The first edition of Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship (hereafter referred to as Belarus) came out in 2011 and was an incisive investigation of a much-maligned country which had either been p...

Online learning is being adopted across a wide range of disciplines, providing remote access to resources that serves to widen participation in training, and allowing courses to be created that are accessible to the diverse range of learning styles that have recently been identified. Online resources can also be used to supplement more traditional in-person training by bringing a cohort of learners up to a common minimum level beforehand, distributing materials during training, and reinforcing learning after the event. Over the last six years ISIS has developed a range of online learning materials about muon and neutron science, that can be used independently or in association with in-person training. Here we discuss the materials now available and how they were designed to work effectively, set out the opportunities and challenges of online training for facility users, and summarise planned future developments.

This article explores the contested politics and interpretations of the new practices of municipal entrepreneurship across local government in the UK. Drawing on empirical evidence from six case studies of entrepreneurship in local councils, descriptions of income-generating projects by officers in thirty authorities, and a series of semi-structured interviews, we identify, name and characterise an emergent discourse of municipal entrepreneurship for the public purpose. We argue that this novel strand of discourse within the wider field of urban entrepreneurialism confers a degree of political agency to local authorities under austerity, while redescribing and attaching commercialism and entrepreneurship to the public good. In so doing, we challenge overly reductionist accounts of local state agency under austerity, and articulate and evaluate the potentials and obstacles for a progressive interventionism in this discursive space.

Objective To determine the potential cost savings resulting from the introduction of routine early medical abortion (EMA) at home by telemedicine in the UK. Design A costing study. Setting The UK. Population Women in 2020 undergoing EMA provided by three independent abortion providers and two National Health Service (NHS) abortion clinics. Methods Computation of the costs of each abortion procedure and of managing failed or incomplete abortion and haemorrhage requiring blood transfusion. Main outcome measures Cost savings. Results Overall estimated cost savings are 15.80 pound per abortion undertaken by independent abortion providers, representing a saving to the NHS of over 3 pound million per year. Limited data from NHS services resulted in an estimated average saving of 188.84 pound per abortion. Conclusions Were telemedicine EMA to become routine, an increase in the number of women eligible for medical rather than surgical abortion, and a reduction in adverse events resulting from earlier abortion, could result in significant cost savings. Tweetable abstract Early medical abortion at home using telemedicine could save the NHS 3 pound million per year.

The theory of ‘reflexive governance’ prioritises process over outcomes and advocates participatory procedures, valorising multiple sources of knowledge, mutual learning and continuous evolution of organisational forms. Through the lens of reflexive governance, we explore the evolution of Bristol Green Capital Partnership, which, since 2008, has played a pivotal role in animating the environmental debate within Bristol, especially in the European Green Capital programme (2015). We conclude that the BGCP represents a ‘bounded’ example of reflexive governance, one that exhibits advanced forms of deliberation and coproduction but, ultimately, addresses too narrow a constituency of environmental, business and green activist interests.

For many, shifting economic and social contexts have created the conditions for a radical reappraisal of the orthodox image of the 'sustainable city'. However, in assessing such potentialities, there is insufficient knowledge about the way in which local actors construct, live out and are gripped by this signifier. This article responds to this deficit by exploring how key actors engaged in urban development actually interpret the challenges of the 'sustainable city'. In part, using a Q methodology study in Bristol and Grenoble, we discern and construct three distinctive discourses of the sustainable city, which we name progressive reformism, public localism, and moral stewardship. Our findings challenge previous critiques of sustainable urbanism. We observe no consistent support for mainstream conceptions of sustainable urban development, but neither do we find significant support for entrepreneurial or radical green localist discourses of the sustainable city. Instead, we identify a common indifference to the tenets of ecological modernization (and, by extension, entrepreneurialism), and a shared skepticism of local self-sufficiency. We thus argue that such discourses offer uncertain foundations upon which to construct new visions of the 'sustainable city'. In our view, this is because of the transformation of the 'sustainable city' from a relatively fixed idea into a floating signifier, coupled with the practices of local practitioners as policy bricoleurs. We conclude that efforts to develop new visions of 'sustainable cities' are best served by fostering an agonistic ethos of 'pragmatic adversarialism' amongst strategic leaders and stakeholders, which foregrounds politics and the right to difference.

SEER, 94, 4, October 2016 780 Obydenkova, Anastassia and Libman, Alexander (eds). Autocratic and Democratic External Influences in Post-Soviet Eurasia. Soviet Politics. Ashgate, Farnham and Burlington, VT, 2015. xvi + 188 pp. Figures. Tables. Notes. Bibliographies. Index. £60.00. It is often difficult to adequately review an edited book, especially when it draws on a wide range of case studies and covers two important literatures. I therefore ask the reader to humour me and accept a review of the authoritarian promotion and theoretical sections of the book. There are better analyses of democratic external influences than this book provides and authoritarian promotion remains an understudied topic. Of even more relevance to understanding is the theory-building in the first two chapters provided by the volume’s editors. It is the authoritarian promotion and theoretical aspects which give the study its value. Analysis of authoritarian promotion is currently very much a growth industry in academia. I use the term authoritarian, rather than autocracy, the chosen value throughout the book, as at no point is there a definition of what the authors mean by autocracy. The book requires an explanation of why the authors refer to Russia as an autocracy, which is a state ruled by one man, but the book fails to elucidate this. Another issue throughout is the necessity for a further round of copy editing. However, there is certainly value to the study’s investigation. The editors are correct that there is an imbalance between democratic and authoritarian promotion with a significant analysis of ‘democratic external influence and devoted much less attention to other types of influence’ (p. 7). In their introduction, Libman and Obydenkova set out the analysis that seeks to ascertain if external factors affect states. In terms of authoritarianism the analysis is concerned with ‘why, how and to what extent autocratic countries affect regime transition’ (p. 3). The analysis is interesting for its investigation of supranational and subnational levels and not just the state-level. This basis sets the scene for the comprehensive theoretical chapter by Obydenkova and Libman. In terms of authoritarianism, a key argument is the creation of a framework to ascertain if ‘autocratic regimes have a negative effect on democratization abroad’ (p. 11). While the chapter is novel, investigating actors apart from the state, gaps in the literature are not adequately addressed. The authors claim that Russia is not the only ‘active player in the post-Soviet regionalism’ (p. 21), but throughout the book Russia predominates as the authoritarian promoter par excellence. The chapters provided by Tom Casier and Jakob Tolstrup deliver some valuable, interesting and promising analysis. After reading so far the reader is richly rewarded by an analysis of intended and unintended consequences REVIEWS 781 of EU and Russian promotion in the shared neighbourhood. Through interdependence, diffusion from state to state and attraction are all relevant processes in how the EU and Russia impact their neighbours. The only small issue is that Casier’s analysis focuses on the EU to a far greater extent than Russia and so could have been included in the democratic influence section. Tolstrup’s chapter, too, is well argued and comprehensive with Russia cast as the authoritarian black knight in Ukraine and Moldova, destabilizing its neighbours to keep them in its sphere-of-influence, since as secessionist regions Russia’s neighbours cannot join Western institutions (p. 116). Although it is still too early to provide detailed analysis, the chapter perhaps could have used an investigation of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics to ascertain how Russia is continuing to undermine Ukraine. Thelasttwochaptersconcentrateonsupra-nationalauthoritarianinstitutions and public diplomacy in Russia. Ekaterina Furman’s chapter is interesting for its analysis of Kremlin-supported NGOs and the regime’s views on soft power. The author finds that NGOs do not appear to be ‘relatively ineffective in terms of supporting regimes abroad, even if they intended to’ (p. 171). This lack of promotion is the elephant in the room in Libman’s chapter. Having provided a general analysis of regional organizations as potential harbingers of authoritarianism through economic, legitimation and governance support and where the case study of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) ‘shields its members from the democratizing impact...

The use of materials to impose tissue-like architecture at cell resolution will be important if engineered functional replacements for damaged cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal or digestive tissues are to be authentically engineered. Here, we demonstrate a coordinated system for the fabrication and subsequent culture of tubular tissues composed of multiple layers, cell-types and materials with physiological dimensions and defined architectures at cell resolution. We developed an automated tube fabricator that rolls 2D-matrices into 3D-tubular constructs directly from cells, hydrogels and scaffold biomaterials. Coordinated use of surface modification strategies allows 2D cell sheets and cell/biomaterial composites (i.e. hydrogels or electrospun scaffolds) to be fabricated which may be transferred into a perfusion bioreactor in a rapid and standardized procedure. To exemplify our strategy we fabricated structures resembling human mammary artery and gut; these can be imaged in situ and real-time electrical resistance measurements performed of the vessel walls, allowing non-invasive assessment of viability and functionality. Our system allows patterning at cellular resolution with variable tissue thickness, length, luminal diameter, and constituent biomaterial. This inherent flexibility will allow the recapitulation of the complex hierarchical biological architectures and generate functionality found natively in vivo.

This paper provides a history of the evolution of urban regeneration policy in England during the past 50 years. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition government (2010-2015) presided over the effective cessation of urban regeneration as a form of state sponsored public policy. The objective of countering localised ‘market failure’ that has characterised English regeneration policy since the 1960s – albeit with different emphases placed by different governments on the role of the state and market, economic growth and social inclusion – has been displaced by a strategy that has the potential to stimulate economic development in areas of market opportunity but does little to address the physical, economic and social malaise of the most deprived urban neighbourhoods. In effect, it is argued, the Coalition government have pursued the market led logical of concentrating growth in London and the South East advocated by neo-liberal economists, but without the necessary counter-balancing regeneration measures in the Midlands and the North.

This paper explores the socio-economic impacts and associated policy responses to the collapse of MG Rover at Longbridge in Birmingham. Critically, it attempts to move beyond a 'standard' taskforce narrative that emphasizes the role of the regional response. While recognizing that significant policy 'successes' were indeed evident at the regional level in anticipating and responding to the crisis, a wider perspective is required that situates this taskforce response in (1) a fuller understanding of labour market precariousness (that in turn mitigates some of its policy 'successes'), and (2) more local perspectives that highlight the local impacts of closure, the role of the neighbourhood level officials and the third sector in mediating these. Taking this broader perspective suggests that longer-term, workers face a precarious situation and the need for policies to create and sustain 'good quality' jobs remains paramount. Adding in more local perspectives, a key lesson from the Longbridge experience for dealing with closures more generally is that the public policy responses must be: multidimensional in that they transcend narrow sector-based concerns and addresses broader spatial impacts; inclusive in that they build on a broad coalition of economic and social stakeholders; and long-term in that they acknowledge that adaptation takes many years. If anything, the Birmingham Longbridge experience demonstrates the difficulty of achieving such responses in the context of crisis where action is imperative and deliberation a luxury.

The ability of materials to define the architecture and microenvironment experienced by cells provides new opportunities to direct the fate of human pluripotent stem cells (HPSCs) [Robinton DA, Daley GQ (2012) Nature 481(7381):295-305]. However, the conditions required for self-renewal vs. differentiation of HPSCs are different, and a single system that efficiently achieves both outcomes is not available [Giobbe GG, et al. (2012) Biotechnol Bioeng 109(12):3119-3132]. We have addressed this dual need by developing a hydrogel-based material that uses ionic de-cross-linking to remove a self-renewal permissive hydrogel (alginate) and switch to a differentiation-permissive microenvironment (collagen). Adjusting the timing of this switch can preferentially steer the HPSC differentiation to mimic lineage commitment during gastrulation to ectoderm (early switch) or mesoderm/endoderm (late switch). As an exemplar differentiated cell type, we showed that directing early lineage specification using this single system can promote cardiogenesis with increased gene expression in high-density cell populations. This work will facilitate regenerative medicine by allowing in situ HPSC expansion to be coupled with early lineage specification within defined tissue geometries.

This paper provides a critical commentary on area-based fiscal incentives and regeneration in Europe, focusing on Enterprise Zones (EZs) in Britain and zones franches urbaines (ZFUs) in France. It, thus, counters the trans-Atlantic comparative bias of much of the extant literature. The paper provides a qualitative account of the development trajectory of four zones in Britain and France. It, thus, also counters the bias for evaluating short-term quantitative outputs (e.g. leverage ratios, cost per job) over long-term qualitative spatial outcomes. We consider how four variables (the objectives and ideological foundations of the EZ and ZFU programmes, the nature and scope of policy instruments deployed, the heterogeneous geography of the zones and local implementation) influence process and outcomes locally and the extent to which they engender 'sustainable' regeneration; the (re) embedding of zone development locally so that perpetual public investment and intervention is unnecessary. We conclude that, notwithstanding their potential to stimulate development and employment gains, area-based fiscal incentives are (given their propensity to produce unanticipated outcomes and post hoc challenges) an imperfect platform to promote sustainable regeneration. This is, in part, due to an intrinsic flaw of the model; the limited effective public control over private investment.