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In vitro assessment for biodegradable and biocompatible neuroelectronics
No full textAbstract not currently available
Multi-stakeholder market orientation and museum performance: the role of innovation
Get PDFThis study introduces a novel multi-stakeholder approach to market orientation, tailored for non-profit museums, addressing the unique demands of cultural institutions operating within resource-constrained environments, such as those in Indonesia. Recognising that effective market orientation requires more than a narrow focus on customers and competitors, this research expands the scope to include a broad range of stakeholders, such as donors, volunteers, visitors, and community partners, integrating them into strategic planning to foster adaptability, innovation, and socio-economic impact.
Using a Sequential Exploratory Design (SED), the study began with a systematic literature review to identify critical constructs within market orientation, viewed through stakeholder theory. In the qualitative phase, in-depth interviews with museum stakeholders helped develop a framework that highlights the influence of diverse stakeholder relationships on market orientation. These insights led to hypotheses regarding the mediating role of innovation in the relationship between multi-stakeholder market orientation (MSMO) and performance, particularly in the non-profit context. In the quantitative phase, a survey tested these hypotheses, demonstrating that innovation serves as a crucial intermediary, translating MSMO into measurable performance improvements.
Key findings suggest that innovation mediates the relationship between MSMO and performance, enhancing museums' ability to meet stakeholder expectations and improve service delivery. Additionally, integrating MSMO with brand orientation (BO) strengthened stakeholder engagement, brand consistency, and mission alignment, supporting socio-economic impact and institutional resilience. This alignment enables museums to establish stakeholder trust, differentiate their brand, and achieve mission-aligned performance outcomes.
This study introduces MSMO as a strategic framework and offers practical guidance for museum leaders in Indonesia and similar developing markets. It demonstrates that a balanced approach incorporating both social objectives and economic sustainability can position museums as resilient, community-centred cultural institutions. These findings advance the literature on strategic orientations in nonprofits and underscore the roles of MSMO and BO in enhancing museum performance and innovation
Exploring headteachers’ and fathers’ roles in creating and sustaining school– family partnerships: a study in Dammam City, Saudi Arabia
No full textSchool‒family partnerships are essential for improving students' academic performance and strengthening school‒family connections. The importance of these partnerships in enhancing educational outcomes is underscored, especially with a focus on the roles of teachers and head teachers in student engagement. These partnerships significantly impact families, particularly their interactions with children at home and in educational settings. School leadership is pivotal in fostering these partnerships because of its capacity to coordinate efforts, allocate resources, and set a unified vision, thereby achieving positive outcomes for families, teachers, and students. While families and teachers play key roles, structured support and guidance from headteachers may ensure cohesive and effective collaboration.
This study investigates the importance of school-family partnerships from the perspectives of fathers and headteachers in Saudi Arabia, addressing potential challenges at both the national and international levels. Additionally, it examines the role of head teachers in cultivating effective school-family partnerships, highlighting their crucial contribution as per findings from this PhD study. The study took place in Dammam city, Eastern Region, Saudi Arabia, viaa qualitative methodology. Data were collected via semistructured individual interviews with nine headteachers and four focus group discussions involving fathers. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data from both the interviews and the focus group discussions.
The findings show that both fathers and headteachers valued school-family partnerships for children's benefits. However, headteachers face obstacles such as a lack of authority, high centralisation in the education system, and inadequate training in school-family partnerships. Fathers encountered issues such as limited time due to job commitments and a lack of experience with home teaching. These conclusions emphasise the need for tailored strategies to enhance school-family partnerships and the crucial role of school leadership, which is consistent with the literature and the unique dynamics in the Saudi Arabian education syste
In a bind: targeting PfCLK3 with covalent kinase inhibitors for the treatment of malaria
No full textAbstract not currently available
Investigating NF1 copy number loss in high-grade serous carcinoma of the ovary
No full textAbstract not currently available
High throughput characterisation of calcium dynamics for single cell functional phenotyping
Get PDFCell mechanosensitivity is the ability of cells to feel and respond to their surrounding environment, and it plays a crucial role in regulating various physiological processes, including proliferation, differentiation, migration, and apoptosis. Mechanosensitive ion channels are key players in the cellular response to mechanical stimuli. Upon their activation, Ca2+ ions enter the cell and trigger downstream signalling pathways. Therefore, tracking of Ca2+ signalling appears to be a reliable readout of mechanosensitive activity.
However, current methods for mechanosensitivity assessment have low throughput and are not easily applied to large studies or clinical settings. This thesis aimed to address this limitation by creating a device for real-time monitoring of Ca2+ signalling in high-throughput. For this purpose, microfluidics were used as a platform for the device development and cells were stained with a calcium-sensitive dye to facilitate the detection of the calcium influx upon stimulation.
Initially, to understand the operational parameters, the device was tested by chemically stimulating a cell line. Both the chemical stimulant and the cell sample were inserted into the microfluidic device by syringe pumps with a constant flow rate. Upon contact with the chemical stimulant, the cells were probed in different areas of the microfluidic device with a laser source. It was shown that the flow rate and the laser power affect the produced signal, so both experimental parameters should be carefully chosen.
After confirming that Ca2+ signalling could be tracked in real time and with high throughput using microfluidics, newly designed devices were introduced to apply mechanical stimulation to the cells. These microfluidic devices featured constrictions within the channels, allowing cells to be mechanically compressed as they passed through. To assess cellular responses, cells were labelled with a calcium-sensitive dye and exposed to a laser source to enable fluorescence-based detection of Ca2+ signalling. The results showed that both the magnitude and type of mechanical force influenced the cellular response, with those subjected to gentler constrictions exhibiting significantly higher responses than those subjected to more extreme compression.
Finally, stem cell mechanosensitivity and how this is affected by ageing was investigated. Human mesenchymal stem cells were aged on purpose using either physical or chemical methods. Senescent markers confirmed the ageing induction since all senescent cells are aged. Then, the aged stem cells were subjected to mechanical and chemical stimulation to assess their responsiveness. Real-time qPCR and in-cell western tests showed decreased responsiveness to either stimulation. However, some compensatory mechanisms were observed at the posttranscriptional level.
Overall, this study demonstrates that high-throughput microfluidic platforms can effectively monitor cellular mechanosensitivity through Ca2+ signalling. It was shown that both chemical and mechanical stimulations produce measurable responses in cells. The modified responsiveness observed in aged stem cells highlights the critical contribution of mechanosensitive pathways to cellular ageing
The principle (or the notion) of accountable judiciary (or holding judges to account): A comparative study of Saudi Arabia and the U.K. (or English) laws
No full textAbstract not currently available
Gastric disease, the intestinal microbiome, and stress and welfare in Thoroughbred horses in training
No full textAbstract not currently available
Being and becoming an Irish primary school principal: a view from the inside
Get PDFThe prevailing negative perception of the role of the primary school Principal in Ireland set against the articulation by so many Principals of their love and enjoyment of the role was the impetus for this study. The reasons why Irish Principals appreciate their position and celebrate their achievements are explored while the benefits and the challenges of Principalship are highlighted. The study also examines the many complexities of the role and how both the benefits and challenges can be influenced by effective distributed or collaborative leadership.
With a view to understanding primary Principalship further, the circumstances of recruitment to the role are interrogated to determine the various pathways to the role and the emotional development of the person of the leader is explored with respect to their evolution as Principal. The manner in which recruitment and emotional development influences the benefits and challenges of Principalship is investigated as is the essential nature of quality professional learning and bespoke system supports. Four policy documents provide a contextual framework for the study: School Self-Evaluation DE (DE, 2022a), the Looking at our School Quality Framework for Leadership and Management (LAOS, 2022), External Evaluation (DE, 2024a) and Circular 44/19, the leadership and management framework for leadership positions in Irish schools (DES, 2019).
Framed in an interpretivist paradigm, this empirical study used fifteen semi-structured interviews to collect the data which was analysed using thematic analysis to generate the research findings. The findings suggest that the benefits of Principalship are not sufficiently showcased or explored in either the literature or the professional learning provided for Principals. Secondly, the complexities of the role are well documented, and the findings advocate for the potential of effective distributed leadership with a focus on the development of the person of the leader to manage these complexities. Through the lens of the newly appointed Principal’s position, the data indicates the much-misunderstood circumstances of recruitment and their potential to significantly influence the benefits and challenges of the role. Additionally, the data points to the importance of bespoke professional learning to address the emotional development of the Principal and to guide and support newly appointed Principals, particularly in relation to shadowing, hand-over and practice-based programmes. Finally, this study’s findings highlight a significant level of disconnect between the Irish education system and the day-to-day lived experiences of primary Principals. Accordingly, the study suggests that the time is right for practitioners, policy makers, and educational stakeholders to listen more carefully to each other and to work more collaboratively together to ensure that the role of the Irish primary Principal is made more sustainable, more rewarding and, ultimately, more attractive to aspiring leaders
Hydrogel based smart bandage for chronic wound healing
Get PDFWound healing is one of the most complex natural processes[1] ; it requires the spatial and temporal synchronisation of different types of cells with distinct roles in the overlapping stages of haemostasis, inflammation, re-epithelialisation and remodelling. Most acute wounds can undergo regular self-healing and recover to intact tissue in a few weeks. Dysregulated wound repair events will lead to delayed healing and develop into chronic wounds, which tend to stall in the inflammation phase even for several months. Thus, timely and effective wound management during the healing process is of great significance for defencing bacterial infection and improving tissue healing. Skin wound repair requires the coordination of various host cells, which are also mediated by occupied microorganisms in the wound ecosystem. Therefore, appropriate management of bacterial contamination without disturbing the supportive host cells is crucial for chronic wound site treatment; very few works have been done in this field.
In this work, we have developed a visible light polymerised hydrogel with a semiconductor material doping, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) material, which acts as both initiator and reinforcer in the hydrogel polymerisation system. This work aims to provide an effective hydrogel system that can be used as a chronic wound healing bandage with desirable properties of wound site management patches[2] , such as good biocompatibility, better conformity, and suitable water vapour exchange. The successful development of such a new hydrogel can be significant in point-of-care devices. Quantitative reactive oxygen species (ROS) can be formed from our visible light-activated hydrogel system in a controllable manner; it can effectively inactive different bacterial strains. In alignment with the urgent demand for a solution to antimicrobial resistance (AMR)[3] , our photocatalytic-generated ROS can realise bacterial killing without drug inducement. In particular, g-C3N4 hydrogel system can selectively kill bacteria over mammalian cells in the co-existed environment; this work provides insights into the novel chronic wound management method that can stop the bacterial infection and restore the host cell environment through the homeostasis regulation using strictly controlled redox biological process[4] . In parallel, this system can also destroy the compact biofilm to break the being seriously hindered healing process. The results of this thesis suggested that our developed g-C3N4 hydrogel system can be used as a promising chronic wound healing bandage material; it can effectively break the biofilm covering for wound healing sequences initiation and improving the healing process by ROS participation, realising bacterial infection elimination but also shaping the host immune response to against future invasions by signalling pathways transduction.
In all, our g-C3N4 hydrogel platform provides a promising concept that ROS released from the photocatalyst-doped hydrogel can successfully be used for complex chronic wound environment regulation, and visible light irradiation also gives an opportunity for wearable device development
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