The contribution of co-operative retail societies to welfare within the social framework of the North East coast areas

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Low-Level Prenatal and Postnatal Blood Lead Exposure and Adrenocortical Responses to Acute Stress in Children

BACKGROUND: A few recent studies have demonstrated heightened hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity to acute stress in animals exposed to heavy metal contaminants, particularly lead. However, Pb-induced dysregulation of the HPA axis has not yet been studied in humans. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we examined children’s cortisol response to acute stress (the glucocorticoid product of HPA activation) in relation to low-level prenatal and postnatal Pb exposure. METHODS: Children’s prenatal blood Pb levels were determined from cord blood specimens, and postnatal lead levels were abstracted from pediatrician and state records. Children’s adrenocortical responses to an acute stressor were measured using assays of salivary cortisol before and after administration of a standard cold pressor task. RESULTS: Pb exposure was not associated with initial salivary cortisol levels. After an acute stressor, however, increasing prenatal and postnatal blood Pb levels were independently associated with significantly heightened salivary cortisol responses. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that relatively low prenatal and postnatal blood lead levels— notably those below the 10 µg/dL blood lead level identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for public health purposes—can alter children’s adrenocortical responses to acute stress. The behavioral and health consequences of this Pb-induced HPA dysregulation in children have yet to be determined

'Sarsen stones in Wessex': a society of antiquaries project contextualised and renewed

This paper reviews the Society of Antiquaries’ Evolution of the Landscape project, which started in 1974, and the project’s Sarsen Stones in Wessex survey. The survey was an ambitious public archaeology project, involving c 100 volunteers led by Fellows of the Society during the 1970s. Its aims, objectives and outcomes are described. The survey’s unique dataset, produced for the counties of Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset, has now been digitised. Drawing on the dataset, the paper situates the Evolution of the Landscape project in the context of later-twentieth century British archaeology. It demonstrates the importance not only of individual Fellows, but also contemporary movements in academic and development-led archaeology, to the direction of the Society’s activities in this formative period for the discipline today, and shows how the Society’s research was engaged with some of archaeology’s most pressing cultural resource management issue

The deglacial history of 79N glacier and the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream

\ua9 2024 The AuthorsThe Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS) is the main artery for ice discharge from the northeast sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) to the North Atlantic. Understanding the past, present and future stability of the NEGIS with respect to atmospheric and oceanic forcing is of global importance as it drains around 17% of the GrIS and has a sea-level equivalent of 1.6 m. This paper reconstructs the deglacial and Holocene history of Nioghalvfjerdsbr\ue6 (or 79N Glacier); a major outlet of the NEGIS. At high elevation (>900 m asl) autochthonous blockfield, a lack of glacially moulded bedrock and pre LGM exposure ages point to a complex exposure/burial history extending back over half a million years. However, post Marine Isotope Stage 12, enhanced glacial erosion led to fjord incision and plateaux abandonment. Between 900 and 600 m asl the terrain is largely unmodified by glacial scour but post LGM erratics indicate the advection of cold-based ice through the fjord. In contrast, below ∼600 m asl Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden exhibits a geomorphological signal indicative of a warm-based ice stream operating during the last glacial cycle. Dated ice marginal landforms and terrain along the fjord walls show initial thinning rates were slow between ∼23 and 10 ka, but post-10 ka it is evident that Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden deglaciated extremely quickly with complete fjord deglaciation below ∼500 m asl between 10.0 and 8.5 ka. Both increasing air and ocean temperatures were pivotal in driving surface lowering and submarine melt during deglaciation, but the final withdrawal of ice through Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden was facilitated by the action of marine ice sheet instability. Our estimates show that thinning and retreat rates reached a maximum of 5.29 ma−1 and 613 ma−1, respectively, as the ice margin withdrew westwards. This would place the Early Holocene disintegration of this outlet of the NEGIS at the upper bounds of contemporary thinning and retreat rates seen both in Greenland and Antarctica. Combined with recent evidence of ice stream shutdown during the Holocene, as well as predictions of changing ice flow dynamics within downstream sections of the NEGIS catchment, this suggests that significant re-organisation of the terminal zone of the ice stream is imminent over the next century

Development of nanopackaging for storage and transport of loaded lipid nanoparticles

Easily deploying new vaccines globally to combat disease outbreaks has been highlighted as a major necessity by the World Health Organization. RNA-based vaccines using lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) as a drug delivery system were employed to great effect during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. However, LNPs are still unstable at room temperature and agglomerate over time during storage, rendering them ineffective for intracellular delivery. We demonstrate the suitability of nanohole arrays (nanopackaging) as patterned surfaces to separate and store functionalized LNPs (fLNPs) in individual recesses, which can be expanded to other therapeutics. Encapsulating calcein as a model drug, we show through confocal microscopy the effective loading of fLNPs into our nanopackaging for both wet and dry systems. We prove quantifiably pH-mediated capture and subsequent unloading of over 30% of the fLNPs using QCM-D on alumina surfaces altering the pH from 5.5 to 7, displaying controllable storage at the nanoscale