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Feasibility of Cerebellar Stimulation for the Treatment of Post-Stroke Dysphagia
Get PDFPost-stroke dysphagia (PSD) is common and associated with poor outcomes. We aimed to explore the feasibility, safety, and proof of concept of cerebellar rTMS in patients with sub-acute PSD. We intended to recruit 48 participants with PSD. Randomised to: (i) sham treatment twice-daily for five days, (ii) cerebellar rTMS daily for three days, and (iii) cerebellar rTMS twice-daily for five days (1:1:1). Participants were blinded to treatment group. Primary outcomes were feasibility, safety, and functional outcome intake scale (FOIS), dysphagia severity rating scale (DSRS), and feeding status scale (FSS) at two weeks. However, due to lower-than-expected enrolment, the active rTMS groups were combined. We recruited 14 participants in total, (mean 68 years, 57% female). Due to the time-limited funding period, recruitment was adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. DSRS and FSS trended lower in the combined active rTMS groups at two weeks, i.e. less swallowing impairment. However, at death/discharge FOIS was higher/better (mean, (standard deviation)), 4.0 (2.1) vs. 1.8 (1.0) (p = 0.032) with active TMS, with trends to lower/better DSRS and FSS. There was no difference in the acceptability of treatment between groups. High-intensity (n = 5) vs. low-intensity (n = 5) cerebellar rTMS was associated with lower DSRS 3.0 (1.4) vs. 9.4 (2.7) and FSS 0.6 (0.5) vs. 1.6 (0.5) at 2 weeks, and DSRS 3.0 (1.4) vs. 9.0 (3.7) at hospital discharge or death. Cerebellar rTMS is a feasible ward-based treatment for reducing swallowing impairment. Although enrolment was lower than desired, there was evidence for proof of concept, particularly for high-intensity cerebellar rTMS. Larger studies are warranted
Necropolitics and geography
Get PDFThis paper reviews the rapidly growing body of geographical work on necropolitics. We argue that thinking carefully and spatially with and about necropolitics is useful for analysing widespread and uneven racialised suffering, particularly relating to the environment and borders. However, we note and caution against a tendency towards the ‘necro-everything’ and the ‘everything-necro’, which can both overstate and understate the role of death, potentially depoliticising necropolitical analyses. We therefore argue that focus should be placed on Mbembe’s contrapuntal theorisation and that future research should foreground how the spatiality of necropolitics emerges from its engagement with race, coloniality, and resistance
Gatekeepers of knowledge production on higher education: journal editorial board networks and working practices
Get PDFExecutive summaryThis research project explored scholarly production and gatekeeping in the field of higher education, building on our earlier work exploring sociology journals (Brown et al., 2025). Throughout the report we present our methodological approaches in detail, and outline some of the preliminary findings from the three interrelated approaches. Research approaches•Given our sampling was limited to journals indexed by Scimago and published in English, our findings only cover outlets that are predominantly in the Global North.•A snapshot of editorial board membership (from March 2024) is used to explore geographical patterns (N=1776) and editorial board interlocking (N=179). •We present a brief content analysis of the journal aims and scope statements (N=58), focusing on the notions of ‘quality’ and ‘internationality’ (from March 2025). •Finally, we discuss the initial findings drawing on semi-structured interviews with journal editorial members (N=15) across a range of case study journals (collected between October 2024 and March 2025). Key findings •Looking at the geographical spread of editorial board networks shows that two-thirds of all editorial board members, as well as a similar ratio of interlocked board members (sitting on two or more editorial boards) are located in just three countries, with the primacy of the US, UK and Australia holding across journal rankings as well. •Taylor & Francis is by far the biggest publisher in the field, with Springer and Emerald also publishing important outlets on higher education. •Higher Education displays the highest degree centrality from amongst all journals (on the shortest paths across the network); whereas Teaching in Higher Education displays the highest number of network connections. •The journal aims and scope statements are relatively uniform, with a third delineating some sort of specialism for their journal, and a third marking their outlet as explicitly international / global. •Through the editorial board member interviews we have seen the juxtaposition of focusing on scholarly versus teaching / learning practice aspects of higher education. Further, the notions of quality and diversity are often seen to be in tension. •Recruitment to editorial boards takes into account a range of criteria, including scholarly standing and potential to act as ambassador to journal; commitment to the field and broader community; expertise (thematic, conceptual and methodological); as well as diversity on personal characteristics and geography. •The interlinked motivators for editorial board members are to give back to the scholarly community; to keep up with developments in the field; and use this as a signal for scholarly prestige
Betalain-containing foods and their antitumoral potential: A comprehensive review of in vitro and in vivo evidence
Get PDFBackgroundThe plant pigments betalains have emerged as a family of compounds with nutraceutical potential due to the growing scientific evidence demonstrating their antitumoral capacity.Scope and approachThe present work aims to analyze decades of studies in this field, summarizing and critically reviewing these investigations, and examining their limitations and areas for improvement.Key findings and conclusionsAfter compiling the information, beetroot (Beta vulgaris) was highlighted as the most widely used source of betalains, followed by prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica). The most studied tumors were those of the colon and breast, investigated using both in vitro (cell lines) and in vivo (rodents) models. Pure betanin was used in vitro at concentrations ranging from 1 to 80 μM in the studies, and the overall results showed a reduction in malignant cells of up to 65%. Betalains can modulate apoptosis by activating caspases, enhancing their antitumoral potential. However, the excessive use of extracts with a low degree of reported purity makes it difficult to identify the effects attributed to specific betalains. Future studies should prioritize the use of pure, structurally characterized betalains to identify their individual contributions to anticancer effects. Nevertheless, the numerous pieces of current evidence of the antitumoral potential of betalains collected in this work support the possible application of these compounds for the prevention and/or treatment of cancer
Assessment of Vault Particles in Cancer Cell Line‐Derived Extracellular Vesicle Preparations
Get PDFExtracellular vesicles (EVs) may contain a variety of molecular cargo, including proteins and nucleic acids. Vault particle components have been repeatedly reported in the literature as EV cargo. Here, we demonstrated that vault RNA (vtRNA) and major vault protein (MVP) were highly abundant in EV pellets enriched by differential centrifugation (DC) by qPCR and western blotting, respectively. RNase and proteinase treatment of DC-derived pellets demonstrated that most vtRNA and MVP were not enclosed and protected within an EV membrane. Vault-like particles were visualised in 100k DC pellets by cryo-transmission electron microscopy. EVs were enriched by size exclusion chromatography, and western blotting of individual fractions showed co-elution of EV markers and vault particle proteins. Immunocapture of EVs post-ultracentrifugation (100k DC pellet) showed co-purification of MVP, whereas EVs isolated by direct immunocapture from conditioned medium were MVP-negative. The current study highlights the importance of determining the topology of putative EV-associated components to determine if they are EV cargo or contaminants that have been co-purified
Exploring patient and professional perspectives on implementing pharmacogenomic testing in the UK primary care setting and estimating the cost-effectiveness: a mixed-methods study protocol
Get PDFIntroduction: Pharmacogenomic testing could potentially reduce the number of adverse drug reactions and improve treatment outcomes through tailoring treatment to an individual’s genetic makeup. Despite its benefits and the ambitions to integrate into routine care, the implementation of pharmacogenomic testing in primary care settings remains limited. This study aims to qualitatively explore the views of healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients on implementing pharmacogenomic testing in the UK National Health Service (NHS) primary care setting and to estimate the cost-effectiveness of service-delivery implementation by comparing different HCPs’ models of care.Method: This study consists of three workstreams (WS). WS1 is semi-structured interviews with General Practitioners, pharmacists, nurses and patients (24 participants) to explore implementation issues, including the perceived barriers and facilitators to delivering a pharmacogenomic service. WS2 consists of focus groups (between 24–36 participants) with genomic experts to develop practical pharmacogenomic-guided clinical pathways for primary care. WS3 will estimate the cost-effectiveness of implementing pharmacogenomic testing when led by different HCPs incorporating parameters from the literature, expert opinions, as well as data from WS1 and WS2.Analysis: Thematic analysis will be used to analyse the qualitative data from WS1 and WS2, mapping findings onto the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research domains, which will also be used as the theoretical framework. WS3 will be a decision-analytic model developed in Microsoft Excel to compare the cost-effectiveness of pharmacist-led, GP-led, nurse-led or multidisciplinary pathways.Ethics and dissemination: This study has been approved by the NHS Health Research Authority and Health and Care Research Wales (24/PR/1088). Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and engagement with NHS policymakers and Genomics England
DICOM datasets for reproducible neuroimaging research across manufacturers and software versions
Get PDFDICOM is an industry-standard for medical imaging data targeted at interoperability across systems. This enables transfer, storage and processing of imaging data regardless of the manufacturer. Pragmatically, manufacturers often store detailed acquisition parameters in private rather than public DICOM tags. In parallel, the DICOM standard itself has gradually evolved by introducing new public tags and properties to better capture emerging imaging technologies. Accurately extracting these details is essential for reproducible neuroimaging research. To address this need, we created a series of DICOM datasets illustrating how various manufacturers encode acquisition details that are critical for modern processing and analysis. These minimal test cases, covering CT and MR modalities, highlight manufacturer-specific conventions, including the use of public tags, private tags, and proprietary data structures. For each DICOM dataset, we provide corresponding NIfTI-formatted images with metadata JSON files following the BIDS standard, using consistent terminology to mitigate variations in how manufacturers encode acquisition details. Our repository provides validation datasets for any tool that is intended to extract acquisition details from medical imaging data
Chemical looping combustion of low-volatile semi-anthracite coal with Co-based metal oxide: Performances, kinetics, and mechanisms
Get PDFThe kinetics of Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) using Co3O4 as an oxygen carrier for low-volatile semi-anthracite coal were studied with the aim of integrating CO2 capture into the combustion process. The effectiveness of varying temperature regimes (800–950 °C) and oxygen carrier ratios (ϕ = 0.5–2.0) on the CLC process was evaluated. The findings indicate a distinct two-stage combustion sequence: initially, the combustion of volatiles with solid Co3O4 occurs between 460 and 650 °C, followed by the combustion of fixed carbon with gas-phase oxygen released from Co3O4 between 750 and 950 °C. Moreover, the activation energy for volatile combustion was found to be 82 kJ/mol, while for fixed carbon combustion during the non-isothermal stage, it ranged from 31 to 140 kJ/mol. During the isothermal stage, the activation energy for fixed carbon combustion was approximately 234 kJ/mol, with a reaction rate constant (k₀) of 3.7 × 108 s⁻1. The kinetics varied from diffusion-controlled reactions at lower temperatures to first-order or phase-boundary-controlled reactions, and then to Avrami-Erofeev modeled kinetics at higher temperatures, influenced by both temperature and oxygen carrier ratios. This pioneering study provides a comprehensive analysis of the multi-stage kinetics of solid fuel CLC, bridging gaps in current knowledge and laying the groundwork for improved design and efficiency of CLC systems for cleaner energy conversion
On the GL(2n) eigenvariety: branching laws, Shalika families and p-adic L-functions
No full textIn this paper, we prove that a GL(2n)-eigenvariety is étale over the (pure) weight space at non-critical Shalika points, and construct multi-variable p-adic L-functions varying over the resulting Shalika components. Our constructions hold in tame level 1 and Iwahori level at p, and give p-adic variation of L-values (of regular algebraic cuspidal automorphic representations of GL(2n) admitting Shalika models) over the whole pure weight space. In the case of GL(4), these results have been used by Loeffler and Zerbes to prove cases of the Bloch–Kato conjecture for GSp(4).Our main innovations are: (a) the introduction and systematic study of ‘Shalika refinements’ of local representations of GL(2n), and evaluation of their attached local twisted zeta integrals; and (b) the p-adic interpolation of representation-theoretic branching laws for GL(n) × GL(n) inside GL(2n). Using (b), we give a construction of multi-variable p-adic functionals on the overconvergent cohomology groups for GL(2n), interpolating the zeta integrals of (a). We exploit the resulting non-vanishing of these functionals to prove our main arithmetic applications
Addressing the global data imbalance of contaminants of emerging concern in the context of the United Nations sustainable development goals
Get PDFContaminants of emerging concern (CEC) pose a significant global threat due to the ecotoxicological and human health risk they pose. Therefore, it is urgent that this pollution challenge is effectively addressed. Addressing CEC pollution is directly linked to several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), in particular SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 14: Life Below Water and SDG 15: Life on Land and SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being. However, tackling this global issue is hindered by the fact that there is considerably more CEC data available for the Global North than South. Utilising research on Global North situated pollutants and impacts may lead to strategies that are inappropriate and even detrimental to the Global South, with differing pollution profiles and/or environmental risk. In addition, to effectively address pollution, efforts must equitably include the views and knowledge of the diverse communities around the globe, given that pollution does not respect political borders. Therefore, it is essential to involve as many stakeholders as possible and to explicitly acknowledge the impact that global resource inequalities have on this data imbalance. While it may not be feasible to include everyone, prioritizing diversity and the representation of diverse perspectives helps to mitigate biases and address existing disparities more fairly. This paper examines the critical importance of meaningfully including Indigenous Peoples and local communities in CEC research and outlines specific actionable recommendations to facilitate their inclusion throughout the research process. Drawing on best practices in equity, diversity, and inclusion, the discussion emphasizes the necessity of collaborative approaches that respect indigenous and local communities' rights and self-determination. This is not only a matter of social justice but a necessity for acquiring representative global data and developing effective and equitable pollution governance frameworks. Specific recommendations to achieve this aim are made in four key areas for scientists and policy makers working on CECs: (1) Understanding the context and adapting sampling processing and analysis accordingly; (2) respectful and equitable collaborations, ensuring Indigenous Peoples and local communities views are respected; (3) funding and mechanisms for fair and equitable collaborations, recognition and transparency; and (4) sensitive language and narrative use, where we argue that the language used within CEC research and policy must be carefully considered to address the underpinning discourse based on capitalist and colonial ideals which sustains the global CEC data imbalance. This will lead to more globally comprehensive data that in turn informs more equitable global policy to address CEC pollution
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