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International Child Law examines and discusses the international legal framework and issues relating to children. Analysing both public and private international legal aspects, this cross-disciplinary text promotes an understanding of the ongoing development of child law, children’s rights and the protection of the child. Examining the theoretical background to the law, and providing a concise and clear overview of the instruments and institutions that protect children internationally, this text then focuses on key themes and issues in child law and children’s rights. This new edition has been updated and revised throughout, including expanded material on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as discussion of recent landmark developments on the law relating to recruiting child soldiers as a result of Lubanga (2012). The third edition also includes a new case study feature that critically considers key themes and issues in international child law in a real world context. Drawing on a range of legal and other disciplines, International Child Law is a valuable resource for those in the course of study and research in this area.

This article appears in an edited and refereed volume consisting of the best papers selected from the annual conference of the Social Policy Association. The paper is concerned with the production and dissemination of policy ideas surrounding the restructuring of the relationship between state and capital. Its originality lies in its comparative examination of the principal health policy proposals developed across key UK think-tanks during New Labour’s period in office. Using reports and discussion papers as data, the analysis contributes to an understanding of an area which has until now received limited research interest.

This book presents an original perspective by opening up housing to a philosophical approach. It fully integrates discussions on contemporary housing policy and social philosophy in a manner not previously attempted in the housing literature. Professor Jim Kemeny (Uppsala University) described it as ‘the first systematic application of social philosophy from an individual choice perspective’.

The mechanism underlying the therapeutic effect of antidepressants is not known but neuroadaptive processes akin to long-term potentiation have been postulated. Arc (Activity-regulated, cytoskeletal-associated protein) is an effector immediate early gene implicated in LTP and other forms of neuroplasticity. Recent data show that Arc expression is regulated by brain 5-hydroxytryptamine neurones, a target of many antidepressants. Here in situ hybridisation and immunohistochemistry were used to examine whether Arc expression in rat brain is altered by antidepressant drug treatment. Repeated administration of the monoamine reuptake inhibitors paroxetine, venlafaxine or desipramine induced region-specific increases in Arc mRNA. These increases were greatest in regions of the cortex (frontal and parietal cortex) and hippocampus (CA1 layer) and absent in the caudate putamen. Repeated treatment with the monoamine oxidase inhibitor, tranylcypromine, increased Arc mRNA in a similar fashion to the monoamine reuptake inhibitors. The antidepressant drugs also increased the number of Arc-immunoreactive cells in the parietal cortex. Acute antidepressant injection, and repeated administration of the antipsychotic drug chlorpromazine, produced either limited or no changes in Arc mRNA. The data suggest that chronic treatment with antidepressant drugs induces Arc gene expression in specific regions across the rat forebrain. Up-regulation of Arc expression may be part of the process by which antidepressant drugs achieve long-term changes in synaptic function in the brain.

This paper interrogates the future aims and politics of design around product quality, design and climate change, and the design of services. It defends technological innovation and questions today’s widely held but rather narrow obsession with subjective user experiences. The paper led to an invitation from the Design Management Institute to present a paper on ‘Responsible design and the triple bottom line’ to 170 attendees at the 32nd International Design Management Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia, US, September 2007. The paper critiques the orientation toward emotions of both theories of leadership (cf Bennis and Thomas, Geeks and Geezers: How Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders; Goleman, McKee, and Boyatzis, Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence; both Harvard Business School Press, 2002) and theories of user experience (cf Pine and Gilmore, The Experience Economy, Harvard, 1999). It argues that the idea that the user’s experience is a kind of unrecognised key to corporate success has been the mantra of design for perhaps two decades. It suggests that old-fashioned criteria for quality – price, cost of ownership, reliability, ease of maintenance, durability – still count and that to downplay these is a mistake. Around climate change, the paper makes a case study of fuel efficiency in cars, to contend that the more thoughtful we are about energy supply processes and the emissions that attend them, the more thoughtless and unaware we can afford to be about the consumption of energy. Around service design, the paper makes a case study of solar panels, advancing the view that the priority environmentalism assigns to economy in resource utilisation can lead to a multiplication of labour-intensive services, when an approach that works toward automation would be more sensible

International audience; The implementation of flow processing is essential to the successful application of lean manufacturing practices since it provides the infrastructure for both pull production to take place and the focussed elimination of waste. With the adoption of lean practices into a broader range of production environments there is an increasing need for flow processing to operate under a wider range of conditions particularly with respect to the sources and levels of variability that exist. In order to ensure efficient flow processing under such conditions a range of methods has been developed for both reducing levels of variability and for managing the effects of variability. However, ensuring the effective use of each of these methods requires detailed knowledge of the effects this variability has on the resource requirements of individual workstations. The paper presents a methodology for developing predictive models that can be used to quantitatively estimate the levels of blocking and waiting that occur on individual workstations along a flow processing line. The methodology presented makes use of discrete event simulation to generate data from which estimating models are derived that relate %Blocking and %Waiting arising at individual workstations with the Coefficient of Variation of their job cycle time distributions.

Disturbing, fantastically rude, and far more realistic than any sitcom ... The animated social satire ... is named after the drug PCP, renowned for giving rise to hallucinations, mania, delirium and disorientation ... Most people I’ve talked to about Monkey Dust say it is a complete nightmare ... ‘That cartoon scared the crap out of me,’ runs a typical fan’s message. ‘It’s really disturbing.’ Certainly there is not much sunshine. It’s all night, rain, knives, rats, garbage, urine and syringes in an urban wasteland. But it’s also very funny ... The contents of Monkey Dust are barely describable in a daily newspaper ... Christopher Howse, Daily Telegraph, 4 November 2003

The Envisat RA-2 burst echoes are being gathered throughout the mission; however, these data are only now being made generally available by the European space agency. Considerable work has been necessary to turn these engineering-level data into a useable altimeter product. This paper documents the processing steps undertaken to generate usable data and presents the first extensive analysis of this unique dataset, using over 75 000 burst sequences with a global distribution. The results show that the burst echo data from Envisat are of extremely low noise, which is particularly evident over non-ocean surfaces, and contain a wealth of detailed information from both land and ocean surfaces. Examples illustrate the complexity of surface response from targets such as inland water and rough terrain. These unique data clearly have the potential to inform future instrument design as well as to improve the understanding of existing altimeter datasets.

A pressure ulcer is localized injury to the skin and/or underlying tissue usually over a bony prominence, as a result of pressure, or pressure in combination with shear and/or friction. Pressure ulcer risk assessment scales are used to identify patient risk, level of risk and type of risk. Most paediatric pressure ulcer risk assessment scales have been derived either from adult risk assessment scales, clinical observation or literature review. Detailed questionnaires were developed based on a review of pressure ulcer literature and discussion with experienced paediatric nurses. These were used to collect detailed data on the characteristics of 336 children (61 with pressure ulcers, 275 without pressure ulcers) who were inpatients in 11 hospitals in England and Wales. Using chi-square analysis, the significance of the children’s characteristics in relation to the presence of pressure ulceration was calculated. Eleven patient characteristics had a significance level of p With this data set, the Glamorgan scale was demonstrated to out perform the Braden Q scale paediatric pressure ulcer risk assessment scale. However, more work needs to be done with a new data set. The inter-rater reliability of the Glamorgan scale also needs to be determined.

Background Children who experience difficulties in face- to- face interaction, understanding language and developing literacy can benefit from the provision of communication aids such as speech synthesizers and specialist software applications that support their social participation and learning. The Communication Aids Project ( CAP) was a national initiative by the Department for Education and Skills in England, aimed at supporting and developing the provision of communication aids to children. This paper presents an analysis of the number and type of applications to CAP. In so doing, the paper begins to explore how the need for communication aids might be understood in England.Methods The analysis was carried out on a database of 3060 anonymized records, representing applications to CAP between January 2002 and January 2004.Results Applications to CAP were made on behalf of children with a broader range of disabilities than might be assumed, including a relatively high proportion of children with autistic spectrum disorder. Rates of application to CAP varied in line with Local Education Authority population size [ e. g. total pupils, total pupils with special educational needs ( SEN)], rather than indicators of regional variation in SEN provision ( e. g. proportion of population identified as having SEN).Conclusions Within a context of changing services to children in England and increasing emphasis on the plurality and contestability of services, the relevance of these findings for service providers and service commissioners is discussed.

PurposeThis paper aims to capture and manage the product lifecycle data for consumer products, especially data that occur in distribution, usage, maintenance and end‐of‐life stages, and to use them to provide information and knowledge.Design/methodology/approachA lifecycle information acquisition and management model is proposed, and an information management system framework is formulated. The information management system developed is then used in actual field trials to manage lifecycle data for refrigeration products and game consoles.FindingsIt has been demonstrated that valuable services can be delivered through a lifecycle information management system.Practical implicationsLifecycle information management systems can open new horizons for product design which are sustainable and environmentally sensitive. They also contribute to the wider exploration of eco‐design and development of next generation consumer products (e.g. smart home appliances).Originality/valueExisting lifecycle information systems cannot support all phases of the product lifecycle. They mainly manage the lifecycle data only during the design and manufacture stages. Lifecycle data during distribution, usage, maintenance and end‐of‐life stages are usually hard to acquire and in most cases lost. The lifecycle information management system developed can capture them, and manage them in an integrated and systematic manner to provide information and knowledge.

Public protection has become a key theme of much recent criminal justice legislation and policy aimed at the effective management of high-risk offenders. In this article we draw on two recent research projects to examine the two main approaches to public protection: the community protection model, and the public health approach. Drawing on the recent work of Pat O'Malley we examine the underpinning assumptions of each `risk technology' and how each constructs notions of both offenders and the public in their approach to risk regulation. The article concludes by arguing that each differs significantly in the extent to which they either include or exclude high-risk offenders (particularly sex offenders), and in their expectations of public responsibility for risk management.

This article addresses the need for systematic theory comparison and development in environmentally significant behavior (ESB) research. Using logistic regression ( N = 398), models based on Schwartz's norm-activation theory (NAT) and Ajzen's theory of planned behavior (TPB) were compared as explanations of drivers' intentions to reduce or maintain their car use for commuting. NAT explained more variance (McFadden R2 = .342). A model using NAT and TPB constructs was also tested. This explained more variance than either individual theory (McFadden R2 = .379). A personal-normative variable (NAT) and perceived behavioral control (TPB) were the only statistically-significant predictors of intentions in the model derived from both theories. It is argued that combining NAT and TPB constructs accounts for a range of influences on car-use intentions that neither individual theory fully captures. A combined model may also apply to other ESBs, especially those perceived as reducing personal utility (i.e., entailing sacrifice).

A number of previous studies have shown that chronic but not acute treatment with antidepressant drugs targeting the central 5-HT system, enhances mRNA expression for a number of genes including, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and the effector immediate early gene (IEG), activity-regulated, cytoskeletal-associated protein (Arc). The present study investigated the effects of 5-HT6-receptor activation on hippocampal and cortical levels of mRNA expression of BDNF and Arc in the rat. The selective 5-HT6-receptor agonist LY-586713 was administered acutely (0.1–10 mg/kg, s.c.) and mRNA levels of BDNF and Arc were measured 18 h later. Administration of LY-586713 caused a bell-shaped dose response on hippocampal BDNF mRNA expression, having no effect at 0.1 mg/kg, a significant up-regulation at 1 mg/kg and no effect at 10 mg/kg. The up-regulation in BDNF expression observed at 1 mg/kg was completely blocked by pre-treatment with the selective 5-HT6-receptor antagonist SB-271046 (10 mg/kg, s.c.). The effective dose (1 mg/kg) of LY-586713 on the induction of BDNF expression was also tested on Arc expression. Acute administration of LY-586713 at this dose caused marked increases of the Arc mRNA levels in cortical and hippocampal regions. These increases were also attenuated by SB-271046 (10 mg/kg) in all regions of the hippocampus, as well as the parietal cortex. However, in frontal cortical regions there was no attenuation by the antagonist. Moreover, SB-271046 alone increased Arc expression in these regions. The results presented here provide the first evidence for the involvement of the 5-HT6 receptor in regulating BDNF and Arc mRNA expression, suggesting that LY-586713 has potential effects on neuronal plasticity. Overall, these findings suggest that, as opposed to more general 5-HT receptor activation by, for example, antidepressants, direct 5-HT6-receptor activation results in a more rapid rise in BDNF and Arc mRNA expression which does not require repeated administration.

This analytical paper investigates the significance and meaning of ‘probation values’ and challenges the enterprise of generating ‘lists’ of values without sufficient regard to the practices they enjoin or rule out. The conceptual link between values and action is thus reaffirmed. The paper also argues that since punishment tries to give effect to so many different objectives and to express many incompatible attitudes, punishment is always likely to occasion frustration and disappointment.

This paper considers the technical and economic feasibility of using renewable energy with hydrogen as the energy storage medium for two remote communities in Bhutan, selected to illustrate two common scenarios presenting different challenges. The Royal Government of Bhutan has published plans to provide electricity to all households in the next 20 years, but the practical problems of extending the grid over long distances and mountainous terrain will make that target difficult and expensive to achieve. Consequently, the possibility of using natural energy and diversified generation is attractive. This paper examines the use of hydro power in one community and photovoltaics with wind power in another. Hydrogen is the proposed energy storage medium in both cases. Analysis suggests that it is technically possible to use renewable energy and hydrogen for diversified power supplies and that where, as here, the costs of grid extension are high, it may also be financially viable. Thus we argue that there is a good case for establishing a test and demonstration system near the capital Thimphu for further investigation prior to use in remote locations.

KM algorithms are widely used to perform type-reduction and to compute the centroid of type-2 fuzzy sets. Because KM algorithms are iterative, there has been some concern about their convergance time. Many people have observed, from simulations, that convergence occurs rapidly, i.e. under 10 iterations; but, it is one thing to observe this in simulations and another thing to mathematically prove super-exponential convergence, as is done in this paper. So, by mathematically proving superexponential convergence, Mendel and Liu have provided the type- 2 fuzzy set community with concrete evidence of the speed of the KM Algorithms.

This work further develops and perfects the hierarchical interval-oriented methods for analysing conventional propositional linear-time temporal logic (PTL) contained in earlier Outputs 1 and 3. It includes numerous simplified examples, algorithms and proofs. In addition, extensive material on decision procedures for PTL with infinite time has been added, including natural reductions to a normal form in PTL closely resembling Buechi automata. Consequently, some existing practical algorithms for analysing Buechi automata should be adaptable. Following invitations, we presented the work as a BCS-FACS seminar in London and also as a Belgian national seminar on verification in Brussels.

This paper presents a methodology for energy professionals to identify potential electricity saving opportunities in buildings from the analysis of half-hourly electricity consumption data. The technique recommended in UK government good practice guidance for use with monthly gas data has been applied to half-hourly electricity data from 37 secondary schools. The technique monitors consumption over time, identifying any changes in patterns and quantifying their effects. It has the advantage of being both high resolution and quick to employ. The analysis produces results that allow energy professionals to rapidly detect changes in electricity consumption.

This output led to an EPSRC research grant funding EP/E047785/1 (£207k) and a CASE studentship (with direct support from the National Physical Lab, (Dr Josephs-Franks, Patrick.Josephs-Franks@npl.co.uk). Research related to this output also led to an invitation to be guest editor of the Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society A, three invited talks (Electronic Processes in Organic Materials, Crimea, Ukraine; Printed Electronics Europe 2007, Cambridge, UK and XVI International Materials Research Congress, Cancun, Mexico, 2007) and an invitation to organise and chair a special session on “Recent development in electrical writable organic memory devices” for CIMTEC08 (Italy).

Objectives To describe understandings that mothers and midwives have of ethnicity. To explore barriers to the successful implementation of ethnicity screening questions for sickle cell/thalassaemia. Design Observation of 121 first antenatal interviews between midwife and mother in four contrasting areas of sickle cell prevalence in England. Taped interviews with 111 mothers and 115 taped interviews with 61 different midwives. Fieldwork data from 76 preparatory workshops and liaison meetings. Results 'Ethnicity' and 'family' are terms liable to variable interpretation. Both midwives and mothers implied belief in distinct 'racial' groups, disrupting scientifically accurate understandings of the relation between risk of sickle cell/thalassaemia and ethnic/family origins. Bookings were characterised by time pressures and a lack of explanation of sickle cell/thalassaemia. The mother was not permitted to self-assign ethnicity in 13 of 115 observed encounters. Conclusions Antenatal screening for sickle cell/thalassaemia based on an ethnicity screening question is weakened by a range of factors. Some midwives use intuition to select/exclude clients from the screening questions rather than implement formal policy. The screening term 'ethnic/family origins' is vulnerable to varied interpretations by clients. The persistence of erroneous beliefs in 'racial' groups displaces correct understandings of the relation between ethnicity and risk of carrying genes associated with sickle cell/thalassaemia. Midwives require support in both in ethnicity awareness and knowledge of sickle cell and thalassaemia, and more time at antenatal bookings to administer the ethnicity screening question. A challenge to the continued prevalence of scientific racism in popular discourse is required. The NHS Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Screening Programme, Department of Health and the Unit for the Social Study of Thalassaemia and Sickle Cell

This paper describes how geometric primitives can be used to model type-1 and type-2 fuzzy sets. This novel approach gives the fuzzy community a new computational model for processing fuzzy systems. The impact of this paper comes from the type-2 geometric model. The computational complexity of type-2 fuzzy systems is notoriously high. The geometric approach gives a real opportunity for a massive reduction in this computation, some of which is demonstrated. The increased accuracy of the geometric approach is also demonstrated with examples. This result has appeared in one of the leading journals in the field with impact factor 1.803

Global brands and the building of brand equity in one of the most innovative business sectors, for the personal computer market, are examined within the context of the phenomenal growth of the IT industry. Research issues concerning data collection, timing and measures of brand performance for the pc market are discussed. These are important because the gathering and diagnosis of information about customer commitment to personal computer firms or their loyalty to brands give early warning signals to marketers about customer disaffections and defections. Account is taken of marketing communications for global brands by pc manufacturers to support their brands. The review of the literature showed problems in the assessment of a brand's strength, value and potential given the increased volume and diversity of market data and differences in interpretations. Qualitative and quantitative approaches are presented with examples of brand equity models and conclusions derived for managers researching and developing...

This note examines the decision of the Court of Appeal in R (Gazette Media Company Ltd) v Teesside Crown Court1 where the Court was asked to rule on the legality of an order under s.39, Children and Young Persons Act 1933 purporting to ban the identity of the victim and defendants in a prosecution. The facts of the prosecution are set out below but the interesting issues that arise from this decision come not so much from the facts and decision (which was, to an extent, inevitable) but rather from the fact that the current law does not, in our opinion, adequately protect children from secondary victimisation and that the courts have erred in their current understanding of the legal position.

The original purpose for the generalised quadrature rules was to tackle irregular oscillatory integrands on a finite interval [a, b]. As the work progressed it was clear that the same approach could be applied to infinite range and singular integrals. This paper deals with applications to infinite range integrals, with particular emphasis on non-exponential integrands (which make classical Laguerre less easy to apply effectively). The crucial feature to allow these integrals to be evaluated was to replace the usual cosine weighted abscissae (used in the irregular oscillatory case) with a geometric distribution, or use the abscissae {1/xj}. A third set of abscissae were obtained from transforming the cosine weighted points onto [0,inf]. Comparisons of these choices on a range of practical integrals completes the paper. The second class of singular integrals appears in a related publication not presented for the current exercise. This work extends generalised quadrature methods to infinite range problems which makes the method applicable to a much wider class of integrals.

A low-angle light scattering technique, which has been applied previously to studies of blood platelets and Ehrlich ascite tumor cells, revealed differences in the dynamics of necrotic and apoptotic red blood cell death. Under hypotonic loading or in ammonia medium, red blood cells (RBC) swelled to a critical size (diameter approximately 13μm) prior to hemolysis (necrosis). Under acidic loading, hemolysis occurred with less pronounced swelling of cells (diameter approximately 10μm). Apoptosis induced by a calcium ionophore resulted in initial formation of echinocytes, followed by development of rounded red blood cells with uneven membrane, capable of agglomeration. In such a way, RBC aggregation can precede the final stages of the RBC apoptosis when small cellular fragments are generated. On the basis of erythrograms of the cells hemolysing in ammonia medium, the echinocytic (preapoptotic) and stomatocytic (prenecrotic) RBC were discerned due to the very high resistance of apoptotic RBC to osmotic (ammonia) loading.

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA) coordinate various stress responses. Although the effects of stressors on mPFC and BLA activity have been previously examined, it remains unclear to what extent stressors affect functional interactions between these regions. In vivo electrophysiology in the anesthetized rat was used to examine mPFC and BLA activity simultaneously in response to FG-7142, a benzodiazepine receptor partial inverse agonist that mimics various stress responses, in an attempt to model the effects of stressors on corticolim- bic functional connectivity. Extracellular unit and local field potential (LFP) record- ings, using multielectrode arrays positioned in mPFC and BLA, were conducted under basal conditions and in response to systemic FG-7142 administration. This drug increased mPFC and BLA unit firing at the lowest dose tested, whereas higher doses of FG-7142 decreased various burst firing parameters in both regions. Moreover, LFP power was attenuated at lower (

Little attention has been given to the specific methodological issues that can accompany the use of focus groups with minority ethnic communities in the United Kingdom. In this article, the authors discuss the use of this method in a study of the provision of infertility services to South Asian communities in three English cities. Focus groups are an invaluable research method for working in a diverse linguistic and cultural environment, providing interesting, rich, and complex data. However, their use can raise significant methodological and ethical challenges for researchers working with minority ethnic communities. The authors discuss key issues that arose in their exploration of ethnicity and infertility around language and cultural diversity, the role of community facilitators, access and recruitment, infertility as a “sensitive” topic, and reciprocity in research relations.

Willan has become a major publisher in criminology and criminal justice and this Handbook joins an impressive and influential series. Many leading academics in the field have contributed to this volume and Canton’s chapter, co-written with Professor George Mair (Liverpool John Moore’s), is an important part of the collection. Canton’s contribution is to apply the insights of ‘compliance’ to specific challenges of implementing community sentences.

This paper presents a new approach to collaborative product design and development environment from a holistic perspective that facilitates virtual multidisciplinary activities. The approach accomplishes integration of a distributed collaborative product development strategy and user-centred environment. It embraces product development representation, a novel systematic framework to manage a collaborative product development (CPD) system, and a novel human-centred system. The advantage of the developed system is that it encompasses a marketing information system (MIS), a human resources management (HRM) system, a supply chain management (SCM) system, communication media, an integrated product design studio, user-centred interfaces, and databases. The developed system has been tested, with results showing major benefits such as reduced product development lead time and cost. The tangible benefit of implementing this system is that the complex product developing process is organized in a systematic, consistent, and concurrent manner to enable collaboration among team members throughout the development process. It accomplishes a guiding sequence that assists inexperienced users to follow the complex process. Therefore, an efficient product development process is generated. One of the advantageous features of this system is that the barriers between people and incompatible computer systems, resulting from non-standardization, have been eliminated.

To date, because of the computational complexity of using a general type-2 fuzzy set (T2 FS) in a T2 fuzzy logic system (FLS), most people only use an interval T2 FS, the result being an interval T2 FLS (IT2 FLS). Unfortunately, there is a heavy educational burden even to using an IT2 FLS. This burden has to do with first having to learn general T2 FS mathematics, and then specializing it to an IT2 FSs. In retrospect, we believe that requiring a person to use T2 FS mathematics represents a barrier to the use of an IT2 FLS. In this paper, we demonstrate that it is unnecessary to take the route from general T2 FS to IT2 FS, and that all of the results that are needed to implement an IT2 FLS can be obtained using T1 FS mathematics. As such, this paper is a novel tutorial that makes an IT2 FLS much more accessible to all readers of this journal. We can now develop an IT2 FLS in a much more straightforward way

The novel serine/threonine kinases (with no lysine kinases or WNKs), WNK1 and WNK4, are encoded by the disease genes for Gordon syndrome (PRKWNK1 and PRKWNK4), a rare monogenic syndrome of hypertension and hyperkalemia. These proteins alter the expression of the thiazide-sensitive Na/Cl cotransporter (NCCT) in Xenopus laevis oocytes, although the details are controversial. We describe here our own experience and confirm that kinase-dead WNK4 (318D>A) is unable to affect Na+fluxes through the thiazide-sensitive Na/Cl transporter (NCCT) or its membrane expression as an ECFP-NCCT fusion protein. However, the kinase domain is not sufficient for a functional WNK4 since deletion of the acidic motif (a motif unique to WNK family members) completely abolishes functional activity. Indeed, the NH2terminal of WNK4 (1–620) containing the kinase domain and acidic motif retains full activity, but does not interact directly with NCCT in pull-down assays. Coexpression of WNK1 antagonizes the action of WNK4, and kinase-dead WNK1 (368D>A) or WNK1 carrying a WNK4 disease mutation (565Q>E) behaves in the same way as wild-type WNK1. This suggests kinase activity and charge conservation within the acidic motif are not essential for the WNK1-WNK4 interaction. We also report that WNK4 probably reduces surface expression largely through an effect on forward trafficking. Hence, the effect of WNK4 on NCCT expression is mimicked by dynamin, but the dominant-negative K44A dynamin mutant does not block the action of WNK4 itself. These results further highlight important differences in the mechanism by which WNK kinases affect expression of NCCT vs. other membrane proteins such as ROMK.

The comic-book hero Alf Tupper – ‘The Tough of the Track’ – dominated the fictional world of international middle-distance running from the 1950s to the 1990s. He was a true amateur who divided his life between running and his job as a welder. To a largely working-class readership of teenage boys in the Rover and the Victor, his stories spoke of an athletics tradition that had little in common with the upper-class gentlemanly amateurism to be found in cricket, rugby or the dominant stratum of athletics itself. Alf's sport gloried in the physical pleasure and competition of running but offered a stinging critique of the social conditions in which the sport existed.

‘Before you finish your breakfast this morning, you will have relied on half the world.’—Martin Luther King (www.fairtrade.org.uk) This paper is concerned with the extent of consumer understanding of the Fairtrade brand and consumer uptake of products under the auspices of the Fairtrade organisation. There are ethical issues surrounding the brand from both the consumer and organisational (supplier) perspectives. Qualitative focus groups and personal interviews are undertaken. Findings from research with organisations and consumers are presented with regard to investigations of Fairtrade from an ethical perspective and the barriers inhibiting consumer support of Fairtrade products. Conclusions drawn concern the success of the Fair Trade name in the ethical and social contexts.

This article seeks to move the discussion of amateurism beyond the familiar themes of the public school, class distinction and professional corruption. The sporting body is the focus for a discussion of the factors behind the amateur stress on active participation. Amateurism involved more or less strenuous forms of physical exertion by those whose lives increasingly were confined by sedentary office employment. The competitive culture of Victorian work, especially in the City of London, encouraged more systematic forms of sporting contest. Also, poor air quality and new patterns of commuting prompted greater emphasis on outdoor exercise, which was increasingly seen by doctors as beneficial to health. The amateur cult of the active body was further heightened by the widespread Hellenist aesthetic of Victorian society. Hence amateurism was shaped to a greater extent than has been acknowledged by the bodily requirements of work and health as well as by a revived classical ideal of human proportion and beauty.

In a recent paper addressing Weber's economic sociology, Peukert has claimed: Weber's outline and research program is not really helpful for present-day economic sociology and heterodox economics because Weber had a rather narrow understanding of rationality and the economy. He did not consider the heterodox underpinnings of, for example, the Austrian school (uncertainty, human agency, etc) in his programmatic contributions. (2004: 988) In contrast to Peukert's claims, this article will argue the following: 1) Weber's economic sociology was heavily influenced by the "heterodox underpinnings" of Austrian economics. 2) Far from not considering uncertainty, Weber placed it at the heart of his economic sociology. It is precisely through the incorporation of uncertainty that a sociological investigation of economic action is differentiated from an economic investigation. Hence Weber's writings emphasize uncertainty to a greater extent than the contemporaneous writings of, for example, the Austrian economist Mises. 3) Weber's conception of rationality, especially formal rationality, is not based on a "narrow understanding of rationality." However, his conception cannot be adequately understood independently of the role that uncertainty plays in his analysis. I Weber and Menger WITH REGARD TO THE ISSUES of uncertainty and relationship to "heterodoxy," one of the main issues identified as problematic by Peukert is Weber's relationship to Menger. According to Peukert: Weber was strongly influenced by Austrian marginalism. It is thus surprising that ... Weber is more neoclassical than Menger. As Streissler has shown ... there exist strong heterodox, subjectivist, and uncertainty elements in Menger that Weber ignores. They could have been building blocks for an alternative economic sociology. (Peukert 2004: 998) (1) However, this final suggestion in fact encapsulates precisely what Weber does accomplish. Weber utilizes Menger's emphasis on uncertainty and subjectivism in order to develop an economic sociology of economic action that is distinct from an economic inquiry into the same subject matter. In order to understand the basis for this distinction, it is necessary to briefly consider Menger's methodological position. In his Problems of Economics and Sociology (1963), Menger argued that theoretical economics was compromised of exact theoretical science and realistic-empirical science. Exact theoretical science was concerned with investigating the economic laws that governed ideal phenomena. In contrast, realistic-empirical science studied real phenomena. In terms of Peukert's charge against Weber, what is particularly significant is that exact science abstracts from factors such as ignorance, error, and noneconomic motives. In short, the exact sciences abstract from uncertainty. In contrast, the realist-empirical sciences allow for the effects of uncertainty. Menger's position was that theoretical economics required both forms of inquiry: Both the exact and the realistic orientation of theoretical research have the aim of making us understand theoretically all phenomena of the economy, each in its way ... the function of each of them consist in making us understand the total realm of economic phenomena. (Menger 1963: 68) In his Principles of Economics Menger again acknowledged that "uncertainty ... is of the greatest practical significance in human economy" (Menger 1976: 71). However, Menger's Principles was an exercise in exact theoretical science, abstracting from the effects of uncertainty. Consequently, his account of price formation acknowledges that there is a "certain range of indeterminacy within which price formation can take place ... economic influences do not ... fix the point at which price formation, of necessity, must take place" (Menger 1976: 199). …

Digital video broadcasting - handheld (DVB-H) is the technology driving mobile TV, which uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with multiple-input multiple-output technology (MIMO). These mobile communication systems have a promising future of supporting high data rate transmissions for both video and data. However, since the OFDM systems are sensitive to the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) problem, this work proposes a new technique (novel technique to reduce the PAPR based on turbo coding (NTRPT)), based on the turbo encoding technology, to reduce the PAPR effects for MIMO-OFDM-based DVB-H systems. This technique has been implemented and validated in hardware. It can support different types of modulation and coding techniques, and offers better results in reducing the PAPR than the conventional techniques currently proposed for this purpose, such as the clipping technique and the partial transmit sequence (PTS) technique, presented here using computer simulations.

A question arising from the possibility of artificial agents is whether they can and will be moral agents. This paper suggests a different approach to the question of (moral) responsibility of artificial agents and develops a theory of reflective responsibility to address the question of when and under which conditions agents can be held responsible. The argument will contribute to the ongoing debate on how agents are to be treated legally and ethically. The paper was published in an invitation-only special issue of Ethics & IT, the leading journal in the field, edited by the Oxford Information Ethics Group. There has been much debate whether computers can be responsible. This question is usually discussed in terms of personhood and personal characteristics, which a computer may or may not possess. If a computer fulfils the conditions required for agency or personhood, then it can be responsible; otherwise not. This paper suggests a different approach. An analysis of the concept of responsibility shows that it is a social construct of ascription which is only viable in certain social contexts and which serves particular social aims. If this is the main aspect of responsibility then the question whether computers can be responsible no longer hinges on the difficult problem of agency but on the possibly simpler question whether responsibility ascriptions to computers can fulfil social goals. The suggested solution to the question whether computers can be subjects of responsibility is the introduction of a new concept, called "quasi-responsibility" which will emphasise the social aim of responsibility ascription and which can be applied to computers.

An output from research collaboration with TsAGI, Russia resulting in a revision of unsteady aerodynamics representation in active control alleviation of wind gust loads. The project was funded by ONERA, France in support of experimental tests on the free flight catapult facility in ONERA-Lille, designed for evaluation of unsteady aerodynamic effects during penetration of aircraft scaled model in the short gust (TsAGI Deputy Director V.L. Soukhanov, flight15@tsagi.ru).

This paper is significant because it challenges two orthodoxies of current museum web design practice. Firstly that use of richer multimedia results in more powerful visitor learning experiences; secondly that models and theories of learning developed in the formal education sector are not relevant or applicable to informal learning in heritage institutions. Building on previous research demonstrating a trend towards use of richer multimedia in museum websites, and the significance of award-winning Web sites as benchmarks for standards in museum Web design, it uses content analysis methods to compare different designs. The analytical approach adopted is derived from well established theories and models of learning, eg. Bloom’s taxonomy of learning objectives, conversational theory and more recently Laurillard’s taxonomy of learning activities, as developed in formal learning contexts. Using this framework the paper demonstrates how apparently different media approaches exemplified by an award-winning site map to a single low level learning outcome and it contrasts these with the results of a field evaluation of a different site with similar goals but explicitly based on a rich mix of different types of specified learning outcomes. This approach is original within the museums, libraries and archives world which currently believes that models and theories of learning developed in the formal education sector are not relevant or applicable to informal learning in heritage institutions. In particular the sector has rejected the concept of specified learning outcomes in favour of the notion of “Generic Learning Outcomes” as reified through best practice guidelines promoted by the UK Inspiring Learning for All framework and supported by the the Museums and Libraries Archive Council (MLA). I challenge this view, and cast doubts on the value of the metrics adopted by the DCMS to evaluate the contribution of museums to important social goals such as inclusiveness and lifelong learning.

This article considers the ultimately successful quest for film to be regarded as, not a mere imitator of literature, but the ‘new literature’, or as Allardyce Nicoll intimates in 1936, ‘the new Shakespeare’. This seemingly persistent conception of film as the new Shakespeare accounts, in part, for long-standing prejudicial attitudes to literature on screen, including cinematic appropriations of Shakespeare, over the last two centuries.

Efficient energy management is important for water companies in order to meet economic and environmental targets. For many water supply systems, increased savings can only be accomplished by taking into account the non-linear characteristics of the system in terms of both heads and flows and mixed-integer decision variables. Scheduling must be achieved with complicated tariffs that are frequently changed throughout the year, as well as changes to the network structure. The article shows a case study for energy management of a large-scale network using the computer-aided water network engineering software called FINESSE. The network is a typical large-scale supply network supplying many towns and cities. The model of the network includes 4388 pipes, 35 pumps, 63 variable control valves, 10 non-return valves and 16 variable head reservoirs. The study resulted in a set of mixed-integer optimal schedules that achieved a 14% saving in electrical energy while satisfying operating constraints.

Evidence suggests that recreational users of (+/-)3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine HCl (MDMA, "ecstasy") have cognitive and behavioral deficits and show increased impulsivity consistent with 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) neurotoxicity. MDMA effects on impulsivity in users are difficult to establish being confounded by polydrug use and individual predisposition to impulsivity or behavioral inhibition.We previously observed a long-term anxiolytic effect of a neurotoxic dose of MDMA on elevated plus maze behavior in Dark Agouti (DA) rats while other strains were reported to show anxiogenesis. We have now examined whether MDMA influences impulsivity producing disinhibited behavior interpretable as anxiolysis.Impulsivity was measured using an operant visuospatial discrimination procedure. Male DA rats (n = 24) were trained to lever press for food reward in response to a light-stimulus and subsequently required to withhold responding. Correct responses, premature responses, and response latencies were used as measures of accuracy and impulsivity. Trained rats were administered MDMA (5 mg/kg, i.p. at 3-h intervals to a total of three injections). Performance was measured at 3 h and 7, 27, 49, and 80 days posttreatment.There was a short-term effect of MDMA on the percentage of correct responses at 3 h and day 1 with recovery to control levels by days 7-8 and no significant long-term changes up to day 80. There was no effect of MDMA on premature responses on any of the days measured. MDMA reduced cortical 5-HT content (MDMA 363 +/- 14 ng/g and control 440 +/- 10 ng/g tissue).These results suggest that impulsivity may not be directly altered by MDMA despite serotonergic neurotoxicity.

Various methods have been employed before to deduce the density of states (DOS) in amorphous carbon. However, further investigations show that capacitance measurements on a metal-insulator-semiconductor structure are an appropriate way to deduce the DOS. Thus, an analytical formalism, which agrees well with the experimental data, is developed. This paper reports the structures and techniques used to investigate the DOS in amorphous hydrogenated carbon.

A goal for the validation of computational electromagnetics (CEM) is to provide the community with a simple computational method that can be used to predict the assessment of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) data as it would be undertaken by individuals or teams of engineers. The benefits of being able to do this include quantifying the comparison of data that has hitherto only been assessed qualitatively, to provide the ability to track differences between model iterations, and to provide a means of capturing the variability and range of opinions of groups and teams of workers. The feature selective validation (FSV) technique shows great promise for achieving this goal. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the FSV method, setting it firmly in the context of previous comparison techniques; it suggests the relationship between validation of graphically presented data and the psychology of visual perception. A set of applicability tests to judge the effectiveness of computer-based CEM validation techniques is also proposed. This paper is followed by a detailed comparison with visual assessment, which is presented in Part II.

Diversion is central to the aim of achieving a South African child justice regime that is compliant with constitutional and international obligations. Future plans for South African child justice are dependent on large numbers of child offenders being diverted. This article presents research suggesting that although diversion from court in South African child justice improves the treatment of many children, it will continue to exclude large numbers of children from the most progressive interventions. The research suggests that the practice of diversion will exclude persistent and serious offenders, and raises questions about whether it is appropriate for advocates of reform to place such an emphasis on diversion.