The submarine Azores Plateau : Evidence for a waning mantle plume?

The submarine Azores Plateau in the Central Northern Atlantic has generally been considered to represent a large igneous plateau formed some 10 Ma by widespread volcanism, however a lack of age progression amongst the younger submarine and subaerial volcanism, an irregular distribution of platform-related magmas east and west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a strong tectonic stress regime, and a lack of abundant tholeiitic compositions that reflect initial, high degrees of melting is not easily explainable in the framework of a classic, long-lived mantle plume model. Here, we present new bathymetric and seismic data from the submarine Azores Plateau obtained during cruises M113/1 and M128 with the German R/V Meteor. Our new data combined with prior geochemical and petrological studies indicate that the majority of the western Azores Plateau may indeed have formed during the arrival of a short-lived mantle melting anomaly at 10 Ma. However, our new data also indicate that volcanismPeer reviewe

Bulgarian sport policy 1945-1989: A strategic relation perspective

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games have stimulated discussions about the success of different sport systems and the Chinese model in particular. Revisiting explanations of sport in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe during the Cold War seems timely, as the current Chinese model of sport was largely designed after the Soviet example established in this period. This paper examines Bulgarian sport policy between 1945 and 1989. It employs a Strategic Relation approach (Jessop, 1990) to analyse sport policy making as a strategic relation closely linked to the dominant state project of building a new stateness. It goes beyond ideological interpretations and argues that the state represents a strategic terrain where these relations have to be established in struggles, the outcomes of which are always uncertain. Furthermore, past and present struggles and their outcomes create various socio-political environments that presuppose the forms of state selectivity and intervention in sport. The process of constructing sport policy was influenced by two main categories of strategic relations: intra-state, including political, organisational and personal relations between the Party, state apparatus and various sport and non-sport organisations and their managers, and transnational, concerning ideological, political, economic and organisational relations with both communist and western countries and international sport organisations

Deep-water oyster cliffs at La Chapelle Bank (Celtic Margin)

The maiden voyage of Ghent University’s ROV GENESIS on-board R/V Belgica (13-20 June 2006) has succeeded in contributing to several objectives of the EU-projects HERMES and EURODOM, as well as of the ESF Euromargins project MoundForce. After several trials in the Bay of Douarnenez, GENESIS made its first deep-water survey dives off the Banc de la Chapelle, on the Celtic margin, down to 700 m. The French canyon system near the Banc de la Chapelle offered a perfect location for rigorous trials of GENESIS: reported cold-water coral finds, rugged topography and hydrodynamics in a setting linking the shelf seas to the deep marine realm. The area was first surveyed using R/V Belgica’s multibeam echosounder, imaging deep canyons and thalweg channels between prominent spurs where corals had been reported. High resolution seismic sparker lines provided a geological context and linked in to the existing seismostratigraphy.Two successful dives revealed a sandy-muddy seabed with curious bedforms and erosion exposing consolidated sedimentary sequences, often cut by vertical cliffs up to 10m high. At the base of the cliffs, fallen blocks provided settlement sites for sessile organisms whilst the cliffs and protruding banks revealed dense communities of unidentified giant ostreidae (probably Neopycnodonte sp) forming 3D assemblage with occasional cold-water coral colonies (Lophelia pertusa). Though deep-water ‘oyster banks’ of Neopyncodonte cochlear had already been reported in the Bay of Biscay by ..Le Danois (1948) based on dredges, these dramatic seascapes had remained largely hidden to the human eye up to now

Constitutional Reform in the UK: A Note on the Legacy of the Kilbrandon Commission

The past two decades have seen large shifts in the constitutional landscape of the United Kingdom. This began with the devolution of powers from Westminster to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland under the first Blair government. More recently, the localism agenda advanced by the Coalition and subsequent Conservative governments has sought to further devolve powers to areas within England, and the constitutional integrity of the UK itself was threatened by 2014s Scottish independence referendum and the 2016 referendum vote for the UK to leave the European Union. It is convenient to regard constitutional reform concerned with the dispersal of power through the creation of new executive and legislative bodies as a modern phenomenon. However, the roots of devolution go back much further. Largely forgotten is the work of the Kilbrandon Commission, established to consider the allocation of executive and legislative power within the UK, which reported in 1973 and effectively produced the first substantial proposals for the devolution of power from Westminster. Almost two decades on from the creation of the devolved institutions for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the present moment is as opportune as any to consider the longer-term legacy of the Kilbrandon Commission. This note revisits the major findings and recommendations of Kilbrandon and attempts to consider the extent to which these have been realised in subsequent constitutional reform initiatives. While difficult to quantify its significance, it is nonetheless important to recognise the relevance of the commission’s work for subsequent and unfinished developments within the area of constitutional reform. © 2017, The Author(s)

The Big Society and the Conjunction of Crises: Justifying Welfare Reform and Undermining Social Housing

The idea of the “Big Society” can be seen as culmination of a long-standing debate about the regulation of welfare. Situating the concept within governance theory, the article considers how the UK coalition government has justified a radical restructuring of welfare provision, and considers its implications for housing provision. Although drawing on earlier modernization processes, the article contends that the genesis for welfare reform was based on an analysis that the government was forced to respond to a unique conjunction of crises: in morality, the state, ideology and economics. The government has therefore embarked upon a programme, which has served to undermine the legitimacy of the social housing sector (most notably in England), with detrimental consequences for residents and raising significant dilemmas for those working in the housing sector

Comment on "Tectonic Rotations in Extensional Regimes and Their Paleomagnetic Consequences for Ocean Basalts" by Kenneth L. Verosub and Eldridge M. Moores

One of the more intriguing results from palcomagnetic studies of Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) basalts is that a surprisingly large number of samples have inclinations that deviate significantly from expected values. Vetosub and Moores [1981] sought to account for what appear to be systematic departures of mean inclination at several DSDP basement sites in terms of tectonic rotations along listtic normal faults. Such rotations, about horizontal axes perpendicular to the extension direction and typically amounting to 30ø-50 ø but as large as 70 ø to 90 ø, were suggested to be characteristic of an extensional tectonic regime such as near an ocean spreading ridge system. There is a clear implication that large tectonic rotations are a characteristic process associated with ocean crust formation

Continuity and change in the institution of town and country planning: modelling the role of ideology

The institution of town and country planning rests upon ideas and concepts which will always be contested. Such concepts include ‘liberty’, ‘community’, ‘society’ and ‘the state’. It is a function of political ideology to seek to fix the meanings of contested concepts and thus exert control over political reality. By analysing the particular conceptual structure of the ideologies which seek to influence planning from positions of political power, the analyst can show how these ideologies are related to shifts in the conceptual and institutional structure of planning. The paper illustrates this analytical method in the context of the transition from the ideology of New Labour to the ideology of the Conservative-led Coalition government in England after 2010

Reporting interventions in communication partner training: a critical review and narrative synthesis of the literature

Background: Communication partner training (CPT) is an umbrella term for a complex behavioural intervention for communications partners (CPs) of people with aphasia (PWA) and possibly PWA themselves, with many interacting components, deployed in flexible ways. Recent systematic reviews (Simmons-Mackie, Raymer, Armstrong, Holland, & Cherney, 2010; Simmons-Mackie, Raymer, & Cherney, 2016) have highlighted the effectiveness of CPT in addressing the skills of conversation partners and the communicative participation of people with aphasia but have suggested that CPT has been variably delivered, with no clear picture of what the essential elements of CPT are and how CPT is expected to achieve its results through hypothesised mechanisms of change (Coster, 2013). Aim: This paper aims broadly to consider specification of CPT and describes how CPT has been conducted overall and in relation to treatment recipients. Recommendations for CPT and areas for future research are considered. Methods & Procedures: A critical review and narrative synthesis was carried out through: (i) the systematic application of the 12-item TIDieR checklist (Hoffmann et al., 2014) to the 56 studies appraised in the Simmons-Mackie et al. (2010, 2016)) reviews, providing a quantitative overview of the completeness of CPT intervention reporting; and (ii) a qualitative synthesis of the reviewed CPT literature according to TIDieR items. Outcomes & Results: Half of the TIDieR checklist items were reported by 71% or more of the studies, and the rest of the items were reported by 0–63% of studies. TIDieR items relating to the treatment (goal, rationale or theory of essential elements, materials and procedures) and provision (provider, mode, timing, dose) were more frequently reported; however, the level of detail provided was often inadequate or incomplete. The interventions were insufficiently specified to enable replication for most of the studies considered. The most infrequently reported items were: name, location, intervention tailoring and modification, and planned and actual intervention adherence/fidelity. Conclusion: For a better understanding of an intervention, it is necessary to identify and describe potentially central elements and perhaps especially in complex interventions as CPT, where it is likely also more difficult. Whilst the reviewed CPT studies are on average reporting on slightly more than half of the TIDieR items, they are overall insufficiently detailed. Some items appear easier to report on, whereas other items have not been attended to, are too complex in nature to give a full report on, or simply have not been relevant for the individual study to include

Initial Experience with Radical Prostatectomy Following Holmium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate

BACKGROUND: Although an increasing number of prostate cancer (PCa) patients received holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) previously for benign prostatic obstruction (BPO), there is still no evidence regarding the outcomes of radical prostatectomy (RP) in this setting. OBJECTIVE: To assess functional and oncological results of RP in PCa patients who received HoLEP for BPO previously in a contemporary multi-institutional cohort. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A total of 95 patients who underwent RP between 2011 and 2019 and had a history of HoLEP were identified in two institutions. Functional as well as oncological follow-up was prospectively assessed and retrospectively analyzed. INTERVENTION: RP following HoLEP compared with RP without previous transurethral surgery. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Patients with complete follow-up data were matched with individuals with no history of BPO surgery using propensity score matching. Complications were assessed using the Clavien-Dindo scale. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: The median follow-up was 50.5 mo. We found no significant impact of previous HoLEP on positive surgical margin rate (14.0% [HoLEP] vs 18.8% [no HoLEP], p =  0.06) and biochemical recurrence-free survival (hazard ratio 0.74, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.32-1.70, p =  0.4). Patients with a history of HoLEP had increased 1-yr urinary incontinence rates after RP. After adjusting for confounders, no significant impact of previous HoLEP was found (odds ratio [OR] 0.87, 95% CI 0.74-1.01; p = 0.07). Previous HoLEP did not hamper 1-yr erectile function recovery (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.05-1.43; p =  0.01). Limitations include retrospective design and small sample size. CONCLUSIONS: RP after previous HoLEP is surgically feasible, with low complication rates and no negative impact on biochemical recurrence-free survival. However, in a multivariable analysis, we observed significantly worse 1-yr continence rates in patients after previous HoLEP. PATIENT SUMMARY: In the current study, we assessed the oncological and functional outcomes of radical prostatectomy in patients who underwent holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) previously due to prostatic bladder outlet obstruction. A history of HoLEP did not hamper oncological results, 1-yr continence, and erectile function recovery