Persistent and consistent poverty in the 1994 and 1995 waves of the European Community Household Panel Survey

This paper focuses on the mismatch between income and deprivation measures of poverty. Using the first two waves of the European Community Household Panel Survey, a measure of relative deprivation is constructed and the overlap between the relative income poor and relatively deprived is examined, There is very limited overlap with the lowest relative income threshold. The overlap increases as the income threshold is raised, but it remains true that less than half those below the 60 percent relative income line are among the most deprived. Relative deprivation is shown to be related to the persistence of income poverty, but also to a range of other resource and need factors. Income and deprivation measures each contain information that can profitably be employed to enhance our understanding of poverty and a range of other social phenomena. This is illustrated by the manner in which both income poverty and relative deprivation are associated with self-reported difficulty making ends meet.

Shock avoidance by discrimination learning in the shore crab (Carcinus maenas) is consistent with a key criterion for pain

Nociception allows for immediate reflex withdrawal whereas pain allows for longer-term protection via rapid learning. We examine here whether shore crabs placed within a brightly lit chamber learn to avoid one of two dark shelters when that shelter consistently results in shock. Crabs were randomly selected to receive shock or not prior to making their first choice and were tested again over 10 trials. Those that received shock in trial 2, irrespective of shock in trial 1, were more likely to switch shelter choice in the next trial and thus showed rapid discrimination. During trial 1, many crabs emerged from the shock shelter and an increasing proportion emerged in later trials, thus avoiding shock by entering a normally avoided light area. In a final test we switched distinctive visual stimuli positioned above each shelter and/or changed the orientation of the crab when placed in the chamber for the test. The visual stimuli had no effect on choice, but crabs with altered orientation now selected the shock shelter, indicating that they had discriminated between the two shelters on the basis of movement direction. These data, and those of other recent experiments, are consistent with key criteria for pain experience and are broadly similar to those from vertebrate studies. © 2013. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Freshwater pearl mussels show plasticity of responses to different predation risks but also show consistent individual differences in responsiveness

Animals often show behavioural plasticity with respect to predation risk but also show behavioural syndromes in terms of consistency of responses to different stimuli. We examine these features in the freshwater pearl mussel. These bivalves often aggregate presumably to reduce predation risk to each individual. Predation risk, however, will be higher in the presence of predator cues. Here we use dimming light, vibration and touch as novel stimuli to examine the trade-off between motivation to feed and motivation to avoid predation. We present two experiments that each use three sequential novel stimuli to cause the mussels to close their valves and hence cease feeding. We find that mussels within a group showed shorter closure times than solitary mussels, consistent with decreased vulnerability to predation in group-living individuals. Mussels exposed to the odour of a predatory crayfish showed longer closures than control mussels, highlighting the predator assessment abilities of this species. However, individuals showed significant consistency in their closure responses across the trial series, in line with behavioural syndrome theory. Our results show that bivalves trade-off feeding and predator avoidance according to predation risk but the degree to which this is achieved is constrained by behavioural consistency. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

DRIFTS/MS/Isotopic Labeling Study on the NO-Moderated Decomposition of a Silica-Supported Nickel Nitrate Catalyst Precursor

In the preparation of silica-supported nickel oxide from nickel nitrate impregnation and drying, the replacement of the traditional air calcination step by a thermal treatment in 1% NO/Ar prevents agglomeration, resulting in highly dispersed NiO. The mechanism by which NO prevents agglomeration was investigated by using combined in situ diffuse reflectance infrared fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS). After impregnation and drying, a supported nickel hydroxynitrate phase with composition Ni(3)(NO(3))(2)(OH)(4) had been formed. Comparison of the evolution of the decomposition gases during the thermal decomposition of Ni(3)(NO(3))(2)(OH)(4) in labeled and unlabeled NO and O(2) revealed that NO scavenges oxygen radicals, forming NO(2). The DRIFT spectra revealed that the surface speciation evolved differently in the presence of NO as compared with in O(2) or Ar. It is proposed that oxygen scavenging by NO depletes the Ni(3)(NO(3))(2)(OH)(4) phase of nitrate groups, creating nucleation sites for the formation of NiO, which leads to very small (similar to 4 nm) NiO particles and prevents agglomeration.

A new method for non-labeling attomolar detection of diseases based on an individual gold nanorod immunosensor

Herein, we present the use of a single gold nanorod sensor for detection of diseases on an antibody-functionalized surface, based on antibody–antigen interaction and the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) ?max shifts of the resonant Rayleigh light scattering spectra. By replacing the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), a tightly packed self-assembled monolayer of HS(CH2)11(OCH2CH2)6OCH2COOH(OEG6) has been successfully formed on the gold nanorod surface prior to the LSPR sensing, leading to the successful fabrication of individual gold nanorod immunosensors. Using prostate specific antigen (PSA) as a protein biomarker, the lowest concentration experimentally detected was as low as 111 aM, corresponding to a 2.79 nm LSPR ?max shift. These results indicate that the detection platform is very sensitive and outperforms detection limits of commercial tests for PSA so far. Correlatively, its detection limit can be equally compared to the assays based on DNA biobarcodes. This study shows that a gold nanorod has been used as a single nanobiosensor to detect antigens for the first time; and the detection method based on the resonant Rayleigh scattering spectrum of individual gold nanorods enables a simple, label-free detection with ultrahigh sensitivity.

Food miles or carbon emissions? Exploring labeling preference for food transport footprint with a stated choice study

The ecological footprint of food transport can be communicated using carbon dioxide emissions (CO2 label) or by providing information about both the length of time and the mileage travelled (food miles label). We use stated choice data to estimate conventional unobserved taste heterogeneity models and extend them to a specification that also addresses attribute nonattendance. The implied posterior distributions of the marginal willingness to pay values are compared graphically and are used in validation regressions. We find strong bimodality of taste distribution as the emerging feature, with different groups of subjects having low and high valuations for these labels. The best fitting model shows that CO2 and food miles valuations are much correlated. CO2 valuations can be high even for those respondents expressing low valuations for food miles. However, the reverse is not true. Taken together, the results suggest that consumers tend to value the CO2 label at least as much and sometimes more than the food miles label.

Preface Writers Are Consistent

The preface paradox does not show that it can be rational to have inconsistent beliefs, because preface writers do not have inconsistent beliefs. I argue, first, that a fully satisfactory solution to the preface paradox would have it that the preface writer's beliefs are consistent. The case here is on basic intuitive grounds, not the consequence of a theory of rationality or of belief. Second, I point out that there is an independently motivated theory of belief--sensitivism--which allows such a solution. I sketch a sensitivist account of the preface writer's (consistent) doxastic state.

Consistent effects of consumer species loss across different habitats

Our knowledge of the effects of consumer species loss on ecosystem functioning is limited by a paucity of manipulative field studies, particularly those that incorporate inter-trophic effects. Further, given the ongoing transformation of natural habitats by anthropogenic activities, studies should assess the relative importance of biodiversity for ecosystem processes across different environmental contexts by including multiple habitat types. We tested the context-dependency of the effects of consumer species loss by conducting a 15-month field experiment in two habitats (mussel beds and rock pools) on a temperate rocky shore, focussing on the responses of algal assemblages following the single and combined removals of key gastropod grazers (Patella vulgata, P. ulyssiponensis, Littorina littorea and Gibbula umbilicalis). In both habitats, the removal of limpets resulted in a larger increase in macroalgal richness than that of either L. littorea or G. umbilicalis. Further, by the end of the study, macroalgal cover and richness were greater following the removal of multiple grazer species compared to single species removals. Despite substantial differences in physical properties and the structure of benthic assemblages between mussel beds and rock pools, the effects of grazer loss on macroalgal cover, richness, evenness and assemblage structure were remarkably consistent across both habitats. There was, however, a transient habitat-dependent effect of grazer removal on macroalgal assemblage structure that emerged after three months, which was replaced by non-interactive effects of grazer removal and habitat after 15 months. This study shows that the effects of the loss of key consumers may transcend large abiotic and biotic differences between habitats in rocky intertidal systems. While it is clear that consumer diversity is a primary driver of ecosystem functioning, determining its relative importance across multiple contexts is necessary to understand the consequences of consumer species loss against a background of environmental change.

Assembling a consistent set of sentences in relational probabilistic logic with stochastic independence

We examine the representation of judgements of stochastic independence in probabilistic logics. We focus on a relational logic where (i) judgements of stochastic independence are encoded by directed acyclic graphs, and (ii) probabilistic assessments are flexible in the sense that they are not required to specify a single probability measure. We discuss issues of knowledge representation and inference that arise from our particular combination of graphs, stochastic independence, logical formulas and probabilistic assessments.

OGLE-2013-SN-079: A Lonely Supernova Consistent with a Helium Shell Detonation

We present observational data for a peculiar supernova discovered by the OGLE-IV survey and followed by the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey for Transient Objects. The inferred redshift of z = 0.07 implies an absolute magnitude in the rest-frame I-band of M-1 similar to -17.6 mag. This places it in the luminosity range between normal Type Ia SNe and novae. Optical and near infrared spectroscopy reveal mostly Ti and Ca lines, and an unusually red color arising from strong depression of flux at rest wavelengths

Active site labeling of cysteine cathepsins by a straightforward diazomethylketone probe derived from the N-terminus of human cystatin C

We designed a straightforward biotinylated probe using the N-terminal substrate-like region of the inhibitory site of human cystatin C as a scaffold, linked to the thiol-specific reagent diazomethylketone group as a covalent warhead (i.e. Biot-(PEG)2-Ahx-LeuValGly-DMK). The irreversible activity-based probe bound readily to cysteine cathepsins B, L, S and K. Moreover affinity labeling is sensitive since active cathepsins were detected in the nM range using an ExtrAvidin®-peroxidase conjugate for disclosure. Biot-(PEG)2-Ahx-LeuValGly-DMK allowed a slightly more pronounced labeling for cathepsin S with a compelling second-order rate constant for association (kass = 2,320,000 M−1 s−1). Labeling of the active site is dose-dependent as observed using 6-cyclohexylamine-4-piperazinyl-1,3,5-triazine-2-carbonitrile, as competitive inhibitor of cathepsins. Finally we showed that Biot-(PEG)2-Ahx-LeuValGly-DMK may be a simple and convenient tool to label secreted and intracellular active cathepsins using a myelomonocytic cell line (THP-1 cells) as model.

Persistent donor chimaerism is consistent with disease-free survival following BMT for chronic myeloid leukaemia

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) can be treated successfully with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) leading to long-term disease-free survival. Leukemia relapse, however, remains a significant clinical problem. Relapse following BMT presumably results from the expansion of small numbers of recipient leukaemic cells which have survived the conditioning therapy. In order to define patients who are at a high risk of leukaemia relapse, a variety of techniques have been employed to detect persistence of host haemopoiesis (mixed chimaerism, MC) or residual leukaemia (minimal residual disease, MRD). However, the precise relationship between the detection of MC and MRD post-BMT is unknown. We have investigated chimaerism and MRD status in 22 patients who were in clinical and haematological remission post-allogeneic BMT for chronic phase CML. Chimaerism was assessed using short tandem repeat PCR (STR-PCR) while BCR-ABL mRNA detection using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to detect the presence of MRD. Seventeen patients received unmanipulated marrow (non-TCD) while in five patients a T cell-depleted transplant (TCD) was performed as additional GVHD prophylaxis. Chimaerism was evaluated in 18 patients (14 non-TCD, four TCD). Mixed chimaerism was an uncommon finding in recipients of unmanipulated BMT (21%) when compared to TCD BMT (100%). No evidence of MRD, as identified using the BCR-ABL mRNA RT-PCR assay, was detected in those patients who were donor chimaeras. Early and transient MC and MRD was detected in four patients (two non-TCD, two TCD) who have subsequently converted to a donor profile. One patient has stable low-level MC but remains MRD negative 4 years post-BMT. Late MC and MRD was observed in two patients who relapsed >6 years after TCD BMT for CML. We conclude that mixed chimaerism is a rare event in recipients of unmanipulated BMT and that donor chimaerism as detected by STR-PCR assay is consistent with disease-free survival and identifies patients with a low risk of leukaemic relapse post-BMT for CML.