22282 research outputs found
Sort by
On the classifying space for the family of virtually cyclic subgroups for elementary amenable groups
A Penrose polynomial for embedded graphs
We extend the Penrose polynomial, originally defined only for plane graphs, to graphs embedded in arbitrary surfaces. Considering this Penrose polynomial of embedded graphs leads to new identities and relations for the Penrose polynomial which can not be realized within the class of plane graphs. In particular, by exploiting connections with the transition polynomial and the ribbon group action, we find a deletion-contraction-type relation for the Penrose polynomial. We relate the Penrose polynomial of an orientable checkerboard colourable graph to the circuit partition polynomial of its medial graph and use this to find new combinatorial interpretations of the Penrose polynomial. We also show that the Penrose polynomial of a plane graph G can be expressed as a sum of chromatic polynomials of twisted duals of G. This allows us to obtain a new reformulation of the Four Colour Theorem
Deficits in volitional oculomotor control align with language status in autism spectrum disorder
Clostridium difficile: Infection and Immunity
Clostridium difficile is a Gram positive pathogen of significant importance in the UK, Europe and the USA. No vaccine has been developed and current treatments are focused on hospital management and the use of antibiotics. The disease is spread in hospitals in the spore form and the role of spores in C. difficile infecton is poorly understood. In this project spores of C. difficile have been characterised. The proteins from the outermost layers of the spore were identified and the genes cloned. Three of these surface proteins have unique enzymatic properties that maybe important for symptoms of disease. The ability of C. difficile spores to adhere to intestinal cells was found to be far greater than with live cells and through this we have identified that the spore may play an important role in colonisation. The regulation of spore coat gene expression during sporulation was also examined and temporal phases of genes expression identified. A major part of this project was to develop a mucosal vaccine to C. difficile. The approach used was to clone the C-terminus of toxin A onto the surface of Bacillus subtilis spores and use these recombinant spores to immunise mice and hamsters. We found that oral delivery of these spores conferred 75% protection to C. difficile infection in a hamster model of infection. Further, parenteral immunisation of the same antigens (toxin A and B) failed to generate mucosal responses and this showed that mucosal immunisation is critical for good protection. Finally, we found that antibodies to the C-terminus of toxin A were cross reactive to the C-terminus of toxin B. This showed that mucosal delivery of just the C-terminus of toxin A is sufficient to confer protection in an animal model of infection. The outcome of this work is that we have shown the parameters for successful immunisation and vaccination against C. difficile
English-language theories of financial reporting
The chapter provides a historical overview of the principal theories of financial reporting in the English language. Early attempts to generalise from practice were supplemented with applications of economic theory, as well as ideas drawn from mathematics, systems theory, organisation theory, human behaviour and other disciplines to develop theories that attempted to improve current financial reporting practice. This has culminated in the development of conceptual frameworks for financial reporting. From the late 1960s, attempts have been developed to explain and predict accounting practice, and the impact of financial reporting information on the behaviour of investors and others
A Betrayed Promise? The Politics of the Everyday State and the Resettling of Refugees in Pakistani Punjab, 1947-1962
Lahore, Anarkali, mid-1950s. A distinguished-looking refugee is standing in front of a petition writer in the hope of getting the better of the Pakistani bureaucracy and having a property allotted. A few miles ahead, another refugee, camped in a school, is drafting a letter to the editor of the Pakistan Times. He will hide his identity through the pseudonym ‘desperate’. Both of them belonged to the throng of those muhajirs who, back in 1947, had embarked on a dreadful journey towards what they perceived to be their homeland. Historiographical trends have tended to overlook the everyday experience of the state among those middle-class Partition refugees who resettled in Pakistani Punjab. Focusing mainly on their ‘less fortunate’ fellow citizens, these explanations have reproduced that historically-unproven popular narrative that ascribes pain and sufferings only to the economically-backward sectors of the local society. Even more frequently, well-rooted argumentative patterns have superimposed historical and present-day socio-geographical mappings of refugee families onto both urban and rural Punjab. These somehow echo that government rhetoric that, up to the early 1960s, paid lip service to the notion of a ‘biraderi-friendly’ rehabilitation. This thesis challenges standard interpretations of the resettlement of Partition refugees in Pakistani Punjab between 1947 and 1962. It argues the universality of the so-called ‘exercise in human misery’, and the heterogeneity of the rehabilitation policies. As it sheds light on these latter original contributions to the current knowledge, it questions the ability of the local bureaucracy to establish its own ‘polity’, the unsuitability of patronage political systems as an autonomous politological category, and the failure of Pakistan as a state. Individual chapters pursue questions of emotional belonging to spatial and political places, social change, everyday experiences of the state through its institutions, electoral politics, and the deployment of integration/accommodation practices as nation- and state-building processes
Research utilisation or knowledge mobilisation by health managers: Synthesising evidence and theory using perspectives of organisational form, resource based view of the firm and critical theory
The literature review builds on an earlier Scoping Review of the literature on knowledge mobilization (Crilly et al, 2010; Ferlie at al, 2012) which identified a gap in the healthcare literature and proposed work in three defined areas or domains. The first is Resource Based View of the Firm, a strategic management concept that examines how differences in capabilities, including knowledge, allow one firm to outperform another. There is no equivalent in healthcare. It states that strategic resources that are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate, and able to be exploited by organizational processes (VRIO principles), will give the firm a sustainable competitive advantage. The second is termed the Critical Perspective, concerned with power and authority in the workplace, which is alive to tensions between occupational groups such as doctors and managers. Two strands of particular interest are Foucauldian and neo-Marxist labour process critical theories. The third area is organizational form, which considers whether certain types of organization, such as networks, are better than others at mobilizing knowledge
The Nature of Library Consortia
E-Books as a Shared Service in M25 (E-BASS25) is a JISC-funded project seeking to explore the opportunities and challenges relating to Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) of e-books within the context of a consortium of libraries.
Forming the basis for work package two of the E-BASS25 Project, this document seeks to briefly define:
• The factors affecting the make-up of library consortia
• The types of library consortia in the UK at present
• The reasons libraries belong to consortia
• The types of consortial procurement.</br