The cultural divide in Europe: migration, multiculturalism, and political trust

One of the defining features of modern states is their incorporation of notions of political and social community based on shared language, history, and myths. However, large numbers of citizens in modern states have come to believe their national communities are under threat from several modern forces, including immigration. Using the European Social Survey (2002-2009), this paper explores the extent to which perceived threats posed by large-scale immigration undermine national political communities by reducing trust in national politicians and political institutions. The findings indicate that even after controlling for other predictors of trust in the political system, concerns about the effect of immigration on the national community have an impact on trust in politics. Moreover, having a lengthy post-war history with mass immigration mediates this effect, while the potentially mobilizing effects of far-right parties on the relationship between concern about immigration and political distrust are somewhat limited

Explaining Opposition to Turkish Membership of the EU

This article examines EU citizen attitudes to Turkey's bid to join the EU. The key theoretical constructs investigated to explain opposition to Turkey's EU membership are related to rational economic self-interest and group-level interests and concerns. The findings indicate that the former are irrelevant for distinguishing between opponents and supporters of Turkey's candidacy, while the latter do provide fairly powerful explanations for opposition to Turkish EU membership. However, because these factors do not completely explain overall levels of hostility to Turkey's candidacy, context is also introduced, particularly the threatening context provided by Turkish migration. The findings indicate that migration from Turkey to some of the EU member states has combined with feelings of group protectiveness to produce widespread animosity to Turkey's entry into the EU

Immigration and trust in politics in Britain

This paper argues that a previously overlooked explanation for varying individual-levels of political trust is concern about immigration. Focusing on the case of Britain, where levels of opposition to immigration have remained high since the 1960s and yet the implications of such opposition are still unclear, this paper examines the effect of concern about immigration on political trust. Using the pre- and post-election panel component of the 2005 British Election Study and the 2002-3 European Social Survey, we illustrate that after controlling for a wide range of other predictors of trust in politics, concerns about the impact of immigration significantly affect political trust. In addition, in 2005 the perception that government had not handled the issue of immigration effectively also significantly affected political trust, with both linear and interactive effects

Immigration and trust in politics in Britain

This paper argues that a previously overlooked explanation for varying individual-levels of political trust is concern about immigration. Focusing on the case of Britain, where levels of opposition to immigration have remained high since the 1960s and yet the implications of such opposition are still unclear, this paper examines the effect of concern about immigration on political trust. Using the pre- and post-election panel component of the 2005 British Election Study and the 2002-3 European Social Survey, we illustrate that after controlling for a wide range of other predictors of trust in politics, concerns about the impact of immigration significantly affect political trust. In addition, in 2005 the perception that government had not handled the issue of immigration effectively also significantly affected political trust, with both linear and interactive effects

Targeted SERS nanosensors measure physicochemical gradients and free energy changes in live 3D tumor spheroids.

Use of multicellular tumor spheroids (MTS) to investigate therapies has gained impetus because they have potential to mimic factors including zonation, hypoxia and drug-resistance. However, analysis remains difficult and often destroys 3D integrity. Here we report an optical technique using targeted nanosensors that allows in situ 3D mapping of redox potential gradients whilst retaining MTS morphology and function. The magnitude of the redox potential gradient can be quantified as a free energy difference (ΔG) and used as a measurement of MTS viability. We found that by delivering different doses of radiotherapy to MTS we could correlate loss of ΔG with increasing therapeutic dose. In addition, we found that resistance to drug therapy was indicated by an increase in ΔG. This robust and reproducible technique allows interrogation of an in vitro tumor-model's bioenergetic response to therapy, indicating its potential as a tool for therapy development.Leverhulme Trust (Grant ID: RPG-2012-680), Jamie King Cancer Research FundThis is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the Royal Society of Chemistry via http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C6NR06031

Analysis of the outer retinal bands in ABCA4 and PRPH2-associated retinopathy using OCT

Purpose: To evaluate the outer retinal bands using OCT in ABCA4- and PRPH2-associated retinopathy and develop a novel imaging biomarker to differentiate between these 2 genotypes. Design: Multicenter case-control study. Participants: Patients with a clinical and genetic diagnosis of ABCA4- or PRPH2-associated retinopathy and an age-matched control group. Methods: Macular OCT was used to measure the thickness of the outer retinal bands 2 and 4 by 2 independent examiners at 4 retinal loci. Main Outcome Measures: Outcome measures included the thicknesses of band 2, band 4, and the band 2/band 4 ratio. Linear mixed modeling was used to make comparisons across the 3 groups. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis determined the optimal cutoff for the band 2/band 4 ratio to distinguish PRPH2- from ABCA4-associated retinopathy. Results: We included 45 patients with ABCA4 variants, 45 patients with PRPH2 variants, and 45 healthy controls. Band 2 was significantly thicker in patients with PRPH2 compared with ABCA4 (21.4 vs. 15.9 m, P \u3c 0.001) variants, whereas band 4 was thicker in patients with ABCA4 variants than those with PRPH2 variants (27.5 vs. 21.7 m, P \u3c 0.001). Similarly, the band 2/band 4 ratio was significantly different (1.0 vs. 0.6 for PRPH2 vs. ABCA4, P \u3c 0.001). The area under the ROC curve was 0.87 for either band 2 ( \u3e 18.58 m) or band 4 ( \u3c 26.17 μm) alone and 0.99 (95% confidence interval: 0.97–0.99) for the band 2/band 4 ratio with a cutoff threshold of 0.79, providing 100% specificity. Conclusions: We report an altered outer retinal band profile whereby the band 2/band 4 ratio was able to discriminate between PRPH2- and ABCA4-associated retinopathy. This may have future clinic utility in predicting the genotype and provide further insight into the anatomic correlate of band 2. Financial Disclosure(s): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article

Global change effects on plant communities are magnified by time and the number of global change factors imposed

Global change drivers (GCDs) are expected to alter community structure and consequently, the services that ecosystems provide. Yet, few experimental investigations have examined effects of GCDs on plant community structure across multiple ecosystem types, and those that do exist present conflicting patterns. In an unprecedented global synthesis of over 100 experiments that manipulated factors linked to GCDs, we show that herbaceous plant community responses depend on experimental manipulation length and number of factors manipulated. We found that plant communities are fairly resistant to experimentally manipulated GCDs in the short term (<10 y). In contrast, long-term (≥10 y) experiments show increasing community divergence of treatments from control conditions. Surprisingly, these community responses occurred with similar frequency across the GCD types manipulated in our database. However, community responses were more common when 3 or more GCDs were simultaneously manipulated, suggesting the emergence of additive or synergistic effects of multiple drivers, particularly over long time periods. In half of the cases, GCD manipulations caused a difference in community composition without a corresponding species richness difference, indicating that species reordering or replacement is an important mechanism of community responses to GCDs and should be given greater consideration when examining consequences of GCDs for the biodiversity–ecosystem function relationship. Human activities are currently driving unparalleled global changes worldwide. Our analyses provide the most comprehensive evidence to date that these human activities may have widespread impacts on plant community composition globally, which will increase in frequency over time and be greater in areas where communities face multiple GCDs simultaneously

Retinal Dystrophies Associated With Peripherin-2: Genetic Spectrum and Novel Clinical Observations in 241 Patients

PURPOSE: To describe the clinical, electrophysiological and genetic spectrum of inherited retinal diseases associated with variants in the PRPH2 gene. METHODS: A total of 241 patients from 168 families across 15 sites in 9 countries with pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in PRPH2 were included. Records were reviewed for age at symptom onset, visual acuity, full-field ERG, fundus colour photography, fundus autofluorescence (FAF), and SD-OCT. Images were graded into six phenotypes. Statistical analyses were performed to determine genotype-phenotype correlations. RESULTS: The median age at symptom onset was 40 years (range, 4-78 years). FAF phenotypes included normal (5%), butterfly pattern dystrophy, or vitelliform macular dystrophy (11%), central areolar choroidal dystrophy (28%), pseudo-Stargardt pattern dystrophy (41%), and retinitis pigmentosa (25%). Symptom onset was earlier in retinitis pigmentosa as compared with pseudo-Stargardt pattern dystrophy (34 vs 44 years; P = 0.004). The median visual acuity was 0.18 logMAR (interquartile range, 0-0.54 logMAR) and 0.18 logMAR (interquartile range 0-0.42 logMAR) in the right and left eyes, respectively. ERG showed a significantly reduced amplitude across all components (P \u3c 0.001) and a peak time delay in the light-adapted 30-Hz flicker and single-flash b-wave (P \u3c 0.001). Twenty-two variants were novel. The central areolar choroidal dystrophy phenotype was associated with 13 missense variants. The remaining variants showed marked phenotypic variability. CONCLUSIONS: We described six distinct FAF phenotypes associated with variants in the PRPH2 gene. One FAF phenotype may have multiple ERG phenotypes, demonstrating a discordance between structure and function. Given the vast spectrum of PRPH2 disease our findings are useful for future clinical trials

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead