Setting the STAGES:Introduction to the Special Issue

For now, this Special Issue is one of a kind. Each piece grows directly out of the cross-institutional network between the University of St Andrews (STA), the University of Glasgow (G), and the University of Edinburgh (E)’s Security studies (S) programmes. Together, we have created the acronym STAGES to capture these ongoing collaborations. In August 2018, we, as a small group of colleagues working at each contributing university started to discuss how our master students can learn more about security beyond the confines of their separate classrooms. As Jorge M. Lasma writes, ‘In many cases, classrooms have slowly come to be seen as the only domains for learning. Other forms and channels of learning and knowledge are viewed with suspicion and sometimes even discouraged for fear of higher costs’ (2013, p. 369). Challenging this idea, we set out to create a collective project to allow different students, with their own unique opinions and viewpoints on security, to meet one another to share their ideas in open, honest and lived ways

Electronic clinical decision support tool for assessing stomach symptoms in primary care (ECASS): a feasibility study

Objective: To determine the feasibility of a definitive trial in primary care of electronic clinical decision support (eCDS) for possible oesophago-gastric (O-G) cancer. Design and setting: Feasibility study in 42 general practices in two regions of England, cluster randomised controlled trial design without blinding, nested qualitative and health economic evaluation. Participants: Patients aged 55 years or older, presenting to their general practitioner (GP) with symptoms associated with O-G cancer. 530 patients (mean age 68 years, 58% female) participated. Intervention: Practices randomised 1:1 to usual care (control) or to receive a previously piloted eCDS tool for suspected cancer (intervention), for use at the discretion of the GPs, supported by a theory-based implementation package and ongoing support. We conducted semistructured interviews with GPs in intervention practices. Recruitment lasted 22 months. Outcomes: Patient participation rate, use of eCDS, referrals and route to diagnosis, O-G cancer diagnoses; acceptability to GPs; cost-effectiveness. Participants followed up 6 months after index encounter. Results: From control and intervention practices, we screened 3841 and 1303 patients, respectively; 1189 and 434 were eligible, 392 and 138 consented to participate. Ten patients (1.9%) had O-G cancer. eCDS was used eight times in total by five unique users. GPs experienced interoperability problems between the eCDS tool and their clinical system and also found it did not fit with their workflow. Unexpected restrictions on software installation caused major problems with implementation. Conclusions: The conduct of this study was hampered by technical limitations not evident during an earlier pilot of the eCDS tool, and by regulatory controls on software installation introduced by primary care trusts early in the study. This eCDS tool needed to integrate better with clinical workflow; even then, its use for suspected cancer may be infrequent. Any definitive trial of eCDS for cancer diagnosis should only proceed after addressing these constraints. Trial registration number: ISRCTN125595588

The Joint IOC (of UNESCO) and WMO collaborative effort for met-ocean services

The Joint Committee for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM), a joint technical commission of IOC of UNESCO and WMO, has devised a coordination mechanism for the fit-for-purpose delivery of an end-to-end system, from ocean observations to met-ocean operational services. This paper offers a complete overview of the activities carried out by JCOMM and the status of the achievements up to 2017. The JCOMM stakeholders are the WMO Members and the IOC Member States, their research and operational Institutions, which mandated JCOMM to devise an international strategy to advance toward the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The three activity areas, namely the Observation Program Area-OPA, the Data Management Program Area-DMPA and the Services and Forecasting Services Program Area-SFSPA have established several expert teams to contribute to the international coordination. OPA is organized in observing networks connected with different observing technologies, DMPA organizes the overall near-real time and delayed mode data assembly and delivery methodology and architecture and the SFSPA coordinates the met-ocean services stemming out of observations and data management. The future developments should strengthen the coordination in the three program areas considering the inclusion of new and emergent observing technologies, the interoperability of met-ocean data assembly centers and the establishment of efficient research to operations protocols, as well as better fit-for-purpose customized services for the public and private sectors

Factors Associated With Sexual Coercion in a Representative Sample of Men in Australian Prisons

Very little research has focused on men or prisoners as victims of sexual violence. This study provides the first population-based analysis of factors associated with sexual coercion of men in Australian prisons, and the first to use a computer-assisted telephone interview to collect this information in a prison setting. A random sample of men in New South Wales and Queensland prisons were surveyed using computer-assisted telephone interviewing. We asked participants about sexual coercion, defined as being forced or frightened into doing something sexually that was unwanted while in prison. Associations between sexual coercion in prison and sociodemographics, sexual coercion history outside of prison, and prison-related factors were examined. Logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios in examining factors associated with sexual coercion in prisons. Of 2626 eligible men, 2000 participated. Participants identifying as non-heterosexual and those with a history of sexual coercion outside prison were found to be most at risk. Those in prison for the first time and those who had spent more than 5 years in prison ever were also more likely to report sexual coercion. Although prison policies and improving prison officer training may help address immediate safety and health concerns of those at risk, given the sensitivity of the issue and likely under-reporting to correctional staff, community-based organizations and prisoner peer-based groups arguably have a role too in providing both preventive and trauma-focused support

The Joint IOC (of UNESCO) and WMO collaborative effort for Met-Ocean services

The WMO-IOC Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) has devised a coordination mechanism for the fit-for-purpose delivery of an end-to-end system, from ocean observations to met-ocean operational services. This paper offers a complete overview of the activities carried out by JCOMM and the status of the achievements up to 2018. The JCOMM stakeholders consist of the research and operational institutions of WMO members and the IOC member states, which mandated JCOMM to devise an international strategy to move toward the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The three areas of activity are the Observation Program Area (OPA), the Data Management Program Area (DMPA) and the Services and Forecasting Services Program Area (SFSPA), and several expert teams have been established to contribute to the international coordination efforts. OPA is organized into observing networks connected by different observing technologies, DMPA organizes the overall near-real time and delayed mode data assembly, and the delivery methodology and architecture, and the SFSPA coordinates the met-ocean services resulting from the observations and data management. Future developments should enhance coordination in these three program areas by considering the inclusion of new and emergent observing technologies, the interoperability of met-ocean data assembly centers and the establishment of efficient research to operations protocols, in addition to better fit-for-purpose customized services in both the public and private sectors

CropPol: a dynamic, open and global database on crop pollination

Seventy five percent of the world's food crops benefit from insect pollination. Hence, there has been increased interest in how global change drivers impact this critical ecosystem service. Because standardized data on crop pollination are rarely available, we are limited in our capacity to understand the variation in pollination benefits to crop yield, as well as to anticipate changes in this service, develop predictions, and inform management actions. Here, we present CropPol, a dynamic, open and global database on crop pollination. It contains measurements recorded from 202 crop studies, covering 3,394 field observations, 2,552 yield measurements (i.e. berry weight, number of fruits and kg per hectare, among others), and 47,752 insect records from 48 commercial crops distributed around the globe. CropPol comprises 32 of the 87 leading global crops and commodities that are pollinator dependent. Malus domestica is the most represented crop (32 studies), followed by Brassica napus (22 studies), Vaccinium corymbosum (13 studies), and Citrullus lanatus (12 studies). The most abundant pollinator guilds recorded are honey bees (34.22% counts), bumblebees (19.19%), flies other than Syrphidae and Bombyliidae (13.18%), other wild bees (13.13%), beetles (10.97%), Syrphidae (4.87%), and Bombyliidae (0.05%). Locations comprise 34 countries distributed among Europe (76 studies), Northern America (60), Latin America and the Caribbean (29), Asia (20), Oceania (10), and Africa (7). Sampling spans three decades and is concentrated on 2001-05 (21 studies), 2006-10 (40), 2011-15 (88), and 2016-20 (50). This is the most comprehensive open global data set on measurements of crop flower visitors, crop pollinators and pollination to date, and we encourage researchers to add more datasets to this database in the future. This data set is released for non-commercial use only. Credits should be given to this paper (i.e., proper citation), and the products generated with this database should be shared under the same license terms (CC BY-NC-SA). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

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

College Bound in Middle School and High School: How Math Course Sequences Matter

Research shows that success in high-level mathematics in high school predicts postsecondary success and careers in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Similarly, students' academic successes in middle school can determine their performance in high school

Security in a Small Nation

The 2014 Referendum on Scottish independence sparked debate on every dimension of modern statehood. Levels of public interest and engagement were unprecedented, as demonstrated by record-breaking voter turnout. Yet aside from Trident, the issue of security was relatively neglected in the campaigns, and there remains a lack of literature on the topic. In this volume Andrew Neal has collated a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives on security and constitutional change in Scotland and the UK, including writing from experts in foreign policy analysis, intelligence studies, parliamentary studies, and journalism. Security in a Small Nation provides an illuminating analysis of the politics of security. Its authors reflect on a number of related issues including international comparisons, alliances, regional coopera on, terrorism, intelligence sharing, democratic oversight, and media coverage. It has a particular focus on what security means for small states and democratic politics. The book draws on current debates about the extent of intelligence powers and their implications for accountability, privacy, and human rights. It examines the foreign and security policy of other small states through the prism of Scottish independence, providing unique insight into the bureaucratic and political processes associated with multi-level security governance. These contributions provide a detailed picture of the changing landscape of security, including the role of diverse and decentralised agencies, and new security interdependencies within and between states. The analysis presented in this book will inform ongoing constitutional debates in the UK and the study of other secessionist movements around the world. Security in a Small Nation is essential reading for any follower of UK and Scottish politics, and those with an interest in security and nationhood on a global scale.Dedicated to the memory of Alyson J. K. Baile