Professionalism and the Millbank Tendency: The Political Sociology of New Labour's employees

This article analyses party employees, one of the most under-researched subjects in the study of British political parties. We draw on a blend of quantitative and qualitative data in order to shed light on the social and political profiles of Labour Party staff, and on the question of their professionalisation. The latter theme is developed through a model derived from the sociology of professions. While a relatively limited proportion of party employees conform to the pure ideal-type of professionalism, a considerably greater number manifest enough of the core characteristics of specialisation, commitment, mobility, autonomy and self-regulation to be reasonably described as 'professionals in pursuit of political outcomes'

Age and Grip Strength Predict Hand Dexterity in Adults.

In the scientific literature, there is much evidence of a relationship between age and dexterity, where increased age is related to slower, less nimble and less smooth, less coordinated and less controlled performances. While some suggest that the relationship is a direct consequence of reduced muscle strength associated to increased age, there is a lack of research that has systematically investigated the relationships between age, strength and hand dexterity. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the associations between age, grip strength and dexterity. 107 adults (range 18-93 years) completed a series of hand dexterity tasks (i.e. steadiness, line tracking, aiming, and tapping) and a test of maximal grip strength. We performed three phases of analyses. Firstly, we evaluated the simple relationships between pairs of variables; replicating the existing literature; and found significant relationships of increased age and reduced strength; increased age and reduced dexterity, and; reduced strength and reduced dexterity. Secondly, we used standard Multiple Regression (MR) models to determine which of the age and strength factors accounted for the greater variance in dexterity. The results showed that both age and strength made significant contributions to the data variance, but that age explained more of the variance in steadiness and line tracking dexterity, whereas strength explained more of the variance in aiming and tapping dexterity. In a third phase of analysis, we used MR analyses to show an interaction between age and strength on steadiness hand dexterity. Simple Slopes posthoc analyses showed that the interaction was explained by the middle to older aged adults showing a relationship between reduced strength and reduced hand steadiness, whereas younger aged adults showed no relationship between strength and steadiness hand dexterity. The results are discussed in terms of how age and grip strength predict different types of hand dexterity in adults

Trends in sexually transmitted infections in general practice 1990-2000: population based study using data from the UK general practice research database

Objective: To describe the contribution of primary care to the diagnosis and management of sexually transmitted infections in the United Kingdom, 1990-2000, in the context of increasing incidence of infections in genitourinary medicine clinics. Design: Population based study. Setting: UK primary care. Participants: Patients registered in the UK general practice research database. Main outcome measures: Incidence of diagnosed sexually transmitted infections in primary care and estimation of the proportion of major such infections diagnosed in primary care. Results: An estimated 23.0% of chlamydia cases in women but only 5.3% in men were diagnosed and treated in primary care during 1998-2000, along with 49.2% cases of non-specific urethritis and urethral discharge in men and 5.7% cases of gonorrhoea in women and 2.9% in men. Rates of diagnosis in primary care rose substantially in the late 1990s. Conclusions: A substantial and increasing number of sexually transmitted infections are diagnosed and treated in primary care in the United Kingdom, with sex ratios differing from those in genitourinary medicine clinics. Large numbers of men are treated in primary care for presumptive sexually transmitted infections

The thermal regime around buried submarine high voltage cables

The expansion of offshore renewable energy infrastructure and the need for trans-continental shelf power transmission require the use of submarine High Voltage (HV) cables. These cables have maximum operating surface temperatures of up to 70°C and are typically buried 1–2 m beneath the seabed, within the wide range of substrates found on the continental shelf. However, the heat flow pattern and potential effects on the sedimentary environments around such anomalously high heat sources in the near surface sediments are poorly understood. We present temperature measurements from a 2D laboratory experiment representing a buried submarine HV cable, and identify the thermal regimes generated within typical unconsolidated shelf sediments—coarse silt, fine sand and very coarse sand. We used a large (2 × 2.5 m) tank filled with water-saturated spherical glass beads (ballotini) and instrumented with a buried heat source and 120 thermocouples, to measure the time-dependent 2D temperature distributions. The observed and corresponding Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations of the steady state heat flow regimes, and normalised radial temperature distributions were assessed. Our results show that the heat transfer and thus temperature fields generated from submarine HV cables buried within a range of sediments are highly variable. Coarse silts are shown to be purely conductive, producing temperature increases of >10°C up to 40 cm from the source of 60°C above ambient; fine sands demonstrate a transition from conductive to convective heat transfer between c. 20°C and 36°C above ambient, with >10°C heat increases occurring over a metre from the source of 55°C above ambient; and very coarse sands exhibit dominantly convective heat transfer even at very low (c. 7°C) operating temperatures and reaching temperatures of up to 18°C above ambient at a metre from the source at surface temperatures of only 18°C. These findings are important for the surrounding near surface environments experiencing such high temperatures and may have significant implications for chemical and physical processes operating at the grain and sub-grain scale; biological activity at both micro-faunal and macro-faunal levels; and indeed the operational performance of the cables themselves, as convective heat transport would increase cable current ratings, something neglected in existing standards

Altered functional brain network connectivity and glutamate system function in transgenic mice expressing truncated Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia 1

Considerable evidence implicates DISC1 as a susceptibility gene for multiple psychiatric diseases. DISC1 has been intensively studied at the molecular, cellular and behavioral level, but its role in regulating brain connectivity and brain network function remains unknown. Here, we utilize a set of complementary approaches to assess the functional brain network abnormalities present in mice expressing a truncated Disc1 gene (Disc1tr Hemi mice). Disc1tr Hemi mice exhibited hypometabolism in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and reticular thalamus along with a reorganization of functional brain network connectivity that included compromised hippocampal–PFC connectivity. Altered hippocampal–PFC connectivity in Disc1tr Hemi mice was confirmed by electrophysiological analysis, with Disc1tr Hemi mice showing a reduced probability of presynaptic neurotransmitter release in the monosynaptic glutamatergic hippocampal CA1–PFC projection. Glutamate system dysfunction in Disc1tr Hemi mice was further supported by the attenuated cerebral metabolic response to the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) antagonist ketamine and decreased hippocampal expression of NMDAR subunits 2A and 2B in these animals. These data show that the Disc1 truncation in Disc1tr Hemi mice induces a range of translationally relevant endophenotypes underpinned by glutamate system dysfunction and altered brain connectivity

Variational Multiscale Stabilization and the Exponential Decay of Fine-scale Correctors

This paper addresses the variational multiscale stabilization of standard finite element methods for linear partial differential equations that exhibit multiscale features. The stabilization is of Petrov-Galerkin type with a standard finite element trial space and a problem-dependent test space based on pre-computed fine-scale correctors. The exponential decay of these correctors and their localisation to local cell problems is rigorously justified. The stabilization eliminates scale-dependent pre-asymptotic effects as they appear for standard finite element discretizations of highly oscillatory problems, e.g., the poor $L^2$ approximation in homogenization problems or the pollution effect in high-frequency acoustic scattering

Current and future role of instrumentation and monitoring in the performance of transport infrastructure slopes

Instrumentation is often used to monitor the performance of engineered infrastructure slopes. This paper looks at the current role of instrumentation and monitoring, including the reasons for monitoring infrastructure slopes, the instrumentation typically installed and parameters measured. The paper then investigates recent developments in technology and considers how these may change the way that monitoring is used in the future, and tries to summarize the barriers and challenges to greater use of instrumentation in slope engineering. The challenges relate to economics of instrumentation within a wider risk management system, a better understanding of the way in which slopes perform and/or lose performance, and the complexities of managing and making decisions from greater quantities of data

Arable crop disease control, climate change and food security

Copyright Association of Applied BiologistsGlobal food security is threatened by crop diseases that account for average yield losses of 16%. Climate change is exacerbating threats to food security in much of the world, emphasising the need to increase food production in northern European countries such as the UK. However, to mitigate climate change, crops must be grown so as to minimise greenhouse gas emissions (GHG); results with UK oilseed rape demonstrate how disease control in arable crops can contribute to climate change mitigation. However, work examining impacts of climate change on UK epidemics of winter oilseed rape diseases illustrates unexpected, contrasting impacts of climate change on complex plant-disease interactions. In England, phoma stem canker is expected to become more severe whilst light leaf spot is expected to become less severe. Such work can provide guidance for government and industry planning for adaptation to impacts of climate change on crops to ensure future food securityFinal Accepted Versio

Residual stress characterization of single and triple-pass autogenously welded stainless steel pipes

Using neutron diffraction the components of the residual stress field have been determined in the region near a mid-length groove in two identical austenitic stainless pipes in which weld beads had been laid down. One pipe sample had a single pass, and the second a triple pass, autogenous weld deposited around the groove circumference. The results show the effect on the stress field of the additional weld deposited and are compared to the results of Finite Element Modelling. The hoop stress component is found to be generally tensile, and greater in the triple pass weldment than in the single pass weldment. The hoop stresses reach peak values of around 400 MPa in tension. X-ray measurements of the residual stress components on the near inner surface of the pipe weldments are also presented, and show tensile stresses in both pipes, with a higher magnitude in the three-pass weldment