Lord Home and Anglo–American relations, 1961–1963

This article focuses on the role of Lord Home, the British Foreign Secretary, in the conduct of Anglo–American relations between 1961 and 1963. It studies three controversial policy areas: the newly independent states of Laos and the Congo, along with the debate over the decolonisation of British Guiana; the key Cold War issues of Berlin and Cuba; and a variety of nuclear weapons–related matters. It is argued that Home, in constantly striving to maintain the alliance, was more pro-American than Macmillan. He exercised an important restraining and calming influence on the Prime Minister, preventing him from pursuing potentially damaging initiatives. However, the relationship between the two men was strong. Home’s diplomacy usually complimented Macmillan’s interventions and they often worked together

Lord Home and Anglo–American relations, 1961–1963

This article focuses on the role of Lord Home, the British Foreign Secretary, in the conduct of Anglo–American relations between 1961 and 1963. It studies three controversial policy areas: the newly independent states of Laos and the Congo, along with the debate over the decolonisation of British Guiana; the key Cold War issues of Berlin and Cuba; and a variety of nuclear weapons–related matters. It is argued that Home, in constantly striving to maintain the alliance, was more pro-American than Macmillan. He exercised an important restraining and calming influence on the Prime Minister, preventing him from pursuing potentially damaging initiatives. However, the relationship between the two men was strong. Home’s diplomacy usually complimented Macmillan’s interventions and they often worked together

Emotional intelligence and its role in recruitment of nursing students

This article considers the concept of emotional intelligence and how it can be used in the recruitment and development of nursing students. The links between emotional intelligence and the qualities of compassion and caring are examined. The ethical difficulties surrounding the use of emotional intelligence tests are explored and the value of using a variety of recruitment methods is emphasised. The article suggests that emotional intelligence is an ability which may be developed through nurse education programmes, even if not fully present at interview. The contribution of service users to the recruitment of nursing students is examined, suggesting that they offer some important observations about interviewees. These observations may be more valid than the insights gained from the use of emotional intelligence tests

Determination of in silico rules for predicting small molecule binding behavior to nucleic acids in vitro.

The vast knowledge of nucleic acids is evolving and it is now known that DNA can adopt highly complex, heterogeneous structures. Among the most intriguing are the G-quadruplex structures, which are thought to play a pivotal role in cancer pathogenesis. Efforts to find new small molecules for these and other physiologically relevant nucleic acid structures have generally been limited to isolation from natural sources or rationale synthesis of promising lead compounds. However, with the rapid growth in computational power that is increasingly becoming available, virtual screening and computational approaches are quickly becoming a reality in academia and industry as an efficient and economical way to discover new lead compounds. These computational efforts have historically almost entirely focused on proteins as targets and have neglected DNA. We present research here showing that not only can software be utilized for targeting DNA, but that selectivity metrics can be developed to predict the binding mechanism of a small molecule to a DNA target. The software Surflex and Autodock were chosen for evaluation and were demonstrated to be able to accurately reproduce the known crystal structures of several small molecules that bind by the most common nucleic acid interacting mechanisms of groove binding and intercalation. These software were further used to rationalize known affinity and selectivity data of a 67 compound library of compounds for a library of nucleic acid structures including duplex, triplex and quadruplexes. Based upon the known binding behavior of these compounds, in silica metrics were developed to classify compounds as either groove binders or intercalators. These rules were subsequently used to identify new triplex and quadruplex binding small molecules by structure and ligand-based virtual screening approaches using a virtual library consisting of millions of commercially available small molecules. The binding behavior of the newly discovered triplex and quadruplex binding compounds was empirically validated using a number of spectroscopic, fluorescent and thermodynamic equilibrium techniques. In total, this research predicted the binding behavior of these test compounds in silica and subsequently validated these findings in vitro. This research presents a novel approach to discover lead compounds that target multiple nucleic acid morphologies

Vascular Smooth Muscle as a Therapeutic Target in Disease Pathology

Our circulatory system is composed of numerous elements that are responsible for transport of blood and delivery of essential nutrients and gases to vital downstream tissues. Among these components that make up our circulation is vascular smooth muscle (VSM), the primary muscular and contractile element of blood vessels and regulator of many blood vessel functions. This is of particular importance as cardiovascular disease (CVD), the number one killer of individuals in America and worldwide, is primarily vascular in origin. Logically, identifying and characterizing feasible targets that could control CVD are highly appealing and much desired. With this in mind and given its centrality in control of vascular physiology, VSM has gained wide attention as a plausible target to combat elements of CVD. This book chapter focuses on VSM as a potential therapeutic target against CVD and will provide overview of vascular anatomy and physiology and brief discussions about the pivotal roles of VSM in CVD pathology, the influence of abnormal blood flow mechanics and hemodynamics in CVD, neural control of VSM and the vasculature, and possible novel cellular and molecular signaling targets that could be used to control and/or minimize CVD. This chapter hopes to serve as a valuable resource for basic and applied scientists as well as clinicians interested in understanding the crucial roles that VSM plays in vessel physiology and pathology

The long-run performance of U.S. bidding firms in the post M&A period : the impact of bid type, payment method and industry specialisation

This study investigates how mergers and acquisitions (M&A) affect the wealth of shareholders of public firms in the United States (U.S). More specifically, it investigates whether the nature of the bid, the payment method used, and the type of M&A have implications for shareholders of U.S bidding firms. The study analyses 352 mergers and acquisitions in the U.S during the period 1999-2008, and its results indicate that bidding firms suffer significant negative buy-and-hold abnormal returns in the three years period after a M&A announcement. The results also suggest that, in the long-run, hostile bids and cash-financed bidders outperform friendly bids and stock-funded bidders, respectively. Furthermore, the study also finds that in the long-run bidder firms that focus on industry specialisation within their M&A targets significantly outperform firms that adopt a more diversified strategy. The analysis also investigates the effects of M&A specialisation/diversification in six different sectors, and finds that specialised bidders outperform diversified bidders in four sectors: consumer & basic materials, energy & utilities, communications and technology. Furthermore, bidder firms in the financial services sector perform significantly better when diversifying into other sectors, while the performance of bidder firms in the industrial sector appears unaffected by the degree of M&A specialisation or diversification

The Role of Working Capital Accruals on Earnings Quality and Stock Return

A failure to beat earnings expectations often results in an immediate fall in a firm’s stock price, while exceeding market expectations is normally rewarded by investors in the form of an increased stock price. As a result, managers may have a vested interest in ‘managing’ the reported earnings growth when remuneration packages are linked to corporate profitability. Investors may be misled by this earnings management process if they are fail to consider the quality of earnings when assessing stock returns. Investors can determine earnings quality through the information disclosures provided by management, although such information may not be routinely provided by corporate management teams. In situations where the market focuses primarily on firms’ reported income and fails to consider the quality of accounting earnings, there may be temporary divergence of stock prices from their correct values. Where the market focuses on the reported income figure in a firm’s income statement it fails to consider information about earnings quality, such as the disclosures about working capital accruals. This paper investigates whether the relevance and usefulness of accounting information in the decision making process is enhanced by recognizing the impact that information about earnings quality may have on stock returns. More specifically, the paper focuses on the impact of accounting accruals as the main measurement and indicator of earnings quality