Global Entrepreneurship Monitor United Kingdom: 2007 Executive Report

This monitoring report compares Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) measures of entrepreneurial activity in the UK with participating G7 countries and the large industrialised or industrialising countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China ("BRIC"). It also summarises entrepreneurial activity within Government Office Regions of the UK

Critical review of the impacts of grazing intensity on soil organic carbon storage and other soil quality indicators in extensively managed grasslands

Acknowledgements This work contributes to the N-Circle project (grant number BB/N013484/1), and CINAg (BB/N013468/1) Virtual Joint Centres on Agricultural Nitrogen (funded by the Newton Fund via UK BBSRC/NERC), U-GRASS (grant number NE/M016900/1), the Belmont Forum/FACCE-JPI DEVIL project (grant number NE/M021327/1), Soils-R-GGREAT (grant number NE/P019455/1), ADVENT (grant number NE/M019713/1), Sêr Cymru LCEE-NRN project, Climate-Smart Grass and the Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Programme.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A study and experiment plan for digital mobile communication via satellite

The viability of mobile communications is examined within the context of a frequency division multiple access, single channel per carrier satellite system emphasizing digital techniques to serve a large population of users. The intent is to provide the mobile users with a grade of service consistant with the requirements for remote, rural (perhaps emergency) voice communications, but which approaches toll quality speech. A traffic model is derived on which to base the determination of the required maximum number of satellite channels to provide the anticipated level of service. Various voice digitalization and digital modulation schemes are reviewed along with a general link analysis of the mobile system. Demand assignment multiple access considerations and analysis tradeoffs are presented. Finally, a completed configuration is described

A Novel, Contactless, Portable “Spot-Check” Device Accurately Measures Respiratory Rate

Respiratory rate (RR) is an important vital sign used in the assessment of acutely ill patients. It is also used as to predict serious deterioration in a patient's clinical condition. Convenient electronic devices exist for measurement of pulse, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and temperature. Although devices which measure RR exist, none has entered everyday clinical practice. We developed a contactless portable respiratory rate monitor (CPRM) and evaluated the agreement in respiratory rate measurements between existing methods and our new device. The CPRM uses thermal anemometry to measure breath signals during inspiration and expiration. RR data were collected from 52 healthy adult volunteers using respiratory inductance plethysmography (RIP) bands (established contact method), visual counting of chest movements (established non-contact method) and the CPRM (new method), simultaneously. Two differently shaped funnel attachments were evaluated for each volunteer. Data showed good agreement between measurements from the CPRM and the gold standard RIP, with intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC): 0.836, mean difference 0.46 and 95% limits of agreement of -5.90 to 6.83. When separate air inlet funnels of the CPRM were analysed, stronger agreement was seen with an elliptical air inlet; ICC 0.908, mean difference 0.37 with 95% limits of agreement -4.35 to 5.08. A contactless device for accurately and quickly measuring respiratory rate will be an important triage tool in the clinical assessment of patients. More testing is needed to explore the reasons for outlying measurements and to evaluate in the clinical setting

Classical XY model with conserved angular momentum is an archetypal non-Newtonian fluid

We find that the classical one-dimensional (1D) XY model, with angular-momentum-conserving Langevin dynamics, mimics the non-Newtonian flow regimes characteristic of soft matter when subjected to counter-rotating boundaries. An elaborate steady-state phase diagram has continuous and first-order transitions between states of uniform flow, shear-banding, solid-fluid coexistence and slip-planes. Results of numerically studies and a concise mean-field constitutive relation, offer a paradigm for diverse non-equilibrium complex fluids

The Active Nucleus of IC4970: A Nearby Example of Merger-Induced Cold-Gas Accretion

We present results from Chandra X-ray and Spitzer mid-infrared observations of the interacting galaxy pair NGC6872/IC4970 in the Pavo galaxy group and show that the smaller companion galaxy IC4970 hosts a highly obscured active galactic nucleus (AGN). The 0.5-10 keV X-ray luminosity of the nucleus is variable, increasing by a factor 2.9 to 1.7 x 10^{42} erg/s (bright state) on ~100 ks timescales. The X-ray spectrum of the is heavily absorbed (N_H = 3 x 10^{23} cm^{-2}) for power law models with Gamma = 1.5-2.0 and shows a clear 6.4 keV Fe Kalpha line with equivalent width of 144-195 eV. Limits on the diffuse emission in IC4970 from Chandra X-ray data suggest that the available power from Bondi accretion of hot interstellar gas may be an order of magnitude too small to power the AGN. Spitzer images show that 8 micron nonstellar emission is concentrated in the central 1 kpc of IC4970, consistent with high obscuration in this region. The mid-infrared colors of the nucleus are consistent with those expected for a highly obscured AGN. Taken together these data suggest that the nucleus of IC4970 is a Seyfert 2, triggered and fueled by cold material supplied to the central supermassive black hole as a result of the off-axis collision of IC4970 with the cold-gas rich spiral galaxy NGC6872.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted to ApJ, MIR flux conversion error corrected in Table 4, MIR colors and paper text unchange

Investigating geographical variation in the use of mental health services by area of England: a cross-sectional ecological study

BACKGROUND: There is evidence of geographical variation in the use of mental health services in the UK and in international settings. It is important to understand whether this variation reflects differences in the prevalence of mental disorders, or if there is evidence of variation related to other factors, such as population socioeconomic status and access to primary care services. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional ecological study using Public Health England data. The unit of analysis was the population served by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), National Health Service (NHS) catchment areas. The analysis explored associations between area characteristics and the number of people in contact with mental health services using regression modelling. Explanatory variables included age, gender, prevalence of severe mental illness (SMI), prevalence of common mental disorder (CMD), index of multiple deprivation (IMD), unemployment, proportion of the population who are Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME), population density, access to and recovery in primary care psychological therapies. Unadjusted results are reported, as well as estimates adjusted for age, prevalence of CMD and prevalence of SMI. RESULTS: The populations of 194 CCGs were included, clustered within 62 trusts (NHS providers of mental health services). The number of people in contact with mental health services showed wide variation by area (range from 1131 to 5205 per 100,000 population). Unemployment (adjusted IRR 1.11; 95% CI 1.05 to 1.17; p < 0.001) and deprivation (adjusted IRR 1.02 95% CI 1.01 to 1.04; p < 0.001) were associated with more people being in contact with mental health services. Areas with a higher proportion of the population who are BAME (IRR 0.95 95% CI 0.92 to 0.99 p = 0.007) had lower service use per 100,000 population. There was no evidence for association with access to primary care psychological therapies. CONCLUSIONS: There is substantial variation in the use of mental health services by area of England. Social factors including deprivation, unemployment and population ethnicity continued to be associated with the outcome after controlling for the prevalence of mental illness. This suggests that there are factors that influence the local population use of mental health services in addition to the prevalence of mental disorder