The world bank was set up in 1944. In the aftermath of the second world war, the institution was there to give loans to countries rebuilding after the conflict. Their first loan went to France - but with stipulations about repayment that set a tone for future funds. A new series, authored by Devi Sridhar, and her team from the University of...

The world bank was set up in 1944. In the aftermath of the second world war, the institution was there to give loans to countries rebuilding after the conflict. Their first loan went to France - but with stipulations about repayment that set a tone for future funds. A new series, authored by Devi Sridhar, and her team from the University of...

The world bank was set up in 1944. In the aftermath of the second world war, the institution was there to give loans to countries rebuilding after the conflict. Their first loan went to France - but with stipulations about repayment that set a tone for future funds. A new series, authored by Devi Sridhar, and her team from the University of...

Winter pressures on NHS services have kicked in a little bit earlier than usual. So here to discuss that, and also the issue of how local NHS leaders can support staff in times of extreme pressure. Discussing that with Rebecca Coombes, The BMJ’s head of news and views, are Matthew Inada-Kim, a consultant in acute and general medicine at...

Bobbie Farsides is professor of clinical and biomedical ethics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. She’s been described as one of the few people that is acceptable to “both sides” of the assisted dying debate. This week she joins us to talk about the way in which the debate on euthanasia has played out in the UK - and hear why she thinks it’s...

Terence Stephenson is a consultant paediatrician who became been chair of the General Medical Council in 2015. His 4 year tenure has now come to an end, but during his time with the regulator the medical profession faced a number of challenges - the case of Hadiza Bawa Garba and a growing recruitment crisis in the NHS - the GMC is the...

Nicole Stott is an engineer, aquanaut and one of the 220 astronauts to have lived and worked on the International Space Station. In a confined space, under huge pressure, with no way out, it's important that teams maintain healthy dynamics, and individuals can manage their stress adequately, and in this podcast Nicole explains a little about...

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros recently said “Since it came into force 13 years ago, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control remains one of the world’s most powerful tools for promoting public health,”. But is it? That’s what a to studies just published on bmj.com try and investigate - one of which pulls together all the data we have on...

Fertility awareness based methods of contraception are increasingly being used for pregnancy prevention. In the US, the proportion of contraceptive users who choose such methods has grown from 1% in 2008 to approximately 3% in 2014.  Relative to other methods of pregnancy prevention, however, substantial misinformation exists around fertility...

Cochrane Austria have been asking the public what they'd like to know about health. Not whether the latest drug is more efficacious, but whether glacier stone power cures hangovers. Gerald Gartlehner, director of the Cochrane Austria Centre joins us to explain what they do, and how their evidence has been received. Read more about the project...

We're taking a break from the usual Talk Evidence to focus on the new corona virus that has emerged in China. With a brand new disease, we have to build our evidence base from scratch - basic virology, epidemiology, pathogenicity, transmissibility, and ultimately treatment are all unknowns. In this episode of Talk Evidence, we're trying to get...

For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic. There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing. We're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you...

Joachim Spranger
Mar 1, 2003; 52:812-817
Pathophysiology

J. Denis McGarry
Jan 1, 2002; 51:7-18
Banting Lecture 2001

The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial Research Group
Aug 1, 1995; 44:968-983
Original Article

Night shift work, behavioral rhythms, and the common MTNR1B risk single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs10830963, associate with type 2 diabetes; however, whether they exert joint effects to exacerbate type 2 diabetes risk is unknown. Among employed participants of European ancestry in the UK Biobank (N = 189,488), we aimed to test the cross-sectional independent associations and joint interaction effects of these risk factors on odds of type 2 diabetes (n = 5,042 cases) and HbA_1c levels (n = 175,156). Current shift work, definite morning or evening preference, and MTNR1B rs10830963 risk allele associated with type 2 diabetes and HbA_1c levels. The effect of rs10830963 was not modified by shift work schedules. While marginal evidence of interaction between self-reported morningness-eveningness preference and rs10830963 on risk of type 2 diabetes was seen, this interaction did not persist when analysis was expanded to include all participants regardless of employment status and when accelerometer-derived sleep midpoint was used as an objective measure of morningness-eveningness preference. Our findings suggest that MTNR1B risk allele carriers who carry out shift work or have more extreme morningness-eveningness preference may not have enhanced risk of type 2 diabetes.

Latoya Rose used the last $3,000 she had to invest in 26 baby chicks and feed with the hope of turning a profit after they matured. Last Friday, as the Spaldings resident went to her coop to feed the chickens, they were all gone. “When I don’t see...

Days after The Gleaner reported a clarion call from Port Maria Mayor Richard Creary for the quarantine of St Mary communities owing to growing concerns about the spread of COVID-19 in the parish, the Government responded with the lockdown of three...

It was a double whammy of inconvenience for Sharon Carter, a vendor in Metcalfe Market, Annotto Bay. Carter, who lives in St Catherine, had just recently been relieved of the lockdown in the parish and is now being affected by the quarantine which...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Thirty three Trinidad and Tobago nationals who have been stranded in Barbados since March 23 are scheduled to return home on Tuesday. It’s reported that early Tuesday, National Security Minister...

WASHINGTON, CMC – The World Bank has predicted the sharpest decline of remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean, saying that global remittances on a whole are projected to fall by about 20 percent in 2020 due to the economic crisis...

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has announced a phased reopening of government and business operations, ending a mandatory 24-hour lockdown imposed on April 3 amid the global coronavirus pandemic. The phased reopening will begin on...

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC – The St Vincent and the Grenadines Government has denied a United States-based airline permission to land, dashing hopes that an estimated 300 nationals employed with a US-based cruise line would have arrived home...

Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) mimetics are effective drugs for treatment of type 2 diabetes, and there is consequently extensive interest in increasing endogenous GLP-1 secretion and L-cell abundance. Here we identify G-protein–coupled bile acid receptor 1 (GPBAR1) as a selective regulator of intestinal L-cell differentiation. Lithocholic acid and the synthetic GPBAR1 agonist, L3740, selectively increased L-cell density in mouse and human intestinal organoids and elevated GLP-1 secretory capacity. L3740 induced expression of Gcg and transcription factors Ngn3 and NeuroD1. L3740 also increased the L-cell number and GLP-1 levels and improved glucose tolerance in vivo. Further mechanistic examination revealed that the effect of L3740 on L cells required intact GLP-1 receptor and serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 4 (5-HT4) signaling. Importantly, serotonin signaling through 5-HT4 mimicked the effects of L3740, acting downstream of GLP-1. Thus, GPBAR1 agonists and other powerful GLP-1 secretagogues facilitate L-cell differentiation through a paracrine GLP-1–dependent and serotonin-mediated mechanism.

All 30 Major League teams will wear special "MLB 150" patches on their uniforms for the entire 2019 season in honor of the 150th anniversary of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly all-salaried professional baseball team.

Unlike recent Reds Spring Trainings, much of the drama about who would comprise the rotation was already removed on the first day of camp. That's when manager David Bell revealed the starting five would likely be -- in no particular order -- Sonny Gray, Tanner Roark, Alex Wood, Luis Castillo and Anthony DeSclafani.

Utility player and Rule 5 selection Connor Joe has been working with the catchers since Reds Spring Training opened. What makes that a little more interesting is that Joe has never caught a game professionally.

The next five weeks will see lots of shuffling on Major League rosters. Here are the most intriguing positional battles on each of the 30 MLB clubs.

THE EDITOR, Madam: On May 5, 2020, at about 8:40 a.m., I went completely berserk, telling two staff members of the Bank of Nova Scotia from the Liguanea branch some proper Jamaica vernaculars, long like the Holland Bamboo. I was astonished by my...

She’s what you’d term the consummate creative – through the sensory ‘dry land tourist’ tales of her ‘Right Roun Di Corna’ blog to the pieces in her JadeLauren eyewear brand, Lauren Campbell is colouring the world with beauty, life, and bomb...

The engaging storyline and realness of the characters in Barbara Jenkins’ De Rightest Place makes it a book you breeze through in a matter of days. Set mainly in and around a bar called De Rightest Place, in the environs of a working-class...

Reduced storage of dietary fatty acids (DFAs) in abdominal adipose tissues with enhanced cardiac partitioning has been shown in subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and prediabetes. We measured DFA metabolism and organ partitioning using positron emission tomography with oral and intravenous long-chain fatty acid and glucose tracers during a standard liquid meal in 12 obese subjects with T2D before and 8–12 days after bariatric surgery (sleeve gastrectomy or sleeve gastrectomy and biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch). Bariatric surgery reduced cardiac DFA uptake from a median (standard uptake value [SUV]) 1.75 (interquartile range 1.39–2.57) before to 1.09 (1.04–1.53) after surgery (P = 0.01) and systemic DFA spillover from 56.7 mmol before to 24.7 mmol over 6 h after meal intake after surgery (P = 0.01), with a significant increase in intra-abdominal adipose tissue DFA uptake from 0.15 (0.04–0.31] before to 0.49 (0.20–0.59) SUV after surgery (P = 0.008). Hepatic insulin resistance was significantly reduced in close association with increased DFA storage in intra-abdominal adipose tissues (r = –0.79, P = 0.05) and reduced DFA spillover (r = 0.76, P = 0.01). We conclude that bariatric surgery in subjects with T2D rapidly reduces cardiac DFA partitioning and hepatic insulin resistance at least in part through increased intra-abdominal DFA storage and reduced spillover.

19 December 2014

This research paper sets out recommendations for enhanced dialogue and intensified international cooperation that could significantly improve the functioning of global mineral markets.

Invitation Only Research Event

28 January 2016

How China responds to the challenges of resource security and sustainability, working with others, will help define its reputation as a responsible actor on the world stage in the next decade, according to a new paper.

• It is time to upgrade global resource governance
• Meaningful progress cannot be achieved without China
• China will need to be both innovative and pragmatic in its approach
• New modes of cooperation are needed
• Changes in China’s economy present opportunities and risks

Research Event

Event participants

Tom Butler, Chief Executive Officer, International Council for Mining and Metals (ICMM)
Evelyn Dietsche, Associate Fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources, Chatham House
Chair: Bernice Lee, Executive Director, Hoffman Centre, Chatham House 

27 June 2017

Policymakers must take action immediately to mitigate the risk of severe disruption at certain ports, maritime straits, and inland transport routes, which could have devastating knock-on effects for global food security.

• Trade chokepoints – maritime, coastal and inland – pose an underexplored and growing risk to global food security.
• Maritime chokepoints will become increasingly integral to meeting global food supply as population growth, shifting dietary preferences, bioenergy expansion and slowing improvements in crop yields drive up demand for imported grain.
• Rising trade volumes, increasing dependence on imports among food-deficit countries, underinvestment, weak governance, climate change and emerging disruptive hazards together make chokepoint disruptions – both small-scale and large-scale – increasingly likely.
• Climate change will have a compounding effect on chokepoint risk, increasing the probability of both isolated and multiple concurrent weather-induced disturbances.
• Investment in infrastructure lags demand growth: critical networks in major crop-producing regions are weak and ageing, and extra capacity is urgently needed. 

The Arizona Diamondbacks agreed to terms on a contract extension with manager Torey Lovullo on Tuesday.

The D-backs signed veteran free-agent reliever Greg Holland to a one-year contract on Thursday.

In an effort to help develop their players on and off the field, the D-backs have added a mental skills department to their baseball operations staff.

Hi Steve, wondering if this is a rebuild year?

The countdown to pitchers and catchers reporting is down to single digits for all 30 MLB clubs, but as exciting as it is to see the return of Major League stars, it's also a time to dream about the next wave of baseball talent.

Most Major League teams still use a five-man starting rotation, but it takes a lot more pitchers than that to make it through a 162-game season. It certainly helps to have a potent one-two punch at the top of the rotation.

Considering the players that get the big bucks often get most of the attention when they are signed and drafted, let's take some time to look at the other end of the spectrum. Here are the biggest steals on the Top 100 Prospects list.

When you think of the D-backs, what players spring to mind? Luis Gonzalez, Randy Johnson, Paul Goldschmidt and Matt Williams are probably some of the names that arise. But what names are familiar to baseball fans but might have even some D-backs fans saying, "He was a Diamondback?"

The D-backs will open their 22nd Spring Training on Feb. 13 when pitchers and catchers go through their first workout. Here is all you need to know to be ready for the action.

The D-backs will work to compete in 2019 while continuing to build up the farm system, which has some pitching at the top end with better position players at the lower levels.

With Greg Holland now signed, will he be the closer or is that still going to be Archie Bradley? Beat reporter Steve Gilbert answers this question and more from fans as Spring Training approaches.

There will be a lot of attention paid to D-backs infielder Jake Lamb when Spring Training gets underway. Lamb, of course, is coming off a season that was almost entirely lost to a left shoulder injury. His healthy return would play a big part in helping the D-backs' offense overcome the departures of Paul Goldschmidt and A.J. Pollock during the offseason.

As he walked around D-backs Fan Fest on Saturday afternoon at Salt River Fields, general manager Mike Hazen was pleasantly surprised to see the fan reaction as a record crowd of over 40,000 poured into the event.