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The iron–sulfur cluster of Bacterioferritin‐associated ferredoxin (Bfd): a “biological fuse” that prevents oxidative damage to cells?
Get PDFIron is in an essential micronutrient in living systems. However, it is also potentially toxic and so the concentration of chelatable iron within cells is tightly regulated to prevent catalytic formation of harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS). Ferritins play a key role in iron homeostasis by storing excess iron as an insoluble ferric mineral within the protein. When bacterial cells become iron deficient, this store may be accessed by reduction/solubilisation of the iron. Bacterioferritins utilise heme, bound at an inter‐subunit site, to support electron transfer to the stored mineral. Electrons for heme reduction are shuttled from NADPH via Bfd, a [2Fe–2S] cluster‐containing ferredoxin. This raises the paradox that the synthesis of an iron‐dependent protein co‐factor is required under conditions of iron‐deficiency so that stored iron can be utilised. Here, we show that exposure of Bfd to ROS suppresses the capacity of the protein to stimulate iron release from bacterioferritin. We propose that reliance of iron release on Bfd evolved to ensure that chelatable iron levels do not increase under oxidative stress conditions. Thus, the Bfd iron–sulfur cluster functions as a “biological fuse” in providing a fail‐safe that immediately halts iron release once ROS accumulate to damaging concentrations
An architectural perspective on healthcare worker housing: a framework for improving the quality of life of UK healthcare workers via the provision of employer-led housing
No full textIn the 21st century healthcare landscape, the quality of life (QOL) of psychiatric healthcare
workers (HCWs) is pivotal for a resilient mental healthcare system. My thesis advocates for
employers to provide housing as a strategic intervention to enhance the QOL for HCWs.
Acknowledging the unique challenges faced by HCWs, my research aims to alleviate stressors
resulting from inadequate housing.
My thesis underscores the potential benefits for employers by highlighting the intrinsic link
between HCW QOL and the availability of effective mental health services. It proposes a
paradigm shift towards employer-led housing (ELH) for HCWs to ensure the sustained delivery
of high quality psychiatric care. To fully comprehend the housing issues faced by HCWs, I
provide a critical examination of the physical housing context, and the challenges encountered
by HCWs in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, both in terms of their housing conditions and their
lived experiences.
To draw recommendations for future ELH initiatives, I investigate the motivations and methods
involved in providing such housing, and identify the opportunities and challenges associated
with these schemes. My analysis includes two in depth case studies of ELH: Saltaire,
Bournville. In the context of ELH and the employee-employer relationship, the concepts of
privacy and power are deeply interrelated. I define the concept of power within this context
before examining the relationship between power and privacy, and their impact on the
development of ELH.
I employ a case study methodology, utilising qualitative semi-structured interviews with
employees from a private psychiatric hospital including HCWs and senior leadership team
members, along with a focus group. This investigation explores HCWs perceptions of their
QOL in housing and their views on the necessity and desirability of ELH. I utilise a conceptual
framework to analyse the empirical data to ascertain the QOL experienced by HCWs and
explore their perceived sense of power and privacy within their housing.
The empirical findings indicate that employees are hesitant to support ELH initiatives. This
reluctance is attributed to a perception that they will never secure better housing and a
resignation to their current inadequate conditions. Employees doubt the likelihood that their
employers will successfully provide such housing, leading them to consider it preferable not to
expect it. Employers, while recognising the potential benefits of providing housing, particularly
during periods of challenging recruitment and retention, appear motivated to assist their
employees. Nevertheless, management are concerned that the costs associated with maintaining
vacant housing may be prohibitive and question whether the initiative would sufficiently
enhance retention to justify the investment. I posit ELH represents a paradigm shift necessary
to enhance the overall QOL for HCWs. My study contributes to the limited research on HCWs
perceptions of the QOL provided by their housing
Systematic biases over the equatorial Indian Ocean and their influence on seasonal forecasts of the IOD
Get PDFAccurate seasonal prediction of the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is crucial given its socioeconomic impacts on countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. Using hindcasts from the Met Office Global Seasonal Forecasting System (GloSea6), coupled mean-state biases in the western and eastern equatorial Indian Ocean (WEIO and EEIO) and their impacts on IOD prediction are examined. Results show that GloSea6 exhibits a pronounced cold bias in the EEIO that rapidly develops after the monsoon onset in boreal summer (JJA, July–August) and persists into autumn (SON, September–November). This cold bias is linked to erroneous easterlies and a shallow thermocline, likely associated with the monsoon circulation. The seasonal evolution and relative timing of the precipitation biases, such that they develop through JJA in the EEIO but follow in the WEIO in SON, suggests that the EEIO plays the leading role in the development of coupled feedbacks that lead to the large dipole pattern of coupled biases. Analysis of skill metrics for the IOD shows that GloSea6 achieves a high anomaly correlation coefficient at short lead times, though it tends to overestimate IOD amplitude. This overestimation is larger in the eastern IOD pole than in the western pole and is likely linked to the poor representation of the evolution of the sea surface temperature anomalies in the EEIO during IOD events in SON. This study highlights the crucial role of regional biases, particularly in the EEIO, in shaping IOD variability and demonstrates that addressing such biases in GloSea6 could improve IOD prediction
Impact of calorie labelling on online takeaway food choices: an online Menu-Based Choice Experiment in England
Get PDFEating out-of-home is linked to higher calorie intake and body weight, risk factors for obesity, diabetes and other diseases. This study examined whether providing calorie information on online takeaway food menus leads to lower-calorie food choices. A Menu-based Choice Experiment was conducted in November 2022 among 1040 online takeaway consumers in England (Kantar's Worldpanel Out of Home Purchase Panel). Each participant chose their preferred items from ten hypothetical menus including starters/sides, mains, desserts, and drinks. Participants were randomly allocated to a group in which the ten menus included either: a) no calorie information (group A); b) individual item calorie content (group B); or c) individual item and total calorie content (group C). An orthogonal design was used to create the menus and the probability of choosing each of the food items was estimated using a Multivariate Probit Model (MVP). There was no statistically significant difference in calories ordered by respondents in group B or group C in comparison to the control group. by. While group B and C had on average a greater likelihood of choosing low-calorie items compared to group A, the effect was only statistically significant for the low-calorie main for respondents over 55 years old in group C in comparison to the control. For these respondents, calorie information increased the probability of choosing the low-calorie main by 11.1pp (p < 0.001). We found no evidence that including a calorie counter had a larger impact on food choices than providing calorie information for individual items. Choices were relatively inelastic to price changes although main meals were more price sensitive (own-price elasticity −0.5 to −0.62) compared to starters, deserts and drinks (−0.22 to −0.39)
Carryover effects of 4 daily rumen drenches of maize gluten meal and rumen protected essential amino acids initiated immediately after calving
No full textThe objective was to determine the effects of a daily rumen drench of maize gluten meal, as a source of rumen undegradable protein (RUP), and rumen protected Met, Lys, and His for the first 4 days of lactation on DMI and milk production and composition of dairy cows during their first 12 weeks of lactation. Twenty multi-parous Holstein cows were randomly assigned at calving to a control rumen drench of 30 L warm water or a 30 L aqueous suspension of maize gluten meal and rumen-protected Met, Lys, and His calculated to provide Met, Lys, His, and Leu for absorption equal to their amounts in 600 g casein. Cows received their first drench within 8 h of calving and then again 24, 48, and 72 h later. Cows were fed a TMR for ad libitum consumption and at 7 DIM cows were moved from calving boxes to a cubicle yard, and measurements of daily DMI and milk yield and weekly milk composition, BW, and body condition score (BCS) were obtained through week 12 postpartum. A blood plasma sample obtained at 7 DIM was analysed for metabolite, protein and albumin concentration. There was no effect of treatment on DMI or milk yield, but milk fat concentration was higher and milk protein concentration tended to be higher for treated cows during weeks 2 to 12. Whilst BCS was not affected, treated cows gained BW over the course of the study (+32 kg), whereas control cows maintained a similar body weight (-3 kg). Plasma metabolite and protein concentrations were not affected by treatment. Four daily rumen doses of supplemental RUP and rumen protected EAA, initiated within hours of calving, had sustained positive effects on milk fat and protein concentration and BW of lactating Holstein cows, suggesting homeorhetic effects that warrant further investigation
Academia and the armed forces: formal colleagues or passing acquaintances?
Get PDFThe article contends that the growing tendency to fragment the theory and practice of military force into increasingly narrow subcategories—often referred to as “salami-slicing”—is not only ineffective but also stifles originality and innovation in strategic thinking. Instead, adopting a more holistic and streamlined framework for understanding strategy would foster greater creativity. Effective strategy development also requires considering the context in which military force may be applied. Evaluating potential threats and analysing an adversary’s capabilities help shape an appropriate response. The prevalence of “salami-slicing” can, to some extent, be attributed to the stagnation of Western strategic thinking since the Cold War’s end. The key question remains: Has the West learned from its past mistakes, and if so, how is this reflected in NATO’s latest Strategic Concept
Changing life expectancy in European countries 1990-2021: a subanalysis of causes and risk factors from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.
Get PDFBACKGROUND
Decades of steady improvements in life expectancy in Europe slowed down from around 2011, well before the COVID-19 pandemic, for reasons which remain disputed. We aimed to assess how changes in risk factors and cause-specific death rates in different European countries related to changes in life expectancy in those countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
METHODS
We used data and methods from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2021 to compare changes in life expectancy at birth, causes of death, and population exposure to risk factors in 16 European Economic Area countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden) and the four UK nations (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) for three time periods: 1990-2011, 2011-19, and 2019-21. Changes in life expectancy and causes of death were estimated with an established life expectancy cause-specific decomposition method, and compared with summary exposure values of risk factors for the major causes of death influencing life expectancy.
FINDINGS
All countries showed mean annual improvements in life expectancy in both 1990-2011 (overall mean 0·23 years [95% uncertainty interval [UI] 0·23 to 0·24]) and 2011-19 (overall mean 0·15 years [0·13 to 0·16]). The rate of improvement was lower in 2011-19 than in 1990-2011 in all countries except for Norway, where the mean annual increase in life expectancy rose from 0·21 years (95% UI 0·20 to 0·22) in 1990-2011 to 0·23 years (0·21 to 0·26) in 2011-19 (difference of 0·03 years). In other countries, the difference in mean annual improvement between these periods ranged from -0·01 years in Iceland (0·19 years [95% UI 0·16 to 0·21] vs 0·18 years [0·09 to 0·26]), to -0·18 years in England (0·25 years [0·24 to 0·25] vs 0·07 years [0·06 to 0·08]). In 2019-21, there was an overall decrease in mean annual life expectancy across all countries (overall mean -0·18 years [95% UI -0·22 to -0·13]), with all countries having an absolute fall in life expectancy except for Ireland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, which showed marginal improvement in life expectancy, and Belgium, which showed no change in life expectancy. Across countries, the causes of death responsible for the largest improvements in life expectancy from 1990 to 2011 were cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms. Deaths from cardiovascular diseases were the primary driver of reductions in life expectancy improvements during 2011-19, and deaths from respiratory infections and other COVID-19 pandemic-related outcomes were responsible for the decreases in life expectancy during 2019-21. Deaths from cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms in 2019 were attributable to high systolic blood pressure, dietary risks, tobacco smoke, high LDL cholesterol, high BMI, occupational risks, high alcohol use, and other risks including low physical activity. Exposure to these major risk factors differed by country, with trends of increasing exposure to high BMI and decreasing exposure to tobacco smoke observed in all countries during 1990-2021.
INTERPRETATION
The countries that best maintained improvements in life expectancy after 2011 (Norway, Iceland, Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden) did so through better maintenance of reductions in mortality from cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms, underpinned by decreased exposures to major risks, possibly mitigated by government policies. The continued improvements in life expectancy in five countries during 2019-21 indicate that these countries were better prepared to withstand the COVID-19 pandemic. By contrast, countries with the greatest slowdown in life expectancy improvements after 2011 went on to have some of the largest decreases in life expectancy in 2019-21. These findings suggest that government policies that improve population health also build resilience to future shocks. Such policies include reducing population exposure to major upstream risks for cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms, such as harmful diets and low physical activity, tackling the commercial determinants of poor health, and ensuring access to affordable health services.
FUNDING
Gates Foundation
Effect of ultrasonication on extraction yield, and the rheological and physicochemical characteristics of Mucuna sloanei gum
Get PDFMucuna sloanei flour is widely used as a thickening agent in Southern Nigerian cuisine, contributing to its texture and nutritional value. Additionally, it is gaining attention in pharmaceuticals for its health benefits, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and role in pharmaceutical formulation and controlled-release systems. However, there is a notable gap in the understanding of Mucuna gum extraction and its characterisation. This study investigated ultrasound-assisted extraction to improve gum extraction yield, as well as the physicochemical and rheological properties of M. sloanei gums. The ultrasound process improved extraction yields to 45.81 % and 47.09 % at 30 % and 60 % amplitudes, respectively, compared to 41.5 % for unsonicated extraction, reflecting enhancements of approximately 10.2 % and 13.3 % in yield while preserving or enhancing thermal properties. Thermal analysis indicated gelatinisation temperatures ranging from 92.12 to 103.40 °C, with no significant differences (p > 0.05) among gums. Thermogravimetric analysis revealed that extracted gums exhibited higher degradation onset temperatures than raw flour, indicating enhanced thermal stability which seems promising for industrial application. Furthermore, sonication reduced levels of D-xylose, d-fructose, L-(+)-arabinose, and sorbitol. Viscoelastic testing showed that the extracted gums had reduced shear-thinning behaviour and greater yield stress than the flour, suggesting their effectiveness as binders and viscosifiers. These findings underscore the potential of Mucuna sloanei gum as a commercially viable thickener in food formulations where flour is predominantly used and in the pharmaceutical industry as a natural binder, disintegrant, and controlled-release agent. The study also highlights the efficiency of ultrasound-assisted extraction as a scalable and sustainable method for gum extraction and modification
