43 research outputs found
Leadership in the British civil service: an interpretation
This article is essentially a polemic. The argument is that when politicians and officials now talk of ‘leadership’ in the British civil service they do not use that word in the way in which it was previously used. In the past leading civil servants, acting in partnership with ministers and within constitutional constraints, exercised leadership in the sense of setting example, inspiring confidence and encouraging loyalty. The loosening of traditional constitutional patterns, the marginalization of senior officials in the policy process and the emergence of business methods as the preferred model for public Âadministration have led to a political and administrative environment in which leadership in the British civil service is now about encouraging patterns of behaviour which fit in with these changes. Leadership skills are now about ‘delivery’; they are not about motivation. It is time for politicians, officials and scholars to be open about this
Rare Decays of \Lambda_b->\Lambda + \gamma and \Lambda_b ->\Lambda + l^{+} l^{-} in the Light-cone Sum Rules
Within the Standard Model, we investigate the weak decays of and with the light-cone
sum rules approach. The higher twist distribution amplitudes of
baryon to the leading conformal spin are included in the sum rules for
transition form factors. Our results indicate that the higher twist
distribution amplitudes almost have no influences on the transition form
factors retaining the heavy quark spin symmetry, while such corrections can
result in significant impacts on the form factors breaking the heavy quark spin
symmetry. Two phenomenological models (COZ and FZOZ) for the wave function of
baryon are also employed in the sum rules for a comparison, which can
give rise to the form factors approximately 5 times larger than that in terms
of conformal expansion. Utilizing the form factors calculated in LCSR, we then
perform a careful study on the decay rate, polarization asymmetry and
forward-backward asymmetry, with respect to the decays of , .Comment: 38 pages, 15 figures, some typos are corrected and more references
are adde
Flavor Changing processes in Quarkonium Decays
We study flavor changing processes and in the B factories and the Tau-Charm factories. In the
standard model, these processes are predicted to be unobservable, so they serve
as a probe of the new physics. We first perform a model independent analysis,
then examine the predictions of models; such as TopColor models, MSSM with
R-parity violation and the two Higgs doublet model; for the branching ratios of
and . We find that
these branching ratios could be as large as and in the
presence of new physics.Comment: Minor changes in the last section. Latex 22 pages, one figure. To
appear in Phys. Rev.
Recommendations for clinical interpretation of variants found in non-coding regions of the genome
Background
The majority of clinical genetic testing focuses almost exclusively on regions of the genome that directly encode proteins. The important role of variants in non-coding regions in penetrant disease is, however, increasingly being demonstrated, and the use of whole genome sequencing in clinical diagnostic settings is rising across a large range of genetic disorders. Despite this, there is no existing guidance on how current guidelines designed primarily for variants in protein-coding regions should be adapted for variants identified in other genomic contexts.
Methods
We convened a panel of nine clinical and research scientists with wide-ranging expertise in clinical variant interpretation, with specific experience in variants within non-coding regions. This panel discussed and refined an initial draft of the guidelines which were then extensively tested and reviewed by external groups.
Results
We discuss considerations specifically for variants in non-coding regions of the genome. We outline how to define candidate regulatory elements, highlight examples of mechanisms through which non-coding region variants can lead to penetrant monogenic disease, and outline how existing guidelines can be adapted for the interpretation of these variants.
Conclusions
These recommendations aim to increase the number and range of non-coding region variants that can be clinically interpreted, which, together with a compatible phenotype, can lead to new diagnoses and catalyse the discovery of novel disease mechanisms
Size Doesn't Matter: Towards a More Inclusive Philosophy of Biology
notes: As the primary author, O’Malley drafted the paper, and gathered and analysed data (scientific papers and talks). Conceptual analysis was conducted by both authors.publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticlePhilosophers of biology, along with everyone else, generally perceive life to fall into two broad categories, the microbes and macrobes, and then pay most of their attention to the latter. ‘Macrobe’ is the word we propose for larger life forms, and we use it as part of an argument for microbial equality. We suggest that taking more notice of microbes – the dominant life form on the planet, both now and throughout evolutionary history – will transform some of the philosophy of biology’s standard ideas on ontology, evolution, taxonomy and biodiversity. We set out a number of recent developments in microbiology – including biofilm formation, chemotaxis, quorum sensing and gene transfer – that highlight microbial capacities for cooperation and communication and break down conventional thinking that microbes are solely or primarily single-celled organisms. These insights also bring new perspectives to the levels of selection debate, as well as to discussions of the evolution and nature of multicellularity, and to neo-Darwinian understandings of evolutionary mechanisms. We show how these revisions lead to further complications for microbial classification and the philosophies of systematics and biodiversity. Incorporating microbial insights into the philosophy of biology will challenge many of its assumptions, but also give greater scope and depth to its investigations
Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age: Secondary Distance Indicators
The formal division of the distance indicators into primary and secondary leads to difficulties in description of methods which can actually be used in two ways: with, and without the support of the other methods for scaling. Thus instead of concentrating on the scaling requirement we concentrate on all methods of distance determination to extragalactic sources which are designated, at least formally, to use for individual sources. Among those, the Supernovae Ia is clearly the leader due to its enormous success in determination of the expansion rate of the Universe. However, new methods are rapidly developing, and there is also a progress in more traditional methods. We give a general overview of the methods but we mostly concentrate on the most recent developments in each field, and future expectations. © 2018, The Author(s)