Belfast: The Rise and Fall of a Civic Culture?

A discussion of the extent to which Belfast participated in the spirit of civic pride and commitment to urban renewal that historians have identified as a key feature of nineteenth-century British cities.

Successful balance training is associated with improved multisensory function in fall-prone older adults

Balance maintenance relies on a complex interplay between many different sensory modalities. Although optimal multisensory processing is thought to decline with ageing, inefficient integration is particularly associated with falls in older adults. We investigated whether improved balance control, following a novel balance training intervention, was associated with more efficient multisensory integration in older adults, particularly those who have fallen in the past. Specifically, 76 healthy and fall-prone older adults were allocated to either a balance training programme conducted over 5 weeks or to a passive control condition. Balance training involved a VR display in which the on-screen position of a target object was controlled by shifts in postural balance on a Wii balance board. Susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion, before and after the intervention (or control condition), was used as a measure of multisensory function. Whilst balance and postural control improved for all participants assigned to the Intervention group, improved functional balance was correlated with more efficient multisensory processing in the fall-prone older adults only. Our findings add to growing evidence suggesting important links between balance control and multisensory interactions in the ageing brain and have implications for the development of interventions designed to reduce the risk of falls.

Late Holocene sea-level fall and turn-off of reef flat carbonate production: Rethinking bucket fill and coral reef growth models

Relative sea-level rise has been a major factor driving the evolution of reef systems during the Holocene. Most models of reef evolution suggest that reefs preferentially grow vertically during rising sea level then laterally from windward to leeward, once the reef flat reaches sea level. Continuous lagoonal sedimentation ("bucket fill") and sand apron progradation eventually lead to reef systems with totally filled lagoons. Lagoonal infilling of One Tree Reef (southern Great Barrier Reef) through sand apron accretion was examined in the context of late Holocene relative sea-level change. This analysis was conducted using sedimentological and digital terrain data supported by 50 radiocarbon ages from fossil microatolls, buried patch reefs, foraminifera and shells in sediment cores, and recalibrated previously published radiocarbon ages. This data set challenges the conceptual model of geologically continuous sediment infill during the Holocene through sand apron accretion. Rapid sand apron accretion occurred between 6000 and 3000 calibrated yr before present B.P. (cal. yr B.P.); followed by only small amounts of sedimentation between 3000 cal. yr B.P. and present, with no significant sand apron accretion in the past 2 k.y. This hiatus in sediment infill coincides with a sea-level fall of similar to 1-1.3 m during the late Holocene (ca. 2000 cal. yr B.P.), which would have caused the turn-off of highly productive live coral growth on the reef flats currently dominated by less productive rubble and algal flats, resulting in a reduced sediment input to back-reef environments and the cessation in sand apron accretion. Given that relative sea-level variations of similar to 1 m were common throughout the Holocene, we suggest that this mode of sand apron development and carbonate production is applicable to most reef systems.

Cancer dormancy: a model of early dissemination and late cancer recurrence

Cancer dormancy is a stage in tumor progression in which residual disease remains occult and asymptomatic for a prolonged period of time. Dormant tumor cells can be present as one of the earliest stages in tumor development, as well as a stage in micrometastases, and/or minimal residual disease left after an apparently successful treatment of the primary tumor. The general mechanisms that regulate the transition of disseminated tumor cells that have lain dormant into a proliferative state remain largely unknown. However, regulation of the growth from dormant tumor cells may be explained in part through the interaction of the tumor cell with its microenvironment, limitations in the blood supply, or an active immune system. An understanding of the regulatory machinery of these processes is essential for identifying early cancer biomarkers and could provide a rationale for the development of novel agents to target dormant tumor cells. This review focuses on the different signaling models responsible for early cancer dissemination and tumor recurrence that are involved in dormancy pathways.

Seed dormancy in Arabidopsis thaliana is controlled by alternative polyadenylation of DOG1

DOG1 is a key regulator of seed dormancy in Arabidopsis and other plants. Interestingly, the C-terminus of DOG1 is either absent or not conserved in many plant species. Here, we show that in Arabidopsis DOG1 transcript is subject to alternative polyadenylation. In line with this, mutants in RNA 3' processing complex display weakened seed dormancy in parallel with defects in DOG1 proximal polyadenylation site selection, suggesting that the short DOG1 transcript, is functional. This is corroborated by the finding that the proximally polyadenylated short DOG1 mRNA is translated in vivo and complements the dog1 mutation. In summary, our findings indicate that the short DOG1 protein isoform produced from the proximally polyadenylated DOG1 mRNA is a key player in the establishment of seed dormancy in Arabidopsis and characterize a set of mutants in RNA 3' processing complex required for production of proximally polyadenylated functional DOG1 transcript.

Soft Budget Constraints and Regional Industrial Policy: Reinterpreting the Rise and fall of De Lorean

The rise and fall of De Lorean Motor Cars Limited (DMCL) has been traditionally interpreted as either the result either of John De Lorean’s psychological flaws or as confirming the supposed limitations of activist industrial policy. However, when the episode is examined in greater historical detail, neither of these interpretations are compelling. The reinterpretation outlined here draws on institutional analysis as well as a range of archival sources, much of it previously unreleased. The inefficiencies within the original contractual agreement are highlighted. The lack of credibility associated with this agreement was in turn traceable to the institutional environment (with its associated risk-reward implications) under which industrial policy operated. This environment had a political element - it had been distorted by the Troubles and the resulting fears policymakers had of a cumulative causation relationship between violence and unemployment. Officials in Belfast, against Treasury opposition, advocated state-led entrepreneurship as a policy response.