The Scottish economy [March 1999]

This section presents long and short term forecasts for the quarterly growth rates of Scottish manufacturing (Division D of the 1992 SIC) output

The Scottish economy [January 2000]

This section presents short-term forecasts for the quarterly growth rates of Scottish manufacturing (Division D of the 1992 SIC) output and annual growth rates are also included

Five-loop epsilon expansion for O(n)xO(m) spin models

We compute the Renormalization Group functions of a Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson Hamiltonian with O(n)x O(m) symmetry up to five-loop in Minimal Subtraction scheme. The line n^+(m,d), which limits the region of second-order phase transition, is reconstructed in the framework of the epsilon=4-d expansion for generic values of $m$ up to O(epsilon^5). For the physically interesting case of noncollinear but planar orderings (m=2) we obtain n^+(2,3)=6.1(6) by exploiting different resummation procedures. We substantiate this results re-analyzing six-loop fixed dimension series with pseudo-epsilon expansion, obtaining n^+(2,3)=6.22(12). We also provide predictions for the critical exponents characterizing the second-order phase transition occurring for n>n^+.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure. Two misprints are corrected in Tables VII and VII

Characterisation of a mural cell network in the murine pituitary gland

The anterior and intermediate lobes of the pituitary are composed of endocrine cells, as well as vasculature and supporting cells, such as folliculostellate cells. Folliculostellate cells form a network with several postulated roles in the pituitary, including production of paracrine signalling molecules and cytokines, coordination of endocrine cell hormone release, phagocytosis, and structural support. Folliculostellate cells in rats are characterised by expression of S100B protein, and in humans by glial fibrillary acid protein. However, there is evidence for another network of supporting cells in the anterior pituitary that has properties of mural cells, such as vascular smooth muscle cells and pericytes. The present study aims to characterise the distribution of cells that express the mural cell marker platelet derived growth factor receptor beta (PDGFRβ) in the mouse pituitary and establish whether these cells are folliculostellate. By immunohistochemical localisation, we determine that approximately 80% of PDGFRβ+ cells in the mouse pituitary have a non‐perivascular location and 20% are pericytes. Investigation of gene expression in a magnetic cell sorted population of PDGFRβ+ cells shows that, despite a mostly non‐perivascular location, this population is enriched for mural cell markers but not enriched for rat or human folliculostellate cell markers. This is confirmed by immunohistochemistry. The present study concludes that a mural cell network is present throughout the anterior pituitary of the mouse and that this population does not express well‐characterised human or rat folliculostellate cell markers

Bisphenol A Effects on Gonadotroph Function:Disruption of Pituitary Cell-Cell Communication?

International audienc

Enhancing integration of disaster risk and climate change adaptation into Irish emergency planning

The need to enhance the integration of knowledge, policies and practices between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction/management to ensure that the actions of one do not conflict with the other is recognised at Irish, EU and international levels. This research aimed to identify ways to enhance such integration in practice