Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS): breathtaking progress

Reports of a new severe respiratory disease, now defined as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), began to emerge from Guangdong, in southern China, in late 2002. The condition came to international attention through an explosive outbreak in Hong Kong in March 2003. Cases appeared throughout South-East Asia and in Toronto, the spread of SARS being accelerated by international air travel. A global emergency was declared by the World Health Organization, bringing together an international team of epidemiologists, public health physicians and microbiologists to study and contain the disease. This response has enabled the nature of the infectious agent to be identified, its mode of transmission to be established and diagnostic tests to be created rapidly.</p

Development of magnetostrictive active members for control of space structures

The goal of this Phase 2 Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) project was to determine the technical feasibility of developing magnetostrictive active members for use as truss elements in space structures. Active members control elastic vibrations of truss-based space structures and integrate the functions of truss structure element, actively controlled actuator, and sensor. The active members must control structural motion to the sub-micron level and, for many proposed space applications, work at cryogenic temperatures. Under this program both room temperature and cryogenic temperature magnetostrictive active members were designed, fabricated, and tested. The results of these performance tests indicated that room temperature magnetostrictive actuators feature higher strain, stiffness, and force capability with lower amplifier requirements than similarly sized piezoelectric or electrostrictive active members, at the cost of higher mass. Two different cryogenic temperature magnetostrictive materials were tested at liquid nitrogen temperatures, both with larger strain capability than the room temperature magnetostrictive materials. The cryogenic active member development included the design and fabrication of a cryostat that allows operation of the cryogenic active member in a space structure testbed

Unequal relationships in high and low power distance societies: a comparative study of tutor - student role relations in Britain and China

This study investigated people's conceptions of an unequal role relationship in two different types of society: a high power distance society and a low power distance society. The study focuses on the role relationship of tutor and student. British and Chinese tutors and postgraduate students completed a questionnaire that probed their conceptions of degrees of power differential and social distance/closeness in this role relationship. ANOVA results yielded a significant nationality effect for both aspects. Chinese respondents judged the relationship to be closer and to have a greater power differential than did British respondents. Written comments on the questionnaire and interviews with 9 Chinese academics who had experienced both British and Chinese academic environments supported the statistical findings and indicated that there are fundamental ideological differences associated with the differing conceptions. The results are discussed in relation to Western and Asian concepts of leadership and differing perspectives on the compatibility/incompatibility of power and distance/closeness

The UK market for energy service contracts in 2014–2015

This paper provides an overview of the UK market for energy service contracts in 2014 and highlights the growing role of intermediaries. Using information from secondary literature and interviews, it identifies the businesses offering energy service contracts, the sectors and organisations that are purchasing those contracts, the types of contract that are available, the areas of market growth and the reasons for that growth. The paper finds that the UK market is relatively large, highly diverse, concentrated in particular sectors and types of site and overwhelmingly focused upon established technologies with high rates of return. A major driver is the emergence of procurement frameworks for energy service contracts in the public sector. These act as intermediaries between clients and contractors, thereby lowering transaction costs and facilitating learning. The market is struggling to become established in commercial offices, largely as a result of split incentives, and is unlikely to develop further in this sector without different business models, tenancy arrangements and policy initiatives. Overall, the paper concludes that energy service contracts can play an important role in the transition to a low-carbon economy, especially when supported by intermediaries, but their potential is still limited by high transaction costs

Results from the first English stool bank using faecal microbiota transplant as a medicinal product for the treatment of Clostridioides difficile infection.

BACKGROUND: Faecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) has improved outcomes for the treatment of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) compared to antibiotic therapy. FMT is classified as a medicinal product in the United Kingdom, similar to the USA and Canada, limiting supply via stool banks without appropriate licencing. In the largest UK cohort to date, we describe the clinical outcomes for 124 patients receiving FMT for recurrent or refractory CDI and present a framework to produce FMT as a licenced medicinal product. METHODS: Anonymous unrelated healthy donors, screened via health assessment and microbiological testing donated stool. In aerobic conditions FMT aliquots were prepared for immediate use or frozen storage, following a production framework developed to comply with Good Manufacturing Practice. Outcome measures were clinical response to FMT defined as resolution of diarrhoea within seven days and clinical cure defined as response without diarrhoea recurrence at 90 days. FINDINGS: Clinical response was 83·9% (95% CI 76·0%-90·0%) after one treatment. Clinical cure was 78·2% (95% CI 67·4%-89·0%) across the cohort. Refractory cases appeared to have a lower initial clinical response rate compared to recurrent cases, however at day 90 there were no differences observed between these groups. INTERPRETATION: The methodology developed here enabled successful licencing of FMT by The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency as a medicinal product. This has widened the availability of FMT in the National Health Service via a stool bank and can be applied in other centres across the world to improve access to safe and quality assured treatments