The control of calcium metabolism by parathyroid hormone, calcitonin and vitamin D

Advances in analysis of chemistry and physiology of parathyroid hormone, calcitonin, and Vitamin D are described along with development of techniques in radioassay methods. Emphasis is placed on assessment of normal and abnormal patterns of secretion of these hormones in specific relation to the physiological adaptations of weightlessness and space flight. Related diseases that involve perturbations in normal skeletal and calcium homeostasis are also considered

Letter from Baghdad

In "Letter from Baghdad' D. T. Potts recounts the aftermath of the looting of the Iraq National Museum that took place in April 2003, the international response to it and his own efforts to assist the museum staff in reconstituting their record system.Australia Council, La Trobe University, National Library of Australia, Holding Redlich, Arts Victori

Adoption and non-adoption of a shared electronic summary record in England: a mixed-method case study

Publisher version: http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.c3111.full?sid=fcb22308-64fe-4070-9067-15a172b3aea

Why is timing of bird migration advancing when individuals are not?

Recent advances in spring arrival dates have been reported in many migratory species but the mechanism driving these advances is unknown. As population declines are most widely reported in species that are not advancing migration, there is an urgent need to identify the mechanisms facilitating and constraining these advances. Individual plasticity in timing of migration in response to changing climatic conditions is commonly proposed to drive these advances but plasticity in individual migratory timings is rarely observed. For a shorebird population that has significantly advanced migration in recent decades, we show that individual arrival dates are highly consistent between years, but that the arrival dates of new recruits to the population are significantly earlier now than in previous years. Several mechanisms could drive advances in recruit arrival, none of which require individual plasticity or rapid evolution of migration timings. In particular, advances in nest-laying dates could result in advanced recruit arrival, if benefits of early hatching facilitate early subsequent spring migration. This mechanism could also explain why arrival dates of short-distance migrants, which generally return to breeding sites earlier and have greater scope for advance laying, are advancing more rapidly than long-distance migrants

Current fluctuations in open quantum systems: Bridging the gap between quantum continuous measurements and full counting statistics

Continuously measured quantum systems are characterized by an output current, in the form of a stochastic and correlated time series which conveys crucial information about the underlying quantum system. The many tools used to describe current fluctuations are scattered across different communities: quantum opticians often use stochastic master equations, while a prevalent approach in condensed matter physics is provided by full counting statistics. These, however, are simply different sides of the same coin. Our goal with this tutorial is to provide a unified toolbox for describing current fluctuations. This not only provides novel insights, by bringing together different fields in physics, but also yields various analytical and numerical tools for computing quantities of interest. We illustrate our results with various pedagogical examples, and connect them with topical fields of research, such as waiting-time statistics, quantum metrology, thermodynamic uncertainty relations, quantum point contacts and Maxwell's demons.Comment: This is a tutorial paper, submitted to PRX Quantu

Internal Energy of the Potts model on the Triangular Lattice with Two- and Three-body Interactions

We calculate the internal energy of the Potts model on the triangular lattice with two- and three-body interactions at the transition point satisfying certain conditions for coupling constants. The method is a duality transformation. Therefore we have to make assumptions on uniqueness of the transition point and that the transition is of second order. These assumptions have been verified to hold by numerical simulations for q=2, 3 and 4, and our results for the internal energy are expected to be exact in these cases.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Smc5/6: a link between DNA repair and unidirectional replication?

Of the three structural maintenance of chromosome (SMC) complexes, two directly regulate chromosome dynamics. The third, Smc5/6, functions mainly in homologous recombination and in completing DNA replication. The literature suggests that Smc5/6 coordinates DNA repair, in part through post-translational modification of uncharacterized target proteins that can dictate their subcellular localization, and that Smc5/6 also functions to establish DNA-damage-dependent cohesion. A nucleolar-specific Smc5/6 function has been proposed because Smc5/6 yeast mutants display penetrant phenotypes of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) instability. rDNA repeats are replicated unidirectionally. Here, we propose that unidirectional replication, combined with global Smc5/6 functions, can explain the apparent rDNA specificity

The devil's in the detail: Final report of the independent evaluation of the Summary Care Record and HealthSpace programmes

professionals, NHS staff, service users, citizens, academics and evaluation scholars. It should be read in conjunction with our Year 1 reports on the SCR programme (May 2008) 1 and data quality (May 2008). 2 2. The SCR is an electronic summary of key health data, currently drawn from a patient’s GP-held electronic record and accessible over a secure Internet connection by authorised healthcare staff. It is one of a suite of innovations being introduced as part of the National Programme for IT in the English National Health Service (NHS) and delivered via a central ‘Spine’. Policy documents published in 2005-8 anticipated a number of benefits of the SCR, including: 3-6 a. Better care (i.e. the SCR would improve clinical decision-making); b. Safer care (i.e. the SCR would reduce risk of harm, especially medication errors); c. More efficient care (e.g. the SCR would make consultations quicker); d. More equitable care (i.e. the SCR would be particularly useful in patients unable to communicate or advocate for themselves); e. Reduction in onward referral (e.g. the SCR would avoid unnecessary ambulanc

The Cooperative Participatory Evaluation of Renewable Technologies on Ecosystem Services (CORPORATES)

Publisher PD