The health effects of depleted uranium munitions: a summary

There has been a substantial amount of public discussion on the health effects of the use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions. In response to this concern the Royal Society set up an independent, expert working group to investigate the health effects of DU munitions. The Royal Society has now produced two reports, and this summary covering the key conclusions and recommendations from both reports. The part I report considered the increased risks of radiation-induced cancer from exposures to DU on the battlefield. Part II dealt with the risks from the chemical toxicity of uranium, non-malignant radiation effects from DU intakes, the long-term environmental consequences of the deployment of DU munitions and responses to part I including issues arising at a public meeting to discuss the part I report

Development Banks from the BRICS

The BRIC acronym was created at the beginning of the 2000s to represent a group of four fast-growing economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China – and was changed to BRICS in December 2010 with the inclusion of South Africa. At its fifth annual summit in Durban at the end of March 2013, the group announced the future establishment of a New Development Bank (NDB) to meet infrastructure investment needs in the developing world. At their sixth annual summit in Fortaleza the following year (July 2014), the BRICS finally agreed on the broader arrangements for the bank – an initial US$50bn fund – and coupled this achievement with the launch of the Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA) – US$100bn to be accessed to alleviate members’ financial difficulties (US$41bn from China, US$5bn from South Africa and US$18bn from each of the others). The Bank will start lending in 2016. Despite this achievement, commentators estimate that even if the NDB eventually increases its capital to US$100bn with injections from non-BRICS states and institutions (up to a maximum capital share from non-BRICS countries of 45 per cent), most infrastructure needs in the developing world will remain unmet. Compared to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank – whose subscribed capital is US$223bn and US$162bn respectively – the additional capital available from the NDB is too small to fill the financing gap (Spratt 2014). According to World Bank estimates, South Asia alone requires US$2.5tn over the next ten years, while overall the BRICS states are estimated to need a total of more than US$4.5tn over the next five years for infrastructure development. In consideration of the limited amount of lending that the NDB may provide, the bank may create ‘special funds’ – i.e. separately funded and managed mechanisms – designed to get round this capital constraint (Spratt 2014).UK Department for International Developmen

Economics of crop rotations at Indian Head

Non-Peer Reviewe

National Development Banks in the BRICS: Lessons for the Post-2015 Development Finance Framework

In 2015, the framework to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be agreed. As described in the outcome document of the United Nations Rio+20 conference, The Future We Want, the mobilisation and effective use of stable, sufficient and suitable development finance must be a crucial part of this framework. While there is now broad agreement that National Development Banks (NDBs) have the potential to contribute positively to development objectives, it is less clear how this can best be done in practice. As a contribution to this debate, this Policy Briefing summarises research on the experience of NDBs in the BRICS countries.UK Department for International Developmen

Mechanisms for the generation of HREE mineralization in carbonatites: Evidence from Huanglongpu, China.

The Hunaglongpu carbonatites, Qinling Mountains, China, are exceptional as they form both an economic Mo resource, and are enriched in the HREE compared to typical carbonatites, giving a metal profile that may closely match projected future demand. The carbonatites at the level currently exposed appear to be transitional between magmatic and hydrothermal processes. The multistage dykes and veins are cored by quartz which hosts a fluid inclusion assemblage with a high proportion of sulphate daughter or trapped minerals, and later stage, cross-cutting veins are rich in barite-celestine. The REE mineral paragenesis evolves from monazite, through apatite and bastnäsite to Ca-REE fluorcabonates, with an increase in HREE enrichment at every stage. Radio-isotope ratios are typical of enriched mantle sources and sulphur stable isotopes are consistent with magmatic S sources. However, Mg stable isotopes are consistent with a component of recycled subducted marine carbonate in the source region, The HREE enrichment is a function of both unusual mantle source for the primary magmas and REE mobility and concentration during post-magmatic modification in a sulphate-rich hydrothermal system. Aqueous sulphate is a none specific ligand for the REE, and this coupled with crystal fraction lead to HREE enrichment during subsolidus alteration.The attached document is the authors’ submitted version of these conference proceedings. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it

Detecting foraminiferal photosymbionts in the fossil record: a combined micropalaeontological and geochemical approach

Poster from International Conference on Paleoceanography 12 (ICP 12). See the above link for more information on the conference

Pilot Comparative Effectiveness Study of Surface Perturbation Treadmill Training to Prevent Falls in Older Adults

Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries among older adults. Exercise programs appear to reduce fall risk, but the optimal type, frequency, and duration of exercise is unknown. External perturbations such as tripping and slipping are a major contributor to falls, and task-specific perturbation training to enhance dynamic stability has emerged as a promising approach to modifying fall risk. The purpose of this pilot study was 1) to determine the feasibility of conducting a large pragmatic randomized trial comparing a multidimensional exercise program inclusive of the surface perturbation treadmill training (SPTT) to multidimensional exercise alone (Standard PT); and 2) to assess fall outcomes between the two groups to determine whether an effect size large enough to warrant further study might be present

Classification and characterisation of magmatic-hydrothermal tourmaline by combining field observations and microanalytical techniques

Tourmaline from the St. Byron lobe of the Land’s End granite, SW England, was assessed by macroscopic, optical and quantitative microanalytical methods. In total, seven types of tourmaline were distinguished. The seven types reflect different crystallisation environments and stages in the magmatic-hydrothermal transition. Types 1-3 are interpreted to represent a gradual transition from tourmaline crystallising from a silicate melt to precipitation from magmatic aqueous fluids. Types 5-7 crystallised at subsolidus conditions from a different fluid generation than types 1-3. These fluids may be magmatic or mixed with other fluids (e.g., meteoric or formation waters). The Sn-mineralisation in the area is mostly related to the latter fluid generation, and the mineralising potential is reflected by the tourmaline composition.This is an open access article, available to all readers online, published under a creative commons licensing Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Published under licence by IOP Publishing Lt

Impact of the SPOP Mutant Subtype on the Interpretation of Clinical Parameters in Prostate Cancer.

Purpose: Molecular characterization of prostate cancer, including The Cancer Genome Atlas, has revealed distinct subtypes with underlying genomic alterations. One of these core subtypes, SPOP (speckle-type POZ protein) mutant prostate cancer, has previously only been identifiable via DNA sequencing, which has made the impact on prognosis and routinely used risk stratification parameters unclear. Methods: We have developed a novel gene expression signature, classifier (Subclass Predictor Based on Transcriptional Data), and decision tree to predict the SPOP mutant subclass from RNA gene expression data and classify common prostate cancer molecular subtypes. We then validated and further interrogated the association of prostate cancer molecular subtypes with pathologic and clinical outcomes in retrospective and prospective cohorts of 8,158 patients. Results: The subclass predictor based on transcriptional data model showed high sensitivity and specificity in multiple cohorts across both RNA sequencing and microarray gene expression platforms. We predicted approximately 8% to 9% of cases to be SPOP mutant from both retrospective and prospective cohorts. We found that the SPOP mutant subclass was associated with lower frequency of positive margins, extraprostatic extension, and seminal vesicle invasion at prostatectomy; however, SPOP mutant cancers were associated with higher pretreatment serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA). The association between SPOP mutant status and higher PSA level was validated in three independent cohorts. Despite high pretreatment PSA, the SPOP mutant subtype was associated with a favorable prognosis with improved metastasis-free survival, particularly in patients with high-risk preoperative PSA levels. Conclusion: Using a novel gene expression model and a decision tree algorithm to define prostate cancer molecular subclasses, we found that the SPOP mutant subclass is associated with higher preoperative PSA, less adverse pathologic features, and favorable prognosis. These findings suggest a paradigm in which the interpretation of common risk stratification parameters, particularly PSA, may be influenced by the underlying molecular subtype of prostate cancer

Normalization factors for magnetic relaxation of small particle systems in non-zero magnetic field

We critically discuss relaxation experiments in magnetic systems that can be characterized in terms of an energy barrier distribution, showing that proper normalization of the relaxation data is needed whenever curves corresponding to different temperatures are to be compared. We show how these normalization factors can be obtained from experimental data by using the $T \ln(t/\tau_0)$ scaling method without making any assumptions about the nature of the energy barrier distribution. The validity of the procedure is tested using a ferrofluid of Fe_3O_4 particles.Comment: 5 pages, 6 eps figures added in April 22, to be published in Phys. Rev. B 55 (1 April 1997