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Exogenous heat shock proteins HSPA1A and HSPB1 regulate TNF ‐α, IL ‐1β and IL ‐10 secretion from monocytic cells
Get PDFThis is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Ogbodo, E., Michelangeli, F., & Williams, J. H. H. (2023). Exogenous heat shock proteins HSPA1A and HSPB1 regulate TNF‐α, IL‐1β and IL‐10 secretion from monocytic cells. FEBS Open Bio. 13(10), 1922-1940, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/2211-5463.13695. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.History: received 2023-04-17, accepted 2023-08-02, epub 2023-08-15, issued 2023-08-15, published 2023-08-15Endogenous molecules, such as heat shock proteins (HSP), can function as danger signals when released into the extracellular environment in response to cell stress, where they elicit an immune response such as cytokine secretion. There has also been some suggestion that contamination of exogenous HSPs with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) may be responsible for these effects. This study investigates the effects of exogenous HSPA1A and HSPB1 on the activation of immune cells and the resulting secretion of cytokines, which are involved in inflammatory responses. To address whether exogenous HSPs can directly activate cytokine secretion, naïve U937 cells, differentiated U937 cells, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were treated with either exogenously applied HSPA1A or HSPB1, and then secreted IL‐1β, TNF‐α, and IL‐10 were measured by ELISA. Both HSPs were able to induce a dose‐dependent increase in IL‐10 secretion from naïve U937 cells and dose‐dependent IL‐1β, TNF‐α and IL‐10 secretion were also observed in differentiated U937 cells and PBMCs. We also observed that CD14 affects the secretion levels of IL‐1β, TNF‐α, and IL‐10 from cells in response to exogenous HSP treatment. In addition, HSPA1A and HSPB1 were shown to interact with CD14, CD36, and CD11b extracellular receptor proteins. Several approaches used in this study indicate that HSP‐induced cytokine secretion is largely independent of any contaminating LPS in the samples.AAM swapped for the VoR uploaded to CR 04/09/202
A Dance with Death: The Imperial War Graves Commission and Nazi Germany
Get PDFThis is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in [The English Historical Review] following peer review. The version of record [Grady, T. (2023). A dance with death: The Imperial War Graves Commission and Nazi Germany. English Historical Review, 138(594-595), 1307–1336] is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/138/594-595/1307/7310813?redirectedFrom=fulltextIn the mid-1930s, Fabian Ware and the other leading members of Britain’s Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) sought to strengthen relations with Nazi Germany. Their efforts are generally seen as another example of appeasement, misjudging Hitler in a search for international peace. This article, in contrast, places this relationship into a much longer history of wartime death and post-war remembrance. As was the case elsewhere, the IWGC, to the anger of some relatives of the deceased, chose not to repatriate the war dead buried in Germany, and instead concentrated them into four new British war cemeteries. This decision created a clear division between the treatment of the dead of the victors and those of the defeated. While the British and Empire dead in Germany were made more visible, Germany’s war dead buried in Britain remained in their original wartime graves and faded slowly from sight. When Hitler rose to power, the IWGC was suddenly forced to confront these disparities, particularly as Nazis in both Britain and Germany used the war graves to rally support. This article argues that the IWGC started to negotiate with the Nazi regime not to broker peace but purely to defend the cemeteries that it had placed on German soil. However, with Britain and Germany having competing narratives of war and defeat, these discussions were always doomed to fail
Analysis of the Utilisation of Herbaceous Biomass Streams for Small-Scale Combined Heat and Power Systems: A Comparative Study of UK and Pakistan
Get PDFThe project scope combined the author`s interest, those of her industrial research partner Biogen Systems Ltd., and those of Professor John Brammer of the University of Chester, UK. The project`s main aim was to find a cost-effective, yet sustainable strategy to upgrade the quality of low-quality herbaceous biomass streams to feed Biogen`s BCHP units without any ash-related problems such as ash melting and clinker formation. This involved pursuing a theoretical understanding and lab-scale combustion experimental investigation of the ash melting characteristics of herbaceous biomass streams of significant interest (grass cuttings, miscanthus, corn cobs, and mango stones) with different additive streams in two country locations which reflect the affiliations of the author, and which are quite different: namely Pakistan and the UK. SEM-EDS and XRD techniques were used with ternary-phase diagrams for determination of elemental and crystalline phase composition analysis of combusted ash
residues. Investigations revealed that the formation of low-melting eutectic mixtures of phosphates and silicates is the primary underlying reason for ash melting of non-woody biomass streams which can be avoided by the addition of anti-sintering additives. Furthermore, eggshells can successfully replace Ca-based commercially available additives when in raw and calcined form. Another main objective of this work was to develop an Excel-base financial business model to present a framework that would improve the profitability of Biogen`s BCHP units’ deployment in the UK and Pakistan. For this, different scenarios were studied, and the effects of main logistic variables were quantified on the profitability of Biogen`s units. Results of the financial model indicate that for the UK-based operation of Biogen`s BCHP units, wood chips would serve as the most economically beneficial feedstock, followed by miscanthus pellets, while for Pakistan, waste grass pellets would be the most financially suitable feedstock, followed by corn stover pellets. Food processing companies in Pakistan can generate electricity that is cheaper than the grid-sourced power by Biogen`s E3 BCHP units by utilising on-site available free-cost fruit waste (such as corn cobs and mango waste). Accordingly, the potential contribution of this research is the elimination of the technoeconomic
barriers faced by the mass-scale deployment of high-temperature biomass-fuelled thermochemical systems by identification of eggshells as a potential anti-sintering additive and investigation of the effect of cost estimates for different feedstocks for E3 operation. There is a strong need for further research to be done focusing on the gaseous emissions encompassing the utilisation of grass and its mixtures with additives and other biofuels at high-temperature thermochemical systems.European Regional Development Fund (Eco-Innovation Cheshire and Warrington project
Dual-WGAN Ensemble Model for Alzheimer’s Dataset Augmentation with Minority Class Boosting
Get PDFCopyright © 2023, IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Deep learning models have become very efficient and robust for several computer vision applications. However, to harness the benefits of state-of-art deep networks in the realm of disease detection and prediction, it is crucial that high-quality datasets be made available for the models to train on. This work recognizes the lack of training data (both in terms of quality and quantity of images) for using such networks for the detection of Alzheimer’s Disease. To address this issue, a Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Network (WGAN) is proposed to generate synthetic images for augmentation of an existing Alzheimer brain image dataset. The proposed approach is successful in generating high-quality images for inclusion in the Alzheimer image dataset, potentially making the dataset more suitable for training high-end models. This paper presents a two-fold contribution: (i) a WGAN is first developed for augmenting the non-dominant class (i.e. Moderate Demented) of the Alzheimer image dataset to bring the sample count (for that class) at par with the other classes, and (ii) another lightweight WGAN is used to augment the entire dataset for increasing the sample counts for all classes
Advising Students on Qualifying Work Experience (QWE): The Careers Advisers’ Companion
Get PDFWith the introduction of the Solicitors’ Qualifying Exam (SQE) in September 2021, sweeping changes were made to the rules relating to qualifying as a solicitor, including the introduction of a period of two year’s Qualifying Work Experience (‘QWE’) which can be undertaken either before or after the candidate completes the SQE assessments and can be collected from up to four organisations, including law firms, law centres, charities, in-house legal teams, and university legal advice clinics.
The rules around QWE can be complex to decipher. Following discussions with stakeholders in this area, the authors published two research-informed peer-reviewed student guides to QWE. This Careers Advisers' Companion accompanies the student-facing guides and aims to provide Advisers with an overview of the most important issues to discuss with students when helping them to navigate the rules around QWE
Understanding Lived Experiences of Food Insecurity through a Paraliminality Lens
Get PDFMoraes, C., McEachern, M. G., Gibbons, A. and Scullion, L. (2021). Understanding lived experiences of food poverty through a paraliminality lens. Sociology, 55(6), 1169-1190. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385211003450. Copyright © [2021] (Copyright Holder). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.This article examines lived experiences of food insecurity in the United Kingdom as a liminal phenomenon. Our research is set within the context of austerity measures, welfare reform and the precarity experienced by increasing numbers of individuals. Drawing on original qualitative data, we highlight diverse food insecurity experiences as transitional, oscillating between phases of everyday food access to requiring supplementary food, which are both empowering and reinforcing of food insecurity. We make three original contributions to existing research on food insecurity. First, we expand the scope of empirical research by conceptualising food insecurity as liminal. Second, we illuminate shared social processes and practices that intersect individual agency and structure, co-constructing people’s experiences of food insecurity. Third, we extend liminality theory by conceptualising paraliminality, a hybrid of liminal and liminoid phenomena that co-generates a persistent liminal state. Finally, we highlight policy implications that go beyond short-term emergency food access measures
An Indirect supervision model : sharing good practice
Get PDFThis document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in [British Journal of Nursing], copyright © MA Education, after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see [https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/full/10.12968/bjon.2023.32.2.50].The University of Chester and the University of
Huddersfield are leading the way in driving the model’s implementation in practice, using a flexible bank of nurses to support learners in environments who do not have practice supervisors and practice assessors (PS and PA). Placement capacities have increased significantly using this model. In this commentary, we articulate the uniqueness of the model, and examine how structured uptake of this
innovative practice has been supported with inter-institutional dialogue, fostering a productive relationship between these two newly collaborative universities. Implementation of this model has established students’ opportunities to undertake innovative placements extending beyond the NHS, which promote
vital alternative, relevant, skillsets across diverse cultural and situational backgrounds
Brexit as a Trigger and an Obstacle to Onwards and Return Migration
Get PDFThis is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [Sredanovic, D. (2021). Brexit as a trigger and an obstacle to onwards and return migration. International Migration, 59(6), 93-108], which has been published in final form at [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/imig.12712]. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.In this article, using in-depth interviews with EU27 citizens residing in the UK and Britons residing in Belgium, I analyse the role of the Brexit process as both a trigger of and an obstacle to onward and return migration. Brexit implicates a reduction in the freedom of movement and settlement for both groups and has been linked to the increase of xenophobia and potential economic instability in the UK. In this context, both EU27 citizens in the UK and Britons in Belgium can consider onward or return migrations. However, the Brexit process introduces also obstacles to such migrations, including the loss of EU freedom of movement for UK citizens and complications for transnational and citizenship-divergent families. I argue that the realization of migration plans is mediated both by individual resources and by imaginations on the future of the UK and the EU
The tactics and strategies of naturalisation: UK and EU27 citizens in the context of Brexit
Get PDFThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies on 23/11/2020, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1844003Using in-depth interviews with British citizens in Belgium, British citizens in the UK who have explored applying for another citizenship and EU27 citizens in the UK, I explore how Brexit impacts decisions among the three groups on whether to apply for naturalisation. The Brexit process has introduced significant uncertainties about its outcome, its impact on the rights and mobility of the groups involved and, in the UK, about xenophobia and the economy. Most British interviewees have explored applying for the citizenship of an EU member state – including Belgium, but also Ireland, France or Italy – by residence, ancestry or marriage, in order to safeguard their rights. EU27 interviewees were more ambivalent about applying for UK citizenship, as citizenship would safeguard their rights, but they were uncertain about the desirability of remaining in the UK. I show that the uncertainties linked to the Brexit process make the naturalisation decision time-dependent, complex and uncertain. More generally, I propose to reconceptualise most naturalisation decisions as contingent, tentative and uncertain tactics, rather than well-calculated and foreseeable strategies
Children and young peoples’ lyrics and voices capturing their experiences within Youth Justice Services
Get PDFThis author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) licence. This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please contact [email protected] research explored the perceptions of young people within two Youth Justice Services (YJS) during the covid-19 pandemic, captured using arts-based methods: lyric writing with an artist. This approach allowed participants to lead and voice their experiences in a more creative and participatory way than traditional methods. Through their lyrics, the young people articulated their perceptions of self which differed from how they felt others saw them. The value of relationships with practitioners and those outside the service were also explored. The benefits of the methods, to participants pro-social identity, and how they might be further employed across YJS are also discussed
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