The political process of constructing a sustainable London Olympics sports development legacy

This study attempts to develop a research agenda for understanding the process of constructing a sustainable Olympic sports development legacy. The research uses a social constructivist perspective to examine the link between the 2012 London Olympic Games and sustainable sports development. The first part of the paper provides justification for the study of sport policy processes using a constructivist lens. This is followed by a section which critically unpacks sustainable sports development drawing on Mosse’s (1998) ideas of process-oriented research and Searle’s conceptualisation of the construction of social reality. Searle’s (1995) concepts of the assignment of function, collective intentionality, collective rules, and human capacity to cope with the environment are considered in relation to the events and discourses emerging from the legacy vision(s) associated with the 2012 London Olympic Games. The paper concludes by proposing a framework for engaging in process oriented research and highlights key elements, research questions, and methodological issues. The proposed constructivist approach can be used to inform policy, practice, and research on sustainable Olympic sports development legacy

Adjuvant statin therapy for oesophageal adenocarcinoma: the STAT‐ROC feasibility study

Background Statins inhibit proliferative signalling in oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) and their use is associated with better survival in observational studies. The present study was undertaken to examine the feasibility of assessing adjuvant statin therapy in patients with operable OAC in a phase III RCT. Methods For this multicentre, double‐blind, parallel‐group, randomized, placebo‐controlled feasibility trial, adults with OAC (including Siewert I–II lesions) who had undergone oesophagectomy were centrally allocated (1 : 1) to simvastatin 40 mg or matching placebo by block randomization, stratified by centre. Participants, clinicians and investigators were blinded to treatment allocation. Patients received treatment for up to 1 year. Feasibility outcomes were recruitment, retention, drug absorption, adherence, safety, quality of life, generalizability and survival. Results A total of 120 patients were assessed for eligibility at four centres, of whom 32 (26·7 per cent) were randomized, 16 in each group. Seven patients withdrew. Participants allocated to simvastatin had lower low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol levels by 3 months (adjusted mean difference −0·83 (95 per cent c.i. −1·4 to −0·22) mmol/l; P = 0·009). Median adherence to medication was greater than 90 per cent between 3 and 12 months' follow‐up. Adverse events were similar between the groups. Quality‐of‐life data were complete for 98·3 per cent of questionnaire items. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes and aspirin use were more prevalent in the non‐randomized group, whereas tumour site, stage and grade were similar between groups. Survival estimates were imprecise. Conclusion This RCT supports the conduct and informs the design considerations for a future phase III trial of adjuvant statin therapy in patients with OAC. Registration number: ISRCTN98060456 (www.isrctn/com)

Impact of Solitary Involved Lymph Node on Outcome in Localized Cancer of the Esophagus and Esophagogastric Junction

Node-positive esophageal cancer is associated with a dismal prognosis. The impact of a solitary involved node, however, is unclear, and this study examined the implications of a solitary node compared with greater nodal involvement and node-negative disease. The clinical and pathologic details of 604 patients were entered prospectively into a database from1993 and 2005. Four pathologic groups were analyzed: node-negative, one lymph node positive, two or three lymph nodes positive, and greater than three lymph nodes positive. Three hundred and fifteen patients (52%) were node-positive and 289 were node-negative. The median survival was 26 months in the node-negative group. Patients (n = 84) who had one node positive had a median survival of 16 months (p = 0.03 vs node-negative). Eighty-four patients who had two or three nodes positive had a median survival of 11 months compared with a median survival of 8 months in the 146 patients who had greater than three nodes positive (p = 0.01). The survival of patients with one node positive [number of nodes (N) = 1] was also significantly greater than the survival of patients with 2–3 nodes positive (N = 2–3) (p = 0.049) and greater than three nodes positive (p < 0001). The presence of a solitary involved lymph node has a negative impact on survival compared with node-negative disease, but it is associated with significantly improved overall survival compared with all other nodal groups

CEM03 and LAQGSM03 - new modeling tools for nuclear applications

An improved version of the Cascade-Exciton Model (CEM) of nuclear reactions realized in the code CEM2k and the Los Alamos version of the Quark-Gluon String Model (LAQGSM) have been developed recently at LANL to describe reactions induced by particles and nuclei for a number of applications. Our CEM2k and LAQGSM merged with the GEM2 evaporation/fission code by Furihata have predictive powers comparable to other modern codes and describe many reactions better than other codes; therefore both our codes can be used as reliable event generators in transport codes for applications. During the last year, we have made a significant improvements to the intranuclear cascade parts of CEM2k and LAQGSM, and have extended LAQGSM to describe photonuclear reactions at energies to 10 GeV and higher. We have produced in this way improved versions of our codes, CEM03.01 and LAQGSM03.01. We present a brief description of our codes and show illustrative results obtained with CEM03.01 and LAQGSM03.01 for different reactions compared with predictions by other models, as well as examples of using our codes as modeling tools for nuclear applications.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, to be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series: Proc. Europhysics Conf. on New Trends in Nuclear Physics Applications and Technologies (NPDC19), Pavia, Italy, September 5-9, 200

Thermal Diffusion and Quench Propagation in YBCO Pancake Coils Wound with ZnO-and Mylar Insulations

The thermal diffusion properties of several different kinds of YBCO insulations and the quench properties of pancake coils made using these insulations were studied. Insulations investigated include Nomex, Kapton, and Mylar, as well as insulations based on ZnO, Zn2GeO4, and ZnO-Cu. Initially, short stacks of YBCO conductors with interlayer insulation, epoxy, and a central heater strip were made and later measured for thermal conductivity in liquid nitrogen. Subsequently, three different pancake coils were made. The first two were smaller, each using one meter total of YBCO tape present as four turns around a G-10 former. One of these smaller coils used Mylar insulation co-wound with the YBCO tape, the other used YBCO tape onto which ZnO based insulation had been deposited. One larger coil was made which used 12 total meters of ZnO-insulated tape and had 45 turns. The results for all short sample and coil thermal conductivities were ~1-3 Wm-1K-1. Finally, quench propagation velocity measurements were performed on the coils (77 K, self field) by applying a DC current and then using a heater pulse to initiate a quench. Normal zone propagation velocity (NZP) values were obtained for the coils both in the radial direction and in the azimuthal direction. Radial NZP values (0.05-0.7 mm/s) were two orders of magnitude lower than axial values (~14-17 mm/s). Nevertheless, the quenches were generally seen to propagate radially within the coils, in the sense that any given layer in the coil is driven normal by the layer underneath it.Comment: 58 pages, 5 tables, 16 fig

Interleukin-10 inhibits osteoclastogenesis by reducing NFATc1 expression and preventing its translocation to the nucleus

BACKGROUND: IL-10 has a potent inhibitory effect on osteoclastogenesis. In vitro and in vivo studies confirm the importance of this cytokine in bone metabolism, for instance IL-10-deficient mice develop the hallmarks of osteoporosis. Although it is known that IL-10 directly inhibits osteoclastogenesis at an early stage, preventing differentiation of osteoclast progenitors to preosteoclasts, the precise mechanism of its action is not yet clear. Several major pathways regulate osteoclastogenesis, with key signalling genes such as p38, TRAF6, NF-κB and NFATc1 well established as playing vital roles. We have looked at gene expression in eleven of these genes using real-time quantitative PCR on RNA extracted from RANKL-treated RAW264.7 monocytes. RESULTS: There was no downregulation by IL-10 of DAP12, FcγRIIB, c-jun, RANK, TRAF6, p38, NF-κB, Gab2, Pim-1, or c-Fos at the mRNA level. However, we found that IL-10 significantly reduces RANKL-induced NFATc1 expression. NFATc1 is transcribed from two alternative promoters in Mus musculus and, interestingly, only the variant transcribed from promoter P1 and beginning with exon 1 was downregulated by IL-10 (isoform 1). In addition, immunofluorescence studies showed that IL-10 reduces NFATc1 levels in RANKL-treated precursors and suppresses nuclear translocation. The inhibitory effect of IL-10 on tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase-positive cell number and NFATc1 mRNA expression was reversed by the protein kinase C agonist phorbol myristate acetate, providing evidence that interleukin-10 disrupts NFATc1 activity through its effect on Ca(2+ )mobilisation. CONCLUSION: IL-10 acts directly on mononuclear precursors to inhibit NFATc1 expression and nuclear translocation, and we provide evidence that the mechanism may involve disruption of Ca(2+ )mobilisation. We detected downregulation only of the NFATc1 isoform 1 transcribed from promoter P1. This is the first report indicating that one of the ways in which IL-10 directly inhibits osteoclastogenesis is by suppressing NFATc1 activity

A Green Function for Metric Perturbations due to Cosmological Density Fluctuations

We study scalar perturbations to a Robertson-Walker cosmological metric in terms of a pseudo-Newtonian potential, which emerges naturally from the solution of the field equations. This potential is given in terms of a Green function for matter density fluctuations of arbitrary amplitude whose time and spatial dependence are assumed known. The results obtained span both the linearized and Newtonian limits, and do not explicitly depend on any kind of averaging procedure, but make the valid assumption that the global expansion rate is that of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker model. In addition, we discuss the similarity to diffusive processes in the evolution of the potential, and possible applications.Comment: 19 pages, REVTeX. SU-ITP-9233, submitted to Physical Review