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The effects of herbal extracts and compounds on the glucose metabolism in Hep G2 cells
Get PDFThe aim of this study is to explore the effects of phyto-derived secondary metabolites and extracts on glucose metabolism in Hep G2 cellular models. The primary objective of this project is to evaluate and compare the metabolic activities of Hep G2 cells after treatment with pure compounds phloretin, ouabain, berberine, and metformin, rebaudioside-A, and extracts of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, Hydrastis Canadensis L., Galega officinalis L., and Gymnema sylvestre (Retz.) R.Br. ex Sm.
In the screening tests, changes in glucose uptake in response to treatment with extracts and individual compounds were recorded. Extracts of goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis L.), and the alkaloid berberine induced remarkable glucose uptake, and consumption, compared with the other compounds and extracts. And demonstrated significant glucose uptake (p<0.05, p<0.01), and consumption activity (p<0.05, p<0.001), when compared to the biguanides class of oral anti-hyperglycaemic agent metformin (p<0.01). Consequently, goldenseal ethanolic extract (10 µL/mL) and berberine (10 µM) have emerged as key candidates for further research into glucose uptake using flow cytometry, the expression of glucose transporter-1, and the assessment of glycogen content, glucose release, and Seahorse metabolic analysis.
In studies on glucose uptake using flowcytometry, metformin increases 1.8-fold, goldenseal stimulates 2-fold, and berberine augments 3.4-fold more glucose uptake than the control (p<0.001). In glucose transporter-1 expression assays, goldenseal and berberine increased the expression by 1.7-fold and 1.4-fold, respectively, compared to the control (p<0.05). In glycogen synthesis studies, berberine was upregulated by 2.4-fold, metformin by 2-fold, and goldenseal by 2-fold compared to the control (p<0.05). In glucose release assays, berberine, metformin, and goldenseal decreased glucose release by 50%, 30%, and 23% respectively, compared to the control (p<0.05).
The Seahorse XF analysis, which is more in line with the literature, shows that the three treatments increase the rate of lactate production (p<0.01) while also improving glucose metabolism. When compared to the pure compound alkaloid berberine, goldenseal extract was found to be less effective in improving glucose metabolism. Nonetheless, both appear promising for the development of new oral anti-diabetic agents
The impact of cybervictimization on the self-management of chronic conditions: lived experiences
Get PDFCybervictimization of people with long-term conditions is a disturbing phenomenon with a documented impact on health and well-being. These experiences are primarily examined using quantitative methods, focusing on children and young people. However, research centered on the cybervictimization of adults with chronic conditions is scarce, with limited qualitative input from the victims as experts in their own experiences. This study aims to understand the impact of cybervictimization on the self-management of long-term conditions among adults with chronic conditions and disabilities in the United Kingdom. This paper reports the findings from the qualitative phase of a phenomenologically informed mixed methods study. The biographical disruption concept was used to conceptualize the study. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 participants with chronic conditions who experienced cybervictimization. A codebook was developed, and a zigzag approach to thematic analysis was used to define and refine themes. Ethical considerations and risk assessment were ongoing during the research process because of the sensitivity of the topic and cases of harassment. Cybervictimization has direct and indirect impacts on the self-management of chronic conditions. This impact was verified across 6 overarching themes that emerged from this study. First, biomedical events included overall health deterioration because of existing conditions, new diagnoses, and subjective physical complaints. Second, the impact on mental health was perceived through psychological consequences and psychiatric disorders that developed after or during this traumatic experience. Third, the multilevel impact theme focused on disrupting the strategies for coping with health conditions and involved unplanned changes to victims' health management priorities. Fourth, the impact of complexity reflected the perceived uniqueness in each case, intersectionality, struggle to obtain formal support, and subsequent health complications. Fifth, social network involvement comprised the effects of social isolation, victim blaming, and deception. Finally, the disability discrimination theme focused on prejudice, issues on inclusion, and hostility in society, with subsequent effects on well-being. People with long-term conditions experienced different forms of cybervictimization, all disruptive with various effects on health. Disability discrimination was a prominent finding to be further investigated. This paper reports the impact as themes to guide further research and practice, with the recognition that long-term conditions and impairments are not a homogeneous group. Despite the devastating consequences, there are positive points that strengthen potential interventions. Awareness-raising campaigns, training of support channels, and multidisciplinary research are recommended to tackle this issue and initiate change
Peripheral vision and challenging invisibilities: theoretical and methodological reflections on the “digitized turn” and “born-digital” sources in archives of translation and translators
Get PDFThis article presents a discussion of the theoretical and methodological challenges posed by digitization processes and born-digital sources within translation and translator studies research, particularly in archival contexts. It begins by demonstrating how the digitization of archives and source materials remains an undertheorized issue in translation contexts, as well as the need to understand how digitization allows new forms of “peripheral vision” across our research and publication processes. Subsequently, the article problematizes the archiving and use of born-digital sources to research translation and translators, particularly in terms of issues surrounding data collection, access and ethics. In doing so, this article argues that care must be taken to properly understand and preserve the digital sources that will enable archival research in the future, whilst emphasizing the new opportunities presented by digitized and born-digital sources to challenge the invisibility of translation and translators within many of the world’s archives and histories
Enacting chance and the space of possibilities (editorial)
Get PDFPossibilities studies is concerned with understanding what it means to have a sense of the multiple and open-ended nature of our presents, futures, and pasts (Glaveanu, 2023) - what Baumeister calls the matrix of maybes (Baumeister & Alquist, 2023). From the perspective of chance and serendipity scholars, this uncertainty comes from the dynamic interaction of people and things that arise naturally from living in a world in flux and reflect the dynamic nature of environmental change (Rietveld, 2022).
Indeed, one of the consequences of a world in flux is that chance arises all around us and is part of our everyday. Take a commute to work in a typical Western metropolis. Chance operates on a series of mundane levels from the socio-political scale of whether last-minute talks have been successful, and so the train driver’s union has called off their industrial action, to whether you crossed paths with the chatty neighbour who would delay you. Despite best-laid plans, arrival times are not determined. Even on the micro-level, walking involves the negotiation of random variations in people flow around the walker and the pavement surface, so each placement of a foot requires the navigation of uncertainty. However, these forms of chance do not violate expectations - they are within an easily visualized space of possible occurrences and constitute predictable components of the matrix of possibilities.
However, when we write about enacting chance in relation to possibilities, we are interested in how people use chance events to expand the existing possibility space in unpredictable and unanticipated ways. We are not interested in expected chance variations but in the sort of chance-inspired change which elicits unexpected effects. The nature of these effects may be on a personal or historical level (c.f. Boden, 2004) and may have effects on longer or shorter timescales (Ross, 2022). Still, they have in common that they open up the Possible in ways that cannot be currently envisaged (Hanchett Hanson, 2023). This is why the study of engagement with chance and the complex relationship between accidents and sagacity - or, more succinctly, serendipity - is so important to the emerging field of Possibility Studies.
This special issue features authors invited to participate in a 5-day workshop hosted by the Lorentz Center in Leiden, the Netherlands. Planned during a pandemic in August 2021, the workshop’s theme, Enacting Chance, brought together scholars and artists interested in enaction and embodiment to present and discuss how chance played a role in their research, theory, and approach to their work. The productivity of intersections between disciplinary approaches were a particular focus in the context of the workshop. Thus, we here present perspectives from enactivists, material engagement theorists, and philosophers of science: despite their different fields of specialization, their contributions to this issue highlight overlaps between approaches and a growing awareness of the impact that enactivist approaches to chance can have on current methods and frameworks for understanding cognition and creativity
Sensors for water quality assessment in extreme environmental conditions
No full textWater quality monitoring (WQM) sensors developed over the past few years have advanced significantly. Progress in the communication strategies, particularly for the wireless sensing networks and connected networking system, has contributed to their effective deployment. The multisensory modules incorporated with various, physical, chemical, and biological sensors equipped on boats, unmanned aerial vehicles, underwater vehicles, and buoys aid in water monitoring even at the remotest/extreme environmental conditions. While the advances made in the sensing materials have drastically improved the potential of the sensors to be deployed for water monitoring at extreme conditions. The present chapter discusses the key parameters of WQM, and the material advances made in improving the sensing efficiency. It also discusses through various deployment techniques
The view from over here: what the students think about learning development (Chapter 11)
Get PDFIn this chapter, we consider LD from the student perspective, by speaking with students about their experiences of working with Learning Developers and asking them to reflect on the value of these interactions. We are just as interested in why students might not interact with these services as this will seed the opportunity to rethink current LD provision across the sector. Of course we interviewed and co-authored this chapter with students who had engaged, but they revealed the reasons they were hesitant in the first place, which throws light on this issue
An approach to establishing a multi-organisational public sector security operations centre
No full textThis paper presents a conceptual approach towards a public sector security operations centre capability at a regional level. This study supports the concept of the Government Cyber Coordination Centre as detailed in the UK Government Cyber Security Strategy December 2022, supporting the ‘Defend as One’ approach. The paper further proposes that the approach should work with nodes at a peer sub-regional and local level with information being aggregated at a regional or national level, with central oversight. This paper also considers some of the open-source tools available to support a security operations centre (SOC) approach, offering a framework for local and distributed analysis to reduce traffic flows and improve the flow of useful information to the SOC
Is everybody Kung Fu fighting? Indian popular cinema and martial arts films
No full textHong Kong’s martial arts film have been popular in India since the 1970s (Srinivas Citation2012, 66) and they have had a profound influence on the Hindi action films of the 1970s-1980s, as martial arts were progressively integrated into their narratives. This article investigates the appeal of Hong Kong martial arts films, and of the figure of Bruce Lee in particular, with specific reference to the social, cultural and political context of reception in India. The context within which Bruce Lee made his entrance on the Indian screens was in fact critical for his success. In particular, the article examines the appeal of martial arts, and their incorporation in the Hindi action films of the 1970s, in relation to (post)colonial discourses of Asian masculinity. Drawing upon Yvonne Tasker’s examination of the ‘anticolonial narrative’ embedded in Hong Kong martial arts films, the analysis discusses the incorporation of a martial arts style of combat within Indian popular films as a response to colonial and orientalist tropes of Asian effeminacy and softness and argues that martial arts allowed the 1970s Hindi action hero to articulate an alternative, anticolonial, version of Asian masculinity
An integrated waterfall–DEMATEL–fuzzy TOPSIS approach to post-COVID-19 customer demand resilience: Evidence from fast-fashion MSMEs
Get PDFPurpose:
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the resilience of customer demand management post-COVID-19, using fast-fashion MSMEs as an example. Precisely, this paper investigates how waterfall project management can enable stakeholders to build survival operations managerial decisions.
Design/methodology/approach:
Based on interviews and surveys with ten fast-fashion operations experts, and an integrated waterfall DEMATEL Fuzzy TOPSIS methodology of the fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (FMCDM), we explored and prioritized the enablers of resilience management in fast-fashion retail area.
Findings:
Results reveal that the highest priority enabler is maintaining customer loyalty. Other enablers are associated with e-commerce endorsement, customer-focused assortment, and flexible store operations.
Research /implications:
The findings of this paper will enable fast-fashion MSMEs to develop effective actions and prioritize the operations efforts to foster the post-pandemic recovery.
Originality/value:
Despite the importance of the resilience project and the changing fastfashion customer patterns with covid, only a handful of research has explored how resilience can be managed in this field. This research thus can help close this gap for operations resilience research and retail contex
Care by design: women, change and the climate crisis
No full textAn exploration of Yasmeen Lari's work through the lens of feminist architectural practices and as a response to the climate crisis by putting care and sustainability at its hear