EU migrants as entrepreneurs in Lincolnshire: exploiting the enterprise culture

The arrival of unprecedented numbers of migrant workers in the rural counties of the UK, due to EU enlargement, has created a unique opportunity. Many of these migrants wish to become more than just a source of cheap labour; they aspire to become entrepreneurs. Lincolnshire has already seen a burgeoning of migrant businesses, but these have prospered largely by serving their co-ethnic market. This article examines the barriers and drivers for establishing businesses in the wider regional market and observes the first attempts at providing adequate support mechanisms. With improved language skills, there is potential for migrants to break out of the co-ethnic market and develop sustainable businesses

The Impact of Vein Mechanical Compliance on Arteriovenous Fistula Outcomes

© 2016 Elsevier Inc. Background Arteriovenous fistulae (AVFs) are the preferred access for hemodialysis but suffer a high early failure rate. The aim of this study was to determine how venous distensibility, as measured in vitro, relates to early outcomes of AVF formed with the sampled vein. Methods Ethical approval was obtained for all aspects of this study. During AVF formation a circumferential segment of the target vein was sampled. Mechanical stress testing of the venous segments was undertaken using a dynamic mechanical analyzer, with progressive stress loading at 2 N/min to a maximum of 10 N or until sample disruption. Stress-strain curves were obtained for vein samples and Young's modulus (YM) calculated. Duplex assessment of the fistulae was undertaken at 30 days. Results Thirty patients consented to participate with 29 samples obtained for analysis. Statistical comparison of YM demonstrated no relationship with common cardiovascular risk factors or dialysis status. Subject age greater than 65 was the only patient factor which showed a significant difference in YM (P = 0.05). Furthermore, a negative correlation was confirmed between age and YM (Pearson's r = -0.465, P < 0.05). Nine of the 29 subjects suffered an early AVF failure. Mann-Whitney U testing for differences in distribution reported that YM was significantly higher in those fistulas which failed (P < 0.005). Conclusions Reduced venous compliance appears to result in higher failure rates of AVFs. With the advancement of clinical tools such as speckle tracing ultrasound identification of vessel compliance in vivo may produce valuable additional information for clinicians planning AVF surgery

Preservation of word processing documents

Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositorie

The installation of the Sutherland temperature controllers in 2007 August

Details of the trip to Sutherland to install new temperature controllers and replace the damaged water tank are presented

Preservation of Word-Processing Documents

Word processing documents are a major problem for digital repositories. As I will explain below, they are not suitable for long-term storage, so they need to be converted into an archival format for preservation. In this report I will address the following questions: • What file formats are suitable for long-term storage of word processed text documents?; and • How can we convert documents into a suitable archival format? I also address the related non-technical question: • How can we get authors to convert and deposit their work? While the vast majority of material generated by universities is text, most research on digital preservation concentrates on images, sound recordings, video and multimedia. You could be forgiven for thinking that this is because text is simple, but unfortunately that’s not so. Even relatively short text documents (like this one) have complex structure consisting of sections (parts, chapters, subsections etc) and also of indented structures like lists and blockquotes. A significant part of the meaning is lost if that structure is ignored (for example by saving as plain text)

Preservation of TeX/LaTeX Documents

I will address the following questions in this report: 1. Is TeX/LaTeX an adequate long-term preservation format? 2. Is there a viable process for converting TeX/LaTeX into DocBook XML + MathML? 3. How good is the support for MathML (for rendering to the screen by web browsers, and for rendering to PDF by XSL-FO processors)? I will also cover some other related issues, including the possibility of outsourcing preservation of TeX/LaTeX documents to existing archives like arXiv[13], and using the TeX typsetting engine to produce good quality PDF renditions of XML documents, including those with mathematical content in the form of embedded MathML. I will finish with some recommendations