9,890 research outputs found

    Falling Incapacity Benefit claims in a former industrial city: policy impacts or labour market improvement?

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    This article provides an in-depth study of Incapacity Benefit (IB) claims in a major city and of the factors behind their changing level. It relates to the regime prior to the introduction of the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) in 2008. Glasgow has had one of the highest levels of IB in Britain with a peak of almost one fifth of the working age population on IB or Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA). However, over the past decade the number of IB claimants in Glasgow, as in other high claiming areas, has fallen at a faster rate than elsewhere, and Glasgow now has twice the national proportion of working-age people on IB/SDA rather than its peak of three times. The rise in IB in Glasgow can be attributed primarily to deindustrialisation; between 1971 and 1991, over 100,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in the city. Policy response was belated. Lack of local statistics on IB led to a lengthy delay in official recognition of the scale of the issue, and targeted programmes to divert or return IB claimants to work did not begin on any scale until around 2004. Evidence presented in the article suggests that the reduction in claims, which has mainly occurred since about 2003, has been due more to a strengthening labour market than to national policy changes or local programmes. This gives strong support to the view that excess IB claims are a form of disguised unemployment. Further detailed evaluation of ongoing programmes is required to develop the evidence base for this complex area. However, the study casts some doubt on the need for the post-2006 round of IB reforms in high-claim areas, since rapid decline in the number of claimants was already occurring in these areas. The article also indicates the importance of close joint working between national and local agencies, and further development of local level statistics on IB claimants

    Cassini observations of ion and electron beams at Saturn and their relationship to infrared auroral arcs

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    We present Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer observations of infrared auroral emissions from the noon sector of Saturn's ionosphere revealing multiple intense auroral arcs separated by dark regions poleward of the main oval. The arcs are interpreted as the ionospheric signatures of bursts of reconnection occurring at the dayside magnetopause. The auroral arcs were associated with upward field-aligned currents, the magnetic signatures of which were detected by Cassini at high planetary latitudes. Magnetic field and particle observations in the adjacent downward current regions showed upward bursts of 100–360 keV light ions in addition to energetic (hundreds of keV) electrons, which may have been scattered from upward accelerated beams carrying the downward currents. Broadband, upward propagating whistler waves were detected simultaneously with the ion beams. The acceleration of the light ions from low altitudes is attributed to wave-particle interactions in the downward current regions. Energetic (600 keV) oxygen ions were also detected, suggesting the presence of ambient oxygen at altitudes within the acceleration region. These simultaneous in situ and remote observations reveal the highly energetic magnetospheric dynamics driving some of Saturn's unusual auroral features. This is the first in situ identification of transient reconnection events at regions magnetically conjugate to Saturn's magnetopause

    Numerical Confirmation of Late-time t^{1/2} Growth in Three-dimensional Phase Ordering

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    Results for the late-time regime of phase ordering in three dimensions are reported, based on numerical integration of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation with nonconserved order parameter at zero temperature. For very large systems (7003700^3) at late times, t≥150,t \ge 150, the characteristic length grows as a power law, R(t)∼tnR(t) \sim t^n, with the measured nn in agreement with the theoretically expected result n=1/2n=1/2 to within statistical errors. In this time regime R(t)R(t) is found to be in excellent agreement with the analytical result of Ohta, Jasnow, and Kawasaki [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 49}, 1223 (1982)]. At early times, good agreement is found between the simulations and the linearized theory with corrections due to the lattice anisotropy.Comment: Substantially revised and enlarged, submitted to PR

    Drugs and Criminal Responsibility

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    This Special Project has carried out three broad purposes.First, it has synthesized and organized materials concerning drugs and criminal responsibility into a useful guide for legal practitioners and others interested in the problems of the drug dependent defendant. Second, it has identified serious analytical flaws in many of the defenses available to the criminal defendant. Finally,it has responded to these deficiencies with proposals intended to protect not only the legal rights of the drug dependent defendant but also the rights of society pertaining to criminal justice. While these societal interests include the swift imposition of criminal penalties when warranted, they should not be allowed to diminish the concomitant rights of the criminal defendant. In fact, societal rights would be better served by a reexamination and reinterpretation of several traditional legal theories concerning drugs and criminal defendants. A recognition by courts and legislatures of the existing analytical flaws should lead to the development of more equitable theories and a search for alternative forms of treatment and rehabilitation for the drug dependent defendant. Rather than hiding behind the guise of legal history and moral judgment, courts and legislatures should respond to illogical and insufficient theories that fail to deal with the drug dependent defendant in an equitable and just manner

    Adaptive optics imaging of a stellar occultation by Titan

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    We present resolved images of the occultation of a binary star by Titan, recorded with the Palomar Observatory adaptive optics system on 20 December 2001 UT. These constitute the first resolved observations of a stellar occultation by a small body, and demonstrate several unique capabilities of diffraction-limited imaging systems for the study of planetary atmospheres. Two refracted stellar images are visible on Titan's limb throughout both events, displaying scintillations due to local density variations. Precise relative astrometry of the refracted stellar images with respect to the unnocculted component of the binary allows us to directly measure their altitude in Titan's atmosphere. Their changing positions also lead to simple demonstration of the finite oblateness of surfaces of constant pressure in Titan's mid-latitude stratosphere, consistent with the only previous measurement of Titan's zonal wind field

    Changes in lipid composition during sexual development of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum

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    Abstract Background The development of differentiated sexual stages (gametocytes) within human red blood cells is essential for the propagation of the malaria parasite, since only mature gametocytes will survive in the mosquito’s midgut. Hence gametocytogenesis is a pre-requisite for transmission of the disease. Physiological changes involved in sexual differentiation are still enigmatic. In particular the lipid metabolism—despite being central to cellular regulation and development—is not well explored. Methods Here the lipid profiles of red blood cells infected with the five different sexual stages of Plasmodium falciparum were analysed by mass spectrometry and compared to those from uninfected and asexual trophozoite infected erythrocytes. Results Fundamental differences between erythrocytes infected with the different parasite stages were revealed. In mature gametocytes many lipids that decrease in the trophozoite and early gametocyte infected red blood cells are regained. In particular, regulators of membrane fluidity, cholesterol and sphingomyelin, increased significantly during gametocyte maturation. Neutral lipids (serving mainly as caloriometric reserves) increased from 3 % of total lipids in uninfected to 27 % in stage V gametocyte infected red blood cells. The major membrane lipid class (phospholipids) decreased during gametocyte development. Conclusions The lipid profiles of infected erythrocytes are characteristic for the particular parasite life cycle and maturity stages of gametocytes. The obtained lipid profiles are crucial in revealing the lipid metabolism of malaria parasites and identifying targets to interfere with this deadly disease.We are grateful to the Australian Red Cross for providing human RBCs and serum. Support of the Australian Research Council is acknowledged. TWM is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (FT110100249)
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