Contracting out publicness: The private management of the urban public realm and its implications

In the UK, there has been a noticeable increase in public space management arrangements based on transfer and contracting-out of managerial responsibilities to organisations outside the public sector, whether in the shape of community or private trusts, tenants organisations, Business Improvement Districts, private companies or voluntary sector organisations. Recent cuts in local authority budgets have accelerated this process. Underpinning it there is an underlying assumption that publicness, however defined, can be guaranteed by means other than public ownership, funding and management, and that public sector ownership and direct control might not be in themselves essential features of spaces that are public. This paper reports on a case study research tries that investigates the impact on public spaces of the transfer of management away from the public sector. Based on nine case studies of public spaces in London under a variety of different management arrangements, the paper discusses how publicness is affected by the various contractual forms of transfer and what the main implications of this process are for different stakeholders and for the public realm as a whole. The paper suggests that contracted-out management of public space might not necessarily affect publicness negatively. However, it requires judiciously designed accountability mechanisms and clear decisions by all key stakeholders, including local authorities, about whose aspirations will be privileged and how other aspirations should be protected. In a climate of austerity and spending cuts, this requires a different kind of public management and of policy

Design governance the CABE way, its effectiveness and legitimacy

From its creation in 1999 to its demise as a government-funded organisation 11 years later, the Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment (CABE) fronted a national drive in England for better design in the built environment. Whilst not universally supported at home, its scope and ambition were certainly impressive, and as an organisation it was unique on a global scale. As such the study of this exceptional initiative offers an unparalleled opportunity to shine a light on the often unfathomable processes of governing the design of development. This paper reflects on the organisation in two key ways. First, from the narrow perspective of CABE’s impact: what worked and what did not; and what can we learn from CABE. Second, what does the experience tell us about the nature and purpose of design governance and about the role and legitimacy of government within this most “wicked” of policy arenas

'Clubification' of urban public spaces? The withdrawal or the re-definition of the role of local government in the management of public spaces

This paper reports on a case study on the forms of urban public spaces governance that are emerging in the UK out of a rearrangement of governance responsibilities between local government, communities and private interests. Based on cases of public spaces in London under a variety of different governance arrangements, the paper critiques the dominant explanations of those processes and suggests a far more complex picture in which empowerment and disempowerment of stakeholders of various kinds happen at the same time, along complex lines defined by geography, strength of stake and representation of that stake in a formalised governance transfer contract. As the paper suggests, the resulting ‘localisation’ of governance, the devolution of governance responsibilities to those local actors with the stronger stake on them, does not intrinsically reduce the publicness dimension of public space, but it reshapes that notion towards one with a variety of ‘publicnesses’- with their own governance dynamics and positive and negative consequences

Neonatal screening for cystic fibrosis in Sao Paulo State, Brazil: a pilot study

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Cystic fibrosis is one of the most common autosomal recessive hereditary diseases in the Caucasian population, with an incidence of 1:2000 to 1:3500 liveborns. More than 1000 mutations have been described with the most common being F508del. It has a prevalence of 23-55% within the Brazilian population. The lack of population-based studies evaluating the incidence of cystic fibrosis in Sao Paulo State, Brazil, and an analysis concerning the costs of implantation of a screening program motivated the present study. A total of 60,000 dried blood samples from Guthrie cards obtained from April 2005 to January 2006 for neonatal screening at 4 reference centers in Sao Paulo State were analyzed. The immunoreactive trypsinogen (IRT)/IRT protocol was used with the cut-off value being 70 ng/mL. A total of 532 children (0.9%) showed IRT >70 ng/mL and a 2nd sample was collected from 418 (80.3%) of these patients. Four affected children were detected at two centers, corresponding to an incidence of 1:8403. The average age at diagnosis was 69 days, and 3 of the children already showed severe symptoms of the disease. The rate of false-positive results was 95.2% and the positive predictive value for the test was 8%. The cost of detecting an affected subject was approximately US$8,000.00 when this cystic fibrosis program was added to an existing neonatal screening program. The present study clearly shows the difficulties involved in cystic fibrosis screening using the IRT/IRT protocol, particularly in a population with no long-term tradition of neonatal screening.4210973978Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP [03/12731-8

Size Evolution of Ordered SiGe Islands Grown by Surface Thermal Diffusion on Pit-Patterned Si(100) Surface

The ordered growth of self-assembled SiGe islands by surface thermal diffusion in ultra high vacuum from a lithographically etched Ge stripe on pit-patterned Si(100) surface has been experimentally investigated. The total surface coverage of Ge strongly depends on the distance from the source stripe, as quantitatively verified by Scanning Auger Microscopy. The size distribution of the islands as a function of the Ge coverage has been studied by coupling atomic force microscopy scans with Auger spectro-microscopy data. Our observations are consistent with a physical scenario where island positioning is essentially driven by energetic factors, which predominate with respect to the local kinetics of diffusion, and the growth evolution mainly depends on the local density of Ge atoms

Human PrP90-231-induced cell death is associated with intracellular accumulation of insoluble and protease-resistant macroaggregates and lysosomal dysfunction

To define the mechanisms by which hPrP90-231 induces cell death, we analyzed its interaction with living cells and monitored its intracellular fate. Treatment of SH-SY5Y cells with fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated hPrP90-231 caused the accumulation of cytosolic aggregates of the prion protein fragment that increased in number and size in a time-dependent manner. The formation of large intracellular hPrP90-231 aggregates correlated with the activation of apoptosis. hPrP90-231 aggregates occurred within lysotracker-positive vesicles and induced the formation of activated cathepsin D (CD), indicating that hPrP90-231 is partitioned into the endosomal–lysosomal system structures, activating the proteolytic machinery. Remarkably, the inhibition of CD activity significantly reduced hPrP-90-231-dependent apoptosis. Internalized hPrP90-231 forms detergent-insoluble and SDS-stable aggregates, displaying partial resistance to proteolysis. By confocal microscopy analysis of lucifer yellow (LY) intracellular partition, we show that hPrP90-231 accumulation induces lysosome destabilization and loss of lysosomal membrane impermeability. In fact, although control cells evidenced a vesicular pattern of LY fluorescence (index of healthy lysosomes), hPrP90-231-treated cells showed diffuse cytosolic fluorescence, indicating LY diffusion through damaged lysosomes. In conclusion, these data indicate that exogenously added hPrP90-231 forms intralysosomal deposits having features of insoluble, protease-resistant aggregates and could trigger a lysosome-mediated apoptosis by inducing lysosome membrane permeabilization, followed by the release of hydrolytic enzymes

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal

Local Adaptation of Aboveground Herbivores towards Plant Phenotypes Induced by Soil Biota

Background: Soil biota may trigger strong physiological responses in plants and consequently induce distinct phenotypes. Plant phenotype, in turn, has a strong impact on herbivore performance. Here, we tested the hypothesis that aboveground herbivores are able to adapt to plant phenotypes induced by soil biota. Methodology and Principal Findings: We bred spider mites for 15 generations on snap beans with three different belowground biotic interactions: (i) no biota (to serve as control), (ii) arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and (ii) root-feeding nematodes. Subsequently, we conducted a reciprocal selection experiment using these spider mites, which had been kept on the differently treated plants. Belowground treatments induced changes in plant biomass, nutrient composition and water content. No direct chemical defence through cyanogenesis was detected in any of the plant groups. Growth rates of spider mites were higher on the ecotypes on which they were bred for 15 generations, although the statistical significance disappeared for mites from the nematode treatment when corrected for all multiple comparisons. Conclusion/Significance: These results demonstrate that belowground biota may indeed impose selection on the aboveground insect herbivores mediated by the host plant. The observed adaptation was driven by variable quantitativ