Scotland Decides ’14: what does independence debate mean for the BBC?

First paragraph: The union Equity is calling for a national Scottish broadcaster to be created regardless of the outcome of the independence referendum in September. Meanwhile, BBC Trust director Jeremy Peat warned the Scottish parliament’s culture committee that unfettered access to BBC programming wouldn’t necessarily continue in the event of independence. Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/scotland-decides-14-what-does-independence-debate-mean-for-the-bbc-2589

Developing a context-based bounded centrality approach of street patterns in flooding: a case study of London

Floods affect an average of 21 million people worldwide each year, and their frequency is expected to increase due to climate warming, population growth, and rapid urbanisation. Previous research on the robustness of transport networks during floods has mainly used percolation theory. However, giant component size of disrupted networks cannot capture the entire network’s information and, more importantly, does not reflect the local reality. To address this issue, this study introduces a novel approach to bounded context-based centrality to extract the local impact of disruption. In particular, we propose embedding travel behaviour into the road network to calculate bounded centrality and develop new measures characterising the size of connected components during flooding. Our analysis can identify critical road segments during floods by comparing the decreasing trend and dispersibility of component sizes on road networks. To demonstrate the feasibility of these approaches, a case study of London's transport infrastructure that integrates road networks with relevant urban contexts was developed. This approach is beneficial for practical risk management, helping decision-makers allocate resources efficiently in space and time

Organisational governance: a praxiography of three cricket clubs in Lancashire

Sport governance has provoked much academic and policy interest in recent decades. With claims that voluntary sports clubs (VSCs) are encountering a more challenging environment, and requests for more research into this ‘under-theorised’ field (King, 2017), an exploratory study of governance was undertaken. The aim - to develop a critical and comprehensive appreciation of local cricket clubs’ governance - was actualised through three qualitative case studies. Observation of practices, interviews with committee members and stakeholders, and scrutiny of documentation generated voluminous qualitative data. Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (NVIVO 12) was utilised to facilitate collation and analysis of data. Social practice theory (SPT) was adopted as the underpinning conceptual lens. Fused with a critical realist (CR) paradigm, this created an innovative, cogent and supportive theoretical framework. Social practices, when perceived as an entity within the ‘real’ domain, comprise components such as traditions from previous practices, and associated understandings, values, meanings, ideals and purposes, or what Bhaskar (1989) refers to as ‘generative mechanisms’. Manifesting within the ‘actual’ domain, these underpin and guide performances (Heisserer and Rau, 2015) to create outcomes and effects (the ‘empirical’ domain). Attention to these different levels of reality (Collier, 1994) and a primary emphasis on practices, as opposed to agentic or structural dimensions, arguably evinced a deeper understanding of governing in this context. This theoretical framework facilitated elucidation of this complex organisational phenomenon, opening up the ‘black box’ of governing to reveal contemporary and insightful findings. All cases are sites of a comprehensive bundle of governance practices, comprising a blend of formal, informal and pragmatic activities, perceived as contributory to positive organisational outcomes. Research disclosed unexpected significant homogeneity across the cases, at all levels of reality, including pre-existing and emerging ‘conditions’ (Sayer, 1999), purposes, processes, and principles of governing and consequences therefrom. A combination of thematic and in-vivo coding was utilised to develop common key governing activity areas: communicating and engaging with stakeholders; reviewing and planning and structuring and organising; and addressing finances and facilities. From these, praxis was subsequently conceptualised as domains, summarised in a mnemonic (7F’s), aspiring to support practitioners. These domains - fields of action, thought, influence – aim to epitomise the ethos, key activities and purposes of practices and represent those regarded by practitioners and stakeholders as more significant and consequential. Since presented at several practitioner and academic conferences, the ‘7F’s governance framework’ © now forms the basis for a series of online club support workshops delivered by the researcher. Feedback about this model has been extremely positive, bringing Laplume et al.’s (2008) comments, ‘a theory that moves us’, to mind. Additional empirically informed governance recommendations for practitioners have also been formulated. Overall, it is believed the original aim has been attained. This research makes novel, compelling and perceptive evidence-based theoretical and practical knowledge contributions. A more nuanced, contemporary and critical appreciation of governing in grassroots sports clubs has been advanced, progressing understanding of how it is performed and to what ends. The blending of SPT with a CR paradigm is regarded as an appealing theoretical development and a key contribution to knowledge. Researchers should be encouraged from the operationalisation and application of social practice theory: its utility has been demonstrated, within this empirical project, and fusion with critical realism has revealed flexibility, providing illuminating insights for future studies. Proposals for further research are suggested

Forecasting infrastructure resilience to climate change

Resilience of the UK transport infrastructure network can be expressed as the imbalance between the physical condition of the network and the transport demands the network experiences. Forecasting changes of resilience in the long term (e.g. the 2050s) requires a structured, multi-disciplinary approach. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council funded Futurenet project developed a model architecture to formalise such an approach and this paper addresses one component: the assessment of the influence of physical processes on asset condition. This requires the development of new, integrated physical-based models that respond to detailed inputs of forecast weather events (e.g. UK Climate Projections 2009). The results are plotted onto the infrastructure network for visualisation. Subsequent combination with user demand will then enable determination of network resilience at a range of spatial scales. The project has highlighted the need for better datasets, more sophisticated physical-based models and further analyses of complex feedbacks and interactions between physical processes and also with user behaviour

Applying phylogenomics to understand the emergence of Shiga Toxin producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 strains causing severe human disease in the United Kingdom

Shiga Toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 is a recently emerged zoonotic pathogen with considerable morbidity. Since the serotype emerged in the 1980s, research has focussed on unravelling the evolutionary events from the E. coli O55:H7 ancestor to the contemporaneous globally dispersed strains. In this study the genomes of over 1000 isolates from human clinical cases and cattle, spanning the history of STEC O157:H7 in the United Kingdom were sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis reveals the ancestry, key acquisition events and global context of the strains. Dated phylogenies estimate the time to the most recent common ancestor of the current circulating global clone to 175 years ago, followed by rapid diversification. We show the acquisition of specific virulence determinates occurred relatively recently and coincides with its recent detection in the human population. Using clinical outcome data from 493 cases of STEC O157:H7 we assess the relative risk of severe disease including HUS from each of the defined clades in the population and show the dramatic effect Shiga toxin complement has on virulence. We describe two strain replacement events that have occurred in the cattle population in the UK over the last 30 years; one resulting in a highly virulent strain that has accounted for the majority of clinical cases in the UK over the last decade. This work highlights the need to understand the selection pressures maintaining Shiga-toxin encoding bacteriophages in the ruminant reservoir and the study affirms the requirement for close surveillance of this pathogen in both ruminant and human populations

Assessing the impact of a Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) intervention in palliative home care: a stepped wedge cluster trial.

OBJECTIVES: To test the impact on family carers of a Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) intervention to facilitate carer-led assessment and support during end of life care. METHOD: Mixed method, part-randomised, stepped wedge cluster trial with 6 palliative home care services comparing carers receiving the intervention with those receiving standard care. Postal survey with carers 4-5 months postbereavement measured adequacy of end of life support, current mental and physical health (Short Form 12 Health Survey SF-12), level of grief (Texas Revised Inventory of Grief, TRIG) and distress (Distress Thermometer, DT), place of death and carer satisfaction with place of death. RESULTS: Surveys were sent to 3260 (76%) carers of 4311 deceased patients; 681 (21%) were returned (N=333 control, N=348 intervention). Compared with controls, intervention carers had significantly lower levels of early grief, better psychological and physical health, were more likely to feel the place of death was right, and patients were more likely to die at home. However, differences were small and process measures showed low level of implementation, indicating differences may partially relate to increased awareness of carer issues rather than a direct impact of the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Carers had better outcomes in the intervention condition, albeit modest. If this can be achieved through low level implementation and awareness raising of carers' needs from implementation activities, substantial impact should be possible if the CSNAT intervention can be fully implemented with a majority of carers. The study illustrates challenges of implementing and testing a complex intervention in real-life practice and of achieving comprehensive carer assessment and support in line with government recommendations