Unfreezing the discursive hegemonies underpinning current versions of “social sustainability” in ECE policies in Anglo–Celtic, Nordic and Continental contexts

Social sustainability is linked to finding new ways of living together and strengthening social capital and participation, as well as to social justice and equity in societies, and it is becoming increasingly important for diverse multicultural societies. In this article, we trace understandings of social sustainability as established in Early Childhood Education (ECE) policy documents by following the chains of meaning connected to sense of belonging, local place and cultural diversity and through ECE collaboration with children’s parents/caregivers. Critical discourse analysis has been applied to trace the chains of meaning attached to these concepts in ECE steering documents in Australia, Croatia, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK (England, Scot-land, Wales and Northern Ireland). Such analysis shows different ways in which the ECE polices indirectly work with social sustainability, as well as create critical distance from the sets of meanings established in each country (by proving a chain of meaning established in the policy documents of another country). In conclusion, we do not advocate in favour of any of the chains of meaning but argue for continual reflection and reflexivity, and we see research to be a particularly significant arena in which to unfreeze the taken for granted and sustainable notion

Affinity chromatography in dynamic combinatorial libraries: one-pot amplification and isolation of a strongly binding receptor

We report the one-pot amplification and isolation of a nanomolar receptor in a multibuilding block aqueous dynamic combinatorial library using a polymer-bound template. By appropriate choice of a poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide)-based support, unselective ion-exchange type behaviour between the oppositely charged cationic guest and polyanionic hosts was overcome, such that the selective molecular recognition arising in aqueous solution reactions is manifest also in the analogous templated solid phase DCL syntheses. The ability of a polymer bound template to identify and isolate a synthetic receptor via dynamic combinatorial chemistry was not compromised by the large size of the library, consisting of well over 140 theoretical members, demonstrating the practical advantages of a polymer-supported DCL methodology

Stereochemical plasticity modulates cooperative binding in a CoII12L6 cuboctahedron

Biomolecular receptors are able to process information by responding differentially to combinations of chemical signals. Synthetic receptors that are likewise capable of multi-stimuli response can form the basis of programmable molecular systems, wherein specific input sequences create distinct outputs. Here we report a pseudo-cuboctahedral assembly capable of cooperatively binding anionic and neutral guest species. The binding of pairs of fullerene guests was observed to effect the all-or-nothing cooperative templation of an S6-symmetric host stereoisomer. This bis-fullerene adduct exhibits different cooperativity in binding pairs of anions from the fullerene-free parent: in one case, positive cooperativity is observed, while in another all binding affinities are enhanced by an order of magnitude, and in a third the binding events are only minimally perturbed. This intricate modulation of binding affinity, and thus cooperativity, renders our new cuboctahedral receptor attractive for incorporation into systems with complex, programmable responses to different sets of stimuli.This work was supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). F.J.R. acknowledges Cambridge Australia Scholarships and the Cambridge Trust for PhD funding

Primary treatments for clinically localised prostate cancer: a comprehensive lifetime cost-utility analysis.

UnlabelledWHAT'S KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT? AND WHAT DOES THE STUDY ADD?: Multiple treatment alternatives exist for localised prostate cancer, with few high-quality studies directly comparing their comparative effectiveness and costs. The present study is the most comprehensive cost-effectiveness analysis to date for localised prostate cancer, conducted with a lifetime horizon and accounting for survival, health-related quality-of-life, and cost impact of secondary treatments and other downstream events, as well as primary treatment choices. The analysis found minor differences, generally slightly favouring surgical methods, in quality-adjusted life years across treatment options. However, radiation therapy (RT) was consistently more expensive than surgery, and some alternatives, e.g. intensity-modulated RT for low-risk disease, were dominated - that is, both more expensive and less effective than competing alternatives.ObjectiveTo characterise the costs and outcomes associated with radical prostatectomy (open, laparoscopic, or robot-assisted) and radiation therapy (RT: dose-escalated three-dimensional conformal RT, intensity-modulated RT, brachytherapy, or combination), using a comprehensive, lifetime decision analytical model.Patients and methodsA Markov model was constructed to follow hypothetical men with low-, intermediate-, and high-risk prostate cancer over their lifetimes after primary treatment; probabilities of outcomes were based on an exhaustive literature search yielding 232 unique publications. In each Markov cycle, patients could have remission, recurrence, salvage treatment, metastasis, death from prostate cancer, and death from other causes. Utilities for each health state were determined, and disutilities were applied for complications and toxicities of treatment. Costs were determined from the USA payer perspective, with incorporation of patient costs in a sensitivity analysis.ResultsDifferences across treatments in quality-adjusted life years across methods were modest, ranging from 10.3 to 11.3 for low-risk patients, 9.6-10.5 for intermediate-risk patients and 7.8-9.3 for high-risk patients. There were no statistically significant differences among surgical methods, which tended to be more effective than RT methods, with the exception of combined external beam + brachytherapy for high-risk disease. RT methods were consistently more expensive than surgical methods; costs ranged from $19 901 (robot-assisted prostatectomy for low-risk disease) to$50 276 (combined RT for high-risk disease). These findings were robust to an extensive set of sensitivity analyses.ConclusionsOur analysis found small differences in outcomes and substantial differences in payer and patient costs across treatment alternatives. These findings may inform future policy discussions about strategies to improve efficiency of treatment selection for localised prostate cancer