The regional distribution of public expendictures in the UK : an exposition and critique of the Barnett formula

The Barnett formula is the official basis upon which increments to public funds are allocated to the devolved regions of the UK for those parts of the budget that are administered locally. There is considerable controversy surrounding the implications of its strict application for the relevant regions. The existing literature focuses primarily on the equity of the spatial changes to government per capita expenditure that would accompany such a change. In contrast, in this paper we attempt to quantify the system-wide economic consequences-the real, relative resource squeeze that accompanies the financial relative squeeze-on one devolved region, Scotland. The analysis uses a multisectoral regional computable general equilibrium modelling approach. We highlight the importance of population endogeneity, particularly since the population proportions used in the formula are now regularly updated

The environmental "trade balance" between Scotland and the rest of the UK : an inter-regional input-output and SAM analysis

We use an inter-regional input-output (IO) and social accounting matrix (SAM) pollution attribution framework to serve as a platform for sub-national environmental attribution and trade balance analysis. While the existence of significant data problems mean that the quantitative results of this study should be regarded as provisional, the inter-regional economy-environment IO and SAM framework for Scotland and the rest of the UK (RUK) allows an illustrative analysis of some very important issues. There are two key findings. The first is that there are large environmental spillovers between the regions of the UK. This has implications in terms of the devolution of responsibility for achieving targets for reductions in emissions levels and the need for policy co-ordination between the UK national and devolved governments. The second finding is that whilst Scotland runs an economic trade deficit with RUK, the environmental trade balance relationship for the main greenhouse gas, CO2, runs in the opposite direction. In other words, the findings of this study suggest the existence of a CO2 trade surplus between Scotland and the rest of the UK. This suggests that Scotland is bearing a net loss in terms of pollutants as a result of inter-union trade. However, if Scotland can carry out key activities, such as electricity generation, using less polluting technology, it is better for the UK as a whole if this type of relationship exists. Thus, the environmental trade balance is an important part of the devolution settlement

AMPA Receptor Phosphorylation and Synaptic Colocalization on Motor Neurons Drive Maladaptive Plasticity below Complete Spinal Cord Injury.

Clinical spinal cord injury (SCI) is accompanied by comorbid peripheral injury in 47% of patients. Human and animal modeling data have shown that painful peripheral injuries undermine long-term recovery of locomotion through unknown mechanisms. Peripheral nociceptive stimuli induce maladaptive synaptic plasticity in dorsal horn sensory systems through AMPA receptor (AMPAR) phosphorylation and trafficking to synapses. Here we test whether ventral horn motor neurons in rats demonstrate similar experience-dependent maladaptive plasticity below a complete SCI in vivo. Quantitative biochemistry demonstrated that intermittent nociceptive stimulation (INS) rapidly and selectively increases AMPAR subunit GluA1 serine 831 phosphorylation and localization to synapses in the injured spinal cord, while reducing synaptic GluA2. These changes predict motor dysfunction in the absence of cell death signaling, suggesting an opportunity for therapeutic reversal. Automated confocal time-course analysis of lumbar ventral horn motor neurons confirmed a time-dependent increase in synaptic GluA1 with concurrent decrease in synaptic GluA2. Optical fractionation of neuronal plasma membranes revealed GluA2 removal from extrasynaptic sites on motor neurons early after INS followed by removal from synapses 2 h later. As GluA2-lacking AMPARs are canonical calcium-permeable AMPARs (CP-AMPARs), their stimulus- and time-dependent insertion provides a therapeutic target for limiting calcium-dependent dynamic maladaptive plasticity after SCI. Confirming this, a selective CP-AMPAR antagonist protected against INS-induced maladaptive spinal plasticity, restoring adaptive motor responses on a sensorimotor spinal training task. These findings highlight the critical involvement of AMPARs in experience-dependent spinal cord plasticity after injury and provide a pharmacologically targetable synaptic mechanism by which early postinjury experience shapes motor plasticity

Therapies with Emerging Evidence of Efficacy: Avotermin for the Improvement of Scarring

Many patients are dissatisfied with scars on both visible and non-visible body sites and would value any opportunity to improve or minimise scarring following surgery. Approximately 44 million procedures in the US and 42 million procedures in the EU per annum could benefit from scar reduction therapy. A wide range of non-invasive and invasive techniques have been used in an attempt to improve scarring although robust, prospective clinical trials to support the efficacy of these therapies are lacking. Differences in wound healing and scar outcome between early fetal and adult wounds led to interest in the role of the TGFβ family of cytokines in scar formation and the identification of TGFβ3 (avotermin) as a potential therapeutic agent for the improvement of scar appearance. Extensive pre-clinical and human Phase I and II clinical trial programmes have confirmed the scar improving efficacy of avotermin which produces macroscopic and histological improvements in scar architecture, with improved restitution of the epidermis and an organisation of dermal extracellular matrix that more closely resembles normal skin. Avotermin is safe and well tolerated and is currently in Phase III of clinical development, with the first study, in patients undergoing scar revision surgery, fully recruited

From 2000 years of Ganoderma lucidum to recent developments in nutraceuticals

Medicinal mushrooms have been used for centuries as nutraceuticals to improve health and to treat numerous chronic and infectious diseases. One such mushroom is Ganoderma lucidum, commonly known as Lingzhi, a species revered as a medicinal mushroom for treating assorted diseases and prolonging life. The fungus is found in diverse locations, and this may have contributed to confusion regarding the correct taxonomic classification of the genus Ganoderma. G. lucidum was first used to name a specimen found in England and thereafter was naively applied to a different Ganoderma species found in Asia, commonly known as Chinese Lingzhi. Despite the taxonomic confusion, which has largely been uncorrected, the popularity of Lingzhi has escalated across the globe. The current taxonomic situation is now discussed accurately in this Special Issue on Ganoderma. Today it is a multi-billion dollar industry wherein Lingzhi is cultivated or collected from the wild and consumed as a tea, in alcoholic beverages, and as a nutraceutical to confer numerous health benefits. Consumption of nutraceuticals has grown in popularity, and it is becoming increasingly important that active ingredients be identified and that suppliers make substantiated health claims about their products. The objective of this article is to present a review of G. lucidum over the past 2000 years from prized ancient herbal remedy to its use in nutraceuticals and to the establishment of a 2.5 billion $ (US) industry.NZ Focus to BK, MPG and LRF is acknowledged. YX was funded by a Phyllis Paykel Memorial Scholarship, and KSB and LRF were supported by the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre

The Regional Distribution of Public Expenditures in the UK : An Exposition and Critique of the Barnett Formula

The Barnett formula allocates public funds to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales for those parts of the budget that are administered locally, by the relevant devolved authorities.1 The devolved authorities have discretion over the distribution of these budgets. The locally administered budget was previously the block grant, now the Department Expenditure Limit (DEL). The formula was put in place initially in 1979-80 in Scotland and two years later for Northern Ireland and Wales. However, the devolution process in the UK has significantly increased the level of scrutiny that the formula has been subjected to and has further fuelled the controversy surrounding its implications for each of the regions of the UK. This scrutiny is likely to increase in view of the likelihood of yet further devolution (among the English regions, although their own expenditures are not formula-driven) and of continuing pressures from some quarters for greater fiscal autonomy within the currently devolved territories. In this paper we provide a critical analysis of the operation of the Barnett formula. In Section 2 we explore the implications of the Barnett formula for regional government expenditure and expenditure per capita with the aid of some simple analytics. We then outline the history of the formula in Section 3. In Section 4 we discuss aspects of the “Barnett equilibria” that are implied by adherence to the formula and proceed to consider the determinants of the speed of adjustment to such equilibria in Section 5. In each of these sections we provide a brief discussion of the relevant and, as yet limited, empirical evidence on the likely economic impact of the Barnett formula. In Section 6 we briefly review the debate over the likely future of the Barnett formula. Finally, we present our conclusions in Section 7. While our focus throughout is primarily on Scotland, similar analyses would hold for Wales and Northern Ireland. Furthermore, we seek to provide a wider European perspective at appropriate points in the paper

HST WFPC2 Imaging of Three Low Surface Brightness Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster

[annotated] HST WFPC2 images were taken of three LSB dwarf elliptical galaxies in the Virgo cluster. The intent of the observations was to determine the small scale structure in these enigmatic galaxies, and to attempt to learn something about the nature of their giant branch through the detection of luminosity fluctuations. In two of the three studied galaxies, V7L3 and V1L4, the luminosity fluctuations were unambiguously detected, yielding a density of 2 - 10 red giants/pixel. Using the observed B-V and V-I colors as a constraint, we could find no model that would reproduce the observed fluctuation signal and blue colors if there was a significant population of M-giants in these systems. The third system, V2L8, did not have a detectable fluctuation signal which possibly implies it is not in the Virgo cluster. Interestingly, this system is highly nucleated. Our observations have resolved this nucleus and if V2L8 is in Virgo, then we have discovered what is likely the smallest bulge measured to date, having an effective radius of only 50 pc. This bulge is quite red (as red as giant ellipticals) and its entirely possible that this nucleated dE galaxy, in fact, is a very large galaxy located in the background. As such, it is highly reminiscent of the manner in which Malin-1 was discovered. Finally, we find no evidence for small scale clumping of stars in any of the studied systems at this much improved spatial resolution. This implies these systems are dynamically well-relaxed and that the physical cause of their observed low surface brightnesses is their low density. When imaged at the high spatial resolution of the WFPC2 (~6 pc per pixel), the galaxies are easy to look right through without evening knowing they are present in the very middle of the WFPC2 frame. They appear only as elevated ``sky noise''.Comment: 39 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in AJ The paper, full-sized figures, etc. can also be obtained via http://guernsey.uoregon.edu/~kare

Application of the speed-duration relationship to normalize the intensity of high-intensity interval training

The tolerable duration of continuous high-intensity exercise is determined by the hyperbolic Speed-tolerable duration (S-tLIM) relationship. However, application of the S-tLIM relationship to normalize the intensity of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has yet to be considered, with this the aim of present study. Subjects completed a ramp-incremental test, and series of 4 constant-speed tests to determine the S-tLIM relationship. A sub-group of subjects (n = 8) then repeated 4 min bouts of exercise at the speeds predicted to induce intolerance at 4 min (WR4), 6 min (WR6) and 8 min (WR8), interspersed with bouts of 4 min recovery, to the point of exercise intolerance (fixed WR HIIT) on different days, with the aim of establishing the work rate that could be sustained for 960 s (i.e. 4×4 min). A sub-group of subjects (n = 6) also completed 4 bouts of exercise interspersed with 4 min recovery, with each bout continued to the point of exercise intolerance (maximal HIIT) to determine the appropriate protocol for maximizing the amount of high-intensity work that can be completed during 4×4 min HIIT. For fixed WR HIIT tLIM of HIIT sessions was 399±81 s for WR4, 892±181 s for WR6 and 1517±346 s for WR8, with total exercise durations all significantly different from each other (P<0.050). For maximal HIIT, there was no difference in tLIM of each of the 4 bouts (Bout 1: 229±27 s; Bout 2: 262±37 s; Bout 3: 235±49 s; Bout 4: 235±53 s; P>0.050). However, there was significantly less high-intensity work completed during bouts 2 (153.5±40. 9 m), 3 (136.9±38.9 m), and 4 (136.7±39.3 m), compared with bout 1 (264.9±58.7 m; P>0.050). These data establish that WR6 provides the appropriate work rate to normalize the intensity of HIIT between subjects. Maximal HIIT provides a protocol which allows the relative contribution of the work rate profile to physiological adaptations to be considered during alternative intensity-matched HIIT protocols