Stem Cell Research: What the Cell is the Controversy?

UMKC Honors Colleg

Political power and the development of the GB renewable heat incentive

This is the final version of the paper. Available from BIEE via the link in this record.A transformation of the UK’s heat system is required to ensure that the goals of sustainable and secure energy are met. This transformation could require a complete shift away from fossil fuels to primarily renewable sources of heat. Like in any transformation, social and political power is likely to be an important factor. This paper documents research which has focussed on the sociopolitical power of actors to affect policy and regulation in the area of UK sustainable heat policy. It draws on theory from the sociological literature around socio-political power and literature around lobbying to examine the GB renewable heat incentive policy. It shows that while there have been numerous attempts to influence GB heat policy, these attempts are limited in their success and unpicking the role actors versus evidence is extremely difficult. The research also shows the methodological complexity of examining political influencing

Review of Women in Perspective: A Guide to Cross-Cultural Studies

WOMEN IN PERSPECTIVE: A GUIDE TO CROSS CULTURAL STUDIES, by Sue-Ellen Jacobs (University of Illinois Press, 1974: $3.45). It\u27s hard to believe that an extended bibliography could be an underground classic, but in a sense this one was until this inexpensive paperback edition came out. Before that it circulated as a two-inch thick mimeographed 8½ x 11 tome. As a reference, this book is invaluable and should be useful to people in many fields—anthropology, sociology, political science, etc

Power and heat transformation policy: Actor influence on the development of the UK’s heat strategy and the GB Renewable Heat Incentive with a comparative Dutch case study

The system for space and water heating in the UK must be transformed if policy goals are to be met. This transformation will require major technological and social changes including the renovation of homes and other buildings, the replacement of any appliances which combust fossil fuels with low carbon heat technologies and infrastructure changes. An effective Government strategy will need to drive these changes through policies, regulations and the development of a clear vision. The UK Government has already made a number of policy interventions associated with decarbonising heating. Transformations of large systems, such as the UK heat system, have been increasingly considered from the perspective of ‘sustainability transitions’, a branch of theory which considers the transitions of large socio-technical systems from being ‘unsustainable’ to ‘sustainable’. The ‘multi-level perspective’ is a model which has emerged from the ‘sustainability transitions’ literature as potentially valuable. However, this model and wider approaches to ‘sustainability transitions’ have been accused of not paying enough attention to the complex social phenomenon of power. Greater insights around power and policy change associated with transitions could strengthen transitions theories by providing evidence of how power can affect socio-technical change. Employing an approach to power called the ‘four faces of power’ and using a methodology called the ‘EAR instrument’ based on data triangulation which has never before been applied to UK energy policy issues, this inter-disciplinary research investigates the combined issues of power, transitions and the policies associated with UK’s heat system. Power in this thesis is understood as the ability of actors to affect policy and governance associated with the decarbonisation of heat. Therefore an actor is considered powerful or to have had power if their behaviour has successfully affected policy change. The thesis examines if actors have had the power to affect historic UK heat policy and what approaches have been used to attempt to influence it. In doing so, the research provides original contributions to the literature on UK energy policy which has seen little focus on heat decarbonisation and similarly little focus on how politics and influence affect policy change. A Dutch case study has also been completed as the Netherlands has a similar, highly natural gas dependent heat system. Similarities and differences between the two countries have been investigated. Numerous attempts to influence heat policy by various actors have been identified in both countries. Approaches used to have power over policy and the actors involved in attempts to have power have been considered in detail. Only some attempts to influence have been successful and contextual and institutional issues have also affected power struggles. The size of actor has not determined policy influencing success in this analysis. The power associated with policy change is shown to be an important element of the UK’s heat transformation. As actors primarily attempt to influence policy based on their own interests and appear to have some success, a major issue for transitions may be that the speed and direction of transitions reflect politically active actors’ interests, rather than wider societal interests. However, in this study, actor power has operated to both constrain and emancipate the transformation showing that power is not, in this example, one directional

Development of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of urinary acylcarnitines : application to metabolism studies

The metabolism of fatty acids in humans is recognized as an important source of energy. It is especially vital to newborn infants when metabolic pathways are often stressed as the early stages of life demand fundamental changes and developments of body processes. Defective fatty acid oxidation pathways can rapidly lead to a life-threatening situation. It has been suggested that such disorders may be responsible for a proportion of "cot death" or sudden infant death syndrome (SID S) cases. Recently, it has been found that the levels of acylcarnidnes in body fluids and tissue are potential indicators of fatty acid metabolism status. This is due to carnitine esters being produced and excreted in an attempt to alleviate the toxic accumulation of incompletely metabolized acyl units in the mitochondrion. However, clinical studies have been limited by a lack of convenient, unambiguous, sensitive and affordable analytical techniquesf or the measuremenot f physiological acylcarnitmnes. The nature of carnitine and its acyl esters presents analysis problems. They are involatile, zwitterionic compounds which makes them unsuitable for direct gas chromatography (GC) and combined gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GCIMS). The latter of these is the favoured technique for normal urinary organic acid assays and is ideal in terms of selectivity and sensitivity. The work reported here details the development of a simple unambiguous and novel derivatization procedure in which acylcarnitines are cyclized to give volatile lactones, amenable to GC and GC/MS. The technique was subsequently applied to acylcarnitines extracted from urine. As such, the method has been used to identify acylcarnitine metabolites in the urine of children with diseases of fatty acid oxidation and amino acid catabolism. Investigations of the metabolism of exogenous 3-phenylpropionic and valproic acids was also conducted. The preliminary results from the application of capillary zone electrophoresis methods to acylcarnitine analysis are also reported

Clinical and Experimental Importance of Circulating Tumor Cells in Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) remains a leading cause of death in men, primarily due to ineffective treatment in the metastatic setting. During this phase of PCa, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are shed into the bloodstream and their presence and number are important in patient prognosis. The CellSearch® system (CSS) is the only U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada approved instrument for detection of CTCs, making it the current clinical gold standard in CTC technology. Although the CSS provides a minimally invasive means of patient monitoring in the metastatic setting, little is known about the role of CTCs in early-stage PCa. Additionally, examination of the utility of CTC molecular characterization in personalized patient care is an area of great interest. However, the underlying biology of CTCs remains poorly understood. In the present study, we demonstrated that CTCs are detectable in early-stage, post-surgical PCa patients undergoing adjuvant and salvage radiotherapy, and that in combination with other clinicopathological risk factors, CTCs may be useful in predicting treatment failure earlier then currently utilized clinical techniques. Additionally, we provide 2 technical resources outlining the FDA and Health Canada approved process of CTC identification and enumeration using the CSS, the detailed experimental process of user-defined protein molecular characterization using the CSS, and a comparable CTC assay for use in in vivo pre-clinical mouse models of metastasis. Finally, a comprehensive biological examination of the role of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in CTC kinetics and metastatic dissemination in PCa is presented, demonstrating that highly mesenchymal PCa cells shed CTCs earlier and in greater numbers during the metastatic cascade and have a greater metastatic capacity then PCa cells with an epithelial phenotype. Collectively these data improve our understanding biology of CTCs in PCa, including CTC kinetics, their relationship with EMT, and metastasis. These results will iii guide future research and technology development in the identification and capture of CTCs with the greatest metastatic potential, and may ultimately lead to changes in patient treatment guidelines

To what extent do Ofsted inspectors' values influence the inspection process (2005-2012)? : an examination of Ofsted inspectors' perceptions

The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) holds a government remit to inspect all schools in England under the 2005 Education Act. Ofsted is required to inspect schools on a regular cycle, with the aim of providing information to parents as well as the Secretary of State for Education, to promote school improvement and to hold schools to account for educational provision and standards. Ofsted’s strapline is ‘Raising Standards, Improving Lives’ and its goal is to ‘achieve excellence in education and skills for learners of all ages’ (Ofsted). Drawing on existing literature the thesis explains the underlying reasons for the introduction of a single national school inspection system in post-war England. The thesis also explores the literature on values, the nature of values in relation to organisations and individuals with particular reference to Ofsted.Empirical research was conducted in the form of questionnaires and interviews into the perceptions of active and retired inspectors about how they carried out their work. The study explored the relationship between inspectors’ values and those of Ofsted, examining the extent to which inspectors’ values influenced their conduct during inspections and in particular how they mediated their work in schools. The degree to which inspectors mediate their work has implications for the perceived objectivity of Ofsted inspections.The results indicate that the majority of inspectors’ values were in alignment with those of Ofsted. However, a small minority group also existed whose values were not always in agreement with those of Ofsted and there also appeared to be a further sub-set of the minority group whose members were trying to change Ofsted from within. This is the first time research has been carried out into the work of Ofsted inspectors and their perceptions of what they do. It concludes that this area is worthy of a further, larger scale study