Identification of paper by stationary phase performance

Paper is an extraordinary example of a composite engineering material with practical use in a huge variety of applications. Since its invention in China there have been many alterations to manufacturing techniques, component formulation and surface finishing, but the essential characteristics of the product have not changed greatly. The objective of this experiment is to demonstrate that the chromatographic performance of paper as a stationary phase may be used to distinguish between externally-similar materials. The procedure developed is so simple that even students with little exposure to practical chemistry and limited chemical knowledge can understand the essential content. Because of the ubiquitous nature of paper, it is often recovered from crime scenes as evidence for analysis. However, the variety of sources and the mechanical or chemical properties often make demonstration of unequivocal correlation between “questioned” and “known” or “reference” samples a complex task. Introducing the practical session as a crime scene investigation, and presenting the laboratory exercise as an accessible forensic technique for paper identification, adds an exciting dimension to the practical experience for young people.Centro de Química (FEDER-COMPETE/QREN/EU and PEst C/QUI/U1686/2013, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia)

Intra-dance variation among waggle runs and the design of efficient protocols for honey bee dance decoding

Noise is universal in information transfer. In animal communication, this presents a challenge not only for intended signal receivers, but also to biologists studying the system. In honey bees, a forager communicates to nestmates the location of an important resource via the waggle dance. This vibrational signal is composed of repeating units (waggle runs) that are then averaged by nestmates to derive a single vector. Manual dance decoding is a powerful tool for studying bee foraging ecology, although the process is time-consuming: a forager may repeat the waggle run 1- >100 times within a dance. It is impractical to decode all of these to obtain the vector; however, intra-dance waggle runs vary, so it is important to decode enough to obtain a good average. Here we examine the variation among waggle runs made by foraging bees to devise a method of dance decoding. The first and last waggle runs within a dance are significantly more variable than the middle run. There was no trend in variation for the middle waggle runs. We recommend that any four consecutive waggle runs, not including the first and last runs, may be decoded, and we show that this methodology is suitable by demonstrating the goodness-of-fit between the decoded vectors from our subsamples with the vectors from the entire dances

Reasons why people do not attend NHS Health Checks: a systematic review and qualitative synthesis

Background The NHS Health Check programme is a prevention initiative offering cardiovascular risk assessment and management advice to adults aged 40–74 years across England. Its effectiveness depends on uptake. When it was introduced in 2009, it was anticipated that all those eligible would be invited over a 5-year cycle and 75% of those invited would attend. So far in the current cycle from 2013 to 2018, 33.8% of those eligible have attended, which is equal to 48.5% of those invited to attend. Understanding the reasons why some people do not attend is important to maximise the impact of the programmes. Aim To review why people do not attend NHS Health Checks. Design and setting A systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative studies. Method An electronic literature search was carried out of MEDLINE, Embase, Health Management Information Consortium, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Global Health, PsycINFO, Web of Science, OpenGrey, the Cochrane Library, NHS Evidence, Google Scholar, Google, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the ISRCTN registry from 1 January 1996 to 9 November 2016, and the reference lists of all included papers were also screened manually. Inclusion criteria were primary research studies that reported the views of people who were eligible for but had not attended an NHS Health Check. Results Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Reasons for not attending included lack of awareness or knowledge, misunderstanding the purpose of the NHS Health Check, aversion to preventive medicine, time constraints, difficulties with access to general practices, and doubts regarding pharmacies as appropriate settings. Conclusion The findings particularly highlight the need for improved communication and publicity around the purpose of the NHS Health Check programme and the personal health benefits of risk factor detection.This work was funded by a grant from Public Health England. Juliet A Usher-Smith was funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Lectureship and Fiona M Walter by an NIHR Clinician Scientist award (RG 68235). The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health. All researchers were independent of the funding body and the funder had no role in data collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or decision to submit the article for publication

The BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey -- XVIII. Searching for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in the X-rays

Theory predicts that a supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) could be observed as a luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN) that periodically varies on the order of its orbital timescale. In X-rays, periodic variations could be caused by mechanisms including relativistic Doppler boosting and shocks. Here we present the first systematic search for periodic AGNs using $941$ hard X-ray light curves (14-195 keV) from the first 105 months of the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) survey (2004-2013). We do not find evidence for periodic AGNs in Swift-BAT, including the previously reported SMBHB candidate MCG+11$-$11$-$032. We find that the null detection is consistent with the combination of the upper-limit binary population in AGNs in our adopted model, their expected periodic variability amplitudes, and the BAT survey characteristics. We have also investigated the detectability of SMBHBs against normal AGN X-ray variability in the context of the eROSITA survey. Under our assumptions of a binary population and the periodic signals they produce which have long periods of hundreds of days, up to $13$% true periodic binaries can be robustly distinguished from normal variable AGNs with the ideal uniform sampling. However, we demonstrate that realistic eROSITA sampling is likely to be insensitive to long-period binaries because longer observing gaps reduce their detectability. In contrast, large observing gaps do not diminish the prospect of detecting binaries of short, few-day periods, as 19% can be successfully recovered, the vast majority of which can be identified by the first half of the survey.Comment: 17 pages, including 8 figures and 4 tables. Accepted for publication in Ap

BAT AGN spectroscopic survey - XV: the high frequency radio cores of ultra-hard X-ray selected AGN

We have conducted 22 GHz radio imaging at 1 arcsec resolution of 100 low-redshift AGN selected at 14–195 keV by the Swift-BAT. We find a radio core detection fraction of 96 per cent, much higher than lower frequency radio surveys. Of the 96 radio-detected AGN, 55 have compact morphologies, 30 have morphologies consistent with nuclear star formation, and 11 have sub-kpc to kpc-scale jets. We find that the total radio power does not distinguish between nuclear star formation and jets as the origin of the radio emission. For 87 objects, we use optical spectroscopy to test whether AGN physical parameters are distinct between radio morphological types. We find that X-ray luminosities tend to be higher if the 22 GHz morphology is jet-like, but find no significant difference in other physical parameters. We find that the relationship between the X-ray and core radio luminosities is consistent with the L_R/L_X ∼ 10⁻⁵ of coronally active stars. We further find that the canonical fundamental planes of black hole activity systematically overpredict our radio luminosities, particularly for objects with star formation morphologies

Myths about autism: an exploratory study using focus groups

Individuals with autism are often stigmatised and isolated by their typically developing peers according to parental, teacher and self-reports. Whilst quantitative studies often report negative attitudes towards individuals with autism, it is still unclear how understandings of autism influence attitudes. In this exploratory study, misconceptions or myths about autism, i.e. the cognitive component of attitudes, were examined using focus groups. Purposive sampling was used to recruit undergraduate and postgraduate students, and adults with and without experience of autism, to one of five focus groups (n = 37). Content analysis was used to identify emergent themes. The data identified seven commonly held beliefs about individuals with autism. The first four were related to social interaction, such as that people with autism do not like to be touched. The fifth reflected the view that all individuals with autism have a special talent and the final two concerned beliefs that people with autism are dangerous. The findings from this study demonstrate that people with varying experience or knowledge of autism often hold inaccurate beliefs about autism. These findings improve our understandings of lay-beliefs about autism, and will aid the development and implementation of interventions designed to improve lay-knowledge of autism

Liver triacylglycerol content and gestational diabetes: effects of moderate energy restriction

Aims/hypothesis Women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have raised liver triacylglycerol. Restriction of energy intake in type 2 diabetes can normalise glucose control and liver triacylglycerol concentration but it is not known whether similar benefits could be achieved in GDM. The aim of this work was to examine liver triacylglycerol accumulation in women with GDM and the effect of modest energy restriction. Methods Sixteen women with GDM followed a 4 week diet (5 MJ [1200 kcal]/day). Liver triacylglycerol, before and after diet and postpartum, was measured by magnetic resonance. Insulin secretion and sensitivity were assessed before and after diet. Twenty-six women who underwent standard antenatal care for GDM (matched for age, BMI, parity and ethnicity) were used as a comparator group. Results Fourteen women, who completed the study, achieved a weight loss of 1.6 ± 1.7 kg over the 4 week dietary period. Mean weight change was −0.4 kg/week in the study group vs +0.3 kg/week in the comparator group (p = 0.002). Liver triacylglycerol level was normal but decreased following diet (3.7% [interquartile range, IQR 1.2–6.1%] vs 1.8% [IQR 0.7–3.1%], p = 0.004). There was no change in insulin sensitivity or production. Insulin was required in six comparator women vs none in the study group (eight vs two required metformin). Blood glucose control was similar for both groups. The hypo-energetic diet was well accepted. Conclusions/interpretation Liver triacylglycerol in women with GDM was not elevated, unlike observations in non-pregnant women with a history of GDM. A 4 week hypo-energetic diet resulted in weight loss, reduced liver triacylglycerol and minimised pharmacotherapy. The underlying pathophysiology of glucose metabolism appeared unchanged

Prdm1- and Sox6-mediated transcriptional repression specifies muscle fibre type in the zebrafish embryo

The zebrafish u-boot (ubo) gene encodes the transcription factor Prdm1, which is essential for the specification of the primary slow-twitch muscle fibres that derive from adaxial cells. Here, we show that Prdm1 functions by acting as a transcriptional repressor and that slow-twitch-specific muscle gene expression is activated by Prdm1-mediated repression of the transcriptional repressor Sox6. Genes encoding fast-specific isoforms of sarcomeric proteins are ectopically expressed in the adaxial cells of ubotp39 mutant embryos. By using chromatin immunoprecipitation, we show that these are direct targets of Prdm1. Thus, Prdm1 promotes slow-twitch fibre differentiation by acting as a global repressor of fast-fibre-specific genes, as well as by abrogating the repression of slow-fibre-specific genes

Zebrafish promoter microarrays identify actively transcribed embryonic genes.

We have designed a zebrafish genomic microarray to identify DNA-protein interactions in the proximal promoter regions of over 11,000 zebrafish genes. Using these microarrays, together with chromatin immunoprecipitation with an antibody directed against tri-methylated lysine 4 of Histone H3, we demonstrate the feasibility of this method in zebrafish. This approach will allow investigators to determine the genomic binding locations of DNA interacting proteins during development and expedite the assembly of the genetic networks that regulate embryogenesis.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are