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Development of the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model to assess tumour growth and drug response in osteosarcoma and bladder cancer
No full textThe prognosis for cancer patients with metastasis remains generally low, prompting research into understanding the different metastatic pathways and testing novel chemotherapeutical agents. While the traditional in vivo mouse models have been widely used in research, they are often expensive and time- intensive, leading researchers to explore alternative models. This study aims to optimize and apply the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay, an innovative, cost-effective in ovo model that allows visualisation of tumour growth in an in vivo-like environment while minimising animal suffering. While CAM studies have shown promise in osteosarcoma research, their application in bladder cancer (BC) remain limited. This study examines the growth patterns of two BC cell lines (T24 and SCaBER) alongside an osteosarcoma cell line (HOS-143B) using the CAM model. Additionally, BC cell behaviour was assessed in a bone-like environment, simulated using a NuOSS scaffold, and compared to a non-bone-like extracellular matrix. Furthermore, a STAT3 inhibitor (STAT3-IN-1) will be applied to HOS-143B cells to evaluate its effects on tumour growth and behaviour in an in vivo-like setting.
In this study, the CAM assay was conducted over a 13-day period, resulting in tumour formation for all three cell lines when using the NuOSS scaffold with a cell density of 2x10⁶ cells per egg. Haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining confirmed tumour growth in all cell lines. HOS-143B exhibited the most robust proliferation, characterised by basophilic nuclei, acidophilic cytoplasm and vascularisation. In contrast, BC cell lines demonstrated slower proliferation and localised invasion, likely due to the bone scaffold not being their native environment but only a site of metastasis. In STAT3-IN-1 treated HOS-143B samples, histological analysis revealed reduced tumour cells proliferation and vascularisation, supporting the inhibitor’s anti-angiogenic effects. In contrast, the use of Matrigel as a scaffold posed significant challenges, with dispersal of the gel within the CAM limiting visualisation and extraction, resulting in a lack of consistent tumour formation.
This study demonstrates the CAM assay's efficacy in assessing tumour growth and drug responses, with the NuOSS scaffold emerging as particularly effective for establishing tumours. Despite its sensitivity to environmental variability and the labour-intensive nature of the technique, the CAM assay offers significant advantages. Selecting an appropriate scaffold is especially crucial, as it supports cell growth and closely replicates the native tumour environment. These findings emphasize the CAM model's potential as a valuable tool in cancer research, providing meaningful insights into the proliferative and invasive behaviours of cancer cells across varied microenvironments
Co-creation and user value in the smart city digital sharing economy: perspectives of expatriates in Dubai, UAE
Get PDFThis study sets out to investigate what the perception of expatriate residents of the smart city of Dubai are in relation to value from co-created services and the sharing economy and how value-in-use is perceived. The study addresses gaps in the current body of knowledge relating to value co-creation in the public sector, as much of the current research is focused on commercial value co-creation. Additionally, the current body of knowledge is focused on the global North, with little focus on the Gulf region and more specifically Dubai. This research also addresses gaps in the literature around expatriates, which is currently focused largely on the assimilation of expatriate talent to their new roles within a workplace environment, rather than looking at the impact their new wider environment is having on them.
This research was undertaken through a sequential mixed method approach, firstly conducting semi structured interviews using a thematic analysis to draw out key value creation themes. These themes and existing literature were used to create a conceptual model which was tested via an online questionnaire and analysed using structural equation modelling. Twenty-two UAE based expatriates took part in the interview stage, this group contains a mixture of ages, genders, country of origins and professions to provide a breadth of experiences. For this reason a purposeful sample was used. The quantitative stage adopted a convenience sample of 482 expatriates to provide a large group with which to examine the value creation phenomena.
The findings from the thematic analysis yielded four overarching themes in relation to value co- creation, these were information exchange, convenience, touchpoints, and experience. These factors coupled with the existing four dimensions of value. This offers new evidence in relation to smart cities and expatriates, while adding to confidence in the existing four dimensions concept. Sixteen hypotheses were drawn from the existing literature and qualitative study for testing with a larger group, all hypotheses were found to be both significant and positive. This provides evidence that information exchange, convenience, touchpoints, and experience have a significant and positive impact on value creation, mediated by the four dimensions of value creation, to create perceived service value in the smart city context for expatriate residents. This work has provided a new framework for examining public sector value co-creation in relation to expatriates, enabling scholars to examine this phenomenon within other public service environments and with expatriates and non-expatriate groups. Additionally, this work aids city managers in both the construction and ongoing development of smart cities, ensuring that they implement activities related to information sharing, convenience, touchpoints and the experience, to improve ongoing co-created value and overall perceived service value
Elizabeth Fry: ‘The Angel of Prisons’: The story of prison reformer Elizabeth Fry as told by those incarcerated in Newgate Prison
No full textThree prisoners have a story to tell. It's the story of
Elizabeth Fry and how she changed prisons forever.
But this is not a history lesson. You'll hear both
contemporary and historical language. You'll see both
modern-day and period mashup costumes. Because
the question remains the same today as it did in
Elizabeth Fry's time: does prison actually work?
Elizabeth Fry is forever linked to Newham because
she and her husband lived from 1829 to 1845 in Upton
Lane House, West Ham. In addition to her prison work,
she was a regular visitor at gypsy encampments in
Plashet, dispensing food, clothing and medicine to the
local Gypsy and Irish communities.
The Angel of Prisons is the latest instalment in Newham
Plays, a series of site-specific, localist-focussed plays rooted in Newham's history, culture and people, created and written by James Kenworth
Science fiction illustration
No full textThis chapter looks at the science fiction illustration's development as a global phenomenon from the late C19th to the present. The chapter considers typical processes in the production of science fiction illustrations, and includes discussion of science fiction illustration produced outside the Anglophone context
The covert and overt role of art in landscape partnership
Get PDFAlthough in recent history the arts have received substantial attention as a conduit for memorable artworks to draw attention to issues that may be coincidental to the artists original intention, this does not acknowledge the arts as equal partner in a shared enterprise but more to facilitate the accessibility of difficult concepts. This essay explores the capability for the visual arts to increase understanding of issues as disparate as the loss of rural landscape to urban development and the incremental effects of sea level rise upon coastal communities. With increased specialisation of disciplinary practice there is an incapacity to address the multi-dimensional character of practical challenges, particularly in the matter of the societal impacts of environmental change. This demands greater flexibility in approach to policy and an understanding that the increasing frequency of unforeseen events beg the question of our cultural preparedness to evolve a new paradigm for knowledge sharing
Translating the woman warrior: kung fu cinema, self-defence and feminism in the 1970s
No full textThis paper looks at the take-up of martial arts imagery within second-wave feminist debates on violence and self-defence in the UK and America in the wake of the ‘kung fu craze’ of the early 1970s. Drawing on a long iconography of women warriors in Chinese martial literature, theatre and cinema and with magnetic performances by stars such as Angela Mao, Cheng Pei-pei and Hsu Feng, these films introduced startling images of women empowered to fight on equal terms with men. However, I argue that their reception in the new context of American and British feminism involved an act of ‘translation’, whereby these images were mapped onto a set of existing debates and concerns about gender, violence and self-defence perhaps quite alien to the films themselves and the histories that produced them. In wuxia movies and novels, women warriors often fight not to defend themselves but simply because (like their male counterparts) they are, as warriors, concerned with the business of the martial world. And whilst in Euro-American traditions, self-defence is primarily envisioned in individual terms, motifs of self-defence in Hong Kong cinema are often filtered through ideas of collective defence and the experience of colonialism. Although in both China and the West, ‘self-defence’ is imagined in terms that gender ‘Asianicity’ feminine, the implications of this are very different. To analyse the nature of this act of translation (and the unfolding of post–kung fu debates on women’s self defence), I look in particular at two editions of the seminal British feminist magazine Spare Rib where the topic was discussed at length, one from October 1973 and the other from February 1977. These articulated an ambivalent relation to media-inspired fantasies of martial arts as they grappled with complex questions about gender and violence, and what might constitute an appropriate feminist position with regard to this
Constituency service and representation in Chile: the effects of remoteness and social deprivation
Get PDFThis note examines and tests the determinants of constituency service in the Chilean Chamber of Deputies. We argue that socio-demographic factors lead towards differences in the provision of constituency service. We use a new data set of meetings between legislators, constituents, and groups to provide evidence for two main hypotheses. First, Chilean deputies from more remote districts devote a higher proportion of their meetings to addressing local or personal issues from constituents (Centre-Periphery Hypothesis). Second, deputies from districts in worse socio-economic situations also provide relatively more constituency services of this type (Social Deprivation Hypothesis)
Effects of physical training and associations between physical performance characteristics and golf performance in female players: a systematic review with meta-analysis
Get PDFThe aims of this systematic review were to assess the association between physical performance and measures of golf performance, and the effects of physical training on measures of golf performance, in female golfers. A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, SPORTDiscus, Medline, and Cinahl. Inclusion criteria required studies to: 1) have conducted a physical training intervention of any duration in female players and determined the effects on measures of golf performance, 2) determined the association between physical performance in at least one test and golf performance in female players, and 3) be peer-reviewed and published in English language. Methodological quality was assessed using a modified version of the Downs and Black Quality Index tool, and heterogeneity was examined via the Q statistic and I 2. Pooled effect sizes were calculated using SMD (with 95% CI's) within a random-effects model, with Egger's regression test used to assess small study bias (inclusive of publication bias). Of the 2,378 articles screened, only 9 were included in the final review, with 3 of these being associative by design and 6 being training interventions. From an associative standpoint, clubhead speed (CHS) was reported in all 3 studies and was associated with measures of strength (r = 0.54), lower body power (r = 0.60), upper body power (r = 0.56-0.57), and flexibility (r = 0.52-0.71). When assessing the effects of physical training interventions, CHS was again the most commonly reported golf outcome measure (n = 5). The random effect model indicated that CHS significantly improves within each training group following training interventions (SMD = 0.73 [95% CI's: 0.32, 1.14], Z = 3.50, p < 0.001), with trivial heterogeneity (I 2 = 0.00%, Q = 0.18; p = 0.9963) and no prevalence of small study bias depicted via the Egger's regression test (z =-0.28, p = 0.78). From the available research, it seems that CHS can be positively impacted from strength, power and flexibility training interventions. From an associative standpoint, only three studies have been conducted solely in female players, with one showcasing questionable methodology. Future research should aim to carefully select test measures which better represent the physical capacities needed for the sport when determining the effects of and relationships with golf performance
Determining the model of tourism business district (TBD) in coastal resorts: a case study of Turkey
Get PDFCoastal resorts, whose dominant economic activities are those of providing an array of recreational services to tourists, reflect this specialization in their land-use patterns. Therefore, the business districts in coastal resorts have a unique morphology, landscape, and land use. However, the literature reflects that there is limited attention to the tourism business districts (TBDs) that have developed in coastal resorts. Moreover, few empirical studies have been conducted in developing countries, such as Thailand, China, and Turkey, as well as developed ones such as United States, Canada, and Italy. This study discusses the TBDs located in Turkey’s coastal resorts in terms of location, form, and function. The findings are presented statistically, and detailed maps are presented to explain the TBDs from a geographical and practical perspective. In this study, ArcGIS 10.5 software has been used to perform spatial analysis of the data. The main findings include that Turkish TBDs have similar characteristics in terms of location, form, and function compared to other coastal resorts worldwide. Therefore, it is possible to say that these similar features constitute a model in terms of land use. In addition, the statistical findings of the study are largely similar to those found in the literature
"That's bang out of order, mate!": Gendered and racialized micro‐practices of disadvantage and privilege in UK business schools
Get PDFThe existence of gendered and racialized inequalities in academia has been well documented. To date, research has primarily addressed the intersectional disadvantages faced by members of minority groups with much less attention paid to the privileges experienced by dominant group members. This paper draws on 21 interviews and 36 audio‐diary entries completed by a diverse group of senior higher education leaders who have successfully navigated the career ladder in UK business schools. By juxtaposing minority with dominant group members' narratives, the study advances intersectionality research, offering a contextualized analysis of the micro‐practices of both disadvantage and privilege in academia. Through a focus on how micro‐practices perform differently for members of different groups, it foregrounds “obvious” as well as nuanced differences that contribute to the accumulation of disadvantage and privilege throughout an individual's career and emphasizes simultaneity as crucial to understanding the workings of gendered and racialized disadvantage and privilege