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What Does the Second Trump Presidency Mean for Latin America
No full textWith the Trump presidency finally in place in Washington, DC, some regimes in Latin America are bracing for a mortal confrontation with the former. It is a combat that is likely to be on multiple fronts. A known centre right ideologue, Trump has never minced his words regarding his deep scorn for those on the left. An expansionist and confrontational president, keen to stamp his specific brand of hegemonic politics, Trump might severely undermine regimes who have traditionally practiced left-wing ideologies and have been anti-American in their rhetoric and foreign policy undertakings
Beam breakup instability studies of powerful energy recovery linac for experiments
No full textThe maximum achievable beam current in an energy recovery linac (ERL) is often constrained by beam breakup (BBU) instability. Our previous research highlighted that filling patterns have a substantial impact on BBU instabilities in multipass ERLs. In this study, we extend our investigation to the eight-cavity model of the Powerful ERL for Experiment (PERLE). We evaluate its requirements for damping cavity higher order modes (HOMs) and propose optimal filling patterns and bunch timing strategies. Our findings reveal a significant new insight: while filling patterns are crucial, the timing of bunches also plays a critical role in mitigating HOM beam loading and BBU instability. This previously underestimated factor is essential for effective BBU control. We estimated the PERLE threshold current using both analytical and numerical models, incorporating the designed PERLE HOM dampers. During manufacturing, HOM frequencies are expected to vary slightly. Our study found no significant difference in BBU suppression for relative rms frequency jitters of 0.001, 0.002, and 0.005 for the same HOM. Introducing a jitter of 0.001 into our models, we found that the dampers effectively suppressed BBU instability, achieving a threshold current an order of magnitude higher than the design requirement. Our results offer new insights into ERL BBU beam dynamics and have important implications for the design of future ERLs. Published by the American Physical Society 202
Services availability and readiness assessment of adolescent sexual and reproductive health in primary healthcare facilities: evidence from selected districts in Ghana
No full textBackground: Globally, adolescent health remains a public health priority given that adolescents often face unique vulnerabilities to health issues like mental disorders, substance abuse, and sexual health risks. In developing countries like Ghana, primary healthcare facilities (PHCs) are often the first point of contact for addressing these issues. However, there is a lack of literature examining the capacity of PHCs to address adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) issues. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by assessing the availability and readiness of ASRH services within Ghana’s PHCs. Methods: The study utilized a multi-stage sampling approach to select 67 PHCs across four districts in the Greater Accra region, reflecting Ghana's broad demographic diversity. We employed the WHO's Services Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) tool to measure the availability and readiness of ASRH services. This framework focused on key domains including service availability and readiness, assessing aspects such as HIV testing, family planning, and availability of contraceptives and necessary staff training. Data analysis was conducted using Stata version 17.0, analysing frequencies and percentages to capture the extent of service provision across the selected facilities. Results: The study highlighted significant disparities in the availability and readiness of essential ASRH services (HIV services, family planning, contraceptive pills, IUCD provisions, and male condoms) across selected districts and facility types. In Shai Osudoku, 65% of facilities offered a full range of selected ASRH services, the highest among the districts, whereas Ningo Prampram had the lowest at just 16%. In terms of facility types, 57% of CHPS facilities, 59% of health centres, and 44% of clinics provided all the selected ASRH services. Urban areas reported a 51% provision rate of these services, slightly less than the 54% observed in rural areas. Additionally, readiness disparities were evident: only 21% of urban facilities had adequate service guidelines compared to 29% in rural areas, and a higher percentage of rural facilities (46%) had trained staff, compared to 23% in urban areas. Conclusion: This study examined the availability and readiness of ASRH services in PHCs across the Greater Accra region, revealing significant disparities by location and facility type. Particularly, rural and public facilities demonstrated a higher availability of ASRH services compared to urban and private facilities. These findings suggest an uneven distribution of resources and highlight a potential urban underutilization of public health services. Moreover, the study identified a critical lack of service guidelines and trained staff across many facilities, emphasizing the need for enhanced training and resource allocation to improve service readiness. Targeted interventions are necessary to elevate the quality and accessibility of ASRH services, ensuring equitable health care delivery across all regions. Future research should expand to other regions to validate these findings and inform nationwide health strategies
Neurovascular phase coherence is altered in Alzheimer’s disease
No full textAlzheimer’s disease is the commonest form of dementia, but its cause still remains elusive. It is characterized by neurodegeneration, with amyloid-beta and tau aggregation. Recently, however, the roles of the vasculature and the neurovascular unit are being highlighted as important for disease progression. In particular, there is reduced microvascular density, and altered gene expression in vascular and glial cells. Structural changes naturally impact the functioning of the neurovascular unit, and the goal of the study was to quantify the corresponding changes in vivo, non-invasively. Our assessment is based on recordings of brain oxygenation, neuronal and cardiorespiratory activities, captured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy, electroencephalogram, electrocardiogram and respiration effort, respectively. Two groups were compared: an Alzheimer’s disease group (N = 19) and a control group (N = 20) of similar age. The time-series were analysed using methods that can capture multi-scale and time-varying oscillations such as the wavelet transform power and wavelet phase coherence. The Alzheimer’s disease group shows a significant decrease in the power of brain oxygenation oscillations compared to the control group. There is also a significant global reduction in the phase coherence between brain oxygenation time-series. The neurovascular phase coherence around 0.1 Hz is also significantly reduced in the Alzheimer’s disease group. In addition, the average respiration rate is increased in the Alzheimer’s disease group compared to the control group. We show that the phase coherence between vascular and neuronal activities is reduced in Alzheimer’s disease compared to the control group, indicating altered functioning of the neurovascular unit. The brain oxygenation dynamics reveals reduced power and coordination of oscillations, especially in frequency ranges that are associated with vasomotion. This could lead to reduced oxygen delivery to the brain, which could affect ATP production, and potentially reduce amyloid-beta clearance. These changes in neurovascular dynamics have potential for early diagnosis, as a marker of disease progression, and for evaluating the effect of interventions
1 Drawing. Flood Story: Brantwood Submerged : The Ruskin Prize. A juried exhibition from an open call.
No full textThe Ruskin Prize is an exhibition, symposium and suite of workshops supported by the Big Draw, The Guild of Saint George and Drawing Projects UK. Gerry Davies submitted one of his recent Flood Story drawings, made with the support of LU and in collaboration with Brantwood, John Ruskin's home at Coniston. The drawings was selected, exhibited and shortlisted for the Ruskin Prize
Knowledge Management Practices in the UAE Higher Education Sector
Get PDFKnowledge Management (KM), a systematic approach to managing organizational knowledge is critical for the HE sector as HEIs are regarded as ‘knowledge-intensive’ organisations. Despite its significance, the research on KM in the HE sector is relatively at its nascent stage. This formed the motivation for this thesis which aimed to first develop an empirical assessment KM framework for HE sector through review of both generic and HE-specific literature and then apply the framework in the UAE HE sector to examine the current state of KM practices, factors (enablers) influencing the adoption of those practices and the performance outcomes realised through the implementation of KM practices. The study employed a sequential explanatory mixed method design comprising of a country-wide survey (N=428) and semi-structured interviews (N=20) of academic and administrative staff employed in the UAE HE sector. The study results revealed that all four enablers (culture, leadership, organization structure and strategy, and Information Technology) had a positive and significant impact but to varying extents. Information Technology emerged as the enabler exerting the highest influence on KM practice adoption. All nine KM practices proposed in the study were found to be relevant though their extent of implementation differed with Knowledge Acquisition showing the highest level of implementation while the practice of Knowledge Application was found to be the least implemented practice. KM implementation was found to have a positive and significant impact on the HEI’s operational and innovation performance. The results also found that KM implementation varies across public and private HEIs. The proposed validated framework and the findings contribute to the KM literature pertinent to the HE sector and future researchers could adapt the framework in their respective settings. The study also offers recommendations for practitioners and policymakers to facilitate KM adoption at an institutional and sectorial level
The Impact of Economic Shocks on Health and Health Inequalities
Get PDFThis thesis explores the effects of economic shocks on health and health inequalities using multiple datasets from the United Kingdom. The second chapter studies the effects of retirement on both physical and mental ill-health and whether these change in the presence of economic shocks. Inverse probability weighting regression adjustment is used to examine the mechanisms influencing the relationship between retirement and health, and a difference-in-differences approach combined with matching to investigate whether the health effects of retirement are affected by the Great Recession. Models are estimated on the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) dataset. The third chapter focuses on the effects of parental unemployment spells experienced during early, mid and late childhood on long-term child mental and physical health. This chapter exploits merged data drawn from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), linking detailed parental socioeconomic information with key health variables on their children. In this analysis, a Correlated Random Effects (CRE) probit model accounts for unobserved heterogeneity while a non-linear Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) random effects estimator for the dependency structure of the data. The fourth chapter explores associations between adolescent health and socioeconomic deprivation by income and small-area levels in England. This study uses administrative data drawn from the Health Episode Statistics (HES) linked to Next Steps, a longitudinal survey including a cohort of adolescents born in 1990. Erreygers’ corrected concentration index and Shapley-Shorrocks decomposition techniques are employed to measure and explore the relative contributions of a set of childhood circumstances in the adolescent health and health care utilisation inequalities. In addition, an Interrupted Time-Series (ITS) analysis is implemented to examine changes in health care utilisation in the emergency and outpatient departments during the years of the Great Recession and subsequent austerity policies. The last chapter summarises the main findings of the PhD, discusses the policy implications of these findings, reviews the limitations and unanswered questions from the analyses, and provides recommendations for future research
Beyond Institutional Pressure: The interactivity of Multilevel Network Pressures and Network Isomorphism
No full textRenewable Energy - Circular Economy Research Project
No full textIn this video, Group Senior ESG Analyst Georgia Whitehouse and Professor Ana Rute Costa of Lancaster University explain the rationale behind the project and its aims, while Bluefield Founder and Managing Partner Giovanni Terranova and Group Head of ESG Emma Silcocks provide further context from a Bluefield perspective