DTI Economics Paper No. 2: A comparative study of the British and Italian Textile and Clothing Industries.

Commissioned by: Association of Suppliers to the British Clothing Industry Conference, Hucknell, Nottingham, February 2004 During the 1990s the Italian clothing and textiles industry grew while the British, French and German textile and clothing industries declined by 40%. In 2001 the Italian textiles & clothing sector was three times larger than the British, accounting for 11.7% of Italian manufacturing output but only 3.3% in Britain. In 2000 Italian fabric exports were 15 times that of the UK. The study was conducted in response to a recommendation by the Textiles and Clothing Strategy Group (TCSG), comprising UK industry, trade unions, Higher Education and the DTI. The purpose of the study was to account for these differences, assess relative merits against value for money and identify best practice in the Italian industry. The methodology comprised comparative analysis and case studies of British and Italian textile mills and tailoring manufacturers, based on my initial recommendations. We visited 5 textile mills in Yorkshire and 15 in Italy plus 3 factories in each country. I conducted a detailed comparative technical analysis of the construction of suit jackets against 13 devised criteria, a number of interviews,compared technologies, equipment and manufacturing methods across all factories, against 8 criteria, drawing on my specialist knowledge and experience as a menswear clothing technologist. The technical reports I compiled formed a section of the final report. Findings were presented to the Clothing Strategy Group and published by the DTI as their Economic Paper No 2 . I made further presentations to industry and academic groups including ASBCI, FCDE, The Textile Society, Savile Row Tailors Association, and LSE. Other outcomes were a publication in the Journal of the Textile Society Text, an article in Selvedge magazine and contributions to the Encyclopaedia of Clothing by Thomson Gale. As a result of this research further consultancy projects have been conducted with the Industry Forum and ASBCI

Developing the Role of Proton Beam Therapy in Oesophageal Cancer

Oesophageal cancer continues to be associated with a poor prognosis. Proton beam therapy’s distinct physical characteristics widen the therapeutic ratio in oesophageal cancer and has the potential to improve outcomes. This thesis aims to examine how proton beam therapy may improve outcomes in oesophageal cancer and documents efforts to expand its role. In Chapter 2, a comprehensive systematic literature review demonstrates the paucity of high-quality evidence in this field. Following this, a series of radiotherapy planning studies investigates potential dosimetric advantages of proton beam therapy for distal oesophageal cases. In chapter 3, proton beam therapy is shown to reduce lung and heart dose compared to photon radiotherapy. Normal tissue complication probability modelling establishes that this may reduce the risk of treatment related pulmonary and cardiac toxicity. Chapter 4 demonstrates that spleen dose constraints may successfully be introduced in oesophageal cancer for proton and photon plans, potentially resulting in lower lymphopenia rates and greater immune sparing. Chapter 5 highlights the impact of different beam arrangements on dose to organs at risk and individual cardiac substructures. The latter half of the thesis highlights work underpinning the development of novel clinical trials of proton beam therapy in oesophageal cancer. Chapter 6 details the work of creating a radiotherapy delineation protocol by comparing two established protocols in a delineation comparison study, showing that geometric expansion of volumes results in more consistent target volumes compared to ‘free-hand’ delineation. In chapter 7, public and patient involvement work is shown to inform and refine the design of a two new trials of proton beam therapy in oesophageal cancer. A final chapter discusses and summarises the current areas of interest in this field, expanding on current trial development work and future directions

Pathways for Nutrient Loss to Water; Slurry and Fertilizer Spreading

End of project reportThere are almost 150,000 farms in Ireland and these contribute substantial quantities of N and P to inland and coastal waters. Some of these nutrients are carried from wet soils by overland flow and by leaching from dry soils. Farm practice can reduce the loss from farms by judicious management of nutrients. Improvements are required to diminish export of nutrients without impairing operations on the farm. Literature regarding nutrient loss from agriculture was reviewed in this project and maps were prepared to predict best slurry spreading times around Ireland. Two further maps were prepared to show slurry storage requirement on farms

Stereoelectronic effects on the binding of neutral Lewis bases to CdSe nanocrystals

Using P-31 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, we monitor the competition between tri-nbutylphosphine (Bu3P) and various amine and phosphine ligands for the surface of chloride terminated CdSe nanocrystals. Distinct P-31 NMR signals for free and bound phosphine ligands allow the surface ligand coverage to be measured in phosphine solution. Ligands with a small steric profile achieve higher surface coverages (Bu3P = 0.5 nm(-2), Me2P-n-octyl = 2.0 nm(-2), NH2Bu = >3 nm(-2)) and have greater relative binding affinity for the nanocrystal (binding affinity: Me3P > Me2P -n-octyl similar to Me2P -n-octadecyl > Et3P > Bu3P). Among phosphines, only Bu 3 P and Me2P-n-octyl support a colloidal dispersion, allowing a relative surface binding affinity (K-rel) to be estimated in that case (K-rel = 3.1). The affinity of the amine ligands is measured by the extent to which they displace Bu3P from the nanocrystals (K-rel: H2NBu similar to N-n-butylimidazole > 4-ethylpyridine > Bu3P similar to HNBu2 > Me2NBu > Bu3N). The affinity for the CdSe surface is greatest among soft, basic donors and depends on the number of each ligand that bind. Sterically unencumbered ligands such as imidazole, pyridine, and n-alkylamines can therefore outcompete stronger donors such as alkylphosphines. The influence of repulsive interactions between ligands on the binding affinity is a consequence of the high atom density of binary semiconductor surfaces. The observed behavior is distinct from the self-assembly of straight-chain surfactants on gold and silver where the ligands are commensurate with the underlying lattice and attractive interactions between aliphatic chains strengthen the binding

My Way or the Highway: a More Naturalistic Model of Altruism Tested in an Iterative Prisoners' Dilemma

There are three prominent solutions to the Darwinian problem of altruism, kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and trait group selection. Only one, reciprocal altruism, most commonly implemented in game theory as a TIT FOR TAT strategy, is not based on the principle of conditional association. On the contrary, TIT FOR TAT implements conditional altruism in the context of unconditionally determined associates. Simulations based on Axelrod\'s famous tournament have led many to conclude that conditional altruism among unconditional partners lies at the core of much human and animal social behavior. But the results that have been used to support this conclusion are largely artifacts of the structure of the Axelrod tournament, which explicitly disallowed conditional association as a strategy. In this study, we modify the rules of the tournament to permit competition between conditional associates and conditional altruists. We provide evidence that when unconditional altruism is paired with conditional association, a strategy we called MOTH, it can out compete TIT FOR TAT under a wide range of conditions.Game Theory; Altruism; Prisoners' Dilemma; TIT FOR TAT; MOTH; Docking; Netlogo

Knowing what you need to know about needs assessment

This paper reviews the scientific literature on needs assessment of individuals living in the community. Providing an overview of the field with a focus on capturing useful information for planning health interventions in the community, this paper will highlight: The current policy context that underpins the importance of needs assessment in health care; Key papers and basic theoretical concepts that can guide a coherent approach to community care needs assessment, including Bradshaw, 1972 and Stevens & Gabbay, 1991; The development of semi-structured interviews in mental health as a focus for designing new tools - with the Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN) being the most well known; How to deal with the organisational issues involved with the assessment of unmet need in the community; The current evidence base for developing a national approach to needs assessment; And a brief look at the latest self-reported needs assessment instruments