Gene therapy for carcinoma of the breast: Genetic toxins

Gene therapy was initially envisaged as a potential treatment for genetically inherited, monogenic disorders. The applications of gene therapy have now become wider, however, and include cardiovascular diseases, vaccination and cancers in which conventional therapies have failed. With regard to oncology, various gene therapy approaches have been developed. Among them, the use of genetic toxins to kill cancer cells selectively is emerging. Two different types of genetic toxins have been developed so far: the metabolic toxins and the dominant-negative class of toxins. This review describes these two different approaches, and discusses their potential applications in cancer gene therapy

Впровадження основних положень Болонського процесу в післядипломну освіту лікарів

Summary. This prospective analysis assessed the risk of mild mental retardation (MMR) associated with low birthweight (LBW) in the Child Health and Development Studies. Scores of 50–70 on the Raven Progressive Matrices, a relatively culture-free test of cognitive functioning, were used to categorise MMR. At the age of 5,13.8% of the 195 children with birthweights less than 2500 g (LBW) were MMR, whilst 4.2% of the 2293 children with normal birthweights (\u3e2955 grams) were MMR. After adjusting for confounders (maternal age, race, education, prenatal alcohol use, maternal conditions, and congenital anomalies), the relative risk of MMR for LBW was 3.4 (95% CI 1.2–5.4). For children aged 9–11, 7.7% of 194 LBW children were MMR, compared with 6.2% of the 2546 with normal birthweights; the adjusted relative risk for LBW was 1.2 (95% CI 0.7–2.0). Although a strong association between LBW and MMR was observed for both blacks and non-blacks at the age of 5, the association between birthweight and MMR was apparent only for blacks in the cohort of children aged 9–11. These findings suggest that race, a marker for environmental factors which were not measured in this study, may modify the LBW and MMR relationship

Schools, teachers, and curriculum change: A balancing act?

Educational change is a fact of life for teachers across the world, as schools are subjected to constant and ubiquitous pressures to innovate. And, yet, many school practices remain remarkably persistent in the face of such innovation. This paradox of innovation without change is perplexing for policymakers and practitioners alike. This paper investigates the gap between policy and practice, between innovation and the changes in social practices that occur in response to such innovation. It draws upon empirical data from two case studies in Scotland — schools responding to new curriculum policy—exploring contrasting approaches to the management of innovation. One is a laissez faire approach, and the other a more directive managerial strategy. Through an analytical separation of culture, structure, and agency, derived from the social theory of Margaret Archer, the paper sheds light on the social processes that accompanied innovation in these two settings demonstrating how teacher culture and differing management styles impact upon externally initiated policy

Evaluating stock and catchability trends: Annual average catch per unit effort is an inadequate indicator of stock and catchability trends in fisheries

Changes in the distribution of fishing effort over the season can influence trends in annual catch per unit effort (CPUE) because the vulnerability of the target species varies seasonally. We use annual and monthly time series analysis of CPUE data for a lobster fishery to show that time trends in CPUE are dependent upon the time interval selected. Changes in the spatial distribution of effort will almost certainly have similar consequences. Modellers and managers of fisheries need to quantify the effects of economic and regulatory changes on the temporal and spatial allocation of fishing effort.lobster catch per unit effort catchability stock estimation

Identifying change over time in small area socio-economic deprivation

The measurement of area level deprivation is the subject of a wide and ongoing debate regarding the appropriateness of the geographical scale of analysis, the input indicator variables and the method used to combine them into a single figure index. Whilst differences exist, there are strong correlations between schemes. Many policy-related and academic studies use deprivation scores calculated cross-sectionally to identify areas in need of regeneration and to explain variations in health outcomes. It would be useful then to identify whether small areas have changed their level of deprivation over time and thereby be able to: monitor the effect of industry closure; assess the impact of area-based planning initiatives; or determine whether a change in the level of deprivation leads to a change in health. However, the changing relationship with an outcome cannot be judged if the ‘before’ and ‘after’ situations are based on deprivation measures which use different, often time-point specific variables, methods and geographies. Here, for the whole of the UK, inputs to the Townsend index obtained from the 1991 and 2001 Censuses have been harmonised in terms of variable detail and with the 1991 data converted to the 2001 Census ward geography. Deprivation has been calculated so that the 1991 scores are directly comparable with those for 2001. Change over time can be then identified. Measured in this way, deprivation is generally shown to have eased due to downward trends in levels of lack of access to a car, non-home ownership, household overcrowding but most particularly, to reductions in levels of unemployment. Despite these trends, not all locations became less deprived with gradients of deprivation largely persisting within the UK’s constituent countries and in different area types. For England, Wales and Scotland, the calculation of Townsend scores can readily be backdated to incorporate data from the 1971 and 1981 Censuses to create a 1971–2001 set of comparable deprivation scores. The approach can also be applied to the Carstairs index. Due to differences in data availability prior to 1991, incorporating small areas in Northern Ireland would be challenging