Interview: Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director of the BHF.

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from BMJ Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2016-310084Dr James Rudd, Heart’s Digital Media Editor, interviewed Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation (BHF), in May 2016. As the largest independent funder of cardiovascular research in the UK (around £100 million annually), Peter has sage advice for young researchers considering a career in cardiovascular science. He looks back at some highlights from his 12 years at the BHF. Finally, Peter explains why there has never be en a better time to consider a career in cardiovascular research.British Heart Foundation, National Institute for Health Researc

Civil and Criminal Enforcement of the Clean Air Act After the 1990 Amendments

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 formed one of the most sweeping revisions of any federal environmental statute in recent history. A wide array of technical improvements to existing provisions were joined with entirely new substantive programs aimed at controlling such diverse concerns as the development of new fuels, reduction of acid rain, ozone depletion, and even global warming. Aside from its ambitious substantive programs, however, the 1990 Amendments were driven by a recognition that the existing Clean Air Act had become largely unenforceable. Thus, the Amendments greatly expand the government\u27s enforcement authority, and provide a host of new enforcement options. In this article, the authors discuss these changes to the civil and criminal enforcement provisions of the Act, and examine how these revisions seem to contain a mixture of strengths and weaknesses that raise as many concerns as they do hopes that the new Act will better achieve the goal of protecting and enhancing the quality of the Nation\u27s air

Embankments Built Over Swamps

Time and environmental constraints necessitated the development of unique methods for building earthen embankments over very deep and soft swamp deposits. Three case histories are presented. Construction techniques included alternate strip embankments, use of flexible vertical and horizontal drains, use of wood chips and high strength geotextile and the conventional stage and preloading techniques. In all cases, field instrumentation including pore-pressure/settlement transducers was installed to monitor the fill placement. The monitoring results were fed into a computer to determine the safety factor against shear failure and amount of settlement. The field monitoring results and predicted values agreed very well

The Role of Citizens Groups in Policy Conflicts

Discusses the role of citizens in policy conflict negotiations. Development of a series of disputes in the Southeast Corridor of Denver, Colorado; Inadequacies of formal governmental representation; Homeowner representation

Imaging atherosclerotic plaque inflammation with [18F]- fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography

Inflammation is important in both the pathogenesis and outcome of atherosclerosis. Plaques containing numerous inflammatory cells, particularly macrophages, have a high risk of rupture, whereas those with fewer inflammatory cells are at lower risk. The current ‘gold standard’ technique for imaging atherosclerosis is x-ray contrast angiography, which provides high-resolution definition of the site and severity of luminal stenoses, but no information about plaque inflammation. Quantification of plaque inflammation is desirable both to predict risk of plaque rupture and to monitor the effects of atheroma-modifying therapies. This is important since recent studies strongly suggest that HMG Co-A reductase inhibitors promote plaque stability by decreasing plaque macrophage content and activity without substantially reducing plaque size and therefore angiographic appearance. FDG is a glucose analogue that is taken up by cells in proportion to their metabolic activity. In this work, the central hypothesis was that plaque inflammation could be visualised and quantified non-invasively using FDG-PET. Initially, THP-1 monocytes and buffy-coat macrophages were stimulated with cellular activators, and the effect on deoxyglucose uptake was observed. It was demonstrated that both types of cell accumulated deoxyglucose in proportion to their metabolic activity. Next, FDG uptake was assessed in endarterectomy specimens from patients with symptomatic carotid disease. Autoradiography of excised plaques confirmed accumulation of deoxyglucose in macrophage-rich areas. Subsequently, co-registered FDG-PET imaging was performed in patients with transient ischaemic attack. FDG accumulated within carotid plaques, with significantly more FDG being taken up into symptomatic plaques than contralateral asymptomatic lesions. Finally, a rabbit model of atherosclerosis was established to investigate two related questions: firstly, whether an animal PET scanner (MicroPet) might detect atheroma, and secondly whether FDG-PET could image and perhaps quantify both atheroma progression and regression. Aortic atheroma was identified by FDG-PET, but full quantification was not possible, because the microPet system is currently unable to perform studies with attenuation correction. In summary, it has been shown, both in vitro and in vivo, that inflammation within atherosclerotic plaques can be successfully imaged by FDG-PET. In addition, pilot data from an experimental study of atherosclerosis in rabbits suggested that serial imaging with this technique might be useful for monitoring the effects of antiatheroma drugs.This work was supported by the British Heart Foundatio

Diagnostic Testing of Introductory Geology Students

A diagnostic test for assessing the general and Earth science knowledge of entry-level college students was administered to 451 students in 2002 and 401 students in 2003 enrolled in an introductory geology course at Iowa State University. The study shows that male students, seniors, and science-technology-math majors score higher than female students, freshmen, and non-science-technology-math majors and that the differences are statistically significant. Also, students who scored higher on the diagnostic test were more likely to pass the course. The results support the feasibility of a standardized diagnostic test as a tool for geoscience instructors for curriculum planning, student advising, and curriculum assessment, similar to standardized diagnostic testing and pre-post testing used in chemistry and physics courses. Standardized national tests would enhance college geoscience education

Policies versus Practices: Transparency of supply chain disclosures among luxury and mass market fashion brands

Policies versus Practices: Transparency of supply chain disclosures among luxury and mass market fashion brands Supply chain transparency can be defined as the minimum degree of disclosure to which supply chain policies, practices, agreements and procedures are open for public verification. In 2017, a Fashion Transparency Index rated and ranked 100 of the most affluent global fashion brands according to the level of transparent information they publicly share in five key areas: policies, corporate governance, traceability; audits and remediation; and negative impact reporting. For the 100 global fashion brands included in the index, we analyzed: (1) The amount, typology and comprehensiveness of information that fashion brands publicly disclose; (2) the tendency to disclose information on policies and corporate governance rather than information on areas of supply chain transparency (3) differences in supply chain transparency of public disclosures among luxury and mass market brands. To analyze group differences, we used ordinal effect size measures such as the Hodges-Lehmann median difference and the Probability of Superiority

Synthesis of new organoniobium compounds and model hydrodesulfurization complexes

Using the reagents bis(tetrahydrofuran)tetrachloro niobium, tetraethylammonium hexacarbonyl niobium, and bis(mesitylene) niobium, new organoniobium complexes were prepared, and data from 1H NMR spectra, IR spectra, mass spectrometry experiments, and X-ray diffraction studies are presented. Reactions of Cr(CO)3([Eta]6-BT), in which the Cr is [Pi]-coordinated to the benzene ring of benzo[b]thiophene (BT), with CP'(CO)2Re(THF), where Cp'= [Eta]5-C5H5 or C5Me5, give the products CP'(CO)2Re([Eta]2:[Eta]6-[Mu]2-BT)Cr(CO)3 in which the Cr remains coordinated to the benzene ring and Re is bound to the C(2)=C(3) double bond. An X-ray diffraction study of Cp(CO)2Re([Eta]2:[Eta]6-[Mu]2-BT)Cr(CO)3 (3) provides details of the geometry. This structure contrasts with that of the CP'(CO)2Re(BT) complexes that exist as mixtures of isomers in which the BT is coordinated to the Re through either the double bond (2,3-[Eta]2) or the sulfur ([Eta]1 (S)). Thus, the electron-withdrawing Cr(CO)3 group in 3 stabilizes the 2,3-[Eta]2 mode of BT coordination to the CP'(CO)2Re fragment. Implications of these results for catalytic hydrodesulfurization of BT are discussed. Crystal data for 3: triclinic, space group P [line above 1], a=6.716(2), b= 11.651(2), c= 11.956(2) Å, [Alpha]=70.20(2), [Beta]=74.84(2), [Gamma]=89.90(2) 0, Z=2