Widespread association between the ericoid mycorrhizal fungus Rhizoscyphus ericae and a leafy liverwort in the maritime and sub-Antarctic

A recent study identified a fungal isolate from the Antarctic leafy liverwort Cephaloziella varians as the ericoid mycorrhizal associate Rhizoscyphus ericae. However, nothing is known about the wider Antarctic distribution of R. ericae in C. varians, and inoculation experiments confirming the ability of the fungus to form coils in the liverwort are lacking. Using direct isolation and baiting with Vaccinium macrocarpon seedlings, fungi were isolated from C. varians sampled from eight sites across a 1875-km transect through sub- and maritime Antarctica. The ability of an isolate to form coils in aseptically grown C. varians was also tested. Fungi with 98–99% sequence identity to R. ericae internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and partial large subunit ribosomal (r)DNA sequences were frequently isolated from C. varians at all sites sampled. The EF4/Fung5 primer set did not amplify small subunit rDNA from three of five R. ericae isolates, probably accounting for the reported absence of the fungus from C. varians in a previous study. Rhizoscyphus ericae was found to colonize aseptically-grown C. varians intracellularly, forming hyphal coils. This study shows that the association between R. ericae and C. varians is apparently widespread in Antarctica, and confirms that R. ericae is at least in part responsible for the formation of the coils observed in rhizoids of field-collected C. varians

Routine activities and proactive police activity: a macro-scale analysis of police searches in London and New York City

This paper explored how city-level changes in routine activities were associated with changes in frequencies of police searches using six years of police records from the London Metropolitan Police Service and the New York City Police Department. Routine activities were operationalised through selecting events that potentially impacted on (a) the street population, (b) the frequency of crime or (c) the level of police activity. OLS regression results indicated that routine activity variables (e.g. day of the week, periods of high demand for police service) can explain a large proportion of the variance in search frequency throughout the year. A complex set of results emerged, revealing cross-national dissimilarities and the differential impact of certain activities (e.g. public holidays). Importantly, temporal frequencies in searches are not reducible to associations between searches and recorded street crime, nor changes in on-street population. Based on the routine activity approach, a theoretical police-action model is proposed

(In)formalization and the civilizing process : applying the work of Norbert Elias to housing-based anti-social behaviour interventions in the UK

This paper uses Norbert Elias's theory of the civilizing process to examine trends in social conduct in the UK and to identify how problematic “anti‐social” behaviour is conceptualized and governed through housing‐based mechanisms of intervention. The paper describes how Elias's concepts of the formalization and informalization of conduct and the construction of established and outsider groups provide an analytical framework for understanding social relations. It continues by discussing how de‐civilizing processes are also evident in contemporary society, and are applied to current policy discourse around Respect and anti‐social behaviour. The paper uses the governance of “anti‐social” conduct through housing mechanisms in the UK to critique the work of Elias and concludes by arguing that a revised concept of the civilizing process provides a useful analytical framework for future studies

Knowledge Graph Alignment as a Service

Researchers and practitioners in the field of knowledge graphs rely on a variety of tools to perform knowledge graph alignment. In order to broaden the domain of a knowledge scientist, the process of aligning knowledge graphs must be accessible to a broader range of users, and in a way that can scale to meet the needs of a growing userbase. This paper presents a cloud-based, language agnostic approach that aims at providing knowledge graph alignment tooling at scale

The English City Riots of 2011, "Broken Britain" and the retreat into the present

The responses to the English city riots of 2011 bear a remarkable resemblance to those of historical urban disorders in terms of the way in which they are framed by concerns over "moral decline", "social malaise" and a "lack of self-restraint" among certain sections of the population. In this paper we draw on the work of Norbert Elias and take a long-term perspective in exploring historical precedents and parallels relating to urban disorder and anti-social behaviour. We reject the notion of "Broken Britain" and argue that a more "detached" perspective is necessary in order to appreciate that perceived crises of civilisation are ubiquitous to the urban condition. Through this historical analysis, framed by Elias' theory of involvement and detachment, we present three key arguments. Firstly, that a 'retreat into the present' is evident among both policy discourse and social science in responding to contemporary urban disorder, giving rise to ahistorical accounts and the romanticisation of previous eras; secondly, that particular moral panics have always arisen, specifically focused upon young and working class populations and urban disorder; and, thirdly, that previous techniques of governance to control these populations were often far more similar to contemporary mechanisms than many commentaries suggest. We conclude by advocating a long-term, detached perspective in discerning historical precedents and their direct linkages to the present; and in identifying what is particular about today's concerns and responses relating to urban disorder

The impacts of feral boar on woodland flora and fauna in Great Britain

Mayle, B., Harmer, R., Kewitt, A., Peace, A., Straw, N., Williams, D., Upson, M

Douching or Perineal Talc Use and Prevalent Fibroids in Young African American Women

Background: Black women are at an increased risk of developing fibroids, but the cause is unclear. Douching and perineal talc use are common lifestyle exposures among Black women, and may be risk factors for fibroid development. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study consisted of Black women 23-35 years of age in the metropolitan Detroit area (n = 1693) without prior diagnoses of fibroids and intact uteri. Main exposures were ever douching (yes/no) and any perineal talc use (ever/never). Main outcomes were prevalent fibroids at baseline (yes/no) and total fibroid volume at baseline (no fibroids/<median total volume (2.00 cm3)/≥median total volume). We used log binomial regression to estimate prevalence ratios (PRs) and confidence intervals (95% CI) for fibroid prevalence and multinomial logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CI for total fibroid volume. Result(s): Fibroid prevalence was 23%. Forty-three percent of women reported ever douching and 15% reported ever using perineal talc. We did not observe an association between ever douching and fibroid prevalence [PR (95% CI):1.05 (0.89-1.23)] or total fibroid volume [OR (95% CI) ≤2:00 cm3: 1.04 (0.66-1.42)] and [OR (95% CI) ≥2:00 cm3: 1.06 (0.77-1.44)]. Women who ever used perineal talc had an increased prevalence of fibroids [PR (95% CI): 1.19 (0.97-1.46)]. This association was seen with both large and small total fibroid volume [OR (95% CI) volume ≤2:00 cm3: 1.23 (0.81-1.86)] and [OR (95% CI) volume ≥2:00 cm3: 1.39 (0.93-2.09)]. Conclusion(s): Our results suggest that perineal talc use is associated with increased fibroid prevalence. Additional research is warranted to investigate perineal talc in relation to fibroid risk in a prospective setting and to conduct laboratory work on potential tumorigenic effects of talc in the myometrium

Collection of Epithelial Cells from Rodent Mammary Gland Via Laser Capture Microdissection Yielding High-Quality RNA Suitable for Microarray Analysis

Laser capture microdissection (LCM) enables collection of cell populations highly enriched for specific cell types that have the potential of yielding critical information about physiological and pathophysiological processes. One use of cells collected by LCM is for gene expression profiling. Samples intended for transcript analyses should be of the highest quality possible. RNA degradation is an ever-present concern in molecular biological assays, and LCM is no exception. This paper identifies issues related to preparation, collection, and processing in a lipid-rich tissue, rodent mammary gland, in which the epithelial to stromal cell ratio is low and the stromal component is primarily adipocytes, a situation that presents numerous technical challenges for high-quality RNA isolation. Our goal was to improve the procedure so that a greater probe set present call rate would be obtained when isolated RNA was evaluated using Affymetrix microarrays. The results showed that the quality of RNA isolated from epithelial cells of both mammary gland and mammary adenocarcinomas was high with a probe set present call rate of 65% and a high signal-to-noise ratio

Evaluating post 2024 election scenarios for the UK based on political party manifestos

Manifestos provide a vision for political parties to enact if elected to government. While manifestos may not be enacted in full, they provide some of the best information for the public in deciding how to vote. However, manifestos tend to contain both enactable policies (e.g., tax cuts) and outcomes or visions of what these policies may achieve for society (e.g., higher disposal income). These outcomes may be deliberately misleading, inaccurate or only a partial picture of how policies will materialise, as it is unlikely a single policy will influence a single outcome. This work creates a complex system model of the economic, societal and environmental landscape of the UK and assesses how it would be affected if political parties enacted their 2024 general election manifesto policies in full. Our model creates a more complete picture of how the UK may look under different parties, rather than examining the manifestos alone (using data solely from manifestos almost 30% of our model’s node values had no information, falling to just 5% after running the models).The model also has the capacity to provide a holistic reflection of the parties manifesto plans, illustrating the impacts each party’s policies could have, should they be enacted. Prior to integrated analysis the most right-wing of the parties studied; Reform UK, aligned strongly with the Conservative party, however, post analysis Reform became a clear outlier. We also demonstrate unintended, misreported or indirect effects of policies. Most notably, parties who had the strongest tax cutting policies resulted in lower average incomes and higher levels of inequality in society, despite the rhetoric provided for these policies in the party manifestos. The results demonstrate the ability to integrate multiple types of information across political, economic, environmental, and social landscapes to help visualise implications of policy and politics more widely