Understanding the Growth in Welfare Benefit Receipt in Britain: A Review of the Evidence

This paper summarises the conclusions from a more extensive report commissioned by the Treasury and the Ministry of Social Policy to provide an explanation of growth in welfare benefit receipt in Britain in the period 1971 to 1997. The study is structured around a simple heuristic model of four sets of influences, 'drivers', the interaction of which helps to explain trends in claimant caseloads: the economy, demography, welfare institutions and belief systems. Four sets of claimants are considered: unemployed people, disabled people, retirement pensioners and children and families. It assembles a widely dispersed literature, in the first comprehensive review of the evidence on this issue. The conclusions reported here are supported in the full report by a wide range of data and analyses. The full report has been extensively edited, updated, reformatted and published in September 2000 by the Policy Press at the University of Bristol, under the title The Making of A Welfare Class? Benefit receipt in Britain, by Robert Walker with Marilyn Howard. Details of this publication may be obtained through the link to the Policy Press website: http://www.bris.ac.uk/Publications/TPP/catalog.htm The study concludes that, while caseloads increased across the four domains, they did so for very different reasons. While the process of de-industrialisation provided an important back-cloth to all the changes, it was only directly implicated as a major influence in the growth of unemployment related benefits. The upward trends in disability benefits were principally a reflection of the greater social awareness of the personal costs of disability, while the growth in benefits pertaining to the family was very largely a response to changing social attitudes and sexual behaviour. Demography, notably increased longevity, explains the observed growth in pensioner caseloads although the balance between contributory and means-tested pensions was the result of foresighted policy decisions made between the 1940s and 1970s.

The journey to work – a barrier to older workers

According to the National Audit Office, transport difficulties are one of the barriers to employment experienced by people aged 50 plus. Huber and Skidmore suggest that “the happiest grannies are those who achieved a balance of caring and part-time work.” However, difficult conflicts may arise for older workers regarding work location, travel arrangements, mode of travel, family or caring commitments, and the need for leisure time and a well-earned degree of freedom and flexibility. The journey to work is being investigated as a part of “Working Late”, a 4-year collaborative research project funded by the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme. Following evidence from discussion groups with domain experts, employer representatives and older workers, a questionnaire survey was conducted, both online and paper based, to quantify the scale of the problem. More focussed interviews then contribute towards design solutions and strategies which will support personally sustainable travel and well-being, not just for older people but for all employees

Evaluation of Education Maintenance Allowance Pilots : Leeds and London first year evidence

This report refers to findings from the first year of the EMA pilot in Leeds and London, which was September 1999 to August 2000

Associations between Maternal Cadmium Exposure with Risk of Preterm Birth and Low Birth Weight: Effect of Mediterranean Diet Adherence on Affected Prenatal Outcomes

Prenatal cadmium exposure at non-occupational levels has been associated with poor birth outcomes. The intake of essential metals, such as iron and selenium, may mitigate cadmium exposure effects. However, at high levels, these metals can be toxic. The role of dietary patterns rich in these metals is less studied. We used a linear and logistic regression in a cohort of 185 mother–infant pairs to assess if a Mediterranean diet pattern during pregnancy modified the associations between prenatal cadmium exposure and (1) birth weight and (2) preterm birth. We found that increased cadmium exposure during pregnancy was associated with lower birth weight (β = −210.4; 95% CI: −332.0, −88.8; p = 0.008) and preterm birth (OR = 0.11; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.72; p = 0.04); however, these associations were comparable in offspring born to women reporting high adherence to a Mediterranean diet (β = −274.95; 95% CI: −701.17, 151.26; p = 0.20) and those with low adherence (β = −64.76; 95% CI: −359.90, 230.37; p = 0.66). While the small sample size limits inference, our findings suggest that adherence to a Mediterranean dietary pattern may not mitigate cadmium exposure effects. Given the multiple organs targeted by cadmium and its slow excretion rate, larger studies are required to clarify these findings

E-cadherin can limit the transforming properties of activating β-catenin mutations

Wnt pathway deregulation is a common characteristic of many cancers. But only Colorectal Cancer predominantly harbours mutations in APC, whereas other cancer types (hepatocellular carcinoma, solid pseudopapillary tumours of pancreas) have activating mutations in β-catenin (CTNNB1). We have compared the dynamics and the potency of β-catenin mutations in vivo. Within the murine small intestine (SI), an activating mutation of β-catenin took much longer to achieve a Wnt deregulation and acquire a crypt-progenitor-cell (CPC) phenotype than Apc or Gsk3 loss. Within the colon, a single activating mutation of β-catenin was unable to drive Wnt deregulation or induce the CPC phenotype. This ability of β-catenin mutation to differentially transform the SI versus the colon correlated with significantly higher expression of the β-catenin binding partner E-cadherin. This increased expression is associated with a higher number of E-cadherin:β-catenin complexes at the membrane. Reduction of E-cadherin synergised with an activating mutation of β-catenin so there was now a rapid CPC phenotype within the colon and SI. Thus there is a threshold of β-catenin that is required to drive transformation and E-cadherin can act as a buffer to prevent β-catenin accumulation

Assaying microglia functions in vitro

Microglia, the main immune modulators of the central nervous system, have key roles in both the developing and adult brain. These functions include shaping healthy neuronal networks, carrying out immune surveillance, mediating inflammatory responses, and disposing of unwanted material. A wide variety of pathological conditions present with microglia dysregulation, highlighting the importance of these cells in both normal brain function and disease. Studies into microglial function in the context of both health and disease thus have the potential to provide tremendous insight across a broad range of research areas. In vitro culture of microglia, using primary cells, cell lines, or induced pluripotent stem cell derived microglia, allows researchers to generate reproducible, robust, and quantifiable data regarding microglia function. A broad range of assays have been successfully developed and optimised for characterizing microglial morphology, mediation of inflammation, endocytosis, phagocytosis, chemotaxis and random motility, and mediation of immunometabolism. This review describes the main functions of microglia, compares existing protocols for measuring these functions in vitro, and highlights common pitfalls and future areas for development. We aim to provide a comprehensive methodological guide for researchers planning to characterise microglial functions within a range of contexts and in vitro models

Periconceptional Maternal Mediterranean Diet Is Associated With Favorable Offspring Behaviors and Altered CpG Methylation of Imprinted Genes

Background: Maternal diet during pregnancy has been shown to influence the child neuro-developmental outcomes. Studies examining effects of dietary patterns on offspring behavior are sparse.Objective: Determine if maternal adherence to a Mediterranean diet is associated with child behavioral outcomes assessed early in life, and to evaluate the role of differentially methylated regions (DMRs) regulating genomically imprinted genes in these associations.Methods: Among 325 mother/infant pairs, we used regression models to evaluate the association between tertiles of maternal periconceptional Mediterranean diet adherence (MDA) scores derived from a Food Frequency Questionnaire, and social and emotional scores derived from the Infant Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (ITSEA) questionnaire in the second year of life. Methylation of nine genomically imprinted genes was measured to determine if MDA was associated with CpG methylation.Results: Child depression was inversely associated with maternal MDA (Bonferroni-corrected p = 0.041). While controlling for false-discovery, compared to offspring of women with the lowest MDA tertile, those with MDA scores in middle and high MDA tertiles had decreased odds for atypical behaviors [OR (95% CI) = 0.40 (0.20, 0.78) for middle and 0.40 (0.17, 0.92) for highest tertile], for maladaptive behaviors [0.37 (0.18, 0.72) for middle tertile and 0.42 (0.18, 0.95) for highest tertile] and for an index of autism spectrum disorder behaviors [0.46 (0.23, 0.90) for middle and 0.35 (0.15, 0.80) for highest tertile]. Offspring of women with the highest MDA tertile were less likely to exhibit depressive [OR = 0.28 (0.12, 0.64)] and anxiety [0.42 (0.18, 0.97)] behaviors and increased odds of social relatedness [2.31 (1.04, 5.19)] behaviors when compared to low MDA mothers. Some associations varied by sex. Perinatal MDA score was associated with methylation differences for imprinted control regions of PEG10/SGCE [females: Beta (95% CI) = 1.66 (0.52, 2.80) – Bonferroni-corrected p = 0.048; males: -0.56 (-1.13, -0.00)], as well as both MEG3 and IGF2 in males [0.97 (0.00, 1.94)] and -0.92 (-1.65, -0.19) respectively.Conclusion: In this ethnically diverse cohort, maternal adherence to a Mediterranean diet in early pregnancy was associated with favorable neurobehavioral outcomes in early childhood and with sex-dependent methylation differences of MEG3, IGF2, and SGCE/PEG10 DMRs