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Getting Law Students to Contribute in Class: A Personal Reflection
No full textIn the context of pedagogic concepts, this paper explores the challenges of seminar, or small group, teaching and proposes approaches to teaching practice aimed at increasing engagement and participation
Defining the mechanisms underlying reduced immunity to Streptococcus pneumoniae with age
No full textThe increase in the elderly population is impacting the social and economic aspects of the modern world as increasing longevity is not matched by an increasing healthy lifespan. Increased infections are a major component of ill health in old age. The aged immune system fails to respond properly to many infections such as pneumonia, caused mainly by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is responsible for high rates of death among the elderly. Here we studied the impact of age on the function of neutrophils, immune cells crucial for immunity to S. pneumoniae. Blood from healthy young (n=3, 65 years) volunteers was stimulated by antibody or complement-bound live or dead S. pneumoniae serotype 4 (TIGR4 strain). The amount of bacteria taken up by neutrophils and their production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), used to kill bacteria, was measured by flow-cytometry. The ability of neutrophils to trap S. pneumoniae extracellularly using a web made of extruded DNA (neutrophil extracellular traps, NETs) was also analysed by counting the remaining viable bacteria after incubation with neutrophils. We found that elderly neutrophils phagocytosed and produced ROS less well in response to S. pneumoniae, but this could be overcome if complement was bound to the bacteria. Although only n=1, preliminary data showed that NETs trapping of S. pneumoniae was lower (40%) in the elderly compared to young neutrophils (57%). Our data indicate that neutrophils from the elderly can produce ROS and phagocytose S. pneumoniae but may have impaired NET trapping ability
The effect of Tai Chi and Zumba Gold on vascular function in an ageing population
Get PDFAging is associated with an increased incidence of disease, such as cardiovascular disease. This occurs via several mechanisms including oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, which can cause a reduction in vascular compliance via impairment in endothelium dependant dilation and arterial stiffness. Many of these adverse effects can be reduced or overcome by exercise however, not all exercise is perceived as suitable for an older age population. This study will investigate 2 types of exercise undertaken at different intensity: a low/moderate intensity (Tai Chi) versus moderate/high intensity (Zumba Gold). The study will assess the effect of 12 weeks of Tai Chi or aerobic dance, on markers of oxidative stress, inflammation and vascular function. Participants aged between 65 and 75 years old, with no history of cardiovascular diseases will be recruited to the study. Following screening and baseline measures they will be randomised into 3 groups of control (social-interaction), Tai Chi and aerobic dance (Zumba Gold). All participants will take part in 12 weeks of intervention and will be assessed for vascular function (FMD), biochemical parameters of inflammation and oxidative, physical fitness, psychological effects (depression, pain, fatigue, loneliness) and other health parameters (BMI, lipid profile, blood pressure). Measurements will be taken at baseline, 6 weeks (mid-intervention) and 12 weeks (end-intervention). This study aims to provide a better understanding of the effects of two different forms of exercise on markers of health in older age, and to assess these two different types of exercise for acceptability in this population
Schematics for the 60-foot/150-foot tower auto-guider at Mount Wilson Observatory
Get PDFElectrical schematics for the 60-foot/150-foot tower auto-guider at Mount Wilson Observatory
Securitization and Aggregate Investment Efficiency
No full textThis paper studies the welfare properties of competitive equilibria in an economy with incomplete markets subject to idiosyncratic and aggregate shocks. We focus on the role of securitization, whereby borrowers can reduce idiosyncratic asset risk, which enables increased leverage and investment. In the absence of frictions in the securitization process, we show that the ability to securitize assets completes markets. When there are frictions in the market for securitized assets, requiring originators to hold some skin-in-the-game, markets remain incomplete and risk-sharing is limited. In this case, fire-sales are required to repay debt and finance new investments when the economy is hit by a negative shock. Moreover, the equilibrium may be constrained inefficient due to the existence of a pecuniary externality that can result in over or under-investment. We examine policies to correct over-investment and find that a leverage ratio restriction generates a Pareto improvement, while forcing originators to hold additional skin-in-the-game reduces welfare. Both policies reduce leverage and raise prices in a fire-sale, however tightening skin-in-the-game also directly reduces the resources available to those who most need them, which dominates the positive effect of higher prices
Caribbean in/security and creativity: A working paper
No full textThis working paper exists as part of a Leverhulme funded network that attempts to re-theorise the everyday negotiation between security and insecurity (in/security) in the Caribbean, connecting it with the forms of everyday creativity that are so much a feature of Caribbean life. The project conceives of in/security in a broad interdisciplinary sense, including everyday experiences of violence, conflict and criminality at a range of scales (in the home, neighbourhood, nation and region), but also including environmental, livelihood and, most broadly, human security
Maroon In/securities: Kamau Brathwaite on Colonial Wars of Xtermination
No full textIf Kamau Brathwaite’s more recent work has been concerned with contemporary questions of security — such as 9/11 in his poem “Hawk” (2005), urban crime in his book Trench Town Rock (1994a) or various forms of death and dying in his Elegguas 2010) — a turn to Brathwaite’s wider body of writing and his scholarship also reveals a broader concern with questions of in/security. His work usefully demonstrates what Pat Noxolo and David Featherstone have discussed as “a longer historical perspective and a wider global perspective” on in/securities which “unsettles the newmillennial, US-centric quality of post-9/11 security preoccupations” (2014, p.604). While Noxolo and Featherstone focus on the Plantation as a particular site for mapping this historical view of in/security and theorize “slavery as in/security”, in this paper I want to use the concept of maroon in/securities as another way of engaging histories of in/securities (2014, p.604). In
turning to marronage, I want to trace relational spaces of colonial in/securities not singularly bound to, although indeed not separate from, the operations and brutalities of the Plantation. Instead, I use Maroon practices, strategies and spaces as important narrative sites that afford
another perspective on the violence of plantation life and its insecurities
Sainsbury's Active Kids for All Inclusive PE Training Programme - Final Report (December 2016)
Get PDFThis is the final report of the three-year evaluation of the Sainsbury’s Inclusive Physical Education (IPE) Programme, which was undertaken by the University of Birmingham between June 2013 and November 2016
The Legal Foundations of a European Army
No full textA European Army featured at the very beginning of the European integration process. In the early 1950s the ‘Plan Pléven’ proposed to establish a European Defence Community comprising inter alia of an integrated European Defence Force. However, the plan failed and the notion of a European army disappeared from the European agenda for a long time. While the creation of a European army is controversial and not very likely in the short term, the (Common) European Security and Defence Policy developed since the late 1990s might well lead to a permanent European military force in the medium or long term. However, so far EU military missions (in Bosnia, the DRC, Mali, or the Horn of Africa), while based on a permanent intergovernmental framework and EU military bodies, have been conducted by forces made up of national Member State forces formed on an ad hoc basis. The paper will examine the legal and policy arguments for a European army and discuss how the existing legal framework under the Treaty of Lisbon would need to be reformed to permit the establishment of such an entity
Student Progression – A Multifaceted Phenomenon
No full textThis study explored the progression of a cohort of first-year student nurses. A Model of Student Progression was designed based on a review of the student nurse attrition literature, Erikson’s and Chickering’s identity development theories and Tinto’s student integration model. The Model acted as a framework for the pragmatic, mixed- methods study’s design. Data (questionnaire, interview and exam board data) was analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic ‘interpretive description’. Findings indicated that some background and demographic factors had a significant link with end-of-year grades (ethnicity, religion, academic self-perception, and entry qualifications). Interviews highlighted themes affecting progress (student preparation for study, course expectations, support, motivation, integration and career choice). It was found that the Model provided a suitable framework for the study and that student progression is multifaceted and often belies a complex interaction of a range of influential factors
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