Evolution in Economic Geography: Institutions, Regional Adaptation and Political Economy

Economic geography has, over the last decade or so, drawn upon ideas from evolutionary economics in trying to understand processes of regional growth and change, with the concept of path dependence assuming particular prominence. Recently, some prominent researchers have sought to delimit and develop an evolutionary economic geography (EEG) as a distinct approach, aiming to create a more coherent and systematic theoretical framework for research. This paper contributes to debates on the nature and development of EEG. It has two main aims. First, we seek to restore a broader conception of social institutions and agency to EEG, informed by the recent writings of institutional economists like Geoffrey Hodgson. Second, we link evolutionary concepts to political economy approaches, arguing that the evolution of the economic landscape must be related to the broader dynamics of capital accumulation, centred upon the creation, realisation and geographical transfer of value. As such, we favour the utilisation of evolutionary and institutional concepts within a geographical political economy approach rather than the construction of a separate and theoretically ‘pure’ EEG; evolution in economic geography, not an evolutionary economic geography

Comment on Martinez-Garcia et al. 'Heavy metals in human bones in different historical epochs'.

Martínez-García et al. (Sci. Tot Env. 348:51–72) have examined heavy metal exposure of humans in the Cartagena region using analysis of archaeological bones. An analysis of the lead and iron levels they report shows that they are physiologically implausible and must therefore result from diagenesis. This, and analogy with the known diagenetic origin of certain other elements, suggests that the other metal analyses they report are also unlikely to be in vivo concentrations. Lifetime heavy metal exposure cannot be deduced from diagenetically altered concentrations

Understanding fine magnetic particle systems through use of first-order reversal curve diagrams

First-order reversal curve (FORC) diagrams are constructed from a class of partial magnetic hysteresis loops known as first-order reversal curves and are used to understand magnetization processes in fine magnetic particle systems. A wide-ranging literature that is pertinent to interpretation of FORC diagrams has been published in the geophysical and solid-state physics literature over the past 15 years and is summarized in this review. We discuss practicalities related to optimization of FORC measurements and important issues relating to the calculation, presentation, statistical significance, and interpretation of FORC diagrams. We also outline a framework for interpreting the magnetic behavior of magnetostatically noninteracting and interacting single domain, superparamagnetic, multidomain, single vortex, and pseudosingle domain particle systems. These types of magnetic behavior are illustrated mainly with geological examples relevant to paleomagnetism, rock magnetism, and environmental magnetism. These technical, experimental, and interpretational considerations are relevant to applications that range from improving particulate media for magnetic recording in materials science, to providing a foundation for understanding geomagnetic recording by rocks in geophysics, to interpreting depositional, microbiological, and environmental processes in sediments.Our research on FORC diagrams has been supported over the years by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the UK Natural Environment Research Council, the European Union, the Royal Society of London, and the Australian Research Council (grant DP120103952)

Normothermic versus hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass in children undergoing open heart surgery (thermic-2):study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: During open heart surgery, patients are connected to a heart-lung bypass machine that pumps blood around the body (“perfusion”) while the heart is stopped. Typically the blood is cooled during this procedure (“hypothermia”) and warmed to normal body temperature once the operation has been completed. The main rationale for “whole body cooling” is to protect organs such as the brain, kidneys, lungs, and heart from injury during bypass by reducing the body’s metabolic rate and decreasing oxygen consumption. However, hypothermic perfusion also has disadvantages that can contribute toward an extended postoperative hospital stay. Research in adults and small randomized controlled trials in children suggest some benefits to keeping the blood at normal body temperature throughout surgery (“normothermia”). However, the two techniques have not been extensively compared in children. OBJECTIVE: The Thermic-2 study will test the hypothesis that the whole body inflammatory response to the nonphysiological bypass and its detrimental effects on different organ functions may be attenuated by maintaining the body at 35°C-37°C (normothermic) rather than 28°C (hypothermic) during pediatric complex open heart surgery. METHODS: This is a single-center, randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness and acceptability of normothermic versus hypothermic bypass in 141 children with congenital heart disease undergoing open heart surgery. Children having scheduled surgery to repair a heart defect not requiring deep hypothermic circulatory arrest represent the target study population. The co-primary clinical outcomes are duration of inotropic support, intubation time, and postoperative hospital stay. Secondary outcomes are in-hospital mortality and morbidity, blood loss and transfusion requirements, pre- and post-operative echocardiographic findings, routine blood gas and blood test results, renal function, cerebral function, regional oxygen saturation of blood in the cerebral cortex, assessment of genomic expression changes in cardiac tissue biopsies, and neuropsychological development. RESULTS: A total of 141 patients have been successfully randomized over 2 years and 10 months and are now being followed-up for 1 year. Results will be published in 2015. CONCLUSIONS: We believe this to be the first large pragmatic study comparing clinical outcomes during normothermic versus hypothermic bypass in complex open heart surgery in children. It is expected that this work will provide important information to improve strategies of cardiopulmonary bypass perfusion and therefore decrease the inevitable organ damage that occurs during nonphysiological body perfusion. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN Registry: ISRCTN93129502, http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN93129502 (Archived by WebCitation at http://www.webcitation.org/6Yf5VSyyG)

Development of ultrafast laser inscribed astrophotonic components

The rapid development of astronomical instrumentation has been aided by many innovative new photonic designs, which offer improvements in stability, precision, size and cost, scalability, etc. ─ the field of astrophotonics. A powerful technique enabling many of these astrophotonic devices, ultrafast laser inscription (ULI), creates highly localised and controlled refractive index modification, which guides the path of light in a very efficient manner. This thesis discusses three separate astrophotonic devices, each with a specific application, to demonstrate the versatility of ULI. Firstly, a reformatting device based on a photonic lantern and 3D ULI waveguide reformatting component, transforms a multimode telescope PSF to a diffraction-limited pseudo-slit. When used to feed a spectrograph, a significant reduction in modal noise ─ a limiting factor in high-resolution multimode fibre-fed spectrographs ─ is demonstrated, with the potential for improved near-infrared radial velocity observations. Secondly, a similar ULI reformatting device for an integral field unit, based on multicore fibre with affixed microlenses, may enable the direct imaging of exoplanets and characterisation of their atmospheres. Thirdly, a two-telescope K-band beam combiner based on ULI directional couplers with an achromatic 3dB splitting ratio is presented. Such a device will upgrade the stellar interferometry capabilities of the CHARA array

Aromatic transformations facilitated by η6–ruthenium complexes

The chemistry of η6-arene metal complexes has been explored for over 60 years and the ability to activate arenes through this complexation has been used extensively in organic synthesis. As a result of binding to the metal, the complexed arene becomes more susceptible to nucleophilic attack and deprotonation of the aromatic and benzylic protons is made more facile. Additionally, binding a metal centre to one face of the arene subsequently has a steric effect on the reactivity, wherein the bound face is blocked from reagents and directs attack to the free face. Over the last 15 years, this area of organometallic chemistry has seen a resurgence of interest due to the catalytic capabilities of these complexes. Through an arene exchange mechanism, arenes can participate in reactions when bound to the metal catalyst, and can then exchange for another equivalent of starting material to facilitate catalytic turnover. This thesis will describe a number of projects that have been developed over three years that uses this methodology to perform transformations which are of significant interest to the scientific community. Firstly, a trifluoromethylation protocol is described, which uses a [RuCp]+ binding unit to activate a range of electron-deficient arenes towards the nucleophilic attack of commercially available Me3SiCF3 (Ruppert’s Reagent). A library of complexes exhibit reaction, and a mixture of products are formed via SNAr and ortho-addition mechanisms. Following trifluoromethylation, the unbound arenes can be collected in quantitative yield using photolysis and chemical oxidation. Secondly, a C–H activation and arylation protocol is described, where the same [RuCp]+ binding unit is used to enhance aromatic acidity of a η6-arene complexes. Through a concerted metalation deprotonation mechanism, a library of complexes can be activated by silver, and consequentially arylated using catalytic palladium chemistry. Following arylation, the bi-aryl arene can be liberated from ruthenium by UV irradiation. The largest chapter of this thesis describes the catalytic radical hydrodeiodination of aryl iodides via an arene exchange mechanism. This reaction uses commercially available materials to achieve deiodination for iodoarenes in high yields and with excellent functional group tolerance and chemoselectivity. Lastly, the early findings towards tether assisted arene exchange is described. The rates of arene exchange are studied for a library of tethered Cp ruthenium complexes, which show potential for enhanced arene exchange in catalytic reactions