Is bigger better for primary care groups and trusts?

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m01/16032 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Universities, regional policy and the knowledge economy

This article focuses on the spatial clustering dimension of new information and communications technology (ICT)-driven economic activity based on knowledge industries and especially the tacit knowledge synergies to be achieved through networking in geographical space. The article first details the new knowledge economy, reviewing claims made for its distinctiveness and its role in raising levels of productivity before turning to a brief study of the clustering effects of new ICT-driven economic activity and the development of policies designed to enhance regional development. The remainder of the article details a case study – Univercities: the Manchester Knowledge Capital Initiative – in the North-west of the United Kingdom based on recent research into the attempt to create a ‘Knowledge Capital’ within the Greater Manchester conurbation, which is designed to position Manchester at the heart of the knowledge economy

An Airborne Gamma Ray Survey of Parts of SW Scotland in February 1993. Final Report

An airborne gamma ray survey was conducted for the Scottish Office Environment Department of coastal and inland parts of SW Scotland to define existing background levels, to locate features worthy of further attention, and to demonstrate the emergency response capabilities of radiometric methods. Coastal areas were surveyed with 500 m line spacing. Inland areas were specified to 2 km line spacing, however it was possible to achieve 1 km line spacing in the majority of the inland zone. Fieldwork was conducted between the 1st and 16th February 1993. A total of over 17,000 gamma ray spectra were recorded, using a 16 litre NaI spectrometer mounted in a helicopter flying at 50-75m ground clearance and 120kph. A total area of 3650 km2 was surveyed in 41.6 flying hours, from roughly 4370 line kilometres. The data were reduced in the field using standard SURRC procedures for background subtraction, stripping of spectral interferences, altitude correction, and calibration. Preliminary maps of the distribution of 137Cs, 40K, 214Bi, 208Tl, and estimated ground level gamma dose rate were produced during the fieldwork period using working calibration values derived from previous surveys. A set of core samples was collected from Wigtown Merse, Longbridgemuir and Caerlaverock merse for calibration purposes, and aerial observations were performed at these sites. Further soil sampling and ground level in-situ gamma spectrometry was performed in the summer of 1993 to investigate the applicability of the calibration to a range of upland soil types and topographical environments. These locations received peak deposition from the Chernobyl accident, are vulnerable to wet deposition, and are difficult to monitor rapidly using ground based methods. A total of 76 soil cores, subdivided into 168 separate samples was thus collected for high resolution gamma spectrometry in the laboratory. This was conducted from April to November 1993. For the terrestrial sites the aerial survey estimates based on the working calibration, were in good agreement with both in-situ gamma spectrometry and the results of core analysis. This validates the preliminary maps in these contexts, and confirms that a general calibration is sufficient for fallout mapping under emergency response conditions. On coastal salt marsh sites (merse), where aged deposits of Sellafield derived activity have accumulated, subsurface activity profiles for 137Cs and 241Am and the presence of superficial levels of 134Cs were observed from the soil cores. Similar features have been observed in previous surveys. In these cases the effects of source burial must be taken into account to avoid underestimation of activity levels by both ground-based and aerial gamma spectrometry. A separate set of detailed maps for the principal merse sites was therefore prepared using a calibration factor derived from the soil cores from this context. There are prospects for developing spectral analysis procedures to account for source depth in aerial surveys. Source burial on the merse also has implications for sampling techniques, and for dose rate measurement, which would merit further consideration. The radiometric maps show clearly the distributions of each individual nuclide and indicate the contribution which individual localised features make to the overall gamma ray dose rate. Naturally occurring nuclides reflect the underlying geological and geomorphological contexts of the landscape. The main granite intrusions, most notably at Cairnsmore of Fleet, the Loch Doon Granodiorite, Glencairn of Carsphairn, the Dalbeattie granite, and Criffel Pluton are readily visible in 40K, 214Bi and 208Tl maps, and control their local radiation environments. A number of areas of enhanced 214Bi, which may reflect radon potential, were noted. A transient radon associated 214Bi signal was observed on the west of the Wigtown peninsular during the survey. Examination of spectral data in the vicinity of Dundrennan has confirmed that there is no evidence of widespread terrestrial contamination arising from the use of depleted uranium projectiles on the range. The 137Cs map indicates the environmental distribution of this nuclide in considerable detail. Levels of 137Cs range from approximately 2 kBq m-2, a level consistent with global weapons’ testing fallout, from 2-40kBq m-2 on terrestrial sites affected by deposition from the Chernobyl accident, and from 40 kBq m-2 to over 200 kBq m-2 on tide washed pastures which have accumulated marine sediments from the Irish Sea. All three levels are represented within the survey zone, in a manner which is consistent with the findings of previous aerial surveys in adjacent areas, and with ground based studies. The main Chernobyl deposition in Dumfries and Galloway appears to have occurred between an area just east of the Nith, and Glenluce. The northern limit has not yet been defined, and there may be grounds for considering extension of the northern and particularly eastern limits of the inland survey zone. Within the survey zone the deposition pattern is complex, including both upland and lowland components. The plume trajectories for deposition inferred from these observations are oriented northwards rather than in the NW directions predicted by meteorological derived estimates. This may explain the contradiction between results from the Central Highlands and the estimated fallout patterns. The data presented here both add to previous knowledge, and serve as a baseline against which any future changes can be measured. The survey provides systematic coverage of the sedimentary and terrestrial coastal system for the first time, and has identified a number of merse sites which have accumulated radioactivity from past marine discharges from Sellafield, and which are not routinely monitored under existing Scottish Office arrangements. Some of these locations are extensive and fall within SSI’s; furthermore they are key sites for studying future deposition trends. It would seem prudent to review radiological assessments in the light of this work to ensure that the patterns of occupancy and sensitive ecologies of the merse are taken fully into account. The emergency response potential of aerial radiometrics has been clearly demonstrated in this project. It provides the only practical means of providing comprehensive environmental measurements of remote and upland landscapes on a short time scale, with an effective area sampling density some 106-107 times greater than soil sampling. Results are compatible with ground based approaches, and could focus ground based efforts effectively under emergency conditions. Modern approaches to data recording and analysis are able to produce maps during the survey period. National baseline mapping in Scotland, at 1 km resolution, would require less than 800 flying hours; 20 km line spacing would take roughly 40 hours of flight time. A long term programme of high resolution national baseline mapping, coupled to an emergency response standby arrangement, would provide an extremely cost effective way of preserving the capability developed since the Chernobyl accident, while producing high quality environmental data for research purpos

Generalized multiresolution analyses with given multiplicity functions

Generalized multiresolution analyses are increasing sequences of subspaces of a Hilbert space \H that fail to be multiresolution analyses in the sense of wavelet theory because the core subspace does not have an orthonormal basis generated by a fixed scaling function. Previous authors have studied a multiplicity function $m$ which, loosely speaking, measures the failure of the GMRA to be an MRA. When the Hilbert space \H is $L^2(\mathbb R^n)$, the possible multiplicity functions have been characterized by Baggett and Merrill. Here we start with a function $m$ satisfying a consistency condition which is known to be necessary, and build a GMRA in an abstract Hilbert space with multiplicity function $m$.Comment: 16 pages including bibliograph

cDNA-RNA subtractive hybridization reveals increased expression of mycocerosic acid synthase in intracellular Mycobacterium bovis BCG.

Identifying genes that are differentially expressed by Mycobacterium bovis BCG after phagocytosis by macrophages will facilitate the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of host cell-intracellular pathogen interactions. To identify such genes a cDNA-total RNA subtractive hybridization strategy has been used that circumvents the problems both of limited availability of bacterial RNA from models of infection and the high rRNA backgrounds in total bacterial RNA. The subtraction products were used to screen a high-density gridded Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomic library. Sequence data were obtained from 19 differential clones, five of which contained overlapping sequences for the gene encoding mycocerosic acid synthase (mas). Mas is an enzyme involved in the synthesis of multi-methylated long-chain fatty acids that are part of phthiocerol dimycocerosate, a major component of the complex mycobacterial cell wall. Northern blotting and primer extension data confirmed up-regulation of mas in intracellular mycobacteria and also revealed a putative extended -10 promoter structure and a long untranslated upstream region 5' of the mas transcripts, containing predicted double-stranded structures. Furthermore, clones containing overlapping sequences for furB, groEL-2, rplE and fadD28 were identified and the up-regulation of these genes was confirmed by Northern blot analysis. The cDNA-RNA subtractive hybridization enrichment and high density gridded library screening, combined with selective extraction of bacterial mRNA represents a valuable approach to the identification of genes expressed during intra-macrophage residence for bacteria such as M. bovis BCG and the pathogenic mycobacterium, M. tuberculosis

Société et l\u27économie à l\u27aune de la révolution numérique (la)

Rapport de la Commission "Économie numérique" présidée par Alain Bravo, du Centre d\u27analyse stratégique, et remis au Secrétaire d\u27État en charge du développement de l\u27économie numérique proposant un exercice prospectif sur les enjeux et perspectives des prochaines décennies (2015-2025). Ce rapport et l\u27ensemble des documents (42 fiches variables et 6 scénariis) sont disponibles sur le site : www.stratégie.gouv.fr/article.php3?id_article=99

Devolved governance and the economic problems of deprived areas: the cases of Scotland, Wales and four English Regions

A study that links two of the main policy agendas of the last ten years: devolution of power, and policies to tackle deprivation. The study looks at: how far the economic and social aspects of regeneration are being effectively linked; the extent to which political devolution in Scotland, Wales and London is bringing greater strategic attention to the needs of deprived areas; successful initiatives and how they have worked. The main report is supported by two additional volumes: Devolved governance and the economic problems of deprived areas: The cases of Scotland, Wales and four English Regions (PDF, 1.6MB) looks in detail at the governance arrangements in six study areas and their impact on tackling the economic and employment needs of people living in deprived places. Interventions to tackle the economic needs of deprived areas: Analysis of six policy case studies (PDF, 544KB) examines six policy initiatives that show good practice of joint working and effective linking of economic and social objectives

The availability of land for perennial energy crops in Great Britain

This paper defines the potentially available land for perennial energy crops across Great Britain as the first component of a broader appraisal undertaken by the ‘Spatial Modelling of Bioenergy in Great Britain to 2050’ project. Combining data on seven primary constraints in a GIS reduced the available area to just over 9 M ha (40% of GB). Adding other restrictions based on land cover naturalness scores to represent landscape considerations resulted in a final area of 8.5 M ha (37% of GB). This distribution was compared with the locations of Miscanthus and SRC willow established under the English Energy Crop Scheme during 2001–2011 and it was found that 83% of the planting fell within the defined available land. Such a correspondence provides confidence that the factors considered in the analysis were broadly consistent with previous planting decisions