Google Street View birding, embroidered computers, STEM and the Girl Guides, and using FortNite to teach about climate change

Mahatma Gandhi lived a life committed to social justice and human rights. In this year's lecture to honour his memory five Australian women talk about their work in indigenous communities, for people with disabilities, refugees , LGBTIQ and campaigns to reduce domestic violence.

Richard Lawn has posted a new SETI Perspective entitled How did life begin on Earth and elsewhere?.

Invitation Only Research Event

Event participants

Douglas E Lute, Ambassador, Permanent Representative for the United States to NATO
Sir Adam Thomson KCMG, UK Permanent Representative to NATO
Chair: Dr Robin Niblett, Director, Chatham House

4 March 2020 , Volume 96, Number 2

20 April 2020

Nuclear deterrence theory, with its roots in the Cold War era, may not account for all eventualities in the 21st century. Researchers at Chatham House have worked with eight experts to produce this collection of essays examining four contested themes in contemporary policymaking on deterrence.

4 March 2020 , Volume 96, Number 2

Invitation Only Research Event

Invitation Only Research Event

Event participants

Dr Robin Niblett CMG, Director, Chatham House  
Toshiro Mutoh, Honorary Chairman, Daiwa Institute of Research; CEO, Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Game
José Manuel Barroso, Senior Adviser, Chatham House; President of the European Commission (2004-14); Prime Minister of Portugal (2002-04)
Akihiko Tanaka, President, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

The aim of this project is to provide a space to explore creative/disruptive ideas in order to make headway on perspectives concerning deterrence. This will encourage ‘responsible disruption’ in the nuclear field.

20 April 2020

Nuclear deterrence theory, with its roots in the Cold War era, may not account for all eventualities in the 21st century. Researchers at Chatham House have worked with eight experts to produce this collection of essays examining four contested themes in contemporary policymaking on deterrence.

20 April 2020

Nuclear deterrence theory, with its roots in the Cold War era, may not account for all eventualities in the 21st century. Researchers at Chatham House have worked with eight experts to produce this collection of essays examining four contested themes in contemporary policymaking on deterrence.

Invitation Only Research Event

Imagine that you are waiting in line to be born . . . Presently, you are scheduled to be born white. However, you are offered an alternative arrangement. In exchange for a cash gift, to be deposited in a bank account for you when you are born, you can choose to instead be born black.

Jennifer M. Perkins
Apr 1, 2007; 25:57-62
Feature Articles

Psychoanalysis.

Rockville, Maryland : National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1985.

Rockville, Maryland : National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1988.

The policy implications of the ESEA, and its most recent reauthorization, the No Child Left Behind Act, have been at the heart of an enduring public debate.

Many patient and family demographic characteristics are well-known risk factors for nonurgent emergency-department use. No previous study has examined the primary care physician perspective on parental decisions regarding specific nonurgent emergency-department visits by children.

When discussing specific instances when families in their practices sought nonurgent care for children in the emergency department, physicians believed that parents acted appropriately. Neither parents nor primary care physicians saw nonurgent emergency-department visits as a significant enough problem to warrant change. (Read the full article)

In 2011, the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education increased restrictions on resident duty-hours. Further changes have been considered, including greater work-hour restrictions and lengthening residency. Residents’ views about these policies are unclear.

This is the first systematic, national inquiry into resident opinions on reduced work-hours and longer residency. More pediatric residents support than oppose reduced hours, and a minority would add a year to residency to achieve them. (Read the full article)

Higher-hazard, no-benefit research involving children may be approved by local institutional review boards only when the protocol enrolls children with the medical condition under study. The ethics of this distinction have been debated, but parental opinions have not been explored.

We found that parental opinions support federal regulations. We discuss parental motivations for and against research participation and the extent to which enrolling a child in higher-hazard, no-benefit research reflects appropriate surrogate decision-making. (Read the full article)

BACKGROUND:

In the United States, transgender youth are at especially high risk for HIV infection. Literature regarding HIV prevention strategies for this vulnerable, often-hidden population is scant. Before effective, population-based HIV prevention strategies may be adequately developed, it is necessary to first enhance the contextual understanding of transgender youth HIV risk and experiences with HIV preventive services.

The coronavirus pandemic could change human behaviour more permanently in future.

I like websites that have sections called "Frequently Asked Questions" – FAQ, for short. Typically, the questions I have aren't new ones … others looking at that site have asked the same thing. It's an efficient, quick way to get answers to my questions.

Perspectives: Let's Give Hydropower a Boost

The aims of this study were to qualitatively assess dental public health (DPH) residents’ perspectives on teaching methods for DPH competencies and to develop and implement a case-based simulation to address those competencies, constructed on the basis of the qualitative assessment. Focus group discussions were conducted with 18 DPH residents enrolled in two university-based DPH programs. Topic areas discussed in the two focus groups were perceived value of DPH competencies, ways to acquire new DPH skills/abilities, and additional skills/abilities needed by DPH residents. The focus groups’ responses showed that the residents felt competent in the analytical thinking competencies such as research methodology and critiquing literature. They emphasized the importance of learning leadership skills and reported feeling somewhat uncertain about their mastery of the policy and advocacy and system evaluation competencies. Of the two distinct categories of DPH skills and competencies— analytical/critical thinking and practical competencies—these residents reported that a greater proportion of time needed to be devoted to integrating the practical competencies into their education. Based on the residents’ feedback, the authors developed a structured seminar series taking a case-based approach to simulate real-world DPH problems, using real and semi-hypothetical planning projects to meet the residents’ perceived needs and covering gaps between didactic learning and practice.

Phenotypic plasticity is defined as the property of organisms to produce distinct phenotypes in response to environmental variation. While for more than a century, biologists have proposed this organismal feature to play an important role in evolution and the origin of novelty, the idea has remained contentious. Plasticity is found in all domains of life, but only recently has there been an increase in empirical studies. This contribution is intended as a fresh view and will discuss current and future challenges of plasticity research, and the need to identify associated molecular mechanisms. After a brief summary of conceptual, theoretical, and historical aspects, some of which were responsible for confusion and contention, I will formulate three major research directions and predictions for the role of plasticity as a facilitator of novelty. These predictions result in a four-step model that, when properly filled with molecular mechanisms, will reveal plasticity as a major factor of evolution. Such mechanistic insight must be complemented with comparative investigations to show that plasticity has indeed created novelty and innovation. Together, such studies will help develop a true developmental evolutionary biology.

BackgroundUrinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common bacterial infections managed in general practice. Many women with symptoms of uncomplicated UTI may not benefit meaningfully from antibiotic treatment, but the evidence base is complex and there is no suitable shared decision-making resource to guide antibiotic treatment and symptomatic care for use in general practice consultations.AimTo develop an evidence-based, shared decision-making intervention leaflet to optimise management of uncomplicated UTI for women aged <65 years in the primary care setting.Design and settingQualitative telephone interviews with GPs and patient focus group interviews.MethodIn-depth interviews were conducted to explore how consultation discussions around diagnosis, antibiotic use, self-care, safety netting, and prevention of UTI could be improved. Interview schedules were based on the Theoretical Domains Framework.ResultsBarriers to an effective joint consultation and appropriate prescribing included: lack of GP time, misunderstanding of depth of knowledge and miscommunication between the patient and the GP, nature of the consults (such as telephone consultations), and a history of previous antibiotic therapy.ConclusionConsultation time pressures combined with late symptom presentation are a challenge for even the most experienced of GPs: however, it is clear that enhanced patient–clinician shared decision making is urgently required when it comes to UTIs. This communication should incorporate the provision of self-care, safety netting, and preventive advice to help guide patients when to consult. A shared decision-making information leaflet was iteratively co-produced with patients, clinicians, and researchers at Public Health England using study data.

Background:

Patients with multimorbidity often require services across different health care settings, yet team processes among settings are rarely implemented. We explored perceptions of specialists and family physicians collaborating in a telemedicine interprofessional consultation for patients with multimorbidity to better understand the value of bringing physicians together across the boundaries of health care settings.

Metastatic disease is the leading cause of death in patients with solid cancers. The progression to metastasis is a multistep process that involves detachment of tumor cells from their constraining basement membrane at the primary site, migration and intravasation into the circulation, survival in the circulation, extravasation into the secondary organ, and survival and growth at the secondary site. During these steps, tumor and immune cells interact and influence each other both within the tumor microenvironment and systemically. In particular, myeloid cells such as monocytes, macrophages, neutrophils, and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (myeloid regulatory cells) have been shown to play important roles in the metastatic process. These interactions open new avenues for targeting cancer metastasis, especially given the increasing interest in development of cancer immunotherapies. In this review, we describe the currently reported pathways and mechanisms involved in myeloid cell enhancement of the metastatic cascade.

Brain metastases are associated with poor prognosis irrespective of the primary tumor they originate from. Current treatments for brain metastases are palliative, and patients with symptomatic brain metastasis have a one-year survival of <20%. Lung cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma have higher incidences of brain metastases compared with other types of cancers. However, it is not very clear why some cancers metastasize to the brain more frequently than others. Studies thus far suggest that brain-specific tropism of certain types of cancers is defined by a winning combination of the following factors: unique genetic subtypes of primary tumors or its subclones enabling detachment, dissemination, blood–brain barrier penetration, plus proliferation and survival in hypoxic low-glucose microenvironment; specific transcriptomic and epigenetic changes of colony-forming metastatic cells, allowing their outgrowth; favorable metastasis-permissive microenvironment of the brain created by interactions of cancer cells and cells in the brain through triggering inflammation, recruiting myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and promoting metabolic adaptation; immunosuppression resulting in the failure of adaptive immune response to recognize or kill cancer cells in the brain. Here, we briefly review recent advances in understanding brain metastasis organotropism and outline directions for future research.

Germline alterations of the tumor suppressor PTEN have been extensively characterized in patients with PTEN hamartoma tumor syndromes, encompassing subsets of Cowden syndrome, Bannayan–Riley–Ruvalcaba syndrome, Proteus and Proteus-like syndromes, as well as autism spectrum disorder. Studies have shown an increase in the risk of developing specific cancer types in the presence of a germline PTEN mutation. Furthermore, outside of the familial setting, somatic variants of PTEN occur in numerous malignancies. Here we introduce and discuss the prospect of moving toward a systems pathology approach for PTEN diagnostics, incorporating clinical and molecular pathology data with the goal of improving the clinical management of patients with a PTEN mutation. Detection of a germline PTEN mutation can inform cancer surveillance and in the case of somatic mutation, have value in predicting disease course. Given that PTEN functions in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, identification of a PTEN mutation may highlight new therapeutic opportunities and/or inform therapeutic choices.

Preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) is a reproductive technology that, in the course of in vitro fertilization (IVF), allows prospective parents to select their future offspring based on genetic characteristics. PGT could be seen as an exercise of reproductive liberty, thus potentially raising significant socioethical and legal controversy. In this review, we examine—from a comparative perspective—variations in policy approaches to the regulation of PGT. We draw on a sample of 19 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States) to provide a global landscape of the spectrum of policy and legislative approaches (e.g., restrictive to permissive, public vs. private models). We also explore central socioethical and policy issues and contentious applications, including permissibility criteria (e.g., medical necessity), nonmedical sex selection, and reproductive tourism. Finally, we further outline genetic counseling requirements across policy approaches.

Consistently, the field of genetic counseling has advocated that parents be advised to defer elective genetic testing of minors until adulthood to prevent a range of potential harms, including stigma, discrimination, and the loss of the child's ability to decide for him- or herself as an adult. However, consensus around the policy of "defer-when-possible" obscures the extent to which this norm is currently under siege. Increasingly, routine use of full or partial genome sequencing challenges our ability to control what is discovered in childhood or, when applied in a prenatal context, even before birth. The expansion of consumer-initiated genetic testing services challenges our ability to restrict what is available to minors. As the barriers to access crumble, medical professionals should proceed with caution, bearing in mind potential risks and continuing to assess the impact of genetic testing on this vulnerable population.

For years, clinical and basic researchers have been aware of the presence of PTEN in the nucleus in cell culture, animal models, and both healthy and diseased human tissues. Despite the early recognition of nuclear PTEN, the understanding of the mechanisms of its nuclear localization, function in the nucleus, and importance in biology and human disease has been lacking. Over the last decade, emerging concepts for the complex involvement of nuclear PTEN in a variety of processes, including genome maintenance and DNA repair, cell-cycle control, gene expression, and DNA replication, are illuminating what could prove to be the key path toward a full understanding of PTEN function in health and disease. Dysregulation of nuclear PTEN is now considered an important aspect of the etiology of many pathologic conditions, prompting reconsideration of the therapeutic approaches aimed at countering the consequences of PTEN deficiency. This new knowledge is fueling the development of innovative therapeutic modalities for a broad spectrum of human conditions, from cancer and metabolic diseases, to neurological disorders and autism.

Posttranscriptional regulation of mRNA is a powerful and tightly controlled process in which cells command the integrity, diversity, and abundance of their protein products. RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are the principal players that control many intermediary steps of posttranscriptional regulation. Recent advances in this field have discovered the importance of RBPs in hematological diseases. Herein we will review a number of RBPs that have been determined to play critical functions in leukemia and lymphoma. Furthermore, we will discuss the potential therapeutic strategies that are currently being studied to specifically target RBPs in these diseases.

Malorie Blackman, Lee Child and Philip Pullman are among the first five essayists published

Jan 24, 2019

Thus, the fate of the INF Treaty is of surpassing importance in Europe, Russia and the United States. The stakes for the parties to the treaty are obvious. Europe too would be affected as dissolution of the treaty could lead to a new arms race with intermediate-range missiles targeting the entire continent. Below, three authors representing each of these perspectives consider the likely future of the treaty, how it might be saved and what its demise might mean.