A brave new world for voluntary sector infrastructure? Vouchers, markets and demand led capacity building

Frontline voluntary and community organisations are often argued to need capacity building support of various kinds, but, in a context of austerity, how should this be organised and funded? Policy makers and many funders are rethinking the ways in which such support might be delivered. There is increasing interest in ‘demand-led’ capacity building, where frontline organisations choose and purchase the support they require from a range of providers. In what seems to be a far cry from previous models of support during the ‘golden age’ of infrastructure investment, a market for capacity building looks like it is in the making. However we know very little about how this extending market is being constructed and how it works. This paper is the outcome of a short piece of applied research on three ‘demand-led’ capacity building initiatives in practice: the BIG Assist programme, and local schemes in Sheffield and Worcestershire. It considers the challenges involved in designing the architecture for an emerging market in capacity building, and for working within it. Although the three schemes are clearly a departure from existing models of infrastructure support, the study concludes by questioning whether ‘demand-led capacity building’ is an appropriate label given the opaque but important role played by funders and programme operators in the capacity building process

Injury-Dependent and Disability-Specific Lumbar Spinal Gene Regulation following Sciatic Nerve Injury in the Rat

Allodynia, hyperalgesia and spontaneous pain are cardinal sensory signs of neuropathic pain. Clinically, many neuropathic pain patients experience affective-motivational state changes, including reduced familial and social interactions, decreased motivation, anhedonia and depression which are severely debilitating. In earlier studies we have shown that sciatic nerve chronic constriction injury (CCI) disrupts social interactions, sleep-wake-cycle and endocrine function in one third of rats, a subgroup reliably identified six days after injury. CCI consistently produces allodynia and hyperalgesia, the intensity of which was unrelated either to the altered social interactions, sleep-wake-cycle or endocrine changes. This decoupling of the sensory consequences of nerve injury from the affective-motivational changes is reported in both animal experiments and human clinical data. The sensory changes triggered by CCI are mediated primarily by functional changes in the lumbar dorsal horn, however, whether lumbar spinal changes may drive different affective-motivational states has never been considered. In these studies, we used microarrays to identify the unique transcriptomes of rats with altered social behaviours following sciatic CCI to determine whether specific patterns of lumbar spinal adaptations characterised this subgroup. Rats underwent CCI and on the basis of reductions in dominance behaviour in resident-intruder social interactions were categorised as having Pain & Disability, Pain & Transient Disability or Pain alone.We examined the lumbar spinal transcriptomes two and six days after CCI. Fifty-four ‘disability-specific’ genes were identified. Sixty-five percent were unique to Pain & Disability rats, two-thirds of which were associated with neurotransmission, inflammation and/or cellular stress. In contrast, 40% of genes differentially regulated in rats without disabilities were involved with more general homeostatic processes (cellular structure, transcription or translation). We suggest that these patterns of gene expression lead to either the expression of disability, or to resilience and recovery, by modifying local spinal circuitry at the origin of ascending supraspinal pathways

On Cas A, Cassini, comets, and King Charles

We re-examine the long-standing problem of the date of the Cassiopeia A supernova (SN), in view of recent claims that it might be the 1630 ‘noon-star’ seen at the birth of King Charles II. We do not support this identification, based on the expected brightness of a Type-IIb SN (too faint to be seen in daylight), the extrapolated motion of the ejecta (inconsistent with a date earlier than 1650), the lack of any scientific follow-up observations, the lack of any mention of it in Asian archives. The origin of the 1630 noon-star event (if real) remains a mystery; there was a bright comet in 1630 June but no evidence to determine whether or not it was visible in daylight. Instead, we present French reports about a fourth-magnitude star discovered by Cassini in Cassiopeia in or shortly before 1671, which was not seen before or since. The brightness is consistent with what we expect for the Cas A SN; the date is consistent with the extrapolated motion of the ejecta. We argue that this source could be the long-sought SN

A 6.3-h superhump in the cataclysmic variable TV Columbae: the longest yet seen

We present results from a two week multi-longitude photometric campaign on TV Col held in 2001 January. The data confirm the presence of a permanent positive superhump found in re-examination of extensive archive photometric data of TV Col. The 6.3-h period is 15 per cent longer than the orbital period and obeys the well known relation between superhump period excess and binary period. At 5.5-h, TV Col has an orbital period longer than any known superhumping cataclysmic variable and, therefore, a mass ratio which might be outside the range at which superhumps can occur according to the current theory. We suggest several solutions for this problem.Comment: 8 pages, 1 Latex file, 7 eps figures, MNRAS, accepte

The New Country The Oberon -Tarana Branch Line

Abstract The Tarana to Oberon branch line runs from the village of Tarana on the main western line (198 km from Sydney) to the town of Oberon, a distance of 24.3 km (15 miles 7 chains) and a climb of some 320 m. The maximum grade of the line is 1:25, one of the steepest in NSW. The line was opened in 1923, with 19 class steam locomotives providing both passenger and freight services. Passenger services were suspended in 1971, while freight operations ceased in 1979. The line was never formally closed. Currently the line is being restored for planned tourist operation by the Oberon -Tarana Heritage Railway group (OTHR). Introduction The Oberon-Tarana line is arguably one of the last remaining and best-preserved Branch Lines of the NSW rail system, dating from the days of rail dominance in the transport infrastructure of the state. The line, to the town of Oberon in the Central West of New South Wales, is of light, unballasted construction and was completed in 28 months, traversing some 24 km of the steepest (for a railway) terrain in NSWgrades of 1:25 are common and 5 chain radius curves are the norm through the gorge between Hazelgrove and Carlwood, the former being some 6 km north of Oberon (see map). The line was built at a total cost of £163,420 and served the local communities for some 56 years before operations were "suspended"

Hinter den Spiegeln - Anmerkungen zu Susanne M. Winterlings Ausstellungen "Through the Looking Glass" und "The Sunroom and Black Narcissus"

Der Textbeitrag untersucht das Motiv des Spiegels im Werk der Gegenwartskünstlerin Susanne M. Winterling anhand von zwei exemplarischen Ausstellungen: "Through the Looking Glass" im Badischen Kunstverein, Karlsruhe und der Installation "The Sunroom and Black Narcissus" in der Ausstellung "Little Theatre of Gestures" im Kunstmuseum in Basel. Hierin aufgeworfene Fragen nach Identifikation und (Selbst)Repräsentation werden unter der Prämisse angegangen, dass die Künstlerin die Betrachter/Innen einlädt mit Alice hinter den Spiegel zu treten, nicht nur um dort die Welt vor dem Spiegel in absurder Verkehrung wieder zu finden, sondern auch um die Effekte des Spiegels zur Anschauung zu bringen. Von der Unzulänglichkeit des Spiegelbildes, sich selbst zu erkennen, über Objekte der Identifikation und Obsession, hin zu einem Blick durch den "Derridaschen Spiegel", den Susanne M. Winterling in ihren Collagen-Portraits als unmögliches Selbstportrait bannt, geht hierin die Reise

A summary of all of the genes up- or down-regulated in the lumbar spinal cord of rats 6 days after CCI as determined by MAS v5.0.

<p>ALL indicates ‘injury-related’ genes, with regulation occuring in all rats following CCI. Whilst, ‘disability-related’ genes, are denoted either, P&D, if they are unique to <i>Pain and Disability</i> rats, or PA+TD, if they are unique to <i>Pain alone</i> and <i>Pain and Transient Disaility</i> rats (i.e. non-disabled cohort). Symbols denote genes regulated at both 2 and 6 days, specifically:</p><p>^§ persistent regulation in all CCI rats;</p><p>^† persistent regulation in unique to <i>Disability</i>;</p><p>^‡ delayed regulation with respect to <i>Disability</i>;</p><p>^# failure of counter regulation to occur in rats with <i>Pain and Disability</i>.</p><p>A summary of all of the genes up- or down-regulated in the lumbar spinal cord of rats 6 days after CCI as determined by MAS v5.0.</p

A summary of all of the genes up- or down-regulated in the lumbar spinal cord of rats 2 days after CCI determined by MAS v5.0.

<p>Whilst, ‘disability-related’ genes, are denoted either, P&D+TD, if they are unique to <i>Pain and Disability/Transient Disability</i> rats, or PA, if they are unique to <i>Pain alone</i> rats (i.e. non-disabled rats). Symbols denote genes regulated at both 2 and 6 days, specifically:</p><p>^§ persistent regulation in all CCI rats;</p><p>^† persistent regulation in unique to <i>Disability</i>;</p><p>^‡ delayed regulation with respect to <i>Disability</i>;</p><p>^# failure of counter regulation to occur in rats with <i>Pain and Disability</i>.</p><p>ALL indicates ‘injury-related’ genes, with regulation occuring in all rats following CCI.</p

The Watonga formation and tacking point gabbro, Port Macquarie, Australia: insights into crustal growth mechanisms on the eastern margin of Gondwana

A diverse assemblage of accretionary complex, island-arc, ophiolitic and high-pressure, low-temperature metamorphic rocks occurs within the serpentinite mélange at Port Macquarie on the eastern extremity of the New England Orogen of eastern Australia. New field observations, U-Pb zircon dating, petrography and geochemistry presented here establish a more robust chronology and interpretation of these rocks. Previously, all basalt, chert and volcaniclastic sandstones at Port Macquarie were grouped into the Watonga Formation. Ordovician to middle Devonian radiolarians and conodonts from \u27Watonga\u27 chert-basalt associations shows that they are older than, and unrelated to, \u27Watonga\u27 volcaniclastic rocks like those at Green Mound which contain volcanic/detrital zircons as young as 335 Ma that were derived from a Carboniferous arc. Volcanic detritus with pillow lava forming a block within the serpentinite mélange yielded 452 ± 10 Ma igneous zircons, indicating an Ordovician age. The Tacking Point Gabbro has an age of 390 ± 7 Ma (Devonian) and geochemical affinities with intra-oceanic arc igneous suites. It was intruded into deformed cherts of the Watonga Formation giving a spatial link between an Ordovician-Devonian? Accretionary complex and adjacent Devonian island-arc. The MORB-like basalt-chert association of the Watonga Formation and the Devonian Tacking Point gabbro represents a mid-Paleozoic assemblage allochthonous to Gondwana, which possibly correlates with the Djungati and Gamilaroi terranes respectively located further west in the New England Orogen. Zircon dating shows that post-serpentinite mafic-felsic dykes were emplaced into the Port Macquarie serpentinite at 247 ± 20 Ma and further disrupted. Therefore, tectonism affecting the serpentinite continued into the Early Triassic, with final movement during the Hunter-Bowen Orogeny. Our results from Port Macquarie are compatible with a tectonic model for the New England Orogen that involves episodic island-arc collisional events (Gamilaroi and Gympie terranes) interspersed with periods of continental margin Andean-type magmatism and accretion along eastern Gondwana