Papers by Susan Macmillan
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009
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Geomagnetism data holdings at the World Data Centre for Geomagnetism (Edinburgh) include observat... more Geomagnetism data holdings at the World Data Centre for Geomagnetism (Edinburgh) include observatory minute, hourly and annual mean values and global magnetic survey and repeat station data. Until 2007 the observatory minute and hourly mean value holdings were maintained by the Danish Meteorological Institute. We describe the quality control procedures developed at the British Geological Survey for application to new and legacy data. A number of issues raised for the legacy observatory hourly mean values result from formatting and typographical mistakes. The clearly obvious mistakes are being corrected in the WDC data that are made available at www.wdc.bgs.ac.uk. Whilst these quality control procedures have been mostly developed with the application of global modelling in mind, they will have benefits for all users of the data. Some examples of corrections are given.
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Geomagnetic observatory data dates back more than 150 years. However, since the advent of digital... more Geomagnetic observatory data dates back more than 150 years. However, since the advent of digital recordings in the 1960s these data have become increasingly separated from their associated metadata. Traditionally, information about an observatory?s instrumentation, data processing history, quality control methods, environment, housing, staffing etc. where noted annually in observatory yearbooks. Whilst many observatories still produce these documents many no longer record metadata in this way. In addition, subsequent changes made to datasets and then submitted to World Data Centres (WDC), have not been well documented leading to discrepancies between different data centres. Furthermore, known issues with particular datasets cannot be highlighted for current or future researchers as there are limited metadata held with or within digital data files. This paper describes the current efforts by the WDC for Geomagnetism, Edinburgh, to improve its holdings with these vital metadata. We d...
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Using geomagnetic data submitted to the World Data Centre (WDC) for Geomagnetism in Edinburgh (pa... more Using geomagnetic data submitted to the World Data Centre (WDC) for Geomagnetism in Edinburgh (part of the ICSU World Data System) we have undertaken two campaigns to identify potential measurement problems which may have an impact on the outcome of subsequent scientific analyses. The first campaign concerned the detailed checking of observatory hourly means, initially focussing on the satellite era (late 1990s onwards), but latterly going back in time to the earliest values in the 1880s. Particular attention is paid to identifying steps, spikes and drifts and the emphasis is on deriving multi-year series of geomagnetic field measurements uncontaminated by these measurement artefacts. For the satellite era residuals to hourly models fitted to the observatory data were examined in detail. The second campaign concerned the preliminary checking of observatory minute means, in particular detecting large spikes in the data by annual global coherence tests. These may have a strong effect ...
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Earth, Planets and Space, 2015
ABSTRACT
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Molecular and cellular biology, 1997
Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3 (eIF3) in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae comprises... more Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3 (eIF3) in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae comprises about eight polypeptides and plays a central role in the binding of methionyl-tRNAi and mRNA to the 40S ribosomal subunit. The fourth largest subunit, eIF3-p39, was gel purified, and a 12-amino-acid tryptic peptide was sequenced, enabling the cloning of the TIF34 gene. TIF34 encodes a 38,753-Da protein that corresponds to eIF3-p39 in size and antigenicity. Disruption of TIF34 is lethal, and depletion of eIF3-p39 by glucose repression of TIF34 expressed from a GAL promoter results in cessation of cell growth. As eIF3-p39 levels fall, polysomes become smaller, indicating a role for eIF3-p39 in the initiation phase of protein synthesis. Unexpectedly, depletion results in degradation of all of the subunit proteins of eIF3 at a rate much faster than the normal turnover rates of these proteins. eIF3-p39 has 46% sequence identity with the p36 subunit of human eIF3. Both proteins are members of...
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Animal Frontiers, 2012
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Scottish medical journal, 2014
To review the presentation and outcome of patients with Langerhans cell histiocytosis attending T... more To review the presentation and outcome of patients with Langerhans cell histiocytosis attending The Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow over a 23-year period. Thirty-one children were diagnosed with Langerhans cell histiocytosis between January 1990 and December 2012. Retrospective information from medical records was gathered on age at diagnosis, presenting symptoms, classification of disease, treatment and long-term outcome. There were 17 boys and 14 girls; median age at diagnosis 2 years 9 months (interquartile range: 1 year 6 months to 4 years 4 months). Eleven were below 2 years and two were below 6 months of age at diagnosis. Eighteen (58%) children had single system disease of which four were multifocal; 13 (42%) had multisystem disease. Seventeen children improved with conservative treatment. Fourteen required steroids and dual agent chemotherapy; three required further chemotherapy. One child died. Two children had successfully treated relapses. Ten developed diabetes...
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Eos Trans. AGU, 2004
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009
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Preventive Medicine, 2011
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Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2000
To compare early feeding with traditional postoperative dietary management for development of pos... more To compare early feeding with traditional postoperative dietary management for development of postoperative gastrointestinal symptoms, including ileus after major gynecologic surgery for benign conditions. Women who had major gynecologic surgery for benign conditions were randomly allocated to early feeding of low residue diets 6 hours postoperatively or traditional dietary management of clear liquids with normal bowel sounds, and regular diet with passage of flatus. Demographic and perioperative data were collected, and patients answered questionnaires on their perception of bowel function and pain using the McGill Pain Scale. Power analysis found that 130 women were needed to find a twofold greater incidence of ileus in the early feeding group with 80% power and alpha =.05. Complete data were available for 139 women, 67 allocated to the early feeding group and 72 to the late feeding group. The incidence of postoperative ileus for the study population was 4.4% and did not differ between groups (early 3% versus late 5. 8%, P =.68). There were no differences in patient demographics, surgical procedures, anesthesia used, and intraoperative complications between groups. With the exception of more complaints of nausea in the late feeding group (23% versus 13%, P =.04), there were no differences in other postoperative variables, including other perioperative complications, pain medicine requirements, fluid and caloric intake, median pain scores, and gastrointestinal function. The low incidence of perioperative complications made the power to detect differences between groups low. Low residue diet 6 hours after major gynecologic surgery for benign indications was not associated with increased postoperative gastrointestinal complaints, including ileus.
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Molecular Microbiology, 2002
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Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care, 2000
This pilot study set out to determine the feasibility of using patient-collected vulval swabs, in... more This pilot study set out to determine the feasibility of using patient-collected vulval swabs, instead of urine, for the diagnosis of female Chlamydia trachomatis infection. Main outcome measures included prevalence of infection and sensitivity, specificity, and acceptability of both test methods. An assessment was also made of those who declined to be tested. Consecutive women under 25 years of age attending a single urban family planning clinic were invited to participate. Sixty-eight percent (103/152) agreed to undergo testing. Overall prevalence was 11.7%. The sensitivity/specificity for the ligase chain reaction (LCR) assayed patient-collected vulval swabs and urine was 100%/100% and 92%/100%, respectively. The acceptability of self-collection was high with 93% characterising the test as 'not bad', 79% recommending it to a friend, and 79% choosing the test next time. Significantly more women, however, would choose urine for testing on a subsequent occasion (p < 0.001). Less than 1/5 of the patients who declined did not take part because of concerns regarding the vulval swab. Patient-collected vulval swabs assayed by LCR represent a non-invasive, sensitive, and acceptable way to detect genital C. trachomatis infection in women attending a family planning clinic. Compared with urine testing, benefits in terms of transport and processing should encourage more widespread use of this approach.
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Journal of Bacteriology, 2005
The AbsA1 sensor kinase and its cognate response regulator AbsA2 are important regulators of anti... more The AbsA1 sensor kinase and its cognate response regulator AbsA2 are important regulators of antibiotic synthesis in Streptomyces coelicolor. While certain point mutations in absA1 reduce or eliminate the synthesis of several antibiotics, null mutations in these genes bring about enhanced antibiotic synthesis. We show here that AbsA1, which is unusual in sequence and structure, is both an AbsA2 kinase and an AbsA2 approximately P phosphatase. The half-life of AbsA2 approximately P in solution is 68.6 min, consistent with a role in maintaining a relatively stable state of transcriptional repression or activation. We find that mutations in the absA locus that enhance antibiotic synthesis impair AbsA2 kinase activity and that mutations that repress antibiotic synthesis impair AbsA2 approximately P phosphatase activity. These results support a model in which the phosphorylation state of AbsA2 is determined by the balance of the kinase and phosphatase activities of AbsA1 and where AbsA2 approximately P represses antibiotic biosynthetic genes either directly or indirectly.
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Human Reproduction, 1999
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FEBS Letters, 1998
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European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 2003
To compare four methods of screening women for Chlamydia trachomatis in an obstetrics and gynaeco... more To compare four methods of screening women for Chlamydia trachomatis in an obstetrics and gynaecology department. A total of 303 healthy women under 25 years were recruited from antenatal, induced abortion, and family planning clinics. Each underwent parallel testing of endocervical specimens by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and ligase chain reaction (LCR), vulval swabs by LCR, and urine by LCR. Outcome measures included sensitivity, specificity, acceptability of each method, and the influence of pregnancy. Overall prevalence (95% CI) was 9.9% (6.8-14%). All methods had a high rate of detection (75-100%), not affected by pregnancy. Urine was most acceptable, followed by vulval swabbing. Opportunistic screening of women under 25 years attending obstetric and gynaecology affiliated clinics found high rates of C. trachomatis infection. Both urine and vulval swab methods were highly sensitive, acceptable, and not affected by pregnancy status. Due to pragmatic issues surrounding the urine method, screening by vulval swabs deserves wider recognition.
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Earth, Planets and Space, 2013
ABSTRACT Magnetic field models are produced on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) by an in... more ABSTRACT Magnetic field models are produced on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) by an independent scientific consortium known as the Swarm Satellite Constellation Application and Research Facility (SCARF), through the Level 2 Processor (L2PS). The consortium primarily produces magnetic field models for the core, lithosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere. Typically, for each magnetic product, two magnetic field models are produced in separate chains using complementary data selection and processing techniques. Hence, the magnetic field models from the complementary processing chains will be similar but not identical. The final step in the overall L2PS therefore involves inspection and validation of the magnetic field models against each other and against data from (semi-) independent sources (e.g. ground observatories). We describe the validation steps for each magnetic field product and the comparison against independent datasets, and we show examples of the output of the validation. In addition, the L2PS also produces a daily set of `Quick Look' output graphics and statistics to monitor the overall quality of Level 1b data issued by ESA. We describe the outputs of the `Quick Look' chain.
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BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 2004
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Papers by Susan Macmillan