Is Malaysia’s banded langur, Presbytis femoralis femoralis, actually Presbytis neglectus neglectus? Taxonomic revision with new insights on the radiation history of the Presbytis species group in Southeast Asia

The disjunct distribution of Presbytis femoralis subspecies across Sumatra (P. f. percura), southern (P. f. femoralis) and northern (P. f. robinsoni) Peninsular Malaysia marks the unique vicariance events in the Sunda Shelf. However, the taxonomic positions and evolutionary history of P. f. femoralis are unresolved after decades of research. To elucidate this evolutionary history, we analyzed 501 base pairs of the mitochondrial HVSI gene from 25 individuals representing Malaysia’s banded langur, with the addition of 29 sequences of Asian Presbytis from Genbank. Our results revealed closer affinity of P. f. femoralis to P. m. mitrata and P. m. sumatrana while maintaining the monophyletic state of P. f. femoralis as compared to P. f. robinsoni. Two central theses were inferred from the results; (1) P. f. femoralis does not belong in the same species classification as P. f. robinsoni, and (2) P. f. femoralis is the basal lineage of the Presbytis in Peninsular Malaysia. Proving the first hypothesis through genetic analysis, we reassigned P. f. femoralis of Malaysia to Presbytis neglectus (Schlegel’s banded langur) (Schlegel in Revue Methodique, Museum d’Histoire Naturelle des Pays-Bas 7:1, 1876) following the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (article 23.3). The ancestors of P. neglectus are hypothesized to have reached southern Peninsular Malaysia during the Pleistocene and survived in refugium along the western coast. Consequently, they radiated upward, forming P. f. robinsoni and P. siamensis resulting in the highly allopatric distribution in Peninsular Malaysia. This study has successfully resolved the taxonomic position of P. neglectus in Peninsular Malaysia while providing an alternative biogeographic theory for the Asian Presbytis

Moving from contractor to owner operator: Impact on safety culture; a case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether a change in staffing contractual arrangements, specific training in hazard identification, mentoring of supervisors and the introduction of a robust safety system could improve an organisation\u27s safety culture. How safety conditions change under contracted out labour compared to direct labour and the influence that contracting out has on organisational safety culture is explored. Design/methodology/approach – The study used a case study methodology to detail how the change occurred over a six month period in 2011. As part of the analysis a model of the change process and push-pull factors is offered. Findings – As a result of the change, all areas saw some improvement. Work-related injury statistics dropped significantly, supervisors were clear of their roles, actively monitoring their crews to ensure they worked in a safer manner than before, and staff were actively addressing work-place hazards. With the safety system in place the organisation should be deemed compliant and diligent by the state auditing authorities. This study has also shown that using contractor workers together with in-house workers that are managed under different safety regimes is problematic. The problems don’t occur due to the contractor\u27s safety systems being less robust than the parent company\u27s or that contract workers are themselves less safe; it is the added complexity of managing multiple safety regimes and the lack of trust of the robustness of each system that create conflict. Research limitations/implications – The paper reports on the change process of one mining organisation in Western Australia as a case study from a managerial sample and is thereby limited. Practical implications – This study demonstrates the difficulties in changing safety culture in an underground mining organisation. The paper argues the need for specialised training in identifying hazards by the staff, the mentoring of supervisory staff and the adoption of a robust safety system to support improved safety culture. Originality/value – There is little research conducted in the resources sector researching changes in human resource supply and OHS management, in particular moving from contracted labour to hiring in-house. This case provides an insight into how a change in staffing hiring arrangements, together with specific safety initiatives, has a positive impact on safety performance

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Role of the Unconventional Prefoldin Proteins URI and UXT in Transcription Regulation

The Unconventional prefoldin RPB5 interacting protein (URI), also known as RPB5-Mediating Protein (RMP) has been shown to play several regulatory roles in different cellular compartments including the mitochondria, as a phosphatase binding protein; in the cytoplasm, as a chaperone-like protein; and in the nucleus, as a transcriptional regulator through binding to RPB5 and RNA polymerase II (polII). This chapter focuses on the role URI plays in transcriptional regulation in the prostate cell. In prostate cells, URI is tightly bound to another prefoldin-like protein called UXT, a known androgen receptor (AR) cofactor. Part of a multiprotein complex, URI and UXT act as transcriptional repressors, and URI regulates KAP1 through PP2A phosphatase activity. The discovery of the interaction of URI and UXT with KAP1, AR, and PP2A, as well as the numerous interactions between URI and components of the R2TP/prefoldin-like complex, RPB5, and nuclear proteins involved in DNA damage response, chromatin remodeling and gene transcription, reveal a pleiotropic effect of the URI/UXT complex on nuclear processes. The mechanisms by which URI/UXT affect transcription, chromatin structure and regulation, and genome stability, remain to be elucidated but will be of fundamental importance considering the many processes affected by alterations of URI/UXT and other prefoldins and prefoldin-like proteins