The internet and e-connectivity more generally are increasingly held to be an important element of business success. Evidence however suggests that the productive impacts of such technologies are contingent on factors that include firm size and sector, and human capital. It follows that if companies with these characteristics are unevenly distributed across space, the increasing importance of broadband in economic activity might impact unevenly on economic outcomes across space. We examine the Cardiff City-Region in South Wales, where the distribution of businesses and skills suggests that without policy intervention the roll out of broadband might further increase economic disparities between the relatively prosperous coastal belt and the poorer post-industrial hinterland.

O artigo analiza o concepto de dependencia da traxectoria nas políticas e pretende examinar como xorden diferentes traxectorias na política e como estas cambian co tempo. Faino con referencia a un estudo de caso do desenvolvemento de políticas rexionais de innovación en Gales (Reino Unido), durante un período de máis de trinta anos. A partir dos desenvolvementos recentes nos estudos rexionais e da xeografía económica, o artigo apunta que a dependencia de traxectorias (path dependency) é unha característica inevitable do proceso de política a nivel rexional. A partir de análises documentais e entrevistas cos responsables políticos, descobre que as decisións políticas tomadas no inicio da fase de creación dunha traxectoria (para apoiar a innovación tecnolóxica) son determinantes, a pesar dos intentos de ampliar a senda cara a unha forma máis inclusiva de política de innovación en Gales. Aínda que a dependencia de traxectoria, máis evidente nos instrumentos básicos de política tecnolóxica e de I+D, non impediu a experimentación de novas vías, os resultados suxiren que a rixidez e a renovación coexisten nas políticas e no proceso de política para a innovación rexional ao longo do tempo. Os achados contribúen ao crecente interese na dinámica temporal do cambio de políticas a nivel rexional e na complexidade das políticas, particularmente nas rexións menos desenvolvidas.

Lifespan in poikilothermic organisms, such as Caenorhabditis elegans, can be substantially increased simply by decreasing growth temperature. To gain insights into the mechanistic underpinnings of this effect, we investigated the effects of temperature in development and adulthood on C. elegans lifespan. We found that worms exposed to 25 °C during development and shifted to 15 °C in adulthood exhibited an even longer lifespan than animals constantly kept at 15 °C. Analysis of the in vivo redox status demonstrated that at 25 °C, C. elegans larvae have a more reduced redox state and higher Prdx-2 expression levels than animals raised at 15 °C. Worms lacking prdx-2 fail to show the additional lifespan extension upon shift from 25 °C to 15 °C and reveal a lifespan similar to prdx-2 worms always kept at 15 °C. These results suggest that transiently altering the in vivo redox state during development can have highly beneficial long-term consequences for organisms.

This paper examines the challenges of deploying broadband policies at the local level. It is a topic that has received significant attention in urban and rural areas, with uneven access to broadband identified as an important issue by policy makers and researchers alike. While the broadband and regional development literature has highlighted the complexity of regional deployment, with reference to geographical metaphors such as the last mile, it has tended to downplay the underlying policy processes as actors seek to manage the deployment process over time and space. Drawing on the concept of the policy mix, the paper examines how actors seek to manage complexity between policy objectives. It does so by drawing on an in-depth case-study of broadband policy in Wales – 2012 to 2017, and shows deployment to be a contested process in the last mile, characterised by interaction between policy objectives in a range of policy areas including planning and highways. It is argued that coordination of these tensions represents a complex socio-spatial process in which local actors (government, households, businesses and broadband providers) engage in a negotiated process to find place-based, bespoke solutions to deployment problems.

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