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This paper aims to examine the role of different polyalkylene glycol architectures in improving the hydrolytic stability of natural and synthetic esters.

Hydrolytic stability measurements were conducted using a modified ASTM D2619 test method in which several polyalkylene glycol chemistries were examined at concentrations of up to 10 per cent in a selection of esters.

The inclusion of triblock copolymers derived from ethylene oxide (EO) and 1,2-propylene oxide (PO) and with an EO content of about 30 per cent produced significant improvements in the hydrolytic stability of natural and synthetic esters. Stability improved with increased concentration of the triblock.

The study did not evaluate the vast array of polyalkylene glycol structures that can be derived from other higher alkylene oxides.

Improving the hydrolytic stability of esters can offer the possibility of creating longer life environmentally acceptable lubricants (EALs).

This discovery should allow longer life EALs to be designed thereby using less raw materials over a determined period. It may also allow more replacement of conventional hydrocarbon lubricants.

Triblock copolymers are rarely used in lubricants. Their use as components of ester-based EALs is new.

Purchasers of new or newly refurbished dwellings may think that the home they are buying or renting could be expected to offer a defined level of resistance to entry by unauthorised people. This is not the case, and new developments are still being constructed and offered for sale or rent with inadequate security. While there is legislation on the statute book that could be used to address this situation, the relevant section of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 has not been implemented. In contrast, policy‐makers have succeeded for instance in making energy efficiency in dwellings and security in motor cars factors that influence buying decisions and that have resulted in significant improvements for consumers.

This paper analyzes the impact of economic downturns on the revenue and expense sides of city financing for the period 2003 to 2009 using a convenience sample of the audited end of year financial reports for thirty midsized US cities. The analysis focuses on whether and how quickly and how extensively revenue and spending directions from past years are altered by recessions. A seven year series of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) data serves to explore whether citiesʼ revenues and spending, especially the traditional property tax and core functions such as public safety and infrastructure withstood the brief 2001 and the persistent 2007 recessions? The findings point to consumption (spending) over stability (revenue minus expense) for the recession of 2007, particularly in 2008 and 2009.

We have observed in the reports of those engaged in the administration of the Acts several references to the practice of milking so that a portion of the milk is left in the udder of the cow, this portion being removed subsequently and not included in the milk sent out to customers. The inspector for the southern division of the county of Northampton reports that on a sample of milk being found deficient in fat to the extent of 17 per cent., a further sample was taken at the time of milking when a milkman was found to be not properly “stripping” the cows. He was warned. The analyst for the county of Notts writes: “The first strippings obtained before the milk glands have been normally excited by the milking are very low in fat yet are “genuine” milk in the sense that nothing has been added to or taken from it. It is nonsense to talk of genuine milk in the sense that everything that comes from the udder of the cow is to be taken as genuine milk fit for sale.” In a case tried before the Recorder of Middlesbrough, one witness said that among some farmers it was a common practice not to “strip” cows until after the milk was sent away.

Current issues of Publishers' Weekly are reporting serious shortages of paper, binders board, cloth, and other essential book manufacturing materials. Let us assure you these shortages are very real and quite severe.

The scaling up of promising, innovative integration projects presents challenges to social and health care systems. Evidence that a new service provides (cost) effective care in a (pilot) locality can often leave us some way from understanding how the innovation worked and what was crucial about the context to achieve the goals evidenced when applied to other localities. Even unpacking the “black box” of the innovation can still leave gaps in understanding with regard to scaling it up. Theory-led approaches are increasingly proposed as a means of helping to address this knowledge gap in understanding implementation. Our particular interest here is exploring the potential use of theory to help with understanding scaling up integration models across sites. The theory under consideration is Normalisation Process Theory (NPT).

The article draws on a natural experiment providing a range of data from two sites working to scale up a well-thought-of, innovative integrated, primary care-based dementia service to other primary care sites. This provided an opportunity to use NPT as a means of framing understanding to explore what the theory adds to considering issues contributing to the success or failure of such a scaling up project.

NPT offers a framework to potentially develop greater consistency in understanding the roll out of models of integrated care. The knowledge gained here and through further application of NPT could be applied to inform evaluation and planning of scaling-up programmes in the future.

The research was limited in the data collected from the case study; nevertheless, in the context of an exploration of the use of the theory, the observations provided a practical context in which to begin to examine the usefulness of NPT prior to embarking on its use in more expensive, larger-scale studies.

NPT provides a promising framework to better understand the detail of integrated service models from the point of view of what may contribute to their successful scaling up.

NPT potentially provides a helpful framework to understand and manage efforts to have new integrated service models more widely adopted in practice and to help ensure that models which are effective in the small scale develop effectively when scaled up.

This paper examines the use of NPT as a theory to guide understanding of scaling up promising innovative integration service models.