Singular memory or institutional memories? Toward a dynamic approach

The ability of the civil service to act as a reservoir of institutional memory is central to the pragmatic task of governing. But there is a growing body of scholarship that suggests the bureaucracy is failing at this core task. In this article, we distinguish between two different ways of thinking about institutional memory: one “static” and one “dynamic.” In the former, memory is singular and held in document form, especially by files and procedures. In the latter, memories reside with people and are thus dispersed across the array of actors that make up the differentiated polity. Drawing on four policy examples from three countries, we argue that a more dynamic understanding of the way institutions remember is both empirically salient and normatively desirable. We conclude that the current conceptualization of institutional memory needs to be recalibrated to fit the types of policy learning practices required by modern collaborative governance.... thanks are due to the Australia and New Zealand School of Government for the grant that funded the research, and to the Institute for the Study of Social Change at the University of Tasmania for its support. Some initial research assistance was provided by Thomas Butler. Heather Lovell would also like to thank the Australian Research Council, which part funded the Victorian Smart Meter case under its Future Fellowships program—Project ID FT140100646

Albumin concentrations are primarily determined by the body cell mass and the systemic inflammatory response in cancer patients with weight loss

The association between hypoalbuminemia and poor prognosis in patients with cancer is well recognized. However, the factors that contribute to the fall in albumin concentrations are not well understood. In the present study, we examined the relationship between circulating albumin concentrations, weight loss, the body cell mass (measured using total body potassium), and the presence of an inflammatory response (measured using C- reactive protein) in male patients (n=40) with advanced lung or gastrointestinal cancer. Albumin concentrations were significantly correlated with the percent ideal body weight (r=0.390, p lt 0.05), extent of reported weight loss (r=-0.492, p lt 0.01), percent predicted total body potassium (adjusted for age, height, and weight, r=0.686, p lt 0.001), and logo C-reactive protein concentrations (r=-0.545, p lt 0.001). On multiple regression analysis, the percent predicted total body potassium and log(10) C-reactive protein concentrations accounted for 63% of the variation in albumin concentrations (r(2) = 0.626, p lt 0.001). The interrelationship between albumin, body cell mass, and the inflammatory response is consistent with the concept that the presence of an ongoing inflammatory response contributes to the progressive loss of these vital protein components of the body and the subsequent death of patients with advanced cancer

Cognition and the brain of brood parasitic cowbirds.

Cowbirds are brood parasites. Females lay their eggs in the nests of other species, which then incubate the cowbird eggs and raise the young cowbirds. Finding and returning to heterospecific nests presents cowbirds with several cognitive challenges. In some species, such as brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater), females but not males search for and remember the locations of potential host nests. We describe recent research on sex differences in cognition and the hippocampus associated with this sex difference in search for host nests. Female brown-headed cowbirds perform better than males on some, but not all, tests of spatial memory and females show a pattern of adult hippocampal neurogenesis not found in males or in closely related non-parasitic birds. Because of the apparent specialization of the hippocampus, brown-headed cowbirds may be a good model in which to examine spatial information processing in the avian hippocampus and we also describe recent research on the spatial response properties of brown-headed cowbird hippocampal neurons

An examination of chemistry and transport processes in the tropical lower stratosphere using observations of long-lived and short-lived compounds obtained during STRAT and POLARIS

A suite of compounds with a wide range of photochemical lifetimes (3 months to several decades) was measured in the tropical and midlatitude upper troposphere and lower stratosphere during the Stratospheric Tracers of Atmospheric Transport (STRAT) experiment (fall 1995 and winter, summer, and fall 1996) and the Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in the Arctic Region in Summer (POLARIS) deployment in late summer 1997. These species include various chlorofluorocarbons, hydrocarbons, halocarbons, and halons measured in whole air samples and CO measured in situ by tunable diode laser spectroscopy. Mixing ratio profiles of long-lived species in the tropical lower stratosphere are examined using a one-dimensional (1-D) photochemical model that includes entrainment from the extratropical stratosphere and is constrained by measured concentrations of OH. Profiles of tracers found using the 1-D model agree well with all the observed tropical profiles for an entrainment time scale of 8.5-4+6 months, independent of altitude between potential temperatures of 370 and 500 K. The tropical profile of CO is used to show that the annually averaged ascent rate profile, on the basis of a set of radiative heating calculations, is accurate to approximately ±44%, a smaller uncertainty than found by considering the uncertainties in the radiative model and its inputs. Tropical profiles of ethane and C2Cl4 reveal that the concentration of Cl is higher than expected on the basis of photochemical model simulations using standard gas phase kinetics and established relationships between total inorganic chlorine and CFC-11. Our observations suggest that short-lived organic chlorinated compounds and HCl carried across the tropical tropopause may provide an important source of inorganic chlorine to the tropical lower stratosphere that has been largely unappreciated in previous studies. The entrainment timescale found here is considerably less than the value found by a similar study that focused on observations obtained in the lower stratosphere during 1994. Several possible explanations for this difference are discussed. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union

Taphonomy of a monodominant Gryposaurus sp. bonebed from the Oldman Formation (Campanian) of Alberta, Canada

A monodominant Gryposaurus sp. bonebed in the lower unit of the Campanian Oldman Formation of southern Alberta is the oldest hadrosauroid bonebed documented in the province and the first described from the formation. The sedimentology of the locality and the taphonomy of the hadrosaurid material indicates that the bonebed represents an assemblage of juvenile-sized individuals that were probably transported only a short distance from where they died to where they were finally deposited and preserved in a fine-grained mudstone within an overbank sequence. Histological examination of six limb elements confirms that all individuals are juveniles, with two age classes (<1 and <2 years of age at the time of death) that likely died in the same event. Bone microstructure data indicate that Gryposaurus experienced rapid growth over the 2-year life spans documented, equivalent to other Late Cretaceous hadrosaurids in North America. The parautochthonous nature of the bonebed, and the lack of small neonate (newborn) material and almost complete lack of large adult material, suggests that the bonebed represents a segregated group of juveniles. This group of immature individuals may have been an autonomous unit that had separated itself from a larger social grouping, possibly in an effort to increase their survivability

A prospective longitudinal study of performance status, an inflammation-based score (GPS) and survival in patients with inoperable non-small-cell lung cancer

The value of an inflammation-based prognostic score (Glasgow Prognostic score, GPS) was compared with performance status (ECOG-ps) in a longitudinal study of patients (n=101) with inoperable non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). At diagnosis, stratified for treatment, only the GPS (HR 2.32, 95% CI 1.52–3.54, P<0.001) was a significant predictor of survival. In contrast, neither the GPS nor ECOG-ps measured at 3–6 months follow-up were significant predictors of residual survival. This study confirms the prognostic value of the GPS, at diagnosis, in patients with inoperable NSCLC. However, the role of the GPS and ECOG-ps during follow-up has not been established

Do topical repellents divert mosquitoes within a community? Health equity implications of topical repellents as a mosquito bite prevention tool.

OBJECTIVES: Repellents do not kill mosquitoes--they simply reduce human-vector contact. Thus it is possible that individuals who do not use repellents but dwell close to repellent users experience more bites than otherwise. The objective of this study was to measure if diversion occurs from households that use repellents to those that do not use repellents. METHODS: The study was performed in three Tanzanian villages using 15%-DEET and placebo lotions. All households were given LLINs. Three coverage scenarios were investigated: complete coverage (all households were given 15%-DEET), incomplete coverage (80% of households were given 15%-DEET and 20% placebo) and no coverage (all households were given placebo). A crossover study design was used and coverage scenarios were rotated weekly over a period of ten weeks. The placebo lotion was randomly allocated to households in the incomplete coverage scenario. The level of compliance was reported to be close to 100%. Mosquito densities were measured through aspiration of resting mosquitoes. Data were analysed using negative binomial regression models. FINDINGS: Repellent-users had consistently fewer mosquitoes in their dwellings. In villages where everybody had been given 15%-DEET, resting mosquito densities were fewer than half that of households in the no coverage scenario (Incidence Rate Ratio [IRR]=0.39 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.25-0.60); p<0.001). Placebo-users living in a village where 80% of the households used 15%-DEET were likely to have over four-times more mosquitoes (IRR=4.17; 95% CI: 3.08-5.65; p<0.001) resting in their dwellings in comparison to households in a village where nobody uses repellent. CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence that high coverage of repellent use could significantly reduce man-vector contact but with incomplete coverage evidence suggests that mosquitoes are diverted from households that use repellent to those that do not. Therefore, if repellents are to be considered for vector control, strategies to maximise coverage are required

The systemic inflammatory response, weight loss, performance status and survival in patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer

The relationship between the magnitude of systemic inflammatory response and the nutritional/functional parameters in patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer were studied. The extent of weight loss, albumin, C-reactive protein, performance status and quality of life was measured in 106 patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer (stages III and IV). Survival analysis was performed using the Cox proportional hazard model. The majority of patients were male and almost 80% had elevated circulating C-reactive protein concentrations (>10 mg l−1). On multivariate analysis, age (P=0.012), tumour type (0.002), weight loss (P=0.056), C-reactive protein (P=0.047), Karnofsky performance status (P=0.002) and fatigue (P=0.046) were independent predictors of survival. The patients were grouped according to the magnitude of the C-reactive protein concentrations (⩽10, 11–100 and >100 mg l−1). An increase in the magnitude of the systemic inflammatory response was associated with increased weight loss (P=0.004), reduced albumin concentrations (P=0.001), reduced performance status (P=0.060), increased fatigue (P=0.011) and reduced survival (HR 1.936 95%CI 1.414–2.650, P<0.001). These results indicate that the majority of patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer have evidence of a systemic inflammatory response. Furthermore, an increase in the magnitude of the systemic inflammatory response resulted in greater weight loss, poorer performance status, more fatigue and poorer survival

Negative regulation of syntaxin4/SNAP-23/VAMP2-mediated membrane fusion by Munc18c <i>In Vitro</i>

Background: Translocation of the facilitative glucose transporter GLUT4 from an intracellular store to the plasma membrane is responsible for the increased rate of glucose transport into fat and muscle cells in response to insulin. This represents a specialised form of regulated membrane trafficking. Intracellular membrane traffic is subject to multiple levels of regulation by conserved families of proteins in all eukaryotic cells. Notably, all intracellular fusion events require SNARE proteins and Sec1p/Munc18 family members. Fusion of GLUT4-containing vesicles with the plasma membrane of insulin-sensitive cells involves the SM protein Munc18c, and is regulated by the formation of syntaxin 4/SNAP23/VAMP2 SNARE complexes. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we have used biochemical approaches to characterise the interaction(s) of Munc18c with its cognate SNARE proteins and to examine the role of Munc18c in regulating liposome fusion catalysed by syntaxin 4/SNAP23/VAMP2 SNARE complex formation. We demonstrate that Munc18c makes contacts with both t- and v-SNARE proteins of this complex, and directly inhibits bilayer fusion mediated by the syntaxin 4/SNAP23/VAMP2 SNARE complex. Conclusion/Significance Our reductionist approach has enabled us to ascertain a direct inhibitory role for Munc18c in regulating membrane fusion mediated by syntaxin 4/SNAP23/VAMP2 SNARE complex formation. It is important to note that two different SM proteins have recently been shown to stimulate liposome fusion mediated by their cognate SNARE complexes. Given the structural similarities between SM proteins, it seems unlikely that different members of this family perform opposing regulatory functions. Hence, our findings indicate that Munc18c requires a further level of regulation in order to stimulate SNARE-mediated membrane fusion