Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHS) (I): Measures of prevention and control

Measures of prevention and control against polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) focus on an official food control, a code of best practice to reduce PAHs levels by controlling industry and in the development of a chemopreventive strategy. Regulation (EU) 835/2011 establishes maximum levels of PAHs for each food group. In addition, Regulations (EU) 333/2007 and 836/2011 set up the methods of sampling and analysis for its official control. Scientific studies prove that the chemopreventive strategy is effective against these genotoxic compounds effects. Most chemopreventive compounds studied with proven protective effects against PAHs are found in fruit and vegetables.

Three-dimensional photonic crystals based on macroporous silicon with modulated pore diameter

We report on the fabrication and optical characterization of a three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystal on the basis of macroporous silicon. The structure consists of a 2D array of air pores in silicon whose diameter is varied (modulated) periodically with depth. The bandstructure of the resulting 3D hexagonal photonic crystal is calculated and compared with transmission measurements. The described structure allows to adjust the dispersion relation along the pore axis almost independently from the dispersion relation in the plane perpendicular to the pore axis.

Co-regulation of Gremlin and Notch signalling in diabetic nephropathy

Diabetic nephropathy is currently the leading cause of end-stage renal disease worldwide, and occurs in approximately one third of all diabetic patients. The molecular pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy has not been fully characterized and novel mediators and drivers of the disease are still being described. Previous data from our laboratory has identified the developmentally regulated gene Gremlin as a novel target implicated in diabetic nephropathy in vitro and in vivo. We used bioinformatic analysis to examine whether Gremlin gene sequence and structure could be used to identify other genes implicated in diabetic nephropathy. The Notch ligand Jagged1 and its downstream effector, hairy enhancer of split-1 (Hes1), were identified as genes with significant similarity to Gremlin in terms of promoter structure and predicted microRNA binding elements. This led us to discover that transforming growth factor-beta (TGFß1), a primary driver of cellular changes in the kidney during nephropathy, increased Gremlin, Jagged1 and Hes1 expression in human kidney epithelial cells. Elevated levels of Gremlin, Jagged1 and Hes1 were also detected in extracts from renal biopsies from diabetic nephropathy patients, but not in control living donors. In situ hybridization identified specific upregulation and co-expression of Gremlin, Jagged1 and Hes1 in the same tubuli of kidneys from diabetic nephropathy patients, but not controls. Finally, Notch pathway gene clustering showed that samples from diabetic nephropathy patients grouped together, distinct from both control living donors and patients with minimal change disease. Together, these data suggest that Notch pathway gene expression is elevated in diabetic nephropathy, co-incident with Gremlin, and may contribute to the pathogenesis of this disease.

Crucial silences: When Accountability Met PFI and Finance Capital

During recent years, a wide spectrum of research has questioned whether public services/infrastructure procurement through private finance, as exemplified by the UK Private Finance Initiative (PFI), meets minimum standards of democratic accountability. While broadly agreeing with some of these arguments, this paper suggests that this debate is flawed on two grounds. Firstly, PFI is not about effective procurement, or even about a pragmatic choice of procurement mechanisms which can potentially compromise public involvement and input; rather it is about a process where the state creates new profit opportunities at a time when the international financial system is increasingly lacking in safe investment opportunities. Secondly, because of its primary function as investment opportunity, PFI, by its very nature, prioritises the risk-return criteria of private finance over the needs of the public sector client and its stakeholders. Using two case studies of recent PFI projects, the paper illustrates some of the mechanisms through which finance capital exercises control over the PFI procurement process. The paper concludes that recent proposals aimed at “reforming” or “democratising” PFI fail to recognise the objective constraints which this type of state-finance capital nexus imposes on political process.

Accounting, Regulation and Profitability: The Case of PFI Hospital Refinancing

The refinancing of PFI (Private Finance Initiative) projects represents one of the most contentious aspects of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the UK. The negative publicity associated with UK PFI refinancing deals is associated with several factors, including, evidence of massive private sector profit making, the failure of private sector financiers to share refinancing profits and, lastly, private sector frustration of adequate regulatory intervention in this area. Utilising a dynamic model of capital market and state interaction, this paper explains these outcomes as a function of effective private sector lobbying of bureaucratic state agencies to alter the structure of accounting, accountability and regulation with the goal of securing favourable profit and risk outcomes. These dynamics are illustrated with reference to the history of UK PFI refinancing and a case study of one of the projects where these gains reached extreme levels.

New Financial Elites, or Financial Dualism in Historical perspective? An Extended Reply to Folkman, Froud, Johal and Williams

This paper challenges the recent suggestion that a new financial elite has evolved which is able to capture substantial profit shares for itself. Specifically, it questions the assumption that new groups of financial intermediaries have increased in significance primarily because there is evidence that various types of financial speculators have played a similarly extensive role at several junctures of economic development. The paper then develops the alternative hypothesis that, rather than being a recent development, the rise of these financial intermediaries is a cyclical phenomenon which is linked to specific regimes of capital accumulation. The hypothesis is underpinned by historical data from the US National Income and Product Accounts for the period from 1930 to 2000, which suggest that the activities of `mainstream' financial intermediaries have been accompanied by the frequently countercyclical activities of a `speculative' sector of security and commodity brokers. Based on the combination of this qualitative and quantitative evidence, the paper concludes that the rise of a speculative financial sector is a potentially recurrent phenomenon which is linked to periods of economic restructuring and turmoil.

TheShifting Sands of Uncertainty: Risk Construction and BSE/vCJD

It is more than a decade since scientists in the UK put forward evidence of a link between the emergence of a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in humans, and a diminishing epidemic of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, in cattle. In the wake of this anniversary, the paper revisits two scientific narratives of risk, forged at different points along the developmental pathway of BSE science, including a series of advisory reports provided to the UK government between 1989 and 1994, and a symposium held in 2001 to assess the impact of the Phillips Inquiry. While the primary pathology of BSE became apparent relatively early on, uncertainties remain about the origins of BSE and its human variant, vCJD. The paper examines the handling of this sensitivity, and its communication, within these key documents, noting changes in patterns of uncertainty construction over time.

Regenerative Medicine and New Labour Life Science Policy: Rhetorics of Success, Narratives of Sustainability and Survival

Advances in stem cell science and tissue engineering are being turned into applications and products through a novel medical paradigm known as regenerative medicine. This paper begins by examining the vulnerabilities and risks encountered by the regenerative medicine industry during a pivotal moment in its scientific infancy: the 2000s. Under the auspices of New Labour, British medical scientists and life science innovation firms associated with regenerative medicine, received demonstrative rhetorical pledges of support, aligned with the publication of a number of government initiated reports presaged by Bioscience 2015: Improving National Health, Increasing National Wealth. The Department of Health and the Department of Trade and Industry (and its successors) held industry consultations to determine the best means by which innovative bioscience cultures might be promoted and sustained in Britain. Bioscience 2015 encapsulates the first chapter of this sustainability narrative. By 2009, the tone of this storyline had changed to one of survivability. In the second part of the paper, we explore the ministerial interpretation of the ‘bioscience discussion cycle’ that embodies this narrative of expectation, using a computer-aided content analysis programme. Our analysis notes that the ministerial interpretation of these reports has continued to place key emphasis upon the distinctive and exceptional characteristics of the life science industries, such as their ability to perpetuate innovations in regenerative medicine and the optimism this portends – even though many of the economic expectations associated with this industry have remained unfulfilled.