Regulation of ribosomal RNA expression across the lifespan is fine-tuned by maternal diet before implantation

Cells and organisms respond to nutrient deprivation by decreasing global rates of transcription, translation and DNA replication. To what extent such changes can be reversed is largely unknown. We examined the effect of maternal dietary restriction on RNA synthesis in the offspring. Low protein diet fed either throughout gestation or for the preimplantation period alone reduced cellular RNA content across fetal somatic tissues during challenge and increased it beyond controls in fetal and adult tissues after challenge release. Changes in transcription of ribosomal RNA, the major component of cellular RNA, were responsible for this phenotype as evidenced by matching alterations in RNA polymerase I density and DNA methylation at ribosomal DNA loci. Cellular levels of the ribosomal transcription factor Rrn3 mirrored the rRNA expression pattern. In cell culture experiments, Rrn3 overexpression reduced rDNA methylation and increased rRNA expression; the converse occurred after inhibition of Rrn3 activity. These observations define novel mechanism where poor nutrition before implantation irreversibly alters basal rates of rRNA transcription thereafter in a process mediated by rDNA methylation and Rrn3 factor.

The kernel is in the least core for permutation games

Permutation games are totally balanced transferable utility cooperative games arising from certain sequencing and re-assignment optimization problems. It is known that for permutation games the bargaining set and the core coincide, consequently, the kernel is a subset of the core. We prove that for permutation games the kernel is contained in the least core, even if the latter is a lower dimensional subset of the core. By means of a 5-player permutation game we demonstrate that, in sense of the lexicographic center procedure leading to the nucleolus, this inclusion result can not be strengthened. Our 5-player permutation game is also an example (of minimum size) for a game with a non-convex kernel.

‘The past was never simply there to begin with and the future is not simply what will unfold’ : a posthumanist performative approach to qualitative longitudinal research

Peer reviewed

Fuel poverty in the UK : Is there a difference between rural and urban areas?

Date of Acceptance: 28/08/2015 Deborah Roberts acknowledges the support of funding from the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS). We would like to thank the reviewers and editor for their valuable comments. All usual caveat apply.

‘The past was never simply there to begin with and the future is not simply what will unfold’ : a posthumanist performative approach to qualitative longitudinal research

Peer reviewed

Fuel poverty in the UK : Is there a difference between rural and urban areas?

Date of Acceptance: 28/08/2015 Deborah Roberts acknowledges the support of funding from the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS). We would like to thank the reviewers and editor for their valuable comments. All usual caveat apply.

‘The past was never simply there to begin with and the future is not simply what will unfold’ : a posthumanist performative approach to qualitative longitudinal research

Peer reviewed

Two devices, each of which measure water velocity; on the right is an acoustic device that is permanently maintained at Gumbo Limbo by PI Rene Price; on the left is a 3D camera with a long fiberoptic lens, deployed for testing purposes by collaborator Evan Variano.

http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/fce_lter_photos/1303/thumbnail.jpg

The Conversation: Why leaving the euro is back on the agenda in the Greek election

Greece leaving the euro is old news. Since the former Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, agreed to a third bailout in July, the perception of Grexit as an immediate threat has subsided – or at least disappeared from commentary. Nonetheless, while appetite for Grexit outside Greece has abated, the traumatic seven months of wrangling over its bailout with Europe produced a significant domestic demand for a return to the national currency.

The R2P is Dead, Long Live the R2P: The Successful Separation of Military Intervention from the Responsibility to Protect’

Roland Paris is one of those authors whose work is always enjoyable, as he exploits so well the gap between the policy world and academia. His best work reveals a high level of policy insight often before many of his colleagues in academia have caught up. His secret is an ability to analyse the shifting understandings at policy level and to then articulate them in academic terms as if critiquing current policies. This enables his work to be both popular with policy-makers and with their erstwhile critics in academia. His 2004 monograph, At War’s End, captured the shift from peacekeeping intervention and ‘early exit’ to the extended remits of international statebuilding (‘Institutionalization before Liberalization’). It provided a wonderful rationalisation of policy shifts that had already occurred in the late 1990s, starting with the extension of international mandates in Bosnia, from 1996 onwards, and further developed with the Kosovo protectorate in 1999. However, this shift was skilfully reposed as a critique of existing policy-understandings.

The Game is On! The Adventure of the Girl with the Light Blue Hair

The Game is On! is a series of short animated films that put copyright and creativity under the magnifying glass of Sherlock Holmes, providing a unique, research-led and open access resource for school-aged learners and other creative users of copyright. Drawing inspiration from well-known copyright and public domain work, as well as recent copyright litigation, these films provide a springboard for exploring key principles and ideas underpinning copyright law, creativity, and the limits of lawful appropriation and reuse.

Each episode comes accompanied by a number of related Case Files: supplementary educational materials aimed at suggesting points of discussion about copyright for teachers and students.

The Game is On! The Adventure of the Six Detectives

The Game is On! is a series of short animated films that put copyright and creativity under the magnifying glass of Sherlock Holmes, providing a unique, research-led and open access resource for school-aged learners and other creative users of copyright. Drawing inspiration from well-known copyright and public domain work, as well as recent copyright litigation, these films provide a springboard for exploring key principles and ideas underpinning copyright law, creativity, and the limits of lawful appropriation and reuse.

Each episode comes accompanied by a number of related Case Files: supplementary educational materials aimed at suggesting points of discussion about copyright for teachers and students.

When the total is more than the sum of parts : infrastructure complementarities

Este trabajo muestra evidencia sobre la complementariedad en la infraestructura y la magnitud de sus impactos en los indicadores sociales de hogares peruanos (nivel de ingresos, los gastos y la capacidad de ahorro). Con el fin de probar la hipótesis, se evalúa el impacto para tener acceso a cada uno de los servicios básicos en las variables que reflejan las condiciones de los hogares peruanos. El conjunto de datos consiste en la información obtenida a partir de la Encuesta Nacional de Hogares (ENAHO) para 2006 y 2013, con el objetivo de la comparación de los efectos entre los beneficiarios de la infraestructura y no beneficiarios, y utilizando metodologías como la propensión a juego Score al emparejar las doble diferencias. Los variables de infraestructura obtenidos a partir de la ENAHO son el acceso al agua de los hogares, saneamiento, electricidad y telecomunicaciones. Los resultados demuestran efectos positivos en los aspectos complementarios de infraestructura para los hogares peruanos, en el sentido que beneficia de tener más utilidades de juntas (2, 3 o 4) son ventajas individuales de la recapitulación mayor que de cada utilidad