Tacit knowledge and the biological weapons regime

Bioterrorism has become increasingly salient in security discourse in part because of perceived changes in the capacity and geography of life science research. Yet its salience is founded upon a framing of changes in science and security that does not always take into consideration the somewhat slippery concept of ‘tacit knowledge’, something poorly understood, disparately conceptualised and often marginalised in discussions on state and non-state biological weapons programmes. This paper looks at how changes in science and technology—particularly the evolution of information and communications technology—has contributed to the partial erosion of aspects of tacit knowledge and the implications for the biological weapons regime. This paper concludes by arguing that the marginalisation of tacit knowledge weakens our understanding of the difficulties encountered in biological weapons programmes and can result in distorted perceptions of the threat posed by dual-use biotechnology in the 21st century

Targeting the ATP-dependent formation of herpesvirus ribonucleoprotein particle assembly as an antiviral approach

Human herpesviruses are responsible for a range of debilitating acute and recurrent diseases, including a number of malignancies. Current treatments are limited to targeting the herpesvirus DNA polymerases, however with emerging viral resistance and little efficacy against the oncogenic herpesviruses, there is an urgent need for new antiviral strategies. Herein we describe a mechanism to inhibit the replication of the oncogenic herpesvirus Kaposi’s sarcoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV), by targeting the ATP-dependent formation of viral ribonucleoprotein particles (vRNPs). We demonstrate that small molecule inhibitors which selectively inhibit the ATPase activity of the cellular human transcription/export complex (hTREX) protein UAP56, result in effective inhibition of vRNP formation, viral lytic replication and infectious virion production. Strikingly, as all human herpesviruses utilize conserved mRNA processing pathways involving hTREX components, we demonstrate the feasibility of this approach for pan-herpesvirus inhibition

A variable amplitude fretting fatigue life estimation technique: formulation and experimental validation

The aims of the research work summarised in this paper are twofold. The first goal is to make available a large number of new experimental results generated by testing specimens of grey cast iron under both constant and variable amplitude fretting fatigue loading. The second goal is to formulate an advanced fretting fatigue design approach based on the combined use of the Modified Wӧhler Curve Method, the Theory of Critical Distances and the Shear Stress-Maximum Variance Method. The validation exercise based on the experimental results being produced demonstrates that the proposed methodology is a powerful tool suitable for designing mechanical assemblies against fretting fatigue

Integrated management of a Swiss cropland is not sufficient to preserve its soil carbon pool in the long term

Croplands are involved in the exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) between the atmosphere and the biosphere. Furthermore, soil carbon (C) stocks play an important role in soil fertility. It is thus of great interest to know whether intensively managed croplands act as a net source or sink of atmospheric CO2 and if soil C stocks are preserved over long timescales. The FluxNet site CH-Oe2 in Oensingen, Switzerland, has been operational since the end of 2003. This cropland is managed under the Swiss framework of the Proof of Ecological Performance (PEP, a variant of integrated management) with a crop rotation centred on winter wheat, which also includes winter barley, winter rapeseed, peas, potato and intermediate cover crops. In addition to eddy covariance measurements, meteorological and soil measurements were available along with information on C imports and exports from organic fertilisation, sowing and harvesting. This study investigates cropland C budgets over 13 years and assesses whether the PEP regulations resulted in a balanced C budget. The strongest CO2 uptake was observed during cereal seasons. C export through harvest, however, offset the strong uptake of the cereal crops. The largest net CO2 emissions to the atmosphere were observed during pea and cover crop seasons. Net biome production, representing the overall C budget (assuming carbon leaching to groundwater to be negligible), typically ranged between close to C neutral to C losses of up to 407&thinsp;g&thinsp;C&thinsp;m−2 per season, with peas being the largest source. Overall, the field lost 1674&thinsp;g&thinsp;C&thinsp;m−2 over 13 years (129&thinsp;g&thinsp;C&thinsp;m−2&thinsp;yr−1), which was confirmed by soil C stock measurements at the beginning and the end of the study period. Although managing the field under the regulations of PEP did not result in an overall C sink, model simulations showed that the use of cover crops reduced the C losses compared to leaving the field bare. The use of solid manure improved the C budget by importing substantial amounts of C into the soil, while liquid manure had only a small effect. We thus conclude that additional efforts are needed to bring Swiss management practices closer to the goal of preserving soil C in the long term.</p

The Cornwall a-book: An Augmented Travel Guide Using Next Generation Paper

Electronic publishing usually presents readers with book or e-book options for reading on paper or screen. In this paper, we introduce a third method of reading on paper-and-screen through the use of an augmented book (‘a-book’) with printed hotlinks than can be viewed on a nearby smartphone or other device. Two experimental versions of an augmented guide to Cornwall are shown using either optically recognised pages or embedded electronics making the book sensitive to light and touch. We refer to these as second generation (2G) and third generation (3G) paper respectively. A common architectural framework, authoring workflow and interaction model is used for both technologies, enabling the creation of two future generations of augmented books with interactive features and content. In the travel domain we use these features creatively to illustrate the printed book with local multimedia and updatable web media, to point to the printed pages from the digital content, and to record personal and web media into the book

Gut microbiomes from Gambian infants reveal the development of a non-industrialized Prevotella-based trophic network.

Funder: Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges New Interventions in Global Health awardFunder: MRC Unit The Gambia/MRC International Nutrition Group by the UK MRC and the UK Department for the International DevelopmentDistinct bacterial trophic networks exist in the gut microbiota of individuals in industrialized and non-industrialized countries. In particular, non-industrialized gut microbiomes tend to be enriched with Prevotella species. To study the development of these Prevotella-rich compositions, we investigated the gut microbiota of children aged between 7 and 37 months living in rural Gambia (616 children, 1,389 stool samples, stratified by 3-month age groups). These infants, who typically eat a high-fibre, low-protein diet, were part of a double-blind, randomized iron intervention trial (NCT02941081) and here we report the secondary outcome. We found that child age was the largest discriminating factor between samples and that anthropometric indices (collection time points, season, geographic collection site, and iron supplementation) did not significantly influence the gut microbiome. Prevotella copri, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Prevotella stercorea were, on average, the most abundant species in these 1,389 samples (35%, 11% and 7%, respectively). Distinct bacterial trophic network clusters were identified, centred around either P. stercorea or F. prausnitzii and were found to develop steadily with age, whereas P. copri, independently of other species, rapidly became dominant after weaning. This dataset, set within a critical gut microbial developmental time frame, provides insights into the development of Prevotella-rich gut microbiomes, which are typically understudied and are underrepresented in western populations

Gut microbiomes from Gambian infants reveal the development of a non-industrialized Prevotella-based trophic network.

Funder: Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges New Interventions in Global Health awardFunder: MRC Unit The Gambia/MRC International Nutrition Group by the UK MRC and the UK Department for the International DevelopmentDistinct bacterial trophic networks exist in the gut microbiota of individuals in industrialized and non-industrialized countries. In particular, non-industrialized gut microbiomes tend to be enriched with Prevotella species. To study the development of these Prevotella-rich compositions, we investigated the gut microbiota of children aged between 7 and 37 months living in rural Gambia (616 children, 1,389 stool samples, stratified by 3-month age groups). These infants, who typically eat a high-fibre, low-protein diet, were part of a double-blind, randomized iron intervention trial (NCT02941081) and here we report the secondary outcome. We found that child age was the largest discriminating factor between samples and that anthropometric indices (collection time points, season, geographic collection site, and iron supplementation) did not significantly influence the gut microbiome. Prevotella copri, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Prevotella stercorea were, on average, the most abundant species in these 1,389 samples (35%, 11% and 7%, respectively). Distinct bacterial trophic network clusters were identified, centred around either P. stercorea or F. prausnitzii and were found to develop steadily with age, whereas P. copri, independently of other species, rapidly became dominant after weaning. This dataset, set within a critical gut microbial developmental time frame, provides insights into the development of Prevotella-rich gut microbiomes, which are typically understudied and are underrepresented in western populations

Population level usage of health services, and HIV testing and care, prior to decentralization of antiretroviral therapy in Agago District in rural Northern Uganda: Additional Files

A study protocol developed to investigate health service usage, particularly HIV testing and care, in 2/6 parishes of the Lapono sub-county of northern Uganda, prior to introduction of AntiRetroviral Therapy (ART) services in Lira Kato Health Centre (a local lower-level health centre III). The protocol consists of household and individual questionnaires which were administered to members of each household. These captured individual demographic and health-related information on adults (aged 15–59 years) and socioeconomic data on children living in each household. The protocol was approved by the Joint Clinical Research Centre/Research Ethical Committee (JCRC/REC), Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) and Office of the President of the Republic of Uganda