Digital Literary Mapping: I. Visualizing and Reading Graph Topologies as Maps for Literature

This paper is the first of two linked pieces that emerge out of the AHRC-funded Chronotopic Cartographies project for the mapping of place and space in literature. The paper aims to establish the value of a topological approach for the mapping of literary texts. It is centred on Bakhtin’s concept of the “chronotope” or “time-space” as the basis for digitally mapping spatial meaning in literary works. It begins by contextualizing our work in relation to the field of literary geography and cartography. It then makes a clear distinction between mapping to the real world using GIS (as is common in fields such as history or geography) and mapping relatively, using topologies, which we argue is essential for the mapping of fictional place and space. The current digital models that are closest to this project concern social network analysis and its adaptation to the mapping of character networks in literary texts. After contextualizing our work in relation to this research, we aim to provide a rationale for the use of topological models in literary mapping. A range of topological forms and their meaning for literature is examined with reference to particular examples from the Chronotopic Cartographies project

Digital Literary Mapping: II. Towards an Integrated Visual–Verbal Method for the Humanities

This is the second of two linked articles that aim to present new ways of mapping literature by means of digital tools for the twenty-first century. The preceding article articulated the need to move beyond the mapping of literary texts onto geographic sites in the world and into the mapping of space relationally in nonreferential ways by means of literary topology. This second article seeks to make a larger case for new ways of working in the digital humanities and suggests that new methods of analysis and new tools are needed. It articulates an integrated visual–verbal method of interpretation that combines the close reading of spatial meanings and structures within a text with analysis of the map series generated out of that same text in an iterative structure. It also argues for the value of layers of mapping and of comparative mapping of the same place both referentially and nonreferentially. The literary texts chosen to exemplify the method are Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. These allow us to explore the validity of the claims made

RTN3 Is a Novel Cold-Induced Protein and Mediates Neuroprotective Effects of RBM3.

Cooling and hypothermia are profoundly neuroprotective, mediated, at least in part, by the cold shock protein, RBM3. However, the neuroprotective effector proteins induced by RBM3 and the mechanisms by which mRNAs encoding cold shock proteins escape cooling-induced translational repression are unknown. Here, we show that cooling induces reprogramming of the translatome, including the upregulation of a new cold shock protein, RTN3, a reticulon protein implicated in synapse formation. We report that this has two mechanistic components. Thus, RTN3 both evades cooling-induced translational elongation repression and is also bound by RBM3, which drives the increased expression of RTN3. In mice, knockdown of RTN3 expression eliminated cooling-induced neuroprotection. However, lentivirally mediated RTN3 overexpression prevented synaptic loss and cognitive deficits in a mouse model of neurodegeneration, downstream and independently of RBM3. We conclude that RTN3 expression is a mediator of RBM3-induced neuroprotection, controlled by novel mechanisms of escape from translational inhibition on cooling

Smart Mobility Cities: Connecting Bristol and Kuala Lumpur project report

Financed by the British Council Institutional Links program this Smart Mobility Cities project has opened a fascinating window on a journey of discovery linking Bristol and Kuala Lumpur. This journey was in part directed towards the realisation of Smart Mobility solutions to the socio-economic and environmental challenges of global urbanisation. Beyond this, the journey was also concerned to strengthen research and innovation partnerships between the UK and the emerging knowledge economy of Malaysia, enabling UK social scientists to collaborate on challenging global issues with international researchers and vice versa. This Smart Mobility Cities project report presents innovative, creative and yet fully practical solutions for these societal challenges. Solutions that explore a range of opportunities, whichinclude those arising from new urban governance requirements, and which are in-line with visions for sustainable urban mobility.These Smart Mobility solutions have arisen from intensive co-design and co-creation engagement with a diversity of stakeholders. Research co-production has linked the principal university partners of the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, and Taylor’sUniversity, Kuala Lumpur, together with the Malaysia Institute of Transport (MITRANS), Universiti Teknologi Mara, and the University Sains Malaysia (USM) in intensive engagement with stakeholder interests in both UK and Malaysia over a two-year period

To formalize or not to formalize: women entrepreneurs’ sensemaking of business registration in the context of Nepal

Despite the depiction of decisions to formalize informal firms as rational and ethical, many entrepreneurs in developing countries continue to operate informally regardless of its perceived illicit status. While existing research on why entrepreneurs choose informality emphasizes the economic costs and benefits of such decisions, this often overlooks the realities of the informal economy and the constraints which marginal populations—particularly women—face. In this paper, we use institutional theory and sensemaking to understand the experiences of women in the informal economy and what formalization means to them. We use a qualitative approach to collect data from 90 women entrepreneurs in three different cities in Nepal. In our findings, we identify three groups of women with distinctive understandings of formalization—business sustainability, livelihood sufficiency and strategic alignment. Their interpretation of formalization reveals the complex, dynamic, and cyclical nature of formalization decisions. Decisions are also guided by the optimization of social and emotional logics, whereby formalization is conceived differently depending on different life stages, experiences within the informal economy and wider socio-cultural contexts. Our findings highlight the ethical implications of formalization where being a ‘good citizen’, rather than complying with formal rules and regulations, is about attuning to and fitting in with socially prescribed roles. Our research provides a nuanced view of formalization decisions, challenging idealized and ethical notions of formalization as a desired end state

The importance of the cellular stress response in the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes

Organisms have evolved to survive rigorous environments and are not prepared to thrive in a world of caloric excess and sedentary behavior. A realization that physical exercise (or lack of it) plays a pivotal role in both the pathogenesis and therapy of type 2 diabetes mellitus (t2DM) has led to the provocative concept of therapeutic exercise mimetics. A decade ago, we attempted to simulate the beneficial effects of exercise by treating t2DM patients with 3 weeks of daily hyperthermia, induced by hot tub immersion. The short-term intervention had remarkable success, with a 1 % drop in HbA1, a trend toward weight loss, and improvement in diabetic neuropathic symptoms. An explanation for the beneficial effects of exercise and hyperthermia centers upon their ability to induce the cellular stress response (the heat shock response) and restore cellular homeostasis. Impaired stress response precedes major metabolic defects associated with t2DM and may be a near seminal event in the pathogenesis of the disease, tipping the balance from health into disease. Heat shock protein inducers share metabolic pathways associated with exercise with activation of AMPK, PGC1-a, and sirtuins. Diabetic therapies that induce the stress response, whether via heat, bioactive compounds, or genetic manipulation, improve or prevent all of the morbidities and comorbidities associated with the disease. The agents reduce insulin resistance, inflammatory cytokines, visceral adiposity, and body weight while increasing mitochondrial activity, normalizing membrane structure and lipid composition, and preserving organ function. Therapies restoring the stress response can re-tip the balance from disease into health and address the multifaceted defects associated with the disease