Understanding media publics and the antimicrobial resistance crisis

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) imperils health for people across the world. This enormous challenge is being met with the rationalisation of prescription, dispensing and consumption of antimicrobials in clinical settings and in the everyday lives of members of the general population. Individuals need to be reached outside clinical settings to prepare them for the necessary changes to the pharmaceutical management of infections; efforts that depend on media and communications and, therefore, how the AMR message is mediated, received and applied. In 2016, the UK Review on Antimicrobial Resistance called on governments to support intense, worldwide media activity to promote public awareness and to further efforts to rationalise the use of antimicrobial pharmaceuticals. In this article, we consider this communications challenge in light of contemporary currents of thought on media publics, including: the tendency of health communications to cast experts and lay individuals in opposition; the blaming of individuals who appear to ‘resist’ expert advice; the challenges presented by negative stories of AMR and their circulation in public life, and; the problems of public trust tied to the construction and mediation of expert knowledge on the effective management of AMR

The Greater Boston Housing Report Card 2013: What Follows The Housing Recovery?

This report is the 11th in the series of annual "Greater Boston Housing Report Cards," the first of which appeared in 2002 at a time when housing prices in the region were skyrocketing. In the course of this series, we have reported on the local housing bubble from 2000 through 2005, during which time home prices appreciated at annual double-digit rates; the retreat in home prices that begain in 2006; and then the beginning of a housing recovery in 2010. Like past report cards, this 2013 report probes Greater Boston's housing landscape, keeping tabs on housing construction, home prices, and rents. We have analyzed the relationship between the region's economy, demography, and housing, and we have kept track of federal, state and local government policies that affect the region's housing market. This report also includes a new analysis of local zoning regulations in Greater Boston communities because of the critical role zoning can play, particularly in the development - or lack of developmeent - of multifamily housing. The 2013 Report Card attempts to answer six questions about Greater Boston's housing market and its effect on the region's well-being: 1. What are the most recent trends in home sales, housing production, and foreclosures? 2. What does the future trajectory of home prices and rents look like? 3. Given current economic conditions, is another housing bubble on the horizon? 4. Given the changing demographics and economic health of Greater Boston, have we begun to build appropriate new housing stock to meet expected demand and to help moderate furure price and rent hikes? 5. Do we still face zoning constraints at the local level that hinder the production of an appropriate housing stock for the region? 6. What roles are the federal government and the Commonwealth playing in the housing market today

One- and two-axis squeezing of atomic ensembles in optical cavities

The strong light-matter coupling attainable in optical cavities enables the generation of highly squeezed states of atomic ensembles. It was shown in [Phys. Rev. A 66, 022314 (2002)] how an effective one-axis twisting Hamiltonian can be realized in a cavity setup. Here, we extend this work and show how an effective two-axis twisting Hamiltonian can be realized in a similar cavity setup. We compare the two schemes in order to characterize their advantages. In the absence of decoherence, the two-axis Hamiltonian leads to more squeezing than the one-axis Hamiltonian. If limited by decoherence from spontaneous emission and cavity decay, we find roughly the same level of squeezing for the two schemes scaling as (NC)^(1/2) where C is the single atom cooperativity and N is the total number of atoms. When compared to an ideal squeezing operation, we find that for specific initial states, a dissipative version of the one-axis scheme attains higher fidelity than the unitary one-axis scheme or the two-axis scheme. However, the unitary one-axis and two-axis schemes perform better for general initial states.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Investigating NEST schemes around the world: supporting NEST/LET collaborative practices

The project Investigating NEST schemes around the world: supporting NEST/LET collaborative practices, funded by the British Council ELT Research Partnership Awards Scheme, was undertaken during 2014. Its main aims were to:  ■ Discover which countries currently use NESTs (Native English Speaker Teachers) in state education.  ■ Investigate how NEST schemes operate in different countries and the training and support received by participants. ■ Observe what happens in NEST classes and what are the typical roles played by LETs (Local English Teachers) and NESTs. ■ Highlight what can be learnt from the experiences of LETs and NESTs to improve classroom teaching.  ■ Identify what support can be offered to LETs and NESTs to improve training and support.  The project was conducted using document analysis, interviews with NESTs and LETs and classroom observations. Document analysis was used to gather detailed information about NEST schemes and prepare a final audit document. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in six different countries (Brunei, Cameroon, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan) with 15 NESTs and 8 LETs for a total of 23 interviews. Observational data were collected from a total of 15 classrooms in four countries (Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan) involving ten NESTs and 15 LETs

Modulation of interleukin 2 high affinity binding to human T cells by a pyrimidodiazepine insect metabolite

AbstractAn insect metabolite containing the little known pyrimido[4,5-b][l,4]diazepine ring system has been found to act as an effective mimic of tetrahydrobiopterin in its ability to modulate the affinity of interleukin 2 (IL-2) for its receptors on human T cells. Semi-empirical molecular orbital calculations reveal that while tetrahydrobiopterin has considerable flexibility, the pyrimidodiazepine has rather few conformational options and offers a useful model for exploring the nature of the pterin binding site