Eliciting public preferences for managing the public rights of way

Public Rights of Way (PROW) in England and Wales, provides a wide range of social and economic benefits to those other than owners of land. The protection and extension of PROW are an important way of encouraging people to engage in informal enjoyment of urban and rural areas, with beneficial consequences for health and welfare. In urban areas they provide networks of mobility and interaction for people at the community level, helping to reduce reliance on motorised transport. In the rural context they define access to the countryside, critically linked to recreation and tourism, as well as providing mobility networks for local residents. This study describes the use of a Choice Experiment (CE) to derive monetary estimates the social benefits of PROW in an English county.Choice Experiments, Public Rights of Way, Willingness to Pay, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Particle Impact Analysis of Bulk Powder During Pneumatic Conveyance

Fragmentation of powders during transportation is a common problem for manufacturers of food and pharmaceutical products. We illustrate that the primary cause of breakage is due to inter-particle collisions, rather than particle-wall impacts, and provide a statistical mechanics model giving the number of collisions resulting in fragmentation

Designing Markets for Biodiversity Offsets: Lessons from Tradable Pollution Permits

Globally, governments and regulators face an ongoing trade‐off between meeting economic development needs and conserving biodiversity. Markets for biodiversity offsets are one tool which could secure biodiversity protection at lower costs to society whilst allowing some economic development to still take place. We provide a new perspective on biodiversity offset markets by focussing on what can be learnt from one of the best‐researched environmental markets: the market for tradable pollution permits. We argue there are four key design parameters in terms of how and what to trade. These design parameters likely determine the ecological effectiveness and economic efficiency of any market in biodiversity offsets. Applying lessons from tradable pollution permit markets will be important if the benefits of biodiversity offset markets are to be realized more fully in future. A well‐functioning market for biodiversity offsets dually minimizes the economic costs of preventing future losses in biodiversity due to development and provides an economic incentive for landowners to invest in biodiversity conservation. The most crucial aspect of the market is what to trade (the currency in the offset market), and this has significant implications on the other key aspects of market design; the trading ratio which governs the rate of exchange between offsets at different points in space and time; the scale of the market; and how the market is regulated. We argue that markets function best where the conservation priority is a well‐defined unit of biodiversity which can be readily measured and monitored. In situations where there are already strong regulations safeguarding biodiversity, the benefit of biodiversity offset markets is in reducing the aggregate costs of conservation. We believe biodiversity offset markets will offer the highest potential in developing countries with weaker environmental protection and a greater need to reconcile economic development needs with conservation under limited funding

Human notochordal cell transcriptome unveils potential regulators of cell function in the developing intervertebral disc

The adult nucleus pulposus originates from the embryonic notochord, but loss of notochordal cells with skeletal maturity in humans is thought to contribute to the onset of intervertebral disc degeneration. Thus, defining the phenotype of human embryonic/fetal notochordal cells is essential for understanding their roles and for development of novel therapies. However, a detailed transcriptomic profiling of human notochordal cells has never been achieved. In this study, the notochord-specific marker CD24 was used to specifically label and isolate (using FACS) notochordal cells from human embryonic and fetal spines (7.5-14 weeks post-conception). Microarray analysis and qPCR validation identified CD24, STMN2, RTN1, PRPH, CXCL12, IGF1, MAP1B, ISL1, CLDN1 and THBS2 as notochord-specific markers. Expression of these markers was confirmed in nucleus pulposus cells from aged and degenerate discs. Ingenuity pathway analysis revealed molecules involved in inhibition of vascularisation (WISP2, Noggin and EDN2) and inflammation (IL1-RN) to be master regulators of notochordal genes. Importantly, this study has, for the first time, defined the human notochordal cell transcriptome and suggests inhibition of inflammation and vascularisation may be key roles for notochordal cells during intervertebral disc development. The molecules and pathways identified in this study have potential for use in developing strategies to retard/prevent disc degeneration, or regenerate tissue.This research was funded by Arthritis Research UK (reference 21165 to SMR/JAH/LW) and the Henry Smith Charity (to JAH/SMR/MH). RRP was supported by a grant from the Programme for Advanced Medical Education, sponsored by Fundacão Calouste Gulbenkian, fundação Champalimaud, Ministério da Saúde, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Apifarma, Portugal. Support was also received from the UK Medical Research Council (MR/J003352/1 to KPH), the Wellcome Trust (NAH was a senior fellow in clinical science, 088566; additional support from grant, 097820), and the British Council (14BX15NHBG to NAH). Consumable and technical support for this project (Sonal Patel) was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Manchester Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the National Institute for Health Research, or the Department of Health. We are very grateful to all women who consented to take part in our research programme and for the assistance of research nurses and clinical colleagues at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. The authors would like to thank Prof Kathy Cheah and group for advice regarding the identification of sex-specific markers within microarray datasets.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Developing measures for valuing changes in biodiversity

This document reports the findings from the DEFRA funded research project 'Developing measures for valuing changes in biodiversity'. The aim of the research was to develop an appropriate framework that will enable cost-effective and robust valuations of the total economic value of changes to biodiversity in the UK countryside. The research involved a review of ecological and economic literature on the valuation of biodiversity changes. The information gathered from this review, along with the findings from a series of public focus groups and an expert review of valuation methodologies, were used to develop a suite of valuation instruments that were used to measure the economic value of different aspects of biodiversity. Contingent valuation and choice experiment studies were administered to households in Cambridgeshire and Northumberland, while valuation workshops were conducted in Northumberland only. The data from these studies were also used to test for benefits transfer

Analysis of lower limb internal kinetics and electromyography in elite race walking.

The aim of this study was to analyse lower limb joint moments, powers and electromyography patterns in elite race walking. Twenty international male and female race walkers performed at their competitive pace in a laboratory setting. The collection of ground reaction forces (1000 Hz) was synchronised with two-dimensional high-speed videography (100 Hz) and electromyography of seven lower limb muscles (1000 Hz). As well as measuring key performance variables such as speed and stride length, normalised joint moments and powers were calculated. The rule in race walking which requires the knee to be extended from initial contact to midstance effectively made the knee redundant during stance with regard to energy generation. Instead, the leg functioned as a rigid lever which affected the role of the hip and ankle joints. The main contributors to energy generation were the hip extensors during late swing and early stance, and the ankle plantarflexors during late stance. The restricted functioning of the knee during stance meant that the importance of the swing leg in contributing to forward momentum was increased. The knee flexors underwent a phase of great energy absorption during the swing phase and this could increase the risk of injury to the hamstring muscles

Geometric mismatch of pulmonary and aortic anuli in children undergoing the Ross procedure: Implications for surgical management and autograft valve function

AbstractBackground: There is often substantial mismatch between the diameters of the pulmonary and aortic anuli in young patients with systemic outflow tract disease. To implant the autologous pulmonary valve in the aortic position under such circumstances, it is necessary to adapt the geometry of the systemic outflow tract. The effects of such adaptations on autograft function in children are not well known. Methods: To determine factors predictive of autograft regurgitation, we analyzed 41 cases of children who have undergone the Ross procedure. The diameter of the pulmonary valve was greater (by at least 3 mm) than that of the aortic valve in 20 cases, equal (within 2 mm) in 12 cases, and less (by at least 3 mm) in nine cases, with differences ranging from +10 to –12 mm. In 12 patients with a larger pulmonary anulus, aortoventriculoplasty was used to correct the mismatch. In patients with a larger aortic anulus, the mismatch was corrected by gradual adjustment along the circumference of the autograft, rather than by tailoring of the native aortic anulus. Results: At follow-up (median 31 months), two patients had undergone reoperation on the neoaortic valve for moderate regurgitation. In the remaining 38 cases, autograft regurgitation was as follows: none or trivial in 30, mild in seven, and moderate in one. There was no correlation between regurgitation and age, geometric mismatch, or previous or concurrent procedures. Conclusions: Subtle technical factors that may result in distortion of the valve complex are probably more important determinants of autograft regurgitation than are indication for repair, geometric mismatch, or previous or concomitant outflow tract procedures. Significant mismatch of the semilunar anuli is not a contraindication to the Ross procedure in children. (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1998;115:1255-63

The influence of particle surface roughness on elastic stiffness and dynamic response

Discrete-element method (DEM) simulations of planar wave propagation are used to examine the effect of particle surface roughness on the stiffness and dynamic response of granular materials. A new contact model that considers particle surface roughness is implemented in the DEM simulations. Face-centred cubic lattice packings and random configurations are used; uniform spheres are considered in both cases to isolate fabric and contact model effects from inertia effects. For the range of values considered here surface roughness caused a significant reduction in stiffness, particularly at lower confining stresses. The simulations confirm that surface roughness effects can at least partially explain the value of the exponent in the relationship between stiffness and mean confining stress for an assembly of spherical particles. Frequency domain analyses showed that the maximum frequency transmitted through the sample is reduced when surface roughness is considered. The assumption of homogeneity of stress and contacts in analytical micromechanical models is shown to lead to an overestimation of stiffness

‘They Called Them Communists Then … What D'You Call ‘Em Now? … Insurgents?’. Narratives of British Military Expatriates in the Context of the New Imperialism

This paper addresses the question of the extent to which the colonial past provides material for contemporary actors' understanding of difference. The research from which the paper is drawn involved interview and ethnographic work in three largely white working-class estates in an English provincial city. For this paper we focus on ten life-history interviews with older participants who had spent some time abroad in the British military. Our analysis adopts a postcolonial framework because research participants' current constructions of an amorphous 'Other' (labelled variously as black people, immigrants, foreigners, asylum-seekers or Muslims) reveal strong continuities with discourses deployed by the same individuals to narrate their past experiences of living and working as either military expatriates or spouses during British colonial rule. Theoretically, the paper engages with the work of Frantz Fanon and Edward Said. In keeping with a postcolonial approach, we work against essentialised notions of identity based on 'race' or class. Although we establish continuity between white working-class military emigration in the past and contemporary racialised discourses, we argue that the latter are not class-specific, being as much the creations of the middle-class media and political elite