Horsehair weaving for sievewrights : Documentation of an ongoing craft project

This paper aims to discuss methods for reviving a craft – horsehair weaving – inspired by the concept of a moving searchlight approach and a forensic perspective. Isolated artefacts, tools, tools with ongoing processes and photographs, together with preserved documentation, have been analysed. Ongoing documentation on social media and a webpage were used during this process. Social media aimed to get people interested in the subject, test thoughts and maintain a dialogue. The webpage aimed to gather documentation demonstrating the horsehair weaving process and how the sievewright was made. The public documentation also aimed to inspire and engage other crafters. The public display of the ongoing project has been a positive learning experience. Different methods of documentation have different advantages

Re-hackling flax before spinning: Using questions as a method of understanding

Flax is a traditional plant used to make textiles. Flax, like all natural fibres, is a material with variations. Knowledge of a crafting process can be obtained by studying artefacts and all available documentation and by being present in a craft tradition and society of spinning. A craftsperson will make many small decisions during their work. How do we gain knowledge about handling materials, and how do we preserve the intangible skills relevant to a craft? This performance article aims to make visible specific knowledge of material, tools and working methods for re-hackling flax. The text and performance illustrate the perspective of a reflecting craftsperson. By asking questions about the work process, critical decisions regarding crafts will be highlighted. This approach will help preserve and transmit craft skills within flax processing

DEVELOPMENT OF A WIRELESS CELL BASED BATTERY MANAGEMENT MODULE

This report describes the design and development of a wireless cell based battery management module. The module should be able to accurately measure the battery voltage, current and temperature and then transmit this information wirelessly to a receiver. The system should have a low power consumption both when the monitored battery is used and when it is not. At least 40 systems should be able to communicate simultaneously. The design does current measurements through a shunt resistor, voltage measurements using a voltage divider and an Analog to Digital Converter(ADC) and temperature measuring using the microcontrollers own sensor. Wireless transmission is achieved by a SPIRIT1 radio chip combined with an antenna and is broadcasted on the 868 MHz radio band using a custom designed protocol. The system can perform all the desired measurements, with generally high accuracy. An issue with the antenna prevents long range communication and multiple units, but tests indicate that the wireless communication concept is feasible for at least 40 units. The power consumed is not a significant part of the total battery capacity when in use, but drains the battery relatively quickly when not in use

Horsehair weaving for sievewrights

This paper aims to discuss methods for reviving a craft – horsehair weaving – inspired by the concept of a moving searchlight approach and a forensic perspective. Isolated artefacts, tools, tools with ongoing processes and photographs, together with preserved documentation, have been analysed. Ongoing documentation on social media and a webpage were used during this process. Social media aimed to get people interested in the subject, test thoughts and maintain a dialogue. The webpage aimed to gather documentation demonstrating the horsehair weaving process and how the sievewright was made. The public documentation also aimed to inspire and engage other crafters. The public display of the ongoing project has been a positive learning experience. Different methods of documentation have different advantages

Re-hackling flax before spinning

Flax is a traditional plant used to make textiles. Flax, like all natural fibres, is a material with variations. Knowledge of a crafting process can be obtained by studying artefacts and all available documentation and by being present in a craft tradition and society of spinning. A craftsperson will make many small decisions during their work. How do we gain knowledge about handling materials, and how do we preserve the intangible skills relevant to a craft? This performance article aims to make visible specific knowledge of material, tools and working methods for re-hackling flax. The text and performance illustrate the perspective of a reflecting craftsperson. By asking questions about the work process, critical decisions regarding crafts will be highlighted. This approach will help preserve and transmit craft skills within flax processing

Smoking is Associated with Reduced Leptin and Neuropeptide Y Levels and Higher Pain Experience in Patients with Fibromyalgia

Smoking deregulates neuroendocrine responses to pain supporting production of neuropeptide Y (NpY) by direct stimulation of nicotinic receptors or by inhibiting adipokine leptin. Present study addressed the effect of cigarette smoking on adipokines and pain parameters, in 62 women with fibromyalgia (FM) pain syndrome with unknown etiology. Pain was characterized by a visual analogue scale, tender point (TP) counts, pressure pain threshold, and neuroendocrine markers NpY and substance P (sP). Levels of IGF-1, leptin, resistin, visfatin, and adiponectin were measured in blood and cerebrospinal fluid. Current smokers (n=18) had lower levels of leptin compared to ex-smokers (n=25, P=0.002), while the expected NpY increase was absent in FM patients. In smokers, this was transcribed in higher VAS-pain (P=0.04) and TP count (P=0.03), lower pain threshold (P=0.01), since NpY levels were directly related to the pain threshold (rho=0.414) and inversely related to TP counts (rho=-0.375). This study shows that patients with FM have no increase of NpY levels in response to smoking despite the low levels of leptin. Deregulation of the balance between leptin and neuropeptide Y may be one of the essential mechanisms of chronic pain in FM

MicroRNAs hsa-miR-99b, hsa-miR-330, hsa-miR-126 and hsa-miR-30c: Potential Diagnostic Biomarkers in Natural Killer (NK) Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)/ Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS/ME) is a complex multisystem disease of unknown aetiology which causes debilitating symptoms in up to 1% of the global population. Although a large cohort of genes have been shown to exhibit altered expression in CFS/ME patients, it is currently unknown whether microRNA (miRNA) molecules which regulate gene translation contribute to disease pathogenesis. We hypothesized that changes in microRNA expression in patient leukocytes contribute to CFS/ME pathology, and may therefore represent useful diagnostic biomarkers that can be detected in the peripheral blood of CFS/ME patients.miRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from CFS/ME patients and healthy controls was analysed using the Ambion Bioarray V1. miRNA demonstrating differential expression were validated by qRT-PCR and then replicated in fractionated blood leukocyte subsets from an independent patient cohort. The CFS/ME associated miRNA identified by these experiments were then transfected into primary NK cells and gene expression analyses conducted to identify their gene targets.Microarray analysis identified differential expression of 34 miRNA, all of which were up-regulated. Four of the 34 miRNA had confirmed expression changes by qRT-PCR. Fractionating PBMC samples by cell type from an independent patient cohort identified changes in miRNA expression in NK-cells, B-cells and monocytes with the most significant abnormalities occurring in NK cells. Transfecting primary NK cells with hsa-miR-99b or hsa-miR-330-3p, resulted in gene expression changes consistent with NK cell activation but diminished cytotoxicity, suggesting that defective NK cell function contributes to CFS/ME pathology.This study demonstrates altered microRNA expression in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of CFS/ME patients, which are potential diagnostic biomarkers. The greatest degree of miRNA deregulation was identified in NK cells with targets consistent with cellular activation and altered effector function