Building virtual bridges: how rural micro-enterprises develop social capital in online and face-to-face settings

In rural UK, businesses are often isolated and have much to gain from healthy networks, yet studies show that many rural business owners fail to network effectively. Information communications technologies offer new ways to network that might benefit rural businesses by expanding their reach. This study looked at online and face-to-face networking behaviour among rural micro-enterprises in Scotland in relation to the development of bonding and bridging social capital. Given the challenges of remoteness faced by many rural businesses, online networking is particularly useful in developing bridging capital, but is an unsuitable context for building the trust needed to gain tangible benefits. The article therefore highlights the importance of face-to-face interactions in developing trust and bonding social capital. Rural business owners face distinctive challenges with respect to online communications, which are explored in this article

Clinical and Pathologic Comparison of Acute Leptospirosis in Dogs Caused by Two Strains of Leptospirosis Kirschneri Serovar Grippotyphosa

Objective—To develop a method for inducing acute leptospirosis in dogs. Animals—31 nine-week-old female Beagles. Procedure—Beagles were randomly assigned to 2 inoculation groups or a control group. Dogs were inoculated on 3 successive days by conjunctival instillation of 5 X 107 cells of Leptospira kirschneri serovar grippotyphosa strain 82 (12 dogs) or strain RM 52 (14 dogs). Control dogs (n = 5) were similarly inoculated with sterile leptospiral culture media. Clinical signs, clinicopathologic variables, anti-leptospiral antibody titers, and evidence of leptospires in tissues and body fluids were evaluated. Dogs were euthanatized and necropsied on days 7, 14, 22, or 28 after inoculation or as required because of severe illness. Results—Clinical signs in infected dogs included conjunctivitis, lethargy, diarrhea, dehydration, vomiting, and icterus. Consistent clinicopathologic alterations included azotemia, hyperphosphatemia, increased anion gap, hyperbilirubinemia, and an increase in alkaline phosphatase activity. Leptospires were cultured from the kidneys (11/12), urine (6/9), aqueous humor (9/12), blood (12/12), and liver (12/12) of dogs inoculated with strain 82. Only 3 of 14 dogs became infected after inoculation with strain RM 52. Histopathologic lesions in infected dogs included interstitial nephritis, renal tubular degeneration and necrosis, pulmonary hemorrhage, and hepatic edema and perivasculitis. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Conjunctival exposure to L kirschneri serovar grippotyphosa strain 82 resulted in acute leptospirosis in all inoculated dogs, but only 3 of 14 dogs inoculated with strain RM 52 became infected. This method of infection by serovar grippotyphosa can be used to study the pathogenesis and prevention of leptospirosis in dogs

Program-Wide Positive Behavior Support in Preschool: Lessons for Getting Started

There is growing concern over the number of young children who display challenging behavior and preschool teachers are reporting children’s challenging behavior as their greatest concern. Program-wide Positive Behavior Support (PWPBS) is a promising model for supporting appropriate behavior and decreasing challenging behavior in early childhood programs. Implementation in early childhood settings is relatively new and guidance on how to implement PWPBS in early childhood settings in growing. This article documents the implementation process for an early childhood program serving children from six weeks to five years of age, shares lessons learned and offers practical advice for getting started with PWPBS

Hybrid electric aircraft : state of the art and key electrical system challenges

In both Europe and the USA, the aerospace sector is actively pursuing revolutionary design concepts to further improve the environmental impact of air travel. This is partly a result of increasing pressure on the industry from government and other organisations to reduce emissions , despite the continuing increase in air traffic [1] . The aggressive targets set by NASA and the EU [1, 2, 3] (e.g. the Advisory Coun cil for Aviation Research and Innovation in Europe has a target of a 75% reduction in CO2 emissions and a 90% reduction of NOx emissions by 2050) cannot be achieved through marginal improvements in turbine technology or aircraft design. Rather, disruptive technologies and more innovative aircraft must be considered

Establishing viable fault management strategies for distributed electrical propulsion aircraft

Electrical propulsion has the potential to increase aircraft performance. However, this will require the design and development of an appropriate aircraft electrical system to power the propulsor motors. In order to protect this system against electrical faults, which have the potential to threaten the safety of the aircraft, a robust fault management strategy (FMS) is required. The FMS will comprise aspects of system design such as redundancy, reliability and reconfiguration and will rely on a range of protection devices deployed on the electrical system to intercept and manage faults. The electrical architecture will be shaped by the FMS as this will determine the optimal configuration to enable security of supply. The protection system is integral to the system design. Hence it must to be considered from the outset, as part of the wider aircraft concept development. This paper presents a robust framework to develop the optimal FMS for an electrical propulsion aircraft, which is subject to all the relevant aircraft constraints and incorporates the available protection devices for a chosen aircraft for a given developmental timeframe. A case study is then presented in which this protection design methodology is applied to the NASA STARC-ABL aircraft concept in order to demonstrate that the available protection for an electrical propulsion aircraft defines the possible electrical architectures

Biopsy and selective recall compared with immediate large loop excision in management of women with low grade abnormal cervical cytology referred for colposcopy : multicentre randomised controlled trial

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Signal transduction cross talk mediated by Jun N-terminal kinase-interacting protein and insulin receptor substrate scaffold protein complexes

Scaffold proteins have been established as important mediators of signal transduction specificity. The insulin receptor substrate (IRS) proteins represent a critical group of scaffold proteins that are required for signal transduction by the insulin receptor, including the activation of phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase. The c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase (JNK)-interacting proteins (JIPs) represent a different group of scaffold molecules that are implicated in the regulation of the JNK. These two signaling pathways are functionally linked because JNK can phosphorylate IRS1 on the negative regulatory site Ser-307. Here we demonstrate the physical association of these signaling pathways using a proteomic approach that identified insulin-regulated complexes of JIPs together with IRS scaffold proteins. Studies using mice with JIP scaffold protein defects confirm that the JIP1 and JIP2 proteins are required for normal glucose homeostasis. Together, these observations demonstrate that JIP proteins can influence insulin-stimulated signal transduction mediated by IRS proteins