The UK workforce : realising our potential

for Business, a new UK-wide network of employer-led Sector Skills Councils (SSCs), supported and directed by the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA). The purpose of Skills for Business is to bring employers more centre stage in articulating their skill needs and delivering skills-based productivity improvements that can enhance UK competitiveness and the effectiveness of public services. The remit of the SSDA includes establishing and progressing the network of SSCs, supporting the SSCs in the development of their own capacity and providing a range of core services. Additionally the SSDA has responsibility for representing sectors not covered by a SSC and co-ordinating action on cross cutting and generic skills issues. Research, and developing a sound evidence base, are central to the SSDA and to Skills for Business as a whole. It is crucial in: analysing productivity and skill needs; identifying priorities for action; and improving the evolving policy and skills agenda. It is vital that the SSDA research team works closely with partners already involved in skills and related research to generally drive up the quality o

Structural Integrity of the -Carboxyglutamic Acid Domain of Human Blood Coagulation Factor IXa Is Required for Its Binding to Cofactor VIIIa

This report describes the analysis of a novel mutant human factor IX protein from a patient with hemophilia B (factor IX activity adenine transition) in exon 2 at nucleotide 6409 which results in a glycine --> arginine substitution at amino acid 12 in the gamma-carboxyglutamic acid rich (Gla) domain of the mature protein. Factor IX was isolated by immunoaffinity chromatography from plasma obtained from the proband. The purified protein is indistinguishable from normal factor IX by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Characterization of the variant in purified component assays reveals that it is activated normally by its physiologic activator factor XIa, but its phospholipid-dependent activation by the factor VIIa-tissue factor complex is diminished. In the presence of phospholipid and 5 mM Ca2+, the activities of variant and normal plasma-derived factor IX are similar; however, in the presence of activated factor VIIIa (intrinsic tenase complex), the normal augmentation of the cleavage of the specific substrate of factor IX, factor X, is not observed. The determination of the association constants for normal and variant factor IXa with factor VIIIa shows that the affinity of the activated variant factor IX for the cofactor factor VIIIa is 172-fold lower than normal. Competition studies using active site-inactivated factor IXas in the intrinsic tenase complex confirm that the defect in the variant protein is in its binding to factor VIIIa. We conclude that the structural integrity of the Gla domain of human factor IX is critical for the normal binding of factor IXa to factor VIIIa in the intrinsic tenase complex. In addition, a glycine at amino acid 12 is necessary for normal activation of factor IX by the factor VIIa-tissue factor complex

Mapping the Innovation and Commercialisation Infrastructure for Non-Health Applications of Engineering Biology in the UK:IRC Report 003

Engineering Biology is one of five priority technologies identified by the UK Government in its Science and Technology framework. Owing to early investments, the UK is now recognised as a global leader in Engineering Biology research, with research strengths in both human health and non-health applications of Engineering Biology. The UK has been relatively successful in commercialising outcomes from human health applications, but less so in commercialising non-health applications of Engineering Biology. This poses a potential risk to the UK’s longer-term global leadership in the Engineering Biology sector.This study aims to assess the landscape of innovation and commercialisation infrastructure for non-health applications of Engineering Biology, and to identify gaps in provision as well as investment opportunities. We adopt a broad view of ‘infrastructure’, including not only physical assets and facilities but also organisations providing ‘soft’ support to Engineering Biology firms, such as funding organisations and industry networks.Overall, we identified 61 open-access organisations and facilities supporting the non-health Engineering Biology innovation system in the UK. Around 44% of these are ‘soft’ infrastructure, with the remaining physical facilities serving a range of Technology Readiness Levels and broadly co-located with ‘clusters’ of Engineering Biology businesses. Combining these findings with insights from 18 in-depth company interviews and extensive stakeholder consultations, we identify five areas of opportunity for investment in new infrastructure or maximising the value from existing infrastructure

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Clothes, spectacles, hair, spinal braces, and so on--these came later. Entirely intelligibly, though, to prevent needless suffering, the dental work was usually competed while the patients were not yet alive. The Kapos would go at it, crudely but effectively, with knives or chisels or any tool that came to hand. Most of the gold we used, of course, came directly from the Reichsbank. But every German present, even the humblest, gave willingly of his own store--I more than any other officer save “Uncle Pepi ” himself. All those years I amassed it, and polished it with my mind: for the Jews ’ teeth. The bulk of the clothes were contributed by the Reich Youth Leadership. Hair for the Jews came courtesy of Filzfabrik A.G. of Roth, near Nuremberg