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Radiotherapy (ionising radiation; IR) is utilised in the treatment of ~50% of all human cancers, and where the therapeutic effect is largely achieved through DNA damage induction. In particular, complex DNA damage (CDD) containing two or more lesions within one to two helical turns of the DNA is a signature of IR and contributes significantly to the cell killing effects due to the difficult nature of its repair by the cellular DNA repair machinery. The levels and complexity of CDD increase with increasing ionisation density (linear energy transfer, LET) of the IR, such that photon (X-ray) radiotherapy is deemed low-LET whereas some particle ions (such as carbon ions) are high-LET radiotherapy. Despite this knowledge, there are challenges in the detection and quantitative measurement of IR-induced CDD in cells and tissues. Furthermore, there are biological uncertainties with the specific DNA repair proteins and pathways, including components of DNA single and double strand break mechanisms, that are engaged in CDD repair, which very much depends on the radiation type and associated LET. However, there are promising signs that advancements are being made in these areas and which will enhance our understanding of the cellular response to CDD induced by IR. There is also evidence that targeting CDD repair, particularly through inhibitors against selected DNA repair enzymes, can exacerbate the impact of higher LET, which could be explored further in a translational context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Kenya, the responsibility for managing the pandemic was centralized in the national government.[27] The first set of measures was announced by the government on March 15, 2022, at the outset of the pandemic. The United Kingdom government, and I suspect many others, consciously exploited a deliberate normative ambiguity.[66] Since rules were made in haste and by government decree (only subsequently coming before Parliament for retrospective approval), they lacked any adequate legislative scrutiny.[67] Unprecedented peacetime use of extraordinary regulatory powers changes the citizen's view of government, and government's view of itself. [68] One curious aspect of the Kenyan situation is the positive decision of the government not to declare a state of emergency, as this would have created a level of prescribed scrutiny which could be avoided by using (or abusing) the procedure that the government followed instead. [Extracted from the article]

Variation in gene expression arises from cis- and trans-regulatory mutations, which contribute differentially to expression divergence. We compare the impacts on gene expression and fitness resulting from cis- and trans-regulatory mutations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with a focus on the TDH3 gene. We use the effects of cis-regulatory mutations to infer effects of trans-regulatory mutations attributable to impacts beyond the focal gene, revealing a distribution of pleiotropic effects. Cis- and trans-regulatory mutations had different effects on gene expression with pleiotropic effects of trans-regulatory mutants affecting expression of genes both in parallel to and downstream of the focal gene. The more widespread and deleterious effects of trans-regulatory mutations we observed are consistent with their decreasing relative contribution to expression differences over evolutionary time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages with the longstanding debate over the authorship of the Scottish Militia pamphlet Sister Peg (1761). While previous evidence is born out of rigorous historical research, a debate remains between whether Adam Ferguson or David Hume was the author. This article uses computational stylometry to statistically investigate this question, with the aim of complementing existing historical evidence rather than overturning it. In doing this it concludes that the work was not written solely by David Hume and, instead, Adam Ferguson is likely to be the sole author or there was a more complicated history of co-authorship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to quantify the impact optical character recognition (OCR) has on the quantitative analysis of historical documents. Using Eighteenth Century Collections Online as a case study, we first explore and explain the differences between the OCR corpus and its keyed-in counterpart, created by the Text Creation Partnership. We then conduct a series of specific analyses common to the digital humanities: topic modelling, authorship attribution, collocation analysis, and vector space modelling. The article concludes by offering some preliminary thoughts on how these conclusions can be applied to other datasets, by reflecting on the potential for predicting the quality of OCR where no ground-truth exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the kinematic physical characteristics of ionic beams for maximum relative bio-effectiveness (RBE). RBE studies, based on heterogenous cell survival studies at different laboratories and linear energy transfer (LET) conditions for proton, helium, carbon, neon and argon ions, have been further analysed to determine the LETU values where RBE is maximal and the LET-RBE relationship has a turnover point. The SRIM stopping power software and other classical equations are used to determine the particle velocities, kinetic energies and their effective ionic charges at LETU. The estimated mean LETU values increase with atomic number (Z). Each LETU has a unique relativistic velocity, β = v/c, the velocity v expressed as a fraction of the speed of light, (c), and which is non-linearly proportional to Z. For ions helium and heavier ions, these velocities indicate that the effective charge Z* is around 0.99 of the full Z value at each LETU, with remarkably stable velocities of 3–4 nm · fs−1 per nucleon, or around 6–8 nm · fs−1 per unit Z. For Z = 1, (protons and deuterium) some values fall outside these ranges but the result depends on the mix of proton and deuterium used in experiments. An alternative index of βA/Z2 (A is the atomic mass number), suggests an average velocity of around 15 nm · fs−1 for each particle at LETU. These distances, traversed in the time of the radiochemical process initiation, are all within the dimensions of the nucleosome. Curve fitting of the data set provides a predictive equation for LETU for any ion, as LETU = 30.4 + (1 − Exp[−0.61 √ (Z − 1)]) when normalised to protons. These data can be extended to heavier ions such as silicon and iron and give values that are consistent with experimental data. Each ion probably has a unique LETU value. Kinematic studies show maximum bio-effectiveness occurs at particle velocities where electron stripping remains at around 99% and where the velocity per nucleon is around 3–4 nm · fs−1. This study enhances the limited prior knowledge about the physical conditions of particle beams that provide maximum bio-effectiveness, with applications in particle radiotherapy, radiation protection and space travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dysfunction in topographical memory is a core feature of several neurological disorders. There is a large unmet medical need to address learning and memory deficits as a whole in central nervous system disease. There are considerable efforts to identify pro-cognitive compounds but current methods are either lengthy or labour intensive. Our test used a two chamber apparatus and is based on the preference of rodents to explore novel environments. It was used firstly to assess topographical memory in mice at different retention intervals (RI) and secondly to investigate the effect of three drugs reported to be beneficial for cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease, namely: donepezil, memantine and levetiracetam. Animals show good memory performance at all RIs tested under four hours. At the four-hour RI, animals show a significantly poorer memory performance which can be rescued using donepezil, memantine and levetiracetam. Using this test we established and validated a spatial recognition paradigm to address topographical memory in mice by showing a decremental time-induced forgetting response and reversing this decrease in performance using pharmacological tools. The spatial recognition test differs from more commonly used visuospatial laboratory tests in both throughput capability and potentially neuroanatomical substrate. This test has the potential to be used to assess cognitive performance in transgenic animals, disease models and to screen putative cognitive enhancers or depressors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Males and females have different reproductive roles and are often subject to contrasting selection pressures. This sexual antagonism can lead, at a given locus, to different alleles being favoured in each sex and, consequently, to genetic variation being maintained in a population. Although the presence of sexually antagonistic (SA) polymorphisms has been documented across a range of species, their evolutionary dynamics remain poorly understood. Here, we study SA selection on gene expression, which is fundamental to sexual dimorphism, via the evolution of regulatory binding sites. We show that for sites longer than 1 nucleotide, expression polymorphism is maintained only when intermediate expression levels are deleterious to both sexes. We then show that, in a regulatory cascade, expression polymorphism tends to become displaced over evolutionary time from the target of SA selection to upstream regulators. Our results have consequences for understanding the evolution of sexual dimorphism, and provide specific empirical predictions for the regulatory architecture of genes under SA selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of sexual dimorphism is constrained by a shared genome, leading to ‘sexual antagonism’, in which different alleles at given loci are favoured by selection in males and females. Despite its wide taxonomic incidence, we know little about the identity, genomic location, and evolutionary dynamics of antagonistic genetic variants. To address these deficits, we use sex-specific fitness data from 202 fully sequenced hemiclonal Drosophila melanogaster fly lines to perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of sexual antagonism. We identify approximately 230 chromosomal clusters of candidate antagonistic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In contradiction to classic theory, we find no clear evidence that the X chromosome is a hot spot for sexually antagonistic variation. Characterising antagonistic SNPs functionally, we find a large excess of missense variants but little enrichment in terms of gene function. We also assess the evolutionary persistence of antagonistic variants by examining extant polymorphism in wild D. melanogaster populations and closely related species. Remarkably, antagonistic variants are associated with multiple signatures of balancing selection across the D. melanogaster distribution range and in their sister species D. simulans, indicating widespread and evolutionarily persistent (about 1 million years) genomic constraints on the evolution of sexual dimorphism. Based on our results, we propose that antagonistic variation accumulates because of constraints on the resolution of sexual conflict over protein coding sequences, thus contributing to the long-term maintenance of heritable fitness variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first reviews the Spectre and Meltdown processor security vulnerabilities that were revealed during January–October 2018 and that allow the extraction of protected information from billions of processors in large and small systems. It then discusses short-term mitigation actions and speculates on the longer term implications to computer software and hardware. This paper expands from a keynote/panel by the authors at IEEE Hot Chips 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of effects related to the repair of sublethal radiation damage as treatment duration varies, partly a function of dose-rate, is a current controversy in clinical radiosurgery. Cell survival studies have been performed to verify the importance of this effect in relation to established models. Mammalian V79-4 cells were irradiated in vitro with γ-rays, either as an acute exposure in a few minutes, where the effects of sublethal irradiation damage repair over the period of exposure can be ignored, or as protracted exposures delivered over 15-120 min. Protraction was achieved either by introducing a variable time gap between two doses of 7 Gy, or as a continuous exposure at lower dose rates so that a range of doses were delivered in fixed times of 30, 60 or 120 min. For all doses there was a progressive reduction in efficacy with increasing overall treatment time. This was illustrated by the progressive increase in clonogenic cell survival with a resulting right shift of the survival curves. Cell survival curves for irradiations given either as an acute exposure (6.1 Gy/min), over fixed times (30, 60 and 120 min) or for a fixed low dose-rate (0.2 Gy/min) were well fitted by the Linear Quadratic (LQ) model giving an a/ß ratio of 4.0 Gy and a single repair halftime of 31.5 min. The present results are consistent with published data with respect to the response of solid tumors and normal tissues, whose response to both continuous and fractionated irradiation is also well described by the LQ model. This suggests the need for dose compensation in radiosurgical treatments, and other forms of radiotherapy, where dose is delivered over a similar range of protracted overall treatment times, perhaps as a prerequisite to full biological effective dose treatment planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human embryology is a core subject for medicine and current research. While animal models of development now have significant online resources available, the vast majority of human embryonic material is locked up in historic collections. When accessed today, these collections are still contributing to our understanding of human development. This paper describes two online resources for studying human development that are unlocking these invaluable collections and providing related human developmental resources. The first of these is the online Embryology website (http://tiny.cc/Embryo) that links the human developmental timeline to historic and current research findings. Secondly is the Digital Embryology Consortium (https://human-embryology.org), an international research partnership to digitise, preserve, and make the major embryology histological collections available for researchers. By making this histological material more widely available to researchers with new methods of analysis, a better understanding of human development can be reached. This also opens the opportunity for new 3D reconstruction and virtual reality representation of these embryos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-distance exchange of copper objects during the Archaic Period (ca. 8000-3000 cal B.P.) is a bellwether of emergent social complexity in the Eastern Woodlands. Originating from the Great Lakes, the Canadian Maritimes, and the Appalachian Mountains, Archaic-age copper is found in significant amounts as far south as Tennessee and in isolated pockets at major trade centers in Louisiana but is absent from most of the southeastern United States. Here we report the discovery of a copper band found with the cremated remains of at least seven individuals buried in the direct center of a Late Archaic shell ring located in coastal Georgia. Late Archaic shell rings are massive circular middens thought to be constructed, in part, during large-scale ritual gatherings and feasting events. The exotic copper and cremated remains are unique in coastal South Carolina and Georgia where Archaic-age cremations are conspicuously absent and no other Archaic copper objects have been reported. Elemental data produced through laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry shows the copper originated from the Great Lakes, effectively extending Archaic copper exchange almost 1,000 km beyond its traditional boundaries. Similarities in mortuary practices and the presence of copper originating from the Great Lakes reveal the presence of long-distance exchange relations spanning vast portions of the eastern United States and suggest an unexpected level of societal complexity at shell ring localities. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that elite actors solidified their positions through ritual gatherings and the long-distance exchange of exotic objects during the Archaic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Understanding the mechanisms behind induced biological response following exposure to ionizing radiation is not only important in assessing the risk associated with human exposure, but potentially can help identify ways of improving the efficacy of radiotherapy. Over the decades, there has been much discussion on what is the key biological target for radiation action and its associated size. It was already known in the 1930s that microscopic features of radiation significantly influenced biological outcomes. This resulted in the development of classic target theory, leading to field of microdosimetry and subsequently nanodosimetry, studying the inhomogeneity and stochastics of interactions, along with the identification of DNA as a key target. Conclusions: Ultimately, the biological response has been found to be dependent on the radiation track structure (spatial and temporal distribution of ionization and excitation events). Clustering of energy deposition on the nanometer scale has been shown to play a critical role in determining biological response, producing not just simple isolated DNA lesions but also complex clustered lesions that are more difficult to repair. The frequency and complexity of these clustered damage sites are typically found to increase with increasing LET. However in order to fully understand the consequences, it is important to look at the relative distribution of these lesions over larger dimensions along the radiation track, up to the micrometer scale. Correlation of energy deposition events and resulting sites of DNA damage can ultimately result in complex gene mutations and complex chromosome rearrangements following repair, with the frequency and spectrum of the resulting rearrangements critically dependent on the spatial and temporal distribution of these sites and therefore the radiation track. Due to limitations in the techniques used to identify these rearrangements it is likely that the full complexity of the genetic rearrangements that occur has yet to be revealed. This paper discusses these issues from a historical perspective, with many of these historical studies still having relevance today. These can not only cast light on current studies but guide future studies, especially with the increasing range of biological techniques available. So, let us build on past knowledge to effectively explore the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In prehistoric North America, artifacts of copper occupy a position of prominence in the Hopewell societies of Ohio’s Scioto Valley. These artifacts also represent the social contacts and long-distance interactions that brought copper to the Scioto Valley. Yet, our understanding of Hopewell copper acquisition, and the movement of copper artifacts within the social networks of the Scioto Valley and beyond, has been limited due to the limited availability of geochemical data concerning provenance and variability. We begin to develop the foundation for understanding these important social issues by analyzing the elemental variability of Hopewell copper through the use of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. We analyze 24 samples from four known copper source regions and 52 samples from 6 prominent sites in the Scioto Valley. Results suggest that a majority of the artifacts are consistent with sources in the Great Lakes, with a plurality classified as Isle Royale. However, 21% of Scioto Hopewell copper artifacts were most consistent with southern Appalachian sources. High elemental variability argues against simple models of copper acquisition and suggests that different social groups had access to a variety of copper sources through varying social networks. Native copper regardless of source seems to have been channeled along similar social and symbolic pathways. Our results suggest that instead of being derived from the struggle to access a specific source, value is derived from the social relationships represented by the copper and the connotation of exotic connection embodied in both style and material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtualization provides benefits for many workloads, but the overheads of virtualizing memory are still high. The cost comes from managing two levels of address translation--one in the guest virtual machine (VM) and the other in the host virtual machine monitor (VMM)--with either nested or shadow paging. This article introduces agile paging, which combines the best of both nested and shadow paging within a page walk and exceeds the performance of both techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vascular plant and bryophyte species whose geographical range is mainly in the boreal zone have declined markedly in southern Britain since records began. Some of this decline can be attributed to a loss of habitat rather than climate change. In the present study, we estimate the loss attributable to climate change by setting up paired comparisons. In the zone of Britain with July mean temperature greater than 15 °C in the 30-year period 1961-1990, each boreal species was matched with a more southern one having similar frequency, size, and ecological attributes. Because both members of each pair have similar ecological attributes, they should suffer equally from habitat loss and degradation, allowing change attributable to differences in phytogeographical character to be separated out. Hectad (10 km2) records of presence in the period 2000-2013 were compared with those from 1970-1999. Boreal vascular plants decreased by approximately 41%, whereas their matched more southern species decreased by approximately 24%. For 39 of 53 matched pairs, the boreal partner decreased more than its southern comparator, a disparity most unlikely to be a result of chance. Declines for bryophytes averaged 15% for boreal species and 15% for their partners. We conclude that climate change is now having an effect comparable to that of habitat loss on boreal vascular plants in southern Britain but not on boreal bryophytes. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, ●●, ●●-●●. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tidal energy is one of the world's most predicable renewable energy sources and therefore holds great potential to be a valuable building block for the decarbonisation of electricity production. This paper focuses on a Venturi shaped duct structure (shroud) to accelerate the flow speed at a vertical axis tidal turbine utilising the low static pressure created at the exit of the shroud. This concept is known as a Davidson Hill Venturi (DHV) turbine. By constructing the nozzle and diffusor using hydrofoils, initial demonstrations indicate increased system efficiency. However, owing to the potential number of geometric and structural hydrofoil variations, only a general description of the location of the hydrofoils is provided in order to facilitate modelling while allowing for future geometric variations to be devised. The conducted investigations focus on the influence of the nozzle and diffusor sections as the main geometry variations, identifying the length component in the orthogonal direction as the dominant parameter. By modelling multiple combinations of these variables it is clear that higher fluid velocities result in larger forces which must be supported by the devices structure. Small adjustments to the reference geometries hydrofoil placement and spacing provided improvements to the fluid flow. Thus, taking the slight alteration to the geometry as this papers main outcome, a further in a 3D-simulation study, including turbine interaction and rotation, is to be completed to fully characterise the systems benefits. The insights gained from this work will allow a reduction in computational costs for the detailed optimisation and study into the adaption of the concept for a wide range of (environmental) boundary conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors of a 2008 Computer article reflect on their corollaries to Amdahl's law almost 10 years later. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Image-guided small animal irradiators have the potential to make a significant impact on facilitating the translation of radiobiological research into the clinic. To fully exploit the improved precision in dose delivery to the target/tumour while minimizing dose to surrounding tissues, minimal positional error in the target is required. However, for many sites within the thorax and abdomen, respiratory motion may be a critical factor in limiting the accuracy of beam delivery and until now, very little attention has been paid to the impact and management of this motion. We report on the implications of respiratory motion with respect to the negative impact of delivered dose distributions and their assessment, ways being developed to effectively manage this motion, so that beam delivery only occurs during the stationary resting phase of the breathing cycle, and comment on the need to effectively integrate these developments into the software used to plan and control beam delivery. Altogether, the implementation of respiratory-gated imaging and beam delivery will lead to significant improvements in the precision in dose delivery and constitutes an important development for preclinical radiotherapy studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses relation between the freedom of religion and other fundamental rights, international anti-discrimination law, and decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights in cases related to human rights. It mentions the court's decision the cases Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. United Kingdom and Eweida and Others v. United Kingdom. It cites the statement of the court that freedom of thought, conscience and religion is the base of a society.

The article discusses the benefits of Oral Health Assessments (OHAs) in patients suffering from tooth surface loss (TSL). It is stated that OHAs involve the patient more with the dentists, and enables them to express their dental needs and hence facilitates communication between the dental team and patient. OHAs are also helpful in measuring the cost effectiveness of treatment and the efficiency of dentists.

Compositional analysis of copper is used to explore interaction between the Late Archaic occupants of the Northern Lakes region and their contemporaries in eastern and east-central Wisconsin. Copper artifacts from Burnt Railways phase sites in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula are compared with the Middle Archaic Reigh and Late Archaic Riverside sites. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis of copper demonstrates differential acquisition of resources between Burnt Railways and their contemporaries and suggests barriers to social, interaction between the Northern Lakes and societies in the Lake Winnebago and western Lake Michigan regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of the distribution of arable bryophytes lags behind that of bryophytes of many other habitats, and we have almost no information on their occurrence in relation to crop type and agricultural management regime. A survey of arable fields in Britain and Ireland carried out by members of the British Bryological Society in 2001–05 was designed to provide such baseline data. We surveyed a stratified random sample of 200 fields in the main areas of arable agriculture and a further 620 fields in these areas and in areas where arable fields are less frequent. The species present in each field were listed and their frequency within the field assessed. Data on the crop, the cover of vascular plants, bryophytes, trash and bare soil, and the pH and texture of the soil were recorded for each field. Six species assemblages are described on the basis of a classification of the species recorded in each field and their frequency values. The Tortula truncata–Anthoceros and Dicranella staphylina–Riccia glauca assemblages are the most species-rich and are concentrated on acidic soils in northern and western Britain and in Ireland. By contrast, the Barbula unguiculata–Bryum klinggraeffii and Phascum cuspidatum–Microbryum davallianum assemblages are mainly found on calcareous soils in southern and eastern England. The Bryum dichotomum–Marchantia polymorpha assemblage is characterised by widespread, weedy generalist species and is concentrated in East Anglia. The final assemblage, Brachythecium rutabulum–Fissidens taxifolius, characteristically occurs in late-successional fields and was scattered throughout the area sampled. A comparison of the results from Kent with those of a survey of Kentish fields (using a different methodology) by A.G. Side in 1973–74 suggests that the Bryum dichotomum–Marchantia polymorpha assemblage may possibly have replaced the Dicranella staphylina–Riccia glauca assemblage on acidic soils in the last 30 years. The considerable geographical variation within the arable flora of Britain and Ireland revealed by the survey should be taken into account when assessing the meagre evidence for historic changes in the arable bryophyte flora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The military training area on Salisbury Plain contains the largest area of chalk grassland in western Europe. The grassland swards, though relatively tall, are often rich in flowering plant species. The bryophyte flora of areas disturbed in five different ways (prehistoric earthworks, twentieth century rifle ranges, ant-hills, vehicle tracks and shell-holes) was compared to that of adjacent, relatively undisturbed grassland. There was no significant difference in bryophyte cover between quadrats on disturbed ground and the controls, but the disturbed sites supported more bryophyte species per quadrat. Of the 55 taxa recorded, 38 species were at least three times more frequent in the disturbed than the undisturbed sites, compared to four which were at least three times more frequent in the control sites. The species favouring disturbed conditions included several bryophytes characteristically associated with chalk soils in southern England, including some that fruit freely (e.g. Microbryum curvicollum, Tortula lanceola) and others that fruit very rarely (e.g. Abietinella abietina, Entodon concinnus). These results are discussed in relation to the conservation of bryophytes and other disturbance-tolerant and disturbance-dependent species on Salisbury Plain and in the wider context of the protection of the bryophytes of chalkland habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial burden of the welfare state in the United Kingdom is straining the resources of the government, which is increasingly “rediscovering” the social capacities of faith sector organizations. Most charitable work is carried out through para-church organizations. The concept of “welfare mix” characterizes the composition of welfare-suppliers, i.e. a mixture of the public sector (state and municipality), the market sector (profit making, private organisations), and the voluntary sector (nonprofit organizations). The Church of England's legal status and idiosyncratic relationship with the state is an anomaly among European countries. For example, it performs marriage ceremonies and burial rites on behalf of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The interrelation between church and state in the UK is informed to a considerable degree by the anomalous status of the Church of England as the established church for a major part (though not by any means all) of its territory. This paper examines the historical inheritance of establishment and evaluates the manner in which this informs the dynamic between the secular and spiritual authorities. It considers the place of religion within the European Union (EU) as viewed by its institutions and by individual faith communities. While there is discernible evidence of respect being afforded to the sacred within the organs of EU governance in terms of the recognition of Christian roots of Western Europe and dialogue with religious representatives, this is neither systematic nor universal. The Church of England in particular is yet to find its voice in the corridors of influence in Brussels, and it is ventured that the anachronism of establishment may be part of the reason for this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Gregory Cameron on a review of the nature of Anglicanism and another by Christopher Seitz on the examination of the term "covenant" to determine its appropriateness for the process in which the Anglican Communion seeks to become engaged.

The article focuses on computer chip design. Manufacturers have promised the creation of chips with multiple cores of operation. This poses problems for designers who must subdue degrees of freedom in multiple core chips not present in single core operations. Designers must focus on the performance of the chip as a whole rather than concentrate on each core's performance.

We examined a group of SPK recipients that had early (<90 d post-transplant) pancreas graft failure caused by a technical complication, and looked at outcomes of the kidney graft in these recipients. Of 289 SPK transplants, 36 (12.5%) had early pancreas graft failure because of a technical complication: thrombosis (n = 16), leak (n = 5), infection (n = 14), and pancreatitis (n = 1). Once the pancreas was lost, there was a high incidence of subsequent kidney graft failure. Kidney graft survival in these 36 recipients was 71.4% at one yr and 59.5% at three yr, significantly inferior compared to recipients that did not have early failure of the pancreas (86% at one yr and 82% at three yr, p < 0.001). Of the 36 recipients with early pancreas loss, 18 have gone on to failure of the kidney graft. Causes included thrombosis (n = 3), infection (n = 1), death with function (n = 6), chronic rejection (n = 4), ischemia (n = 1), and other (n = 3). Of the 18 kidney graft failures, nine occurred within three months after loss of the pancreas graft, usually either because of graft thrombosis, or patient death (usually from systemic sepsis). Multivariate analysis showed technical failure of the pancreas to be the most significant risk factor for kidney graft loss (HR = 2.08, p = 0.006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generalizations about urban bryophytes in European cities have received little attention in Britain. Here they are treated as hypotheses, to be tested against the results of a detailed survey of King's Lynn, a town of about 41 000 people in eastern England. During 1999–2004 the flora was enumerated in twenty-five 1-km squares, arranged in a square of side 5 km. The species total for King's Lynn was 151, with an average of 42 species per 1-km square. We compared the flora of the town with that of the East Anglian region, from which 345 species have been recorded. Frequency of species in 1-km squares of King's Lynn was strongly related to frequency in 5-km squares in East Anglia. The King's Lynn flora was, for the region, exceptionally species-rich, with more calcifuges and fewer epiphytes than would be expected from the regional average. In the 1-km square containing the town centre, 28 species were recorded, of which Bryum caespiticium, Ceratodon purpureus, Funaria hygrometrica and Marchantia polymorpha were more frequent in the town than in the wider countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many authors have included the V2 segment of the trigeminal nerve as a component of the cavernous sinus. However, many authorities have stated that this part of the fifth cranial nerve is not within this intracranial venous sinus. To further elucidate this potentially important relationship, 10 fresh cadaveric heads underwent injection of the cavernous sinus with blue latex or a cresyl-violet solution. Subsequent sectioning in the coronal plane in 1 cm sections from the level of the trigeminal ganglia anteriorly to the level of the superior orbital fissure was made. Observations were then made between the relationships of the cavernous sinus and the V2 nerve. On all 20 sides, the V2 segment of the trigeminal nerve did not have filling of latex or cresyl-violet mixture lateral to it thus implying that this part of the trigeminal nerve is not found within the cavernous sinus. Two sides did demonstrate an emissary vein that traveled with the V2 part of the trigeminal nerve through the foramen rotundum toward the cavernous sinus. Based on our findings, the V2 part of the trigeminal nerve is not found bathed with venous blood within the cavernous sinus. Reports that state the contrary may have confused laterally positioned emissary veins as being part of the cavernous sinus and therefore erroneously concluded that V2 was within this cranial venous sinus. These data may prove useful to neurosurgeons that operate in the region of the cavernous sinus or to radiologists who interpret imaging of this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that explores the use of virtual memory system hierarchies to overlay a coherence and caching hierarchy onto the physical hierarchy of chip multiprocessors (CMPs). It presents a case study of a 64-tile flat CMP, running in several consolidated multithreaded workloads, in which a two level virtual coherence and caching hierarchy that harmonizes with the assignment of computer architecture tiles to virtual machine (VM) were used. Results suggest that virtual hierarchies offer a new framework for designing the memory hierarchy of multi-core CMPs.

The article reports on the panel discussion on whether to focus on single-threaded or multi-threaded during the 13th Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture in February 2007. Joel Emer, Mark D. Hill, Yale N. Patt and Joshua J. Yi debated on whether chip manufacturers should improve single-threaded or multi-threaded performance, at the Workshop on Computer Architecture Research Directions.

The article provides information on human development. Human development in the first eight weeks is potentially one of the most exciting areas of biologic research. The human 23 Carnegie stages of early embryonic development is the most sensitive to system abnormalities generated by teratogens. It also reflects changes in the external appearance of the embryo during the first eight weeks of development.

1 The species composition of fragmented semi-natural grasslands may change over time due to stochastic local extinction and colonization events, successional change and/or as a response to changing management or abiotic conditions. The resistance of vegetation to change may be mediated through the effects of topography (slope and aspect) on soils and microclimate. 2 To assess long-term vegetation change in British chalk grasslands, 92 plots first surveyed by F. H. Perring in 1952–53, and distributed across four climatic regions, were re-surveyed during 2001–03. Changes in vegetation since the original survey were assessed by comparing local colonization and extinction rates at the plot scale, and changes in species frequency at the subplot scale. Vegetation change was quantified using indirect ordination (Detrended Correspondence Analysis; DCA) and Ellenberg indicator values. 3 Across all four regions, there was a significant decrease in species number and a marked decline in stress-tolerant species typical of species-rich calcareous grasslands, both in terms of decreased plot occupancy and decreased frequency within occupied plots. More competitive species typical of mesotrophic grasslands had colonized plots they had not previously occupied, but had not increased significantly in frequency within occupied plots. 4 A significant increase in Ellenberg fertility values, which was highly correlated with the first DCA axis, was found across all regions. The magnitude of change of fertility and moisture values was found to decrease with angle of slope and with a topographic solar radiation index derived from slope and aspect. 5 The observed shift from calcareous grassland towards more mesotrophic grassland communities is consistent with the predicted effects of both habitat fragmentation and nutrient enrichment. It is hypothesized that chalk grassland swards on steeply sloping ground are more resistant to invasion by competitive grass species than those on flatter sites due to phosphorus limitation in shallow minerogenic rendzina soils, and that those with a southerly aspect are more resistant due to increased magnitude and frequency of drought events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the permissible scope of legal limitations on the freedom of religion or belief in Great Britain. Identification of the structural restrictions on religion or belief; Basis for limiting religious freedom; Analytical description of the law on limitations of rights.

The primary event which occurs when an X-ray photon of energy less than 30 keV is absorbed in a protein crystal (or other organic material) is the production of a photoelectron with a similar energy to that of the absorbed photon. The electron then scatters inelastically off the surrounding material losing energy in the process. This reduction in energy takes place over track lengths of a few &mu;m for 20 keV electrons. The vector distances between the initial and final positions of the photoelectrons are less than the track lengths owing to the non-linear tracks followed by the electrons. For crystals with smaller dimensions than the vector distances, a significant proportion of the energy could leave the crystal with the high-energy electrons. This could provide an advantage in terms of reduced radiation damage. In order to estimate the possible benefits, calculations of the electron tracks are given, initially using the continuous slowing-down approximation. A Monte Carlo approach is then used to provide more accurate values of the vector distance travelled by electrons inside a protein crystal. The calculations indicate that significant reductions in radiation damage could occur for crystals of a few &mu;m in size. The benefits would be greater when operating at higher energies. In addition, a scheme for realising the possible benefits in a practical situation is described. This could then form the basis of trial experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In patients with sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism, preoperative localization studies may discover a solitary mediastinal parathyroid adenoma. In this circumstance a 1-gland mediastinal exploration, either cervical or thoracoscopic, may be curative. Methods: In an 18-month period, 5 of 120 consecutive patients underwent an initial 1-gland mediastinal exploration for a solitary mediastinal parathyroid adenoma and 2 patients had a 1-gland mediastinal exploration for persistent hyperparathyroidism. Clinical presentation, imaging studies, surgical techniques, and outcomes were reviewed. Results: Sestamibi scans showed a mediastinal parathyroid adenoma in all 7 patients. Computed tomography provided anatomic localization of middle mediastinal parathyroid adenomas. A cervical approach was used in 4 patients who had a superior mediastinal parathyroid adenoma. Thoracoscopic excision was performed in 3 patients with a middle mediastinal parathyroid adenoma. No complications occurred. Calcium and parathyroid hormone levels normalized in all patients. Conclusions: Sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism caused by a solitary mediastinal parathyroid adenoma can be treated successfully with 1-gland mediastinal exploration either by a cervical or a thoracoscopic approach as indicated by localization imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiprocessors commonly use private per-processor caches that buffer blocks of the shared memory to improve both effective memory latency and bandwidth. A cache coherence protocol manages the read and write permissions if data in caches to ensure all processors observe a consistent view of shared memory. Unfortunately, emerging workload and technology trends reduce the attractiveness of this existing solution. Authors propose Token Coherence framework, which directly enforces the coherence invariant by counting tokens. This token-counting approach enables correct protocols that do not rely on request ordering and can operate with alternative policies that seek to improve the performance of future multiprocessors.

As work with families has become more popular in residential work with troubled youth, more and more programs are attempting to make the transition to being family-focused. There is much to be considered before starting this work. In this writing, a number of issues are highlighted which, from a supervisor's perspective, are essential to making a successful transition. This writing draws on the work done by the Nexus team in making the transition from an individual to a family-focused residential program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]