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The Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) is out of equilibrium with the current anthropogenic-enhanced climate forcing. Paleoenvironmental records and ice sheet models reveal that the AIS has been tightly coupled to the climate system during the past and indicate the potential for accelerated and sustained Antarctic ice mass loss into the future. Modern observations by contrast suggest that the AIS has only just started to respond to climate change in recent decades. The maximum projected sea level contribution from Antarctica to 2100 has increased significantly since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report, although estimates continue to evolve with new observational and theoretical advances. This review brings together recent literature highlighting the progress made on the known processes and feedbacks that influence the stability of the AIS. Reducing the uncertainty in the magnitude and timing of the future sea level response to AIS change requires a multidisciplinary approach that integrates knowledge of the interactions between the ice sheet, solid Earth, atmosphere, and ocean systems and across time scales of days to millennia. We start by reviewing the processes affecting AIS mass change, from atmospheric and oceanic processes acting on short time scales (days to decades), through to ice processes acting on intermediate time scales (decades to centuries) and the response to solid Earth interactions over longer time scales (decades to millennia). We then review the evidence of AIS changes from the Pliocene to the present and consider the projections of global sea level rise and their consequences. We highlight priority research areas required to improve our understanding of the processes and feedbacks governing AIS change.

This report summarises the findings of a research project conducted by Staffordshire University and Disability Solutions West Midlands. The research was funded by a grant from the Centre for Health and Development (CHAD). The research explored the impact of the transition from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) on working-age claimants with mental health problems.

Patients with advanced cancer often desire home-based care, placing general practitioners (GPs) at the centre of complex clinical situations. The objective of this article was to determine GPs' needs when providing home-based palliative care in collaboration with existing palliative care services.A survey of GPs was conducted to determine knowledge, skills and confidence in providing community-based palliative care.Of the 56 respondents, 82% reported that they were involved in palliative management of at least one cancer patient in the previous year. A significant number of GPs (31%) lacked confidence in providing this care because of patient complexity, inadequate training and insufficient resources. Other barriers included poor communication from specialists and treating teams. Factors facilitating provision of home-based palliative care were community palliative care services and links to hospital-based palliative care teams.This survey highlights the importance of support and resources to empower GPs to confidently provide home-based palliative care for patients with advanced cancer.

VOICES, Expert Citizens and Staffordshire University have collaborated on a research project which aims to help inform the debate locally about perceived city centre homelessness and anti-social behaviour. This is with a view to further inform the development of positive city centre solutions which recognise the needs of people who are engaged in street activity alongside those who live, work and shop in the city centre.\ud \ud This report presents and discusses the findings from stakeholders and core participants (those perceived to be homeless). It concludes with nine recommendations and a stakeholder action plan.

The Mano River sub-region, which includes Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire, has experienced decades of violent upheavals and political instability. This notably includes civil wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire. While these have generally been analysed as a series of discrete wars, some specialists have interpreted them as part of a regional conflict system; indeed, the World Bank has referred to a ‘Mano River Basin conflict system’. There have been many analyses of regional conflict systems in other parts of the world. Several of these regional conflict studies highlight commonalities, including: the prominence of transnational political, economic, military and social networks; private entrepreneurs of violence; transborder kinship of identity groups; and massive refugee flows. Another commonality throughout these analyses is that private, local and transnational actors play a more important role in this type of conflict than in ‘traditional’ intra- and inter-state conflict. This Evidence Report aims to identify the ways in which militant violence diffuses in the Mano River region and to establish the conditions that characterise it as a regional conflict system. Danny Hoffman (2011) coined the term ‘Mano River War’ as an umbrella term for the 15-year period of violence in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The Mano River War concept usefully captures the interconnectivity of the peoples and countries in the Mano River Basin and details how the Liberian, Sierra Leonean and Ivoirian civil wars relate. Despite the cessation of large-scale conflict in the region, there is nevertheless still some debate as to whether the Mano River War really has concluded. So while Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire have not experienced war in the past five years, one wonders whether this marks the end of the Mano River War. The aim of this report is to consider the extent to which we can conclude that the Mano River War has indeed ended, and to reflect on the legacies, imaginaries and trajectories of this particular space over the past 25 years. This report therefore discusses the concept of a Mano River War through a series of questions. Should the concept use the singular or plural form? To what extent is the idea of a conflict system relevant to understanding the evolution of various armed conflicts in the region? What else might it contribute to a deeper understanding of the region that could promote more sustained peace and security? And have we now come to an end of the Mano River War, especially given successive cycles of peaceful post-conflict elections including, significantly, in Côte d’Ivoire in 2015?

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Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare lung disease, which occurs sporadically or in association with the genetic disease tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) 1, 2. Sporadic LAM affects ∼1 in 400,000 adult females; in TSC, LAM occurs in 30–40% of adult females 3, 4 and exceptionally in males and children 5, 6. Patients with LAM usually develop progressive dyspnoea and recurrent pneumothorax, chylous collections and occasional haemoptysis 1. Extra pulmonary lymphadenopathy and cystic masses of the axial lymphatics termed lymphangioleiomyomas can result in abdominal and pelvic lymphatic obstruction 7. LAM is often associated with angiomyolipoma in the kidneys 8, and an increased frequency of meningioma 9. LAM varies in clinical features and rate of progression: this together with an absence of clear prognostic factors results in patients being given conflicting information about prognosis. Diagnosis is made by tissue biopsy (generally from the lung but occasionally from lymph nodes or lymphangioleiomyomas) and/or a combination of history and high-resolution computed tomography scanning (HRCT). Pathological diagnosis relies on characteristic LAM cell morphology and positive immunoreactivity to smooth muscle actin and HMB-45 antibodies. Increasingly HRCT is used to diagnose LAM without resorting to lung biopsy; however a number of conditions with multiple pulmonary cysts can mimic LAM. As LAM is rare, there have been no controlled trials of its management. Supportive treatment includes management of airflow obstruction and hypoxaemia with bronchodilators and oxygen respectively, specific treatment for surgical or pleural complications including pneumo- and chylothorax, and interventional treatment of renal lesions 10, 11. As LAM is a disease of females and is thought to be accelerated by oestrogen, oophorectomy, tamoxifen, progesterone and gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues have been used without evidence that they are effective. The recent finding of abnormalities in the TSC1/2 genes resulting …

Prototype sensors for the ATLAS silicon pixel detector have been electrically characterized. The current and voltage characteristics, charge collection efficiencies, and resolutions have been examined. Devices were fabricated on oxygenated and standard detector-grade silicon wafers. Results from prototypes which examine p-stop and standard and moderated p-spray isolation are presented for a variety of geometrical options. Some of the comparisons relate unirradiated sensors with those that have received fluences relevant to LHC operation.