The country house and the neoliberal society.

The English (or British) country house has enjoyed an under-appreciated social and economic revival in the last 25 years as a result of changes in the political economy associated with 'neoliberalism', which have benefitted both new buyers of country houses and old owners. One result of this revival has been the 're-privatization' of the country house, which has reduced its public profile. Recent interest in the cultural meanings of the country house-re-evaluated in light of empire, slavery, and nationalism-should take into account the greater insulation that neo-liberalism has lent these houses and their owners.

VPS26 Moonlights as a β-Arrestin-like Adapter for a 7-Transmembrane RGS Protein in .

Extracellular signals perceived by 7-transmembrane (7TM)-spanning receptors initiate desensitization that involves the removal of these receptors from the plasma membrane. Agonist binding often evokes phosphorylation in the flexible C-terminal region and/or intracellular loop 3 of many 7TM G-protein-coupled receptors in animal cells, which consequently recruits a cytoplasmic intermediate adaptor, β-arrestin, resulting in clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) and downstream signaling such as transcriptional changes. Some 7TM receptors undergo CME without recruiting β-arrestin, but it is not clear how.

Proteome- and Transcriptome-Wide Genetic Analysis Identifies Biological Pathways and Candidate Drug Targets for Preeclampsia.

Background: Preeclampsia is a leading cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. However, the current understanding of its underlying biological pathways remains limited.

Methods: In this study, we performed a cross-platform proteome- and transcriptome-wide genetic analysis aimed at evaluating the causal relevance of >2000 circulating proteins with preeclampsia, supported by data on the expression of over 15 000 genes across 36 tissues leveraging large-scale preeclampsia genetic association data from women of European ancestry.

Mechanical circulatory support in patients with congenital heart disease: a European Registry for Patients with Mechanical Circulatory Support (EUROMACS) study.

Objectives: This study aims to explore characteristics and clinical outcomes of patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) in the European Registry for Patients with Mechanical Circulatory Support (EUROMACS).

Methods: This is a retrospective study of EUROMACS participants receiving MCS as bridge-to-transplant, possible bridge-to-transplant, or rescue therapy/bridge-to-recovery from 2011 to 2023 (n = 5340). Adult and paediatric cohorts were analysed separately.

From covalent transition states in chemistry to noncovalent in biology: from to value analysis of protein folding.

Solving the mechanism of a chemical reaction requires determining the structures of all the ground states on the pathway and the elusive transition states linking them. 2024 is the centenary of Brønsted's landmark paper that introduced the -value and structure-activity studies as the only experimental means to infer the structures of transition states. It involves making systematic small changes in the covalent structure of the reactants and analysing changes in activation and equilibrium-free energies.

ERG Responses in Albinism, Idiopathic Infantile Nystagmus, and Controls.

Purpose: Our primary aim was to compare adult full-field ERG (ffERG) responses in albinism, idiopathic infantile nystagmus (IIN), and controls. A secondary aim was to investigate the effect of within-subject changes in nystagmus eye movements on ffERG responses.

Methods: Dilated Ganzfeld flash ffERG responses were recorded using DTL electrodes under conditions of dark (standard and dim flash) and light adaptation in 68 participants with albinism, 43 with IIN, and 24 controls.

Sex-specific lifetime risk of cardiovascular events: the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer-Norfolk prospective population cohort study.

Aims: Better understanding of sex differences in cardiovascular disease (CVD) is essential in tailoring appropriate preventative strategies. Using a large population-based study with follow-up >25 years, we aimed to determine sex-specific lifetime risks of incident CVD and cardiovascular (CV) mortality amongst populations with and without prevalent CVD.

Methods And Results: Participants were drawn from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer-Norfolk and followed up for a median of 26.

Suppression of innate immunity by the vaccinia virus protein N1 promotes skin microbiota expansion and increased immune infiltration following vaccination.

Vaccinia virus (VACV) protein N1 is an intracellular immunomodulator that contributes to virus virulence via inhibition of NF-κB. Intradermal infection with a VACV lacking gene (vΔN1) results in smaller skin lesions than infection with wild-type virus (WT VACV), but the impact of N1 deletion on the local microbiota as well as the innate and cellular immune responses in infected ear tissue is mostly uncharacterized. Here, we analysed the bacterial burden and host immune response at the site of infection and report that the presence of protein N1 correlated with enhanced expansion of skin microbiota, even before lesion development.

Body Fat Percentage and the Long-term Risk of Fractures. The EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Population Cohort Study.

Background: This cohort study aimed to determine the association between body fat percentage (BF%), incident fractures and calcaneal broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA).

Methods: Participants were drawn from the EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Population Cohort Study (median follow-up = 16.4 years).

Association between Legume Consumption and Risk of Hypertension in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Norfolk Cohort.

Hypertension is a significant and preventable cardiovascular disease risk factor. Growing evidence suggests legumes have blood-pressure (BP) lowering properties. However, there is little population-based research on legume intake and hypertension risk in Western populations.

Varsity Medical Ethics Debate 2019: is authoritarian government the route to good health outcomes?

Authoritarian governments are characterised by political systems with concentrated and centralised power. Healthcare is a critical component of any state. Given the powers of an authoritarian regime, we consider the opportunities they possess to derive good health outcomes.

"It's Like Stealing What Should be Theirs." An Exploration of the Experiences and Perspectives of Parents and Educational Practitioners on Hebrew-English Bilingualism for Jewish Autistic Children.

Parents of autistic children are routinely advised to raise them monolingually, despite potential negative effects of monolingualism and no evidence of harm from bilingualism. There is, however, limited research on this topic. This study explored experiences and perspectives of educational practitioners ('practitioners') and parents of Hebrew-English bilingual autistic children on bilingualism and monolingualism.

The Human, The Animal and the Prehistory of COVID-19.

In Asia, pangolins have generated a rich set of indigenous oral traditions. These contrast with the often confused, or failed, colonial and Western scientific practices of classifying, domesticating and collecting the pangolin. More recently this long-standing encounter between the pangolin and human has shifted into exponential killing.

Where myth and archaeology meet: Discovering the Gorgon Medusa's Lair.

Here we report the discovery of ceramic fragments that form part of a Gorgoneion, a ceramic image representation of the Gorgon Medusa. The fragments were found in a deep part of Gorham's Cave, well known to ancient mariners as a natural shrine, between the 8th and 2nd century BCE. We discuss the context of this discovery, both within the inner topography of the cave itself, and also the broader geographical context.

The Long Noncoding RNA RP11-728F11.4 Promotes Atherosclerosis.

Objective: Noncoding RNAs are emerging as important players in gene regulation and cardiovascular diseases. Their roles in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis are not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to determine the role played by a previously uncharacterized long noncoding RNA, RP11-728F11.

Do you need compassion to work in palliative medicine?

Compassion is deemed a "basic social emotion" (Nussbaum) and decreed a National Health Service core value-yet, what does 'compassion' really mean? Moreover, why is it so important, how can we deliver it best and how do we measure achievement here?This essay will argue that compassion stands apart from other forms of interpersonal engagement as a deeply human recognition of another's suffering which inherently motivates action to do something about this. There are two inextricable elements here: the role of suffering, and the resultant call to action it motivates.The role of compassion pivots on suffering, and thus, our interpretation of suffering and what we consider its upstream cause: the problem to be fixed.

A systematic review of patient access to medical records in the acute setting: practicalities, perspectives and ethical consequences.

Background: Internationally, patient access to notes is increasing. This has been driven by respect for patient autonomy, often recognised as a primary tenet of medical ethics: patients should be able to access their records to be fully engaged with their care. While research has been conducted on the impact of patient access to outpatient and primary care records and to patient portals, there is no such review looking at access to hospital medical records in real time, nor an ethical analysis of the issues involved in such a change in process.

The Conditional Probability of Vestibular Schwannoma Growth at Different Time Points After Initial Stability on an Observational Protocol.

Objective: The natural history of vestibular schwannomas (VS) is well documented in the literature, with tumour growth being paramount to decision making for both surveillance and treatment of these patients. Most previous studies refer to the risk of VS growth over a given period of time; however, this is not useful for counselling patients at different stages of their follow-up, as the risk of tumour growth is likely to be less following each subsequent year that a tumour does not grow. Accordingly, we investigated the conditional probability of VS growth at particular time-points, given a patient has not grown thus far.

The potential of brentuximab vedotin, alone or in combination with current clinical therapies, in the treatment of testicular germ cell tumors.

Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) are the commonest tumors in young men. With the advancement of chemotherapies, most TGCTs are successfully cured, even when diagnosed at an advanced and metastatic stage. However, a proportion of often young patients, median age 35-40, with advanced disease are not cured and will inevitably die.

Varsity medical ethics debate 2018: constant health monitoring - the advance of technology into healthcare.

The 2018 Varsity Medical Ethics debate convened upon the motion: "This house believes that the constant monitoring of our health does more harm than good". This annual debate between students from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge is now in its tenth year. This year's debate was hosted at the Oxford Union on 8th of February 2018, with Oxford winning for the Opposition, and was the catalyst for the collation and expansion of ideas in this paper.

Long-term patterns of body mass and stature evolution within the hominin lineage.

Body size is a central determinant of a species' biology and adaptive strategy, but the number of reliable estimates of hominin body mass and stature have been insufficient to determine long-term patterns and subtle interactions in these size components within our lineage. Here, we analyse 254 body mass and 204 stature estimates from a total of 311 hominin specimens dating from 4.4 Ma to the Holocene using multi-level chronological and taxonomic analytical categories.