•We update calculations of population- and energy-related “doomsdays” from Von Hoerner (1975).•Current trends show “doomsdays” related to a population singularity or agricultural limitations may not ...occur.•“Doomsdays” may occur due to greenhouse gas emissions by 2300, and/or direct heating by 2300–2400.•Using ∼1016–1017 W may raise Earth’s temperature by 12 K or require complete coverage by solar collectors by ∼2400•If this also applies to extraterrestrial civilizations, it may support the “sustainability solution” to the Fermi Paradox.
Von Hoerner (“Population Explosion and Interstellar Expansion,” Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 28, 691–712, 1975; hereafter VH75) examined the effects of human population growth and predicted agricultural, environmental, and other problems from observed growth rate trends. Using straightforward calculations, VH75 predicted the “doomsday” years for these scenarios (≈2020–2050), when we as a species should run out of space or food, or induce catastrophic anthropogenic climate change through thermodynamically unavoidable direct heating of the planet. Now that over four decades have passed, in this paper we update VH75. We perform similar calculations as that work, with improved data and trends in population growth, food production, energy use, and climate change. For many of the impacts noted in VH75 our work amounts to pushing the “doomsday” horizon back to the 2300 s–2400 s (or much further for population-driven interstellar colonization). This is largely attributable to using worldwide data that exhibit smaller growth rates of population and energy use in the last few decades. While population-related catastrophes appear less likely than in VH75, our continued growth in energy use provides insight into possible future issues. We find that, if historic trends continue, direct heating of the Earth will be a substantial contributor to climate change by ≈2260, regardless of the energy source used, coincident with our transition to a Kardashev type-I civilization. We also determine that either an increase of Earth’s global mean temperature of ≈12 K will occur or an unreasonably high fraction of the planet will need to be covered by solar collectors by ∼2400 to keep pace with our growth in energy use. We further discuss the implications in terms of interstellar expansion, the transition to type II and III civilizations, SETI, and the Fermi Paradox. We conclude that the “sustainability solution” to the Fermi Paradox is a compelling possibility.
Background Several challenges threaten the traditional premise of graduated independence in general surgery training, leading to a lack of readiness in graduating surgeons. The objective of this ...study was to determine the factors contributing to faculty decisions to grant residents autonomy in the operating room, the barriers to granting this autonomy, and the factors that facilitate entrustment. Study Design An anonymous online survey was distributed to 239 attending surgeons at 7 institutions. Questions consisted of open-ended and structured 5-point Likert scale questions. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and a qualitative analysis of free-text responses was performed to identify emergent themes. Results There were 116 attending surgeons who responded to the survey (49%). Factors most important to increasing resident responsibility and autonomy in the operating room were the resident's observed clinical skill and the attending surgeon's confidence level with the operation. Factors believed to prevent awarding graduated responsibility and autonomy in the operating room included an increased focus on patient outcomes, a desire to increase efficiency and finish operations earlier, and expectations of attending surgeon involvement by the hospital and patients. Among themes discerned in faculty responses to an open-ended question about the greatest challenges in graduate surgical education, 47% of faculty identified work-hour regulations/time restrictions. Fourteen percent pointed to a change to a shift-work mentality and decreased ownership of responsibility for patients by residents; 13% described a lack of resident autonomy due to increased supervision requirements. Conclusions This study identified several factors that attending surgeons report as significant limitations to transitioning autonomy to surgical residents in the operating room. These issues must be addressed in a direct manner if progressive graduated responsibility to independence is to occur in the next era of graduate surgical training.
► A clinically significant change in behaviour was found with an average increase of 0.8 servings. ► The TPB was found to significantly predict fruit and vegetable consumption. ► However, behaviour ...change was not predicted by TPB.
This study evaluated the efficacy of a theory of planned behaviour (TPB) based intervention to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. The extent to which fruit and vegetable consumption and change in intake could be explained by the TPB was also examined. Participants were randomly assigned to two levels of intervention frequency matched for intervention content (low frequency n=92, high frequency n=102). Participants received TPB-based email messages designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, messages targeted attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control (PBC). Baseline and post-intervention measures of TPB variables and behaviour were collected. Across the entire study cohort, fruit and vegetable consumption increased by 0.83 servings/day between baseline and follow-up. Intention, attitude, subjective norm and PBC also increased (p<.05). The TPB successfully modelled fruit and vegetable consumption at both time points but not behaviour change. The increase of fruit and vegetable consumption is a promising preliminary finding for those primarily interested in increasing fruit and vegetable consumption. However, those interested in theory development may have concerns about the use of this model to explain behaviour change in this context. More high quality experimental tests of the theory are needed to confirm this result.
Germline mutations of the BRCA1 gene account for approximately 5% of breast and ovarian cancer cases, and lower than normal BRCA1 expression or function may be an important contributing factor in ...sporadic cancers. The major role of BRCA1 is to respond to DNA damage by participating in cellular pathways for DNA repair, mRNA transcription, cell cycle regulation, and protein ubiquitination. Because most chemotherapeutic agents function by directly or indirectly damaging DNA, the role of BRCA1 as a regulator of chemotherapy-induced DNA damage has been the subject of an increasing number of investigations. We review published preclinical and clinical evidence that the level of BRCA1 function in an individual patient's tumor can guide the choice of chemotherapeutic agents for breast and ovarian cancer. We conclude that a loss of BRCA1 function is associated with sensitivity to DNA-damaging chemotherapy and may also be associated with resistance to spindle poisons. We recommend that prospective clinical studies investigating the role of BRCA1 in the response to chemotherapy be conducted.
We motivate the G infrared search for extraterrestrial civilizations with large energy supplies. We discuss some philosophical difficulties of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), and ...how communication SETI circumvents them. We review "Dysonian SETI," the search for artifacts of alien civilizations, and find that it is highly complementary to traditional communication SETI; the two together might succeed where either one alone has not. We discuss the argument of Hart that spacefaring life in the Milky Way should be either galaxy-spanning or non-existent, and examine a portion of his argument that we call the "monocultural fallacy." We discuss some rebuttals to Hart that invoke sustainability and predict long Galaxy colonization timescales. We find that the maximum Galaxy colonization timescale is actually much shorter than previous work has found (< 10 super(9) yr), and that many "sustainability" counter-arguments to Hart's thesis suffer from the monocultural fallacy. We extend Hart's argument to alien energy supplies and argue that detectably large energy supplies can plausibly be expected to exist because life has the potential for exponential growth until checked by resources or other limitations, and intelligence implies the ability to overcome such limitations. As such, if Hart's thesis is correct, then searches for large alien civilizations in other galaxies may be fruitful; if it is incorrect, then searches for civilizations within the Milky Way are more likely to succeed than Hart argued. We review some past Dysonian SETI efforts and discuss the promise of new mid-infrared surveys, such as that of WISE.
Early Growth Response 1 (EGR1) is a stress response transcription factor with multiple tumour suppressor roles in breast tissue, whose expression is often lost in breast cancers. We have previously ...shown that the breast cancer oncogene TBX2 (T-BOX2) interacts with EGR1 to co-repress EGR1-target genes including the breast tumour suppressor NDRG1. Here, we show the mechanistic basis of this TBX2 repression complex. We show that siRNA knockdown of TBX2, EGR1, Heterochromatin Protein 1 (HP1) isoforms and the generic HP1-associated corepressor protein KAP1 all resulted in growth inhibition of TBX2-expressing breast cancer cells. We show that TBX2 interacts with HP1 through a conserved HP1-binding motif in its N-terminus, which in turn leads to the recruitment of KAP1 and other associated proteins. Mutation of the TBX2 HP1 binding domain abrogates the TBX2-HP1 interaction and loss of repression of target genes such as NDRG1. Chromatin-immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays showed that TBX2 establishes a repressive chromatin mark, specifically H3K9me3, around the NDRG1 proximal promoter coincident with the recruitment of the DNA methyltransferase DNMT3B and histone methyltransferase (HMT) complex components (G9A, Enhancer of Zeste 2 (EZH2) and Suppressor of Zeste 12 (SUZ12)). Knockdown of G9A, EZH2 or SUZ12 resulted in upregulation of TBX2/EGR1 co-regulated targets accompanied by a dramatic inhibition of cell proliferation. We show that a generic inhibitor of HMT activity, DzNep, phenocopies expression of an inducible dominant negative TBX2. Knockdown of TBX2, KAP1 or HP1 inhibited NDRG1 promoter decoration specifically with the H3K9me3 repression mark. Correspondingly, treatment with a G9A inhibitor effectively reversed TBX2 repression of NDRG1 and synergistically downregulated cell proliferation following TBX2 functional inhibition. These data demonstrate that TBX2 promotes suppression of normal growth control mechanisms through recruitment of a large repression complex to EGR1-responsive promoters leading to the uncontrolled proliferation of breast cancer cells.
The exact functions of BRCA1 have not been fully described but it now seems apparent that it has roles in DNA damage repair, transcriptional regulation, cell cycle control and most recently in ...ubiquitylation. These functions of BRCA1 are most likely interdependent but this review will focus on the role of BRCA1 in relation to transcriptional regulation and in particular how this impacts upon cell cycle control. We will (i) describe the structure of BRCA1 and how it may contribute to its transcription function; (ii) describe the interaction of BRCA1 with the core transcriptional machinery (RNA polII); (iii) describe how BRCA1 may regulate transcription at an epigenetic level through chromatin modification; (iv) discuss the role of BRCA1 in modulating transcription through its association with sequence-specific transcription factors. Finally, we will discuss the possible effects of BRCA1 transcriptional regulation on downstream targets with known roles in cell cycle control.
Summary
Background
A gluten‐free diet treats coeliac disease, but its efficacy depends on strict adherence. A variety of patient factors may influence adherence but have not been well described at a ...population level.
Aim
To comprehensively assess the patient factors that influence gluten‐free diet adherence in patients with coeliac disease.
Methods
Patients with coeliac disease completed an online survey comprising the validated Celiac Dietary Adherence Test in addition to data on demographics, details of diagnosis and management and assessment of diet knowledge, quality of life and psychological distress. Survey data were analysed for predictors of adherence and quality of life.
Results
Of 7393 responses, 5310 completed the Celiac Dietary Adherence Test and 3230 (61%) were adherent to a gluten‐free diet. Multivariate regression showed older age, being male, symptoms after gluten ingestion, better food knowledge and lower risk of psychological distress were independent predictors of adherence (each P ≤ 0.008). Additionally, dietary adherence was associated with better quality of life (P < 0.001; multiple regression). Respondents who considered themselves to have poor food knowledge were more likely to incorrectly identify gluten‐free foods, but could still recognise gluten‐containing foods, suggesting that poor knowledge may lead to over‐restriction of diet.
Conclusions
Poor knowledge of a gluten‐free diet and psychological wellbeing were independent modifiable risk factors for inadequate adherence to a gluten‐free diet in patients with coeliac disease. Involvement of both a dietitian and mental health care professional, in the presence of psychological distress, is likely to be necessary to improve adherence and health outcomes.
Linked ContentThis article is linked to Swift and Woodward paper. To view this article visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.14830.
The objective of this experiment was to compare the pork quality of entire male pigs and pigs immunized against GnRF (IC males) at both light (64.8kg) and heavy (106kg) liveweights and two feeding ...regimes (restricted at 2.5 times maintenance and ad libitum). There was no difference in objective measurements (P>0.05) or eating pork quality (P>0.1) between entire male and IC males. Fail rates were reduced by 9.1% and 12% for pork from IC males for quality grade (P=0.007) and re-purchase intention (P=0.001), respectively, compared to pork from entire males. Skatole (P=0.001) and androstenone (P<0.001) levels in belly fat were higher in entire male than IC male pigs. In addition, 37.5% of the light entire male pigs fed ad libitum showed skatole levels that exceeded the sensory threshold of 0.2μg/g. This work confirms that immunization against GnRF is effective in eliminating boar taint and reducing pork quality fail rates by approximately 10% compared to pork from entire males.
•Immunocastration reduced pork eating quality fail rates by approximately 10% compared to entire males.•Boar taint is still an issue at light slaughter weights (<72kg liveweight).•Immunocastration is effective at eliminating boar taint at all liveweights.
Purpose: The current study uses an extended version of the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) to predict food safety behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach: Two hundred and fifty-nine participants ...completed a questionnaire assessing variables of HAPA as well as additional predictors including: risk awareness, outcome expectancy, action self-efficacy, subjective norm, social support, past behaviour, and intention. One week later, participants returned a follow up questionnaire measuring their planning, maintenance self-efficacy, recovery self-efficacy, social support and behaviour. Regressions were utilised to predict variances in intention, planning and behaviour.
Findings: The original HAPA model predicted 30.8% of the variance in intention and 17% of the variance in behaviour, confirming the suitability of the HAPA to predict food safety behaviour. The HAPA constructs also predicted 17.2% of variance in planning. The extended version of the model significantly increased the proportion of variance explained to 54.3% and 38.8% of variance in intention and behaviour respectively.
Research limitations/implications: The HAPA was able to predict intention and behaviour comparably to other studies. The additional variables revealed intention to adopt food safety behaviours is partially dependent on parents of individuals, and behaviour is habitual in nature, explaining the low predictive power of planning.
Practical implications: The current study sheds light on the behaviour and suggests possible ways to design interventions. Interventions should focus on the habitual nature of the behaviour, thus implementing new correct habits.
Originality/value: This study aimed to bolster the lack of studies using the HAPA to model food safety behaviour. This study also aimed to include additional variables into HAPA to increase the amount of predicted variance in intention and behaviour.
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