93 research outputs found
The IPHAS catalogue of H alpha emission-line sources in the northern Galactic plane
No full textWe present a catalogue of point-source H alpha emission-line objects selected from the INT/WFC Photometric Ha Survey (IPHAS) of the northern Galactic plane. The catalogue covers the magnitude range 13 <= r' <= 19.5 and includes Northern hemisphere sources in the Galactic latitude range -5 degrees < b < 5 degrees. It is derived from similar to 1500 deg(2) worth of imaging data, which represents 80 per cent of the final IPHAS survey area. The electronic version of the catalogue will be updated once the full survey data become available. In total, the present catalogue contains 4853 point sources that exhibit strong photometric evidence for Ha emission. We have so far analysed spectra for similar to 300 of these sources, confirming more than 95 per cent of them as genuine emission-line stars. A wide range of stellar populations are represented in the catalogue, including early-type emission-line stars, active late-type stars, interacting binaries, young stellar objects and compact nebulae.
The spatial distribution of catalogue objects shows overdensities near sites of recent or current star formation, as well as possible evidence for the warp of the Galactic plane. Photometrically, the incidence of Ha emission is bimodally distributed in (r' - i'). The blue peak is made up mostly of early-type emission-line stars, whereas the red peak may signal an increasing contribution from other objects, such as young/active low-mass stars. We have cross-matched our H alpha-excess catalogue against the emission-line star catalogue of Kohoutek & Wehmeyer, as well as against sources in SIMBAD. We find that fewer than 10 per cent of our sources can be matched to known objects of any type. Thus IPHAS is uncovering an order of magnitude more faint (r' > 13) emission-line objects than were previously known in the Milky Way
Interventions to achieve long-term weight loss in obese older people
No full textThis is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Age and Ageing following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Witham, M. & Avenell, A. (2010). 'Interventions to achieve long-term weight loss in obese older people.' Age and Ageing 39(2) pp. 176-184 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afp251.Peer reviewe
R v Lord Chancellor, ex parte Witham [1998] QB 575, High Court (Queen’s Bench Division)
No full textEssential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R v Lord Chancellor, ex parte Witham [1998] QB 575, High Court (Queen’s Bench Division). The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.</p
Does measuring social attention lead to changes in behavior? A preliminary investigation into the implications of attention bias trials on behavior in Rhesus Macaques
No full text© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.A welfare assessment tool in development must satisfy several criteria before it is considered ready for general use. Some tools that meet many of these criteria have been criticized for their negative effect on welfare. We conducted a preliminary assessment of the impact of attention bias (AB) trials using threat-neutral conspecific face pairs followed by presumed neutral-positive filler stimuli on the behavior of 21 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta; 15 female). Behavioral observations were conducted following AB trials and repeated two weeks later when no AB trials had occurred (no trial: NT). The association between observation period and behavior was assessed using linear mixed-effects models in R. Trials did not impact any observed behavior except for fear, which was displayed by five monkeys over six trials (four NT). For this sample, there was a significant reduction in fear behavior following AB trials. We, therefore, found no evidence suggesting that AB trials negatively affect behaviour. AB protocols may be suitable for continued development for primate welfare assessment and we encourage researchers to include assessing test impact on welfare in their AB protocols.ERI Howarth was supported by an LJMU PhD studentship. CL Witham and the Centre for Macaques are funded by the Medical Research Council
Growing research in geriatric medicine
No full text© 2019 The Author(s). Academic geriatric medicine activity lags behind the scale of clinical activity in the specialty. A meeting of UK academic geriatricians was convened in March 2018 to consider causes and solutions to this problem. The meeting highlighted a lack of research-Active clinicians, a perception that research is not central to the practice of geriatric medicine and a failure to translate discovery science to clinical studies. Solutions proposed included better support for early-career clinical researchers, schemes to encourage non-University clinicians to be research-Active, wider collaboration with organ specialists to broaden the funding envelope, and the need to co-produce research programmes with end-users. Solutions to grow academic geriatric medicine are essential if we are to provide the best care for the growing older population
Role for human arylamine N-acetyltransferase 1 in the methionine salvage pathway
No full textThe Phase II drug metabolizing enzyme arylamine N-acetyltransferase 1 (NAT1) has been implicated in the growth and survival of cancer cells, although the mechanisms that underlies these effects are unknown. Here, a focused metabolomics approach was used to identify changes in folate catabolism as well as the S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) cycle following NAT1 knockdown with shRNA. Although acetylation of the folate catabolite p-aminobenzoylglutamate (pABG) was significantly decreased, there were no changes in intracellular pABG or the various components of the SAM cycle. By contrast, the flux of homocysteine in the medium was different following NAT1 knockdown after the methionine content was exhausted suggesting a need for this metabolite in methionine synthesis. Analysis of the growth of various cancer cells in methylthioadenosine-supplemented medium showed that NAT1 knockdown inhibited the methionine salvage pathway in HT-29 cells but not in HeLa or MDA-MB-436 cells. The cause of this was a low level of expression of the isomerase MRI-1 in the HT-29 cells. Knocking down both NAT1 and MRI-1 in HeLa cells with siRNA further demonstrated a redundancy between these 2 enzymes, although direct isomerase activity by NAT1 could not be demonstrated. The present study has identified a novel endogenous role for human NAT1 that might explain some of its effects in cancer cell growth and survival
Newly discovered cataclysmic variables from the INT/WFC photometric Hα survey of the northern Galactic plane
No full textWe report the discovery of 11 new cataclysmic variable (CV) candidates by the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) Photometric H alpha Survey of the northern Galactic plane (IPHAS). Three of the systems have been the subject of further follow-up observations. For the CV candidates IPHAS J013031.90+622132.4 and J051814.34+294113.2, time-resolved optical spectroscopy has been obtained and radial-velocity measurements of the H alpha emission line have been used to estimate their orbital periods. A third CV candidate (IPHAS J062746.41+014811.3) was observed photometrically and found to be eclipsing. All three systems have orbital periods above the CV period gap of 2-3 h. We also highlight an other system, IPHAS J025827.88+635234.9, whose spectrum distinguishes it as a likely high-luminosity object with unusual C and N abundances
“What’s in a Name?” The Taxonomy & Phylogeny of Early Homo
No full textHominin systematics, encompassing both taxonomy and phylogeny (Strait, 2013), has significant implications for how the evolution of species and traits are understood and communicated. Following a recent influx of fossils (e.g., Brown et al., 2004; Lordkipanidze et al., 2013; Villmoare et al., 2015a; Berger et al., 2015) the amount of diversity in fossil morphology has increased correspondingly. As researchers do not yet approach diversity in a uniform manner, the literature has been flooded with conflicting theories and methodologies (Strait, 2013). Particularly volatile has been the study of the origin of the genus Homo and the extent of variation therein: much controversy arises from conflicting views of the number of valid species subsumed within ‘early Homo’ given unspecified definitions of species and genera. Additionally, there is still a lack of understanding of the extent of and mechanism behind variation, especially within Hominina. The first section of the following paper addresses ‘how can species be identified?’ and ‘how should species be classified into higher taxa?’ The second section reviews the prevalent arguments used to systematise fossils frequently classified as ‘early Homo.’ It considers: the validity of Homo rudolfensis; the morphological, spatial & temporal overlap of earlier Homo with Homo ergaster; the systematic significance of the recently discovered LD 350-1; and finally, the appropriateness of ‘early Homo’ as an adaptive grade.© 2016 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. The attached file is the published version of the article.NHM Repositor
Investigation of the interaction between corticomuscular coherence, motor precision and perceived difficulty in wrist flexion and extension
No full textIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.Recently, behavioural (motor precision) differences were reported between isometric wrist flexion and extension. Neurophysiological as well as clinical differences have also been reported between these antagonistic movements. Corticomuscular coherence (CMC), i.e. the frequency specific temporal coupling between the electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyogram (EMG) recorded during isometric force production, reflects the functional connectivity between cortex and muscle. A single muscle (flexor digitorum superficialis) study suggests a positive correlation between 15-35 Hz (beta) CMC and motor precision of the muscle. Yet, no study has simultaneously compared CMC and motor precision between wrist flexion and extension. Task perceived difficulty, which is a perceptual variable, may influence both motor precision and CMC, but has not been studied yet. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the interaction between CMC, motor precision and perceived difficulty in isometric wrist flexion and extension tasks
Automated face recognition of rhesus macaques
No full text\ua9 2017 The Author. Background: Rhesus macaques are widely used in biomedical research. Automated behavior monitoring can be useful in various fields (including neuroscience), as well as having applications to animal welfare but current technology lags behind that developed for other species. One difficulty facing developers is the reliable identification of individual macaques within a group especially as pair- and group-housing of macaques becomes standard. Current published methods require either implantation or wearing of a tracking device. New method: I present face recognition, in combination with face detection, as a method to non-invasively identify individual rhesus macaques in videos. The face recognition method utilizes local-binary patterns in combination with a local discriminant classification algorithm. Results: A classification accuracy of between 90 and 96% was achieved for four different groups. Group size, number of training images and challenging image conditions such as high contrast all had an impact on classification accuracy. I demonstrate that these methods can be applied in real time using standard affordable hardware and a potential application to studies of social structure. Comparison with existing method(s): Face recognition methods have been reported for humans and other primate species such as chimpanzees but not rhesus macaques. The classification accuracy with this method is comparable to that for chimpanzees. Face recognition has the advantage over other methods for identifying rhesus macaques such as tags and collars of being non-invasive. Conclusions: This is the first reported method for face recognition of rhesus macaques, has high classification accuracy and can be implemented in real time
- …
