State of Academic Knowledge on Toxicity and Biological Fate of Quantum Dots

Quantum dots (QDs), an important class of emerging nanomaterial, are widely anticipated to find application in many consumer and clinical products in the near future. Premarket regulatory scrutiny is, thus, an issue gaining considerable attention. Previous review papers have focused primarily on the toxicity of QDs. From the point of view of product regulation, however, parameters that determine exposure (e.g., dosage, transformation, transportation, and persistence) are just as important as inherent toxicity. We have structured our review paper according to regulatory risk assessment practices, in order to improve the utility of existing knowledge in a regulatory context. Herein, we summarize the state of academic knowledge on QDs pertaining not only to toxicity, but also their physicochemical properties, and their biological and environmental fate. We conclude this review with recommendations on how to tailor future research efforts to address the specific needs of regulators

Narrating Devolution: Politics and/as Scottish Fiction

This article explores the tensions between the competing cultural andpolitical narratives of devolution, anchored around James Robertson’s state- of-the-nation novelAnd the Land Lay Still(2010). The article emergesfrom the two-year research project ‘Narrating Scottish Devolution’, and includes excerpts from workshops held on this topic at the Stirling Centre for Scottish Studies, alongside archival work on the internal debates of the Royal Commission on the Constitution (1969–73). The article unpicks competing teleologies of government de-centralisation and the recovery of Scottish cultural agency, ending with a call to begin the thorny task ofnarrativising devolution in political and historical terms. Access the podcast at: http://hdl.handle.net/11667/77The article reports the findings of a research project ('Narrating Scottish Devolution: Literature, Politics and the Culturalist Paradigm’) supported by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant (ref SG132334)

South-South technology transfer of low-carbon innovation: large Chinese hydropower dams in Cambodia

Large dams have been controversially debated for decades due to their large‐scale and often irreversible social and environmental impacts. In the pursuit of low‐carbon energy and climate change mitigation, hydropower is experiencing a new renaissance. At the forefront of this renaissance are Chinese actors as the world's largest hydropower dam‐builders. This paper aims to discuss the role of South–South technology transfer of low‐carbon energy innovation and its opportunities and barriers by using a case study of the first large Chinese‐funded and Chinese‐built dam in Cambodia. Using the Kamchay Dam as an example, the paper finds that technology transfer can only be fully successful when host governments and organizations have the capacity to absorb new technologies. The paper also finds that technology transfer in the dam sector needs to go beyond hardware and focus more on the transfer of expertise, skills and knowledge to enable long‐term sustainable development

The meaning and importance of dignified care: Findings from a survey of health and social care professionals

This article is available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright © 2013 Cairns et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.There are well established national and local policies championing the need to provide dignity in care for older people. We have evidence as to what older people and their relatives understand by the term 'dignified care' but less insight into the perspectives of staff regarding their understanding of this key policy objective.This research was supported by the Dunhill Medical Trust [grant number: R93/1108]

Decay of escherichia coli in soil following the application of biosolids to agricultural land

The decay of Escherichia coli in a sandy loam soil, amended with enhanced and conventionally treated biosolids, was investigated in a field experiment following spring and autumn applications of sewage sludge. Control soils, without the application of biosolids, were also examined to determine the background indigenous populations of E. coli which are present in the environment. The survival of indigenous E. coli and populations of E. coli applied to soil in biosolids, is assessed in relation to environmental factors influencing pathogen-decay processes in soil

A generation apart? Youth and political participation in Britain

Conventional wisdom holds that young people in Britain are alienated from politics, with some claiming that this reflects a wider crisis of legitimacy that should be met by initiatives to increase citizenship. This article addresses these areas, presenting both panel survey and focus group data from first-time voters. It concludes that, contrary to the findings from many predominantly quantitative studies of political participation, young people are interested in political matters, and do support the democratic process. However they feel a sense of anti-climax having voted for the first time, and are critical of those who have been elected to positions of political power. If they are a generation apart, this is less to do with apathy, and more to do with their engaged scepticism about ‘formal’ politics in Britain

Assessment of highly distributed power systems using an integrated simulation approach

In a highly distributed power system (HDPS), micro renewable and low carbon technologies would make a significant contribution to the electricity supply. Further, controllable devices such as micro combined heat and power (CHP) could be used to assist in maintaining stability in addition to simply providing heat and power to dwellings. To analyse the behaviour of such a system requires the modelling of both the electrical distribution system and the coupled microgeneration devices in a realistic context. In this paper a pragmatic approach to HDPS modelling is presented: microgeneration devices are simulated using a building simulation tool to generate time-varying power output profiles, which are then replicated and processed statistically so that they can be used as boundary conditions for a load flow simulation; this is used to explore security issues such as under and over voltage, branch thermal overloading, and reverse power flow. Simulations of a section of real network are presented, featuring different penetrations of micro-renewables and micro-CHP within the ranges that are believed to be realistically possible by 2050. This analysis indicates that well-designed suburban networks are likely to be able to accommodate such levels of domestic-scale generation without problems emerging such as overloads or degradation to the quality of supply

Public support for older disabled people: evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing on receipt of disability benefits and social care subsidy

In England, state support for older people with disabilities consists of a national system of non-means tested cash disability benefits, and a locally-administered means-tested system of social care. Evidence on how the combination of the two systems targets those in most need is lacking. We estimate a latent factor structural equation model of disability and receipt of one or both forms of support. The model integrates the measurement of disability and its influence on receipt of state support, allowing for the socio-economic gradient in disability, and adopts income and wealth constructs appropriate to each part of the model. We find that receipt of each form of support rises as disability increases, with a strong concentration on the most disabled, especially for LA-funded care. The overlap between the two programmes is confined to the most disabled. Less than half of recipients of local authority-funded care also receive a disability benefit; a third of those in the top 10% of the disability distribution receive neither form of support. Despite being non means-tested, disability benefits display a degree of income and wealth targeting, as a consequence of the socio-economic gradient in disability and likely disability benefit claims behaviour. The scope for improving income/wealth targeting of disability benefits by means testing them, as some have suggested, is thus less than might be expected