Individual contracts, collective bargaining and trade unionism: a case for the union voice

The Government White Paper, Fairness at Work, offers the opportunity for a statutory procedure for the introduction of collective bargaining when a majority of trade union members within a workplace require it. Within this proposal assumptions are made concerning the nature of individual contracts and the wishes of employees covered by them. The article indicates that the extent of derecognition in the 1980s and 1990s has underestimated the number of employees denied collective bargaining through transfer to personal contracts. Based on research covering trade unionists who have remained in membership despite transfer to personal contracts, their motives for membership and attitudes to representation and recognition are explored. While increasingly accommodated to determination of their pay and conditions on an individual basis, the trade union members in this sample remain concerned about the opacity of procedures and the lack of voice. Recognizing that this does not infer a return to the collective bargaining of the past, an alternative structure which recognizes individual contracts within collective relations is recommended.</jats:p

Sphere forming method and apparatus

A system is provided for forming small accurately spherical objects. Preformed largely spherical objects are supported at the opening of a conduit on the update of hot gas emitted from the opening, so the object is in a molten state. The conduit is suddenly jerked away at a downward incline, to allow the molten object to drop in free fall, so that surface tension forms a precise sphere. The conduit portion that has the opening, lies in a moderate vacuum chamber, and the falling sphere passes through the chamber and through a briefly opened valve into a tall drop tower that contains a lower pressure, to allow the sphere to cool without deformation caused by falling through air

Clinical Hemodynamics and Pharmacodynamics of Toxemia

For many years toxemia has served as a wastebasket for a variety of disease states characterized by an elevated arterial pressure, edema, and albuminuria. Whereas this triad is consistent with the diagnosis of toxemia, it is not diagnostic. Besides toxemia, these abnormalities may be found in pregnant patients with hypertensive vascular disease, pyelonephritis, glomerulonephritis, or any combination of these. Data derived from studies performed on patients with such a variety of disease entities have obviously been confusing. It makes a lot of difference, for example, whether the subjects studied had chronic pyelonephritis or acute vasospastic toxemia. During the past 13 years, our group has attempted to cut the pie of elevated arterial pressure, albuminuria, and edema into separate and distinct diagnostic pieces. Ophthalmoscopic examination and urinalysis have been of great help in this regard (Finnerty, 1954, 1956 and 1965; Finnerty et al., 1960)

Reports Of Conferences, Institutes, And Seminars

This quarter\u27s column offers coverage of multiple sessions from the 2016 Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER&L) Conference, held April 3–6, 2016, in Austin, Texas. Topics in serials acquisitions dominate the column, including reports on altmetrics, cost per use, demand-driven acquisitions, and scholarly communications and the use of subscriptions agents; ERMS, access, and knowledgebases are also featured

Upgrades to StellaBase facilitate medical and genetic studies on the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis

© 2007 The Author(s) This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The definitive version was published in Nucleic Acids Research 36 (2008): D607-D611, doi:10.1093/nar/gkm941.The starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, is a basal metazoan organism that has recently emerged as an important model system in developmental biology and evolutionary genomics. StellaBase, the Nematostella Genomics Database (http://stellabase.org), was developed in 2005 as a resource to support the Nematostella research community. Recently, it has become apparent that Nematostella may be a particularly useful system for studying (i) microevolutionary variation in natural populations, and (ii) the functional evolution of human disease genes. We have developed two new databases that will foster such studies: StellaBase Disease (http://stellabase.org/disease) is a relational database that houses 155 904 invertebrate homologous isoforms of human disease genes from four leading genomic model systems (fly, worm, yeast and Nematostella), including 14 874 predicted genes from the sea anemone itself. StellaBase SNP (http://stellabase.org/SNP) is a relational database that describes the location and underlying type of mutation for 20 063 single nucleotide polymorphisms.This work was supported by NSF grant FP-91656101-0 to J.C.S. and J.R.F. and EPA Grant F5E11155 to A.R.M. and J.R.F. and by a Postdoctoral Scholar Program at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, with funding provided by The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries, and the J. Seward Johnson Fund to A.M.R

Upgrades to StellaBase facilitate medical and genetic studies on the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis

© 2007 The Author(s) This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The definitive version was published in Nucleic Acids Research 36 (2008): D607-D611, doi:10.1093/nar/gkm941.The starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, is a basal metazoan organism that has recently emerged as an important model system in developmental biology and evolutionary genomics. StellaBase, the Nematostella Genomics Database (http://stellabase.org), was developed in 2005 as a resource to support the Nematostella research community. Recently, it has become apparent that Nematostella may be a particularly useful system for studying (i) microevolutionary variation in natural populations, and (ii) the functional evolution of human disease genes. We have developed two new databases that will foster such studies: StellaBase Disease (http://stellabase.org/disease) is a relational database that houses 155 904 invertebrate homologous isoforms of human disease genes from four leading genomic model systems (fly, worm, yeast and Nematostella), including 14 874 predicted genes from the sea anemone itself. StellaBase SNP (http://stellabase.org/SNP) is a relational database that describes the location and underlying type of mutation for 20 063 single nucleotide polymorphisms.This work was supported by NSF grant FP-91656101-0 to J.C.S. and J.R.F. and EPA Grant F5E11155 to A.R.M. and J.R.F. and by a Postdoctoral Scholar Program at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, with funding provided by The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries, and the J. Seward Johnson Fund to A.M.R

Domain duplication, divergence, and loss events in vertebrate Msx paralogs reveal phylogenomically informed disease markers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Msx originated early in animal evolution and is implicated in human genetic disorders. To reconstruct the functional evolution of Msx and inform the study of human mutations, we analyzed the phylogeny and synteny of 46 metazoan Msx proteins and tracked the duplication, diversification and loss of conserved motifs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Vertebrate Msx sequences sort into distinct Msx1, Msx2 and Msx3 clades. The sister-group relationship between <it>MSX1 </it>and <it>MSX2 </it>reflects their derivation from the 4p/5q chromosomal paralogon, a derivative of the original "MetaHox" cluster. We demonstrate physical linkage between Msx and other MetaHox genes (<it>Hmx</it>, <it>NK1</it>, <it>Emx</it>) in a cnidarian. Seven conserved domains, including two Groucho repression domains (N- and C-terminal), were present in the ancestral Msx. In cnidarians, the Groucho domains are highly similar. In vertebrate Msx1, the N-terminal Groucho domain is conserved, while the C-terminal domain diverged substantially, implying a novel function. In vertebrate Msx2 and Msx3, the C-terminal domain was lost. MSX1 mutations associated with ectodermal dysplasia or orofacial clefting disorders map to conserved domains in a non-random fashion.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Msx originated from a MetaHox ancestor that also gave rise to Tlx, Demox, NK, and possibly EHGbox, Hox and ParaHox genes. Duplication, divergence or loss of domains played a central role in the functional evolution of Msx. Duplicated domains allow pleiotropically expressed proteins to evolve new functions without disrupting existing interaction networks. Human missense sequence variants reside within evolutionarily conserved domains, likely disrupting protein function. This phylogenomic evaluation of candidate disease markers will inform clinical and functional studies.</p

Valorisation of macroalgae via the integration of hydrothermal carbonisation and anaerobic digestion

This study investigates the integration of hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) with anaerobic digestion (AD) as a valorisation route for two macroalgae species; S. latissima (SL) and F. serratus (FS). HTC reactions were conducted at temperatures of 150°C, 200°C and 250°C, with resulting hydrochars, process waters and hydrothermal slurries assessed for biomethane potential yields. Un-treated SL generated similar biomethane levels compared to all SL slurries. Whereas all FS slurries improved biomethane yields compared to un-treated FS. Hydrochars represent a greater energy carrier if used as a solid fuel, rather than a feedstock for anaerobic digestion. Integrating HTC and AD, through hydrochar combustion and process water digestion has a greater energetic output than anaerobic digestion of the un-treated macroalgae. Treatment at 150°C, with separate utilisation of products, can improve the energetic output of S. latissima and F. serratus by 47 % and 172 % respectively, compared to digestion of the un-treated macroalgae

S100A6 preferentially labels type C nevus cells and nevic corpuscles: additional support for Schwannian differentiation of intradermal nevi

Melanocytic nevi typically show a morphologic sequence of maturation from epithelioid “type A” cells to fusiform, Schwann cell-like “type C” cells with dermal descent. Nevi may also produce Wagner-Meissner-like structures (nevic corpuscles). Previous studies have shown that this maturation of intradermal nevi recapitulates intermediate stages in Schwann cell development. In intradermal nevi, we have evaluated the pattern of S100A6 protein, a form of S100 found in Schwann cells. Methods: Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded archival tissues were evaluated by immunohistochemistry using antibodies specific for S100A6 and S100B in 38 intradermal nevi (IDN). Ten neurofibromas (NF), 3 Schwannomas (SCH), 2 palisaded and encapsulated neuromas (PEN), and 2 granular cell tumors (GCT) were included as positive controls since these lesions have large numbers of Schwann cells. Results: Melanocytic nevi demonstrated preferential anti-S100A6 staining of “type C” cells (36/38; 28 strong, 8 weak) and nevic corpuscles (25/38; 19 strong, 6 weak) compared to “type A” cells (17/38; 17 weak) and “type B” cells (17/38; 4 strong, 13 weak). All NF, SCH, and PEN stained strongly with anti-S100A6. Both GCT were negative with anti-S100A6 but positive with anti-S100B. Conclusions: The pattern of S100A6 expression in intradermal nevi further supports the hypothesis that maturation in these lesions recapitulates features of Schwann cell differentiation. The lack of S100A6 expression by both GCT suggests that these lesions have lost this feature of Schwann cells, which may play a role in their peculiar phenotypic appearance.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75660/1/j.1600-0560.2001.028008393.x.pd

Simulating the Multi-Epoch Direct Detection Technique to Isolate the Thermal Emission of the Non-Transiting Hot Jupiter HD187123B

We report the 6.5$\sigma$ detection of water from the hot Jupiter HD187123b with a Keplerian orbital velocity $K_p$ of 53 $\pm$ 13 km/s. This high confidence detection is made using a multi-epoch, high resolution, cross correlation technique, and corresponds to a planetary mass of 1.4$^{+0.5}_{-0.3}$ $M_J$ and an orbital inclination of 21 $\pm$ 5$^{\circ}$. The technique works by treating the planet/star system as a spectroscopic binary and obtaining high signal-to-noise, high resolution observations at multiple points across the planet's orbit to constrain the system's binary dynamical motion. All together, seven epochs of Keck/NIRSPEC $L$-band observations were obtained, with five before the instrument upgrade and two after. Using high resolution SCARLET planetary and PHOENIX stellar spectral models, along with a line-by-line telluric absorption model, we were able to drastically increase the confidence of the detection by running simulations that could reproduce, and thus remove, the non-random structured noise in the final likelihood space well. The ability to predict multi-epoch results will be extremely useful for furthering the technique. Here, we use these simulations to compare three different approaches to combining the cross correlations of high resolution spectra and find that the Zucker 2003 log(L) approach is least affected by unwanted planet/star correlation for our HD187123 data set. Furthermore, we find that the same total S/N spread across an orbit in many, lower S/N epochs rather than fewer, higher S/N epochs could provide a more efficient detection. This work provides a necessary validation of multi-epoch simulations which can be used to guide future observations and will be key to studying the atmospheres of further separated, non-transiting exoplanets.Comment: Accepted to AJ, 14 pages, 10 figure