1,634 research outputs found
In the Interests of clients or commerce? Legal aid, supply, demand, and 'ethical indeterminacy' in criminal defence work
As a professional, a lawyer's first duty is to serve the client's best interests, before simple monetary gain. In criminal defence work, this duty has been questioned in the debate about the causes of growth in legal aid spending: is it driven by lawyers (suppliers) inducing unnecessary demand for their services or are they merely responding to increased demand? Research reported here found clear evidence of a change in the handling of cases in response to new payment structures, though in ways unexpected by the policy's proponents. The paper develops the concept of 'ethical indeterminacy' as a way of understanding how defence lawyers seek to reconcile the interests of commerce and clients. Ethical indeterminacy suggests that where different courses of action could each be said to benefit the client, the lawyer will tend to advise the client to decide in the lawyer's own interests. Ethical indeterminacy is mediated by a range of competing conceptions of 'quality' and 'need'. The paper goes on to question the very distinction between 'supply' and 'demand' in the provision of legal services
Elimination of wild-type P53 mRNA in glioblastomas showing heterozygous mutations of P53
We screened 50 glioblastomas for P53 mutations. Five glioblastomas showed heterozygous mutations, while three were putatively heterozygous. Six of these eight glioblastomas showed elimination of wild-type P53 mRNA. These results strongly suggest that some sort of mechanism(s) favouring mutated over wild-type P53 mRNA exists in glioblastoma cells with heterozygous mutations of this gene
Structure of the mirror nuclei Be and B in a microscopic cluster model
The structure of the mirror nuclei Be and B is studied in a
microscopic and three-cluster model
using a fully antisymmetrized 9-nucleon wave function. The two-nucleon
interaction includes central and spin-orbit components and the Coulomb
potential. The ground state of Be is obtained accurately with the
stochastic variational method, while several particle-unbound states of both
Be and B are investigated with the complex scaling method.The
calculation for Be supports the recent identification for the existence of
two broad states around 6.5 MeV, and predicts the and
states at about 4.5 MeV and 8 MeV, respectively. The
similarity of the calculated spectra of Be and B enables one to
identify unknown spins and parities of the B states. Available data on
electromagnetic moments and elastic electron scatterings are reproduced very
well. The enhancement of the 1 transition of the first excited state in
Be is well accounted for. The calculated density of Be is found to
reproduce the reaction cross section on a Carbon target. The analysis of the
beta decay of Li to Be clearly shows that the wave function of Be
must contain a small component that cannot be described by the simple model. This small component can be well accounted for by extending a
configuration space to include the distortion of the -particle to
and partitions.Comment: 24 page
A Novel Mutation in the Upstream Open Reading Frame of the CDKN1B Gene Causes a MEN4 Phenotype
PubMed ID: 23555276This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
An assessment of the accuracy and availability of data in electronic patient tracking systems for patients receiving HIV treatment in central Mozambique
Implementation research to catalyze advances in health systems strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa: the African Health Initiative
'Education, education, education' : legal, moral and clinical
This article brings together Professor Donald Nicolson's intellectual interest in professional legal ethics and his long-standing involvement with law clinics both as an advisor at the University of Cape Town and Director of the University of Bristol Law Clinic and the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic. In this article he looks at how legal education may help start this process of character development, arguing that the best means is through student involvement in voluntary law clinics. And here he builds upon his recent article which argues for voluntary, community service oriented law clinics over those which emphasise the education of students
A bovine lymphosarcoma cell line infected with theileria annulata exhibits an irreversible reconfiguration of host cell gene expression
Theileria annulata, an intracellular parasite of bovine lymphoid cells, induces substantial phenotypic alterations to its host cell including continuous proliferation, cytoskeletal changes and resistance to apoptosis. While parasite induced modulation of host cell signal transduction pathways and NFκB activation are established, there remains considerable speculation on the complexities of the parasite directed control mechanisms that govern these radical changes to the host cell. Our objectives in this study were to provide a comprehensive analysis of the global changes to host cell gene expression with emphasis on those that result from direct intervention by the parasite. By using comparative microarray analysis of an uninfected bovine cell line and its Theileria infected counterpart, in conjunction with use of the specific parasitacidal agent, buparvaquone, we have identified a large number of host cell gene expression changes that result from parasite infection. Our results indicate that the viable parasite can irreversibly modify the transformed phenotype of a bovine cell line. Fifty percent of genes with altered expression failed to show a reversible response to parasite death, a possible contributing factor to initiation of host cell apoptosis. The genes that did show an early predicted response to loss of parasite viability highlighted a sub-group of genes that are likely to be under direct control by parasite infection. Network and pathway analysis demonstrated that this sub-group is significantly enriched for genes involved in regulation of chromatin modification and gene expression. The results provide evidence that the Theileria parasite has the regulatory capacity to generate widespread change to host cell gene expression in a complex and largely irreversible manner
Sensitivities of the Proton-Nucleus Elastical Scattering Observables of 6He and 8He at Intermediate Energies
We investigate the use of proton-nucleus elastic scattering experiments using
secondary beams of 6He and 8He to determine the physical structure of these
nuclei. The sensitivity of these experiments to nuclear structure is examined
by using four different nuclear structure models with different spatial
features using a full-folding optical potential model. The results show that
elastic scattering at intermediate energies (<100 MeV per nucleon) is not a
good constraint to be used to determine features of structure. Therefore
researchers should look elsewhere to put constraints on the ground state wave
function of the 6He and 8He nuclei.Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev.
Body size and shape responses to warming and resource competition
1. Body size is a fundamental trait that impacts many aspects of species biology and ecology. It is, in turn, influenced by a suite of environmental factors, and often decreases with warming. Although environmental conditions can also impact body shape, which is another functional trait that influences locomotion, resource acquisition and potentially physiological processes, such responses are poorly understood and rarely quantified.
2. We experimentally tested the independent and combined effects of environmental temperature, resource level and interspecific competition on the body shape and size responses of two model protist species. We also tested the degree to which these individual-level phenotypic responses are associated with population densities and species coexistence.
3. Body shape was strongly influenced by resource competition, whereas body size changes were mainly driven by environmental temperature. In both species, lower resource levels resulted in body shape elongation, suggesting that relatively more elongate individuals with potentially higher swimming speed were advantaged in the resource scarce environment. However, competition had contrasting influence on the body shape of the two species. Competition decreased the population densities of Blepharisma japonicum, which exhibited relative body shape elongation, similar to the response at low resource levels. In contrast, competition increased the population densities of Paramecium aurelia, which exhibited reduced elongation similar to body shape response at high resource levels. Hence, body shape responses could be indicative of changes in resource availability, aiding our understanding of competitive hierarchies and species interactions.
4. Coexistence was observed in all treatment combinations, likely because body size of both species decreased similarly under warming, potentially maintaining constant per capita competitive intensity. These findings, along with recent research on phytoplankton, diverse pelagic invertebrates, and birds highlight the importance of body shape and morphology across different taxonomic groups. Hence, we call for body size and shape to be considered in concert when investigating ecological consequences of climate warming
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