Usury, statutory avoidance and the Court of Chancery 1680-1800

Article by Dr Warren Swain and Karen Fairweather, School of Law, Durham University published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Testing the transition state theory in stochastic dynamics of a genetic switch

Stochastic dynamics of chemical reactions in a mutually repressing two-gene circuit is numerically simulated. The circuit has a rich variety of different states when the kinetic change of DNA status is slow. The stochastic switching transition between those states are compared with the theoretical estimation of the switching rate derived from the idea similar to the transition state theory. Even though the circuit is kept far from equilibrium, the method gives a consistent explanation of the switching kinetics for a wide range of parameters. The transition state theory-like estimation, however, fails to describe transitions involving the state which has the extremely small numbers of protein molecules

Managing alcohol-related attendances in emergency care: can diversion to bespoke services lessen the burden?

Acute alcohol intoxication (AAI) has a long history of burdening emergency care services. Healthcare systems around the world have explored a variety of different services that divert AAI away from EDs to better manage their condition. Little formal evaluation has been undertaken, particularly in the UK where alcohol misuse is one of the highest in the world. In this article, we outline a brief history of diversionary services, introduce the concept of Alcohol Intoxication Management Services (AIMS) and describe examples of AIMS in the UK. We then describe Evaluating the Diversion of Alcohol-Related Attendances, a natural experiment including six cities with AIMS compared with six cities without, that involves an ethnographic study, records patient experiences in both AIMS and EDs, assesses impact on key performance indicators in healthcare and evaluates the cost-effectiveness of AIMS

Diffusion of transcription factors can drastically enhance the noise in gene expression

We study by simulation the effect of the diffusive motion of repressor molecules on the noise in mRNA and protein levels in the case of a repressed gene. We find that spatial fluctuations due to diffusion can drastically enhance the noise in gene expression. For a fixed repressor strength, the noise due to diffusion can be minimized by increasing the number of repressors or by decreasing the rate of the open complex formation. We also show that the effect of spatial fluctuations can be well described by a two-step kinetic scheme, where formation of an encounter complex by diffusion and the subsequent association reaction are treated separately. Our results also emphasize that power spectra are a highly useful tool for studying the propagation of noise through the different stages of gene expression.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, REVTeX

A test of the core process account of psychopathology in a heterogenous clinical sample of anxiety and depression: A case of the blind men and the elephant?

Many cognitive and behavioral processes, such as selective attention to threat, self-focused attention, safety-seeking behaviors, worry and thought suppression, have their foundations in research on anxiety disorders. Yet, they are now known to be transdiagnostic, i.e. shared across a wide range of psychological disorders. A more pertinent clinical and theoretical question is whether these processes are themselves distinct, or whether they reflect a shared 'core' process that maintains psychopathology. The current study utilized a treatment-seeking clinical adult sample of 313 individuals with a range of anxiety disorders and/or depression who had completed self-report measures of widely ranging processes: affect control, rumination, worry, escape/avoidance, and safety-seeking behaviors. We found that only the first factor extracted from a principal components analysis of the items of these measures was associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression. Our findings supported the 'core process' account that had its origins in the field of anxiety disorders, and we discuss the implications for theory, clinical practice and future research across psychological disorders

Putting Disability Studies to Work in Art Education

Putting disability studies to work in art education suggests a form of action or industry, a creative opportunity for something to be done, recognising the relationship between theory and practice. Drawing on discourse analysis, this article offers an initial theoretical discussion of some of the ways in which disability is revealed and created through discourses about art education in articles published over the last 30 years in iJADE. This article proposes that the lens of critical social pedagogies applied to work relating to gender, race and class should be extended to disability in order to promote critical engagement through art education rather than critical avoidance. Drawing on Elliot Eisner's six lessons in what can be learnt from the arts, the article concludes by recognising the importance of art education as a means of epistemic validation, where different ways of being in the world are valued. Art education and arts practice offer a means of valuing and expressing the 'dynamic difference of what it means to be human'. The article argues that the combination of disability studies and art education can, therefore, be a force to be reckoned with

Neuromuscular changes and the rapid adaptation following a bout of damaging eccentric exercise

An initial bout of eccentric exercise is known to protect against muscle damage following a repeated bout of the same exercise, however, the neuromuscular adaptions owing to this phenomenon are unknown. Aim: To determine if neuromuscular disturbances are modulated following a repeated bout of eccentric exercise. Methods: Following eccentric exercise performed with the elbow-flexors, we measured maximal voluntary force, resting twitch force, muscle soreness, creatine kinase and voluntary activation using motor point and motor cortex stimulation at baseline, immediately post and at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 days post-exercise on two occasions, separated by 3 weeks. Results: Significant muscle damage and fatigue was evident following the first exercise bout; maximal voluntary contraction was reduced immediately by 32% and remained depressed at 7 days post-exercise. Soreness and creatine kinase release peaked at 3 and 4 days post-exercise, respectively. Resting twitch force remained significantly reduced at 7 days (−48%) whilst voluntary activation measured with motor point and motor cortex stimulation was reduced until 2 and 3 days, respectively. A repeated bout effect was observed with attenuated soreness and creatine kinase release and a quicker recovery of maximal voluntary contraction and resting twitch force. A similar decrement in voluntary activation was observed following both bouts; however, following the repeated bout there was a significantly smaller reduction in, and a faster recovery of voluntary activation measured using motor cortical stimulation. Conclusion: Our data suggest that the repeated bout effect may be explained, partly, by a modification in motor corticospinal drive

Is soluble protein mineralisation and protease activity in soil regulated by supply or demand?

Protein represents a major input of organic matter to soil and is an important source of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) for microorganisms. Therefore, determining which soil properties influence protein mineralisation in soil is key to understanding and modelling soil C and N cycling. However, the effect of different soil properties on protein mineralisation, and especially the interactions between soil properties, are poorly understood. We investigated how topsoil and subsoil properties affect protein mineralisation along a grassland altitudinal (catena) sequence that contained a gradient in soil type and primary productivity. We devised a schematic diagram to test the key edaphic factors that may influence protein mineralisation in soil (e.g. pH, microbial biomass, inorganic and organic N availability, enzyme activity and sorption). We then measured the mineralisation rate of 14C-labelled soluble plant-derived protein and amino acids in soil over a two-month period. Correlation analysis was used to determine the associations between rates of protein mineralisation and soil properties. Contrary to expectation, we found that protein mineralisation rate was nearly as fast as for amino acid turnover. We ascribe this rapid protein turnover to the low levels of protein used here, its soluble nature, a high degree of functional redundancy in the microbial community and microbial enzyme adaptation to their ecological niche. Unlike other key soil N processes (e.g. nitrification, denitrification), protease activity was not regulated by a small range of factors, but rather appeared to be affected by a wide range of interacting factors whose importance was dependent on altitude and soil depth [e.g. above-ground net primary productivity (NPP), soil pH, nitrate, cation exchange capacity (CEC), C:N ratio]. Based on our results, we hypothesise that differences in soil N cycling and the generation of ammonium are more related to the rate of protein supply rather than limitations in protease activity and protein turnover per se