Employee forums in the UK: friend or foe of trade unions?

"With a tradition of informing and consulting employees resting on a single union channel, the 2002 EU Information and Consultation (ICE) Directive was bound to have a significant impact on employee relations in the UK Undoubtedly, the works council as an institution, or employee forum as it is often referred to in the UK, represents a totally new departure in UK employment relations. The article specifically focuses on the repercussions employee forums might have for trade unions. We focus on two companies which have both recently founded employee forums to comply with ICE regulation. We ask whether such forums should be considered as posing a threat to British trade unions, or platform for revitalising their position within the workplace." (author's abstract

The Evolution of Organismal Complexity in Angiosperms as Measured by the Information Content of Taxonomic Descriptions

We describe an information theoretic method for measuring relative organismal complexity. The complexity measure is based on the amount of information contained in formal taxonomic descriptions of organisms. We examine the utility of this measure for quantifying the complexity of plant families. The descriptions are subjective by nature, but we find a significant correlation in the complexity values of plant families from two independently authored sets of formal taxonomic descriptions. An analysis of the evolution of complexity across angiosperms found evidence of a pattern of increasing complexity. Our measure of complexity provides an operational definition of complexity that may be applied to any group of organisms and will enable further empirical studies of the evolution of complexity

Daytime sleepiness, driving performance, reaction time and inhibitory control during sleep restriction therapy for Chronic Insomnia Disorder

Crown Copyright © 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (Nov 2017) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyBackground Sleep restriction therapy (SRT) is a largely untested single treatment component of cognitive-behaviour therapy for insomnia. To date, the evidence for contraindications for SRT is limited to very few studies. The present study investigated the objective and subjective daytime consequences during the acute phase of SRT for adults diagnosed with Chronic Insomnia Disorder. Methods Sixteen adults (age = 36.3 ± 13.4 yrs, 12 females, 4 males) underwent SRT for their insomnia over a two week period based on recommendations by Miller and colleagues (2014) [6]. Participants completed sleep diaries, self-reported daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale [ESS]), as well as objective measures of reaction time/inhibition (Go/NoGo task) and driving performance (AusEd driving simulator) at pre-, mid- (ie, after one week of SRT) and post-SRT (after two weeks of SRT). Results Sleep diary outcomes indicated participants complied with the restriction of time in bed, and that a similar amount of total sleep time (TST) was maintained from pre-to-post-treatment. There was no significant change in daytime sleepiness, and similarly no significant changes observed in objective performance on the Go/NoGo task and AusEd driving simulator. Conclusions These preliminary results suggest SRT during the acute phase does not appear to place insomnia patients at risk of significant impairments in sleepiness and reaction times. We note these findings can only be translated into clinical practice when sleep duration remains relatively unchanged. Future studies using objective measures of sleep and a control group are recommended

Hybridization and speciation in angiosperms: a role for pollinator shifts?

The majority of convincingly documented cases of hybridization in angiosperms has involved genetic introgression between the parental species or formation of a hybrid species with increased ploidy; however, homoploid (diploid) hybridization may be just as common. Recent studies, including one in BMC Evolutionary Biology, show that pollinator shifts can play a role in both mechanisms of hybrid speciation

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research

A novel mechanism linking memory stem cells with innate immunity in protection against HIV-1 infection

© 2017 The Author(s). HIV infection affects 37 million people and about 1.7 million are infected annually. Among the phase III clinical trials only the RV144 vaccine trial elicited significant protection against HIV-1 acquisition, but the efficacy and immune memory were inadequate. To boost these vaccine functions we studied T stem cell memory (TSCM) and innate immunity. TSCM cells were identified by phenotypic markers of CD4+ T cells and they were further characterised into 4 subsets. These expressed the common IL-2/IL-15 receptors and another subset of APOBEC3G anti-viral restriction factors, both of which were upregulated. In contrast, CD4+ TSCM cells expressing CCR5 co-receptors and α4β7 mucosal homing integrins were decreased. A parallel increase in CD4+ T cells was recorded with IL-15 receptors, APOBEC3G and CC chemokines, the latter downmodulating CCR5 molecules. We suggest a novel mechanism of dual memory stem cells; the established sequential memory pathway, TSCM →Central →Effector memory CD4+ T cells and the innate pathway consisting of the 4 subsets of TSCM. Both pathways are likely to be activated by endogenous HSP70. The TSCM memory stem cell and innate immunity pathways have to be optimised to boost the efficacy and immune memory of protection against HIV-1 in the clinical trial

TCTEX1D2 mutations underlie Jeune asphyxiating thoracic dystrophy with impaired retrograde intraflagellar transport

Tiina Paunio on työryhmän UK10K jäsen.The analysis of individuals with ciliary chondrodysplasias can shed light on sensitive mechanisms controlling ciliogenesis and cell signalling that are essential to embryonic development and survival. Here we identify TCTEX1D2 mutations causing Jeune asphyxiating thoracic dystrophy with partially penetrant inheritance. Loss of TCTEX1D2 impairs retrograde intraflagellar transport (IFT) in humans and the protist Chlamydomonas, accompanied by destabilization of the retrograde IFT dynein motor. We thus define TCTEX1D2 as an integral component of the evolutionarily conserved retrograde IFT machinery. In complex with several IFT dynein light chains, it is required for correct vertebrate skeletal formation but may be functionally redundant under certain conditions.Peer reviewe

Employee Forums in the UK: Friend or Foe of Trade Unions?

With a tradition of informing and consulting employees resting on a single union channel, the 2002 EU Information and Consultation (ICE) Directive was bound to have a significant impact on employee relations in the UK Undoubtedly, the works council as an institution, or employee forum as it is often referred to in the UK, represents a totally new departure in UK employment relations. The article specifically focuses on the repercussions employee forums might have for trade unions. We focus on two companies which have both recently founded employee forums to comply with ICE regulation. We ask whether such forums should be considered as posing a threat to British trade unions, or platform for revitalising their position within the workplace.European Information and Consultation Directive, works councils, trade unions, British industrial relations, employee representation