Risk, rescue and emergency services: The changing spatialities of Mountain Rescue Teams in England and Wales

This paper considers the role of the emergency services in society and, in particular, their role in controlling, mitigating and resolving risk. Using a network approach, Mountain Rescue Teams are studied in order to examine how people, agencies, animals, technology and knowledge are deployed to resolve emergencies. The paper traces the changing nature of risk in rural places and the impact of state regulation on the deployment, spatialities and practices of the emergency services. In doing so, it argues that greater attention should be paid to the emergency services by geographers. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

An exclusive countryside? Crime concern, social exclusion and community policing in two English villages

Using the example of two English villages, this paper examines whether rural crime concern is evidence of an 'exclusive society' in the countryside. Specific attention is given to concerns expressed by residents as part of a consultation exercise to establish community-based policing partnerships in rural areas of the West Mercia Constabulary. Based on these findings, the paper goes on to question whether local policing partnerships are capable of shaping idyllic visions of rural space in an exclusionary way. It is argued that while it is important to examine the spatialised rhetoric of rural crime concern, structural processes, rather than localised discourses, make a greater contribution to exclusion in the countryside. © 2010 Taylor & Francis

Rurality, Locality and Industrial Change: A Micro-scale Investigation of Manufacturing Growth in the District of Leominster

Geographers have recently sought to understand countryside change by examining economic restructuring and its impact on local social coherences. However, despite renewed interest in the locale, many investigations of the rural economy have been at a macro-scale. It is argued that this broad brush approach has neglected many important aspects of rural restructuring and, in particular, the importance of social and cultural constructions of change. This paper considers manufacturing growth in rural areas and focuses on western Hereford and Worcester. Based on the findings of a micro-scale investigation of a rural industrial estate, it examines the causes of manufacturing growth and assesses its impact on job creation, local restructuring and in-migration. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd

Cyclops singularis Einsle (1996) in Oxford, a new British record

The authors report the record of Cyclops singularis collected from Peasemoor Piece, a seasonal pond on the outskirts of Oxford. This preliminary note is to alert others to the possibility that C singularis may occur in collections from seasonal ponds in the UK. The recent record of this species in Belgium (Alekseev et al. 2002) indicates that this species is not restricted to its type locality

A Lleyn Sweep for Local Sheep? Breed Societies and the Geographies of Welsh Livestock.

In this paper we use Bourdieu's concept of habitus to examine human animal relationships within capitalist agricultural systems. In the first part of the paper we examine how Bourdieu's ideas have been used by academics to provide insights into the ways that livestock affect and are affected by farming practice. In the second part we build on these conceptual, empirical, and policy insights by examining some of the national and international social networks that contribute to human animal relationships in capitalistic farming.We focus on a case study of Welsh livestock and, in particular, the historic and contemporary roles that breed societies play in the imagination of farm animals and the creation of capitals in agriculture

Livestock, Locality and Landscape: EU Regulations and the New Geography of Welsh Farm Animals

Geographers and policy-makers alike have, until recently, ignored the importance of specific breeds of livestock in agricultural systems. However, the European Union has recently introduced a series of regulations aimed at protecting breeds of livestock with a local tradition. Some British rural agencies, notably the Countryside Council for Wales, have begun to consider how these measures can be included within rural development plans. Based on current thinking in ‘new animal geography’, this article highlights the conceptual and practical problems of defining and identifying breeds for inclusion in these policies. Through detailed mapping, it is demonstrated that Welsh livestock breeds tend to exhibit three distinct geographical patterns. These patterns have been reshaped by agricultural policy, increasingly to meet the goals of agri-environmental conservation. Through the case study of Wales, the paper concludes that applied geography can be used to increase the effectiveness of these policy measures, especially given their new emphases on breed and locality

Regulation of anti-inflammatory gene expression in vascular endothelial cells by EPAC1

Suppressor of cytokine signalling 3 (SOCS3) is a potent inhibitor of pro-inflammatory pathways involved in atherogenesis and the development of neo-intimal hyperplasia (NIH), which contributes to the in-stent re-stenosis responsible for the failure of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures. We have shown that cyclic AMP sensor EPAC1 triggers induction of the SOCS3 gene in vascular endothelial cells (VECs), thereby attenuating interleukin 6 (IL-6)-mediated pro-inflammatory signalling. We propose that EPAC1 localisation to the nuclear pore controls cyclic AMP-mediated activation of a C/EBPβ/c-Jun transcriptional complex, leading to SOCS3 induction and suppression of pro-inflammatory signalling. Future work in this area will involve an integrated approach to determine the wider significance of the EPAC1-C/EBPβ/c-Jun pathway in controlling human VEC function and identify new therapeutic targets for management of chronic inflammation in vascular settings

The role of c-Jun in controlling the EPAC1-dependent induction of the SOCS3 gene in HUVECs

The cyclic AMP sensor, EPAC1, activates AP1-mediated transcription in HUVECs. Correspondingly, induction of the SOCS3 minimal promoter by EPAC1 requires a single AP1 site that constitutively binds phosphorylated (Ser63) c-Jun in DNA-pull-down assays. c-Jun (Ser63) becomes further phosphorylated following cyclic AMP stimulation and specific activation of protein kinase A (PKA), but not through selective activation of EPAC1. Moreover, despite a requirement for c-Jun for SOCS3 induction in fibroblasts, phospho-null c-Jun (Ser63/73Ala) had little effect on SOCS3 induction by cyclic AMP in HUVECs. AP1 activation and SOCS3 induction by EPAC1 in HUVECs therefore occur independently of c-Jun phosphorylation on Ser63

The cAMP sensors, EPAC1 and EPAC2, display distinct subcellular distributions despite sharing a common nuclear pore localisation signal

We have identified a conserved nuclear pore localisation signal (NPLS; amino acids 764–838 of EPAC1) in the catalytic domains of the cAMP-sensors, EPAC1 and EPAC2A. Consequently, EPAC1 is mainly localised to the nuclear pore complex in HEK293T cells where it becomes activated following stimulation with cAMP. In contrast, structural models indicate that the cAMP-binding domain of EPAC2A (CNBD1) blocks access to the conserved NPLS in EPAC2A, reducing its ability to interact with nuclear binding sites. Consequently, a naturally occurring EPAC2 isoform, EPAC2B, which lacks CNBD1 is enriched in nuclear fractions, similar to EPAC1. Structural differences in EPAC isoforms may therefore determine their intracellular location and their response to elevations in intracellular cAMP

Sustainable deathstyles? The geography of green burials in Britain

In the context of a wider literature on ‘deathscapes’, we map the emergence of a new mode of burial and remembrance in Britain. Since a ‘green’ burial ground was established in Carlisle in 1993, sites for so-called ‘green, ‘natural’ or ‘woodland’ funerals have proliferated. There are now over 270 such sites in Britain. Drawing on a postal and email survey sent to all managers/owners and visits to 15 green burial grounds (enabling observations and semi-structured interviews with their managers), we chart their growth, establishment and regulation and describe the landscapes associated with them. This requires, and leads to, wider reflections on nature, capital, consumption, culture and the body