Religion as practices of attachment and materiality: the making of Buddhism in contemporary London

This article aims to explore Buddhism’s often-overlooked presence on London’s urban landscape, showing how its quietness and subtlety of approach has allowed the faith to grow largely beneath the radar. It argues that Buddhism makes claims to urban space in much the same way as it produces its faith, being as much about the practices performed and the spaces where they are enacted as it is about faith or beliefs. The research across a number of Buddhist sites in London reveals that number of people declaring themselves as Buddhists has indeed risen in recent years, following the rise of other non-traditional religions in the UK; however, this research suggests that Buddhism differs from these in several ways. Drawing on Baumann’s (2002) distinction between traditionalist and modernist approaches to Buddhism, our research reveals a growth in each of these. Nevertheless, Buddhism remains largely invisible in the urban and suburban landscape of London, adapting buildings that are already in place, with little material impact on the built environment, and has thus been less subject to contestation than other religious movements and traditions. This research contributes to a growing literature which foregrounds the importance of religion in making contemporary urban and social worlds

Near-Infrared and Optical Luminosity Functions from the 6dF Galaxy Survey

Luminosity functions and their integrated luminosity densities are presented for the 6dF Galaxy Survey (6dFGS). This ongoing survey ultimately aims to measure around 150,000 redshifts and 15,000 peculiar velocities over almost the entire southern sky at |b|>10 deg. The main target samples are taken from the 2MASS Extended Source Catalog and the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey catalogue, and comprise 138,226 galaxies complete to (K, H, J, rF, bJ) = (12.75, 13.00, 13.75, 15.60, 16.75). These samples are comparable in size to the optically-selected Sloan Digital Sky Survey and 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey samples, and improve on recent near-infrared-selected redshift surveys by more than an order of magnitude in both number and sky coverage. The partial samples used in this paper contain a little over half of the total sample in each band and are ~90 percent complete. Luminosity distributions are derived using the 1/Vmax, STY and SWML estimators, and probe 1 to 2 absolute magnitudes fainter in the near-infrared than previous surveys. The effects of magnitude errors, redshift incompleteness and peculiar velocities have been taken into account and corrected throughout. Generally, the 6dFGS luminosity functions are in excellent agreement with those of similarly-sized surveys. Our data are of sufficient quality to demonstrate that a Schechter function is not an ideal fit to the true luminosity distribution, due to its inability to simultaneously match the faint end slope and rapid bright end decline. Integrated luminosity densities from the 6dFGS are consistent with an old stellar population and moderately declining star formation rate.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures. MNRAS published. Replaces earlier version carrying a typo in Table 6. High resolution versions of the figures can be obtained from http://www.aao.gov.au/local/www/6df/Publication

The relationship, structure and profiles of schizophrenia measurements: a post-hoc analysis of the baseline measures from a randomized clinical trial

<p>Background</p> <p>To fully assess the various dimensions affected by schizophrenia, clinical trials often include multiple scales measuring various symptom profiles, cognition, quality of life, subjective well-being, and functional impairment. In this exploratory study, we characterized the relationships among six clinical, functional, cognitive, and quality-of-life measures, identifying a parsimonious set of measurements.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used baseline data from a randomized, multicenter study of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or schizophreniform disorder who were experiencing an acute symptom exacerbation (n = 628) to examine the relationship among several outcome measures. These measures included the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia Symbol Coding Test, Subjective Well-being Under Neuroleptics Scale Short Form (SWN-K), Schizophrenia Objective Functioning Instrument (SOFI), and Quality of Life Scale (QLS). Three analytic approaches were used: 1) path analysis; 2) factor analysis; and 3) categorical latent variable analysis. In the optimal path model, the SWN-K was selected as the final outcome, while the SOFI mediated the effect of the exogenous variables (PANSS, MADRS) on the QLS.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall model explained 47% of variance in QLS and 17% of the variance in SOFI, but only 15% in SWN-K. Factor analysis suggested four factors: "Functioning," "Daily Living," "Depression," and "Psychopathology." A strong positive correlation was observed between the SOFI and QLS (r = 0.669), and both the QLS and SOFI loaded on the "Functioning" factor, suggesting redundancy between these scales. The measurement profiles from the categorical latent variable analysis showed significant variation in functioning and quality of life despite similar levels of psychopathology.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Researchers should consider collecting PANSS, SOFI, and SWN-K in their trials. This would allow a broad spectrum of assessments that would have the ability to capture a wide range of treatment outcomes and allow for a rich characterization of the subgroups involved. Additional research is needed to identify the critical cognitive measures.</p> <p>Trials registration</p> <p>Clinical trials registration: Predicting Response to Risperidone Treatment Through Identification of Early-onset of Antipsychotic Drug Action in Schizophrenia</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00337662">NCT00337662</a>; <url>http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/</url></p

Crystal structure of rhodopsin bound to arrestin by femtosecond X-ray laser.

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) signal primarily through G proteins or arrestins. Arrestin binding to GPCRs blocks G protein interaction and redirects signalling to numerous G-protein-independent pathways. Here we report the crystal structure of a constitutively active form of human rhodopsin bound to a pre-activated form of the mouse visual arrestin, determined by serial femtosecond X-ray laser crystallography. Together with extensive biochemical and mutagenesis data, the structure reveals an overall architecture of the rhodopsin-arrestin assembly in which rhodopsin uses distinct structural elements, including transmembrane helix 7 and helix 8, to recruit arrestin. Correspondingly, arrestin adopts the pre-activated conformation, with a ∼20° rotation between the amino and carboxy domains, which opens up a cleft in arrestin to accommodate a short helix formed by the second intracellular loop of rhodopsin. This structure provides a basis for understanding GPCR-mediated arrestin-biased signalling and demonstrates the power of X-ray lasers for advancing the frontiers of structural biology

Using microbiological data to improve the use of antibiotics for respiratory tract infections: a protocol for an individual patient data meta-analysis

Background Resistance to antibiotics is rising and threatens future antibiotic effectiveness. ‘Antibiotic targeting’ ensures patients who may benefit from antibiotics receive them, while being safely withheld from those who may not. Point-of-care tests may assist with antibiotic targeting by allowing primary care clinicians to establish if symptomatic patients have a viral, bacterial, combined, or no infection. However, because organisms can be harmlessly carried, it is important to know if the presence of the virus/bacteria is related to the illness for which the patient is being assessed. One way to do this is to look for associations with more severe/prolonged symptoms and test results. Previous research to answer this question for acute respiratory tract infections has given conflicting results with studies has not having enough participants to provide statistical confidence. Aim To undertake a synthesis of IPD from both randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and observational cohort studies of respiratory tract infections (RTI) in order to investigate the prognostic value of microbiological data in addition to, or instead of, clinical symptoms and signs. Methods A systematic search of Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Ovid Medline and Ovid Embase will be carried out for studies of acute respiratory infection in primary care settings. The outcomes of interest are duration of disease, severity of disease, repeated consultation with new/worsening illness and complications requiring hospitalisation. Authors of eligible studies will be contacted to provide anonymised individual participant data. The data will be harmonised and aggregated. Multilevel regression analysis will be conducted to determine key outcome measures for different potential pathogens and whether these offer any additional information on prognosis beyond clinical symptoms and signs. Trial registration PROSPERO Registration number: CRD42023376769