OUTLOOK FOR EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN SUGAR PROCESSING

Agribusiness,

Can a new generation of political leaders tackle Britain’s regional inequalities?

A guest post by Stephen Clarke of the Resolution Foundation 2017 will see the UK begin its departure from the European Union. However, as the UK seeks to shed some politicians in Brussels, we will be getting some new ones at home. Greater Manchester, Liverpool, Tees, West Midlands, Bristol and Bath, and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will all go to the polls to elect mayors and will gain new powers over transport, housing, business support and skills

Liver steatosis and insulin-resistance : reversal by Sutherlandia frutescens

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is rapidly emerging as one of the greatest global health issues of the 21st century. Insulin-resistance is a condition associated with T2DM and in the cell it is defined as the inadequate strength of insulin signalling from the insulin receptor downstream to the final substrates of insulin action involved in multiple metabolic, gene expression, and mitogenic aspects of cellular function. To investigate the potential mechanisms involved in the development of insulin-resistance, two in vitro liver cell models were established using palmitate or a combination of insulin and fructose as inducers. The development of insulin-resistance was determined via the capacity of the hepatocytes to maintain normal glucose metabolism functionality by measuring hepatic gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis. It was established that the treatments induced the development of insulinresistance after 24 hours chronic exposure. Previous studies have investigated the potential of Sutherlandia frutescens extracts as therapeutic agents for insulin-resistance. The aim of this study was thus to investigate the ability of a hot aqueous extract of S. frutescens to reverse the insulin-resistant state, via measuring gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis, the associated changes in cellular physiology (lipid accumulation, oxidative stress, and acetyl- CoA levels), and changes in mRNA expression. The results showed that S. frutescens had a significant effect on reversing the insulin-resistant state in both models of insulin-resistance. Furthermore, S. frutescens was capable of reducing lipid accumulation in the form of triacylglycerol in the high insulin/fructose model, while this was unaffected in the palmitate model. However, S. frutescens did reduce the accumulation of diacylglycerol in the palmitate model. Oxidative stress, seen to be associated with the insulin-resistant state, was successfully treated using the extract, as indicated by a reduction in reactive oxygen species. However no change was seen in the nitric oxide levels, in either model. Interestingly, although S. frutescens had no effect on the level of acetyl-CoA in the insulin/fructose model, it was found to increase this in the palmitate model. It is suggested that this may be due to increased β-oxidation and metabolic activity induced by the extract. The analysis of mRNA expression gave some insight into possible mechanisms by which insulin-resistance develops, although the results were inconclusive due to high variability in samples and the possibility of the RNA being compromised. Future studies will address this issue. The results of this study reflect different proposed clinical causes of insulin-resistance through the responses seen in the two cell models. These indicate that liver steatosis and insulin-resistance are induced by high palmitate as well as high insulin and fructose levels, and reversed by S. frutescens. Therefore the potential of S. frutescens to be used as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of insulin-resistance is indicated by this study

The Panopticon of the Public Protest: Technology and Surveillance

This paper deals with the issue of surveillance as it applies to recent technological advancements. Specifically, advancements in video capturing and social media have made public events into spectacles that are observed and shared online by the public. Public protest and discourse loosens itself from the bounds of state authority and enters the arena of the public. This phenomenon reconsiders Foucault’s conception of the panopticon. Foucault’s panopticon is useful as a tool for understanding the way power operates through surveillance in a state-to-public direction, but technological advancements have allowed for a reversal of this surveillance. With real examples like the pepper spraying of student protesters at UC Davis, the public now has surveillance over the state (in this example police officers) from its multitude of citizen perspectives that can be shared and disseminated online. This is an important development because it increases the autonomy and safe power of individuals who wish to speak out against excessive use of power by the state over the public. People can do so without fear of greater police suppression of real events. Issues with this development are discussed, like the chance for the state, or other sites of power (like corporations) to develop the copyrighting of public pace, making any event the property of power structures. This would be a problem, as it would lessen the autonomy of individuals in public spaces

Stephen Clarke: End of the Season

A solo exhibition of an ongoing project that focused on family holidays at Rhyl, the seaside resort in North Wales. The exhibition at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester (25 July – 18 October 2015) comprised black & white digital photographic prints, vintage silver gelatin prints, and colour digital photomontages; a wall-mounted hand-drawn map and a DVD transfer of cine film footage; four themed vitrines that displayed photobooks, postcards and print ephemera from Clarke’s personal archive. The exhibition hinged on the artist’s photobooks of Rhyl published by the independent publisher Café Royal Books: Ocean Beach, Rhyl (2014); Rhyl Seafront (2015); and Rhyl Caravan Parks (2015). Accompanying the exhibition were two public lectures given by Stephen Clarke ‘Picturing the British Holiday’ (17 Aug. 2015) and ‘Holiday-ed in North Wales’ (17 Sept. 2015); and a public drawing performance titled ‘Drawing the End of the Season’ (25 and 26 July, 2015)

A Replication of "Is Form-Focused Vocabulary Instruction Worthwhile?" (Mason and Krashen, 2004)

Story listening is an instructional procedure developed by Beniko Mason in which teachers aim to provide compelling and comprehensible aural input bytelling stories and using pictures, gestures and L1 translations to help learners to understand the content (Mason, 2015). Studies have suggested that story listening is a more efficient way of developing vocabulary knowledge than more traditional and form-focused types of vocabulary instruction (Mason, 2007; Mason and Krashen, 2004; Mason, Vanata, Jander, Borsch and Krashen, 2009).These short research notes present a loose replication of Is Form-Focused Vocabulary Instruction Worthwhile?" (Mason and Krashen, 2004), which reported a quasi-experimental study of two treatments and their relative effects on vocabulary growth. In both treatments, subjects listened to a story, but one of the groups also did supplementary vocabulary activities designed to teach the new words in the story. This group gained more words on a delayed post-test than the group that only listened to the story, but the latter gained more words per minute of exposure, suggesting that story listening alone is more efficient than combining story listening with traditional vocabulary activities