A critical investigation of the organizational factors affecting the development of local agenda 21 by a local authority

This thesis uses action research to investigate the organizational factors which are affecting the implementation of local agenda 21, and the accompanying necessary internal changes, in a local authority. Following an examination of literature relating to sustainable development and local agenda 21, organizational culture and attempts to change it are identified as the important areas to be investigated. There is an examination of theory in those areas and a two-stage study is carried out. This allows for the first stage study to be assessed and any gaps, where the research questions are not being answered, to be identified and dealt with in the second stage study. It was found that in local authorities there are sub-cultures, and that the split is along departmental lines, which affect the facilitation of sustainable development to differing degrees. Socially based departments had sub-cultures which were less appropriate for sustainable development then environmentally based ones. The local authorities were making changes of a structural and strategic nature, but as regards human processes, it was found that although authorities were concentrating on trying to raise awareness, the strategies they were using for this were ineffective. Two case studies were also conducted, one of a local authority similar in many ways to the one in the main study and the other of a dissimilar one, to assess whether the findings from the main study might be more generally applicable. The findings from these case studies suggested that the findings were generally applicable

Chronic myeloid leukemia cells require the bone morphogenic protein pathway for cell cycle progression and self-renewal

Leukaemic stem cell (LSC) persistence remains a major obstacle to curing chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). The bone morphogenic protein (BMP) pathway is deregulated in CML, with altered expression and response to the BMP ligands shown to impact on LSC expansion and behaviour. In this study, we determined whether alterations in the BMP pathway gene signature had any predictive value for therapeutic response by profiling 60 CML samples at diagnosis from the UK SPIRIT2 trial and correlating the data to treatment response using the 18-month follow-up data. There was significant deregulation of several genes involved in the BMP pathway with ACV1C, INHBA, SMAD7, SNAIL1 and SMURF2 showing differential expression in relation to response. Therapeutic targeting of CML cells using BMP receptor inhibitors, in combination with tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), indicate a synergistic mode of action. Furthermore, dual treatment resulted in altered cell cycle gene transcription and irreversible cell cycle arrest, along with increased apoptosis compared to single agents. Targeting CML CD34+ cells with BMP receptor inhibitors resulted in fewer cell divisions, reduced numbers of CD34+ cells and colony formation when compared to normal donor CD34+ cells, both in the presence and absence of BMP4. In an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) model generated from CD34+ hematopoietic cells, we demonstrate altered cell cycle profiles and dynamics of ALK expression in CML-iPSCs in the presence and absence of BMP4 stimulation, when compared to normal iPSC. Moreover, dual targeting with TKI and BMP inhibitor prevented the self-renewal of CML-iPSC and increased meso-endodermal differentiation. These findings indicate that transformed stem cells may be more reliant on BMP signalling than normal stem cells. These changes offer a therapeutic window in CML, with intervention using BMP inhibitors in combination with TKI having the potential to target LSC self-renewal and improve long-term outcome for patients

Children’s disclosure of sexual abuse: a systematic review of qualitative research exploring barriers and facilitators

This study evaluates and synthesizes qualitative evidence addressing factors affecting a child’s decision to disclose an experience of sexual abuse. Childhood sexual abuse is a devastating crime, with long-term negative impacts. Understanding the factors that affect a child’s decision to disclose is vital. Disclosure enables access to support and protection, both therapeutically and legally. A systematic review was conducted focusing on factors affecting a child’s decision to disclose an experience of sexual abuse. Seven studies were identified, quality appraisal undertaken, and meta-ethnography used to synthesize the studies. Six new super-ordinate themes were developed: Fear of what will happen; Others’ reactions: fear of disbelief; Emotions and impact of the abuse; An opportunity to tell; Concern for self and others; and Feelings toward the abuser. Themes indicated the importance of support, structure, and opportunity to facilitate disclosure and should be utilized by agencies to develop practices that facilitate disclosures

Connected Women: How Mobile Can Support Women's Economic and Social Empowerment

This report explores how mobile services provided by Vodafone and the Vodafone Foundation are enabling women to seize new opportunities and improve their lives. Accenture Sustainability Services were commissioned to conduct research on the services and to assess their potential social and economic impact if they were widely available across Vodafone's markets by 2020. It showcases the projects and the work of those involved and also poses the question -- what would the benefit to women and to society at large be if projects such as these were taken to scale and achieved an industrialscale of growth? This reflects the Foundation's commitment not solely to the development of pilots but rather the Trustees' ambition to see projects which lead to transformational change. In order to understand this more deeply, the Report looks at the benefits for women and society and providessome financial modelling for how the engagement of commercial players could achieve industrial, sustainable growth in these areas. Accenture has provided the modelling and, given the public benefit and understanding which the report seeks to generate, these are shared openly for all in the mobile industry to understand and share. It is the Trustees' hope that the collaboration with Oxford University and Accenture in the delivery of this Report will stimulate not only the expansion of existing charitable programmes but will also seed other philanthropic, social enterprise or commercial initiatives

Visual perception of photographs of rotated 3D objects in goldfish (Carassius auratus)

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Wegman, J. J., Morrison, E., Wilcox, K. T., & DeLong, C. M. Visual perception of photographs of rotated 3D objects in goldfish (Carassius auratus). Animals, 12(14), (2022): 1797, https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12141797.This study examined goldfishes’ ability to recognize photographs of rotated 3D objects. Six goldfish were presented with color photographs of a plastic model turtle and frog at 0° in a two-alternative forced-choice task. Fish were tested with stimuli at 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270° rotated in the picture plane and two depth planes. All six fish performed significantly above chance at all orientations in the three rotation planes tested. There was no significant difference in performance as a function of aspect angle, which supported viewpoint independence. However, fish were significantly faster at 180° than at +/−90°, so there is also evidence for viewpoint-dependent representations. These fish subjects performed worse overall in the current study with 2D color photographs (M = 88.0%) than they did in our previous study with 3D versions of the same turtle and frog stimuli (M = 92.6%), although they performed significantly better than goldfish in our two past studies presented with black and white 2D stimuli (M = 67.6% and 69.0%). The fish may have relied on color as a salient cue. This study was a first attempt at examining picture-object recognition in fish. More work is needed to determine the conditions under which fish succeed at object constancy tasks, as well as whether they are capable of perceiving photographs as representations of real-world objectsThis work was supported with a RIT College of Liberal Arts Faculty Development Grant to CMD and the RIT Paul A. and Francena L. Miller Research Fellowship awarded to CMD from the Rochester Institute of Technology

Themed issue on advances in solid state chemistry and its applications

Peer reviewedPostprin

Impact of school libraries on learning: critical review of published evidence to inform the Scottish education community [online].

The aim of the report is to identify and critically evaluate the available evidence of the impact of school libraries on learning, including attainment, skills and attitudes. The report, commissioned by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), is based on a critical review of UK and international evidence published since 2001, linking school libraries to educational achievement, attainment and learning in secondary education. The objectives were to: a) Identify, evaluate and summarise evidence in relation to a number of key questions identified by SLIC; b) Assess the applicability of the findings in the potential of Scottish school libraries to impact on Curriculum for Excellence; c) Identify gaps in the evidence and suggest areas for further research in relation to Scottish school libraries. The research was designed as an update of the previous review of the impact of school library services, undertaken in 2001 by the same team (Williams, Wavell and Coles 2001). The outcomes will inform SLIC strategies in support of school library provision in Scotland. The outcomes should also be of value to policy and decision makers in both local authorities and individual schools for their future planning around school library provision, and to individual school librarians in their own strategic planning. The work was conducted between the months of May to October 2013, and the outcomes were presented at the Scottish Learning Festival held in Glasgow in September 2013

Maternal Obesity and the Early Origins of Childhood Obesity: Weighing Up the Benefits and Costs of Maternal Weight Loss in the Periconceptional Period for the Offspring

There is a need to understand the separate or interdependent contributions of maternal prepregnancy BMI, gestational weight gain, glycaemic control, and macronutrient intake on the metabolic outcomes for the offspring. Experimental studies highlight that there may be separate influences of maternal obesity during the periconceptional period and late gestation on the adiposity of the offspring. While a period of dietary restriction in obese mothers may ablate the programming of obesity, it is associated with an activation of the stress axis in the offspring. Thus, maternal obesity may result in epigenetic changes which predict the need for efficient fat storage in postnatal life, while maternal weight loss may lead to epigenetic changes which predict later adversity. Thus, development of dietary interventions for obese mothers during the periconceptional period requires a greater evidence base which allows the effective weighing up of the metabolic benefits and costs for the offspring