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Productivity is key to the regional inequalities in the UK. Following work published last year by Metro Dynamics1 on Greater Manchester, this paper seeks to understand productivity trends in neighbouring regions which have also managed to start to close the productivity gap in the decade to 2020. The paper also unpacks the differences in productivity trends within the North of England's various economic sub-regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The investigation of a hillside at Gilson (Lat. 52.510341, Long. ‐1.718313), southwest of Coleshill, Warwickshire (within the High Speed Two railway 'Delta Junction' compound), England, has yielded evidence of sedimentation during a temperate stage. The site's stratigraphy starts with the aggregation of cold‐climate sand and gravels deposited during the Anglian Stage within the proto‐Tame and proto‐Blythe palaeovalleys. A warm‐climate period is recorded by the infill of organic material representing the second half of the Hoxnian interglacial Stage. Picea, Abies and Pinus dominate vegetation within a swamp‐like environment, before a Pinus forest develops in the upper part of the organic sequence. The following cold‐climate period saw incision and aggregation of the surrounding region throughout much of the Wolstonian and Devensian Stages, where much of the overlying silt, sand and gravel were reworked under intense periglacial conditions. Presented here is a geophysical examination of the shallow basin by ground‐penetrating radar undertaken to understand the spatial distribution and stratigraphical history of the basin. The deposits at Gilson provide a valuable stratigraphic marker in the glacial sequence of the English West Midlands and are correlated to similar deposits at neighbouring Quinton and Nechells. At these regional sites organic accumulation occurred for most of the temperate stage, infilling lake basins. These sequences indicate an environment dominated by pollen of Abies, Quercus, Ulmus and Corylus woodland vegetation. These assemblages differ markedly from those typically found in the last interglacial and confirm correlation to the Middle Pleistocene Hoxnian interglacial Stage (c. MIS 11c). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale projects, such as infrastructure or long-term research, generate some of the largest data sets which form the core of their legacy for research and future projects. Due to the scale of the data being generated and managed, projects have developed innovative approaches to transform data into meaningful information and ensure integration of data into the project lifecycle. This paper serves to present the background and context for the session presented at EAA 2022, Budapest, organised by HS2 Ltd and Jacobs Suedlink and summarises some of the papers presented within the session and which are now published in this issue.

Large Infrastructure projects create vast amounts of data during the course of programmes of archaeological investigation, from the description of an archaeological deposit to complex three-dimensional survey data. It is key for future research and the completion of the archaeological programme that the data support the questions we wish to answer. This paper will consider the range of data generated from HS2 Phase One, and the potential of those data in the process of analysis and interpretation and their broader spatial and research context . The paper will also consider which data are key for different stages of the project lifecycle, and the extent to which the process of data capture may influence the narratives that are developed.

The HS2 historic environment programme undertaken for Phase One of HS2 between London and the West Midlands has resulted in a substantial digital archive, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data. According to the BIM (Building Information Modelling) approach, HS2 historic environment assets are considered as part of the construction assets, alongside the other disciplines assets such as highways, bridges, tunnels, and fencing. The GIS and spatial data play the role of a glue to demonstrate the interrelationship and hierarchy between archaeological assets, recording their location and geometry. Designating a unique asset ID (UAID) to each archaeological asset, and joining them to their attributes table and relating documents, creates a relationship between historic environment assets GIS data and their respective non-GIS data. According to HS2 digital engineering with BIM approach, HS2 historic environment core and primary assets have been identified, which the hierarchical order of them is as follows: Location Specific Written Scheme of Investigation (LS-WSI) and Project Plans (PPs) as core assets, and Written Scheme of Investigation Interventions (WSI-Interventions), Archaeological Features, and Archaeological Objects as historic environment primary assets. Such an efficient, transparent, and readable asset data structure provides a lasting and valuable legacy for the lifecycle of the project digital data. Four different systems combine to form the digital legacy of the project, which complement the physical archive. These four systems are: HS2 Asset Information Management System (AIMS) and GIS systems, as well as Online Access to the Index of Archaeological Investigations (OASIS), and supporting digital data curated with the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) systems. As significant parts of the programme legacy, HS2's historic environment physical and digital archive establish an unprecedented opportunity for knowledge creation.

In advance of building a new high speed rail line aimed at connecting the North and South of England, the UK is undertaking the largest archaeological intervention in its history. While the High Speed 2 (HS2) project has created a wealth of new information, before any of that information can be disseminated to the general public, it must first be properly collected, documented, and linked. To this end, data collection is integral to facilitate effective data dissemination and FAIR - Findable, Accessable, Interoperable and Reusable - data to achieve the greatest public value for an archive. The most exciting search results and maps come from what is often seen as scary technical jargon. This paper will discuss some of the limitations the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) experiences as a digital repository, what is currently being done to maximise the reach of the ADS collections, and what tools have been created to aid both depositors and digital archives alike. Starting at the beginning of the data life cycle, this article will show how large infrastructure projects like HS2 allow the ADS to work with depositors to raise issues about data collection, generation, and description during project development and how collaborative efforts can improve the creation and import of data and metadata into the archive. The ADS has made steps towards keeping our data FAIR but simple, both by streamlining what metadata is essential to foster better discovery and reuse within an archive, and from there, how metadata can be passed to external data catalogues such as ARIADNEplus and The National Archives in the UK.

The University of Bradford has established wide-ranging skillsets and capabilities as Visualising Heritage that have been built around expertise with 3D imaging for human bioarchaeology and for contextual understanding of archaeological sites, landscapes, heritage structures and associated artefacts. This paper reflects upon how these have been put to use during enabling works for HS2 and also the potential of this work for analysis, public engagement and legacy. The main focus of this paper covers 3D digital documentation of the world's first railway roundhouse designed by Robert Stephenson at Birmingham Curzon Street, together with immersive content that helps to tell the story of its discovery and exposure. We discuss 3D modelling that helps to link both to the original architectural drawings and to the broader narratives for understanding changes to the design of the building during its working life. We also contextualise its place within the historic environment relative to the Principal Building – the original Curzon Street terminus for the London and Birmingham Railway, the Eagle and Tun public house and the former Park Street Cemetery. As HS2 embarks upon the post-excavation phase, we also discuss the potential that recent investment from the Arts and Humanities Research Council in 'Capabilities for Human Bioarchaeology and Digital Collections' offers, building upon our pioneering 3D work at the object scale with 'Digitised Diseases', to bring within reach the potential for high throughput digital capture. This streamlines high fidelity 3D capture for key human bioarchaeology exemplars as legacy assets that would otherwise be lost to future study as they are destined for reburial.

'Environmentalists' tend to enthusiastically embrace new railway projects as desirable alternatives to more carbon-intensive aviation and road infrastructures. Yet, across Europe and beyond, communities and campaigners have resisted the building of high-speed railway projects and the violence they entail. The UK government's High-Speed Two (HS2) trainline, currently under construction, is one such project – Europe's biggest infrastructure project since World War II. While the British government continues to defend HS2 as 'green' and necessary, the project comes at enormous ecological and social costs, cutting through over one hundred ancient woodlands, exceeding its budget, and necessitating the eviction and resettlement of human and nonhuman communities along the line. Drawing on recent work in (anarchist) political ecology, (green) extractivism, and infrastructural colonization, and embedded in the history of colonial railways and extractivism, this article argues that the project should be conceptualized as a green extractivist megaproject. In the face of determined opposition, HS2 serves to profit the British construction industry, political (economic) elites, wealthy commuters, and the City of London, and to uphold 'zero-carbon' imaginaries while expected to exacerbate the North-South divide and degrade environments. Green extractivist megaprojects, this case study shows, can reproduce the same injustices, violences, and social and ecological harms as other types of industrial developments.

High Speed 2 (HS2) will be the largest programme of historic environment investigation and recording works ever undertaken in the UK. It is certain that the creation of HS2's historic environment physical and digital archive (High Speed Two Ltd. 2023) is an integral part of the lasting legacy of the programme, which presents an unprecedented opportunity for significant knowledge creation. HS2 historic environment works that have been undertaken for Phase One of HS2 between London to the West Midlands has resulted in a substantial digital archive, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data. This data paper highlights the GIS spatial datasets generated from the HS2 Phase One historic environment fieldwork programme. It explains the technical components of the datasets which are deposited with the Archaeology Data Service (ADS).

In this Article, we argue that the uncertainty of UK national motor vehicle insurance law—when viewed with respect to its European Union (EU) parent, the Motor Vehicle Insurance Directive (MVID)—was never satisfactorily addressed, primarily when using the remedy available through the non-contractual liability of the State. The EU enforcement mechanisms were equally haphazard in their effectiveness and success in affording rights to third-party victims. Given the link between the MVID and the free movement of persons and goods, on which the harmonization of insurance protection was based, we present the first Article establishing an argument that those offending aspects of UK national law should have been disapplied. The UK has concluded its agreement to withdraw its membership of the EU—and thus no longer to be bound by EU law and the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice. Yet until the transitional period ends, the UK remained aligned to EU law and those defects present in national law should have been remedied. Therefore, the remedy issued from the Factortame line of case authorities may have proven to be the most effective way to grant access to rights which were denied to third-party victims in the UK. Here we present a justification for its application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, British courts have treated constitutional statutes differently from ordinary statutes. This article sets outs to explain: (i) how courts have treated constitutional statutes differently from ordinary statutes; (ii) what a constitutional statute is; and (iii) why constitutional statutes should be treated differently from ordinary statutes. Courts have made it harder for ordinary statutes to repeal constitutional statutes by implication, and easier for constitutional statutes to repeal ordinary statutes by implication. A constitutional statute is a statute which regulates state institutions, and which possesses importance of a particular type that we describe. The nature of a constitutional statute largely--but not entirely--justifies the special treatment they have been given. These conclusions have wider implications, including for proposals to codify the British constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates structural and informal institutional design variables to account for civil society actors’ views on the political representation of local environmental interests in the national polity. It does so by linking literature on institutional design and place-based environmental advocacy to a case of large scale infrastructure development in the national interest. The case study concerns the proposal for a national high speed rail network (“HS2”) in the United Kingdom, which is heavily opposed locally based on its expected adverse impacts. Through fieldwork research on protest against HS2 in an area of high landscape value, it has been found that local actors perceived specific institutions to structurally under-represent interests associated with environmental conservation, compounded further by an informal style of doing politics. The paper recommends that the environmental management and planning literature turns to institutional explanations to make insightful the dynamics of defending the local interest in the national sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding spatial conceptions is critical to the analysis of local protest strategy formation. Spatialities provoke inquiry into the drivers that may prompt local actors to adhere to particular strategies, and the implications this has on forms of contestation and the way protest is organized. It is argued that local protest can ‘respatialize’ when actors are embedded in social movements and translocal assemblages associated with controversy over development, and that this warrants reconsidering the role of ‘place’. A case study of a proposed megaproject framed in the national interest – a high-speed rail network called HS2, in the United Kingdom – is used to investigate local protest respatialization. Fieldwork was conducted in the Chilterns, an area of high scenic beauty which will be adversely impacted by HS2. The results show how the perceived need to respatialize protest away from the local to the national domain reconfigures debate to focus primarily on economic issues. Respatialization also has implications for the dynamics of protest assemblages with unlikely alliances developing around a need to engage with or engender debate in the national polity. It is concluded that local actors may opt to respatialize their protest in response to their interaction with social movements and protest assemblages that disengage from specific place-based interests. The paper recommends that future research on the geographies of social action take forward spatialization as a powerful lens for investigating protest strategy formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is ongoing debate about the effectiveness of impact assessment tools, which matters both because of the threat to future practice of the tools which are frequently perceived to be ineffective, and because of the disillusionment that can ensue, and controversy generated, amongst stakeholders in a decision context where opportunities for meaningful debate have not been provided. In this article we regard debate about the meaning of effectiveness in impact assessment as an inevitable consequence of increased participation in environmental decision-making, and therefore frame effectiveness based on an inclusive democracy role to mean the extent to which impact assessment can accommodate civil society discourse. Our aim is to investigate effectiveness based on this framing by looking at one type of impact assessment – environmental impact assessment (EIA) – in two controversial project proposals: the HS2 rail network in England; and the A4DS motorway in the Netherlands. Documentary analysis and interviews held with key civil society stakeholders have been deployed to identify discourses that were mobilised in the cases. EIA was found to be able to accommodate only one out of four discourses that were identified; for the other three it did not provide the space for the arguments that characterised opposition. The conclusion in relation to debate on framings of effectiveness is that EIA will not be considered effective by the majority of stakeholders. EIA was established to support decision-making through a better understanding of impacts, so its ineffectiveness is unsurprising when its role is perceived to be broader. However, there remains a need to map discourses in different decision contexts and to analyse the extent to which the range of discourses are accommodated throughout the decision process, and the role of impact assessment in those processes, before recommendations can be made to either improve impact assessment effectiveness, or whether it is simply perceptions of effectiveness that need to be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

United Kingdom – UK Supreme Court – European Union – The orthodox view of the British constitution: lack of hierarchy of laws – Britain's ‘unwritten’ constitution and the role of ‘constitutional statues’ in Factortame – HS2 judgment makes up for House of Lords' omission in Factortame – Relationship between parliamentary sovereignty and EU law more clearly articulated – A normative-hierarchical constitutional order [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to summarise and analyse the new compensation provisions brought in by the government for Phase 1 of the HS2 high-speed train line. Design/methodology/approach – To summarise each of the proposals and provide a critical assessment of each of them. Findings – For the most part, and the Homeowner Payment Scheme (HPS) is a marked exception, the new HS2 compensation provisions set out a logical approach to reducing the impact of the scheme on the people most directly affected by its blighting affect. There are, however, a number of concerns as to whether there are more urgent reforms that have not been considered. Research limitations/implications – The proposals were announced in April and in respect of some of them, particularly the HPS, very little information is available as yet. Practical implications – The paper should provide factual information on a very new set of compensation provisions and a critical appraisal of their value. Originality/value – As the compensation provisions have been published only recently there will be few other similar commentaries available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the potential role of reflection and double loop learning in policy analysis and shared community learning. The discussion is illustrated by the case of HS2, a proposed high-speed railway project in England. It is noted that the foundation of social learning models is a rejection of traditional reliance on technologies or market forces in order to solve societal problems. Citing scholars in this field, the notion of transformative learning is introduced. This describes a process where people gradually change their views on the world and themselves in response to an external ‘trigger’, A tool to facilitate transformative learning is double loop learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explicitly electron correlating coupled cluster calculations, CCSD(T)-F12a, were performed to determine three-dimensional potential energy hypersurfaces of disulphanide and disulphanyl in an automated approach. Surfaces for different electronic states were used in a Watson rovibrational Hamiltonian ansatz to obtain the correlated anharmonic vibrational wavefunctions. Subsequently the anharmonic Franck-Condon overlap integrals were evaluated. The computed Franck-Condon profiles were compared to experimental photodetachment-photoelectron spectra and confirm essentially the assignments made previously. The profiles indicate, however, additional weaker, and as of yet unresolved, additional features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locus control regions (LCRs) are regulatory DNA sequences that are situated many kilobases away from their cognate promoters. LCRs protect transgenes from position effect variegation and heterochromatinization and also promote copy-number dependence of the levels of transgene expression. In this work, we describe the biochemical purification of a previously undescribed LCR-associ- ated remodeling complex (LARC) that consists of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein C1/C2, nucleosome remodeling SWI/ SNF, and nucleosome remodeling and deacetylating (NuRD)/ MeCP1 as a single homogeneous complex. LARC binds to the hypersensitive 2 (HS2)-Maf recognition element (MARE) DNA in a sequence-specific manner and remodels nucleosomes. Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein C1/C2, previously known as a general RNA binding protein, provides a sequence-specific DNA recognition element for LARC, and the LARC DNA-recognition sequence is essential for the enhancement of transcription by HS2. Independently of the initiation of transcription, LARC becomes associated with β-like globin promoters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thorough assessment of modem genetic diversity and interpopulation affinities within the African continent is essential for understanding the processes that have been at work during the course of worldwide human evolution. Regardless of whether autosomal, Y-chromosome, or mtDNA markers are used, allele- or haplotype-frequency data from African populations are necessary in setting the framework for the construction of global population phylogenies. In the present study we analyze genetic differentiation and population structure in a data set of nine African populations using 12 polymorphic Alu insertions (PAls). Furthermore, to place our findings within a global context, we also examined an equal number of non-African groups. Frequency data from 456 individuals presented for the first time in this work plus additional data obtained from the literature indicate an overall pattern of higher intrapopulation diversity in sub-Saharan populations than in northern Africa, a prominent differentiation between these two locations, an appreciably high degree of transcontinental admixture in Egypt, and significant discontinuity between Morocco and the Iberian peninsula. Moreover, the topologies of our phylogenetic analyses suggest that out of the studied sub-Saharan groups, the southern Bantu population of Sotho/Tswana presents the highest level of antiquity, perhaps as a result of ancestral or acquired Khoisan genetic signals. Close affinities of eastern sub-Saharan populations with Egypt in the phylogenetic trees may indicate the existence of gene flow along the Nile River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our previous studies showed that some nuclear proteins that were expressed especially during terminal differentiation of erythroid cells might interact directly or indirectly with HS2 sequence to form the HS2-protein complexes and thus play an important role in the globin gene regulation and erythroid differentiation. Monoclonal antibodies against the nuclear proteins of terminal differentiated erythroid cells, including intermediate and late erythroblasts of human fetal liver and hemin induced K562 cells, were prepared by hybridoma technique. The monoclonal antibodies were used to screen λ-gtll human cDNA expression library of fetal liver in order to obtain the relevant cDNA clones. By the analysis of their cDNA clones and the identification of the proteins’ functions, the regulation mechanism of the HS2 binding proteins might be better understood. Two cDNA clones (GenBank accession number AF040247 and AF040248 respectively) were obtained and one of them owns a full length and the other encodes a protein characterized by a leucine-zipper domain. Both of them were expressed differentially in K562 cells and hemin-induced K562 cells. The evidence suggested that both of them were involved in erythroid differentiation. We investigated the expression pattern of EDRF1 and EDRF2 by RT-PCR technique. The results of RT-PCR suggested that EDRF1 and EDRF2 might play a critical role in early stage of organ development and histological differentiation. EDRF1 and EDRF2 might start the program of erythroid development, and also regulate the development of erythroid tissue and the expression of globin gene at different stage of the development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a family with β thalassaemia, apparently not linked to the β-globin gene cluster, in combination with α thalassaemia. The propositus, an adult Dutch Caucasian male, and his son presented with microcytic hypochromic parameters. Their lysates displayed the normal adult pattern on electrophoresis. The HbA2 concentration, which is usually increased in β thalassaemia, was normal. The in vitro biosynthetic rate of the globin chains was strongly unbalanced even in the presence of a coexisting α-thalassaemia defect. Routine analysis of the β genes, including the promoter region, was performed repeatedly by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and direct sequencing. No molecular abnormalities were detected. Large β deletions were excluded by haplotype determination, using seven polymorphic markers distributed over an area of 50 kb, from 1 kb 5′ of the ε gene to 4 kb 3′ of the β gene. The haplotype analysis of the β-gene cluster revealed that the unaffected daughter had received the same β haplotype as her β-thalassaemic brother from their β-thalassaemic father. These data suggest that the β-gene cluster shared by father and son was not directly associated with a reduced β-globin chain expression. In order to exclude the remote possibility of a β-locus-control region (LCR) rearrangement in the paternal haplotype of the daughter, the sequence of the HS2 element was examined in the nuclear family. We compared the haematological and clinical data of this family with the data reported in the limited number of similar cases. We discuss the possibility that the mutation of a trans-acting erythroid factor(s), not linked to the β-genes cluster, may impair the β-gene expression of both alleles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]