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Into the toxicity potential of an array of parabens by biomimetic liquid chromatography, cell viability assessments and in silico predictions
Get PDFFive parabens (PBs) i.e., Methylparaben (MP), Ethylparaben (EP), Isopropylparaben (iPrP), Isobutylparaben (iBuP), Benzylparaben (BzP), and their parent compound i.e., para–hydroxy Benzoic Acid (pHBA), were studied both in vitro and in silico. Specifically, we determined their retention on several both protein- (Human Serum Albumin and α1-acidic glycoprotein) and lipid- (immobilized artificial membrane (IAM)) based biomimetic stationary phases to evaluate their penetration potential through the biomembranes and their possible distribution in the body. The IAM phases were based either on phosphatidylcholine (PC) analogues i.e., PC.MG and PC.DD2 or on sphingomyelin (SPH). We also assessed their viability effect on breast cancer cells (MCF-7) via MTT assay subjecting the cells to five different PB concentrations i.e., 100 μM, 10 μM, 1 μM, 0.1 μM and 0.01 μM. Finally, their pharmacokinetics, and toxicity were assessed by the ADMET Predictor™ software.Isopropylparaben was found to be more active than 17β estradiol (E2) employed as positive control, on the screened cell line inducing cell proliferation up to 150 % more of untreated cells. Other analogues showed only a slight/moderate cell proliferation activity, with parabens having longer/branched side chain showing, on average, a higher proliferation rate. Significant linear direct relationships (for PC.DD2 r2 = 0.89, q2 = 0.86, for SPH r2 = 0.89, q2 = 0.85, for both P value < 0.05) were observed between the difference in proliferative effect between the readout and the control at 0.01 μM concentration and the retention on the IAM phases measured at pH 5.0 for all compounds but pHBA, which is the only analyte of the dataset supporting a carboxylic acid moiety. IAM affinity data measured at pH 7.0 were found to be related to the effective human jejunal permeability as predicted by the software ADMET® Predictor, which is relevant when PBs are added to pharmaceutical and food commodities
The future of transformative events: An event leaders’ perspective
Get PDFPurpose – Focussing on the perspective of business event leaders’ perspective, this study explores the future of transformative experience (TE) events, recognising a paradigm shift from organising conventional events to designing and guiding transformative experiences in the MICE context.Design/methodology/approach – Using a qualitative interview-based design, insights from 20 international business events industry leaders were gathered and analysed using thematic analysis through a multi-step process with MAXQDA.Findings – The findings discuss the future of transformative events by identifying the paradigm shift towards TE in business events and outline key dimensions of the leader’s and team's mindset and skills. Five design principles for TE events in the MICE sector are identified: Design for change; emotionally experiential environments; personal engagement; responsibility; and, transformative measurement.Originality/value – The study adds to the emerging body of knowledge on transformative experiences and contributes to an extended stakeholder perspective, namely that of business event leaders and their teams who are instrumental in facilitating transformative events. An original framework for designing TE MICE events is offered as a theoretical contribution.Practical implications – The study offers a snapshot of how transformative events of the future could be designed and suggests a series of practical insights for MICE event leaders and organisers seeking to leverage events as a catalyst for intentional transformation, positive impact and long-lasting change
Student Belonging Good Practice Guide
Get PDFThis Good Practice Guide offers a toolkit and a conversation starter for anyone working in higher education (HE) who is thinking about embarking on a student belonging project. As well as sharing hints and tips, it draws upon student belonging insights via case studies, an extended literature review and student voice. We aim to provide those of you working within student partnerships or with a professional interest in student engagement easy access to key definitions and debates in the field of student belonging. As this guide provides a shorthand to the contexts of student belonging, we anticipate readers may wish to use the ideas presented here during your curriculum planning or project setting phase, to ensure student voice, orientation and partnership working are at the core of your academic lifecycles and institutional activity preparations. We hope this guide will help you to facilitate communication, influence policy and encourage focus and investment in student engagement in your institution. We believe in being inclusive so much of what you read below will describe student belonging and engagement through this lens. Through our case studies this guide will touch on key themes aligned to student belonging and engagement: student voice, student-staff collaborative working, transitions and orientation, the student journey/lifecycle. These cases are a work in progress – we don’t have all the answers (yet) but we do hope it will be useful to those of you who are looking to explore methods to gain further insights into student mattering, engagement and identity. We will discuss initial findings and the next steps that the partner institutions have adopted but in the main these case studies will set the scene for others wishing to follow suit. Throughout the case studies we offer tools for colleagues in higher education institutions (HEI) to use – these include pre-arrival survey questions, and activities to harness self-perceived student identity and attachment to the university. However, these are not prescriptive; we recognise that each institution will need – and should, in the name of good practice – use these as conversation starters or prompts for approaches that are specific and tailored to your institution and its unique student body.This guide is the output of a RAISE Network-funded project, in partnership with Teesside University, Edinburgh Napier University and Nottingham Trent University. Researching Advancing and Inspiring Student Engagement (RAISE) is a worldwide network of staff and students in HE who work or have an interest in the research and promotion of student engagemen
Police custody in rural Scotland: Negotiating boundaries, risk and organisational change
Get PDFDesign/ Methodology This paper draws on data from a study funded by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (2016-2018), entitled ‘Measuring Risk and Efficiency in Police Custody in Scotland’. The paper adopts a qualitative methodology to develop an understanding of the varying nature of police custody across Scotland. Two contrasting case study locations were selected, one urban and one rural. 12 semi-structured interviews and 15 hours of observation were carried out. Data was transcribed, coded and analysed and thematic analysis enabled themes to be developed. This paper draws on the data from the rural custody suite.Purpose This paper explores the challenging nexus of police custody, risk and intra-organisational boundaries in the context of a recently reformed national police service. Police custody is an often-hidden aspect of policing, away from the public gaze and scrutiny. Although there is increasing recognition of the importance of rural policing (eg Harkness, (2020); Mawby & Yarwood, (2011); Ruddell & Jones, (2020); Yarwood & Wooff, (2016)), there has been little or no focus on rural police custody. This paper seeks to begin to redress this by focusing on the challenges faced by rural police custody in the context of large-scale organisational change.Findings Drawing on the theoretical framework of Giacomantonio (2014) and more recent considerations of abstract policing Terpstra et al., (2019), this paper offers insights into the ways that police custody in rural Scotland has been organised, against the backdrop of challenging organisational change. I argue that as policing services in Scotland have become increasingly ‘abstract’ from communities, police custody as a national division has witnessed the impact of this more greatly than other parts of local policing. Intra-organisational management around staffing have led to complex management of risk, illustrating some of the challenges of national organisational change on police custody.Originality/ value This paper focuses on the impact of large scale organisational change on rural police custody and intra-organisational relationships and dynamics. Rural policing is still a largely neglected area of study and rural police custody is even less understood. This paper therefore provides an original contribution by focusing on this under-researched area of policing. It also illustrates complexity around risk, staffing and management of people being held in rural police custody suites. It is therefore of value to policing scholars in other contexts, as well as rural criminology more generally. It has applicability to international contexts where macro level policing reform is occurring
Do Workplace Fish Tanks Influence Employee Wellbeing and Cognitive Performance? An Embedded Mixed-Methods Study
Get PDFEvidence from “pet-friendly” workplaces highlights potential benefits associated with taking companion animals to work, including reduced stress among employees. Ornamental fishes carry a much lower risk than other companion animals and may be a suitable alternative in situations where other animals would introduce too great a risk (e.g., allergy, accidental injury). The aim of this study was to investigate whether watching an aquarium during the working day influenced employee wellbeing through the reduction of stress and improvements in stress-related outcomes. An embedded mixed-methods study was conducted, comprising two within-subjects trials (Trials A and B) and a qualitative follow-up. Participants were university employees and research students who participated during their working day. In Trial A (n = 30), the immediate effects of watching live fishes on mood, physiological stress, and cognitive performance were compared with the effects of watching a fish video or resting quietly. Although some outcomes improved from pre- to post-activity, there was no evidence that watching fishes (live or video) had greater effects than resting quietly. In Trial B (n = 27), the effects of repeatedly engaging in the same three activities over several weeks were examined. Watching fish videos was associated with improvements in “high pleasure-low arousal” and overall job-related affective wellbeing, but no further effects of condition were found. Qualitative follow-up data collected from a subset of participants from the experimental trials (n = 13) indicated that all three activities may be beneficial as leaving their desks provided detachment from work for a short period. Qualitative data suggested that live fishes were perceived as more engaging, but this did not translate to quantitative findings. Locating fish aquaria within offices (rather than a separate workplace location) may promote wellbeing by encouraging “microbreaks”; further research is needed to investigate this hypothesis
Novel Category Discovery without Forgetting for Automatic Target Recognition
Get PDFWe explore a cutting-edge concept known as C lass Incremental Learning in N ovel Category Discovery for Synthetic Aperture Radar T argets (CNT). This innovative task involves the challenge of identifying categories within unlabeled datasets by utilizing a provided labeled dataset as reference. In contrast to conventional category discover approaches, our method introduces novel categories without relying on old labeled classes and effectively mitigates the issue of catastrophic forgetting. Specifically, to reduce the bias of the established categories towards unknown ones, CNT extracts representational information via self-supervised learning, gleaned directly from the SAR data itself to facilitate generalization. To retain the model's competence in classifying previously acquired knowledge, we employ a dual strategy incorporating the rehearsal of base category feature prototypes and the application of knowledge distillation. Our methodology integrates multi-view and pseudo-labeling strategies. Additionally, we introduce a novel approach that focuses on enhancing the discernibility of class spaces. This strategy primarily ensures distinct separation of the unlabeled classes from base class prototypes, and imposes stringent constraints on the internal relationships among individual samples and their corresponding perspectives. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on category discovery in the class incremental learning scenario. The experimental results show that our method significantly improves the performance on SAR images compared to the previous optimal method, which indicates the effectiveness of our method
The barometer of moral distress in midwifery: A pilot study
No full textBackgroundMoral distress is a phenomena that occurs following a compromise to moral beliefs. Moral distress has been reported across health professions, including midwifery. Although there are validated tools to assess for moral distress, none have been identified that suit the Australian healthcare system or midwifery.AimThe aim of this study was to pilot the Barometer of Moral Distress in Midwifery.MethodsThis study was the fourth stage of a mixed method project. Using a cross-sectional approach, a survey tool including demographic questions, the Barometer of Moral Distress in Midwifery, and the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory assessed tool stability, reliability, and validity.FindingsA total of 103 surveys were completed. A test-retest demonstrated tool reliability and stability (=.97). Factor analysis confirmed internal consistency; Factor 1 - Professional Identity (=.91), Factor 2 - Inadequate Resources (=.85), and Factor 3 - Unethical Cultures (=.88). Concurrent validity was demonstrated through positive correlations between self-reported types of moral distress with mean scores for each Factor. Strong correlations were identified between work-related burnout and mean scores, while only weak correlations were noted between client-related burnout and mean scores. Only Factor 1 demonstrated a correlation between leaving the profession and mean scores.Discussion/conclusionThis was the first moral distress tool that assessed both frequency of exposure and psychological outcomes to score moral distress. Findings indicate that moral distress in midwifery is not associated with caring work but with occupational environments. Further research is required to assess self-sacrifice in moral distress
Application of Weibull's Theory to Assess the Depth Effect of Malaysian Tropical Hardwoods According to Eurocode 5
Get PDFThe adoption of limit state design according to Eurocode 5 (EC5) has brought about design strength optimisation in design practices worldwide. However, the implementation of EC5 may not be suitable for Malaysian tropical timber species as the design strength data in European Standard (EN) 338:2016 is based on softwood and temperate hardwood species. EC5 has a well-established 1/k value of 0.2 for softwood and temperate hardwood with characteristic densities below 700 kg/m3. The value of 0.2 is still uncertain for tropical hardwood timber and it is predicted that the 1⁄k value for characteristic density above 700kg/m3 will be different. Therefore, in this study, the application of Weibull's theory is being used to determine the 1/k value for selected species namely, Balau (Shorea spp.), Kempas (Koompassia malaccensis), Kapur (Dryobalanops spp.), Keruing (Dipterocarpus spp.), Geronggang (Cratoxylon arborescens), and Light Red Meranti (Shorea spp.) with density ranges from 300 kg/m3 to 1000 kg/m3. Experimental bending data from previous researchers were analysed and verified using this theory. From the theoretical prediction, the calculated 1/k value for the selected species ranges from 0.158 to 0.204 which is close to the established value of 0.2. This study provides the actual k value as well as the true depth modification factors for tropical hardwood which important for safe and economical structural timber design
International consensus is needed on a core outcome set to advance the evidence of best practice in cancer prehabilitation services and research
Get PDFPrehabilitation aims to optimise patients’ physical and psychological status before treatment. The types of outcomes measured to assess the impact of prehabilitation interventions vary across clinical research and service evaluation, limiting the ability to compare between studies and services and to pool data. An international workshop involving academic and clinical experts in cancer prehabilitation was convened in May 2022 at Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, England. The workshop substantiated calls for a core outcome set to advance knowledge and understanding of best practice in cancer prehabilitation and to develop national and international databases to assess outcomes at a population level
Focal firms and interorganisational relationships in small economies: Towards a multi-level theoretical framework for enhancing value co-creation and performance
Get PDFUnderpinning Resource-Based View (RBV) and Relational View (RV) as theoretical premises, we examine the influence of the macro and micro-level factors on inter-organisational relationship/ alliances dynamics and competitive advantage of Focal Firms (FF) operating in an emerging Small Island Economy (SIE), Mauritius. Data gathered from in-depth interviews of boundary spanners of FF from diverse industries and sectors, were analysed using the open, axial, and selective coding procedure to establish the main factors influencing inter-organisational relationship dynamics and competitive advantage. Our findings explain and provide insights into the embedded nature of the firms, inter-organisational relationships, value co-creation (VCC), internationalisation capabilities and performance. The novel themes of cultural intelligence and tight-knit society were considered pivotal to firms’ relational strategy and advantage, locally; and in their VCC and internationalisation opportunities and capabilities. Our propositions on the emerging themes and the core category web of ties stemming from the situational features define Mauritius, and the multi-level theoretical framework can be extended to understand inter-organisational relationship/alliances in other emerging economies with similar architecture
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