An Overview of Leather Processing

A current watchword in the leather industry is sustainability, which may be defined in terms of the ecological impact, incorporating efficient and effective use of reagents and materials, and the present and future effective and efficient development of new collagenic biomaterials in an increasingly economically competitive global sector.Correct mechanisms in leather science and their understanding for application in leather technology are critical: current thinking developed over the last quarter of a century constitutes a shift in approach to leather science, yielding a new paradigm in leather technology. The result is a new way of ensuring that development strategies are likely to be predictably successful, unlike the inevitable outcome of the alternative, ‘trial and error’

Synovial Sarcoma: The Influence of Clinicopathological Variables on Overall Survival in a UK Population

Introduction Synovial sarcoma accounts for 5%-10% of malignant soft-tissue tumours. Curative treatment includes surgery, with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. With no specific treatment regimen for synovial sarcoma, the primary aim of this research was to describe the characteristics of a regional synovial sarcoma population in the UK, and to investigate clinicopathological variables associated with overall survival. MethodsNinety-four patients with synovial sarcoma from the East Midlands Sarcoma Service database were pseudo anonymised and clinicopathological variables extracted. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression statistical analyses were used to identify variables affecting overall survival. Results Mean age at diagnosis was 42 years (range 8 – 83 years). Over half (n=50, 53%) of patients had a tumour in the lower limb. Thirty-seven (39.6%) had a tumour size of <5cm. Sixteen (17%) patients had local recurrence, and under half (n=40 43.5%) developed metastatic disease. Most patients (n=63, 63%) were initially treated with surgery. The majority (n=58, 61.7%) had a monophasic subtype, and the overall survival of the whole cohort was 83 months (95% CI 39.1-127.8). Increasing tumour size and distant recurrence (metastasis) had a significantly negative impact on median overall survival (p = 0.0001). Patients who underwent surgery and radiotherapy had a significantly better median overall survival (p = 0.02). Multivariable analysis identified adjuvant radiotherapy (p = 0.039), lower limb tumour (p = 0.033), and tumour size (<5 cm p = 0.006, 5-10 cm p = 0.0001, >10 cm p = 0.013) as significant survival predictors. Conclusion Adjuvant radiotherapy is a novel independent prognostic marker for synovial sarcoma

Institutional Fiefdoms: The implementation of governance and new norms within an emerging strategic action field

As command economies transition toward economic liberalisation, the underdevelopment of market-supporting institutions often creates institutional voids at the microscale. Drawing on Fligstein and McAdam’s (2011) theory of strategic action fields, this paper examines the emergence of ‘Institutional Fiefdoms’: socially constructed spaces of collective action where incumbents, typically the state, rely on politically aware social actors to develop policy and provide governorship within these voids. The governance units within an institutional fiefdom are drawn from the challenger base of the strategic action field, moving into the middle position to influence and shape how the field evolves. Leveraging their social and political capital, they can design policy and processes that contradict state-held ideologies by positioning it appropriately within the legal-institutional context, and ensuring economic and political objectives are met. By developing support mechanisms that reinforce the structure and stability of the field, governance units can enforce desired behaviours among challengers, whilst maintaining their own central position and autonomy. Importantly, governance units can establish new institutional norms, influencing the wider state infrastructure, for example, through the creation of new laws. This paper is focused in two contexts, which have undergone economic liberalisation; rapidly, in the case of the Republic of Poland’s Shock Therapy, and gradually, in the case of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam’s Doi Moi. The paper focuses specifically on the changes that impacted the nonprofit sector, in particular, social enterprises. The findings contribute to our theoretical understanding of field governance mechanisms, as well as how governance units themselves emerge, operate, and express their agency. We position institutional fiefdoms as being defined by rule complexity, new or novel institutional norms being established, and the embedding of the field’s social order