RNA polymerase III interferes with Ty3 integration

AbstractTy3, a gypsylike retrotransposon of budding yeast, integrates at the transcription initiation site of genes transcribed by RNA polymerase III (pol III). It was previously shown that integration in vitro requires intact promoter elements and the pol III transcription factors TFIIIB and TFIIIC. In order to test the effect of pol III on integration, increasing amounts of a pol III-containing fraction were added to Ty3 in vitro integration reactions. The pol III-containing fraction was inhibitory to integration. These results are consistent with a model where the Ty3 integration complex and pol III recognize similar features of the stable transcription complex and compete with each other for access to the transcription initiation site

Large women's accounts of health and weight management in postpartum: a longitudinal qualitative study

Postpartum weight retention is commonly considered an important precursor to long-term weight gain, with existing research suggesting that failure to lose weight in postpartum has significant future health implications. While postpartum has been identified as a possible ‘window of opportunity’ for women to make health behaviour change and manage their weight, it remains unclear how mothers, and in particular ‘large’ (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2) mothers, experience health and engage with health-related behaviours at this particular point in the life course. Existing research has done little to enhance our understandings of the lived, embodied and practical realities of caring for an infant and, crucially, how this impacts health and weight management during the postpartum period. In addition, qualitative research focusing on postpartum has largely ignored the temporal dimensions of this period and, instead, has tended to focus attentions on a single ‘snapshot’ in time. To address these gaps in the literature, this study employed longitudinal qualitative methodology to explore 15 ‘large’ (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2) women’s lived experience of health and weight management over the first six months following childbirth. Participants were recruited from a specialist antenatal metabolic clinic based in Edinburgh, Scotland. When possible, three in-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with each participant: the first at six weeks postpartum, the second at three months and, the third at six months postpartum. Both six weeks and six months have consistently been identified in the literature as important markers for postpartum women. Hence, it was hoped that by interviewing at these and an intervening time point (i.e. three months) it would be possible to capture and understand processes of change with regards to weight management in the postpartum period. The analysis revealed that accounts of health and weight were far from straightforward and seemed to be heavily influenced by the wider social context, which routinely pathologises, demonises and stigmatises ‘fatness’. Challenging contemporary discourses of the ‘obesity epidemic’ which frame the large body as a direct consequence of individual lifestyle, participants principally drew upon lay notions of inheritance and implicated a genetic predisposition to resist individual responsibility for weight and body size. The analysis suggests that concerns for health were largely predicated on subjective experiences and, in the absence of tangible and embodied experiences of ill-health, participants expressed little if any impetus to engage in weight management for the purpose of improving their health. In short, the idea that their weight was an indicator of poor health, or future health risk, was not a view shared by participants. Instead, they expressed more complex understandings of their weight, and their responsibilities to engage in health changing behaviour. Despite articulating often strong desires to engage in weight management ‘for the baby’, the longitudinal focus revealed a disjuncture between these intentions and the reality of those engagements. Influential in this discordance was the transition from an intensely medicalised and closely monitored pregnancy, to a period of minimal or no follow up in postpartum. The lack of ‘surveillance’ appeared to have a notable impact on participants’ engagements with health-related behaviours once at home and going about the day-to-day tasks of caring for their infant. Dominant discourses around ‘good’ mothering also made it difficult for participants to prioritise their own needs (such as weight management) ahead of those of their children and other family members. When participants reflected on their experiences of mothering they frequently drew upon understandings of themselves as relational beings and, at times, positioned themselves as phenomenologically inseparable from their baby. This relationality was often experienced as a diminishing of individual autonomy, as the body of the mother and the baby became inter-embodied and bounded. Consequently, my analysis serves to problematise the individualised expectation surrounding a mother’s ability to act autonomously and engage in health-related behaviours in postpartum. These findings also call for a stronger appreciation to be developed of the complexities surrounding engagements with health-related behaviours at this particular point in the life course. In particular this research demonstrates the importance and utility of adopting a more embodied approach, which in turn has some notable implications for public health policy and practice

First Responders\u27 Narratives of Drowning: Perceptions of Family and Community Impacts and Policy Implications

This is an exploratory study of the impacts of drowning death on local communities and families in the Republic of Ireland as perceived by first responders. The impact of a death may be particularly stressful. The identified population of interest were members of the Garda and first responders from Community Rescue Boats Ireland. The principal data collection method was one-to-one narrative interviews followed by a focus group. Questioning involved asking interviewees to talk about specific events rather than providing general opinions. Community identity was a source of impact, an urban or rural setting was a significant factor, social media was clearly an issue, and once the immediate incident was dealt with families did not receive much formal support. Families require the support of counseling professionals. Participants identified the need for support for search and rescue personnel and improved inter-agency collaboration. There is a need for national guidelines

The Revolution in Astronomy Education: Data Science for the Masses

As our capacity to study ever-expanding domains of our science has increased (including the time domain, non-electromagnetic phenomena, magnetized plasmas, and numerous sky surveys in multiple wavebands with broad spatial coverage and unprecedented depths), so have the horizons of our understanding of the Universe been similarly expanding. This expansion is coupled to the exponential data deluge from multiple sky surveys, which have grown from gigabytes into terabytes during the past decade, and will grow from terabytes into Petabytes (even hundreds of Petabytes) in the next decade. With this increased vastness of information, there is a growing gap between our awareness of that information and our understanding of it. Training the next generation in the fine art of deriving intelligent understanding from data is needed for the success of sciences, communities, projects, agencies, businesses, and economies. This is true for both specialists (scientists) and non-specialists (everyone else: the public, educators and students, workforce). Specialists must learn and apply new data science research techniques in order to advance our understanding of the Universe. Non-specialists require information literacy skills as productive members of the 21st century workforce, integrating foundational skills for lifelong learning in a world increasingly dominated by data. We address the impact of the emerging discipline of data science on astronomy education within two contexts: formal education and lifelong learners.Comment: 12 pages total: 1 cover page, 1 page of co-signers, plus 10 pages, State of the Profession Position Paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey (March 2009

Patient experiences of a physiotherapy-led multidisciplinary rehabilitative intervention after successful treatment for oesophago-gastric cancer

Purpose To qualitatively explore the perceived impact of a 12-week rehabilitative intervention for oesophago-gastric cancer survivors on their physical, mental and social wellbeing. Methods Of the 21 participants who completed the intervention, 19 took part in a semi-structured focus group interview. Four audio-taped focus groups were held, ranging in size from two to eight participants. Focus groups were transcribed and analysed using a descriptive qualitative approach. Results At recruitment, participants were 23.5 ± 15.2 months post-surgery and all had suboptimal fitness levels. Participants reported improvements in their physical capacity and ability to carry out activities of daily living during the intervention. These improvements led to increased confidence and social connectivity. Other participants were a valuable source of information and reassurance, while support from family members was variable. Future interventions should educate participants on how to maintain gains achieved during the intervention. Conclusions Participating in an exercise-based multidisciplinary rehabilitative intervention reduces isolation and helps oesophago-gastric cancer survivors to safely negotiate their physical, emotional and social needs as they move further down the path of recovery

Telehealth Delivery of a Multi-Disciplinary Rehabilitation Programme for Upper Gastro-Intestinal Cancer: ReStOre@Home Feasibility Study

Advances in diagnosis and the treatment for upper gastro-intestinal (UGI) cancers have led to improved survival rates and, consequently, to a larger population of survivors of many types of UGI cancer [1,2]. Progress in survivorship care for UGI cancer remains poor, and many survivors experience ongoing negative physical and psychosocial impacts of treatment, which can have profound and long-term impacts on physical function and quality of life (QOL) [3,4]. At one year post-op, 40% of survivors report poor physical function, and significant reductions in walking distance, cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle strength are observed, along with a high prevalence of fatigue (41%), sarcopenia (35%) and dyspnoea (20%) [5–7]. Nutritional compromise in UGI cancer survivors is frequently reported, with eating restrictions are observed in 49% at 1 year post-surgery and malabsorption in 73% at two years post-op [6,8]. This can lead to significant reductions in fat-free body mass and skeletal muscle [8]. From a psychosocial perspective, anxiety (36%), fear of recurrence (29%) and high rates of sleep difficulties (51%) are reported. An integrated, multi-disciplinary specialist rehabilitation approach focusing on patient-centred outcomes is indicated to address the substantial, complex, multi-dimensional rehabilitation needs of UGI cancer survivors and to enable them to achieve the best possible quality of life and to reintegrate into family, social and working life [9–12]