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Results from an Australopithecus africanus dental enamel fragment confirm the potential of palaeoproteomics for South African Plio-Pleistocene fossil sites
Get PDFThe southern African Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene hominin record is abundant and exhibits a high taxonomic diversity with three genera represented: Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Homo. Hominin fossil diversity and variation are often contextualised within other fossil assemblages or modern/extant counterparts. However, the incompleteness of the fossil record, sample selection bias and taphonomic condition of the specimens themselves constrain interpretations of diversity and variation within and between species. Thus, species identification and the nature of the observed variation are frequently debated. Palaeoproteomics can help improve our understanding of taxonomic variation, as demonstrated by the recently generated proteome of Paranthropus specimens from Swartkrans. Here, we demonstrate protein preservation for an A. africanus specimen from Sterkfontein Member 4, Sts 63, using minimally invasive analysis, and identify it as belonging to a male individual. We then discuss some of the current limitations of palaeoproteomics and how we can potentially overcome them. Although it is still in its infancy for Plio-Pleistocene hominin fossils, palaeoproteomics has the potential to help unravel the causes of observed morphological variation. Lastly, we strongly believe that the involvement of African researchers at all levels of this research, including leadership, is of great importance
Evaluation of Electronic Palliative Care Coordination Systems to support advance care planning for people living with life-threatening conditions (PREPARE): protocol for a multicentre observational study using routinely collected primary and secondary care data in England
Get PDFIntroduction Electronic Palliative Care Coordination Systems (EPaCCS) are electronic registers that aim to facilitate documentation and sharing of up-to-date information about patients’ end-of-life preferences and plans for care among different health services. They aim to improve patients’ experiences and outcomes and mitigate costs linked to undesired aggressive care. However, evidence on the equitable delivery of EPaCCS and the extent to which advance care planning (ACP) enhances end-of-life care remains sparse. This study aims to explore the effect of EPaCCS on healthcare outcomes, service utilisation, and costs. It will also estimate the association between social determinants of health and the content and use of EPaCCS.
Methods and analysis The PREPARE project is a retrospective observational cohort study conducted in two phases. We will analyse routinely collected data from three EPaCCS registers from London, Bradford and Leeds. The first phase will use descriptive analysis to describe the completeness of EPaCCS, the content of EPaCCS, and socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of individuals with EPaCCS, and will model the relationship between social determinants of health and completion of ACP components and the creation of EPaCCS. The second phase will use a natural experiment to compare quality indicators (place of death and hospital use) between individuals with EPaCCS and those without. The control groups will be identified through the Leeds decedent dataset and through linking the London EPaCCS register to an electronic record used in North West London. Also, we will quantify healthcare costs and outcomes.
Ethics and dissemination Research approval has been secured from the Health Research Authority (ref 24/LO/0194), London - South East Research Ethics Committee (ref 24/LO/0194) and Confidentiality Advisory Group (ref 24/CAG/0046). Dissemination of findings will occur through peer-reviewed publications, knowledge exchange events and collaborative efforts with patient and public involvement partners
How is the Amyloid Fold Built? Polymorphism and the Microscopic Mechanisms of Fibril Assembly
No full textFor a given protein sequence, many, up to sometimes hundreds of different amyloid fibril folds, can be formed in vitro. Yet, fibrils extracted from, or found in, human tissue, usually at the end of a long disease process, are often structurally homogeneous. Through monitoring of amyloid assembly reactions in vitro, the scientific community has gained a detailed understanding of the kinetic mechanisms of fibril assembly and the rates at which the different processes involved occur. However, how this kinetic information relates to the structural changes as a protein transforms from its initial, native structure to the canonical cross-β structure of amyloid remain obscure. While cryoEM has yielded a plethora of high-resolution information that portray a vast variety of fibril structures, there remains little knowledge of how and why each particular structure resulted. Recent work has demonstrated that fibril structures can change over an assembly time course, despite the different fibril types having similar thermodynamic stability. This points to kinetic control of the fibrils formed, with structures that initiate or elongate faster becoming the dominant products of assembly. Annotating kinetic assembly mechanisms alongside structural analysis of the fibrils formed is required to truly understand the molecular mechanisms of amyloid formation. However, this is a complicated task. In this review, we discuss how embracing this challenge could open new frontiers in amyloid research and new opportunities for therapy
Quantifying the diverse contributions of hierarchical muscle interactions to motor function
Get PDFThe muscle synergy concept suggests that the human motor system is organized into functional modules composed of muscles “working together” toward common task goals. This study offers a nuanced computational perspective to muscle synergies, where muscles interacting across multiple scales have functionally similar, complementary, and independent roles. Making this viewpoint implicit to a methodological approach applying Partial Information Decomposition to large-scale muscle activations, we unveiled nested networks of functionally diverse inter- and intramuscular interactions with distinct functional consequences on task performance. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated using simulations and by extracting generalizable muscle networks from benchmark datasets of muscle activity. Specific network components are shown to correlate with (1) balance performance and (2) differences in motor variability between young and older adults. By aligning muscle synergy analysis with leading theoretical insights on movement modularity, the mechanistic insights presented here suggest the proposed methodology offers enhanced research opportunities toward health and engineering applications
What do we do to help others feel better? The eight strategies of the Regulating Others’ Emotions Scale (ROES).
Get PDFTheoretical models of interpersonal extrinsic emotion regulation (the regulation of others’ emotions) recognize many different regulation strategies, yet existing assessments do not assess a wide number of strategies at a granular level. In the present research, we develop the Regulation of Others’ Emotions Scale to capture eight extrinsic emotion regulation strategies (expressive suppression, downward social comparison, humor, distraction, direct action, cognitive reframing, valuing, and receptive listening). Studies 1 (N = 321) and 2 (N = 121) identified eight strategies that differ in how much they require engagement with the target person. Studies 3 (N = 310) and 4 (N = 150 dyads) found evidence for test–retest reliability, structural validity, and correlations with other constructs (i.e., discriminant, convergent, and criterion-related validity). Results suggest that three high-engagement strategies have the strongest links to regulator and target outcomes (such as well-being and relationship quality), with the strongest effects for valuing, then cognitive reframing, and then receptive listening. The discussion focuses on the two broad contributions of the current research: a new instrument assessing multiple strategies and the integration of two different theoretical frameworks for the regulation of others’ emotions
Dataset for a qualitative interview study exploring the barriers and facilitators to using and recommending aspirin for cancer prevention
Get PDFIntroduction
Aspirin is increasingly recommended for colorectal cancer prevention for people with Lynch syndrome, who are at higher risk. Before starting aspirin, patients should be reviewed by a healthcare professional for contraindications. We conducted interviews to explore the views of people with Lynch syndrome and healthcare professionals on aspirin for cancer prevention. While open data sharing is increasingly implemented for quantitative research, it is less likely to be adopted for qualitative data. We aimed to create and share a qualitative dataset of the interview transcripts in a restricted access repository.
Methods
We interviewed 15 people with Lynch syndrome and 23 healthcare professionals. Healthcare professionals included general practitioners (GPs), community pharmacists, genetic counsellors, and specialist hospital clinicians (e.g. genetics, gastroenterology). The interview schedule was informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework. Interviews were conducted over video or telephone.
Results
Participants could consent to their anonymised interview transcript being deposited in a restricted repository, with access limited to people using the data for non-commercial research, learning or teaching purposes. Those who did not consent could still participate in the interview. Several transcripts were removed due to identifiability concerns. In total, we deposited 12 transcripts with people with Lynch syndrome, and 8 transcripts with GPs.
Discussion
To safeguard participants’ identities, we fully anonymised the dataset. While this acted to protect participants’ identities, it also potentially reduced its usability due to the removal of rich contextual detail. When sharing qualitative data, it is important to balance confidentiality with data reusability
European History Quarterly Roundtable: Histories of Race in Europe and Questions of Knowledge Production
No full textIs an eye truly for an eye? Magnitude differences affect moral praise more than moral blame
Get PDFDoes the amount of perceived moral responsibility correspond to the magnitude of the act to the same degree regardless of whether the act is moral or immoral? In four experiments (N = 1617; all preregistered), we found that—when evaluating two agents who performed similar acts but with different magnitude—observers judged greater differences in their moral responsibility when those acts were moral than when they were immoral. That is, the same difference in magnitude had greater influence on perceived moral responsibility for moral acts compared to immoral acts. Furthermore, we also found that the asymmetry effect impacted perceivers' judgment of the moral character of the agent (Studies 2 and 3). Evaluating immoral (vs. moral) acts led participants to use a more affect-based (vs. reason-based) decision mode, which, in turn, led them to be more scope insensitive to the magnitude difference of the two acts (Study 3). Lastly, we showed that this asymmetry effect is moderated by the individual's concern with the relevant moral issue (Study 4). When perceivers care less about the issue (e.g., animal welfare), the asymmetry effect attenuates. These results together suggest that, when comparing the moral responsibility of different moral agents, magnitude of behavior matters more for positive than for negative acts
The role of MEGF10 in myoblast fusion and hypertrophic response to overload of skeletal muscle
Get PDFCommentary on Rosie Jones McVey “Learning from the Herd?:Intercorporeality and Ethics in Equine-Assisted Learning for UK Youth”
Get PDFIn this paper Rosie Jones McVey presents analysis of her ethnographic study of Equine Assisted Learning (EAL), a contemporary form of care based upon the finding that horses are “an invaluable ally in helping to improve human health and wellbeing” (Jones McVey, undated). In the paper Rosie, herself an EAL practitioner, focuses on a specific charitable centre, Paddock Farm, and on how EAL with young people who have been excluded from mainstream education is practiced and participated in there. The descriptions are of interaction between the young people, the workers, the horses, and all they bring with them into those interactions – histories, discourses, lived experience, habits, beliefs, ideologies, stuff
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