Presbyterian Religion, Historiography and Ulster Scots Identity, c. 1800 to 1914

The links between Presbyterians in Scotland and the north of Ireland are obvious but have been largely ignored by historians of the nineteenth century. This article addresses this gap by showing how Ulster Presbyterians considered their relationship with their Scottish co-religionists and how they used the interplay of religious and ethnic considerations this entailed to articulate an Ulster Scots identity. For Presbyterians in Ireland, their Scottish origins and identity represented a collection of ideas that could be deployed at certain times for specific reasons – theological orthodoxy, civil and religious liberty, and certain character traits such as hard work, courage, and soberness. Ideas about the Scottish identity of Presbyterianism were reawakened for a more general audience in the first half of the nineteenth century, during the campaign for religious reform and revival within the Irish church, and were expressed through a distinctive denominational historiography inaugurated by James Seaton Reid. The formulation of a coherent narrative of Presbyterian religion and the improvement of Ulster laid the religious foundations of a distinct Ulster Scots identity and its utilization by unionist opponents of Home Rule between 1885 and 1914.

Accounting and business students' approaches to learning: A longitudinal study

This study reports the results of an investigation into the learning approaches of undergraduate accounting and business students from three universities in Ireland who were exposed to a learning environment, namely the case study method, which aimed to encourage a deep approach to learning. In order to assess the effectiveness of the intervention, the ASSIST research instrument was used to investigate changes in students’ approaches to learning over time. Consistent with previous research, this study considers whether gender is related to students’ approaches to learning over time and if there are differences between students majoring in accounting or business in their approaches to learning. The results of the study indicate that the case study intervention was successful in some respects. However, contrary to expectations, an overall statistically significant increase in students’ surface approach to learning was found. Additionally, it is reported that changes in students’ approaches to learning over time are not associated with gender or degree program. The results of this study offer insights to accounting educators developing educational interventions to encourage deep approaches to learning.

A Bacterial Enrichment Study and Overview of the Extractable Lipids from Paleosols in the Dry Valleys, Antarctica: Implications for Future Mars Reconnaissance

The Dry Valleys of Antarctica are one of the coldest and driest environments on Earth with paleosols in selected areas that date to the emplacement of tills by warm-based ice during the Early Miocene. Cited as an analogue to the martian surface, the ability of the Antarctic environment to support microbial life-forms is a matter of special interest, particularly with the upcoming NASA/ESA 2018 ExoMars mission. Lipid biomarkers were extracted and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to assess sources of organic carbon and evaluate the contribution of microbial species to the organic matter of the paleosols. Paleosol samples from the ice-free Dry Valleys were also subsampled and cultivated in a growth medium from which DNA was extracted with the explicit purpose of the positive identification of bacteria. Several species of bacteria were grown in solution and the genus identified. A similar match of the data to sequenced DNA showed that Alphaproteobacteria, Gamma-proteobacteria, Bacteriodetes, and Actinobacteridae species were cultivated. The results confirm the presence of bacteria within some paleosols, but no assumptions have been made with regard to in situ activity at present. These results underscore the need not only to further investigate Dry Valley cryosols but also to develop reconnaissance strategies to determine whether such likely Earth-like environments on the Red Planet also contain life.

Blood pressure and TNF-α act synergistically to increase leucocyte CD11b adhesion molecule expression in the BELFAST study: implications for better blood pressure control in ageing

Hypertension, a key risk factor for stroke, cardiovascular disease and dementia, is associated with chronic vascular inflammation, and although poorly understood, putative mechanisms include proinflammatory responses induced by mechanical stretching, with cytokine release and associated upregulated expression of adhesion molecules. Because blood pressure increases with age, we measured baseline and tumour necrosis alpha (TNF-a)-stimulated CD11b/CD18 adhesion molecule expression on leucocytes to assess any association between the two. In 38 subjects (mean age 85 years), consecutively enrolled from Belfast Elderly Longitudinal Free-Living Aging Study (BELFAST), baseline and TNF-a-stimulated CD11b/CD18 expression on separated monocytes and neutrophils increased with systolic blood pressure >120 mmHg (p=0.05) and for lymphocytes, with diastolic blood pressure >80 mmHg (p<0.05).These findings show increased potential stickiness of intravascular cells with increasing blood pressure which is accentuated by TNF-a, and suggest mechanistic reasons why better hypertension control is important. 

Genetic susceptibility to invasive meningococcal disease: MBL2 structural polymorphisms revisited in a large case–control study and a systematic review

Invasive infection caused by Neisseria meningitidis is a worldwide public health problem. Previous reports have indicated that carriage of common ‘defective’ structural polymorphisms of the host mannose-binding lectin gene (MBL2) greatly increases an individual’s risk of developing the disease. We report the largest case–control study so far to investigate the effect of these polymorphisms in meningococcal disease (296 PCR-positive cases and 5196 population controls, all of European ancestry) and demonstrate that no change in risk is associated with the polymorphisms overall or in any age-defined subgroup. This finding contrasts with two smaller studies that reported an increase in risk. A systematic review of all studies of MBL2 polymorphisms in people of European ancestry published since 1999, including 24 693 individuals, revealed a population frequency of the combined ‘defective’MBL2 allele of 0.230 (95% confidence limits: 0.226–0.234). The past reported associations of increased risk of meningococcal disease were because of low ‘defective’ allele frequencies in their study control populations (0.13 and 0.04) that indicate systematic problems with the studies. The data from our study and all other available evidence indicate that MBL2 structural polymorphisms do not predispose children or adults to invasive meningococcal disease.

Genetic susceptibility to invasive meningococcal disease: MBL2 structural polymorphisms revisited in a large case-control study and a systematic review.

AbstractInvasive infection caused by Neisseria meningitidis is a worldwide public health problem. Previous reports have indicated that carriage of common 'defective' structural polymorphisms of the host mannose-binding lectin gene (MBL2) greatly increases an individual's risk of developing the disease. We report the largest case-control study so far to investigate the effect of these polymorphisms in meningococcal disease (296 PCR-positive cases and 5196 population controls, all of European ancestry) and demonstrate that no change in risk is associated with the polymorphisms overall or in any age-defined subgroup. This finding contrasts with two smaller studies that reported an increase in risk. A systematic review of all studies of MBL2 polymorphisms in people of European ancestry published since 1999, including 24 693 individuals, revealed a population frequency of the combined 'defective'MBL2 allele of 0.230 (95% confidence limits: 0.226-0.234). The past reported associations of increased risk of meningococcal disease were because of low 'defective' allele frequencies in their study control populations (0.13 and 0.04) that indicate systematic problems with the studies. The data from our study and all other available evidence indicate that MBL2 structural polymorphisms do not predispose children or adults to invasive meningococcal disease.

Cold-formed steel sections with web openings subjected to web crippling under two-flange loading conditions - Part II: Parametric study and proposed design equations

A parametric study of cold-formed steel sections with web openings subjected to web crippling was undertaken using finite element analysis, to investigate the effects of web holes and cross-section sizes on the web crippling strengths of channel sections subjected to web crippling under both interior-two-flange (ITF) and end-two-flange (ETF) loading conditions. In both loading conditions, the hole was centred beneath the bearing plate. It was demonstrated that the main factors influencing the web crippling strength are the ratio of the hole depth to the flat depth of the web, and the ratio of the length of bearing plates to the flat depth of the web. In this paper, design recommendations in the form of web crippling strength reduction factors are proposed, that are conservative to both the experimental and finite element results.