The political identities of neighbourhood planning in England

The rise of neighbourhood planning has been characterised as another step in a remorseless de-politicisation of the public sphere. A policy initiated by the Coalition Government in England to create the conditions for local communities to support housing growth, neighbourhood planning appears to evidence a continuing retreat from political debate and contestation. Clear boundaries are established for the holistic integration of participatory democracy into the strategic plan-making of the local authority. These boundaries seek to take politics out of development decisions and exclude all issues of contention from discussion. They achieve this goal at the cost of arming participatory democracy with a collective identity around which new antagonisms may develop. Drawing on the post-political theories of Chantal Mouffe this paper identifies the return of antagonism and conflict to participation in spatial planning. Key to its argument is the concept of the boundary or frontier that in Mouffe’s theoretical framework institutionalises conflict between political entities. Drawing on primary research with neighbourhood development plans in England the paper explores how boundary conditions and boundary designations generate antagonism and necessitate political action. The paper charts the development of the collective identities that result from these boundary lines and argues for the potential for neighbourhood planning to restore political conflict to the politics of housing development

Exploring the spatial variation in the fertilizer-nitrogen requirement of wheat within fields

The fertilizer-nitrogen (N) requirement for wheat grown in the UK varies from field to field. Differences in the soil type, climate and cropping history result in differences in (i) the crops’ demands for N, (ii) the supply of N from the soil (SNS) and (iii) the recovery of the fertilizer by the crops. These three components generally form the basis of systems for N recommendation. Three field experiments were set out to investigate the variation of the N requirement for wheat within fields and to explore the importance of variation in the crops’ demands for N, SNS and fertilizer recovery in explaining the differences in the economic optima for N. The N optima were found to vary by >100 kg N/ha at two of the sites. At the other site, the yield response to N was small. Yields at the optimum rate of N varied spatially by c. 4 t/ha at each site. Soil N supply, which was estimated by the unfertilized crops’ harvested N, varied spatially by 120, 75 and 60 kg/ha in the three experiments. Fertilizer recovery varied spatially from 30% to >100% at each of the sites. There were clear relationships between the SNS and the N optima at all the three sites. The expected relationship between the crop's demand for N and N optima was evident at only one of the three sites. There was no consistent relationship between the N recovery and the N optima. A consistent relationship emerged, however, between the optimal yield and SNS; areas with a greater yield potential tending to also supply more N from the soil. This moderated the expected effect of the SNS and the crop's demand for N on the N optima

A rare case of gingival metastases from papillary thyroid carcinoma

Metastatic oral malignancy accounts for 1% of all oral cancers. Oral soft tissue involvement is rare and accounts for less than 0.1% of all oral tumours with the attached gingiva being the commonest site affected. We present the first reported case of a papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) with sarcomatoid transformation giving rise to gingival metastasis. A 71 year old man with a history of PTC presented with an asymptomatic gingival swelling adjacent to his lower right lateral incisor. Subsequent biopsy of the lesion confirmed PTC metastasis with aggressive sarcomatoid features. We present a clinical photograph of the gingival swelling and the pathology images demonstrating both the papillary and sarcomatoid features of the gingival biopsy. The prognosis of PTC is usually excellent but some histological variants of PTC behave more aggressively. The histology in our case demonstrated solid areas and sarcomatoid transformation and behaved far more aggressively than typical PTC. Sarcomatoid transformation in PTC has not been previously described and indicates a poor prognosis and the need for planning urgent palliation. These lesions can present a diagnostic challenge to both pathologists and clinicians in identifying the lesion as metastatic and locating the primary cancer. This case demonstrates the need for vigilance amongst health professionals when presented with an oral soft tissue mass in patients with a known primary malignancy. This may be the first evidence of disseminated disease and emphasises a low threshold to biopsy oral soft tissue lesions in patients with a history of malignant disease

Letter re: Comparison of acetabular and femoral morphologies on hip, pelvic, and lumbar radiographs (Yun et al.)

YesWe read with interest the recent article by Yun et al. [1] comparing acetabular and hip measurements across pelvis, hip and lumbar spine radiographs. The authors assert that lumbar radiographs can be utilised in place of routine pelvis radiographs for these measurements. The example lumbar spine radiograph (figure 2) appears to be an abdominal image, with a contrast urogram. Indeed, standard texts [2,3] confirm that the anteroposterior lumbar spine radiograph should not include any coverage of the hips as appropriate collimation should limit the anatomy to T12 superiorly, lower sacrum inferiorly and the sacroiliac joints laterally, which would exclude the hip joints. Thus assessing any hip measurements on an appropriately collimated lumbar spine radiograph should not be possible. This is further compounded by the description of the centring point within their study (iliac crest), which varies from the internationally recognised standard of lower costal margin/L3 [2,3]

Laparoscopic Heminephrectomy of a Horseshoe Kidney

These authors suggest that laparoscopic heminephrectomy is a feasible option in the surgical management of diseases of the horseshoe kidney and can be performed safely using a transperitoneal or retroperitoneal approach