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Spatially-Periodic Solutions for Evolution Anisotropic Variable-Coefficient Navier–Stokes Equations: I. Weak Solution Existence
Get PDFData Availability Statement: This paper has no associated data.MSC: 35A1; 35B10; 35K45; 35Q30; 76D05.We consider evolution (non-stationary) spatially-periodic solutions to the n-dimensional non-linear Navier–Stokes equations of anisotropic fluids with the viscosity coefficient tensor variable in spatial coordinates and time and satisfying the relaxed ellipticity condition. Employing the Galerkin algorithm with the basis constituted by the eigenfunctions of the periodic Bessel-potential operator, we prove the existence of a global weak solution.This research received no external funding
The Role of Regulatory T Cells and Their Therapeutic Potential in Hypertensive Disease of Pregnancy: A Literature Review
Get PDFHypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), including preeclampsia (PE) and gestational hypertension (GH), are major causes of maternal and foetal morbidity and mortality. This review elucidates the role of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the immunological aspects of HDP and explores their therapeutic potential. Tregs, which play a critical role in maintaining immune homeostasis, are crucial in pregnancy to prevent immune-mediated rejection of the foetus. The review highlights that Tregs contribute to immunological adaptation in normal pregnancy, ensuring foetal acceptance. In contrast, HDP is associated with Treg dysfunction, which is marked by decreased numbers and impaired regulatory capacity, leading to inadequate immune tolerance and abnormal placental development. This dysfunction is particularly evident in PE, in which Tregs fail to adequately modulate the maternal immune response against foetal antigens, contributing to the pathophysiology of the disorder. Therapeutic interventions aiming to modulate Treg activity represent a promising avenue for HDP management. Studies in animal models and limited clinical trials suggest that enhancing Treg functionality could mitigate HDP symptoms and improve pregnancy outcomes. However, given the multifactorial nature of HDP and the intricate regulatory mechanisms of Tregs, the review explores the complexities of translating in vitro and animal model findings into effective clinical therapies. In conclusion, while the precise role of Tregs in HDP is still being unravelled, their central role in immune regulation during pregnancy is indisputable. Further research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms by which Tregs contribute to HDP and to develop targeted therapies that can safely and effectively harness their regulatory potential for treating hypertensive diseases of pregnancy.P.S. is supported by a Fetal Medicine Foundation Senior Clinical Lectureship and grants from the Fetal Medicine Foundation, Charity number: 1037116. K.H. is supported by a Fetal Medicine Foundation PhD studentship, K.H.N. is supported by the Fetal Medicine Foundation
Green class struggle: Workers and the just transition
Get PDFFrom the paper edition: At the Edge: Frontiers of Climate AdaptationInspiration for decarbonising industry and creating green jobs is within the hands of those already facing precarity in today’s economically unstable times. A resilient history of workers’ initiatives overcoming redundancies, alongside recent activist, trade-union, and workforce collaborations, provides concrete examples for empowered transitioning
P22 Exploration of specialist AMS nursing roles across the UK and Ireland
Get PDFMeeting abstract and poster.Background
There is increasing interest in the work undertaken by nurses employed as antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) specialists across the UK and Ireland but scarce evidence describing their roles, characteristics and career trajectory is available.
Objectives
To investigate the characteristics of the current specialist AMS nursing workforce in the UK and Ireland to inform progression and support. Specifically, to (i) describe the background, roles and professional development opportunities of specialist AMS nurses; and (ii) identify barriers and enablers in delivering the specialist AMS nursing role.
Methods
An online survey was circulated among purposefully selected members of the AMS Nursing Group and Scottish Antimicrobial Nursing Group (SANG). Survey development was informed by the literature1 and included closed questions (n=23) alongside free text, with expert validation of content and access. Consent was assumed on survey completion, responses were anonymized.
Results
Twelve registered and one non-registered nurse completed the survey (100% completion rate), AfC band 5 to 8 or equivalent, from England (n=8), Scotland (n=3), Wales (n=1) and Ireland (n=1). All respondents were directly involved in clinical audit, education and quality improvement projects (n=13), alongside contributing to IV to oral switch initiatives (n=12), AMS ward rounds (n=9) and the clinical management of infection (n=7). Most respondents capture the impact of these interventions with process measures, clinical outcomes or feedback (n=11). Respondents work closely with microbiology/infectious diseases teams (n=13), infection prevention and control (n=12), ward teams (n=11) and pharmacy colleagues (n=9). Ambition to progress in current roles was noted, including development as clinical academic, nurse consultant/ANP or within regional or national teams (n=6). Opportunity to access further formal qualifications to support AMS roles including degree, masters or postgraduate modules can be limited (n=5). Free text responses revealed both barriers and facilitating factors to delivering the specialist AMS nursing role. Challenges included dual role commitments, being part of a pilot project and lack of understanding of the nursing role in AMS. Enablers included support from multi-professional colleagues and autonomous working.
Conclusions
AMS programmes are currently being supported by specialist AMS nurses. This survey revealed that there are commonalties and variations, as well as barriers and challenges to delivering the role. Interprofessional collaborative working and learning was evident, reflecting the multi-professional nature of AMS. These roles are therefore in a position to influence nursing clinical practice and behaviours2 in collaboration with other specialist teams.3 Opportunities exist to formalize the AMS nursing role and ensure inclusion as a core member of the AMS team within UK and Ireland. This should be part of an integral strategy to support the largest workforce within the NHS and requires recognition and commitment at team, trust and national level
Optimality and Duality for Robust Optimization Problems Involving Intersection of Closed Sets
Get PDFIn this paper, we study a robust optimization problem whose constraints include nonsmooth and nonconvex functions and the intersection of closed sets. Using advanced variational analysis tools, we first provide necessary conditions for the optimality of the robust optimization problem. We then establish sufficient conditions for the optimality of the considered problem under the assumption of generalized convexity. In addition, we present a dual problem to the primal robust optimization problem and examine duality relations.Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) under grant number T2024-26-01
Edward Long’s observations on Jamaican slavery and British slave trade abolition
Get PDFThis note presents for the first time material on Edward Long’s views on Jamaican enslavement and British slave trade abolition in 1804. His letter of that year, deposited at the William Salt Library, Stafford, shows that in old age he adapted his position from being an ardent slave trade supporter to a stance where ending the slave trade could be accepted. Long emphasized that, in circumstances where slave revolt and Jamaica’s security were concerned, the pro-slave trade argument would need to be shelved, the implementation of abolition would be acceptable and planters could then concentrate their efforts on amelioration
Sleep quality mediates the association between chronotype and mental health in young Indian adults
Get PDFData availability:
All data supporting this work are freely available via Brunel University London research repository at 10.17633/rd.brunel.25451407.There is increasing recognition of ‘higher preference for eveningness’ as a potential independent risk factor for poor mental health. To examine the chronotype-mental health relationship while also quantifying the potential roles of poor sleep quality, relevant personality traits, and childhood trauma, we assessed 282 young adults (18–40 years; 195 females) residing in North India, between January and March 2023 (to control for seasonal variation), using self-report measures of diurnal preference, sleep patterns, mental health (depression, anxiety, and stress), personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, schizotypy, and impulsivity), and childhood trauma. The results showed a significant association between eveningness and poor mental health but this association was fully mediated by poor sleep quality. Neuroticism, emotional abuse and cognitive disorganisation were correlated with eveningness as well as with poor mental health and sleep quality. Neuroticism and emotional abuse, but not cognitive disorganisation, also had indirect effects on mental health via sleep quality. Our findings highlight the crucial role played by sleep quality in the chronotype-mental health relationship
Factor based pension portfolio strategies for sustainable withdrawals
Get PDFThis thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThis thesis studies the use of factor-based investment strategy to create pension fund portfolios for sustainable withdrawals. The first empirical chapter focuses on identifying factor-based anomalies in the UK stock market. This chapter identifies size, book to market ratio and profitability as factors that explain portfolios/stock excess returns other than the market factor, the sole predictor as stipulated by the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). In addition to these factors, this chapter explores the volatility factor which is currently gaining attention within the academic and professional sectors. Using the FTSE350 universe, the chapter then shows with the CAPM model the presence of size effect (small stocks outperforming large stocks in risk adjusted terms with smaller CAPM beta), profitability effect (high profitable stocks outperforming low profitable stocks in risk adjusted terms with smaller CAPM beta) and the volatility effect (low volatility stocks outperforming high volatility stocks in risk adjusted terms with smaller CAPM beta). The value effect (value stocks outperforming growth stocks in risk adjusted terms) was not identified. This chapter also finds evidence that the size, book to market and volatility factors could produce the observed excess return in an investment portfolio over the market portfolio in the UK stock market, but the profitability factor could not. However, in risk adjusted terms, only low volatility portfolios produced significant returns in excess of the market. Finally, this first empirical chapter documents that the returns of all portfolios constructed from the mentioned factors had a tendency of mean reversion. The chapter also examines the potential impact of transaction cost by using a methodology and statistic that give a reasonable indication of the scale of the likely costs of replicating an index which can then be used in observing if the potential cost of transaction will make the replication worthwhile; the chapter finds that transaction cost would not have changed the order of outcome observed.
The second empirical chapter further investigates the effect of combining the factors that were studied in the previous chapter. I constructed 64 portfolios (and considered 53 of them) based on different combinations of these factors and observed that 23 of these factors-based portfolios outperformed the market portfolio. However, only 7 portfolios produced significant risk adjusted returns in excess of the market, 5 of which also produced observed excess return. Interestingly, all the 7 outperforming portfolios were constructed with the low volatility factor. This chapter also proposes a new ad hoc measure to capture the relative stability of an investment portfolio. The objective of this measure is to create a theoretical framework to assess the stability of a portfolio. This measure considers both the speed of mean reversion of the portfolio return and the ‘distance’ of deviation of the return from its mean. The chapter finds that 10 factor-constructed portfolios had better return stability than the market portfolio. Interestingly, all of these portfolios had a common characteristic—they were all constructed with the low volatility factor in the factor combinations.
The third empirical chapter applies the results from the second study to pension fund investment. Using Monte-Carlo simulation, I explore how well the factor-based portfolios can provide sustainable pension-income withdrawals in addition to other performance indicators during the drawdown phase of an individual’s retirement. I identify four portfolios that could sustain a withdrawal rate of up to 10% with strong levels of success. Again, very interestingly, all of these portfolios were constructed with the low volatility factor; this seems to suggest that the low volatility factor is indeed a driver of return sustainability. In addition, I revisit the proposed relative stability measure introduced earlier and find that it has varying consistencies with the performance indicators of investment portfolios during the withdrawal phase in a pension fund. The chapter also finds that all else being equal, when the returns of a portfolio are highly persistent (slower reversion speed), a better success rate will likely be achieved; this is also the case when the deviation of shock is smaller, all else being equal.
Overall, the findings of this thesis contribute to the literature in identifying factors that are particularly relevant to the withdrawal sustainability in pension fund investment. It provides evidence that constructing pension fund portfolios using low volatility and value factors tilts can generally provide a more stable and secure withdrawal experience to pension fund clients.Harbour Rock Capita
Livelihood Trajectories of Rural Young People in Southern Africa: Stuck in Loops?
Get PDFAttempts to boost rural development in the Global South tend to focus on ways in which people can transform their lives. Interventions are often designed to help overcome specific envisioned constraints and push individuals onto a pathway out of poverty. Research has contributed to nuancing this vision by documenting the non-linearity of pathways, which often results in people being left in limbo or stuck, rather than moving forward. Based on a study in two villages in Malawi and Lesotho, this article argues that even these nuances do not fully capture the real-life experiences of the 63 young people who participated. Interviews tracing the course of their lives between 2007–08 and 2016–17 reveal trajectories that are circular rather than linear, and show the detrimental effects of being stuck in these frustrating loops of taking action without progressing. Conceptualizing rural young people's livelihood trajectories in contexts of severe poverty as loops highlights the structural issues that need to be addressed if their lives are to be transformed. Understanding development as emancipation from sources of unfreedom means focusing on the structural constraints that keep some people in poverty, and the importance of attaining agency if they are to put their needs on the agenda and demand basic rights.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-DfID. Grant Number: ES/M009076/
Gender, ethnicity and SMEs’ access to finance: a systematic literature review of global empirical evidence
No full textArticle accepted to be published in the special issue on: Bank Behaviour, Performance and Stability – In Memory of Philip Molyneux.We systematically survey the global empirical evidence on gender and ethnicity implications of small and medium enterprises' (SMEs) access to finance in the last two decades. We find overwhelming evidence that women-owned SMEs encounter greater financial constraints, and seek less financing, in comparison to men-owned SMEs. Borrowing discouragement and fear of being rejected by creditors are identified as leading causes of women's non-participation in external borrowing. We find scarce evidence of systematic gender-based discrimination by lenders. However, there is evidence that women face higher interest and rejection rates and stringent lending criteria compared to men. We find that ethnic-minority-owned SMEs experience greater financial constraints. In the USA, evidence of ethnicity-based-discrimination is found; however, it is not common across the world. Our findings also show that ethnic-minority-owned SMEs demand for and ability to obtain external finance decreases further during and after economic crisis periods. We provide avenues for further research...
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