Constituting monetary conservatives via the 'savings habit': New Labour and the British housing market bubble

The ongoing world credit crunch might well kill off the most recent bubble dynamics in the British housing market by driving prices systematically downwards from their 2007 peak. Nonetheless, the experience of that bubble still warrants analytical attention. The Labour Government might not have been responsible for consciously creating it, but it has certainly grasped the opportunities the bubble has provided in an attempt to enforce a process of agential change at the heart of the British economy. The key issue in this respect is the way in which the Government has challenged the legitimacy of passive welfare receipts in favour of establishing a welfare system based on incorporating the individual into an active asset-holding society. The housing market has taken on new political significance as a means for individuals first to acquire assets and then to accumulate wealth on the back of asset ownership. The ensuing integration of the housing market into an increasingly reconfigured welfare system has permeated into the politics of everyday life. It has been consistent with individuals remaking their political subjectivities in line with preferences for the type of conservative monetary policies that typically keep house price bubbles inflated

Walking the walk: a phenomenological study of long distance walking

Evidence suggests that regular walking can elicit significant psychological benefits although little evidence exists concerning long distance walking. The purpose of this study was to provide detailed accounts of the experiences of long distance walkers. Phenomenological interviews were conducted with six long distance walkers. Data were transcribed verbatim before researchers independently analyzed the transcripts. Participants reported a cumulative effect with positive feelings increasing throughout the duration of the walk. Long distance walking elicited positive emotions, reduced the effects of life-stress, and promoted an increased sense of well-being and personal growth. Results are aligned to theories and concepts from positive psychology

Evaluation of the effects of wheat gluten source and animal plasma blends on the growth performance of nursery pigs

A total of 472 weanling pigs (initially 13.5 lb) were used in two experiments to evaluate the effects of wheat gluten source (WG) and combinations with spray-dried animal plasma (SDAP) on growth performance of nursery pigs. In Exp. 1, the five dietary treatments included a control diet containing 6% SDAP, wheat gluten that was enzymatically hydrolyzed (Source 1), and a non-hydrolyzed wheat gluten (Source 2). The wheat gluten sources replaced L-lysine HCl and replaced 50% or 100% of the spray-dried animal plasma. From d 0 to 7, 7 to 14, and 0 to 21, increasing wheat gluten decreased (linear; P\u3c0.05) ADG. There were no differences between wheat gluten sources. Average daily feed intake decreased similar to ADG, with the exception that ADFI of pigs fed wheat gluten Source 2 had only a slight decreasing trend (P\u3c0.11) from d 0 to 7. Pigs fed the diet containing 6% SDAP had the greatest ADG and ADFI from d 0 to 21. When the SDAP was replaced with either wheat gluten source, ADG and ADFI linearly decreased (P\u3c0.01) but F/G improved (P\u3c0.04). When pigs were fed the common diet from d 21 to 35, there were no differences (P\u3c0.05) in ADG, ADFI or F/G. In Exp. 2, the six dietary treatments included a negative control with no SDAP or WG (0:0 ratio), 9% WG (100:0 ratio), 6.75% WG and 1.25% SDAP (75:25 ratio) combination, 4.5% WG and 2.5% SDAP (50:50 ratio) combination, 2.25% WG and 3.75% SDAP (25:75 ratio) combination, and a positive control with 5% SDAP (0:100 ratio). The wheat gluten (Source 1) was enzymatically hydrolyzed, but from a different lot than Exp. 1. From d 0 to 14, pigs fed 6% SDAP had numerically greater ADG and ADFI compared to pigs fed the negative control diet. However, replacing SDAP with increasing amounts of WG tended to decrease (P\u3c0.10) ADG and ADFI. These results confirm the improved ADG and ADFI of pigs fed SDAP immediately after weaning. In these experiments, replacing SDAP with WG resulted in decreased ADG.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 14, 200

An Analysis of Pedestrian Waiting Time at Uncontrolled Crosswalks Using Discrete Choice Model

A study of pedestrians crossing behavior is conducted at an uncontrolled mid-block crosswalk in Istanbul Turkey, to model the pedestrians waiting time, related to their behavior for making the crossing decision. This article focused on the issues encountered in the modeling of the operational behavior of pedestrians. The discrete choice framework is used because of its capacity to deal with individuals’ choice behavior. Pedestrians waiting time is classified into three levels, including low, medium, and high levels based on the level of service of pedestrians waiting time. The pedestrians’ behavior prediction has been improved by analyzing, taking into account three levels for pedestrian behavior

Results of NOPHO ALL2008 treatment for patients aged 1-45 years with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) do worse than children. From 7/2008 to 12/2014, Nordic and Baltic centers treated 1509 consecutive patients aged 1-45 years with Philadelphia chromosome-negative ALL according to the NOPHO ALL2008 without cranial irradiation. Overall, 1022 patients were of age 1-9 years (A), 266 were 10-17 years (B) and 221 were 18-45 years (C). Sixteen patients (three adults) died during induction. All others achieved remission after induction or 1-3 intensive blocks. Subsequently, 45 patients (12 adults) died, 122 patients relapsed (32 adults) with a median time to relapse of 1.6 years and 13 (no adult) developed a second malignancy. Median follow-up time was 4.6 years. Among the three age groups, older patients more often had higher risk ALL due to T-ALL (32%/25%/9%, PPeer reviewe

The entrepreneurial marketing management and commercialization arrangements of born-global bio-enterprises: the case of UK companies

Born global bio-enterprises are a unique “breed” of relatively small biotechnology enterprises operating in multiple countries. The companies are nimble and seemingly well-prepared for challenges that ephemeral markets such as the internationalised biotechnology sector brings. The international marketing management challenges they encounter appear to stimulate their entrepreneurial marketing and commercialisation instincts. Surprisingly, there is a dearth of studies that examine their entrepreneurial predispositions. As such, this study is an attempt to explain their entrepreneurial tendencies by investigating the marketing and commercialisation strategies adopted by born global bio-enterprises in the UK’s biotechnology industry. The study assumes a multi-case approach examining five archetypical born global bio-enterprises currently active in the UK. It contributes to the international entrepreneurship and marketing management literature. Specifically, it provides international business managers with new knowledge about various marketing manoeuvres they can apply in international networks for their marketing mileage. In doing so, the study proposes a theoretical framework mapping out entrepreneurial marketing and commercialisation arrangements in internationalised biotechnology markets. Its findings are useful to various stakeholders including: policy makers, managers of technology-based companies and business management researchers

Structure of a bacterial voltage-gated sodium channel pore reveals mechanisms of opening and closing

Voltage-gated sodium channels are vital membrane proteins essential for electrical signalling; in humans, they are key targets for the development of pharmaceutical drugs. Here we report the crystal structure of an open-channel conformation of NavMs, the bacterial channel pore from the marine bacterium Magnetococcus sp. (strain MC-1). It differs from the recently published crystal structure of a closed form of a related bacterial sodium channel (NavAb) by having its internal cavity accessible to the cytoplasmic surface as a result of a bend/rotation about a central residue in the carboxy-terminal transmembrane segment. This produces an open activation gate of sufficient diameter to allow hydrated sodium ions to pass through. Comparison of the open and closed structures provides new insight into the features of the functional states present in the activation cycles of sodium channels and the mechanism of channel opening and closing

T-systems and Y-systems in integrable systems

The T and Y-systems are ubiquitous structures in classical and quantum integrable systems. They are difference equations having a variety of aspects related to commuting transfer matrices in solvable lattice models, q-characters of Kirillov-Reshetikhin modules of quantum affine algebras, cluster algebras with coefficients, periodicity conjectures of Zamolodchikov and others, dilogarithm identities in conformal field theory, difference analogue of L-operators in KP hierarchy, Stokes phenomena in 1d Schr\"odinger problem, AdS/CFT correspondence, Toda field equations on discrete space-time, Laplace sequence in discrete geometry, Fermionic character formulas and combinatorial completeness of Bethe ansatz, Q-system and ideal gas with exclusion statistics, analytic and thermodynamic Bethe ans\"atze, quantum transfer matrix method and so forth. This review article is a collection of short reviews on these topics which can be read more or less independently.Comment: 156 pages. Minor corrections including the last paragraph of sec.3.5, eqs.(4.1), (5.28), (9.37) and (13.54). The published version (JPA topical review) also needs these correction