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Local Leaflets: Constituency Issue Messaging at the 2024 General Election
Get PDFThe 2024 general election brought about a significant change in the parliamentary balance of power. There has already been much attention devoted to the issues that dominated the national campaign. Using original leaflet data from the OpenElections project, this study extends the focus to explore the issues emphasised in local electoral communications put forward by parties and candidates in their constituency campaigns. The article reveals that the top issues featured in election leaflets were health, the economy and the environment. There is also evidence of considerable variation across parties in terms of the issues emphasised, as well as in the focus of the discussion within issue areas and the keywords they tended to prioritise. These findings suggest that, while political elites recognise the need to engage with the key issues of the campaign, how they engage with an issue depends on many factors, including their own record and/or the perceived shortcomings of their opponent(s)
Combined magnetic resonance imaging, high resolution manometry and a randomised trial of bisacodyl versus hyoscine shows the significance of an enlarged colon in constipation: the RECLAIM study
Get PDFBackgroundColonic motility in constipation can be assessed non-invasively using MRI.Objective To compare MRI with high resolution colonic manometry (HRCM) for predicting treatment response.DesignPart 1: 44 healthy volunteers (HV), 43 patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) and 37 with functional constipation (FC) completed stool diaries, questionnaires and underwent oral macrogol (500-1000mL) challenge. Whole gut transit time (WGTT), segmental colonic volumes (CV), MRI-derived motility index (MMI) and chyme movement by ‘tagging’ were assessed using MRI and time to defecation after macrogol recorded. Left colonic HRCM was recorded before and after a 700kcal meal. Patients then proceeded to Part 2: a randomised cross-over study of 10-days bisacodyl 10mg daily versus hyoscine 20mg t.d.s. assessing daily pain and constipation. Results Part 1: Total CVs median(range) were significantly greater in IBS-C [776(595-1033)] and FC [802(633-951)] versus HV [645(467-780)], p<0.001. Patients also had longer WGTT and delayed evacuation after macrogol. IBS-C patients showed significantly reduced tagging index and less propagated pressure wave (PPW) activity during HRCM versus HV. Compared to FC, IBS-C patients were more anxious and reported more pain. Abnormally large colons predicted significantly delayed evacuation after macrogol challenge (p<0.02), impaired manometric meal response and reduced pain with bisacodyl (p<0.05).Part 2: Bisacodyl compared to hyoscine increased bowel movements but caused more pain in both groups (p<0.03). Conclusion An abnormally large colon is an important feature in constipation which predicts impaired manometric response to feeding and treatment responses. HRCM shows that IBS-C patients have reduced PPW activity.
Small business stories in the formation of enterprise policy: a narrative policy analysis of the UK Bolton Committee
Get PDFEnterprise policy, which seeks to stimulate start-ups and support small businesses, attracts significant investment from government and shapes the context for entrepreneurs. Researchers have begun to study the processes underlying the formulation of enterprise policy. However, accounts of how competing interests seek to influence enterprise policymaking processes remain rare. Utilising a distinctive approach to narrative entrepreneurship, developed through a narrative policy analysis, we examine archival records of submissions from a range of stakeholders to a UK government inquiry. We develop a narrative entrepreneurship approach that allows us to analyse the stories and broader narratives told by entrepreneurs and others. Our analysis identifies different types of narrative strategy used to develop stories by two competing interest groups: a narrative from small businesses and their representatives and, contesting this, a counternarrative from other stakeholders, including the finance industry, consumer groups and large firms. We analyse how the inquiry engaged with these competing narratives and sought to make them amenable to policymaking through the creation of a simplifying, overarching metanarrative. We demonstrate that, while this metanarrative simplified the uncertain, complex and polarised issue of enterprise policy, it masked and did not resolve the underlying tensions between competing interests
Can Policy Succeed through Inactivity? A Case Study of UK Foreign Policy after the Gulf War
Get PDFCan policy succeed through inactivity? Why does some inactivity lead to policy success, whilst others lead to policy failure? Whilst traditional approaches to policy success and failure have focused upon the impact of active policy interventions, this article draws together literature on policy failure and inactivity to develop hypotheses and a new conceptual framework to engage with the problem of inactivity in foreign policy. These are then applied to the case study of UK foreign policy in the Middle East after the 1990-91 Gulf War. During this time the British government established four key policies; two would succeed, whilst two would fail. Using the new framework, extensive archival research, and documents received under the Freedom of Information Act, conditions for policy success and failure are revealed. As a result, this article argues that inactivity can be highly consequential and deserves much greater attention within foreign policy scholarship
Income disaster model with optimal consumption
Get PDFWe propose a continuous-time income disaster model with optimal consumption. We endogenously determine the stochastic discount factor (SDF) in an incomplete market caused by income disaster. We then derive optimal consumption decisions for two types of agents, one who is exposed to income disaster and another who is not. We find a large incomplete-markets precautionary savings term between the two agents, which pushes the interest rate down and helps to resolve the risk-free rate puzzle. Interestingly, with income disaster the equilibrium interest rate is a decreasing function of risk aversion while the equity premium is an increasing function. Finally, our model can better match empirical marginal propensities to consume numbers and explain the low-consumption-high-savings puzzle
How does business credit environment affect exports performance of small and medium-sized enterprises: Evidence in China
No full textThis paper uses matched data from the CSMAR database and the China City Statistical Yearbook through a fixed effects model to examine the impact of business credit environment on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) exports at the city level in China. Considering the possible endogenous problems, this paper chooses the number of scholars in Ming and Qing dynasties as the instrumental variable of urban commercial credit environment. The empirical results show that: Firstly, the improvement of urban business credit environment has a significant contribution to the export growth of enterprises; Secondly, the mechanism of the role of urban business credit environment on SMEs exports is mainly expressed through promoting R&D investment and enhancing market dynamics; Thirdly, the business credit environment is more obvious to state-owned enterprises, eastern regions and cities with less trade freedom. With the development of urban business credit environment, individuals or companies join the competition in the industry through new start-ups to stimulate corporate exports, and existing SMEs promote corporate exports through local preferential policies, increased investment in R&D, and optimized innovation policies as well as resource allocation
The Knowledge of Inclusive Education: An Ecological Approach
No full textThe Knowledge of Inclusive Education is a paradigm-shifting exploration of inclusive education as a dynamic knowledge practice. The knowledge that underpins the practice is understood through the metaphor of an ecology, with valuable contributions from educators, researchers, parents, students, policymakers, and international organisations.By examining the knowledge of policy, research, teacher education, and activism, Elizabeth Walton constructs a future for inclusive education that affirms different material-discursive places, inquiry and possibility, and replaces traditional research hierarchies with a life-affirming ecology. Readers will gain a novel perspective on the knowledge/s of inclusive education across multiple interacting domains.With theoretical resources ranging from the work of Lorraine Code and Basil Bernstein to concepts from Legitimation Code Theory, Decolonial theory, and Posthumanism, this book offers a unique and innovative approach to the multiple perspectives and knowledges that inform inclusive education policy and practice. Its conceptual and empirical research draws from several international contexts ensuring that The Knowledge of Inclusive Education will be of interest to educators, scholars and advocates of inclusive education worldwide, and valued by those willing to embrace collaborative new directions in inclusive teaching, learning, and research
The Role of Boundary Spanning in Building Trust: A Place‐Based Study on Engaging Hardly Reached Groups in Community Healthcare Settings
Get PDFThis paper investigates the impact of boundary spanning activities on building trust as a means of tackling health inequalities in hardly reached communities. Lack of trust has been identified as a barrier to engagement with healthcare services, resulting in poorer health outcomes. Engaging with hardly reached communities is challenging due to the social and symbolic boundaries prevalent in community healthcare settings. Drawing on empirical data from a recent year-long collaborative research project with communities from seven economically deprived areas in the City of Nottingham, we identify two boundary spanning activities that facilitate the development of trust: communication across boundaries and intergroup relationship building. By cross fertilizing sociological accounts on trust with insights derived from philosophy, the study finds that for hardly reached communities, trusting relevant individuals is more potent and widespread than the trust they have in healthcare institutions. By developing individual trust, hardly reached communities are more likely to consequently perceive the existence of institutional goodwill and competence. This counter-intuitive finding invites us to regard trust as context specific and relational rather than as a binary choice between trusting individuals or institutions and to situate cross boundary activities focused on trust development within the power asymmetries in which they unfold
The microlayer and force balance of bubbles growing on solid in nucleate boiling
Get PDFThis study uses interface-resolved computational fluid dynamics simulations to investigate the dynamics of bubble growth on a horizontal solid surface, with a focus on the characteristics of the microlayer and the forces involved in the process. The simulations exclude phase change effects to concentrate on hydrodynamics and employ an external mass source for controlled bubble inflation. This mass source follows a time-dependent bubble radius growth law, R(t)∝t1/2, which is typical for heat-transfer-controlled growth of a vapour bubble during nucleate boiling of water at atmospheric pressure. The numerical framework is validated against recent experimental measurements of bubble shape and microlayer profile. The results of this work indicate that the rate of bubble growth significantly influences microlayer formation. Faster growth rates produce a near-hemispherical bubble shape with an extended radial microlayer on the solid, while slower rates yield a taller, more spherical bubble with a shorter microlayer. All microlayer profiles exhibit an outwardly-curved shape, with a maximum microlayer thickness increasing with the growth rate. The study also examines the force balance on the bubble, revealing that the net vertical force of the bubble does not equal zero even when the bubble remains attached to the solid surface. Our analysis of the bubble motion demonstrates that previous force balance models used for determining bubble detachment lack robustness. The microlayer profile obtained in this work is important for boiling heat transfer studies as the microlayer contributes significantly to local heat transfer. The force balance analysis shows the need for a new approach to determine bubble detachment behaviour, which is vital for predicting flow boiling rates
Optimisation of additively manufactured coiled flow inverters for continuous viral inactivation processes
Get PDFThis article reports the development and utilisation of an adaptive design workflow methodology for use as a platform technology for the printing, testing, and optimisation of biopharmaceutical processing reactors. This design strategy was developed by application to the complex structure of the coiled flow inverter (CFI). In this way, the many possible physical parameters of the reactor were optimised, via a combination of experimental results, computational fluid dynamics and machine learning approaches, to find the CFI setups that provide the optimal flow properties for a particular application.Additively manufactured reactors are seeing increasing interest in the field of biopharmaceutical production. This is because the desired output volumes are typically small and there is an increasing move towards adopting continuous production, to replace traditional batch production. This approach allows for the tailoring of reactors for a specific reaction, i.e. attempting to maximise the desired aspects of the reaction through refinement of the physical parameters of the reactor, so creating a large possible parameter space to explore.Consequently, the holistic optimisation of CFI reactors and 3D printing is established as providing better plug flow mixing relative to traditional tube coiled reactors. In addition, a trained metamodel in combination with multilayer equations is demonstrated to predict reactor performance quickly and accurately
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