The Things Which Makes for Peace

The brief homily which follows was prepared as the core of a closing worship service which concluded a conference attended by US and Soviet religious leaders. The conference, entitled The Challenges of Peace and Justice: Responses from the Religious Communities of the US and USSR, was sponsored by US-USSR Bridges for Peace of Norwich, Vermont. It was held at the Arch Street Friends Meeting, and was organized in cooperation with the American Friends Service Committee and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends. The Soviet participants at the conference, 14 in number, were delegates sent by the Russian Orthodox Church at the request of Bridges for Peace. They included clergy and lay members of Orthodox, Protestant, and Catholic churches in the USSR; and a member of the Soviet Jewish community. This delegation was in the US from April 3-17, 1986 . The conference took place on April 15, near the end of their journey. A meeting held the day before the conference with the Philadelphia Council on Soviet Jewry, to discuss issues around official Soviet emigration policy as it pertained to Jewish persons in the USSR, provided part of the inspiration for the remarks in the homily

The N8 Policing Research Partnership: examining the first four years

This report presents findings from 20 qualitative interviews with senior police officers, Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and national policy leads, all of whom were knowledgeable about the N8 PRP and evidence-based policing (EBP) and from a survey of staff in the N8 Policing Research Partnership (PRP) police forces. The qualitative interviews aimed to evaluate the benefits and challenges of the first four years of the N8 PRP from the perspective of regional and national policing experts. The survey was designed to assess uses made of N8 products and to see how the N8 PRP was seen by police officers and other staff

Structural Evidence for a Copper-Bound Carbonate Intermediate in the Peroxidase and Dismutase Activities of Superoxide Dismutase

Copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD) is of fundamental importance to our understanding of oxidative damage. Its primary function is catalysing the dismutation of superoxide to O2 and H2O2. SOD also reacts with H2O2, leading to the formation of a strong copper-bound oxidant species that can either inactivate the enzyme or oxidise other substrates. In the presence of bicarbonate (or CO2) and H2O2, this peroxidase activity is enhanced and produces the carbonate radical. This freely diffusible reactive oxygen species is proposed as the agent for oxidation of large substrates that are too bulky to enter the active site. Here, we provide direct structural evidence, from a 2.15 Å resolution crystal structure, of (bi)carbonate captured at the active site of reduced SOD, consistent with the view that a bound carbonate intermediate could be formed, producing a diffusible carbonate radical upon reoxidation of copper. The bound carbonate blocks direct access of substrates to Cu(I), suggesting that an adjunct to the accepted mechanism of SOD catalysed dismutation of superoxide operates, with Cu(I) oxidation by superoxide being driven via a proton-coupled electron transfer mechanism involving the bound carbonate rather than the solvent. Carbonate is captured in a different site when SOD is oxidised, being located in the active site channel adjacent to the catalytically important Arg143. This is the probable route of diffusion from the active site following reoxidation of the copper. In this position, the carbonate is poised for re-entry into the active site and binding to the reduced copper. © 2012 Strange et al

Field tests of a portable MEMS gravimeter

Gravimeters are used to measure density anomalies under the ground. They are applied in many different fields from volcanology to oil and gas exploration, but present commercial systems are costly and massive. A new type of gravity sensor has been developed that utilises the same fabrication methods as those used to make mobile phone accelerometers. In this study, we describe the first results of a field-portable microelectromechanical system (MEMS) gravimeter. The stability of the gravimeter is demonstrated through undertaking a multi-day measurement with a standard deviation of 5.58 × 10−6 ms−2 . It is then demonstrated that a change in gravitational acceleration of 4.5 × 10−5 ms−2 can be measured as the device is moved between the top and the bottom of a 20.7 m lift shaft with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 14.25. Finally, the device is demonstrated to be stable in a more harsh environment: a 4.5 × 10−4 ms−2 gravity variation is measured between the top and bottom of a 275-m hill with an SNR of 15.88. These initial field-tests are an important step towards a chip-sized gravity senso