Privatisation and Franchising of British Train Operations: the decline and derailment of the Great North Eastern Railway

As a result of the 1993 Railways Act, the British railways industry was privatised which resulted in the separation of ownership and control of the railway infrastructure (track, signals and stations) from that of passenger train operations. The Great North Eastern Railway (GNER), a major train operator, was unable to meet its contractual obligations shortly after successfully re-tendering for its second franchise. Within the context of incomplete contract theory, this paper discusses the main problems inherent in the franchising process and which specifically contributed to the collapse of GNER. In particular, the paper argues that the fragmented structure of asset ownership, the lack of coordination and investment incentives and flaws in the franchise method itself explain the demise of GNER and have undermined the general objectives of railway privatisation

Trade Blocks and the Gravity Model: Evidence from Latin American Countries

We apply the gravity model to examine the effects of the Andean Community and Mercosur on both intra-regional and intra-industrial trade in the period 1980-1997. After accounting for size and distance effects, the Andean Community preferential trade agreements had a significant effect on both the differentiated and reference products, in particular capital intensive goods. In contrast, Mercosur preferential trade agreements only had a positive effect on the capital intensive subcategory of the reference products

The New Media and Arab Spring: A Critical Analysis

This study critically examined the new media and the Arab awakening phenomenon with the aim of finding out whether the same pattern of Arab spring could be transferred to other parts of Africa, especially West African countries. The study was therefore built on two theoretical foundations known as emancipatory media theory and the new media theory. Using survey research design, 98 respondents were sampled with questionnaire serving as instruments of data collection. The data generated were analysed and presented in simple frequency distribution tables. The study revealed that though the new media can do more in mobilising the people for action as exemplified in its contribution to the success recorded in the Arab spring, it would be difficult for that kind of new media aided uprising to really replicate itself in West Africa considering the political environment. It was, therefore, recommended that government of nations should make itself present in the new media so as to create an interactive avenue for the people to discuss their plight.Key words: new media, Arab spring and social movemen

Epigenetic programming by maternal nutrition: shaping future generations

Within the Western world’s aging and increasingly overweight population, we are seeing an increasing prevalence of adult-onset, lifestyle-related disease such as diabetes, hypertension and atherosclerosis. There is significant evidence that suboptimal nutrition in pregnancy can lead to an increased risk of these diseases developing in offspring, and that this increased risk can be heritable. Thus, poor in utero nutrition may be a major contributor to the current cycle of obesity. While the molecular basis of this phenomenon is unknown, available evidence suggests that it can be mediated by epigenetic changes to gene expression. Here, we discuss epigenetics as a mediator of disease risk in response to nutritional cues. The potential for maternal nutrition to heritably alter epigenetic states may have implications for population health and adaptive evolution

Methodology for assessing the air-exchange performance of residential ventilation systems

Residential ventilation standards, especially in Europe are slowly but substantially moving away from their usual prescriptive approach towards performance based specifications. While academics and policy makers argue about the relevant IAQ indicators, housing developers and end users need to make a choice between the different ventilation system options they are faced with in the market. Although several IAQ rating systems have emerged, a comprehensive assessment method to rate the inherent qualities of the ventilation system itself is not available [6]. In this paper, we propose a methodology for such a rating system based on the ability of the system to deliver the requested amount of air at the right place and time, issued from a project commissioned by the European Ventilation Industry Association (EVIA). The proposed method makes a distinction between the performance in habitable and wet spaces in dwellings and includes technical aspects such as mechanical support of the airflow, automatic control and (where applicable) filtration. The label proposed to communicate the results of the assessment specifies the design flow rate, the performance in each of the space types and a filtration rating separately, allowing end users to objectively compare products that are suited for their particular needs rather than lumping these aspects together in a rating for the ‘average’ dwelling. This paper is intended as a solicitation of comments from the broader field of ventilation stakeholders on the fundamental structure of the rating system

A thin layer angiogenesis assay: a modified basement matrix assay for assessment of endothelial cell differentiation

BACKGROUND: Basement matrices such as Matrigel™ and Geltrex™ are used in a variety of cell culture assays of anchorage-dependent differentiation including endothelial cell tube formation assays. The volumes of matrix recommended for these assays (approximately 150 μl/cm(2)) are costly, limit working distances for microscopy, and require cell detachment for subsequent molecular analysis. Here we describe the development and validation of a thin-layer angiogenesis (TLA) assay for assessing the angiogenic potential of endothelial cells that overcomes these limitations. RESULTS: Geltrex™ basement matrix at 5 μl/cm(2) in 24-well (10 μl) or 96-well (2 μl) plates supports endothelial cell differentiation into tube-like structures in a comparable manner to the standard larger volumes of matrix. Since working distances are reduced, high-resolution single cell microscopy, including DIC and confocal imaging, can be used readily. Using MitoTracker dye we now demonstrate, for the first time, live mitochondrial dynamics and visualise the 3-dimensional network of mitochondria present in differentiated endothelial cells. Using a standard commercial total RNA extraction kit (Qiagen) we also show direct RNA extraction and RT-qPCR from differentiated endothelial cells without the need to initially detach cells from their supporting matrix. CONCLUSIONS: We present here a new thin-layer assay (TLA) for measuring the anchorage-dependent differentiation of endothelial cells into tube-like structures which retains all the characteristics of the traditional approach but with the added benefit of a greatly lowered cost and better compatibility with other techniques, including RT-qPCR and high-resolution microscopy. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12860-014-0041-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling via steam gasification – The effect of operating conditions on gas and tar composition

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is widely used in textile fiber, film, and bottles. Although PET bottle recycling has made great progress, other PET waste is still not recycled. Gasification could be an option for recycling or recovering energy and chemicals from PET waste. However, single stream PET steam gasification in fluidized bed is seldom investigated. In this paper, individual PET gasification experiments were then conducted in a lab-scale bubbling fluidized bed to investigate how gasifying agents, temperature, residence time and steam/fuel ratio affect the product composition. The results showed that, in steam gasification, steam was the main source of H , but increasing the steam to fuel ratio cannot increase the H yield remarkably. Temperature was an essential parameter. Increasing temperature from 750 to 800 \ub0C improved the yields of H (+87.7%), the dominant gas product CO (+40.3%), and biphenyl (+123%) notably. In contrast to other common thermoplastics, high concentrations of CO and biphenyl are the prominent characteristics of PET steam gasification. In addition, plastic steam gasification optimizations for syngas applications were discussed

On the Computational Complexity of Vertex Integrity and Component Order Connectivity

The Weighted Vertex Integrity (wVI) problem takes as input an $n$-vertex graph $G$, a weight function $w:V(G)\to\mathbb{N}$, and an integer $p$. The task is to decide if there exists a set $X\subseteq V(G)$ such that the weight of $X$ plus the weight of a heaviest component of $G-X$ is at most $p$. Among other results, we prove that: (1) wVI is NP-complete on co-comparability graphs, even if each vertex has weight $1$; (2) wVI can be solved in $O(p^{p+1}n)$ time; (3) wVI admits a kernel with at most $p^3$ vertices. Result (1) refutes a conjecture by Ray and Deogun and answers an open question by Ray et al. It also complements a result by Kratsch et al., stating that the unweighted version of the problem can be solved in polynomial time on co-comparability graphs of bounded dimension, provided that an intersection model of the input graph is given as part of the input. An instance of the Weighted Component Order Connectivity (wCOC) problem consists of an $n$-vertex graph $G$, a weight function $w:V(G)\to \mathbb{N}$, and two integers $k$ and $l$, and the task is to decide if there exists a set $X\subseteq V(G)$ such that the weight of $X$ is at most $k$ and the weight of a heaviest component of $G-X$ is at most $l$. In some sense, the wCOC problem can be seen as a refined version of the wVI problem. We prove, among other results, that: (4) wCOC can be solved in $O(\min\{k,l\}\cdot n^3)$ time on interval graphs, while the unweighted version can be solved in $O(n^2)$ time on this graph class; (5) wCOC is W[1]-hard on split graphs when parameterized by $k$ or by $l$; (6) wCOC can be solved in $2^{O(k\log l)} n$ time; (7) wCOC admits a kernel with at most $kl(k+l)+k$ vertices. We also show that result (6) is essentially tight by proving that wCOC cannot be solved in $2^{o(k \log l)}n^{O(1)}$ time, unless the ETH fails.Comment: A preliminary version of this paper already appeared in the conference proceedings of ISAAC 201

Neurological effects in the offspring after switching from tobacco cigarettes to e-cigarettes during pregnancy in a mouse model.

BACKGROUND:Maternal smoking is currently a public health concern and has been associated with a number of complications in the offspring. E-cigarettes are gaining popularity as a 'safer' alternative to tobacco cigarettes during pregnancy, however, there are a limited number of studies to suggest that it is actually 'safe'. STUDY DESIGN:Balb/C female mice were exposed to ambient air (n = 8; Sham), or tobacco cigarette smoke (n = 8; SE) before gestation, during gestation and lactation. A third group was exposed to cigarette smoke before gestation followed by e-cigarette aerosols during gestation and lactation (n = 8; Switch). Male offspring (12-week old, n = 10-14/group) underwent behavioural assessments to investigate short-term memory, anxiety and activity using the novel object recognition (NOR) and elevated plus maze (EPM) tests. Brains were collected at postnatal day (P)1, P20 and Week13 for global DNA methylation, epigenetic gene expression, and neuronal cell counts. RESULTS:The offspring from mothers switching to e-cigarettes exhibited no change in exploration/activity, but showed a decrease in global DNA methylation, Aurora Kinase (Aurk) A and AurkB gene expression and a reduction in neuronal cell numbers in the cornu ammonis 1 region of the dorsal hippocampus compared to the SE group. CONCLUSIONS:Continuous tobacco cigarette smoke exposure during pregnancy resulted in marked neurological deficits in the offspring. Switching to e-cigarettes during pregnancy reduced these neurological deficits compared to cigarette smoke exposure. However, neurological changes were still observed, so we therefore conclude that e-cigarette use during pregnancy is not advised