgG conversion (P = 0.051). The median time to antibody reversion, following seroconversion, was 12.0 months for IgA in cervical secretions and 13.6 months for serum IgA, whereas approximately 20% of women with serum IgG antibodies reverted within 36 months. Thus, the duration of IgA in cervical secretions and sera was shorter than the duration of serum IgG (P = 0.007 and 0.001)