A Decade of improvement for local government

The theme of this year’s Commonwealth Local Government Conference was Improving local government: the Commonwealth vision. This theme is fundamental to all of us working in and with local government, but particularly so in the current economic climate where councils are having to once again look at how they can tighten their purse strings while they are facing greater demands with less income - doing more with fewer resources.The conference was held in Freeport, Grand Bahama, hosted by the Government of the Bahamas and the councils of Grand Bahama at the Our Lucaya Conference Centre. More than 550 local government ministry, association and council representatives from 48 countries attended the conference. Previous conferences set out Aberdeen Agenda and Auckland Accord as to the kind of local government we want to strive to achieve: local democracy and good governance for effective services to respond to the needs of the local community and strong local leadership to drive development and support local communities. This conference builds on these previous outcomes, with speakers and delegates calling for local government to continue to improve as part of a broader process of development. Jamaican Minister Robert Montague summed up what is needed as a shift in attitude to include the public as important partners – a shift he called ‘business unusual’ to encompass improving service delivery, improving revenue streams, increasing community dialogue, finding new partners and leading from the front

New CLGF Four-Year Grant to Help Local Government Service Delivery and Boost CLGF’s Research Capacity

The UK Department for International Development (UK AID) has agreed £4.5 million funding for a four-year CLGF programme to improve governance and service delivery at local level in several areas of the Commonwealth including Africa and Asia from 2012-16. It will also help to support national policy frameworks for local government service delivery, and increase engagement of local government in regional policy planning and implementation. CLGF will continue to work with its members, UN partners and others to mobilise more resources towards the support of local government in the Commonwealth. The new programme will focus on local government pilot projects in LED, supporting ministries and local government associations in strengthening their national policy making for local government, and establish regional forums to enable local government to engage in and influence regional policy making to reflect the needs and priorities of local government. It will also boost CLGF’s research capacity with targeted research to strengthen CLGF’s policy making and advocacy, including more sustained engagement in international policy debates on key issues affecting local government, such as climate change

Prime decomposition theorem for arbitrary semigroups: general holonomy decomposition and synthesis theorem

AbstractWe generalize the holonomy form of the Prime Decomposition Theorem of Krohn and Rhodes for finite semigroups to arbitrary infinite semigroups. This is accomplished by embedding Š into an infinite Zeiger wreath product after applying the triple Schützenberger product which makes S finite-J-above (Rhodes' theorem)

Investigation of JAK2 targets in haematological malignancy

Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) is a critical activator of signalling associated with many different receptors, particularly those associated with haematopoiesis and the inflammatory response. Classically JAK2 has been thought of as a cytoplasmic protein, but more recently there is evidence that JAK2 is able to enter the nucleus leading to alteration of epigenetic modifiers and enhancement of JAK2 transcriptional targets. This role in haematopoiesis means that alteration of JAK2 signalling, such as in malignant haematopoiesis, can be a critical factor in the development and maintenance of disease. The myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) are a group of conditions characterised by over-production of myeloid cells as a result of acquired mutations in haematopoietic stem cells. Two well-known MPNs are chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), driven by the novel oncoprotein BCR-ABL, and polycythaemia vera (PV), driven by the JAK2 V617F activating mutation. JAK2 is critical for normal haematopoiesis through its role in initiating signalling following activation of a receptor by its ligand. In this study we looked several aspects of JAK2 activity, including its effect on gene expression, its activity within the nucleus, and the effect of overactivity on aspects of inflammation. Here we show that gene expression in both CML and PV patient samples is deregulated compared to normal controls with both previously confirmed alterations such as BCL2 and MCL1 in CML and STAT1 and MPL in PV, and novel alterations such as Rex1 and SUMO2 in CML and EGR1 in PV. These alterations at the level of mRNA transcription are validated by significant alterations in cell cycle and apoptosis in cell lines following treatment with JAK2 inhibitors. As part of the investigation of the activity of JAK2 in the nucleus we hypothesised that JAK2 may interact directly with PML nuclear bodies, a subnuclear structure with numerous regulatory roles in apoptosis, cell cycle, DNA repair and response to infection. Using immunofluorescence based techniques in cell lines and patient samples we showed that JAK2 does interact directly with PML nuclear bodies. This interaction was affected by JAK2 inhibitors in cell lines and increased in PV patient monocytes compared to normal controls. Treatment of cell lines with the JAK2 inhibitor ruxolitinib and arsenic trioxide, which degrades PML, led to an increase in apoptosis compared to either compound alone, suggesting a meaningful functional interaction in both normal and malignant haematopoiesis. The role of the JAK2 V617F in cellular function has been extensively investigated particularly in neutrophils and platelets. However the effect of the JAK2 V617F mutation on monocytes and monocyte derived macrophages has not previously been investigated. Here we show that patients with PV have an alteration in monocyte subsets with an increase in the inflammatory intermediate monocytes at the expense of classical monocytes. We also showed that macrophages derived from peripheral blood monocytes obtained from patients with JAK2 V617F positive PV behaved differently from those derived from normal controls. There were alterations both at rest and in response to stimulation in terms of the morphology, with a more inflammatory phenotype seen, and in cytokine release with blunting of some responses and heightening of other. These alterations were seen both in M1 and M2 macrophages. Overall the work presented in this thesis shows wide ranging alterations in many aspects of cellular behaviour as a result of overactivity of JAK2. Some of these findings have been previously identified and discussed, but there are several key novel findings which progress out understanding of JAK2 function both in normal and malignant haematopoiesis, and the effects of malignant JAK2 activation on cellular behaviour

The neural bases of the bilingual advantage in cognitive control: An investigation of conflict adaptation phenomena.

The present dissertation examines the effects of bilingualism on cognitive control, the ability to regulate attention, particularly in the face of multiple, competing sources of information. Across four experiments, I assess the conflict monitoring theory of the so-called "bilingual advantage", which states that bilinguals are better than monolinguals at detecting conflict between multiple sources of information and flexibly recruiting cognitive control to resolve such competition. In Experiment 1, I show that conflict adaptation, the phenomenon that individuals get better at resolving conflict immediately after encountering conflict, occurs across domains, a pre-requisite to determining whether bilingualism can improve conflict monitoring on non-linguistic tasks. Experiments 2 and 3 compare behavioral and neural conflict adaptation effects in bilinguals and monolinguals. I find that bilinguals are more accurate at detecting initial conflicts and show corresponding increases in activation in neural regions implicated in language-switching. Finally, Experiment 4 extends the bilingual advantage in conflict monitoring to syntactic ambiguity resolution and recognition memory

Prospect Theory Applied to Dating Choices Involving Variations in Social Status and Physical Attractiveness

Clinical Psycholog

Clients, Consumers, or Collaborators? Parents and their Roles in School Reform During Children Achieving, 1995-2000

The Children Achieving reform plan envisioned parents as critical players in school reform, a vision that freshly emphasized the need to transform relations between local schools and parents and communities. This vision represented a departure from the passive view of parents as clients and consumers to an active view of them as collaborators with education professionals in shaping children’s school experience. This report provides an overview of the many roles Children Achieving envisioned for parents between 1995- 2000, with particular attention to their role as education leaders and collaborators with teachers and principals in school reform

Physical modelling of low-cost modifications to the Crump Weir in order to improve fish passage : development of favourable swimming conditions and investigation of the hydrometric effect

More than 350 Crump-type weirs (which are triangular in profile) form part of the Environment Agency's hydrometric network in rivers across England and Wales. These weirs operate as effective measurement structures and are useful over a large flow range. However, they also act as barriers that impede the passage of many species of coarse fish within their natural habitat. The primary aim of this research project was to recommend modifcations to Crump weirs in order to improve fish passage, while still allowing the weirs to fulfll their hydrometric purpose in a reliable way. It was an additional requirement that any proposed solution(s) be both practical and achievable at low-cost. This is in contrast to conventional fish pass solutions, that tend to be expensive, are generally not hydrometrically rated, and most of which were not designed with coarse fish in mind. The method used was a model study conducted in the laboratory, which allowed for a great number of layouts to be trialled. Laboratory research combined with fish swimming data provides a basis for projecting successful fish ascents. Brimpton weir on the River Enborne was chosen as a suitable reference on which to base laboratory model tests. The preferred arrangement (termed a `rotated-V' layout) was found to be a series of baffles located on the downstream slope of the Crump weir. These baffles effectively act as weirs at low flows and roughness elements at high flows. Each baffle has a slot which helps to form a path of ascent for fish. The base closest to the crest was set at the same height as the crest, as this led to optimum low velocities in the slots on the downstream slope. Extensive testing revealed that the proposed solution results in a change in a weir's hydrometric characteristics. However, it was demonstrated that the deviation of the coefficient of discharge is predictable. Therefore, it allows for reliable flow measure- ment to be achieved (subject to a standardised calibration trial using volumetric flow measurement techniques). In addition, a detailed measurement and analysis of wa- ter velocities within the recommended solution strongly suggest that it substantially improves on the fish passage capability of a Crump weir.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Health and Well-being of Service User and Carer Educators: a Narrative Enquiry into the Impact of Involvement in Healthcare Education

Service user and carer involvement is increasing in health and social care educationas a result of UK policy directives and Professional Statutory and Regulatory Body requirements. The study aimed to elicit the accounts of service user and carer educators' experiences in practice-based healthcare education in the UK. The overall aim was to illustrate the impact this has had on their health and well-being. A narrative inquiry approach was adopted in order to give a clearer and stronger voice to service users and carers by making their experience the primary focus of enquiry.Narratives were collected from five service users and carers who had extensive experience of involvement in healthcare education. The individual narrative material obtained was distilled into key points following a naturalistic perspective, ensuring that the findings and final story were a re-presentation of the narrator's experience.Participating in the research enabled the service users and carers to articulate specifically how involvement had positively affected their health and well-being. An additional outcome included the personal artefacts that can be utilised in teaching and learning in order to bring the service user and carer voice to life.This study contributes to the emerging knowledge and understanding that service user and carer involvement in health education can be a truly collaborative, enriching experience,producing profound personal change, with improvements in health and well-being. Effective involvement is dependent upon appropriate support networks whereby service users and carers develop connections with staff and other service users and carers that result in a sense of belonging