Properties of Synemin, a Protein Important in Maintaining the Structural Integrity of Muscle Cells

Intermediate filaments (IFs), composed primarily of the protein desmin, link together the myofibrils in skeletal muscle. We have shown that the protein synemin is a novel IF protein and that it interacts with desmin. Together, these proteins are important in maintaining the structural integrity of muscle cells

Dilemma In Development, Education And Employment: An Analysis Of Zimbabwe, Tanzania And Kenya

A Zambezia journal article.1979 was a year of impending change — change that was without form or concept. Speculation was rife while planners anxiously awaited policy direction. At that time we felt the need to point out certain realities in Zimbabwe’s education and employment potentiality, and to distinguish facts from the fantasies. In this paper we have identified four major premises which underlie existing educational and employment strategies. We call these ‘conventional wisdoms’; and in them we have tried to pin down the implicit assumptions which too often are taken as ‘givens’. These conventional wisdoms can be summarized as follows: 1. Resources to satisfy the demand for education will be available when the war stops and aid flows in. 2. Education will generate the required wealth and development. 3. People are unemployed because they do not have enough education or training. 4. In the fields of education and employment all that we need to solve our development problems is more of the same

The Relationship of Early-Life Adversity With Adulthood Weight and Cardiometabolic Health Status in the 1946 National Survey of Health and Development

OBJECTIVE: Evidence linking early-life adversity with an adverse cardiometabolic profile in adulthood is equivocal. This study investigates early-life adversity in relation to weight and cardiometabolic health status at ages 60 to 64 years. METHODS: We included 1059 individuals from the 1946 National Survey of Health and Development. Data on adversity between ages 0 to 15 years were used to create a cumulative childhood psychosocial adversity score and a socioeconomic adversity score. Cardiometabolic and weight/height data collected at ages 60 to 64 years were used to create four groups: metabolically healthy normal weight, metabolically unhealthy normal weight, metabolically healthy overweight/obese, and metabolically unhealthy overweight/obese. Associations between the two exposure scores and weight/health status were examined using multinomial logistic regression, with adjustment for sex and age at the outcome visit. RESULTS: Sixty-two percent of normal-weight individuals were metabolically healthy, whereas only 34% of overweight/obese individuals were metabolically healthy. In a mutually adjusted model including both exposure scores, a psychosocial score of ≥3 (compared with 0) was associated with increased risk of being metabolically unhealthy (compared with healthy) in both normal-weight adults (relative risk = 2.49; 95% confidence interval = 0.87–7.13) and overweight/obese adults (1.87; 0.96–3.61). However, the socioeconomic adversity score was more strongly related to metabolic health status in overweight/obese adults (1.60; 0.98–2.60) than in normal-weight adults (0.95; 0.46–1.96). CONCLUSIONS: Independently of socioeconomic adversity, psychosocial adversity in childhood may be associated with a poor cardiometabolic health profile, in both normal-weight and overweight/obese adults. Childhood adversity might cause obesity via the adoption of unhealthy behaviors. It might also cause poor cardiometabolic health, either via obesity or via another pathway (e.g., altered stress response). Robson et al. found that childhood adversity was associated with poor cardiometabolic health at ages 60 to 64 years, in both normal-weight and overweight/obese adults. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms by which childhood adversity might affect cardiometabolic health without necessarily increasing body weight

Continuous Leg Cycling Ergometry Prescribed at Identical Relative Power Output Elicits Different Physiological Responses Versus Arm Cycle Ergometry

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare physiological and perceptual responses to progressive moderate intensity continuous exercise (MICE) between leg (LCE) and arm cycle ergometry (ACE). METHODS: Seventeen active men and women (age and percent body fat = 26 ± 7 yr and 18 ± 3 %) initially performed graded exercise on each modality to assess maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) and peak power output (PPO). Using a randomized crossover design, they subsequently performed 45 min of MICE consisting of three 15 min bouts at 20, 40, and 60 % PPO on each modality. Gas exchange data (VO2, VCO2, VE, and respiratory exchange ratio (RER), heart rate (HR), blood lactate concentration (BLa), affective valence, and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were acquired during each bout. RESULTS: Compared to ACE, LCE revealed significantly higher (p \u3c 0.05) peak (94 ± 6 vs. 88 ± 9 %HRmax, d = 0.81) and mean HR (73 ± 6 vs. 66 ± 6 %HRmax, d = 1.20) and VO2 (54 ± 5 vs. 50 ± 7 %VO2max, d = 0.68). Time spent above 70 (22 ± 7 vs. 15 ± 8 min, d = 1.03) and 80 %HRmax (15 ± 6 vs. 9 ± 6 min, d = 1.04) was significantly greater with LCE versus ACE. LCE revealed significantly higher BLa versus ACE (5.5 ± 2.0 vs. 4.7 ± 1.5 mM, d = 0.48). CONCLUSIONS: These results exhibit that progressive leg cycling at identical intensities elicits a greater cardiometabolic stimulus than arm ergometry. Moreover, leg cycling leads to greater duration spent at intensities between 70 – 89 %VO2max which may have application to selecting specific exercise modes when prescribing MICE to increase cardiorespiratory fitness. Lastly, use of %PPO led to participants being classified in different intensity domains which merits prescribing MICE according to various threshold measures rather than relative intensities acquired from incremental exercise

Detection of Cosmic Microwave Background Structure in a Second Field with the Cosmic Anisotropy Telescope

We describe observations at frequencies near 15 GHz of the second 2x2 degree field imaged with the Cambridge Cosmic Anisotropy Telescope (CAT). After the removal of discrete radio sources, structure is detected in the images on characteristic scales of about half a degree, corresponding to spherical harmonic multipoles in the approximate range l= 330--680. A Bayesian analysis confirms that the signal arises predominantly from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation for multipoles in the lower half of this range; the average broad-band power in a bin with centroid l=422 (theta = 51') is estimated to be Delta_T/T=2.1^{+0.4}_{-0.5} x 10^{-5}. For multipoles centred on l=615 (theta =35'), we find contamination from Galactic emission is significant, and constrain the CMB contribution to the measured power in this bin to be Delta_T/T <2.0 x 10^{-5} (1-sigma upper limit). These new results are consistent with the first detection made by CAT in a completely different area of sky. Together with data from other experiments, this new CAT detection adds weight to earlier evidence from CAT for a downturn in the CMB power spectrum on scales smaller than 1 degree. Improved limits on the values of H_0 and Omega are determined using the new CAT data.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures (gif), submitted to MNRA

The relationship of childhood adversity with diurnal cortisol patterns and C-reactive protein at 60-64 years of age in the 1946 National Survey of Health and Development

Background: Early life adversity is increasingly prevalent and associated with greater morbidity and mortality. It is hypothesised that the link between psychosocial early life adversity and poor health in adulthood is due to abnormal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning (often measured as cortisol patterning) and inflammation (often measured via c-reactive protein (CRP)). This study aimed to investigate the relationship between early life psychosocial adversity and cortisol patterning and CRP at 60-64 years of age. / Methods: The MRC National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD) was used. The analytic “cortisol sample” included 843 individuals and the “CRP sample” included 1,150 individuals. Data on adversity experienced between ages 0-15 years were utilised to compose a cumulative childhood psychosocial early life adversity (ELA) score (0, 1, 2, 3+). CRP and salivary cortisol (waking, 30 min after waking, and evening) were collected at 60-64 years. Associations between the psychosocial ELA score and cortisol outcomes (cortisol awakening response (CAR), diurnal slope (DS), and evening and morning cortisol) were assessed using general linear regression. Tobit regression was used to assess the association between psychosocial ELA score and CRP. Adjustments were made for age at follow-up, sex, childhood maternal education, childhood paternal social class, childhood housing tenure, and birth weight. After testing for sex by ELA score interactions, analyses were repeated stratified by sex for the CRP sample. / Results: In fully adjusted models, individuals who experienced the highest level of childhood psychosocial adversity (3+) had a 24.63 (-41.49, -7.76) % lower waking cortisol and a 7.30 (1.49, 13.12) % lower decline in cortisol across the day compared to those with a psychosocial ELA score of zero. In females, the highest level of childhood psychosocial adversity, compared to the lowest, was associated with 32.61 (2.98, 62.25) % higher CRP at 60-64 years, which attenuated to 20.38% (-9.38, 50.14) upon adjustment for measures of early life socioeconomic position. Conversely, the association between childhood psychosocial adversity and CRP in males was null. / Conclusions: Our results suggest that high-levels of psychosocial adversity in childhood might result in a lower morning cortisol and flatter DS in mid-to-late-adulthood. The finding that adversity was related to higher CRP in females but not males requires replication and further investigation

30 years of multi-wavelength observations of 3C 273

We present a wide multi-wavelength database of most observations of the quasar 3C 273 obtained during the last 30 years. This database is the most complete set of observations available for an active galactic nucleus (AGN). It contains nearly 20'000 observations grouped together into 70 light curves covering 16 orders of magnitude in frequency from the radio to the gamma-ray domain. The database is constituted of many previously unpublished observations and of most publicly available data gathered in the literature and on the World Wide Web (WWW). It is complete to the best of our knowledge, except in the optical (UBV) domain where we chose not to add all observations from the literature. In addition to the photometric data, we present the spectra of 3C 273 obtained by the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite. In the X-ray domain, we used the spectral fit parameters from the literature to construct the light curves. Apart from describing the data, we show the most representative light curves and the average spectrum of 3C 273. The database is available on the WWW in a homogeneous and clear form and we wish to update it regularly by adding new observations.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, to be published in A&AS, data available at: http://obswww.unige.ch/3c273

The Unfulfilled Potential of Data-Driven Decision Making in Agile Software Development

With the general trend towards data-driven decision making (DDDM), organizations are looking for ways to use DDDM to improve their decisions. However, few studies have looked into the practitioners view of DDDM, in particular for agile organizations. In this paper we investigated the experiences of using DDDM, and how data can improve decision making. An emailed questionnaire was sent out to 124 industry practitioners in agile software developing companies, of which 84 answered. The results show that few practitioners indicated a widespread use of DDDM in their current decision making practices. The practitioners were more positive to its future use for higher-level and more general decision making, fairly positive to its use for requirements elicitation and prioritization decisions, while being less positive to its future use at the team level. The practitioners do see a lot of potential for DDDM in an agile context; however, currently unfulfilled

Extreme alpha-clustering in the 18O nucleus

The structure of the 18O nucleus at excitation energies above the alpha decay threshold was studied using 14C+alpha resonance elastic scattering. A number of states with large alpha reduced widths have been observed, indicating that the alpha-cluster degree of freedom plays an important role in this N not equal Z nucleus. However, the alpha-cluster structure of this nucleus is very different from the relatively simple pattern of strong alpha-cluster quasi-rotational bands in the neighboring 16O and 20Ne nuclei. A 0+ state with an alpha reduced width exceeding the single particle limit was identified at an excitation energy of 9.9+/-0.3 MeV. We discuss evidence that states of this kind are common in light nuclei and give possible explanations of this feature.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Resubmission with minor changes for clarity, including removal of one figur