Lamarck and immunity: Somatic and germline evolution of antibody genes

Current work on the mechanism of hypermutation of somatically rearranged antibody variable (V) genes shows that the most likely mechanism involves both direct DNA modification (deamination of cytosines to uracils by AID deaminase) and strand nicking plus mRNA editing (deamination of adenosine to inosine via the ADAR1 deaminase) coupled to a reverse transcription process to fix RNA sequence modifications in V gene DNA - most likely involving the repair enzyme DNA polymerase eta (rt) known to be an efficient reverse transcriptase in vitro. The DNA sequence patterns of families of similar germline V genes reveals that many features of somatically mutated and antigen-selected variable genes appear written into the germline V gene arrays of the immune system. Lamarckian gene feedback and cellular reverse transcription, coupled to Darwinian antigen binding selection of somatically mutated V genes, are concepts which appear necessary for a more complete understanding how the V gene complex has evolved. Antibody variable (V) genes of the immune system have therefore been used to test ideas on reverse transcriptase-coupled soma-to-germline feedback in a complex multicellular system. Such feedback constitutes a violation of Weismann's Barrier and thus support for some type of Lamarckian gene feedback operative during the evolution of the vertebrate immune system

Not Just an Ache: Examining the Rate of Musculoskeletal Pain in City Bus Drivers

This paper examines the rates of musculoskeletal discomfort in a sample of 957 city bus drivers at King County Metro, a public transportation agency serving the greater Seattle area. It also examines how often such pain prevented drivers from doing their normal work, needed treatment from a medical professional, or incited one or more worker’s compensation claims. To assess the level of musculoskeletal discomfort in city bus drivers, an anonymous survey was distributed to drivers at King County Metro, a public transportation agency serving the greater Seattle area. This survey consisted of a Nordic Questionnaire asking drivers whether or not they experienced pain in certain areas of the body in the past twelve months, along with a small section asking for basic information such as age, hours per week worked, and gender. The results of the survey demonstrate that bus drivers experience very high rates of musculoskeletal pain, with 85% of respondents indicating pain in at least one area of the body. Comparisons to CDC data show higher rates of musculoskeletal pain in this sample than in the general population. Female and full-time drivers showed consistently higher rates of pain across all areas of the body then their male and part-time counterparts, while variables such as BMI and age showed less influence. Rates of pain in the lower back, shoulders, and knees were especially elevated. Of those experiencing pain in at least one area of the body, more than 50% were prevented from doing their normal work and visited a medical professional. For all drivers experiencing pain, there were large gaps in the rates of medical visits and worker’s compensation claims. Policy recommendations include the provision of active-suspension seats in the agency’s fleet of buses and better placement of key controls in the drivers’ workstation, two goals potentially attainable through increased participation of drivers in the bus-procurement process. The role of different route types, stop placement patterns, and road surfaces in addressing rates of musculoskeletal pain in bus drivers should also be investigated

Open access in Australia: an odyssey of sorts?

Scholarly communication change and open access (OA) initiatives in Australia have followed an Odyssean path in the last decade. The stop-start nature of early initiatives demonstrates that institutional leadership is essential for the successful deposit of academic content in an institutional repository. Similarly, OA policies from the two Australian Research Councils were delayed for nearly a decade, partly due to publisher pressure and bureaucratic conservatism. More successful has been the development of full, or hybrid, open access university e-presses. These presses, usually embedded in the scholarly infrastructure of the university, provide monographic models for wider global consideration. Australian universities are now reflecting, partly through recent Research Council edicts and monitoring global OA developments, greater awareness of the need for action in scholarly communication change Journal: Insights 26.3 (2013): 282-28

Scholarly communication 1971 to 2013. A Brindley snapshot.

This chapter attempts a snapshot of the dramatic changes impacting on scholarly information access and delivery in the last forty years through the prism of Lynne Brindley’s career. This was a period in which historical practices of information and access delivery have been dramatically overturned. In some respects, however, the models of scholarly publishing practice and economics have not changed significantly, arguably because of the dominance of multinational publishers in scholarly publishing, exemplified in the ‘Big Deals’ with libraries and consortia, and the scholarly conservatism imposed to date by research evaluation exercises and tenure and promotion practices. The recent global debates on open access to publicly funded knowledge, have, however, brought scholarly communication to the forefront of attention of governments and university administrations .The potential exists for scholarly research to be more widely available within new digital economic models, but only if the academic community regains ownership of the knowledge its creates. Librarians can and should play a leading role in shaping ‘knowledge creation, knowledge ordering and dissemination, and knowledge interaction’