The Scottish economy [July 1981]

The current economic situation is extremely depressed and recent events suggest that, without significant increases in economic activity, the political and social fabric of this country may be several strained. However, as argued in the UK section, the prospects for recovery are bleak and reliance on a purely financial strategy to restore growth is in itself inadequate. The source of real economic growth lies in the ability of labour, capital and enterprise to come together in a manner conducive to increased productivity over time. It is therefore worthwhile examining these factors of production to determine the effect of current policies upon them

Analysis of data elements in cancer registries for defining single consistent clinical dataset

Cancer registries provide information for cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment. However, collecting detailed data required by each of the registries causes problems for the front line clinicians who have to record the information. Defining a single consistent dataset including all required data would reduce the effort involved in data collection. The aim of this study was to compare datasets in multiple cancer registries and to clarify the differences between them, to explore the possibility of defining a single consistent clinical dataset for cancer. Prostate cancer was selected as an exemplar target. All data elements from five cancer registries in UK were categorized in six groups: demographics, referral, imaging, diagnosis, treatment, and miscellaneous. The definitions of data elements were checked in detail by the first author. A domain expert judged the relationship between similar elements and explained the reason for the judgements when it was not clear.As a result, a set of unique data elements was created by eliminating overlaps in data elements. In addition, similar but distinct data elements were grouped together. The total number of data elements (451) was reduced by 22% from the simple sum (581) of the entries in each registry. There are large differences in treatment and miscellaneous, which reflects the interests of each registry. Although the ratios vary by groups, from 40% (25/62) for demographics to 83% (33/40) for referral, it is anticipated that the single consistent clinical dataset will improve the efficiency of data gathering

Review of the quarter's economic trends [October 1981]

In the second quarter of 1981 the index of industrial production for the United Kingdom was 8% below its level for the corresponding period in 1980. This notwithstanding, there do appear to be signs that the bottom of the output trough may now have been reached. This brief section will seek to understand the latest UK and world economic data to determine current economic conditions and forecasts future trends

The world economy [April 1979]

In the January issue of the Commentary is was pointed out that the mildly favourable prospects for world economic growth in 1979 were overshadowed by some political uncertainties, notably the prospect of disruptions to the supply of oil and the growth of protectionism. While the volume of world trade, as measured by the utilisation rates of dry cargo shipping, has continued to improve since the trough of June, 1978, there have been further less favourable political developments. This brief considers the impact of these developments and analyses the latest economic data

Translational Control through eIF2alpha Phosphorylation during the Leishmania Differentiation Process

The parasitic protozoan Leishmania alternates between an invertebrate and a mammalian host. Upon their entry to mammalian macrophages, Leishmania promastigotes differentiate into amastigote forms within the harsh environment of the phagolysosomal compartment. Here, we provide evidence for the importance of translational control during the Leishmania differentiation process. We find that exposure of promastigotes to a combined elevated temperature and acidic pH stress, a key signal triggering amastigote differentiation, leads to a marked decrease in global translation initiation, which is associated with eIF2α phosphorylation. Interestingly, we show that amastigotes adapted to grow in a cell-free medium exhibit lower levels of protein synthesis in comparison to promastigotes, suggesting that amastigotes have to enter a slow growth state to adapt to the stressful conditions encountered inside macrophages. Reconversion of amastigotes back to promastigote growth results in upregulation of global translation and a decrease in eIF2α phosphorylation. In addition, we show that while general translation is reduced during amastigote differentiation, translation of amastigote-specific transcripts such as A2 is preferentially upregulated. We find that A2 developmental gene regulation is triggered by temperature changes in the environment and that occurs mainly at the level of translation. Upon elevated temperature, the A2 transcript is stabilized through its association with polyribosomes leading to high levels of translation. When temperature decreases during amastigote to promastigote differentiation, the A2 transcript is not longer associated with translating polyribosomes and is being gradually degraded. Overall, these findings contribute to our better understanding of the adaptive responses of Leishmania to stress during its development and highlight the importance of translational control in promastigote to amastigote differentiation and vice-versa

Measurement of the transverse target and beam-target asymmetries in η\eta meson photoproduction at MAMI

We present new data for the transverse target asymmetry T and the very first data for the beam-target asymmetry F in the $\vec \gamma \vec p\to\eta p$ reaction up to a center-of-mass energy of W=1.9 GeV. The data were obtained with the Crystal-Ball/TAPS detector setup at the Glasgow tagged photon facility of the Mainz Microtron MAMI. All existing model predictions fail to reproduce the new data indicating a significant impact on our understanding of the underlying dynamics of $\eta$ meson photoproduction. The peculiar nodal structure observed in existing T data close to threshold is not confirmed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in PR

Occurrence of delirium is severely underestimated in the ICU during daily care

Delirium is associated with prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay and higher mortality. Therefore, the recognition of delirium is important. We investigated whether intensivists and ICU nurses could clinically identify the presence of delirium in ICU patients during daily care. All ICU patients in a 3-month period who stayed for more than 48 h were screened daily for delirium by attending intensivists and ICU nurses. Patients were screened independently for delirium by a trained group of ICU nurses who were not involved in the daily care of the patients under study. The Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU (CAM-ICU) was used as a validated screening instrument for delirium. Values are expressed as median and interquartile range (IQR; P25-P75). During the study period, 46 patients (30 male, 16 female), median age 73 years (IQR = 64-80), with an ICU stay of 6 days (range 4-11) were evaluated. CAM-ICU scores were obtained during 425 patient days. Considering the CAM-ICU as the reference standard, delirium occurred in 50% of the patients with a duration of 3 days (range 1-9). Days with delirium were poorly recognized by doctors (sensitivity 28.0%; specificity 100%) and ICU nurses (sensitivity 34.8%; specificity 98.3%). Recognition did not differ between hypoactive or active status of the patients involved. Delirium is severely under recognized in the ICU by intensivists and ICU nurses in daily care. More attention should be paid to the implementation of a validated delirium-screening instrument during daily ICU car

T and F asymmetries in π0 photoproduction on the proton

The γp→π0p reaction was studied at laboratory photon energies from 425 to 1445 MeV with a transversely polarized target and a longitudinally polarized beam. The beam-target asymmetry F was measured for the first time and new high precision data for the target asymmetry T were obtained. The experiment was performed at the photon tagging facility of the Mainz Microtron (MAMI) using the Crystal Ball and TAPS photon spectrometers. The polarized cross sections were expanded in terms of associated Legendre functions and compared to recent predictions from several partial-wave analyses. The impact of the new data on our understanding of the underlying partial-wave amplitudes and baryon resonance contributions is discussed