Investment in Sustainable Development: A UK Perspective on the Business and Academic Challenges

There are many legislative, stakeholder and supply chain pressures on business to be more ‘sustainable’. Universities have recognised the need for graduate knowledge and understanding of sustainable development issues. Many businesses and universities have responded and introduced Sustainable Development models into their operations with much of the current effort directed at climate change. However, as the current worldwide financial crisis slowly improves, the expectations upon how businesses operate and behave are changing. It will require improved transparency and relationships with all stakeholders, which is the essence of sustainable development. The challenges and opportunities for both business and universities are to understand the requirements of sustainable development and the transformation that is required. They should ensure that knowledge is embedded within the culture of the organisation and wider society in order to achieve a sustainable future

Effects of Metallicity on the Rotation Rates of Massive Stars

Recent theoretical predictions for low metallicity massive stars predict that these stars should have drastically reduced equatorial winds (mass loss) while on the main sequence, and as such should retain most of their angular momentum. Observations of both the Be/(B+Be) ratio and the blue-to-red supergiant ratio appear to have a metallicity dependence that may be caused by high rotational velocities. We have analyzed 39 archival Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), high resolution, ultraviolet spectra of O-type stars in the Magellanic Clouds to determine their projected rotational velocities V sin i. Our methodology is based on a previous study of the projected rotational velocities of Galactic O-type stars using International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) Short Wavelength Prime (SWP) Camera high dispersion spectra, which resulted in a catalog of V sin i values for 177 O stars. Here we present complementary V sin i values for 21 Large Magellanic Cloud and 22 Small Magellanic Cloud O-type stars based on STIS and IUE UV spectroscopy. The distribution of V sin i values for O type stars in the Magellanic Clouds is compared to that of Galactic O type stars. Despite the theoretical predictions and indirect observational evidence for high rotation, the O type stars in the Magellanic Clouds do not appear to rotate faster than their Galactic counterparts.Comment: accepted by ApJ, to appear 20 December 2004 editio

Use of the Rat Grimace Scale to evaluate visceral pain in a model of chemotherapy- induced mucositis

Mucositis is a painful and often debilitating condition associated with cancer treatment. Management of associated symptoms is an important clinical consideration. Animal models are used in mucositis research to model the condition in humans in order to develop novel therapeutic agents to relieve symptoms. Previous animal studies have focused on disease severity and outcomes, but often failed to measure pain. The rat grimace scale (RGS) is a validated observational measure used to gauge pain levels experienced by rats. The aim of this study was to assess the rat grimace scale in a rat model of mucositis, and to examine whether changes in clinical signs and anxiety reflected the grimace responses recorded. We also aimed to determine whether the responses were pain-specific by administering potent opioid painkilling agents. In the present study rat grimace scores did not change significantly between treatments. Development of reliable pain assessment methods in animal models is urgently required to improve model relevance to human clinical practice, in addition to safeguarding animal welfare.Rebecca P. George, Gordon S. Howarth and Alexandra L. Whittake

Fantasies of subjugation: a discourse theoretical account of British policy on the European Union

The decision by the UK government to hold a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union (EU) marks an important development in policy towards the EU. Policy changes of this kind must be understood in the historical and political context in which they occur. This includes the framing of the policy issues within public discourse. In the UK, policies are formed in a discursive environment which is overwhelmingly hostile towards the EU. Debates are structured by a predominantly Euroskeptic discourse which emphasizes the UK’s separation and heterogeneity from the rest of the EU. Drawing on the logics of critical explanation, this article examines the structure and affective power of Euroskeptic discourses which dictate the terms of the EU debate. It presents a case study of the recent EU treaty revision process, culminating in the Treaty of Lisbon. In so doing, it enables a deeper understanding of recent policy developments

Radial Lattice Quantization of 3D ϕ4\phi^4 Field Theory

The quantum extension of classical finite elements, referred to as quantum finite elements ({\bf QFE})~\cite{Brower:2018szu,Brower:2016vsl}, is applied to the radial quantization of 3d $\phi^4$ theory on a simplicial lattice for the $\mathbb R \times \mathbb S^2$ manifold. Explicit counter terms to cancel the one- and two-loop ultraviolet defects are implemented to reach the quantum continuum theory. Using the Brower-Tamayo~\cite{Brower:1989mt} cluster Monte Carlo algorithm, numerical results support the QFE ansatz that the critical conformal field theory (CFT) is reached in the continuum with the full isometries of $\mathbb R \times \mathbb S^2$ restored. The Ricci curvature term, while technically irrelevant in the quantum theory, is shown to dramatically improve the convergence opening, the way for high precision Monte Carlo simulation to determine the CFT data: operator dimensions, trilinear OPE couplings and the central charge.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Modulating autophagy as a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of paediatric high‐grade glioma

Paediatric high grade glioma (pHGG) represent a therapeutically challenging group of tumours. Despite decades of research there has been a minimal improvement in treatment and the clinical prognosis remains poor. Autophagy, a highly conserved process for recycling metabolic substrates is upregulated in pHGG, promoting tumour progression and evading cell death. There is significant cross talk between autophagy and a plethora of critical cellular pathways, many of which Accepted Article This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. are dysregulated in pHGG. The following article will discuss our current understanding of autophagy signalling in pHGG and the potential modulation of this network as a therapeutic target

Making Outbound Route Selection Robust to Egress Point Failure

Abstract. Offline inter-domain outbound Traffic Engineering (TE) can be formulated as an optimization problem whose objective is to determine primary egress points for traffic exiting a domain. However, when egress point failures happen, congestion may occur if secondary egress points are not carefully determined. In this paper, we formulate a bi-level outbound TE problem in order to make outbound route selection robust to egress point failures. We propose a tabu search heuristic to solve the problem and compare the performance to three alternative approaches. Simulation results demonstrate that the tabu search heuristic achieves the best performance in terms of our optimization objectives and also keeps traffic disruption to a minimum

A judgement bias test to assess affective state and potential therapeutics in a rat model of chemotherapy-induced mucositis

Chemotherapy-induced mucositis is an extremely painful condition that occurs in 40–60% of patients undergoing chemotherapy. As mucositis currently has no effective treatment, and due to the self-limiting nature of the condition, the major treatment aims are to manage symptoms and limit pain with significance placed on improving patient quality of life. Rodent models are frequently used in mucositis research. These investigations typically assess pathological outcomes, yet fail to include a measure of affective state; the key therapeutic goal. Assessment of cognitive biases is a novel approach to determining the affective state of animals. Consequently, this study aimed to validate a cognitive bias test through a judgement bias paradigm to measure affective state in a rat model of chemotherapy-induced intestinal mucositis. Rats with intestinal mucositis demonstrated a negative affective state, which was partially ameliorated by analgesic administration, whilst healthy rats showed an optimistic response. This study concluded that the judgement bias test was able to evaluate the emotional state of rats with chemotherapy-induced mucositis. These findings provide a foundation for future refinement to the experimental design associated with the animal model that will expedite successful transitioning of novel therapeutics to clinical practice, and also improve humane endpoint implementation.Rebecca P. George, Timothy H. Barker, Kerry A. Lymn, Dylan A. Bigatton, Gordon S. Howarth and Alexandra L. Whittake

Quasi-Periodic Occultation by a Precessing Accretion Disk and Other Variabilities of SMC X-1

We have investigated the variability of the binary X-ray pulsar, SMC X-1, in data from several X-ray observatories. We confirm the ~60-day cyclic variation of the X-ray flux in the long-term monitoring data from the RXTE and CGRO observatories. X-ray light curves and spectra from the ROSAT, Ginga, and ASCA observatories show that the uneclipsed flux varies by as much as a factor of twenty between a high-flux state when 0.71 second pulses are present and a low-flux state when pulses are absent. In contrast, during eclipses when the X-rays consist of radiation scattered from circumsource matter, the fluxes and spectra in the high and low states are approximately the same. These observations prove that the low state of SMC X-1 is not caused by a reduction in the intrinsic luminosity of the source, or a spectral redistribution thereof, but rather by a quasi-periodic blockage of the line of sight, most likely by a precessing tilted accretion disk. In each of two observations in the midst of low states a brief increase in the X-ray flux and reappearance of 0.71 second pulses occurred near orbital phase 0.2. These brief increases result from an opening of the line of sight to the pulsar that may be caused by wobble in the precessing accretion disk. The records of spin up of the neutron star and decay of the binary orbit are extended during 1991-1996 by pulse-timing analysis of ROSAT, ASCA, and RXTE PCA data. The pulse profiles in various energy ranges from 0.1 to >21 keV are well represented as a combination of a pencil beam and a fan beam. Finally, there is a marked difference between the power spectra of random fluctuations in the high-state data from the RXTE PCA below and above 3.4 keV. Deviation from the fitted power law around 0.06 Hz may be QPO.Comment: Accepted to ApJ. 33 pages including 11 figure

Quantum Dot Targeting with Lipoic Acid Ligase and HaloTag for Single-Molecule Imaging on Living Cells

We present a methodology for targeting quantum dots to specific proteins on living cells in two steps. In the first step, Escherichia coli lipoic acid ligase (LplA) site-specifically attaches 10-bromodecanoic acid onto a 13 amino acid recognition sequence that is genetically fused to a protein of interest. In the second step, quantum dots derivatized with HaloTag, a modified haloalkane dehalogenase, react with the ligated bromodecanoic acid to form a covalent adduct. We found this targeting method to be specific, fast, and fully orthogonal to a previously reported and analogous quantum dot targeting method using E. coli biotin ligase and streptavidin. We used these two methods in combination for two-color quantum dot visualization of different proteins expressed on the same cell or on neighboring cells. Both methods were also used to track single molecules of neurexin, a synaptic adhesion protein, to measure its lateral diffusion in the presence of neuroligin, its trans-synaptic adhesion partner.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R01 GM072670)Camille & Henry Dreyfus FoundationMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Computational and Systems Biology Program. MIT-Merck Postdoctoral Fellowshi