Tracking Kidnappings in London: Offenders, Victims and Motives

Funder: University of CambridgeAbstract: Research Question: What was the nature of kidnappings in London during a fairly recent 5-year period in the kinds of victims, offenders, motives, types of violence used and levels of injury? Data: We analyse 924 reports of kidnap crimes recorded by the Metropolitan Police Service between 1 April 2006 and 31 March 2011. These data included free text information drawn from case notes. Methods: We establish mutually exclusive categories of kidnappings by codifying all crime records, after examining case notes and populated fields from the Metropolitan Police’s crime recording system. Descriptive statistics are used to portray the patterns and nature of these crimes. Findings: The application of a typology of mutually exclusive categories for these kidnappings shows that gangland/criminal/drugs-related cases comprised 40.5% of all kidnappings. Another 21% of all kidnaps were domestic or familial, including honour killings. Just over 10% were incidental to ‘acquisitive’ crimes such as car-jacking, whilst 8% were sexually motivated. Only 6% were categorised as traditional ransom kidnappings. About 4% were categorised into a purely violent category, whilst 3% were categorised as international/political. Conclusions: The investigative and preventive implications of these many social worlds mapped out by this typology are substantial. Each social context may require investigators to possess expertise in the specific social world of kidnapping, as distinct from what might be called expertise in ‘kidnaps’ per se. Investigations and prevention might be re-engineered around targeted intelligence from these diverse social contexts

L-serine in disease and development.

The amino acid L-serine, one of the so-called non-essential amino acids, plays a central role in cellular proliferation. L-Serine is the predominant source of one-carbon groups for the de novo synthesis of purine nucleotides and deoxythymidine monophosphate. It has long been recognized that, in cell cultures, L-serine is a conditional essential amino acid, because it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities to meet the cellular demands for its utilization. In recent years, L-serine and the products of its metabolism have been recognized not only to be essential for cell proliferation, but also to be necessary for specific functions in the central nervous system. The findings of altered levels of serine and glycine in patients with psychiatric disorders and the severe neurological abnormalities in patients with defects of L-serine synthesis underscore the importance of L-serine in brain development and function. This paper reviews these recent insights into the role of L-serine and the pathways of L-serine utilization in disease and during development, in particular of the central nervous system

Thigh-length compression stockings and DVT after stroke

Controversy exists as to whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves survival in patients with invasive bladder cancer, despite randomised controlled trials of more than 3000 patients. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effect of such treatment on survival in patients with this disease

A review of the historical distribution and status of the burbot (Lota lota) in English rivers

A key first step in any reintroduction programme is to identify the former native range of the species in question. Such information provides the geographical framework for the project, within which potential reintroduction sites can be assessed. This study provides a historical review of the former distribution and status of the burbot, Lota lota, a freshwater gadoid extirpated from England. The review examines records of burbot presence and abundance from a range of historical and anecdotal sources and provides a qualitative evaluation of the species’ decline in English rivers. Burbot were found to have inhabited 42 rivers in eastern England ranging from the River Skerne in County Durham to the River Blyth in Suffolk. The literature suggests the species persisted in greater numbers in a few isolated areas such as the Yorkshire Derwent and the Great Ouse. The review also indicates that rather than be confined to slow-flowing lowland rivers, burbot occupied a range of aquatic environments including small upland headwaters as well as some lake system

Azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Background Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatory actions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once per day by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatment groups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment and were twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants and local study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to the outcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936. Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) were eligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was 65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomly allocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall, 561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median 10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, no significant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24). Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restricted to patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication. Funding UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research