An institutional perspective on managing migrant workers in the North of England

Despite advances made in our understanding of migrant worker issues, analysis of the literature reveals disconnections between the policy and practice of 'managed migration' across three fundamental levels of the state (e.g. public institutions at the EU, national and regional levels), corporate (e.g. employers and unions) and community (e.g. migrant social networks) levels. Consequently, this has implications on corporate and community aspects that often escape deeper analytical scrutiny. Concomitantly, the literature often assumes that policy decisions at the state level are necessarily homogeneous, and fails to account for the local specificities that could exist in this area. This research therefore sought to investigate the interplay between state, corporate and community levels in managing migrant workers across three regions in the North of England, and explore its implications on managing migrant worker employment in construction. The key research questions examined include the critical issues confronted by state, corporate and community actors in terms of framing migrant worker issues, and the nature of existing interactions between these stakeholders in terms of managing migrant workers in each of the three regions. Cross-regional comparisons were also considered in this research. Through interviewing key participants, it was found that subtle differences exist in regional government actors' response to the impacts of migration through their policy formation. It was also noted that interactions between the three levels vary substantially cross the three regions, and the tendency for stronger relationships to be forged between government and corporate actors where economic imperatives are concerned, with weaker and more ad hoc connections made between stakeholders across the three levels where social policy is concerned. It was concluded that any migration policy cannot be viewed as stand-alone, since empirical analysis across the three regions demonstrate the intertwining dimensions of linking migration policy with social and employment concerns

North Tyneside Printing Sector Training Needs Analysis

The printing sector in this region has a proportionately low level of employment compared to the UK as a whole. North Tyneside provides the location for some 36 print-based firms, which account for only 11% of Tyne & Wear’s total print employment. However, this survey indicates that the official data significantly under-estimates the employment size of the sector in North Tyneside

Discovery of extreme asymmetry in the debris disk surrounding HD 15115

We report the first scattered light detection of a dusty debris disk surrounding the F2V star HD 15115 using the Hubble Space Telescope in the optical, and Keck adaptive optics in the near-infrared. The most remarkable property of the HD 15115 disk relative to other debris disks is its extreme length asymmetry. The east side of the disk is detected to ~315 AU radius, whereas the west side of the disk has radius >550 AU. We find a blue optical to near-infrared scattered light color relative to the star that indicates grain scattering properties similar to the AU Mic debris disk. The existence of a large debris disk surrounding HD 15115 adds further evidence for membership in the Beta Pic moving group, which was previously argued based on kinematics alone. Here we hypothesize that the extreme disk asymmetry is due to dynamical perturbations from HIP 12545, an M star 0.5 degrees (0.38 pc) east of HD 15115 that shares a common proper motion vector, heliocentric distance, galactic space velocity, and age.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, ApJ Letters, accepte

Pathways to interleukin-6 in healthy males and serious leisure male athletes: physical activity, body composition and age.

Physical activity (PA) is beneficial to overall health, in part due to physiological changes that lower risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including reduced inflammation. However, the mechanism by which PA reduces inflammation is unclear. One possible pathway is that PA improves body composition which in turn reduces inflammation. To test this hypothesis, we used structural equation modeling (SEM) to assess PA-body composition -inflammation pathways, as well as influences of age. In a sample of 72 healthy males with a range of PA profiles (age 18-65, mean ± sd = ), we measured PA as metabolic equivalent tasks (as per the International PA Questionnaire), body composition as percent body fat, lean mass, and fat mass, and inflammation as plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6). We treated body composition in the SEM analysis as a latent variable indicated by the three measures. We performed statistical corrections for missing values and one outlier. The model demonstrated significant effects of PA on IL-6 both directly and through body composition. Percent body fat, fat mass, and lean mass were significant indicators of the body composition latent variable. Additionally, age showed an indirect effect on IL-6 through body composition, but no direct effect. The findings suggest that PA does improve inflammatory profile through improving body composition, but that other pathways also exist

Doing Theology in the City

The task of theology is often a lonely endeavor. The hush of the library or the archives, the still of the chapel, and the quiet discipline of one\u27s desk are places where theological research and writing unfold, most often in solitary concentration. The classroom on the protected college campus or seminary, the academic conference in large hotels, and even the cherished conversation in the homes of colleagues do open the theologian to other minds and hearts so that theories and insights may be tested in dialogue. However, these exchanges are often located in affluent social contexts which cannot reveal the full import of the self-revealing Word of God. Certainly, the tradition holds that Christian theology is always done in the context of the thinking and worshiping Church, so the theologian is never alone in her or his work. More recently, theologians have become more intentional about the social and cultural contexts within which they theologize. Following the original example of Jesus and the more recent examples of Liberation Theology, Christian theologians have been moving among the poor, especially the urban poor, in order to discover and articulate a new word about God

A degenerate PCR-based strategy as a means of identifying homologues of aminoglycoside and ß-lactam resistance genes in the gut microbiota

peer-reviewedBackground: The potential for the human gut microbiota to serve as a reservoir for antibiotic resistance genes has been the subject of recent discussion. However, this has yet to be investigated using a rapid PCR-based approach. In light of this, here we aim to determine if degenerate PCR primers can detect aminoglycoside and β-lactam resistance genes in the gut microbiota of healthy adults, without the need for an initial culture-based screen for resistant isolates. In doing so, we would determine if the gut microbiota of healthy adults, lacking recent antibiotic exposure, is a reservoir for resistance genes. Results: The strategy employed resulted in the identification of numerous aminoglycoside (acetylation, adenylation and phosphorylation) and β-lactam (including bla OXA, bla TEM, bla SHV and bla CTX-M) resistance gene homologues. On the basis of homology, it would appear that these genes originated from different bacterial taxa, with members of the Enterobacteriaceae being a particularly rich source. The results demonstrate that, even in the absence of recent antibiotic exposure, the human gut microbiota is a considerable reservoir for antibiotic resistance genes. Conclusions: This study has demonstrated that the gut can be a significant source of aminoglycoside and β-lactam resistance genes, even in the absence of recent antibiotic exposure. The results also demonstrate that PCR-based approaches can be successfully applied to detect antibiotic resistance genes in the human gut microbiota, without the need to isolate resistant strains. This approach could also be used to rapidly screen other complex environments for target genes.Fiona Fouhy is in receipt of an Irish Research Council EMBARK scholarship and is a Teagasc Walsh fellow. Research in the PDC laboratory is also supported by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan through the Science Foundation Ireland Investigator award 11/PI/113

STIS Coronagraphic Imaging of Fomalhaut: Main Belt Structure and the Orbit of Fomalhaut b

We present new optical coronagraphic data of the bright star Fomalhaut obtained with the HST in 2010/2012 using STIS. Fomalhaut b is recovered at both epochs to high significance. The observations include the discoveries of tenuous nebulosity beyond the main dust belt detected to at least 209 AU projected radius and a ~50 AU wide azimuthal gap in the belt northward of Fom b. The morphology of Fomalhaut b appears elliptical in the STIS detections. We show that residual noise in the processed data can plausibly result in point sources appearing extended. A MCMC analysis demonstrates that the orbit of Fom b is highly eccentric, with e=0.8+/-0.1, a=177+/-68 AU, and q = 32+/-24 AU. Fom b is apsidally aligned with the belt and 90% of allowed orbits have mutual inclination 36 deg or less. Fomalhaut b's orbit is belt-crossing in projection, but only 12% of possible orbits have nodes within a 25 AU wide belt annulus (133-158 AU). The high e invokes a dynamical history where Fom b may have experienced a significant dynamical interaction with a hypothetical planet Fomalhaut c, and the current orbital configuration may be relatively short-lived. The new value for the periastron distance diminishes the Hill radius of Fom b and any weakly bound satellite system surrounding a planet would be sheared and dynamically heated at periapse. We argue that Fom b's minimum mass is that of a dwarf planet in order for a circumplanetary satellite system to remain bound to a sufficient radius from the planet to be consistent with the dust scattered light hypothesis. Fom b may be optically bright because the recent passage through periapse and/or the ascending node has increased the erosion rates of planetary satellites. In the coplanar case, Fomalhaut b will collide with the main belt around 2032, and the subsequent emergent phenomena may help determine its physical nature.Comment: 49 Pages, 33 Figures, 5 Tables; Submitted to ApJ, Dec. 31, 201

Solution Behaviour of Polyethylene Oxide, Nonionic Gemini Surfactants

In recent years there has been increasing interest in novel forms of surfactants. Of particular interest are gemini surfactants, which consist of two conventional surfactants joined by a spacer at the head groups, as they exhibit lower critical micelle concentrations than can be achieved by conventional surfactants. In this work, the self-assembly behaviour of several nonionic gemini surfactants with polyethylene oxide head groups (GemnEm, where n (= 20) is the number of carbons per tail and m (= 10, 15, 20 and 30) is the number of ethylene oxides per head group) were investigated. The Critical Micelle Concentrations (CMCs) were measured using a fluorescence probe technique. The CMCs are all ~2 x 10?7 M, with almost no variation with m. The CMCs are several orders of magnitude lower than conventional C12Em nonionic surfactants. The mixing behaviour of the gemini surfactants with conventional surfactants was also studied. They obeyed ideal mixing behaviour with both ionic and nonionic surfactants. Micelle morphologies were studied using Small Angle Neutron Scattering. The gemini surfactants with the larger head groups (i.e. Gem20E20 and Gem20E30) formed spherical micelles. Gem20E15 showed strong scattering at low Q, characteristic of elongated micelles. As the temperature was increased towards the cloud point, the scattering approached the Q-1 dependence predicted for infinite, straight rods. The existence of anisotropic micelles was supported by the viscosity of Gem20E15, which increases by several orders of magnitude on heating towards its cloud point. Phase behaviour was determined using Diffusive Interfacial Transport coupled to near-infrared spectroscopy. Much of the behaviour of these systems is similar to conventional nonionic surfactants. For example, Gem20E10 forms a dilute liquid isotropic phase (W) coexisting with a concentrated lamellar phase (La) at around room temperature and forms a sponge phase at higher temperatures. This is similar to the behaviour of C12E3 and C12E4. The other surfactants studied are all quite soluble in water and form liquid isotropic and hexagonal phases from room temperature. At higher concentrations Gem20E15 formed a cubic and then a lamellar phase while Gem20E20 formed a cubic phase and then an intermediate phase. This is also comparable to the phase behaviour of conventional nonionic surfactants except the intermediate phase, which is often only observed for surfactant systems with long alkyl tails