To claim or not to claim: that is the question

An analysis of when to bring contractual claims in the employment tribunal and how to withdraw such claims in order to pursue them in the civil courts

The Law of Love

The Bible is clear that to love God involves seeking to be obedient to God. Being God’s people involves seeking to make wise decisions about the way in which God wants us to live. Jesus commands his followers to love God and our neighbours. In working out what that means, followers of Jesus need to take into account what God has revealed in the Torah about what it means to love him and to love another, as fulfilled, interpreted and modelled by Jesus. The Holy Spirit is given to us to enable us to grow in love. In order to make wise decisions we need to have internalised God’s law and to meditate on it with the help of the Spirit. In heaven, doing what God wants will be second nature. Till then, reflection on God’s law is an indispensable part of discerning what it means in practice to love God and to love our neighbour

Rocky Relationships

A comment on the relational deficits at the heart of the current banking crisis

How is the rule of law a limit on power?

A commitment to the rule of law is a commitment to the governance of a society through the use of general or generalisable rules which are binding on both the subjects and the rulers. By giving due notice of the rules and of any changes to them, those who are subject to the law are protected from violence and enabled to act as agents. This is the essential contribution the rule of law makes to important human goods including freedom. Such an understanding of the rule of law illuminates why the law-like character of God and the revelation of God’s law make human free will meaningful and a relationship of love between God and human beings possible. A commitment to the rule of law also means that those exercising power have to offer justifications to explain why the rules are binding, which opens up space for debate about whether the rules are just

Three religious orientations and five personality factors : an exploratory study among adults in England

In order to explore the power of the five factor model of personality to explain individual differences recorded on measures of the three religious orientations, a sample of 198 adults in England completed established measures of the three religious orientations (intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest) and the big five personality factors (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness). The data demonstrated that individual differences in the three religious orientations were largely independent of the five personality factors, apart from a significant positive correlation between intrinsic religiosity and agreeableness. These findings support Piedmont’s contention that religiosity is largely independent of personality when personality is operationalised in terms of the big five factors

The mechanisms of Fenretinide-mediated anti-cancer activity and prevention of obesity and type-2 diabetes

Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc. Acknowledgments This work was supported by the British Heart Foundation Intermediate Basic Research Fellowship FS/09/026/27398 to N.M. and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council doctoral training grant awarded to G.D.M.Peer reviewedPostprin

Refining palaeoenvironmental analysis using integrated quantitative granulometry and palynology

Accurate palaeoenvironmental analysis is at the heart of producing reliable interpretations and depositional models. This study demonstrates a multivariate statistical approach to facies analysis based on relationships between grain size and quantitative palynology. Our methodology has the advantage that it can be used on small amounts of sample, such as core or well cuttings, as the basis for facies analysis. Proof of concept studies involving the collection of grain-size and palynological datasets from well-exposed outcrops of the Middle Jurassic, Lajas Formation of the Neuquén Basin, Argentina, demonstrate that canonical correspondence analysis can be used to consistently recognize facies and aid in the determination of depositional environments. This study demonstrates the link between depositional facies, grain-size distribution, palynomorph hydrodynamics and assemblage taphonomy of palynomorphs. This knowledge can be transferred into a semi-automated statistical facies prediction technique for the subsurface in complex depositional settings, particularly when calibrated against conventional sedimentary facies analysis.The attached article is the accepted manuscript for this article. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from the article

Protecting Social Identifies: Institutional Self-Comparison by Undergraduates

Widening participation has led to a growth in university places across the Higher Education Sector. Alongside this, there is greater public scrutiny of the quality of both degrees and institutions. Additionally, students have a greater awareness of the potential quality of the institute they are attending via league tables and the annual NSS. While research has been undertaken exploring how students make choices there has been less focus on the experience of students at “lower status” universities. Three focus groups of N = 19 Psychology students from a North-West university were conducted to discuss issues of identity. Thematic Analysis was used to explore issues of Social comparisons and Identity processes. The main themes to emerge were transitional issues, threats to identity and identity protection as students developed narratives around their perceptions of status of student and institution. These findings are discussed in relation to enabling students to develop a stronger identity

Atypically diffuse functional connectivity between caudate nuclei and cerebral cortex in autism

BACKGROUND: Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting sociocommunicative behavior, but also sensorimotor skill learning, oculomotor control, and executive functioning. Some of these impairments may be related to abnormalities of the caudate nuclei, which have been reported for autism. METHODS: Our sample was comprised of 8 high-functioning males with autism and 8 handedness, sex, and age-matched controls. Subjects underwent functional MRI scanning during performance on simple visuomotor coordination tasks. Functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI) effects were identified as interregional blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal cross-correlation, using the caudate nuclei as seed volumes. RESULTS: In the control group, fcMRI effects were found in circuits with known participation of the caudate nuclei (associative, orbitofrontal, oculomotor, motor circuits). Although in the autism group fcMRI effects within these circuits were less pronounced or absent, autistic subjects showed diffusely increased connectivity mostly in pericentral regions, but also in brain areas outside expected anatomical circuits (such as visual cortex). CONCLUSION: These atypical connectivity patterns may be linked to developmental brain growth disturbances recently reported in autism and suggest inefficiently organized functional connectivity between caudate nuclei and cerebral cortex, potentially accounting for stereotypic behaviors and executive impairments

“I’m not Typical”: A Study Exploring the Effect of Social Comparison and Categorisation by Undergraduates

Widening participation has led to a growth in university places across the Higher Education Sector. Alongside this, there is greater public scrutiny of the quality of both degrees and institutions. Additionally, students have a greater awareness of the potential quality of the institute they are attending via league tables and the annual NSS. While research has been undertaken exploring how students make choices there has been less focus on the experience of students at “lower status” universities. Three focus groups of N = 19 Psychology students from a North-West university were conducted to discuss issues of identity. Thematic Analysis was used to explore issues of Social comparisons and Identity processes. The main themes to emerge were transitional issues, threats to identity and identity protection as students developed narratives around their perceptions of status of student and institution. Furthermore, “othering” processes allowed exploration of the dual comparison processes when identifying with the institution label. These findings are discussed in relation to enabling students to develop a stronger identity