The Researcher as Change Agent

This paper examines the challenges facing researchers working on projects with industry. There has been considerable previous investigation into the need for academic research to have more impact, particularly for industry. Community action research (CAR) examines how practitioners, consultants, and researchers can work together to create new knowledge. However, research has shown that CAR is difficult due to fragmentation within the knowledge creating system. This paper examines how fragmentation can occur from the experience of a researcher working on a large-scale longitudinal change project over three and a half years. The results identify ten lessons learned and five recommendations for improving the capacity of researchers to have impact as change agents within a CAR group.     

A high-resolution map of human evolutionary constraint using 29 mammals

The comparison of related genomes has emerged as a powerful lens for genome interpretation. Here we report the sequencing and comparative analysis of 29 eutherian genomes. We confirm that at least 5.5% of the human genome has undergone purifying selection, and locate constrained elements covering ～4.2% of the genome. We use evolutionary signatures and comparisons with experimental data sets to suggest candidate functions for ～60% of constrained bases. These elements reveal a small number of new coding exons, candidate stop codon readthrough events and over 10,000 regions of overlapping synonymous constraint within protein-coding exons. We find 220 candidate RNA structural families, and nearly a million elements overlapping potential promoter, enhancer and insulator regions. We report specific amino acid residues that have undergone positive selection, 280,000 non-coding elements exapted from mobile elements and more than 1,000 primate- and human-accelerated elements. Overlap with disease-associated variants indicates that our findings will be relevant for studies of human biology, health and disease.     

Correction to: Knowledge Sharing: What Works and What Doesn’t Work: A Critical Systems Thinking Perspective

Systemic Practice and Action Research - The article missed to include the article Acknowledgment that should be written as follows.     

The 2011 Census: a proposed design for England and Wales

This article sets out the proposed design for a 2011 Census in England and Wales, as part of the ONS's proposed future population statistics system. The design draws on experiences from the 2001 Census and changes in available technology, and takes account of the many comments received from respondents to a Discussion Paper published in October 2003 and of views expressed at a joint ONS/RSS Conference on 11-12 November 2003. The article highlights the statistical and operational strategic aims for the 2011 Census, the major changes proposed from the 2001 approach, and gives an indication of the benefits and risks. It is important to note that this design remains a proposal at present, the elements of which will be subject to further research building on comments received during consultation and a detailed testing programme over the coming years.