On 8th June 2015, Sir Tum Hunt made a comment in reference to women in science which has generated much debate. In response to this a group of 11 alumni of Clare College, Cambridge, at which Tim Hunt is a member of the Honorary Fellowship, sent this letter to the College on 23rd June 2015.

A document by Daniel Lakens. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Suresh Rewar. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Björn Brembs. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Pranita Pradeep Dharmadhikari. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Suresh Rewar. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Suresh Rewar. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Stuart Lawson. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Virani Paras. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Virani Paras. Click on the document to view its contents.

Simple, fast and reliable spectrophotometric methods were developed for determination of Ampicillin Trihydrate in bulk and pharmaceutical dosage forms. The solutions of standard and the sample were prepared in double Methanol. The quantitative determination of the drug was carried out using the zero order derivative values measured at 205 nm and the area under the curve method values measured at 202-207 nm. Calibration graphs constructed at their wavelengths of determination were linear in the concentration range of Ampicillin Trihydrate using 5-25 μg/ml (r²=0.999 and r²=0.999) for zero order and area under the curve spectrophotometric method. All the proposed methods have been extensively validated as per ICH guidelines. There was no significant difference between the performance of the proposed methods regarding the mean values and standard deviations. Developed spectrophotometric methods in this study are simple, accurate, precise and sensitive to assay of Ampicillin Trihydrate in tablets.

A document by Björn Brembs. Click on the document to view its contents.

The term cytokeratin was first used in late 1970s by Franke et al. They can be defined as proteins of keratin containing intermediate filaments found in the intracytoplasmic cytoskeleton of epithelial tissue. Within epithelial cells CK filament functions as components of the cytoskeleton and cell contacts. They have been widely used for the detection of different malignant and premalignant disorders. Over 32000 published articles exist in the biomedical research literature that used the term cytokeratin. The aim of this article to review the uses and method of detection of cytokeratins in diagnosis.

A document by Henry Rzepa. Click on the document to view its contents.

Intraclass correlation (ICC) is one of the most commonly misused indicators of interrater reliability, but a simple step-by-step process will get it right.  In this article, I provide a brief review of reliability theory and interrater reliability, followed by a set of practical guidelines for the calculation of ICC in SPSS.

Upon re-examination of large telomere datasets from healthy human populations, a downward secular trend in telomere length at birth was found. The authors theorized that relatively recent environmental stresses to female germ cells could have driven the observed intergenerational telomere erosion; otherwise, these trends would have pushed populations into pathological telomere length ranges within a few centuries. Strangely, the authors decided to disregard an 11-year-old theory of telomere-driven macroevolution that is based on progressive intergenerational telomere loss as the driving force behind species extinction and speciation. Additionally, Holohan and colleagues introduced a “new” interpretation of the old-father-long-telomered-offspring effect, namely as a consequence of intergenerational telomere erosion in the female lineage. Yet, an identical theoretical model has been published twice, several years before. To distinguish between a temporary trend caused by environmental pollution and a general evolutionary mechanism of intergenerational telomere erosion, we urgently need telomere length data from multigenerational studies on mammals with a short generation-time.

A document by Yannick Wurm. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Henry Rzepa. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Dorothy Bishop. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by The Winnower. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Dennis Mangan. Click on the document to view its contents.

Background Autophagy is central to health, and a decline in autophagy from the youthful, healthy state correlates with disease and aging. Among the diseases in which a decline in autophagy is prominent are neurological and neuroimmune disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Psychiatric disorders are characterized almost universally by increased inflammation and oxidative stress, which are negatively related to levels of autophagy. Treatments designed to restore or increase autophagy may have efficacy in psychiatric disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. Findings Recent research has found that many psychoactive drugs in several different classes, such as anti-psychotics, tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and lithium, strongly promote autophagy in neurons. Other diverse interventions, such as rapamycin, trehalose, and exercise, have been shown to have antidepressant effects in animals and sometimes in humans. Most drugs used in other areas of medicine do not activate autophagy. The case is made in this paper that autophagy may play a central role in the mechanism of action of these drugs and interventions through direct effects on autophagy as well as concomitant lowering of levels of inflammation and oxidative stress. Conclusions Many drugs used in the treatment of psychiatric illnesses activate autophagy, and this may be their central mechanism of action, which lends new insight into the pathogenesis of mental illness and to potential new therapies for them.

This document contains my comments to the National Institutes of Health Request for Information on “Sustaining the Biomedical Workforce and a Potential Emeritus Award for Senior Researchers”, as submitted on March 6th 2015. I also discuss some of the recent news surrounding the RFI, including the low rate of response to the RFI, and attempts to increase response and open discourse on the topics by publishing responses openly.

I present a checklist of acquisition parameters for inclusion in the methods section of an fMRI paper. The current list expands and updates the list that was given in the 2008 paper from Poldrack et al. (I have reproduced below the section on acquisition that appeared in that 2008 paper.) The emphasis is on fMRI experiments that use 1.5 to 3 T scanners with standard hardware available today, but the list should work reasonably well for 7 T experiments as well. I further assume that fMRI is performed with 2D multi-slice EPI or spiral scanning and uses BOLD contrast, but parameter reporting for 3D sequences and other k-space trajectories as well as non-BOLD contrast should be feasible. The first full version of the checklist, version 1.1, was presented in January, 2013. Version 1.2 was released in December, 2014. This version is denoted 1.3 and will be the final series 1.x release. Release notes for this version appear below. The checklist was initially developed based on my experience with Siemens scanners but I have attempted to use generic descriptions as far as possible. Version 2.0 is planned for the end of 2015 and will include vendor-specific nomenclature under each parameter.