After an esteemed academic career as a chemist, Michael Polanyi switched to the social sciences and made significant contributions to our understanding of the nature and role of knowledge in society. Polanyi's argument concerning knowledge led him to emphasise the vital importance of decentralised mechanisms of adjustment and coordination, including markets. His article ‘Collectivist Planning’ (1940) enters into debates about the possibility (or otherwise) of centrally planning scientific and economic activity. This early article also foreshadows post-war debates within the Mont Pèlerin Socierty (formed in 1947) concerning the economic role of the state and the future of liberalism.

Supplementation with n-3 fatty acids can influence inflammation and markers of arterial stiffness that are increased in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, it is unknown whether specific patterns of dietary fatty acid intake are similarly associated. In a longitudinal study, eighty-six RA patients reported their dietary intake and had arterial stiffness measured using the augmentation index (AIx) at baseline and 8 months. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was performed to characterise patterns of fatty acid intake using sixteen major fatty acids. Models for two to six profiles were compared using the Akaike and Bayesian information criteria. Associations between AIx and the profiles were adjusted for age, sex, disease activity, fish oil supplementation, medications, physical activity and socio-economic status. LPA identified five distinct profiles. Profile 1 subjects (n 7) reported significantly higher intake of palmitoleic acid (16 : 1), arachidonic acid (20 : 4n-6), EPA (20 : 5n-3), DHA (22 : 6n-3) and docosapentaenoic acid (22 : 5n-3) (P<0·001 for each) than profiles 2 (n 14), 3 (n 19), 4 (n 23) and 5 (n 23) and significantly higher grilled and tinned fish consumption. The AIx varied significantly across the five profiles (P=0·023); subjects in profile 1 had a significantly lower AIx than those in profile 3 (β=–7·2 %; 95 % CI –11·5, –2·9; P=0·001) who had the lowest reported intake of n-3 fatty acids. Fish oil supplementation was also independently associated with lower AIx (β=–4·15 %; 95 % CI –6·73, –1·56; P=0·002). A diet characterised by a higher reported intake of n-3 fatty acids, palmitoleic acid (16 : 1) and arachidonic acid (20 : 4n-6) is associated with a lower AIx in RA patients.

This work presents the effects of sintering temperature and mechanical milling on the weight loss of the powder metallurgical Fe–28Mn–3Si (wt%) alloy. Mechanically milled (MM) and blended elemental (BE) Fe–28Mn–3Si powder mixtures were prepared. Both the MM and BE compacts were sintered in a vacuum furnace for 3 h at various temperatures. It was found that weight loss occurred among all the sintered compacts. The weight loss of the sintered MM compacts was much lower than their BE counterparts sintered at the same temperature. The weight loss of the compacts was mainly caused by the sublimation of Mn in the Mn depletion region. A single α-Fe phase was observed on the surface of all the sintered samples. Predominant γ-austenite and minor ε-martensite were detected in all the sintered compacts at locations beyond the Mn depletion region. Mn3Si phase was found in BE alloys sintered at 1000 °C.

An Fe–0.26C–1.96Si–2Mn with 0.31Mo (wt%) steel was subjected to a novel thermomechanical processing route to produce fine ferrite with different volume fractions, bainite, and retained austenite. Two types of fine ferrites were found to be: (i) formed along prior austenite grain boundaries, and (ii) formed intragranularly in the interior of austenite grains. An increase in the volume fraction of fine ferrite led to the preferential formation of blocky retained austenite with low stability, and to a decrease in the volume fraction of bainite with stable layers of retained austenite. The difference in the morphology of the bainitic ferrite and the retained austenite after different isothermal ferrite times was found to be responsible for the deterioration of the mechanical properties. The segregation of Mn, Mo, and C at distances of 2–2.5 nm from the ferrite and retained austenite/martensite interface on the retained austenite/martensite site was observed after 2700 s of isothermal hold. It was suggested that the segregation occurred during the austenite-to-ferrite transformation, and that this would decrease the interface mobility, which affects the austenite-to-ferrite transformation and ferrite grain size.

We present an update of the ‘key points’ from the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) report that was published by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in 2009. We summarise subsequent advances in knowledge concerning how the climates of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean have changed in the past, how they might change in the future, and examine the associated impacts on the marine and terrestrial biota. We also incorporate relevant material presented by SCAR to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, and make use of emerging results that will form part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report.

Objective: To determine relations between sick leave use and the 2009 novel influenza A (H1N1) influenza pandemic among clinical and nonclinical staff in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

Methods: Aggregate sick leave use for all VHA employees was monitored in near-real time during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic and compared with historical data from 2004 to 2008. The ratio of sick leave use between clinical and nonclinical staff was examined. An autoregressive integrated moving average model was used to assess whether the pandemic had a significant effect on sick leave use.

Results: The H1N1 influenza pandemic was associated with a significant effect on sick leave use in the VHA during the second wave of the pandemic. During this wave, the ratio of clinical to nonclinical sick leave use changed; clinical staff began taking more leave than nonclinical staff for 3 successive 2-week pay periods, with ratio measures of 1.004, 1.018, and 1.011, respectively. Using an autoregressive integrated moving average model with a pulse variable representing the pandemic, there was a significant effect on sick leave use. The average hours of sick leave used per full-time equivalent staff member per month increased by 0.3904 hours (P = .003) for clinical staff and 0.3898 hours (P = .01) for nonclinical staff over previous months during the first month of the second pandemic wave.

Conclusions: Work loss associated with a pandemic is an important indicator of disease activity and may be a more sensitive indicator of emerging strains than deaths. Monitoring sick leave use in near real time in a large national health care system may be an important early indicator of pandemic severity with practical implications that should be considered in addition to more traditional measures of influenza epidemic and pandemic severity.

(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2011;5:S235-S241)

We studied the glacial geomorphology and geochronology of two ice-free valleys in the Dufek Massif (Antarctic Specially Protected Area 119) providing new constraints on past ice sheet thickness in the Weddell Sea embayment. 10Be and 26Al cosmogenic surface exposure dating provided chronological control. Seven glacial stages are proposed. These include an alpine glaciation, with subsequent (mid-Miocene?) over-riding by a warm-based ice sheet. Subsequent advances are marked by a series of minor drift deposits at 760 m altitude at > 1 Ma, followed by at least two later ice sheet advances that are characterized by extensive drift sheet deposition. An advance of plateau ice field outlet glaciers from the south postdated these drift sheets. The most recent advance involved the cold-based expansion of the ice sheet from the north at the Last Glacial Maximum, or earlier, which deposited a series of bouldery moraines during its retreat. This suggests at most a relatively modest expansion of the ice sheet and outlet glaciers dominated by a lateral ice expansion of just 2–3 km and maintaining a thickness similar to that of the northern ice sheet front. These observations are consistent with other reports of modest ice sheet thickening around the Weddell Sea embayment during the Last Glacial Maximum.

George VI Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, covering a total area of 25 000 km2. The northern ice front of George VI Ice Shelf presently marks the southernmost occurrence of recent ice-shelf retreat on the Antarctic Peninsula and according to some predictions the ice shelf is close to its thermal limit of stability. If these predictions are accurate and we are witnessing the first stages of retreat then it is critical that we take the opportunity to examine the ice shelf in its pre-collapse phase. This paper provides a review of the geological evolution, glaciology and interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere. We also discuss the present behaviour of the ice shelf, in the context of recent retreat of its northern and southern ice fronts, and outline several possible mechanisms for future ice shelf collapse. What emerges from this review is that the stability of George VI Ice Shelf is sensitive not only to the recent rapid regional atmospheric warming on the Antarctic Peninsula which has led to the gradual retreat of the northern and southern ice shelf fronts, but also to changes in ocean circulation, particularly intrusions of warm Upper Circumpolar Deep Water onto the continental shelf. It is likely that any future change in the stability of George VI Ice Shelf will involve a combined atmospheric and oceanic forcing.