Irish Witchcraft and Demonology

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The Claims Culture: A Taxonomy of Industry Attitudes

This paper presents an analysis of a familiar aspect of construction industry culture that we have dubbed 'the claims culture'. This is a culture of contract administration that lays a strong emphasis on the planning and management of claims. The principal elements of the analysis are two sets of distinctions. The first comprises economic and occupational orders, referring to two kinds of control that are exercised over the construction process; predicated respectively on economic ownership and occupational competence. The second refers to contrasting attitudes towards relationships and problem solving within these orders: respectively 'distributive' and 'integrative'. The concepts of economic and occupational order entail further sub-categories. The various attitudes associated with these categories and sub-categories are described. They are assessed as to their consequences for change initiatives in the industry

Second-hand Smoke Increases Nitric Oxide and Alters the IgE Response in a Murine Model of Allergic Aspergillosis

This study was performed to determine the effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) on nitric oxide (NO) and immunoglobulin (Ig) production in a murine model of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA). Adult BALB/c mice were exposed to aged and diluted sidestream cigarette smoke from day 0 through day 43 to simulate “second-hand smoke”. During exposure, mice were sensitized to soluble Aspergillus fumigatus (Af) antigen intranasally between day 14 and 24. All Af sensitized mice in ambient air (Af + AIR) made elevated levels of IgE, IgG1, IgM, IgG2a and IgA. Af sensitized mice housed in ETS (Af + ETS) made similar levels of immunoglobulins except for IgE that was significantly reduced in the serum and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). However, immunohistochemical evaluation of the lung revealed a marked accumulation of IgE positive cells in the lung parenchyma of these Af + ETS mice. LPS stimulation of BAL cells revealed elevated levels of NO in the Af + AIR group, which was further enhanced in the Af+ETS group. In vitro restimulation of the BAL cells on day 45 showed a TH0 response with elevated levels of IL3, 4, 5, 10 and IFN-γ. However, by day 28 the response shifted such that TH2 cytokines increased while IFN-γ decreased. The Af + ETS group showed markedly reduced levels in all cytokines tested, including the inflammatory cytokine IL6, when compared to the Af+AIR group. These results demonstrate that ETS affects ABPA by further enhancing the NO production and reduces the TH2 and the inflammatory cytokines while altering the pattern of IgE responses

Establishment of a positive-readout reporter system for siRNAs

The use of small interfering RNA molecules for therapeutic applications requires development of improved delivery systems, a process that would be facilitated by a non-invasive positive-readout mouse model for studying siRNA pharmacodynamics. Positive readout would yield better signal/noise ratios than existing negative-readout systems. We have engineered a positive-readout luciferase reporter system, activated by successful delivery of siRNA targeting the lac repressor. Co-transfection of a plasmid expressing lac repressor and a plasmid expressing firefly luciferase under the control of an RSV promoter, containing two lac operator sites, resulted in 5.7-fold lower luciferase activity than luciferase-encoding plasmid alone. Inhibition was reversed following addition of synthetic inducer, IPTG, which elevated luciferase expression to normal levels and confirmed functionality of the lac operon. Delivery of 1nM siRNA targeting lac repressor to repressor/reporter co-transfected cells was sufficient to fully restore luciferase expression to levels observed in the absence of repressor. Maximum expression was observed after 48hr, with a rapid decrease thereafter due to the short half life of luciferase. The luciferase positive-readout reporter system is therefore a dynamic indicator of successful RNAi delivery in vitro and could be adapted to generate a transgenic mouse capable of reporting RNAi activity non-invasively in vivo

Alpha band prefrontal asymmetry does not underlie pain approach-avoidance: Results from two EEG studies

Pain research is often focused on escape from pain or approach of relief, yet individuals with chronic pain make complex choices to face their pain to satiate other drives (approach-avoidance conflicts). An abundance of research has indicated that prefrontal alpha band asymmetry (PFA) underlies approach-avoidance in general, but there is limited information about whether PFA underlies pain approach-avoidance conflicts. Electroencephalogram activity was recorded while 70 participants with chronic pain (n=33) and without chronic pain (n=37) approached/avoided stimuli containing simultaneous pain (low-high) and monetary reward (low-high). Findings from both studies revealed that approach-avoidance for pain stimuli is not accompanied by prefrontal asymmetry, irrespective of the presence of chronic pain

Galaxy protocluster candidates around z ~ 2.4 radio galaxies

We study the environments of 6 radio galaxies at 2.2 < z < 2.6 using wide-field near-infrared images. We use colour cuts to identify galaxies in this redshift range, and find that three of the radio galaxies are surrounded by significant surface overdensities of such galaxies. The excess galaxies that comprise these overdensities are strongly clustered, suggesting they are physically associated. The colour distribution of the galaxies responsible for the overdensity are consistent with those of galaxies that lie within a narrow redshift range at z ~ 2.4. Thus the excess galaxies are consistent with being companions of the radio galaxies. The overdensities have estimated masses in excess of 10^14 solar masses, and are dense enough to collapse into virizalised structures by the present day: these structures may evolve into groups or clusters of galaxies. A flux-limited sample of protocluster galaxies with K < 20.6 mag is derived by statistically subtracting the fore- and background galaxies. The colour distribution of the protocluster galaxies is bimodal, consisting of a dominant blue sequence, comprising 77 +/- 10% of the galaxies, and a poorly populated red sequence. The blue protocluster galaxies have similar colours to local star-forming irregular galaxies (U -V ~ 0.6), suggesting most protocluster galaxies are still forming stars at the observed epoch. The blue colours and lack of a dominant protocluster red sequence implies that these cluster galaxies form the bulk of their stars at z < 3.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Nonlinearization and waves in bounded media: old wine in a new bottle

We consider problems such as a standing wave in a closed straight tube, a self-sustained oscillation, damped resonance, evolution of resonance and resonance between concentric spheres. These nonlinear problems, and other similar ones, have been solved by a variety of techniques when it is seen that linear theory fails. The unifying approach given here is to initially set up the appropriate linear difference equation, where the difference is the linear travel time. When the linear travel time is replaced by a corrected nonlinear travel time, the nonlinear difference equation yields the required solution

Demanding stories: television coverage of sustainability, climate change and material demand

This paper explores the past, present and future role of broadcasting, above all via the medium of television, in shaping how societies talk, think about and act on climate change and sustainability issues. The paper explores these broad themes via a focus on the important but relatively neglected issue of material demand and opportunities for its reduction. It takes the outputs and decision-making of one of the world’s most influential broadcasters, the BBC, as its primary focus. The paper considers these themes in terms of stories, touching on some of the broader societal frames of understanding into which they can be grouped. Media decision-makers and producers from a range of genres frequently return to the centrality of ‘story’ in the development, commissioning and production of an idea. With reference to specific examples of programming, and drawing on interviews with media practitioners, the paper considers the challenges of generating broadcast stories that can inspire engagement in issues around climate change, and specifically material demand. The concluding section proposes actions and approaches that might help to establish material demand reduction as a prominent way of thinking about climate change and environmental issues more widely. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’