Urban blue: A global analysis of the factors shaping people's perceptions of the marine environment and ecological engineering in harbours.

Marine harbours are the focus of a diverse range of activities and subject to multiple anthropogenically induced pressures. Support for environmental management options aimed at improving degraded harbours depends on understanding the factors which influence people's perceptions of harbour environments. We used an online survey, across 12 harbours, to assess sources of variation people's perceptions of harbour health and ecological engineering. We tested the hypotheses: 1) people living near impacted harbours would consider their environment to be more unhealthy and degraded, be more concerned about the environment and supportive of and willing to pay for ecological engineering relative to those living by less impacted harbours, and 2) people with greater connectedness to the harbour would be more concerned about and have greater perceived knowledge of the environment, and be more supportive of, knowledgeable about and willing to pay for ecological engineering, than those with less connectedness. Across twelve locations, the levels of degradation and modification by artificial structures were lower and the concern and knowledge about the environment and ecological engineering were greater in the six Australasian and American than the six European and Asian harbours surveyed. We found that people's perception of harbours as healthy or degraded, but not their concern for the environment, reflected the degree to which harbours were impacted. There was a positive relationship between the percentage of shoreline modified and the extent of support for and people's willingness to pay indirect costs for ecological engineering. At the individual level, measures of connectedness to the harbour environment were good predictors of concern for and perceived knowledge about the environment but not support for and perceived knowledge about ecological engineering. To make informed decisions, it is important that people are empowered with sufficient knowledge of the environmental issues facing their harbour and ecological engineering options

Pharmacokinetics and tolerability of cediranib, a potent VEGF signalling inhibitor, in cancer patients with hepatic impairment

Item does not contain fulltextVascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signalling plays a key role in tumour angiogenesis. Cediranib (AZD2171) is a small-molecule VEGF signalling inhibitor with potent activity against all three VEGF receptors. In this phase I, open-label, parallel-group study, adults with advanced solid tumours received a single 45 mg dose of cediranib, followed by 30 mg continuous once-daily oral dosing for 21 days after a 7-day washout period (clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT00621725). The primary objective was to compare the single-dose pharmacokinetics (PK) of cediranib in patients with different levels of hepatic impairment classified according to the bilirubin level. Safety, tolerability, multiple-dose PK and PK stratified according to the Child-Pugh criteria were also assessed. Thirty patients received cediranib: 18 with normal-mild hepatic impairment and 12 with moderate hepatic impairment. Single-dose PK parameters were similar between the group with normal-mild hepatic impairment and the group with moderate hepatic impairment [ratio of geometric least square means: area under the curve (AUC) 1.12, 90% confidence interval (CI) 0.77-1.61; Cmax 0.95, 90% CI 0.69-1.31]. Hepatic impairment did not influence PK results in multiple dosing. After continuous once-daily dosing, the geometric least square means ratio was 0.72 (90% CI 0.51-1.03) for AUCSS and 0.67 (90% CI 0.47-0.94) for CSS,max. Similar results were obtained when patients were classified for hepatic impairment according to the Child-Pugh criteria. There was no clear difference in the incidence or the severity of adverse events between hepatic impairment groups. Moderate hepatic impairment does not appear to affect the PK profile or the tolerability of cediranib. Dose adjustments are not necessary in this patient population

Curricula for economic and social gain

Economic success is an aim of governments around the world. Their ‘human capital’ stance towards higher education implies the need to develop graduates’ capabilities to the full. The concept of graduate ‘employability’, currently being developed in the light of theory and empirical data, is beginning to find acceptance in the UK. One of the keys to its acceptability in higher education has been the alignment of employability with good learning – that is, learning that is manifested in complex outcomes. However, the achievement of complex outcomes requires a programme-level focus, rather than a focus on individual study units. This article reports on the way such a programme-level approach was adopted in four different universities in the UK, and how relatively small-scale actions have the potential to augment students’ employability. The implications for policy at the levels of the system, the higher education institution and the academic department are discussed

Capturing contracts: informal activity among contract researchers

Contract researchers constitute an expanding occupational group in UK higher education and contribute significantly to national research output. Despite recent concern and debates over their marginal status and inferior conditions of employment, little is known about the actual complexities of contract researchers’ working lives. Drawing upon qualitative interviews, an attempt is made to remedy this lacuna, by portraying certain kinds of occupational knowledge and practices utilised by social science contract researchers. The paper focuses on the understandings and strategies which are developed and refined as researchers attempt to sustain employment in a highly insecure realm. What is portrayed is not the technical expertise required for this kind of research, but rather the knowledge, acumen and action which are more informal, tacit and indeterminate. This paper examines the cognitive and interactional processes which need to be developed and combined with technical expertise, if employment is to be maintained in such a competitive and insecure field