690 research outputs found
Deception and Britain's road to war in Iraq
No full textEver since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, there has been a widely shared public perception in the UK and beyond that the British government lied in making the case for war. One major theme has been the view that the Blair government lied about the strength of the intelligence about alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the extent of the WMD capabilities claimed by that intelligence. A second theme that has received less attention has been the view that the Blair government lied in claiming that its actions at the United Nations (UN) were aimed at securing peaceful Iraqi compliance with its disarmament obligations. Instead, most think that the UK was actually committed to a policy of regime change by force and did not want the ‘UN route’ to produce a peaceful outcome. The article argues that the conceptual focus of the discussion needs to be broadened from lying to also considering deception by omission and deception by distortion as part of a campaign of organized political persuasion. It argues that, on the WMD intelligence, it is now apparent that a campaign of deceptive organized political persuasion was conducted by UK officials. With respect to the UN route, there is mounting evidence that the Blair government ran a campaign of deception on this issue as well to pave Britain’s road to war in Iraq
Selection of RTUs and sensors
No full textPresented at SCADA and related technologies for irrigation district modernization: a USCID water management conference on October 26-29, 2005 in Vancouver, Washington.Selecting an appropriate Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) and sensors for an automation project can be daunting. There are numerous devices available with varied capabilities and performance. Factory representatives and specifications can be misleading and confusing. Advances in the electronics industry are seeing tremendous changes and subsequently RTUs and sensors are undergoing new developments. Older models are being redesigned and in some cases losing their integrity. Efforts have been made to test various RTUs and sensors, but they have not been exhaustive and these devices will eventually become obsolete. Considering the extensive choices that are available and the changes that are continually occurring, a criteria was developed for selecting these devices for automation projects. While basic performance criteria are important, it was concluded that consulting with individuals who have used these components is the most important
Approximate Personal Name-Matching Through Finite-State Graphs
No full textThis article shows how finite-state methods can be employed in a new and different task: the conflation of personal name variants in standard forms. In bibliographic databases and citation index systems, variant forms create problems of inaccuracy that affect information retrieval, the quality of information from databases, and the citation statistics used for the evaluation of scientists' work. A number of approximate string matching techniques have been developed to validate variant forms, based on similarity and equivalence relations. We classify the personal name variants as nonvalid and valid forms. In establishing an equivalence relation between valid variants and the standard form of its equivalence class, we defend the application of finite-state transducers. The process of variant identification requires the elaboration of: (a) binary matrices and (b) finite-state graphs. This procedure was tested on samples of author names from bibliographic records, selected from the Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA) and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) databases. The evaluation involved calculating the measures of precision and recall, based on completeness and accuracy. The results demonstrate the usefulness of this approach, although it should be complemented with methods based on similarity relations for the recognition of spelling variants and misspellings
A Welfare Consensus? Social Policy from Thatcher to Blair
No full textResearch Abstract
A Welfare Consensus?
Social Policy from Thatcher to Blair
This thesis examines two central aspects of asset management by central government with special reference to health and education. First, it analyses the nature, structure and procedural legacy inherited by New Labour after eighteen years of Conservative control, and carries this analysis forward to determine the influence that this has on New Labour’s policy orientation. Second, with a view to the significance of institutionalist theories, which underline the potential importance of ‘path dependency’, the thesis seeks to determine what, if any, major policy differences developed with the transition from the Conservative governments of 1979-97 to the New Labour governments of 1997-2007.
From a wealth of documentary evidence this thesis concludes that New Labour, throughout its ten years period in office, while it softened the well entrenched Thatcherite policies inherited it did not reform the core objectives of ‘rolling back the state’ which had led to the introduction of market-style competition designed to drive up standards, choice and availability accompanied by the driving down of unit costs. Over a time span of almost thirty years all governments have placed health and education as twin focal points of their policy initiatives. This thesis has therefore chosen these two political drivers as major examples of continuity and changes in social policy over that period, stretching from the late 20th century and into the 21st century.
New Labour’s pragmatic acceptance in 1997 of its Thatcherite legacy with its compounded bipartisan approach led to a new welfare consensus coupled to enhanced strategic public expenditure priorities. In doing so, New Labour, under Blair, set aside its traditional, historical policies and embedded its own legacy so deeply into the economic fabric and culture of the UK that any future government, of whatever political persuasion will find the forward momentum of these policies powerful inhibitors of change. Thirty years of rolling back the state has achieved its outcome.
John D Holland
St Cuthbert’s Society
School of Applied Social Sciences,
Department of Sociology
Durham University
November 200
The effects of temperature on contractile mechanisms of rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) intestine
No full textExperiments were designed to determine whether contractility of trout smooth muscle in vitro varied with temperature and if changes occurred at the receptor or intracellular levels. The role of calcium in contractility at various temperatures was also investigated. Isolated trout intestinal segments, approximately 2 cm in length, were suspended isometrically under 2 g tension in 10-mL organ baths containing trout Ringer's solution aerated with O2 and CO2 (95:5). Contractions of trout intestine were not statistically different at 10 and 20 degrees C for carbachol, 5-hydroxytryptamine, and KCl. However, the efficacy, but not the potency, of each agonist was decreased at 2 degrees C. Receptor-induced contractions were reduced to a greater extent at 2 degrees C and did not recover to the same extent when returned to 10 degrees C in comparison with those induced by depolarization. The calcium source for contractility was also dependent on temperature. As temperatures increased, utilization of intracellular calcium increased, as indicated by increased contractility in the absence of extracellular calcium. Thus, low temperatures decrease smooth muscle contractility by affecting receptor-mediated events rather than the intracellular contractile mechanisms. Receptor-operated agonists appear to have a higher capability of using intracellular calcium than depolarizing agents.LR: 20061115; PUBM: Print; JID: 0372712; 50-67-9 (Serotonin); 51-83-2 (Carbachol); 7440-70-2 (Calcium); 7447-40-7 (Potassium Chloride); ppublishSource type: Electronic(1
Expression of Plasmodium falciparum genes involved in erythrocyte invasion varies among isolates cultured directly from patients.
No full textPlasmodium falciparum merozoites invade erythrocytes using a range of alternative ligands that includes erythrocyte binding antigenic proteins (EBAs) and reticulocyte binding protein homologues (Rh). Variation in the expression of some of these genes among culture-adapted parasite lines correlates with the use of different erythrocyte receptors. Here, expression profiles of four Rh genes and eba175 are analysed in a sample of 42 isolates cultured from malaria patients in Kenya. The profiles cluster into distinct groups, largely because of very strong negative correlations between the levels of expression of particular gene pairs (Rh1 versus Rh2b, eba175 versus Rh2b, and eba175 versus Rh4), previously associated with alternative invasion pathways in culture-adapted parasite lines. High levels of eba175 are seen in isolates in expression profile group I, and may be associated with sialic acid-dependent invasion. Groups II and III are, respectively, characterized by high levels of Rh2b and Rh4, and are more likely to be associated with sialic acid-independent invasion
Estimates on the Restriction of Schrödinger Eigenfunctions with singular potentials
No full textWe consider eigenfunction estimates in for Schrödinger operators, , on compact Riemannian manifolds . Eigenfunction estimates over the full manifolds were already obtained by Sogge \cite{Sogge1988concerning} for and the first author, Sire, and Sogge \cite{BlairSireSogge2021Quasimode}, and the first author, Huang, Sire, and Sogge \cite{BlairHuangSireSogge2022UniformSobolev} for critically singular potentials . For the corresponding restriction estimates for submanifolds, the case was considered in Burq, Gérard, and Tzvetkov \cite{BurqGerardTzvetkov2007restrictions}, and Hu \cite{Hu2009lp}. In this article, we will handle eigenfunction restriction estimates for some submanifolds on compact Riemannian manifolds with , where is a singular potential.All comments are welcom
Harmony and discord within the English ‘counter-culture’, 1965-1975, with particular reference to the ‘rock operas’ Hair, Godspell, Tommy and Jesus Christ Superstar
No full textPhDThis thesis considers the discrete, historically-specific theatrical and musical sub-genre of ‘Rock Opera’ as a lens through which to examine the cultural, political and social changes that are widely assumed to have characterised ‘The Sixties’ in Britain. The musical and dramatic texts, creation and production of Hair (1967), Tommy (1969), Godspell (1971), Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) and other neglected ‘Rock Operas’ of the period are analysed. Their great popularity with ‘mainstream’ audiences is considered and contrasted with the overwhelmingly negative and often internally contradictory reaction towards them from the English ‘counter-culture’. This examination offers new insights into both the ‘counter-culture’ and the ‘mainstream’ against which it claimed to define and differentiate itself.
The four ‘Rock Operas’, two of which are based upon Christian scriptures, are considered as narratives of spiritual quest. The relationship between the often controversial quests for re-defined forms of faith and the apparently precipitous ‘secularization’ and ‘de-Christianization’ of British society during the 1960s and 1970s is considered.
The thesis therefore analyses the ‘Rock Operas’ as significant, enlightening prisms through which to view many of the profound societal debates – over ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ in the widest senses, sexuality, the Vietnam war, generational conflict, drugs and ‘spiritual enlightenment’, and race – which were, to some considerable extent, elevated onto the national, political agenda by the activities of the broadly-defined ‘counter-culture’. It considers subsequent representations of the ‘counter-culture’ as the root of a contested but enduring popular legacy of ‘The Sixties' as a period of profound cultural change
Author response
No full textMechanical force and Wnt signaling activate β-catenin-mediated transcription to promote proliferation and tissue expansion. However, it is unknown whether mechanical force and Wnt signaling act independently or synergize to activate β-catenin signaling and cell division. We show that mechanical strain induced Src-dependent phosphorylation of Y654 β-catenin and increased β-catenin-mediated transcription in mammalian MDCK epithelial cells. Under these conditions, cells accumulated in S/G2 (independent of DNA damage) but did not divide. Activating β-catenin through Casein Kinase I inhibition or Wnt3A addition increased β-catenin-mediated transcription and strain-induced accumulation of cells in S/G2. Significantly, only the combination of mechanical strain and Wnt/β-catenin activation triggered cells in S/G2 to divide. These results indicate that strain-induced Src phosphorylation of β-catenin and Wnt-dependent β-catenin stabilization synergize to increase β-catenin-mediated transcription to levels required for mitosis. Thus, local Wnt signaling may fine-tune the effects of global mechanical strain to restrict cell divisions during tissue development and homeostasis
The rise of managerial bureaucracy: Reforming the british civil service
No full textThe book provides detailed analysis of the structure and operation of the British Civil Service along with a historically grounded account of its development in the period from Margaret Thatcher to the Tony Blair premiership. It assesses continuity and change in the civil service during a period of deep transformation using new archive files, government and parliament reports, primary and secondary legislation. The author takes the evolutionary change of the civil service as a central theme and examines the friction between new managerial practices introduced by government in the 80s and 90s and the administrative traditions rooted in the history of this institution. In particular the author assesses the impact of the New Public Management agenda of the Thatcher and Major years its enhanced continuity during the Blair years. Further changes that involved ministerial responsibility, codification, performance management, special advisers and constitutional conventions are analyzed in the conclusions
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