The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014: implications for sex workers and their clients

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 introduced new powers to deal with behaviour deemed to be ‘anti-social’. In this paper we consider how the new law could be used against sex workers and their clients and the impact this may have. Although the new powers were not intentionally designed to respond to prostitution, we suggest that they will be utilised to tackle it. We argue that the law will be used inconsistently in a way which will go directly against policy which seeks to ‘tackle demand’ and take a less punitive approach to dealing with sex workers. Despite a policy shift to see sex workers more as victims and less as offenders, we draw on existing evidence to demonstrate that the new anti-social behaviour order law will be utilised to exclude street sex workers from public spaces. We claim that a degree of ‘policy re-fraction’ will occur when the new laws are implemented by practitioners

Comparison of spirometry criteria for the diagnosis of COPD: results from the BOLD study

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldPublished guidelines recommend spirometry to accurately diagnose chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, even spirometry-based COPD prevalence estimates can vary widely. We compared properties of several spirometry-based COPD definitions using data from the international Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD)study. 14 sites recruited population-based samples of adults aged > or =40 yrs. Procedures included standardised questionnaires and post-bronchodilator spirometry. 10,001 individuals provided usable data. Use of the lower limit of normal (LLN) forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio reduced the age-related increases in COPD prevalence that are seen among healthy never-smokers when using the fixed ratio criterion (FEV(1)/FVC <0.7) recommended by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. The added requirement of an FEV(1) either <80% predicted or below the LLN further reduced age-related increases and also led to the least site-to-site variability in prevalence estimates after adjusting for potential confounders. Use of the FEV(1)/FEV(6) ratio in place of the FEV(1)/FVC yielded similar prevalence estimates. Use of the FEV(1)/FV

Media representation of regulated incivilities: Relevant actors, problems, solutions and the role played by experts in the Flemish press

This article analyses the representations of regulated nuisance in a section of Flemish newspapers over time. It identifies the groups of people who have been successful in conveying messages in and through Flemish press news, and explores the way they have represented problems of, and suggested solutions to, regulated incivilities over the years. Furthermore, against the backdrop of newsmaking criminology, it considers whether and how crime and justice experts have contributed to shaping the Flemish media discourse on regulated incivilities over time. Overall the analysis of press news has found that the press, by giving coverage to the voices of local institutional actors, has promoted the criminalization of nuisance and, especially, of physical incivilities. The views of criminological experts, by contrast, have remained marginal. The article concludes by suggesting how such findings present a new set of empirical and conceptual challenges for newsmaking criminology, and more generally, for public criminology

The impact of COPD on health status: findings from the BOLD study

The aim of this study was to describe the impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on health status in the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) populations. We conducted a cross-sectional, general population-based survey in 11 985 subjects from 17 countries. We measured spirometric lung function and assessed health status using the Short Form 12 questionnaire. The physical and mental health component scores were calculated. Subjects with COPD (post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s/forced vital capacity <0.70, n = 2269) had lower physical component scores (44±10 versus 48±10 units, p<0.0001) and mental health component scores (51±10 versus 52±10 units, p = 0.005) than subjects without COPD. The effect of reported heart disease, hypertension and diabetes on physical health component scores (-3 to -4 units) was considerably less than the effect of COPD Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease grade 3 (-8 units) or 4 (-11 units). Dyspnoea was the most important determinant of a low physical and mental health component scores. In addition, lower forced expiratory volume in 1 s, chronic cough, chronic phlegm and the presence of comorbidities were all associated with a lower physical health component score. COPD is associated with poorer health status but the effect is stronger on the physical than the mental aspects of health status. Severe COPD has a greater negative impact on health status than self-reported cardiovascular disease and diabetes

Distinguishing Asthma Phenotypes Using Machine Learning Approaches.

Asthma is not a single disease, but an umbrella term for a number of distinct diseases, each of which are caused by a distinct underlying pathophysiological mechanism. These discrete disease entities are often labelled as asthma endotypes. The discovery of different asthma subtypes has moved from subjective approaches in which putative phenotypes are assigned by experts to data-driven ones which incorporate machine learning. This review focuses on the methodological developments of one such machine learning technique-latent class analysis-and how it has contributed to distinguishing asthma and wheezing subtypes in childhood. It also gives a clinical perspective, presenting the findings of studies from the past 5 years that used this approach. The identification of true asthma endotypes may be a crucial step towards understanding their distinct pathophysiological mechanisms, which could ultimately lead to more precise prevention strategies, identification of novel therapeutic targets and the development of effective personalized therapies

The linker histone H1.0 generates epigenetic and functional intratumor heterogeneity

Tumors comprise functionally diverse subpopulations of cells with distinct proliferative potential. Here, we show that dynamic epigenetic states defined by the linker histone H1.0 determine which cells within a tumor can sustain the long-term cancer growth. Numerous cancer types exhibit high inter- and intratumor heterogeneity of H1.0, with H1.0 levels correlating with tumor differentiation status, patient survival, and, at the single-cell level, cancer stem cell markers. Silencing of H1.0 promotes maintenance of self-renewing cells by inducing derepression of megabase-sized gene domains harboring downstream effectors of oncogenic pathways. Self-renewing epigenetic states are not stable, and reexpression of H1.0 in subsets of tumor cells establishes transcriptional programs that restrict cancer cells’ long-term proliferative potential and drive their differentiation. Our results uncover epigenetic determinants of tumor-maintaining cells

Different genes interact with particulate matter and tobacco smoke exposure in affecting lung function decline in the general population

BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress related genes modify the effects of ambient air pollution or tobacco smoking on lung function decline. The impact of interactions might be substantial, but previous studies mostly focused on main effects of single genes. OBJECTIVES: We studied the interaction of both exposures with a broad set of oxidative-stress related candidate genes and pathways on lung function decline and contrasted interactions between exposures. METHODS: For 12679 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), change in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV(1)), FEV(1) over forced vital capacity (FEV(1)/FVC), and mean forced expiratory flow between 25 and 75% of the FVC (FEF(25-75)) was regressed on interval exposure to particulate matter >10 microm in diameter (PM10) or packyears smoked (a), additive SNP effects (b), and interaction terms between (a) and (b) in 669 adults with GWAS data. Interaction p-values for 152 genes and 14 pathways were calculated by the adaptive rank truncation product (ARTP) method, and compared between exposures. Interaction effect sizes were contrasted for the strongest SNPs of nominally significant genes (p(interaction)>0.05). Replication was attempted for SNPs with MAF<10% in 3320 SAPALDIA participants without GWAS. RESULTS: On the SNP-level, rs2035268 in gene SNCA accelerated FEV(1)/FVC decline by 3.8% (p(interaction) = 2.5x10(-6)), and rs12190800 in PARK2 attenuated FEV1 decline by 95.1 ml p(interaction) = 9.7x10(-8)) over 11 years, while interacting with PM10. Genes and pathways nominally interacting with PM10 and packyears exposure differed substantially. Gene CRISP2 presented a significant interaction with PM10 (p(interaction) = 3.0x10(-4)) on FEV(1)/FVC decline. Pathway interactions were weak. Replications for the strongest SNPs in PARK2 and CRISP2 were not successful. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with a stratified response to increasing oxidative stress, different genes and pathways potentially mediate PM10 and tobac smoke effects on lung function decline. Ignoring environmental exposures would miss these patterns, but achieving sufficient sample size and comparability across study samples is challengin