Claiming but connected to work : Welfare at a (Social) Distance Rapid Report #1

This report presents the first findings from the Welfare at a (Social) Distance project, a major national research project investigating the benefits system during the COVID19 pandemic, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council as part of UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to COVID-19. It draws upon a new survey of 2,364 new Universal Credit (UC)/Jobseekers’ Allowance (JSA) claimants (carried out between 25th May and 3rd June) to look at how far benefit claimants are connected to the world of work, helping to better understand the emerging picture from recent UK labour market statistics

Accelerated Electrons in Cassiopeia A: An Explanation for the Hard X-ray Tail

We propose a model for the hard X-ray (> 10 keV) emission observed from the supernova remnant Cas A. Lower hybrid waves are generated in strong (mG) magnetic fields, generally believed to reside in this remnant, by shocks reflected from density inhomogeneities. These then accelerate electrons to energies of several tens of keV. Around 4% of the x-ray emitting plasma electrons need to be in this accelerated distribution, which extends up to electron velocities of order the electron Alfven speed, and is directled along magnetic field lines. Bremsstrahlung from these electrons produces the observed hard x-ray emission. Such waves and accelerated electrons have been observed in situ at Comet Halley, and we discuss the viability of the extrapolation from this case to the parameters relevant to Cas A.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, aasTeX502, accepted in Ap

Non-take-up of benefits at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic

In this report, we look at the number of people eligible for UC but who didn't claim it, why they didn't claim, and their situation (funded by the Health Foundation)

RAD1 Controls the Meiotic Expansion of the Human HRAS1 Minisatellite in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Minisatellite DNA is repetitive DNA with a repeat unit length from 15 to 100 bp. While stable during mitosis, it destabilizes during meiosis, altering both in length and in sequence composition. The basis for this instability is unknown. To investigate the factors controlling minisatellite stability, a minisatellite sequence 3′ of the human HRAS1 gene was introduced into the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome, replacing the wild-type HIS4 promoter. The minisatellite tract exhibited the same phenotypes in yeast that it exhibited in mammalian systems. The insertion stimulated transcription of the HIS4 gene; mRNA production was detected at levels above those seen with the wild-type promoter. The insertion stimulated meiotic recombination and created a hot spot for initiation of double-strand breaks during meiosis in the regions immediately flanking the repetitive DNA. The tract length altered at a high frequency during meiosis, and both expansions and contractions in length were detected. Tract expansion, but not contraction, was controlled by the product of the RAD1 gene. RAD1 is the first gene identified that controls specifically the expansion of minisatellite tracts. A model for tract length alteration based on these results is presented

Navigating pandemic social security : benefits, employment and crisis support during COVID-19

An expanding range of external actors and organisations have come to mediate the relationship between benefit claimants and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Reflecting on the important role benefits, crisis and employment support play in the lives of claimants, this report looks at two dimensions of navigating social security in the UK today. The first section of this report draws on a large representative survey of working-age benefit claimants (i.e. aged 18–64) to establish the extent to which people access support when making a claim for benefits and how this differs according to key claimant characteristics. The second section of this report explores how COVID-19 has affected the coverage and quality of support that many benefit claimants rely on through case studies of four local areas (Leeds, Newham, Salford and Thanet). Here, we draw on qualitative interviews with 32 local support organisations and meetings with 13 national informants representing key stakeholder groups and service delivery organisations

Accelerated Electrons in Cassiopeia A: Thermal and Electromagnetic Effects

We consider in more detail a model previously proposed for the hard X-ray (>10 keV) emission observed from the supernova remnant Cas A, whereby electrons are accelerated by lower-hybrid waves and radiate bremsstrahlung. We consider both cold and thermal plasma limits of the modified two-stream instability that generates the lower-hybrid waves, and by studying time dependent ionization balance for various components of the Cas A ejecta and shocked circumstellar medium, find locations within the shell where one or other of the instabilities may occur. Either instability can be effective, with the cold plasma instability imposing fewer constraints on the shocked reflected ion population responsible for exciting the waves. The instability must be located in the ejecta shocked at the earliest times and therefore closest to the contact discontinuity where magnetic fields are expected to be the strongest. The energy deposited in this ejecta by collisions between accelerated and ambient electrons is broadly consistent with that required to reheat this ejecta to observed temperatures.Comment: 29 pages + 8 figures, accepted for publication by Ap

Reading with drama: relations between texts, readers and experiences

This article explores the intersections of drama and reading, specifically focusing on approaches that are situated within “drama in education.” Supported with a retrospective analysis, this article portrays the research, related practice and possible futures in drama education in relation to literacy and in particular to reading fiction as meaning making practice. This study is situated in a reassertion of the value of relational literacies through imaginative practices that dramatic modes generate and support. The article disrupts common misconceptions about the purposes and effects of drama in reading and establishes prominent research discourses and definitions across the history of drama and reading practices. By locating paradigmatic and practical opportunities in our analysis of contemporary research, we bring visibility to the intricacies of drama in education as a generative pedagogy in reading as relational meaning making work

The Effective Fragment Molecular Orbital Method for Fragments Connected by Covalent Bonds

We extend the effective fragment molecular orbital method (EFMO) into treating fragments connected by covalent bonds. The accuracy of EFMO is compared to FMO and conventional ab initio electronic structure methods for polypeptides including proteins. Errors in energy for RHF and MP2 are within 2 kcal/mol for neutral polypeptides and 6 kcal/mol for charged polypeptides similar to FMO but obtained two to five times faster. For proteins, the errors are also within a few kcal/mol of the FMO results. We developed both the RHF and MP2 gradient for EFMO. Compared to ab initio, the EFMO optimized structures had an RMSD of 0.40 and 0.44 {\AA} for RHF and MP2, respectively.Comment: Revised manuscrip

Estimating relative survival among people registered with cancer in England and Wales

Because routinely collected survival data for cancer patients in England and Wales do not typically specify cause of death, conventional estimates of survival in cancer patients based on such data are a measure of their mortality from all causes rather than their mortality due to cancer. As a result, trends in survival over time are difficult to interpret because changes in overall survival may well reflect changes in the risk of death from other causes, rather than from the cancer of interest. One way of overcoming this problem is to use some form of ‘relative survival’ defined as a measure of survival corrected for the effect of other independent causes of death. Since this concept was first introduced, various methods for calculating relative survival have been proposed and this had led to some confusion as to the most appropriate choice of estimate. This paper aims to provide an introduction to the concept of relative survival and reviews some of the suggested methods of estimation. In addition, a particularly simple, but robust approach, is highlighted based on expected and observed mortality. This method is illustrated using preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics on cancer survival in patients born after 1939 and diagnosed with cancer during 1972–84. The examples presented, although limited to analyses on a small number of selected sites, highlight some encouraging trends in survival in people aged under 35 diagnosed with leukaemia, Hodgkin's disease and testicular cancer during this period. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig