The extraordinary intricacies of policing vulnerability

Vulnerable people have become a key focus of policy over the past few decades. As a result, police organisations have had to adapt to ongoing requests for specialised attention and protocol development to mediate the interactions between frontline officers and members of a variety of vulnerable groups. This article examines the various socio-political developments that have led to contemporary policing practices in relation to vulnerable people, untangles a series of problems in our current approach to vulnerability. Additionally, we propose an alternative operationalisation of vulnerability, which shifts the focus from siloed cultural competency to integrated critical diversity, and in doing so, attempts to relieve some of the institutional, political and operational pressure faced by policing services

Updating the CTD Story: From Tail to Epic

Eukaryotic RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) not only synthesizes mRNA but also coordinates transcription-related processes via its unique C-terminal repeat domain (CTD). The CTD is an RNAPII-specific protein segment consisting of repeating heptads with the consensus sequence Y1S2P3T4S5P6S7 that has been shown to be extensively post-transcriptionally modified in a coordinated, but complicated, manner. Recent discoveries of new modifications, kinases, and binding proteins have challenged previously established paradigms. In this paper, we examine results and implications of recent studies related to modifications of the CTD and the respective enzymes; we also survey characterizations of new CTD-binding proteins and their associated processes and new information regarding known CTD-binding proteins. Finally, we bring into focus new results that identify two additional CTD-associated processes: nucleocytoplasmic transport of mRNA and DNA damage and repair

Upper critical field measurements up to 60 T in arsenic-deficient LaO_(0.9)F_(0.1)FeAs_(1-delta): Pauli limiting behaviour at high fields vs improved superconductivity at low fields

We report resistivity and upper critical field B_c2(T) data for As deficient LaO_(0.9)F_(0.1)FeAs_(1-delta) in a wide temperature and high field range up to 60 T. These disordered samples exhibit a slightly enhanced superconducting transition at T_c = 29 K and a significantly enlarged slope dB_(c2))/dT = -5.4 T/K near T_c which contrasts with a flattening of B_(c2)(T) starting near 23 K above 30 T. This flattening is interpreted as Pauli limiting behaviour (PLB) with B_(c2)(0) approx 63 T. We compare our results with B_(c2)(T)-data reported in the literature for clean and disordered samples. Whereas clean samples show no PLB for fields below 60 to 70 T, the hitherto unexplained flattening of B_(c2)(T) for applied fields H || ab observed for several disordered closely related systems is interpreted also as a manifestation of PLB. Consequences of our results are discussed in terms of disorder effects within the frame of conventional and unconventional superconductivity.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to RHMF09 (9th International Conference on the Research in High Magnetic Fields), Dresden, July 22-25, 200

Evidence for Pauli-limiting behaviour at high fields and enhanced upper critical fields near T_c in several disordered FeAs based Superconductors

We report resistivity and upper critical field B_c2(T) data for disordered (As deficient) LaO_0.9F_0.1FeAs_1-delta in a wide temperature and high field range up to 60 T. These samples exhibit a slightly enhanced superconducting transition at T_c = 28.5 K and a significantly enlarged slope dB_c2/dT = -5.4 T/K near T_c which contrasts with a flattening of B_c2(T) starting near 23 K above 30 T. The latter evidences Pauli limiting behaviour (PLB) with B_c2(0) approximately 63 T. We compare our results with B_c2(T)-data from the literature for clean and disordered samples. Whereas clean samples show almost no PLB for fields below 60 to 70 T, the hitherto unexplained pronounced flattening of B_c2(T) for applied fields H II ab observed for several disordered closely related systems is interpreted also as a manifestation of PLB. Consequences are discussed in terms of disorder effects within the frames of (un)conventional superconductivity, respectively.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures, submitted to M2S Tokyo 0

Screening for impact of popular herbs improving mental abilities on the transcriptional level of brain transporters

There are a number of compounds that can modify the activity of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) and solute carrier (SLC) transporters in the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of natural and synthetic substances on the expression level of genes encoding transporters present in the BBB (mdr1a, mdr1b, mrp1, mrp2, oatp1a4, oatp1a5 and oatp1c1). Our results showed that verapamil caused the greatest reduction in the mRNA level while other synthetic (piracetam, phenobarbital) and natural (codeine, cyclosporine A, quercetin) substances showed a selective inhibitory effect. Moreover, extract from roots of Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer exhibited a decrease of transcription against selected transporters whereas extract from Ginkgo biloba L. leaves resulted in an increase of the expression level of tested genes except for mrp2. Extract from aerial parts of Hypericum perforatum L. was the only one to cause an increased mRNA level for mdr1 and oatp1c1. These findings suggest that herbs can play an important role in overcoming the BBB and multidrug resistance against pharmacotherapy of brain cancer and mental disorders, based on the activity of selected drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters located in the BBB

High-dimensional analysis reveals distinct endotypes in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies

The idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are a rare clinically heterogeneous group of conditions affecting the skin, muscle, joint, and lung in various combinations. While myositis specific autoantibodies are well described, we postulate that broader immune endotypes exist in IIM spanning B cell, T cell, and monocyte compartments. This study aims to identify immune endotypes through detailed immunophenotyping of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in IIM patients compared to healthy controls. We collected PBMCs from 17 patients with a clinical diagnosis of inflammatory myositis and characterized the B, T, and myeloid cell subsets using mass cytometry by time of flight (CyTOF). Data were analyzed using a combination of the dimensionality reduction algorithm t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE), cluster identification, characterization, and regression (CITRUS), and marker enrichment modeling (MEM); supervised biaxial gating validated populations identified by these methods to be differentially abundant between groups. Using these approaches, we identified shared immunologic features across all IIM patients, despite different clinical features, as well as two distinct immune endotypes. All IIM patients had decreased surface expression of RP105/CD180 on B cells and a reduction in circulating CD3+CXCR3+ subsets relative to healthy controls. One IIM endotype featured CXCR4 upregulation across all cellular compartments. The second endotype was hallmarked by an increased frequency of CD19+CD21loCD11c+ and CD3+CD4+PD1+ subsets. The experimental and analytical methods we describe here are broadly applicable to studying other immune-mediated diseases (e.g., autoimmunity, immunodeficiency) or protective immune responses (e.g., infection, vaccination)