“Waiting for Godot”- Restructuring on Small Family Farms

This paper examines the extent to which favourable off-farm labour market conditions coupled with growth in land values have contributed to the observed resilience of small scale family farms. We use data from Northern Ireland and employ farm household optimisation models to analyse household decision making processes that contribute to the observed inertia in farm structure. The analysis indicates that farm household behaviour is influenced not just by current farm income, but also expected capital asset returns. Increased wealth, associated with continuing land ownership, gives rise to the proposition that the link between off-farm incomes, increased land values and remaining in farming may be associated with farmers pursuing wealth maximizing objectives, whilst still maintaining a rural way of life. Alongside increased wealth through land ownership the farm household model quantifies the importance of off-farm income removing the pressure from farming income to fund all family consumption needs. This enables households to sustain low-income farming activities in order to pursue other objectives such as wealth management (including tax efficient transfer of wealth) and lifestyle. Consequently, the results indicate that the survival of small-scale family farms may be much less sensitive to agricultural support policies than has been commonly suggested. In an extension that explores the effects of the recent economic turbulence due to the ‘credit crunch’ we find that the households remain resilient even when subjected to a protracted period of reduced off-farm employment.Farm households, resilience, wealth accumulation, off-farm income, Consumer/Household Economics, Productivity Analysis, C61, Q12,

Teacher quality, recruitment, and retention: Rapid Evidence Assessment

This rapid evidence assessment identifies areas for future research on teacher quality, recruitment and retention, with the aim of informing the focus of the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF’s) future research commissioning on this topic. Given that ensuring access to quality teaching for disadvantaged pupils is expected to be a key mechanism for narrowing the disadvantage gap in attainment, there is a strong rationale for the EEF to build the evidence base on the recruitment and retention of quality teachers. The report set out to scope the field and summarise existing evidence on this topic. The report also identifies gaps in the research; for example, areas that have been researched qualitatively but not investigated experimentally or developed into a testable intervention. The rapid evidence assessment includes two reviews, each summarising a key area of research: - Review 1 focused on measures of (or proxies for) teacher quality commonly used in the literature. - Review 2 focused on strategies for the recruitment, retention and distribution of quality teachers to schools serving disadvantaged communities

Identification of a key residue for Oligomerisation and pore-formation of Clostridium perfringens NetB

Necrotic enteritis toxin B (NetB) is a β-pore-forming toxin produced by Clostridium perfringens and has been identified as a key virulence factor in the pathogenesis of avian necrotic enteritis, a disease causing significant economic damage to the poultry industry worldwide. In this study, site-directed mutagenesis was used to identify amino acids that play a role in NetB oligomerisation and pore-formation. NetB K41H showed significantly reduced toxicity towards LMH cells and human red blood cells relative to wild type toxin. NetB K41H was unable to oligomerise and form pores in liposomes. These findings suggest that NetB K41H could be developed as a genetic toxoid vaccine to protect against necrotic enteritis

"No Going Back?" The final report of the Effective Records Management Project

The overall objective of the Effective Records Management project was the provision of ‘protocols and tools for the effective management of information in the digital order, with particular attention to information held in a document-based form’ . The project developed a demonstrator system which addressed the full range of issues involved in the management of a ‘testbed’ of digital records in the form of documents, from their creation through distribution and use to their final disposal or permanent retention. The testbed selected was the records of a subset of the university’s committees and was used to develop ideas and to assess how well they worked in practice. This project report indicates that the ERM project provides an investment in the future, opportunities for better information use or re-use, identification of legal risks and identification of good practice whether you be an administrator, a computing scientist, an archivist, a librarian or an information services manager

"No Going Back?" The final report of the Effective Records Management Project

The overall objective of the Effective Records Management project was the provision of ‘protocols and tools for the effective management of information in the digital order, with particular attention to information held in a document-based form’ . The project developed a demonstrator system which addressed the full range of issues involved in the management of a ‘testbed’ of digital records in the form of documents, from their creation through distribution and use to their final disposal or permanent retention. The testbed selected was the records of a subset of the university’s committees and was used to develop ideas and to assess how well they worked in practice. This project report indicates that the ERM project provides an investment in the future, opportunities for better information use or re-use, identification of legal risks and identification of good practice whether you be an administrator, a computing scientist, an archivist, a librarian or an information services manager

The use of myelinating cultures as a screen of glycomolecules for CNS repair

In vitro cell-based assays have been fundamental in modern drug discovery and have led to the identification of novel therapeutics. We have developed complex mixed central nervous system (CNS) cultures, which recapitulate the normal process of myelination over time and allow the study of several parameters associated with CNS damage, both during development and after injury or disease. In particular, they have been used as a reliable screen to identify drug candidates that may promote (re)myelination and/or neurite outgrowth. Previously, using these cultures, we demonstrated that a panel of low sulphated heparin mimetics, with structures similar to heparan sulphates (HSs), can reduce astrogliosis, and promote myelination and neurite outgrowth. HSs reside in either the extracellular matrix or on the surface of cells and are thought to modulate cell signaling by both sequestering ligands, and acting as co-factors in the formation of ligand-receptor complexes. In this study, we have used these cultures as a screen to address the repair potential of numerous other commercially available sulphated glycomolecules, namely heparosans, ulvans, and fucoidans. These compounds are all known to have certain characteristics that mimic cellular glycosaminoglycans, similar to heparin mimetics. We show that the N-sulphated heparosans promoted myelination. However, O-sulphated heparosans did not affect myelination but promoted neurite outgrowth, indicating the importance of structure in HS function. Moreover, neither highly sulphated ulvans nor fucoidans had any effect on remyelination but CX-01, a low sulphated porcine intestinal heparin, promoted remyelination in vitro. These data illustrate the use of myelinating cultures as a screen and demonstrate the potential of heparin mimetics as CNS therapeutics