Reinterpreting the UK Response to Hate Crime

This paper considers the motivation and function of the UK’s hate-crime framework, offering a historically located interpretation. It discusses the development of legislation to combat discrimination- and prejudice-motivated harassment and offending before examining recent assessments of the UK’s approach. It then provides a cursory examination of the historical context in which the UK’s legislative and policy developments emerged. After exposing the limitations of the current UK response and framing this in a wider domestic and international context, the paper concludes by arguing that the UK’s evolving hate-crime policy framework currently remains partial and serves to obfuscate its social control objectives, along with the political anxieties related to the ideological and political threats and disorder that underpinned its development. The article concludes by arguing that the current framework has recently downgraded – and increasingly sidesteps – the need to address internal manifestations of illiberalism, including institutional discrimination, workforce representativeness, racial and religious disparity, and equal opportunities

The Gender Agenda in an Age of Austerity

This article reports on a research project undertaken to assess the implications and consequences of the Comprehensive Spending Review and associated Force Change Programmes upon the female police workforce in England and Wales, alongside wider policing reforms across the UK. The research examines the views of female and male police officers and staff with a view to updating and reviewing evidence of progress in relation to the continued development and achievement of the gender agenda aims (BAWP, 2006, The Gender Agenda 2. London) and the Home Office 2010 report ‘Assessment of Women in the Police Service’. Focus groups, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were undertaken between November 2012 and June 2013, across 14 force areas, in addition to national policing bodies, local and national representative staff support associations, and diversity and equality practitioners. The findings underpin the recommendations Gender Agenda 3 launched in October 2014 by the British Association for Women in Policing

Mechanisms underlying selecting objects for action

We assessed the factors which affect the selection of objects for action, focusing on the role of action knowledge and its modulation by distracters. 14 neuropsychological patients and 10 healthy aged-matched controls selected pairs of objects commonly used together among distracters in two contexts: with real objects and with pictures of the same objects presented sequentially on a computer screen. Across both tasks, semantically related distracters led to slower responses and more errors than unrelated distracters and the object actively used for action was selected prior to the object that would be passively held during the action. We identified a sub-group of patients (N=6) whose accuracy was 2SD below the controls performances in the real object task. Interestingly, these impaired patients were more affected by the presence of unrelated distracters during both tasks than intact patients and healthy controls. Note the impaired had lesions to left parietal, right anterior temporal and bilateral pre-motor regions. We conclude that: (1) motor procedures guide object selection for action, (2) semantic knowledge affects action-based selection, (3) impaired action decision is associated with the inability to ignore distracting information and (4) lesions to either the dorsal or ventral visual stream can lead to deficits in making action decisions. Overall, the data indicate that impairments in everyday tasks can be evaluated using a simulated computer task. The implications for rehabilitation are discussed

The menopause and the female police workforce

© 2019 Manchester Metropolitan University. Drawing upon previously unpublished findings from a wider study that addressed the impact of austerity and force change programmes upon the older female police workforce, this paper presents secondary analysis of focus group data to address the equality impact of such developments. The paper directs particular attention to additional challenges faced by women experiencing the menopause and menopause transition. Focus groups were undertaken between November 2012 and June 2013, across 14 force areas within England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The findings raise questions regarding the service’s compliance with the legal obligations set out within the public sector general equality duty, which requires organisations to consider how they could positively contribute to the advancement of equality and remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics. The paper concludes by arguing that it is necessary to consider the intersectionality of age and gender, and to further disaggregate (and make publicly available) workforce data to take into account various subcategories of women and men that make up the police workforce. Finally, the paper highlights the need to take into account wider national and international gender equality policy when entering into ‘the future of policing’ policy discussions, and within future policing equality and diversity strategy

The EBV-encoded oncoprotein, LMP1, induces an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) via Its CTAR1 domain through integrin-mediated ERK-MAPK signalling

The Epstein⁻Barr virus (EBV)-encoded latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) oncogene can induce profound effects on epithelial growth and differentiation including many of the features of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). To better characterise these effects, we used the well-defined Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) epithelial cell model and found that LMP1 expression in these cells induces EMT as defined by characteristic morphological changes accompanied by loss of E-cadherin, desmosomal cadherin and tight junction protein expression. The induction of the EMT phenotype required a functional CTAR1 domain of LMP1 and studies using pharmacological inhibitors revealed contributions from signalling pathways commonly induced by integrin⁻ligand interactions: extracellular signal-regulated kinases/mitogen-activated protein kinases (ERK-MAPK), PI3-Kinase and tyrosine kinases, but not transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ). More detailed analysis implicated the CTAR1-mediated induction of Slug and Twist in LMP1-induced EMT. A key role for β1 integrin signalling in LMP1-mediated ERK-MAPK and focal adhesion kianse (FAK) phosphorylation was observed, and β1 integrin activation was found to enhance LMP1-induced cell viability and survival. These findings support an important role for LMP1 in disease pathogenesis through transcriptional reprogramming that enhances tumour cell survival and leads to a more invasive, metastatic phenotype

The Epstein-Barr virus encoded LMP1 oncoprotein modulates cell adhesion via regulation of activin A/TGFβ and β1 integrin signalling

Approximately 20% of global cancer incidence is causally linked to an infectious agent. EpsteinBarr virus (EBV) accounts for around 1% of all virus-associated cancers and is associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1), the major oncoprotein encoded by EBV, behaves as a constitutively active tumour necrosis factor (TNF) receptor activating a variety of signalling pathways, including the three classic MAPKs (ERK-MAPK, p38 MAPK and JNK/SAPK). The present study identifes novel signalling properties for this integral membrane protein via the induction and secretion of activin A and TGFβ1, which are both required for LMP1’s ability to induce the expression of the extracellular matrix protein, fbronectin. However, it is evident that LMP1 is unable to activate the classic Smad-dependent TGFβ signalling pathway, but rather elicits its efects through the non-Smad arm of TGFβ signalling. In addition, there is a requirement for JNK/SAPK signalling in LMP1-mediated fbronectin induction. LMP1 also induces the expression and activation of the major fbronectin receptor, α5β1 integrin, an efect that is accompanied by increased focal adhesion formation and turnover. Taken together, these fndings support the putative role for LMP1 in the pathogenesis of NPC by contributing to the metastatic potential of epithelial cells

The Epstein-Barr virus encoded LMP1 oncoprotein modulates cell adhesion via regulation of activin A/TGFβ and β1 integrin signalling

Approximately 20% of global cancer incidence is causally linked to an infectious agent. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) accounts for around 1% of all virus-associated cancers and is associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1), the major oncoprotein encoded by EBV, behaves as a constitutively active tumour necrosis factor (TNF) receptor activating a variety of signalling pathways, including the three classic MAPKs (ERK-MAPK, p38 MAPK and JNK/SAPK). The present study identifies novel signalling properties for this integral membrane protein via the induction and secretion of activin A and TGFβ1, which are both required for LMP1's ability to induce the expression of the extracellular matrix protein, fibronectin. However, it is evident that LMP1 is unable to activate the classic Smad-dependent TGFβ signalling pathway, but rather elicits its effects through the non-Smad arm of TGFβ signalling. In addition, there is a requirement for JNK/SAPK signalling in LMP1-mediated fibronectin induction. LMP1 also induces the expression and activation of the major fibronectin receptor, α5β1 integrin, an effect that is accompanied by increased focal adhesion formation and turnover. Taken together, these findings support the putative role for LMP1 in the pathogenesis of NPC by contributing to the metastatic potential of epithelial cells.</p