The impact of RICS education reform on building surveying

Purpose &ndash; It is of major concern to the surveying profession that the seven years between 1994 and 2001 witnessed a decline in the numbers of UK student surveyors of nearly 50 per cent. This was significant, especially when considered in the context of rising student numbers overall. The RICS decided to implement an education policy with the aim of increasing graduate quality. Changes were introduced in UK universities from September 2001. A number of universities saw their professionally accredited courses withdrawn as the RICS imposed&nbsp; academic entry standards and research output based on the UK Government\u27s Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) criteria on which to base their &ldquo;partnership&rdquo; relationships. Figures released by the RICS in 2003 indicated that surveying student numbers increased by 17 per cent in all areas except building surveying, where they fell by just under 25 per cent to 445 in 2001. The paper seeks to answer a number of questions. Why were building surveying courses failing to recruit students whereas other surveying courses have increased their numbers? If the figures continue to decline or remain at these low levels, what is the future for the BS? In short, could building surveying become an endangered profession?Design/methodology/approach &ndash; All UK university BS course leaders were approached by questionnaire and approximately half responded. The study was partly funded by the RICS Education Trust.Findings &ndash; The small amount of quantitative data collected suggests that recruitment is static at a time when other built environment courses are recruiting well. Course leaders expressed strong views about the impact of the education reforms.Research limitations/implications &ndash; Failure by some BS course leaders to provide some statistical data prevented completion of the quantitative part of the study.Originality/value &ndash; Key recommendations have been made to the BS Faculty Board of the RICS about the future of BS education.<br /

DNA Barcoding Simplifies Environmental Risk Assessment of Genetically Modified Crops in Biodiverse Regions

Transgenes encoding for insecticidal crystal (Cry) proteins from the soil-dwelling bacterium Bacillus Thuringiensis have been widely introduced into Genetically Modified (GM) crops to confer protection against insect pests. Concern that these transgenes may also harm beneficial or otherwise valued insects (so-called Non Target Organisms, NTOs) represents a major element of the Environmental Risk Assessments (ERAs) used by all countries prior to commercial release. Compiling a comprehensive list of potentially susceptible NTOs is therefore a necessary part of an ERA for any Cry toxin-containing GM crop. In partly-characterised and biodiverse countries, NTO identification is slowed by the need for taxonomic expertise and time to enable morphological identifications. This limitation represents a potentially serious barrier to timely adoption of GM technology in some developing countries. We consider Bt Cry1A cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) in Nigeria as an exemplar to demonstrate how COI barcoding can provide a simple and cost-effective means of addressing this problem. Over a period of eight weeks, we collected 163 insects from cowpea flowers across the agroecological and geographic range of the crop in Nigeria. These individuals included 32 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) spanning four Orders and that could mostly be assigned to genus or species level. They included 12 Lepidopterans and two Coleopterans (both potentially sensitive to different groups of Cry proteins). Thus, barcode-assisted diagnoses were highly harmonised across groups (typically to genus or species level) and so were insensitive to expertise or knowledge gaps. Decisively, the entire study was completed within four months at a cost of less than 10,000 US$. The broader implications of the findings for food security and the capacity for safe adoption of GM technology are briefly explored

Low relative humidity triggers RNA-directed de novo DNA methylation and suppression of genes controlling stomatal development

Environmental cues influence the development of stomata on the leaf epidermis, and allow plants to exert plasticity in leaf stomatal abundance in response to the prevailing growing conditions. It is reported that Arabidopsis thaliana ‘Landsberg erecta’ plants grown under low relative humidity have a reduced stomatal index and that two genes in the stomatal development pathway, SPEECHLESS and FAMA, become de novo cytosine methylated and transcriptionally repressed. These environmentally-induced epigenetic responses were abolished in mutants lacking the capacity for de novo DNA methylation, for the maintenance of CG methylation, and in mutants for the production of short-interfering non-coding RNAs (siRNAs) in the RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway. Induction of methylation was quantitatively related to the induction of local siRNAs under low relative humidity. Our results indicate the involvement of both transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene suppression at these loci in response to environmental stress. Thus, in a physiologically important pathway, a targeted epigenetic response to a specific environmental stress is reported and several of its molecular, mechanistic components are described, providing a tractable platform for future epigenetics experiments. Our findings suggest epigenetic regulation of stomatal development that allows for anatomical and phenotypic plasticity, and may help to explain at least some of the plant’s resilience to fluctuating relative humidity

Pre-conditioning the epigenetic response to high vapor pressure deficit increases the drought tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana

Epigenetic modification of the genome via cytosine methylation is a dynamic process that responds to changes in the growing environment. This modification can also be heritable. The combination of both properties means that there is the potential for the life experiences of the parental generation to modify the methylation profiles of their offspring and so potentially to ‘pre-condition’ them to better accommodate abiotic conditions encountered by their parents. We recently identified high vapor pressure deficit (vpd)-induced DNA methylation at two gene loci in the stomatal development pathway and an associated reduction in leaf stomatal frequency.1 Here, we test whether this epigenetic modification pre-conditioned parents and their offspring to the more severe water stress of periodic drought. We found that three generations of high vpd-grown plants were better able to withstand periodic drought stress over two generations. This resistance was not directly associated with de novo methylation of the target stomata genes, but was associated with the cmt3 mutant’s inability to maintain asymmetric sequence context methylation. If our finding applies widely, it could have significant implications for evolutionary biology and breeding for stressful environments

Strömgren uvby photometry of the peculiar globular cluster NGC 2419

NGC 2419 is a peculiar Galactic globular cluster offset from the others in the size-luminosity diagram, and showing several chemical abundance anomalies. Here, we present Strömgren uvby photometry of the cluster. Using the gravity- and metallicity-sensitive c1 and m1 indices, we identify a sample of likely cluster members extending well beyond the formal tidal radius. The estimated contamination by cluster non-members is only one per cent, making our catalogue ideally suited for spectroscopic follow-up. We derive photometric [Fe/H] of red giants, and depending on which metallicity calibration from the literature we use, we find reasonable to excellent agreement with spectroscopic [Fe/H], both for the cluster mean metallicity and for individual stars. We demonstrate explicitly that the photometric uncertainties are not Gaussian and this must be accounted for in any analysis of the metallicity distribution function. Using a realistic, non-Gaussian model for the photometric uncertainties, we find a formal internal [Fe/H] spread of σ=0.11+0.02-0.01 dex. This is an upper limit to the cluster’s true [Fe/H] spread and may partially, and possibly entirely, reflect the limited precision of the photometric metallicity estimation and systematic effects. The lack of correlation between spectroscopic and photometric [Fe/H] of individual stars is further evidence against a [Fe/H] spread on the 0.1 dex level. Finally, the CN-sensitive δ4, among other colour indices, anti-correlates strongly with magnesium abundance, indicating that the second-generation stars are nitrogen enriched. The absence of similar correlations in some other CN-sensitive indices supports the second generation being enriched in He, which in these indices approximately compensates the shift due to CN. Compared to a single continuous distribution with finite dispersion, the observed δ4 distribution of red giants is slightly better fit by two distinct populations with no internal spread, with the nitrogen-enhanced second generation accounting for 53 ± 5 per cent of stars. Despite its known peculiarities, NGC 2419 appears to be very similar to other metal-poor Galactic globular clusters with a similarly nitrogen-enhanced second generation and little or no variation in [Fe/H], which sets it apart from other suspected accreted nuclei such as ωCen

Atlas of Age- and Tissue-Specific DNA Methylation during Early Development of Barley (<em>Hordeum vulgare</em>)

The barley (Hordeum vulgare) genome comprises over 32,000 genes, with differentiated cells expressing only a subset of genes; the remainder being silent. Mechanisms by which tissue-specific genes are regulated are not entirely understood, although DNA methylation is likely to be involved. To shed light on the dynamic of DNA methylation during development and its variation between organs, methylation-sensitive genotyping by sequencing (ms-GBS) was used to generate methylation profiles for roots, leaf-blades and leaf-sheaths from five barley varieties, using seedlings at the three-leaf stage. Robust differentially methylated markers (DMMs) were characterised by pairwise comparisons of roots, leaf-blades and leaf-sheaths of three different ages. While very many DMMs were found between roots and leaf parts, only a few existed between leaf-blades and leaf-sheaths, with differences decreasing with leaf rank. Organ-specific DMMs appeared to target mainly repeat regions, implying that organ differentiation partially relies on the spreading of DNA methylation from repeats to promoters of adjacent genes. Identified DMMs indicate that different organs do possess diagnostic methylation profiles and suggest that DNA methylation is important for both tissue differentiation and organ function and will provide the basis to the understanding of the role of DNA methylation in plant organ differentiation and development

Meristem micropropagation of cassava (Manihot esculenta) evokes genome-wide changes in DNA methylation

There is great interest in the phenotypic, genetic and epigenetic changes associated with plant in vitro culture known as somaclonal variation. In vitro propagation systems that are based on the use of microcuttings or meristem cultures are considered analogous to clonal cuttings and so widely viewed to be largely free from such somaclonal effects. In this study, we surveyed for epigenetic changes during propagation by meristem culture and by field cuttings in five cassava (Manihot esculenta) cultivars. Principal Co-ordinate Analysis of profiles generated by Methylation Sensitive Amplified Polymorphism (MSAP) revealed clear divergence between samples taken from field-grown cuttings and those recovered from meristem culture. There was also good separation between the tissues of field samples but this effect was less distinct among the meristem culture materials. Application of methylation-sensitive Genotype By Sequencing (msGBS) identified 105 candidate epimarks that distinguish between field cutting and meristem culture samples. Cross referencing the sequences of these epimarks to the draft cassava genome revealed 102 sites associated with genes whose homologues have been implicated in a range of fundamental biological processes including cell differentiation, development, sugar metabolism, DNA methylation, stress response, photosynthesis, and transposon activation. We explore the relevance of these findings for the selection of micropropagation systems for use on this and other crops

Researching trust in the police and trust in justice: a UK perspective

This paper describes the immediate and more distant origins of a programme of comparative research that is examining cross-national variations in public trust in justice and in the police. The programme is built around a module of the fifth European Social Survey, and evolved from a study funded by the European Commission. The paper describes the conceptual framework within which we are operating – developed in large measure from theories of procedural justice. It reviews some of the methodological issues raised by the use of sample surveys to research issues of public trust in the police, public perceptions of institutional legitimacy and compliance with the law. Finally it gives a flavour of some of the early findings emerging from the programme