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Prospective cohort studies of kidney equity are limited by a focus on advanced rather than early disease and selective recruitment. Whole population studies frequently rely on area-level measures of deprivation as opposed to individual measures of social disadvantage. Here, we linked kidney health and individual census records in the North of Scotland (Grampian area), 2011-2021 (GLOMMS-CORE) and identified incident kidney presentations at thresholds of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) under 60 (mild/early), under 45 (moderate), under 30 ml/min/1.73m2(advanced), and acute kidney disease (AKD). Household and neighborhood socioeconomic measures, living circumstances, and long-term mortality were compared. Case-mix adjusted multivariable logistic regression (living circumstances), and Cox models (mortality) incorporating an interaction between the household and the neighborhood were used. Among census respondents, there were 48546, 29081, 16116, 28097 incident presentations of each respective eGFR cohort and AKD. Classifications of socioeconomic position by household and neighborhood were related but complex, and frequently did not match. Compared to households of professionals, people with early kidney disease in unskilled or unemployed households had increased mortality (adjusted hazard ratios: 95% confidence intervals) of (1.26: 1.19-1.32) and (1.77: 1.60-1.96), respectively with adjustment for neighborhood indices making little difference. Those within either a deprived household or deprived neighborhood experienced greater mortality, but those within both had the poorest outcomes. Unskilled and unemployed households frequently reported being limited by illness, adverse mental health, living alone, basic accommodation, lack of car ownership, language difficulties, and visual and hearing impairments. Thus, impacts of deprivation on kidney health are spread throughout society—complex, serious, and not confined to those living in deprived neighborhoods.

Building a career across sectors is rewarding and impactful, but barriers harm the ability of researchers to pursue new avenues. New evidence and policy recommendations from the National Centre for Universities and Business shine a light on opportunities to unlock diverse careers in biochemistry.

Virtual reality (VR) research has provided overviews of locomotion techniques, how they work, their strengths and overall user experience. Considerable research has investigated new methodologies, particularly machine learning to develop redirection algorithms. To best support the development of redirection algorithms through machine learning, we must understand how best to replicate human navigation and behaviour in VR, which can be supported by the accumulation of results produced through live-user experiments. However, it can be difficult to identify, select and compare relevant research without a pre-existing framework in an ever-growing research field. Therefore, this work aimed to facilitate the ongoing structuring and comparison of the VR-based natural walking literature by providing a standardised framework for researchers to utilise. We applied thematic analysis to study methodology descriptions from 140 VR-based papers that contained live-user experiments. From this analysis, we developed the LoCoMoTe framework with three themes: navigational decisions, technique implementation, and modalities. The LoCoMoTe framework provides a standardised approach to structuring and comparing experimental conditions. The framework should be continually updated to categorise and systematise knowledge and aid in identifying research gaps and discussions.

Sequence variation observed in populations of pathogens can be used for important public health and evolutionary genomic analyses, especially outbreak analysis and transmission reconstruction. Identifying this variation is typically achieved by aligning sequence reads to a reference genome, but this approach is susceptible to reference biases and requires careful filtering of called genotypes. There is a need for tools that can process this growing volume of bacterial genome data, providing rapid results, but that remain simple so they can be used without highly trained bioinformaticians, expensive data analysis, and long-term storage and processing of large files. Here we describe split k-mer analysis (SKA2), a method that supports both reference-free and reference-based mapping to quickly and accurately genotype populations of bacteria using sequencing reads or genome assemblies. SKA2 is highly accurate for closely related samples, and in outbreak simulations, we show superior variant recall compared with reference-based methods, with no false positives. SKA2 can also accurately map variants to a reference and be used with recombination detection methods to rapidly reconstruct vertical evolutionary history. SKA2 is many times faster than comparable methods and can be used to add new genomes to an existing call set, allowing sequential use without the need to reanalyze entire collections. With an inherent absence of reference bias, high accuracy, and a robust implementation, SKA2 has the potential to become the tool of choice for genotyping bacteria. SKA2 is implemented in Rust and is freely available as open-source software.

IntroductionIllicit smokeless tobacco (ST) trade has seldom been documented despite ST use in at least 127 countries across the world. Based on non-compliance with packaging regulations, we report the proportion of illicit ST products from samples on sale in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan where 85% of global ST users reside.MethodsWe purchased unique ST products from tobacco sellers in two purposively selected administrative areas (division/district) in each of the three countries. The criteria to determine illicit ST products were based on country-specific legal requirements for ST packaging and labelling. These requirements included: ‘market retail price disclosure’, ‘sale statement disclosure’, ‘pictorial health warning (PHW) pertinence’, ‘appropriate textual health warning’ and ‘using misleading descriptors (MDs)’. Non-compliance with even one of the legal requirements was considered to render the ST product illicit.ResultsAlmost all ST products bought in Bangladesh and India were non-compliant with the local packaging requirements and hence potentially illicit, all products in Pakistan lacked desirable features. The most common feature missing was health warnings: 84% packs in Bangladesh, 93% in India, and 100% in Pakistan either did not have PHW or their sizes were too small. In Bangladesh, 61% packs carried MDs. In India and Pakistan, the proportions of such packs were 32% and 42%, respectively.ConclusionsWeak and poorly enforced ST control policies may be slowing the progress of tobacco control in South Asia. Standardised regulations are required for packaging and labelling ST. Improving compliance and reducing sale of cheap illicit products may require business licensing and market surveillance.

Studies of bacterial adaptation and evolution are hampered by the difficulty of measuring traits such as virulence, drug resistance, and transmissibility in large populations. In contrast, it is now feasible to obtain high-quality complete assemblies of many bacterial genomes thanks to scalable high-accuracy long-read sequencing technologies. To exploit this opportunity, we introduce a phenotype- and alignment-free method for discovering coselected and epistatically interacting genomic variation from genome assemblies covering both core and accessory parts of genomes. Our approach uses a compact colored de Bruijn graph to approximate the intragenome distances between pairs of loci for a collection of bacterial genomes to account for the impacts of linkage disequilibrium (LD). We demonstrate the versatility of our approach to efficiently identify associations between loci linked with drug resistance and adaptation to the hospital niche in the major human bacterial pathogens Streptococcus pneumoniaeand Enterococcus faecalis.

Intravital two-photon microscopy enables deep-tissue imaging at high temporospatial resolution in live animals. However, the endosteal bone compartment and underlying bone marrow pose unique challenges to optical imaging as light is absorbed, scattered and dispersed by thick mineralized bone matrix and the adipose-rich bone marrow. Early bone intravital imaging methods exploited gaps in the cranial sutures to bypass the need to penetrate through cortical bone. More recently, investigators have developed invasive methods to thin the cortical bone or implant imaging windows to image cellular dynamics in weight-bearing long bones. Here, we provide a step-by-step procedure for the preparation of animals for minimally invasive, nondestructive, longitudinal intravital imaging of the murine tibia. This method involves the use of mixed bone marrow radiation chimeras to unambiguously double-label osteoclasts and osteomorphs. The tibia is exposed by a simple skin incision and an imaging chamber constructed using thermoconductive T-putty. Imaging sessions up to 12 h long can be repeated over multiple timepoints to provide a longitudinal time window into the endosteal and marrow niches. The approach can be used to investigate cellular dynamics in bone remodeling, cancer cell life cycle and hematopoiesis, as well as long-lived humoral and cellular immunity. The procedure requires an hour to complete and is suitable for users with minimal prior expertise in small animal surgery.

People in the Global North often have a problem talking about — and processing — the inevitability of death. This can be because death and care of the dying has been professionalised, with encounters of death within our families and communities no longer being ‘normal and routine’ (Kellehear 2005). Young people are particularly excluded from these conversations, with implications for future mental health and wellbeing (Ainsley-Green 2017). Working in Wolverhampton and Bradford, the Dying 2 Talk (D2T) project aimed to build young people’s future resilience around this challenging topic. We recruited over 20 young people as project ambassadors to co-produce resources that would encourage talk about death, dying and bereavement. The resources were used as the basis of ‘Festivals of the Dead’ which were taken to schools to engage wider audiences of young people (aged 11 +). The project aimed to use alternative ‘ways in’ to open discussion, beginning with archaeology, and ultimately using gaming, dance, creative writing and other creative outputs to facilitate discussion, encourage compassionate relationships and build resilience. The resources succeeded in engaging young people from ages 11–19 years, facilitating a comfortable and supportive environment for these vital conversations. Project evaluations and observations revealed that the Festivals, and the activities co-created by the young ambassadors helped to facilitate spontaneous conversations about death, dying and bereavement amongst young people by providing a comfortable and supportive environment. The project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/V008609/1), building on a pilot project funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund at the University of Bradford.

Background Timely recruitment and effective retention of participants are challenging for clinical Parkinson's disease (PD) research studies. Not achieving this can affect delivery costs and bias results.Objective To identify successful recruitment and retention methodologies for clinical research studies in PD.Methods We conducted a systematic scoping review using a Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome and Study design (PICOS) framework to search and screen literature within five databases for published quantitative and mixed methods studies evaluating recruitment and retention strategies of interventional and observational trials in PD.Results Searches identified 4608 records, of which six papers covering eight studies were included in the review following screening for eligibility. No papers on retention strategies were found that met eligibility criteria. Effective strategies for rapid recruitment included research registries and trial finders (n = 3), digital marketing campaigns (n = 3), site recruitment support (n = 1) and multiple referral sources (n = 1). Recruitment diversity was increased by online campaigns, mandatory 10% minority targets set by funders and supplemental site funding.Conclusions This scoping review has identified methods that can be used to increase the rate and diversity of recruitment to PD clinical studies. Retention methodologies are under-researched.

Bacterial genomes differ in both gene content and sequence mutations, which underlie extensive phenotypic diversity, including variation in susceptibility to antimicrobials or vaccine-induced immunity. To identify and quantify important variants, all genes within a population must be predicted, functionally annotated, and clustered, representing the “pangenome.” Despite the volume of genome data available, gene prediction and annotation are currently conducted in isolation on individual genomes, which is computationally inefficient and frequently inconsistent across genomes. Here, we introduce the open-source software graph-gene-caller (ggCaller). ggCaller combines gene prediction, functional annotation, and clustering into a single workflow using population-wide de Bruijn graphs, removing redundancy in gene annotation and resulting in more accurate gene predictions and orthologue clustering. We applied ggCaller to simulated and real-world bacterial data sets containing hundreds or thousands of genomes, comparing it to current state-of-the-art tools. ggCaller has considerable speed-ups with equivalent or greater accuracy, particularly with data sets containing complex sources of error, such as assembly contamination or fragmentation. ggCaller is also an important extension to bacterial genome-wide association studies, enabling querying of annotated graphs for functional analyses. We highlight this application by functionally annotating DNA sequences with significant associations to tetracycline and macrolide resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae, identifying key resistance determinants that were missed when using only a single reference genome. ggCaller is a novel bacterial genome analysis tool with applications in bacterial evolution and epidemiology.

The Republic of Mauritius is situated in the Indian Ocean. A former colony of both France and the UK, it is a member of the African Union and has a population of 1.37 million, with an exceptionally high degree of ethnic and linguistic diversity. Its treatment as an African country is customary although the majority of its population are Hindus of Indian origin. This article explores how Creoles (that is, Mauritians of African origin) led the movement that created the island’s trade unions in the 1930s. These unions, currently one of Africa’s more effective and influential union movements, were formed amid a widespread, if uneven, international upturn in organized labour’s fortunes from the late 1930s to the immediate post-war years. If their inception was, in global terms, unremarkable, then what emerged was distinctive in the African colonial context. Mauritian unions were class-based, social-democratic, combative, internationally well-linked and, crucially, relatively independent of both nationalists and communists who played an important role in many African union movements of the era.

•Examined norovirus concentrations in shellfish associated with norovirus illness.•RT-ddPCR determined between 44 and 4,267 norovirus GC/g digestive tissue.•<200 norovirus GC/g digestive tissue in 40% (8/20) shellfish.•RNase treatment led to reductions in titre of approximately 50%.•Provides valuable evidence for risk assessment of contaminated shellfish.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture is a common debilitating injury that can cause instability of the knee. We aimed to investigate the best management strategy between reconstructive surgery and non-surgical treatment for patients with a non-acute ACL injury and persistent symptoms of instability.

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the extent to which patient self-advocacy predicted COVID-19 vaccine hesitance in the U.S. (n = 1987). Results indicated being vaccinated, increasing age, and higher education were each positively related to increased vaccine non-hesitance. Also, those who sought more information and who were more assertive about their health had more non-hesitance toward the vaccine. Higher vaccine hesitance was found among participants who were Black and from other ethnic minorities, those who voted for Donald Trump or who did not vote in the 2020 election, and those who were more prone to nonadherence to health provider instructions. Targeted communication campaigns to connect to people with these specific characteristics and levels of advocacy can decrease vaccine non-hesitance.

ABSTRACTThe COVID-19 pandemic has brought increased discrimination, stigma, and racism toward individuals of Asian descent. Little research has concentrated on public perceptions regarding who is to blame for the spread of the virus. This study extends integrated threat and attribution theories by examining the extent to which prejudice against Asians is related to blame attribution in New Zealand. The paper employs a mixed-method approach (n = 330). The findings suggest that to understand public stigma in ambiguous crises/events, it is significant to look beyond theoretic frameworks. Particularly, this research provides better understanding of how blame attribution has developed and linked with threats in the pandemic. First, fear of contact with COVID-19 is positively related to symbolic and realistic threats. Second, the more people believe COVID-19 is a public health risk, the more symbolic and realistic threats they have. Third, realistic threat is linked to blame attribution.

ABSTRACTAs of July 2021, more than 153 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 globally. Russia has 5.5 million cases with more than 135,000 deaths; while Kyrgyzstan has nearly 132,000 cases and 2000 deaths. While the virus hit the two nations at different times and with different severities, the two nations, as with so many others, both experienced cases of prejudice toward minority groups blamed for the spread of COVID-19. Using integrated threat theory (ITT), this study cross-culturally examines the link between prejudice toward minorities blamed for the spread of COVID-19 in Russia (Asians) and Kyrgyzstan (migrants) and intergroup contact. Results revealed intergroup contact had a positive effect on realistic and symbolic threat. Additionally, results show Kyrgyz respondents had lower levels of symbolic threat than Russian respondents.

In the post-war years, to the 1970s, most historians’ verdict on the Second World War was abundantly clear: it represented a watershed in social and political relations, shifting Britain in a social-democratic and more egalitarian direction. In more recent years, this verdict has increasingly been called into question. Some historians began to judge the war’s results, especially in terms of the flattening of social and gender hierarchies, to have been considerably exaggerated. Geoffrey G. Field has produced a sizeable, detailed and well-produced work which reaffirms the judgements of the ‘war as dramatic watershed’ school. He synthesizes much of the work on British society and the working class in the Second World War, interspersed with analysis of the vast holdings of The National Archives, the Mass Observation Archive, as well as film and literary sources. This review focuses on industrial relations, particularly the arms industries: where unionization, collective bargaining and workplace union organization were transformed. Joint production committees, however, proved ephemeral.

The article offers information on social media impact of the U.S. former President Donald Trump who was the undisputed king of the world. Topics include focuses on the Capitol Riot on January 6, 2021 that Trump stood accused of stoking, both platforms put an end to his dominance, banning his main Twitter accounts for inciting violence.

The ability to escape predation modulates predator–prey interactions and represents a crucial aspect of organismal life history, influencing feeding, mating success, and survival. Thanatosis, also known as death feigning or tonic immobility (TI), is taxonomically widespread, but understudied in blood-feeding vectors. Hematophagous arthropods, such as ticks, are unique among animals as their predators (birds, mice, lizards, frogs, and other invertebrates) may also be their source of food. Therefore, the trade-off between predator avoidance and host-seeking may shift as the time since the last bloodmeal increases. Because ticks are slow-moving and unable to fly, or otherwise escape, we predicted that they may use TI to avoid predation, but that TI would be influenced by time since the last bloodmeal (starvation). We therefore aimed to quantify this relationship, examining the effect of starvation, body mass, and ontogeny on TI for two tick species: Dermacentor variabilis(Say) (Acari: Ixodidae) and Rhipicephalus sanguineus(Latreille) (Acari: Ixodidae). As we predicted, the duration and use of TI decreased with time since feeding and emergence across species and life stages. Therefore, ticks may become more aggressive in their search for a bloodmeal as they continue to starve, opting to treat potential predators as hosts, rather than avoiding predation by feigning death. Antipredator behaviors such as TI may influence the intensity and amount of time ticks spend searching for hosts, driving patterns of tick-borne pathogen transmission. This identification and quantification of a novel antipredation strategy add a new component to our understanding of tick life history.

Streptococcus pneumoniaecan be divided into many strains, each a distinct set of isolates sharing similar core and accessory genomes, which co-circulate within the same hosts. Previous analyses suggested the short-term vaccine-associated dynamics of S. pneumoniaestrains may be mediated through multi-locus negative frequency-dependent selection (NFDS), which maintains accessory loci at equilibrium frequencies. Long-term simulations demonstrated NFDS stabilised clonally-evolving multi-strain populations through preventing the loss of variation through drift, based on polymorphism frequencies, pairwise genetic distances and phylogenies. However, allowing symmetrical recombination between isolates evolving under multi-locus NFDS generated unstructured populations of diverse genotypes. Replication of the observed data improved when multi-locus NFDS was combined with recombination that was instead asymmetrical, favouring deletion of accessory loci over insertion. This combination separated populations into strains through outbreeding depression, resulting from recombinants with reduced accessory genomes having lower fitness than their parental genotypes. Although simplistic modelling of recombination likely limited these simulations’ ability to maintain some properties of genomic data as accurately as those lacking recombination, the combination of asymmetrical recombination and multi-locus NFDS could restore multi-strain population structures from randomised initial populations. As many bacteria inhibit insertions into their chromosomes, this combination may commonly underlie the co-existence of strains within a niche.

An exploratory end point from a recent trial in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma showed that median progression-free survival (PFS) was increased by 10.7 months with denosumab vs zoledronic acid. We performed additional analyses to identify factors that may have contributed to the favorable PFS with denosumab. Ad hoc analyses were performed for patients intending to undergo autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT; ASCT intent), not intending to undergo ASCT (ASCT no intent), and intent-to-treat according to age (<70 or ≥70 years) and baseline renal function (≤60 mL/min or >60 mL/min creatinine clearance [CrCl]). Of 1718 patients, 930 (54.1%) were in the ASCT-intent subgroup, and 788 (45.9%) were in the ASCT-no-intent subgroup. In the ASCT-intent subgroup, frontline triplet (median PFS, not estimable vs 35.7 months; hazard ratio [HR] [95% confidence interval (CI)], 0.65 [0.47-0.90]; descriptive P = .009) or bortezomib-only (median PFS, not estimable vs not estimable; HR [95% CI], 0.61 [0.39–0.95]; descriptive P = .029) induction regimens demonstrated the strongest PFS benefit favoring denosumab vs zoledronic acid. In the ASCT-no-intent subgroup, no benefit with denosumab vs zoledronic acid was observed. PFS favored denosumab vs zoledronic acid in patients with CrCl >60 mL/min and in patients <70 years old, but no difference was observed in patients with CrCl ≤60 mL/min or patients ≥70 years old. The PFS difference observed with denosumab is one of the notable benefits reported in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma and was most pronounced in patients intending to undergo ASCT and those who received proteasome inhibitor (PI)−based triplet regimens. This study was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT01345019.

An exploratory end point from a recent trial in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma showed that median progression-free survival (PFS) was increased by 10.7 months with denosumab vs zoledronic acid. We performed additional analyses to identify factors that may have contributed to the favorable PFS with denosumab. Ad hoc analyses were performed for patients intending to undergo autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT; ASCT intent), not intending to undergo ASCT (ASCT no intent), and intent-to-treat according to age (<70 or ≥70 years) and baseline renal function (≤60 mL/min or >60 mL/min creatinine clearance [CrCl]). Of 1718 patients, 930 (54.1%) were in the ASCT-intent subgroup, and 788 (45.9%) were in the ASCT-no-intent subgroup. In the ASCT-intent subgroup, frontline triplet (median PFS, not estimable vs 35.7 months; hazard ratio [HR] [95% confidence interval (CI)], 0.65 [0.47-0.90]; descriptive P= .009) or bortezomib-only (median PFS, not estimable vs not estimable; HR [95% CI], 0.61 [0.39–0.95]; descriptive P= .029) induction regimens demonstrated the strongest PFS benefit favoring denosumab vs zoledronic acid. In the ASCT-no-intent subgroup, no benefit with denosumab vs zoledronic acid was observed. PFS favored denosumab vs zoledronic acid in patients with CrCl >60 mL/min and in patients <70 years old, but no difference was observed in patients with CrCl ≤60 mL/min or patients ≥70 years old. The PFS difference observed with denosumab is one of the notable benefits reported in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma and was most pronounced in patients intending to undergo ASCT and those who received proteasome inhibitor (PI)−based triplet regimens. This study was registered at www.clinicaltrials.govas #NCT01345019.

Streptococcus pneumoniaecan be divided into many strains, each a distinct set of isolates sharing similar core and accessory genomes, which co-circulate within the same hosts. Previous analyses suggested the short-term vaccine-associated dynamics of S. pneumoniaestrains may be mediated through multi-locus negative frequency-dependent selection (NFDS), which maintains accessory loci at equilibrium frequencies. Long-term simulations demonstrated NFDS stabilised clonally-evolving multi-strain populations through preventing the loss of variation through drift, based on polymorphism frequencies, pairwise genetic distances and phylogenies. However, allowing symmetrical recombination between isolates evolving under multi-locus NFDS generated unstructured populations of diverse genotypes. Replication of the observed data improved when multi-locus NFDS was combined with recombination that was instead asymmetrical, favouring deletion of accessory loci over insertion. This combination separated populations into strains through outbreeding depression, resulting from recombinants with reduced accessory genomes having lower fitness than their parental genotypes. Although simplistic modelling of recombination likely limited these simulations’ ability to maintain some properties of genomic data as accurately as those lacking recombination, the combination of asymmetrical recombination and multi-locus NFDS could restore multi-strain population structures from randomised initial populations. As many bacteria inhibit insertions into their chromosomes, this combination may commonly underlie the co-existence of strains within a niche.

BackgroundIn England, many people of South Asian origin consume smokeless tobacco (ST). ST use can lead to oral cancer, which is disproportionately high in South Asians. Our aims were to assess the compliance of ST product retailers with statutory regulations and to explore the supply chain of ST.MethodsWe undertook a multimethods study between August 2017 and July 2019 in five English boroughs with a high proportion of ethnic South Asians. We purchased ST products and conducted field surveys with ST retailers at point of sale. Qualitative interviews were conducted with ST retailers and suppliers. ST packs were assessed for regulatory compliance, while quantitative and qualitative data triangulated information on retailers’ practices and the ST supply chain.ResultsWe collected 41 unique ST products, which included dry snuff, naswar, gutka, chewing tobacco and zarda. ST products were not registered, and demonstrated low compliance with health warning (14.6%) and packaging (56.1%) requirements. ST availability in surveyed boroughs was high (38.2%–69.7%); dry snuff, naswarand zardawere most commonly available. ST retailers demonstrated limited knowledge of regulations, and one-third were found to advertise ST at point of sale. Qualitative insights revealed illicit supply and distribution networks, as well as ST production in discreet locations.ConclusionST products are widely available in England, yet non-compliant with statutory regulations. In order to safeguard consumers, in particular ethnic South Asians, stronger efforts are needed to regulate the supply chain of ST at both national and international levels.

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this investigation was two-fold: (1) to ascertain the extent to which course type (face-to-face or distance) affects instructor credibility; and (2) to examine whether these perceptions differ among New Zealand born and China-born students studying in New Zealand. Using a 2 × 2 factorial MANOVA, findings among New Zealand born and Chinese international students studying in New Zealand revealed that face-to-face students rated teachers as significantly higher on all three aspects of credibility: caring, competence, and trustworthiness. Results also revealed Chinese students rated teachers as significantly higher on all three aspects of credibility. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

ABSTRACTThe growth of the doctorate in recent decades has spawned concerns about programme quality and external relevance. This article reports findings from research conducted in Australia that was shaped by the view that the doctorate remains in need of educational clarification and design. The research generated insights that can be used to modernise and realign the doctorate. First, this article discusses the development of a doctoral education framework. Next, it presents results from a questionnaire developed using the framework and administered in a national survey to both five-year-out doctoral graduates and to doctoral experts. This identifies the need to design programmes that better orient and align research training with students’ professional aspirations, incorporate more real-world forms of learning, enhance traditional aspects of research training and provide structured reports of doctoral outcomes, experiences and preparations. The results underpin the need for more specific analyses of outcomes and assessment, the nature and distribution of doctoral experiences and the design and management of the resources that go into doctoral education.

The success of targeted therapies and immunotherapies has created optimism that cancers may be curable. However, not all patients respond, drug resistance is common and many patients relapse owing to dormant cancer cells. These rare and elusive cells can disseminate early and hide in specialized niches in distant organs before being reactivated to cause disease relapse after successful treatment of the primary tumour. Despite their importance, we are yet to leverage knowledge generated from experimental models and translate the potential of targeting dormant cancer cells to prevent disease relapse in the clinic. This is due, at least in part, to the lack of adherence to consensus definitions by researchers, limited models that faithfully recapitulate this stage of metastatic spread and an absence of interdisciplinary approaches. However, the application of new high-resolution, single-cell technologies is starting to revolutionize the field and transcend classical reductionist models of studying individual cell types or genes in isolation to provide a global view of the complex underlying cellular ecosystem and transcriptional landscape that controls dormancy. In this Perspective, we synthesize some of these recent advances to describe the hallmarks of cancer cell dormancy and how the dormant cancer cell life cycle offers opportunities to target not only the cancer but also its environment to achieve a durable cure for seemingly incurable cancers.

Purpose: Joint consultative committees (JCCs) involving employee representatives exist to stimulate positive employee relations and unlock employee involvement to build organisational performance. They are rare in Africa. Mauritius is a successful, beacon economy for Africa. We therefore investigate which categories of an organisation implemented the 2008 Mauritian government Code of Practice on JCCs, to discover how effective this “soft law” for of institutional change had been three years after its inception, when post-Code JCCs were formed. Design/methodology/approach: We test propositions derived from institutional theory broadly conceived, through analysis of data from 120 organizations in Mauritius responding to a comprehensive HR survey covering a wide range of organisational level policies and practices conducted during the JCC formation period 2011–2012. Findings: By 2012, nearly 30% of our sample had JCCs. Three quite distinct categories of an organisation created them, as follows: those with substantial union influence, those where strategic HRM was practiced and recently formed organisations. Remarkably, no interaction effects existed between the three categories. Originality/value: Several contributions are made to shed light on a previously unstudied institution. First, we empirically establish that over a limited period in response to institutional change in the form of the code of practice, JCCs increased from 10% of organizations to almost 30%. Our second central contribution is to show three principal, quite separate organisational antecedents of JCCs, which do not interact statistically.

Smoking tobacco is both a pharmacological addiction and a serious social and public health issue. Smoking cessation services for pregnant women save babies' lives and have the potential to improve the health of families and communities. Engaging with pregnant smokers and their households towards quitting smoking requires a whole-team approach. Protected time for the specialist smoking in pregnancy team and freedom to develop the service improvement approach has been key in the setting described in this paper. The approach to smoking cessation described in this paper is of the quality improvement arm within the ‘Saving babies' lives’ bundle of interventions in Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The ‘plan, study, do, act’ model is described with a description of its implementation using sequential learning, enquiry, testing and being open to new ideas and approaches. The main driver questions have been: ‘how do we reach pregnant smokers who are not motivated to quit?’ and ‘what approaches will potentiate success for this group?’

The mid-nineteenth century was a highpoint of empire building, and reliable navigation across the oceans was crucial. While the effects of magnetic variation and deviation on compasses were well known by 1800, iron ships brought with them an even bigger challenge. The nautical world divided between ‘applied’ and ‘theoretical’ approaches to addressing the ‘compass problem’. This article focuses on the role of Janet Taylor, who lived and worked in the heart of this community, as a writer, teacher, inventor, chart-seller and compass adjuster, as a follower of the system of compass adjustment advocated by the Astronomer Royal, Professor George Airy. Janet Taylor’s achievements in the compass adjusting field and her interactions with the Astronomer Royal are explored, adding another insight into Mrs Taylor’s distinctive story.