How did the Welsh government manage to reform council tax in 2005?

Repeated calls have been made for council tax (CT) in the UK to be reformed. A ‘tyranny of the status quo’ suggests that politicians will avoid this because they fear a backlash from the losers of reform. This paper claims that the tyranny of the status quo is not a fixed law. The Welsh government revalued CT in 2005 but did not communicate the complexity of reform sufficiently. Reform requires greater efforts to communicate the complexity of winning and losing

Spin waves: theory and applications

Magnetic materials can support propagating waves of magnetization; since these are oscillations in the magneto static properties of the material, they are called magneto static waves (sometimes 'magnons' or 'magnetic polarons'). This book discusses magnetic properties of materials, and magnetic moments of atoms and ionsIntroduces magnetism and discusses magnetic properties of materials, magnetic moments of atoms and ions, and the elements important to magnetismCovers magnetic susceptibilities and electromagnetic waves in anisotropic dispersive media among other topicsContains problems at the end of each chapter, many of which serve to expand or explain the material in the textIncludes bibliographies for each chapter that give an entry to the research literature

Annihilation of vortex dipoles in an Oblate Bose-Einstein Condensate

We theoretically explore the annihilation of vortex dipoles, generated when an obstacle moves through an oblate Bose-Einstein condensate, and examine the energetics of the annihilation event. We show that the gray soliton, which results from the vortex dipole annihilation, is lower in energy than the vortex dipole. We also investigate the annihilation events numerically and observe that the annihilation occurs only when the vortex dipole overtakes the obstacle and comes closer than the coherence length. Furthermore, we find that the noise reduces the probability of annihilation events. This may explain the lack of annihilation events in experimental realizations.Comment: 8 pages and 9 figure

Iron redox pathway revealed in ferritin via electron transfer analysis.

Ferritin protein is involved in biological tissues in the storage and management of iron - an essential micro-nutrient in the majority of living systems. While there are extensive studies on iron-loaded ferritin, its functionality in iron delivery is not completely clear. Here, for the first time, differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) has been successfully adapted to address the challenge of resolving a cascade of fast and co-occurring redox steps in enzymatic systems such as ferritin. Using DPV, comparative analysis of ferritins from two evolutionary-distant organisms has allowed us to propose a stepwise resolution for the complex mix of concurrent redox steps that is inherent to ferritins and to fine-tune the structure-function relationship of each redox step. Indeed, the cyclic conversion between Fe3+ and Fe2+ as well as the different oxidative steps of the various ferroxidase centers already known in ferritins were successfully discriminated, bringing new evidence that both the 3-fold and 4-fold channels can be functional in ferritin

BCG: Do we have an alternative?

Vaccination is generally used as a form of immunoprophylaxis, so that administration of the vaccine even a long. time before exposure to the wild-type infectious organism should afford protection. Since effector T and B cells are short-lived, a prime requisite for a vaccine is to generate immunological memory.1 In the case organisms such as mycobacteria which are obligate intracellular pathogens and which elicit granulomatous tissue reactions, artificial immunisation with live bacteria is required to induce protection.2,3 The only existing vaccine against tuberculosis is the BCG (Bacille Calmette - Guerin), an attenuated strain of M.bovis and it is mandatory or officially recommended in 182 countries or territories. Under the Expanded Programme on Immuisation (EPT) started by the Government of India in 1978, BCG is recommended to be given to all infants 3-9 months after birth.

Bactericidal action of pulsed exposure to rifampicin, ethambutol, isoniazid & pyrazinamide on Mycobacterium tuberculosis in vitro

The bactericidal action of pulsed exposure to rifampicin (R), ethambutol (Emb), isoniazid (I) and pyrazinamide (Z) togcthcr on alternate days (REmbIZ) and as REmb and IZ separately on alternate days (REmb/IZ) on M.tuberculosis H37Rv, two isolates of M.tuberculosis sensitive to these drugs, as well as four isolates resistant to one or more drugs, was studied using an in vitro method. The experimental duration was 6 days. REmbIZ and REmb/IZ appeared to have equally good bactericidal action on M.tuberculosis strains in the in vitro system. The results suggest that splitting REmbIZ into REmb and IZ on alternate days in short course chemotherapy regimens for tuberculosis may not affect the bactericidal action of the regimens

Role of Boron p-Electrons and Holes in Superconducting MgB2, and other Diborides: A Fully-Relaxed, Full-Potential Electronic Structure Study

We present the results of fully-relaxed, full-potential electronic structure calculations for the new superconductor MgB2, and BeB2, NaB2, and AlB2, using density-functional-based methods. Our results described in terms of (i) density of states (DOS), (ii) band-structure, and (iii) the DOS and the charge density around the Fermi energy EF, clearly show the importance of B p-band for superconductivity. In particular, we show that around EF, the charge density in MgB2, BeB2 and NaB2 is planar and is associated with the B plane. For BeB2 and NaB2, our results indicate qualitative similarities but significant quantitative differences in their electronic structure due to different lattice constants a and c.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Phys Rev. Lett. on March 6, 2001; resubmission on April 2

Protective response in guineapigs exposed to Mycobacterium avium intracellulare/ M. scrofulaceum, BCG & south Indian isolates of M. tuberculosis

The protective immunity resulting from exposure to nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), BCG and virulent mycobacteria in different sequences was studied in the guineapig model employing strains prevalent in the south Indian BCG trial area and time kinetics to observe the immuno-modulation. The findings suggest that during the early course of challenge infection in guineapigs there was no interference with the immunity due to BCG, by prior exposure to NTM. In the animals sensitised with M. avium intracellulare before immunisation, the challenge infection was localised and confined to the site of inoculation, and only a few organisms reached the spleen.. However, at the later stages of the infection, as seen by the spleen viable counts at 12 wk, it appeared that the barrier at the localised site of infection may not be intact in the animals with prior exposure to NTM, and a few organisms disseminate to the spleen

Observations on the cultivation of M.leprae and M. tuberculosis in medium V and V1

Skin scrapings from five different active sites were collected from 14 leprosy patients and inoculated into medium V. Shin scrapings from three leprosy patients were inoculated into medium V 1. All the cultures were incubated at 8-10°C. M. tuberculosis H37Rv, pretreatment isoloates and streptomycin resistant strains were inoculated into medium V, with and without antibiotics, and incubated at 8-10°C as well as 37°C. Smears were made from the M. leprae and M. tuberculosis cultures at 0 hours and at different time points. The number of bacilli in the smears were counted. There was no increase in the number of M. leprae or M. tuberculosis in any of the cultures