Trends in Labour Supply

The labour force has grown strongly since the mid 2000s due to both a rising participation rate and faster population growth. The increase in participation has been greatest for females and older persons, driven by a range of social and economic factors. At the same time, average hours worked have declined as many of these additional workers are working part time. The rise in population growth has mostly reflected higher immigration, with a larger intake of skilled workers and students adding to the labour supply.labour supply; population growth; immigration; migration; skilled migration; participation rate; services employment; household balance sheets; retirement intentions

An assessment of Pant-y-llyn, Wales' only turlough and comparison to Irish sites

Turloughs are ephemeral karst lakes resulting from high rainfall and, accordingly, high groundwater levels in topographic depressions in karstified limestone terrain. The ephemeral nature of turlough hydrology gives rise to a characteristic ecology as such turloughs have been designated as a Priority Habitat in the EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC). While there are recorded turloughs in the Republic of Ireland Pant-y Llyn is Wales’ and mainland Britain’s only recorded turlough; it is a key feature of Cernydd Carmel SSSI and SAC. A collaborative investigation was carried out between Environment Agency Wales and Countryside Council for Wales (soon to be Natural Resources Wales). The main aims of this investigation were to: - Improve the hydrogeological conceptual understanding. - Review the water chemistry of Pant-y-Llyn and the surrounding groundwater. - Compare the hydrology of Pant-y-Llyn with that of recorded Irish turloughs. - Use existing data back model the turlough hydrograph. - Provide evidence to confirm its status for the Habitats Directive. The investigation has shown that Pant y Llyn has both a water quality and hydrological cycle. For the first time comparisons with Irish turloughs allow us to put Pant y Llyn into a wider turlough typology

The co-construction of energy provision and everyday practice: integrating heat pumps in social housing in England

Challenges of energy security, low carbon transitions, and electricity network constraints have led to a shift to new, efficient technologies for household energy services. Studies of such technological innovations usually focus on consumer information and changes in behaviour to realise their full potential. We suggest that regarding such technologies in existing energy provision systems opens up questions concerning how and why such interventions are delivered. We argue that we must understand the ways by which energy systems are co-constituted through the habits and expectations of households, their technologies and appliances, alongside arrangements associated with large-scale socio-technical infrastructures. Drawing on research with air-source-to-water heat pumps (ASWHP), installed as part of a large trans-disciplinary, utility-led research and demonstration project in the north of England, we investigate how energy services provision and everyday practice shapes new technologies uptake, and how such technologies mediate and reconfigure relations between users, providers and infrastructure networks. While the installation of ASWHP has led to role differentiation through which energy services are provided, the space for new forms of co-provision to emerge is limited by existing commitments to delivering energy services. Simultaneously, new forms of interdependency emerge between users, providers and intermediaries through sites of installation, instruction, repair and feedback. We find that although new technologies do lead to the rearrangement of practices, this is often disrupted by obduracy in the conventions and habits around domestic heating and hot water practices that have been established in relation to existing systems of provision. Rather being simply a matter of increasing levels of knowledge in order to ensure that such technologies are adopted effi ciently and effectively, our paper demonstrates how systemic arrangements of energy provision and everyday practice are co-implicated in socio-technical innovation by changing the nature of energy supply and use

Exosomal Hsp70 Induces a Pro-Inflammatory Response to Foreign Particles Including Mycobacteria

© 2010 Anand et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background: Exosomes are endosome-derived vesicles that are released when multi-vesicular bodies (MVBs) fuse with the plasma membrane. Exosomes released from mycobacteria-infected cells have recently been shown to be pro-inflammatory. A prominent host molecule that is found within these exosomes is Hsp70, a member of the heat-shock family of proteins. Methodology/Principal Findings: We first characterized the exosomes purified from control and mycobacteria-infected cells. We found that relative to uninfected cells, macrophages infected with M. smegmatis and M. avium release more exosomes and the exosomes they released had more Hsp70 on their surface. Both exosomes and exogenous Hsp70 treatment of macrophages led to NF-kB activation and TNFa release in uninfected macrophages; Hsp70 levels were elevated in mycobacteria-infected cells. Macrophage treatment with Hsp70 also led to increase in the phagocytosis and maturation of latex-bead phagosomes. Finally, Hsp70 pre-incubation of M. smegmatis- and M. avium-infected cells led to increased phago-lysosome fusion, as well as more killing of mycobacteria within macrophages. Conclusions/Significance: Our results fit into an emerging concept whereby exosomes-containing Hsp70 are effective inducers of inflammation, also in response to mycobacterial infection.E.A. was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) Grant PIC/IC/82859/2007 and PTDC/SAU-MII/098024/2008. P.K.A was supported by a post-doctoral research grant from Alexander von Humboldt foundation, Germany and Marie-Curie fellowship from European Union, FP6 programme MIF1-CT- 2006-039351. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

A Method to Extract Measurable Indicators of Coastal Cliff Erosion from Topographical Cliff and Beach Profiles: Application to North Norfolk and Suffolk, East England, UK

Recession of coastal cliffs (bluffs) is a significant problem globally, as around 80% of Earth’s coastlines are classified as sea cliffs. It has long been recognised that beaches control wave energy dissipation on the foreshore and, as a result, can provide protection from shoreline and cliff erosion. However, there have been few studies that have quantified the relationship between beach levels and cliff recession rates. One of the few quantitative studies has shown that there is a measurable relationship between the beach thickness (or beach wedge area (BWA) as a proxy for beach thickness) and the annual cliff top recession rate along the undefended coast of North Norfolk and Suffolk in eastern England, United Kingdom (UK). Additionally, previous studies also found that for profiles with low BWA, the annual cliff top recession rate frequency distribution follows a bimodal distribution. This observation suggests that as BWA increases, not only does cliff top recession rate become lower, but also more predictable, which has important implications for coastal stakeholders particularly for planning purposes at decadal and longer time scales. In this study, we have addressed some of the limitations of the previous analysis to make it more transferable to other study sites and applicable to longer time scales. In particular, we have automatised the extraction of cliff tops, toe locations, and BWA from elevation profiles. Most importantly, we have verified the basic assumption of space-for-time substitution in three different ways: (1) Extending the number or years analysed in a previous study from 11 to 24 years, (2) extending the number of locations at which cliff top recession rate and BWA are calculated, and (3) exploring the assumption of surface material remaining unchanged over time by using innovative 3D subsurface modelling. The present study contributes to our understanding of a poorly known aspect of cliff–beach interaction and outlines a quantitative approach that allows for simple analysis of widely available topographical elevation profiles, enabling the extraction of measurable indicators of coastal erosion

Fostering active network management through SMEs’practises

Managing the electricity network through ‘smart grid’ systems is a key strategy to address challenges of energy security, low carbon transitions and the replacement of ageing infrastructure networks in the UK. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a significant role in shaping patterns of energy consumption. Understanding how their activities interrelate with changes in electricity systems is critical for active network management. A significant challenge for the transformation of electricity systems involves comprehending the complexity that stems from the variety of commercial activities and diversity of social and organizational practises among SMEs that interact with material infrastructures. We engage with SMEs to consider how smart grid interventions ‘fit’ into everyday operational activities. Drawing on analysis of empirical data on electricity use, smart metre data, surveys, interviews and ‘energy tours’ with SMEs to understand lighting, space heating and cooling, refrigeration and IT use, this paper argues for experimenting with the use of practise theory as a framework for bringing together technical and social aspects of energy use in SMEs. This approach reveals that material circumstances and temporal factors shape current energy demand among SMEs, with ‘connectedness’ an emergent factor

University contributions to the circular economy: Professing the hidden curriculum

In a world dominated by linear economic systems, the road to improving resource use is multi-faceted. Whilst public and private organisations are making progress in introducing sustainable practices, we ask ourselves the extent to which education providers are contributing to the circular economy. As engines for skills and knowledge, universities play a primary role in propelling circular economy approaches into reality and, as such, hold the potential for raising the bar on sustainable performance. A rapid evidence assessment (REA) was therefore undertaken to examine the interactions between university estate management and the circular economy. This assessment identified six pertinent themes: campus sustainability, the hidden curriculum, environmental governance, local impact, university material flows, and the role of universities as catalysts for business and examined 70 publications. A second part of the study reviewed the environmental activities of 50 universities ranked highly in terms of their environmental credentials or their environmental science courses. The results are presented and then discussed in terms of how universities can affect material flows, promote sustainability outside of the formal curriculum, and act as catalysts with business. The economic significance of universities provides an appreciable demand for circular products and services. Universities should develop “hidden curriculum” plans to promote improved environmental behaviours of staff and students. Universities can also catalyse a circular economy by working with business to improve eco-effectiveness as well as eco-efficiency. For example, projects should extend the focus from decreasing carbon footprint to achieving carbon positivity, from improving water efficiency to treating wastewater, and from recycling to reverse logistics for repurposing. Pilot projects arising from such work could provide valuable research bases and consultancy opportunities

Impact of seismic image quality on fault interpretation uncertainty

BP/GUPCO are acknowledged for providing data from the Gulf of Suez. The authors acknowledge the support of MVE and use of Move software 2015.2 for this work. Ruediger Kilian is acknowledged for his kind help with the ImageJ code. Dr. Juan Alcalde is funded by NERC grant NE/M007251/1, on interpretational uncertainty. The work could not have been completed without the support of individuals within the geoscience community who took part in the interpretation experiment.Peer reviewedPublisher PD