Consultation and consequences: A view on the services experienced by some young people and six families

Reports the views of some young people and 6 families on services received from social care professionals. Summarises the main themes that emerged and emphasises the issue of professional reliability as articulated in these 2 small, but in depth, studies. The views of both sets of interviewees contributed to the creation of a course for front line managers drawing from user and worker consultations. Draws on the interviews to shed light on various aspects of professional relationships with services users and what they said they wanted. Discussion sets this in the context of policy agenda

Financing new creative enterprise through Blockchain technology: opportunities and policy implications

Blockchain technology represents an emerging source of venture capital crowdfunding for creative ventures, specifically in the music industry

How Blockchain technology can monetize new music ventures: an examination of new business models

The paper examines how blockchain technology is disrupting business models for new venture finance. The role of blockchain technology in the evolution of new business models to monetize the creative economy is explored, by means of a case study approach. The focus is on the recorded music industry, which is in the vanguard of new forms of intermediation and financialization. There is a particular focus on emerging artists. The paper provides novel case study insights and concludes by considering how further research can contribute to building a theory of technology-driven business models which apply to the development on the one hand to new forms of financial intermediaries, more correctly referred to as ‘infomediaries’, and on the other hand to new forms of direct monetization by artists

The impact of cell crowding and active cell movement on vascular tumour growth

A multiscale model for vascular tumour growth is presented which includes systems of ordinary differential equations for the cell cycle and regulation of apoptosis in individual cells, coupled to partial differential equations for the spatio-temporal dynamics of nutrient and key signalling chemicals. Furthermore, these subcellular and tissue layers are incorporated into a cellular automaton framework for cancerous and normal tissue with an embedded vascular network. The model is the extension of previous work and includes novel features such as cell movement and contact inhibition. We presented a detailed simulation study of the effects of these additions on the invasive behaviour of tumour cells and the tumour's response to chemotherapy. In particular, we find that cell movement alone increases the rate of tumour growth and expansion, but that increasing the tumour cell carrying capacity leads to the formation of less invasive dense hypoxic tumours containing fewer tumour cells. However, when an increased carrying capacity is combined with significant tumour cell movement, the tumour grows and spreads more rapidly, accompanied by large spatio-temporal fluctuations in hypoxia, and hence in the number of quiescent cells. Since, in the model, hypoxic/quiescent cells produce VEGF which stimulates vascular adaptation, such fluctuations can dramatically affect drug delivery and the degree of success of chemotherapy

Universal thermodynamic bounds on nonequilibrium response with biochemical applications

Diverse physical systems are characterized by their response to small perturbations. Near thermodynamic equilibrium, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem provides a powerful theoretical and experimental tool to determine the nature of response by observing spontaneous equilibrium fluctuations. In this spirit, we derive here a collection of equalities and inequalities valid arbitrarily far from equilibrium that constrain the response of nonequilibrium steady states in terms of the strength of nonequilibrium driving. Our work opens new avenues for characterizing nonequilibrium response. As illustrations, we show how our results rationalize the energetic requirements of two common biochemical motifs.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figure

Multiscale modelling of tumour growth and therapy: the influence of vessel normalisation on chemotherapy

Following the poor clinical results of antiangiogenic drugs, particularly when applied in isolation, tumour biologists and clinicians are now turning to combinations of therapies in order to obtain better results. One of these involves vessel normalisation strategies. In this paper, we investigate the effects on tumour growth of combinations of antiangiogenic and standard cytotoxic drugs, taking into account vessel normalisation. An existing multiscale framework is extended to include new elements such as tumour-induced vessel dematuration. Detailed simulations of our multiscale framework allow us to suggest one possible mechanism for the observed vessel normalisation-induced improvement in the efficacy of cytotoxic drugs: vessel dematuration produces extensive regions occupied by quiescent (oxygen-starved) cells which the cytotoxic drug fails to kill. Vessel normalisation reduces the size of these regions, thereby allowing the chemotherapeutic agent to act on a greater number of cells

Oscillatory dynamics in a model of vascular tumour growth -- implications for chemotherapy

Background\ud \ud Investigations of solid tumours suggest that vessel occlusion may occur when increased pressure from the tumour mass is exerted on the vessel walls. Since immature vessels are frequently found in tumours and may be particularly sensitive, such occlusion may impair tumour blood flow and have a negative impact on therapeutic outcome. In order to study the effects that occlusion may have on tumour growth patterns and therapeutic response, in this paper we develop and investigate a continuum model of vascular tumour growth.\ud Results\ud \ud By analysing a spatially uniform submodel, we identify regions of parameter space in which the combination of tumour cell proliferation and vessel occlusion give rise to sustained temporal oscillations in the tumour cell population and in the vessel density. Alternatively, if the vessels are assumed to be less prone to collapse, stable steady state solutions are observed. When spatial effects are considered, the pattern of tumour invasion depends on the dynamics of the spatially uniform submodel. If the submodel predicts a stable steady state, then steady travelling waves are observed in the full model, and the system evolves to the same stable steady state behind the invading front. When the submodel yields oscillatory behaviour, the full model produces periodic travelling waves. The stability of the waves (which can be predicted by approximating the system as one of λ-ω type) dictates whether the waves develop into regular or irregular spatio-temporal oscillations. Simulations of chemotherapy reveal that treatment outcome depends crucially on the underlying tumour growth dynamics. In particular, if the dynamics are oscillatory, then therapeutic efficacy is difficult to assess since the fluctuations in the size of the tumour cell population are enhanced, compared to untreated controls.\ud Conclusions\ud \ud We have developed a mathematical model of vascular tumour growth formulated as a system of partial differential equations (PDEs). Employing a combination of numerical and analytical techniques, we demonstrate how the spatio-temporal dynamics of the untreated tumour may influence its response to chemotherapy.\ud Reviewers\ud \ud This manuscript was reviewed by Professor Zvia Agur and Professor Marek Kimmel

One little Lebanese cucumber is not going to break the bank: Price in the choice of fresh fruits and vegetables

This paper reports on empirical research into individual consumer behaviour in the context of fresh fruit and vegetable purchases. The discussion draws on research results from two studies conducted around the actual shopping process. The findings suggest that consumers’ price response behaviour may not be consistent with that predicted by economic theory and that this could be significant at the aggregate level. The existence of ‘acceptable price ranges’ points to the presence of price thresholds within which consumers are relatively insensitive to price movements. Also of relevance is that the primary influence of the budget constraint may be at a broader level rather than at the level of choosing particular products.Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,