Self-care and entrepreneurism: An ethnography of soft skills development for higher education staff

Despite the ubiquity of staff soft skills programmes, few studies have examined why and how academic and corporate services staff utilise these programmes for self-care/governance. This study reports on findings from an ethnography of soft-skills learning and development programmes (LDPs) in a UK university, focusing on interviews with programme participants and facilitators. Results suggest that, as social worlds with neoliberal directives, LDPs promote various self-governance activities in the form of entrepreneurism and novel, corporate versions of self-care. Time on LDPs was seen as a chance to, ‘put oneself first,’ examine career options and cultivate sought-after attributes, including self-confidence and assertiveness. Social networking and performance management also emerged as significant issues. Career development was important for all participants; however, perceptions of how to realise this differed. Based on our findings, we propose three types of work-related performance – ‘career nomad,’ ‘reluctant entrepreneur,’ and ‘course hopper’ – constituting a typology for understanding social worlds inhabited by contemporary university professionals. Our study suggests that self-care ‘technologies’ have multiple, competing functions in continuing professional education. While LDPs can help professionals navigate paths through increasingly turbulent organisations, their entrepreneurial ethos and content reflect the market interests they serve

Nanoscale ion sequestration to determine the polarity selectivity of ion conductance in carriers and channels

© 2014 American Chemical Society. The nanoscale spacing between a tethered lipid bilayer membrane (tBLM) and its supporting gold electrode can be utilized to determine the polarity selectivity of the conduction of ion channels and ion carriers embedded in a membrane. The technique relies upon a bias voltage sequestering or eliminating ions, of a particular polarity, into or out of the aqueous electrolyte region between the gold electrode and the tethered membrane. A demonstration is given, using ac swept frequency impedance spectrometry, of the bias polarity dependence of the ionophore conductance of gramicidin A, a cationic selective channel, and valinomycin, a potassium ion selective carrier. We further use pulsed amperometry to show that the intrinsic voltage dependence of the ion conduction is actually selective of the polarity of the transported ion and not simply of the direction of the ionic current flow

The use of tethered bilayer lipid membranes to identify the mechanisms of antimicrobial peptide interactions with lipid bilayers

© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This review identifies the ways in which tethered bilayer lipid membranes (tBLMs) can be used for the identification of the actions of antimicrobials against lipid bilayers. Much of the new research in this area has originated, or included researchers from, the southern hemisphere, Australia and New Zealand in particular. More and more, tBLMs are replacing liposome release assays, black lipid membranes and patch-clamp electrophysiological techniques because they use fewer reagents, are able to obtain results far more quickly and can provide a uniformity of responses with fewer artefacts. In this work, we describe how tBLM technology can and has been used to identify the actions of numerous antimicrobial agents

Neurological effects in the offspring after switching from tobacco cigarettes to e-cigarettes during pregnancy in a mouse model.

BACKGROUND:Maternal smoking is currently a public health concern and has been associated with a number of complications in the offspring. E-cigarettes are gaining popularity as a 'safer' alternative to tobacco cigarettes during pregnancy, however, there are a limited number of studies to suggest that it is actually 'safe'. STUDY DESIGN:Balb/C female mice were exposed to ambient air (n = 8; Sham), or tobacco cigarette smoke (n = 8; SE) before gestation, during gestation and lactation. A third group was exposed to cigarette smoke before gestation followed by e-cigarette aerosols during gestation and lactation (n = 8; Switch). Male offspring (12-week old, n = 10-14/group) underwent behavioural assessments to investigate short-term memory, anxiety and activity using the novel object recognition (NOR) and elevated plus maze (EPM) tests. Brains were collected at postnatal day (P)1, P20 and Week13 for global DNA methylation, epigenetic gene expression, and neuronal cell counts. RESULTS:The offspring from mothers switching to e-cigarettes exhibited no change in exploration/activity, but showed a decrease in global DNA methylation, Aurora Kinase (Aurk) A and AurkB gene expression and a reduction in neuronal cell numbers in the cornu ammonis 1 region of the dorsal hippocampus compared to the SE group. CONCLUSIONS:Continuous tobacco cigarette smoke exposure during pregnancy resulted in marked neurological deficits in the offspring. Switching to e-cigarettes during pregnancy reduced these neurological deficits compared to cigarette smoke exposure. However, neurological changes were still observed, so we therefore conclude that e-cigarette use during pregnancy is not advised

Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of N-Sulfonylphenyl glyoxamide-Based Antimicrobial Peptide Mimics as Novel Antimicrobial Agents

© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Antibiotic resistance is a major global health concern. There is an urgent need for the development of novel antimicrobials. Recently, phenylglyoxamide-based small molecular antimicrobial peptide mimics have been identified as potential new leads to treat bacterial infections. Here, we describe the synthesis of novel phenylglyoxamide derivatives via the ring-opening reaction of N-sulfonylisatins with primary amines, followed by conversion into hydrochloride, quaternary ammonium iodide or gunidinium salts. The antibacterial activity of the compounds against Staphylococcus aureus was evaluated by in vitro assays. Structure-activity relationship studies revealed that 5-bromo-substituent at the phenyl ring, octyl group appended to the ortho sulfonamide group or guanidine hydrochloride salt as the terminal group significantly contributed to potency. The most potent compound, the gunidinium salt 35 d, exhibited a minimum inhibitory concentration value of 12 μM and a therapeutic index of 15. It also demonstrated its potential to act as antimicrobial pore-forming agent. Overall, the results identified 35 d as a new lead antimicrobial compound

Evidence of the Key Role of H<inf>3</inf>O⁺ in Phospholipid Membrane Morphology

© 2016 American Chemical Society. This study explains the importance of the phosphate moiety and H3O+ in controlling the ionic flux through phospholipid membranes. We show that despite an increase in the H3O+ concentration when the pH is decreased, the level of ionic conduction through phospholipid bilayers is reduced. By modifying the lipid structure, we show the dominant determinant of membrane conduction is the hydrogen bonding between the phosphate oxygens on adjacent phospholipids. The modulation of conduction with pH is proposed to arise from the varying H3O+ concentrations altering the molecular area per lipid and modifying the geometry of conductive defects already present in the membrane. Given the geometrical constraints that control the lipid phase structure of membranes, these area changes predict that organisms evolving in environments with different pHs will select for different phospholipid chain lengths, as is found for organisms near highly acidic volcanic vents (short chains) or in highly alkaline salt lakes (long chains). The stabilizing effect of the hydration shells around phosphate groups also accounts for the prevalence of phospholipids across biology. Measurement of ion permeation through lipid bilayers was made tractable using sparsely tethered bilayer lipid membranes with swept frequency electrical impedance spectroscopy and ramped dc amperometry. Additional evidence of the effect of a change in pH on lipid packing density is obtained from neutron reflectometry data of tethered membranes containing perdeuterated lipids

Design and synthesis of short amphiphilic cationic peptidomimetics based on biphenyl backbone as antibacterial agents

© 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and their synthetic mimics have received recent interest as new alternatives to traditional antibiotics in attempts to overcome the rise of antibiotic resistance in many microbes. AMPs are part of the natural defenses of most living organisms and they also have a unique mechanism of action against bacteria. Herein, a new series of short amphiphilic cationic peptidomimetics were synthesized by incorporating the 3′-amino-[1,1′-biphenyl]-3-carboxylic acid backbone to mimic the essential properties of natural AMPs. By altering hydrophobicity and charge, we identified the most potent analogue 25g that was active against both Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (MIC = 15.6 μM) and Gram-negative Escherichia coli (MIC = 7.8 μM) bacteria. Cytoplasmic permeability assay results revealed that 25g acts primarily by depolarization of lipids in cytoplasmic membranes. The active compounds were also investigated for their cytotoxicity to human cells, lysis of lipid bilayers using tethered bilayer lipid membranes (tBLMs) and their activity against established biofilms of S. aureus and E. coli

Molecular characterisation of protist parasites in human-habituated mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), humans and livestock, from Bwindi impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Over 60 % of human emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, and there is growing evidence of the zooanthroponotic transmission of diseases from humans to livestock and wildlife species, with major implications for public health, economics, and conservation. Zooanthroponoses are of relevance to critically endangered species; amongst these is the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) of Uganda. Here, we assess the occurrence of Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora, Giardia, and Entamoeba infecting mountain gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), Uganda, using molecular methods. We also assess the occurrence of these parasites in humans and livestock species living in overlapping/adjacent geographical regions

Discovery of new colonies by Sentinel2 reveals good and bad news for emperor

The distribution of emperor penguins is circumpolar, with 54 colony locations currently reported of which 50 are currently extant as of 2019. Here we report on eight newly discovered colonies and confirm the rediscovery of three breeding sites, only previously reported in the era before Very High Resolution satellite imagery was available, making a total of 61 breeding locations. This represents an increase of ~20% in the number of breeding sites, but, as most of the colonies appear to be small, they may only increase the total population by around 5–10%. The discoveries have been facilitated by the use of Sentinel2 satellite imagery, which has a higher resolution and more efficient search mechanism than the Landsat data previously used to search for colonies. The small size of these new colonies indicates that considerations of reproductive output in relation to metabolic rate during huddling is likely to be of interest. Some of the colonies exist in offshore habitats, something not previously reported for emperor penguins. Comparison with recent modelling results show that the geographic locations of all the newly found colonies are in areas likely to be highly vulnerable under business‐as‐usual greenhouse gas emissions scenarios, suggesting that population decreases for the species will be greater than previously thought