Pushing the boundaries of the social: private agri-food standards and the governance of Fair Trade in European public procurement

The article explores how fair trade and associated private agri-food standards are incorporated into public procurement in Europe. Procurement law is underpinned by principles of equity, non-discrimination and transparency; one consequence is that legal obstacles exist to fair trade being privileged within procurement practice. These obstacles have pragmatic dimensions, concerning whether and how procurement can be used to fulfil wider social policy objectives or to incorporate private standards; they also bring to the fore underlying issues of value. Taking an agency-based approach and incorporating the concept of governability, empirical evidence demonstrates the role played by different actors in negotiating fair trade’s passage into procurement through pre-empting and managing legal risk. This process exposes contestations that arise when contrasting values come together within sustainable procurement. This examination of fair trade in public procurement helps reveal how practices and knowledge on ethical consumption enter into a new governance arena within the global agri-food system

Surveying the landscape of UK university policy engagement – what are we doing differently and why?

Universities have only relatively recently started to invest in professional services relating to research communication, the impact agenda and in so doing policy engagement. Drawing on a survey of policy engagement functions in UK higher education institutions, Hannah Durrant and Eleanor MacKillop (Wales Centre for Public Policy, Cardiff University) identify four types of bodies with different purposes that have emerged in this nascent sector – the policy impact support office, the knowledge brokers, the policy evidence producers, and the demand-led relationship builders

An Audit of the Management of ABPA in CF patients at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital

Background: Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is a persistent problem for many cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. It is a challenging condition to diagnose and manage.Aim: The CF team at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital aimed to assess how consistently and effectively they were managing the condition. A diagnosis and management monitoring tool was used to systematically draw data for auditing.Methods: Out of 87 patients under the care of the CF team, 20 had previously been diagnosed with ABPA. 60% had 4 out of the 4 minimal diagnostic criteria. 75% grew cultures positive for A. fumigatus at some point since their diagnosis of ABPA. All patients had received prednisolone therapy at some point since diagnosis, with 7 patients receiving the maximum starting dose of 40 mg and 1.29 mg/kg for those below maximum dose. 14 patients were prescribed antifungal therapy. 5 patients had levels ordered when they started the therapy, 5 had levels ordered between 45 and 1149 days after prescription, and 3 have had no levels ordered to date. A second audit was performed one year later to complete the audit cycle.Results: This cohort of patients had a much higher prevalence of ABPA than the general CF population.Discussion: Research into the relationship between ABPA exacerbation and concurrent infections or antibiotic therapy could help identify risk factors for developing an exacerbation. There should be discussions about how to improve the consistency in initial dosing of prednisolone, considering guidelines.Conclusion: There should be more itraconazole levels taken to ensure safety and effectiveness of antifungal therapy

Improving community health and social care practitioners' confidence, perceived competence and intention to use behaviour change techniques in health behaviour change conversations.

Community health and social care practitioners play an increasingly important role in the health promotion agenda, but lack confidence in having effective health behaviour change (HBC) conversations with members of the public. This study reports the development and evaluation of a training intervention based on health psychology to improve health and social care practitioner self-rated confidence, competence and intention to use five behaviour change techniques (BCTs) in their HBC conversations. A 2-day behavioural science interprofessional skills training course plus online learning module was designed for health and social care staff across North East Scotland, teaching five evidence-based BCTs (e.g. Action Planning), plus person-centred communication skills. Participants rated confidence, competence and future intention to use the BCTs on likert scales (1-10) pre-course and post-course, and provided acceptability data. 177 participants aged 20-64 took part, qualitative and quantitative data suggested that the course had high acceptability. Paired samples t tests (n = 120 with complete data) showed significant improvements in confidence, competence and intention following the course, which remained significant with a conservative analysis (n = 174) assuming no change for missing data. Perceived competence in Action Planning increased most during the course (mean change 3.09). In conclusion, health psychology-based skills training can improve practitioner confidence, competence and intention to use evidence-based BCTs; further evaluation is needed to assess practice change

Manhood, citizenship, and the National Guard: Illinois, 1870-1917

(print) x, 304 p. ; 23 cmIntroduction -- Illinois militia revival in the 1870s -- Manhood and citizenship on display -- Confused missions: the first twenty years of strike duty, 1870-90 -- New training practices, drill competitions, and the rise of sharpshooting -- Death, manhood, and service in the Spanish American war -- Lessons learned: the ING and strike duty, 1894-1916 -- The pursuit of state and federal support -- AppendixesItem embargoed for five year

Environmental Apocalypse in Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold

48 pagesFears concerning the destruction of the natural world and the imminence of an environmental apocalypse came to fruition long before the realization of global climate change. In fact, as early as 1848, Richard Wagner pondered the end of nature when he wrote the first drafts of what became his four-part opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring). In this thesis, I will examine how the first music drama in this cycle, Das Rheingold, functions as a vision of environmental apocalypse

University policy engagement bodies in the UK and the variable meanings of and approaches to impact

Over the last decade, there has been a proliferation of policy engagement bodies set up within universities worldwide. The present study focuses on the British experience of this phenomenon but with relevance to other contexts. Multiple factors are at play to explain this growth, from the Research Excellence Framework impact agenda (which assesses and ranks the quality of research in UK universities and has been echoed in other countries) to universities’ renewed focus on their civic mission, and a growing demand within policy and practice circles for more research evidence. Based on interviews with senior staff and analysis of their websites and documentary outputs, this article offers a comprehensive catalogue of university policy engagement bodies across the UK, and classifies them into types based on their activities, outputs, impact, and staff. We enrich this categorization by examining the stories these bodies tell to explain how and why they have emerged, and the variable approaches they adopt as they seek to influence both academic and policymaking practices. In doing so, we develop a typology of university policy engagement bodies, and demonstrate how they seek to partake in changing the roles and identities of universities, and their relationship with policymaking

MicroRNAs in Aldosterone Production and Action

The secretion of aldosterone by the adrenal cortex is a tightly regulated process. Loss of this control can result in severe hypertension and end-organ damage, so detailed understanding of the various mechanisms by which the body regulates aldosterone biosynthesis is key. The emergence of microRNAs (miRNAs) as negative regulators of numerous physiological processes has naturally led to their study in the context of aldosterone production. We summarise several studies that have demonstrated a significant role for microRNAs in aldosterone biosynthesis and action, thereby presenting a possible therapeutic role in the treatment of common forms of hypertension such as primary aldosteronism. Furthermore, the presence of microRNAs in the circulation offers the prospect of accessible and informative biomarkers that may simplify the currently protracted and technically difficult diagnosis of such conditions