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Sustainability transitions require an understanding of smaller cities
Get PDFAs we approach a global population where 60% of us live in cities, urban areas must be our focal point in the transition to the flourishing societies of future decades. While much attention has been paid over the past decade to understanding urban consumption patterns, the overwhelming majority of recent urban metabolism research has focused on larger cities with populations over one million inhabitants. Meanwhile, estimates show that more people live in urban areas with populations between 300,000 and one million people than in mega cities. Indeed, given their relatively small size, there are many more of these cities to study than larger cities; many more urban governments need to be informed of the solutions that are relevant to the context of their less dense populations. Our goals to decarbonize and dematerialize societies require discussions of measures that are applicable to different types of urban areas across various population scales.
We take the example of the town of Reading, UK to illustrate how per capita urban metabolic flows differ within small- and medium-sized cities, as well as for megacities. For example, relative to Reading, we find that there is substantial variability in energy demand for small cities (for Le Mans, >200%) and for larger cities (>50% for other European and North American megacities). This underscores the need to explore this under-researched area of urban metabolism, as well as the development of a typology to enable comparisons and differentiate strategies for sustainability transitions
Application of platelet-rich plasma as a stem cell treatment - an attempt to clarify a common public misconception
Get PDFIn recent years, there has been a significant increase in the practice of regenerative medicine by health practitioners and direct-to-consumer businesses globally. Among different tools of regenerative medicine, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and stem cell-based therapies have received considerable attention. The use of PRP, in particular, has gained popularity due to its easy access, simple processing techniques, and regenerative potential. However, it is important to address a common misconception amongst the general public equating to PRP and stem cells due to the demonstrated efficacy of PRP in treating musculoskeletal and dermatological disorders. Notably, PRP promotes regeneration by providing growth factors or other paracrine factors only. Therefore, it cannot replenish or replace the lost cells in conditions where a large number of cells are required to regenerate tissues and/or organs. In such cases, cell-based therapies are the preferred option. Additionally, other tools of regenerative medicine, such as bioprinting, organoids, and mechanobiology also rely on stem cells for their success. Hence, healthcare and commercial entities offering direct-to-customer regenerative therapies should not mislead the public by claiming that the application of PRP is a stem cell-based therapy. Furthermore, it is important for regulatory bodies to strictly monitor these profit-driven entities to prevent them from providing unregulated regenerative treatments and services that claim a broad variety of benefits with little proof of efficacy, safety concerns, and obscure scientific justification
Pass or play: should regulators address the money laundering risks posed by cryptocurrencies themselves or await legislative reform?
Get PDFThis article contrasts legislator led and regulator led approaches to regulatory reform and contends that the determining factor for a jurisdiction in choosing an approach rests with the regulator. The article also argues that the approach taken, and the efficacy of the regulation, is dependent upon the proactivity of the regulator. The commitment of the regulator, whether it leads the development of anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regulation or not, will have a significant impact upon the success or failure of the reforms. The contrasting reactions of three jurisdictions to the money laundering and terrorism financing risks posed by the development of cryptocurrencies is explored. The benefits and drawbacks of regulator led and legislator led approaches to regulating cryptocurrency activity are appraised, contrasting the efficiency and efficacy, the stimuli for responding, and the common inadequacies in regulatory attempts thus far
Impact of ethnic and cultural diversity on millennial living preferences and homeownership
Get PDFPurpose
This study aims to examine living preference and tenure among millennials, with a particular focus on the impact of ethnic and cultural diversity on housing outcomes including observed homeownership inequalities.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the individual panel data from three waves in American Housing Survey, 2015–2019, this study compares the likelihood of co-residing among Asian and Hispanic millennials with non-Hispanic white millennial peers. Furthermore, this study estimates the effect of co-residence on homeownership across generational and ethnic backgrounds.
Findings
This study finds a preference for coresident adult familial households among foreign-born Asian and Hispanic millennials, and US-born Hispanic millennials when compared to their non-Hispanic white millennial peers. The results are robust after considering neighborhood selection bias, affordability and education. The effect of co-residence on ownership is significant and positive, suggesting this living arrangement contributes to homeownership across all generational and ethnic groups.
Practical implications
Housebuilders should be aware of Asian and Hispanic millennials’ increased appetite for extended family living arrangements and consider increasing the physical size of affordable or workforce-oriented rental housing and new single family construction to accommodate more adult co-living arrangements.
Originality/value
This study provides a more comprehensive understanding of the role ethnic and cultural diversity has on millennial adult living preferences and its generational differences, which is not just “boomeranging” as identified by previous literature, contributing to the growing interest in the housing research on the effect of ethnic diversity and culture on millennials’ homeownership rates
Barriers and facilitators to healthy eating in disadvantaged adults living in the UK: a scoping review
Get PDFIn the UK people living in disadvantaged communities are less likely than those with higher socio-economic status to have a healthy diet. To address this inequality, it is crucial scientists, practitioners and policy makers understand the factors that hinder and assist healthy food choice in these individuals. In this scoping review, we aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to healthy eating among disadvantaged individuals living in the UK. Additionally, we used the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to synthesise results and provide a guide for the development of theory-informed behaviour change interventions. Five databases were searched, (CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Web of Science) for articles assessing healthy dietary intake of disadvantaged adults living in the UK. A total of 50 papers (34 quantitative; 16 qualitative) were included in this review. Across all studies we identified 78 barriers and 49 facilitators found to either impede and/or encourage healthy eating. Both barriers and facilitators were more commonly classified under the Environmental, Context and Resources TDF domain, with 74% of studies assessing at least one factor pertaining to this domain. Results thus indicate that context related factors such as high cost and accessibility of healthy food, rather than personal factors, such as lack of efficiency in healthy lifestyle drive unhealthy eating in disadvantaged individuals in the UK. We discuss how such factors are largely overlooked in current interventions and propose that more effort should be directed towards implementing interventions that specifically target infrastructures rather than individuals
Matrix of shame: a feminist reading of shame, the body and radical disruption in the performance works of Marina Abramović, Samuel Beckett and Ana Mendieta
No full textThis thesis examines shame in the performance work of three practitioners: Marina Abramović, Samuel Beckett and Ana Mendieta. In doing so, the thesis analyses Beckett’s Footfalls, Rockaby, Happy Days, Catastrophe and Not I and looks at specific productions of these plays. These works are considered alongside Abramović’s Cleaning the Mirror I (1995), Nude with Skeleton (2002/2005/2023), Rhythm 0 (1974) and Balkan Baroque (1997) and Mendieta’s Untitled (1976) silueta, Rape Scenes (1972), Moffitt Building Piece (1973) and Glass on Body/Face (1972). Bringing these pieces into dialogue in the first study of its kind, the thesis asks how they negotiate and manifest mechanisms of shame through performance. It considers what this might reveal about shame’s role in the social categorisation of bodies and the matrices of power that govern them. Taking a specifically female-gendered and socio-political approach to shame, the thesis interweaves psychoanalytic theory, affect theory, feminisms and the cultural politics of emotion to consider the intersections of shame and concepts of the body, femininity, hybridity, disgust, risk and rage. Shame is an under-researched area in the study of these artists but one which yields important insights into their approaches to the female body and therefore the thesis responses to this lacuna to illuminate new and productive ways of viewing these works. The thesis’ central argument is that in different ways these pieces reveal the role of shame in marginalising and oppressive systems of power, but that paradoxically, when looked at side by side and through the lens of shame, they allow for a reframing of shame as constructive, productive, and disruptive of normative social and cultural constructs in radical ways
Crosstalk of oestrogen receptors in the male mouse brain
Get PDFLocally produced neuroestrogens are crucial in the development of sexually dimorphic brain
regions and drive sex-typical social behaviours. These behaviours are due to the signalling of
oestrogens via its receptors in a set of interconnected nuclei called the social behaviour
network (SBN). This thesis investigated the molecular interactions between classical
oestrogen receptor(s) (ERs) ERα and ERβ and novel member ER G-Protein-Coupled-Oestrogen-Receptor 1(GPER1) through investigation of localization and crosstalk of
receptors within cell lines and the production and regulation of neurosteroids in the SBN of
male mice.
For the first time the subcellular localization of ERα, its variant ERα 36 and GPER1 was
reported in mouse embryonic cells (mES) and mES derived motor neurons, although their
functional roles remain to be investigated. Next, we treated a mouse embryonic hypothalamic
neuronal cell (m-Hypo N42) with either vehicle (DSMO), E2, E2-BSA, G1 (GPER1 agonist),
PPT (ERα agonist), or DPN (ERβ agonist) and measured aromatase expression through RT-qPCR. We also identified translocation of oestrogen receptors from the nucleus to the plasma
membrane in two set of embryonic cell lines: mES and m-Hypo N42. For the first we
demonstrate that ERβ and GPER1 may collaborate by signalling in the same pathway to
rapidly increase aromatase expression in a mouse hypothalamic cell line. Using a novel ex
vivo slice culture system, we show that the production of neuroestrogens - Estradiol (E2) and
neurotestosterone- Testosterone (T) increases within 24 hours in all SBN nodes. Secretion of
neurosteroids were measured by ELISA and RTqPCR and used to examine expression of
steroidogenic enzymes and steroid receptors at various timepoints. Data presented in this
thesis show that the expression of neurosteroids and steroidogenic enzymes are sexually
dimorphic and increase with respect to time suggesting de novo synthesis. Lastly, we used the
ex vivo slice culture system to examine the regulation of aromatase and subsequent oestrogen
production in Medial Preoptic Area (MPOA) and Ventromedial Hypothalamus (VMH), two
regions of the SBN associated with sexual and aggressive behaviour in male mice. However,
the mechanism of action of aromatase regulation remains unclear. Collectively, these studies
expand our knowledge of the function relevance of ERs in multiple systems and how they
develop and maintenance the function of the SBN
Cryptocurrency research: future directions
Get PDFSince Bitcoin was first proposed in late 2008 and went live in 2009, hundreds of research papers have been published trying to understand the behaviour of cryptocurrencies and their impact on financial markets. Their size and importance to the financial sector has increased substantially also has the number of challenges they face and the negative externalities they have caused. This article reviews the related cryptocurrency literature and introduces articles included in this special issue on this theme which were presented at the 2020 Cryptocurrency Research Conference. We conclude by offering possible future research directions