1,085 research outputs found
Experience of Lyme disease and preferences for precautions: A cross-sectional survey of UK patients
No full textThis article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright @ 2013 Marcu et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Lyme disease (LD) is a tick-borne zoonosis currently affecting approximately 1000 people annually in the UK (confirmed through serological diagnosis) although it is estimated that the real figures may be as high as 3000 cases. It is important to know what factors may predict correct appraisal of LD symptoms and how the experience of LD might predict preferences for future precautionary actions.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with early LD patients via the Lyme Borreliosis Unit at the Health Protection Agency. One hundred and thirty participants completed measures of awareness of having been bitten by ticks, knowledge of ticks and LD, interpretation of LD symptoms, suspicions of having LD prior to seeing the General Practitioner (GP), and preferences for precautionary actions during future countryside visits. Chi-square tests and logistic regression were used to identify key predictors of awareness of having been bitten by ticks and of having LD. t-tests assessed differences between groups of participants on suspicions of having LD and preferences for future precautions. Pearson correlations examined relationships between measures of preferences for precautions and frequency of countryside use, knowledge of ticks and LD, and intentions to avoid the countryside in the future.
Results: 73.8% of participants (n = 96) reported a skin rash as the reason for seeking medical help, and 44.1% (n = 64) suspected they had LD before seeing the GP. Participants reporting a direct event in realizing they had been bitten by ticks (seeing a tick on skin or seeing a skin rash and linking it to tick bites) were more likely to suspect they had LD before seeing the doctor. Participants distinguished between taking precautions against tick bites during vs. after countryside visits, largely preferring the latter. Also, the more frequently participants visited the countryside, the less likely they were to endorse during-visit precautions.
Conclusions: The results suggest that the risk of LD is set in the context of the restorative benefits of countryside practices, and that it may be counterproductive to overemphasize pre- or during-visit precautions. Simultaneously, having experienced LD is not associated with any withdrawal from countryside.Economic and Social Research Counci
The IKK -Dependent NF- B p52/RelB Noncanonical Pathway Is Essential To Sustain a CXCL12 Autocrine Loop in Cells Migrating in Response to HMGB1
No full textHMGB1 is a chromatin architectural protein that is released by dead or damaged cells at sites of tissue injury. Extracellular HMGB1 functions as a proinflammatory cytokine and chemoattractant for immune effector and progenitor cells. Previously, we have shown that the inhibitor of NF-kappa B kinase (IKK)beta- and IKK alpha-dependent NF-kappa B signaling pathways are simultaneously required for cell migration to HMGB1. The IKK beta-dependent canonical pathway is needed to maintain expression of receptor for advanced glycation end products, the ubiquitously expressed receptor for HMGB1, but the target of the IKK alpha non-canonical pathway was not known. In this study, we show that the IKK alpha-dependent p52/RelB noncanonical pathway is critical to sustain CXCL12/SDF1 production in order for cells to migrate toward HMGB1. Using both mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages and mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs), it was observed that neutralization of CXCL12 by a CXCL12 mAb completely eliminated chemotaxis to HMGB1. In addition, the HMGB1 migration defect of IKKa KO and p52 KO cells could be rescued by adding recombinant CXCL12 to cells. Moreover, p52 KO MEFs stably transduced with a GFP retroviral vector that enforces physiologic expression of CXCL12 also showed near normal migration toward HMGB1. Finally, both AMD3100, a specific antagonist of CXCL12's G protein-coupled receptor CXCR4, and an anti-CXCR4 Ab blocked HMGB1 chemotactic responses. These results indicate that HMGB1-CXCL12 interplay drives cell migration toward HMGB1 by engaging receptors of both chemoattractants. This novel requirement for a second receptor-ligand pair enhances our understanding of the molecular mechanisms regulating HMGB1-dependent cell recruitment to sites of tissue injury
Carbon leakage: an overview. CEPS Special Report No. 79, 6 December 2013
No full textCarbon leakage is central to the discussion on climate policy, given the confluence of issues
that are currently being debated, including the 2030 Energy and Climate Framework and the
review of the EU carbon leakage list by 2014. Carbon leakage is the result of asymmetrical
carbon policies, especially carbon pricing, and the resulting carbon cost, which affects the
international competitive position of some EU industry and could displace production
and/or investment, and the emissions of the activities displaced.
This paper identifies the difference between carbon price and carbon cost to leakage exposed
industry as one of two fundamental issues to be understood and addressed; lack of
visibility on future climate policies and anti-leakage provisions is the other key issue. While
this is a global issue, most of the experience has been accumulated in the EU. Carbon leakage
is only one of the factors that could affect the competitive position of sectors, but it is
difficult to attribute the impact of carbon costs versus other variables such as energy costs,
labour, etc. Studies have predicted the risk of a significant amount of production leakage in a
number of energy-intensive industries. To address the danger, they were included in the EU
ETS carbon leakage list, which gave them access to free allowances. However, a limited
number of studies undertaken after the end of the second trading period (2012) show little
evidence of production leakage and asks the question whether the issue has not been blown
out of proportion.
The paper argues that the past may not be a good representation of the future, as it was
heavily influenced by a high level of free allocation, the exceptional economic downturn, CO2
prices significantly below what was anticipated, as well as the potential for changes in some
fundamental variables such as the shrinking pool of allowances available for free allocation.
It emphasises the need for a well-informed debate in the EU on measures to address carbon
leakage post-2020, underpinned by a number of options, and objective criteria to evaluate
those options. It emphasises that the debate should cover both investment and production
leakage, caused by both direct and indirect carbon costs
The onset of tumour repopulation after radiotherapy in theoretical and in vitro models
No full textLoredana Marcu, A. B. Lyons, E. Bezak and T. van Door
Exclusion of ethnic groups from the realm of humanity: Prejudice against the gypsies in Britain and in Romania
No full textCopyright @ 2005 PromolibroPrejudice against ethnic minorities is investigated not only as the establishment of difference between social groups on valued dimensions but also as the denial of similarities that would prevent the inclusion of both ingroups and outgroups in the superordinate category of human-beings. The present study sought to explore the two concepts that are advanced to describe the phenomenon of dehumanisation of out-groups: their ontologisation and their infrahumanisation in relation to the Gypsy minority. British and Romanian participants were asked to rate their national ingroup and the Gypsies using characteristics judged typically human and typically animal following the ontologisation and infrahumanisation literature. The results indicated the the ontologisation of the Gypsies occurs in both national samples whereas their infrahumanisation is only verified for the British participants. The implications of these findings are discussed from the perspectives of the infrahumanisation and ontologisation
Smuggling and trafficking of Romanian women in the Region of Madrid
No full textTras la caída de los regímenes comunistas y el desplome soviético en el Este de Europa, ocurrieron transformaciones trascendentales. Con el telón de fondo de las transiciones económicas, políticas y sociales, aumentó de la emigración procedente de estos países, hacia los países desarrollados de la UE. Entre los múltiples tipos de emigraciones que se realizaron a partir de los años noventa, apareció en el escenario, la cara más oscura de la inmigración irregular: el tráfico de mujeres. El artículo analiza desde una perspectiva social el fenómeno del tráfico de mujeres procedentes en Rumanía, con destino España, Comunidad de Madrid. Se analiza el contexto, la situación en el origen, la organización del tráfico y la dramática situación de las víctimas en el destino. La autora considera que a pesar de las dificultades a la hora de medir y cuantificar el tráfico de mujeres, es importante realizar la aproximación a la víctima para conocer la realidad sobre esta cara negra y oculta de la inmigración internacional.After the fall of the communist regimes and the Soviet collapse in the East of Europe, transcendental transformations happened. With the basic curtain of the economic transitions, political and social, the fury of the emigration coming from these countries untied, towards the developed countries of the EU. Between the multiple types of emigrations that were realised from the Nineties, within the industry of the migration, appeared in the scene, the darkest face of immigration to irregular: the traffic of women. The article analyzes from a social perspective the phenomenon of the traffic of originating women in Rumania, with Spain destiny, Community of Madrid. We analyze the situation in the origin, the organization of the traffic and the dramatic situation of the victims in the destiny. The author considers that in spite of the difficulties at the time of measuring and quantifying the traffic of women, it is important to realise the approach to the victim to know the reality on this black face and hides of international immigration
Biomedical physics in radiotherapy for cancer
No full textThis book endeavours to bring together the physics, the radiobiology, the main clinical aspects as well as available clinical evidence behind Radiation Therapy, presenting mutual relationships between these disciplines and their role in the ...Barry Allen, Loredana Marcu, Eva Beza
A FIRST COMPOSITIONAL ATTEMPT INTO THE WORLD OF SILENT SHORT FILMS – SANCTUARY BY NELIO COSTA (WITH MUSIC BY ŞERBAN MARCU)
No full textThis paper presents the author\u27s first attempt at writing film music. The film under discussion is Sanctuary, a silent short film produced by Nelio Costa, Professor of film journalism at the UNA University Center in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The study highlights the suggestions that the composer derived from the film, the musical solutions the composer came up with in order to “counterpoint” the visual discourse and the context in which the film was presented, at the 2nd edition of the InnerSound International New Arts Festival, in Bucharest, 2013
Contributions of the inhibitor of kappa B kinases (IKKs) in macrophages and neutrophils after Francisella tularensis live vaccine strain (LVS) infection.
No full textThe immune system is a complex network of cells regulated by a number of signaling pathways to drive specific host defenses against invading pathogens. The NF-&kappaB (nuclear factor of the kappa light chain enhancer in B cells) family of inducible transcription factors is a critical regulator of many innate and adaptive immune responses. NF-&kappaB activation by several receptors converges upon two upstream kinases, IKK&alpha and IKK&beta, that regulate gene induction. Many studies report that IKK&beta is the critical kinase involved in NF--&kappaB activation, although at a transcriptional level, both kinases are needed to obtain the full spectrum of gene induction. More recently, in an in vivo bacterial infection model both IKK&alpha and IKK&beta were reported to have anti-inflammatory properties through different mechanisms.The intracellular bacterium Francisella tularensis is able to down modulate inflammatory reactions within macrophages and neutrophils to provide a niche for bacterial growth. To this end, I asked whether disruptions of NF-&kappaB signaling, specifically through IKK&alpha and IKK&beta, could promote inflammation and allow the host more resistance to infection.I used conditional gene targeting of IKK&alpha and IKK&beta to generate mice with specific deletions for either kinase in these cells. These mice were used in a tularemia infection using the live vaccine strain of Francisella tularensis (Ft. LVS) as a model to elucidate the specific contributions of each kinase.Contrary to what has been previously reported for Group B Streptococcus infection models, IKK&beta but not IKK&alpha, was required for host resistance and survival in tularemia infection as 100% of Ft. LVS infected mice succumbed to lethal infection within 10 days.In a sublethal model of infection, both IKK&alpha and IKK&beta contributed in different ways to the maintenance of hepatic granulomas after infection. Depletion of IKK&alpha led to fewer, but sometimes, large necrotic granuloma formation indicating a potential role for IKK&alpha in the clearance of apoptotic cells. IKK&beta depletion resulted disordered granuloma structures and elevated bacterial colonization and growth throughout the infection. This led to increased inflammation as early as 2 days post infection as evidenced by a polarization towards M1 macrophages and IL-12 production. Compensation mechanisms to reduce inflammation such as an increase in myeloid derived suppressor cells or a subsequent M2a macrophage polarization occurred, but were not able to control inflammation or bacterial growth in these mice. In addition, IKK&beta loss resulted in protracted IFN-&gamma production by cytotoxic T lymphocytes.Overall, in an Ft. LVS infection model, IKK&alpha may be more important in neutrophils for the clearance of apoptotic cells, while IKK&beta is required more globally to prevent inflammation and control bacterial colonization that cannot be compensated by anti-inflammatory mechanisms. These functions appear to be correlated with early activation of both macrophages, neutrophils and extrinsic activation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes.Advisor(s): Kenneth B. Marcu. Michael Hadjiargyrou. Committee Member(s): Martha B. Furie; Richard R. Kew; William P. Tansey.Stony Brook University Libraries. SBU Graduate School in Department of Genetics. Lawrence Martin (Dean of Graduate School)
From the Marginal Immigrant to the Mobile Citizen: Reconstruction of Identity of Romanian Migrants in Spain
No full textThis paper looks into the complex interplay of identity (re)construction as conducted by Romanian immigrants to Spain within the context of the enlargement of the European Union towards Eastern Europe. By using qualitative research techniques, the paper attempts to highlight how the migration process, which is closely tied to border dynamics and European expansion occurring in stages from 1990 to the present, has influenced the (re)construction of identity and the change of discourse among immigrants. As part of the analysis, the study looks into the factors that contribute to the initial loss of the components of identity, identity reconstruction, and the types of identity emerging from the process of mobility. Finally, the paper examines to what extent immigrants' temporary work movements influence the nature of identity construction. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.This paper comes as a result of the research project entitled ‘Eastern European migration to Spainin the context of border geopolitics: circulatorymobility and return’ (CSO 2010-14870), withfunding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and coordination by the author, PhD Postdoctoral Researcher ‘Ramón y Cajal’ (RyC 2009-03834)Peer reviewe
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