Displaced Voices: A Journal of Migration, Archives and Cultural Heritage, Volume 3 Issue 1 (Spring 2023)

Twentieth Century Histories of Civic Society’s Responses to Crises of Displacement: A Special Issue to mark the 70th Anniversary of Refugee Council Displaced Voices is a biannual digital magazine produced twice a year by the Living Refugee Archive team at the University of East London. Displaced Voices aims to provide a digital platform for activists, archivists, researchers, practitioners and academics to contribute to issues pertaining to refugee and migration history; refugee and migrant rights; social justice; cultural heritage and archives. We welcome a range of contributions to the magazine including articles of between 1000-2000 words; reports on fieldwork in archival collections; book recommendations and reviews; and more creative pieces including (but not limited too) cartoons; photography; and poetry. We would also welcome news on activities; publication of reports, projects; letters and news from your own networks. We welcome submissions from all writers whether you are a student, practitioner, activist or established academic. The Displaced Voices online magazine is born out of the collaborative and intersectional work that we have been undertaking through our work with the refugee and migration archives housed at the University of East London. Our work to date has explored the intersections of refugee and migration studies with narrative and life history research linked to oral history methods and archival approaches to the preservation, documentation and accessibility of archival resources recording the refugee experience. This magazine is a collaborative project between the Living Refugee Archive at the University of East London; the Oral History Society Migration Special Interest Group and the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration Working Group on the History of Forced Migration and Refugees. Thematically we are looking to engage with articles that explore the intersection of refugee and forced migration studies; history and cultural heritage studies; narrative research; oral history and archival science

A large eddy simulation of an airfoil turbulent wake subjected to streamwise curvature

This paper presents large eddy simulations (LES) of the curved wake of an airfoil. The wake was generated by placing a NACA0012 airfoil in a uniform stream of air, which is then subjected to an abrupt 90° curvature created by a duct bend. The trailing edge of the airfoil is one chord length upstream of the bend entry. The duct cross-section measures 457 mm × 457 mm, and the bend has radius to height ratio of 1.17. The flow Reynolds number (1.02 × 105) is based on a mainstream velocity of 10 m/s and airfoil chord length 0.15 m. The sub-grid scale models employed are the classical Smagorinsky, its dynamic variant and the dynamic kinetic energy transport. The performance of LES in depicting the experimental flow is assessed and compared with results predicted by the Reynolds stress model (RSM). The results show the advantages of LES over Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes methods in predicting convex wall separation in strongly curved ducts on relatively coarse grids. Results from LES on a considerably finer near-wall-resolved grid lead to much improved comparison with the experimental data in the near wake, bettering predictions by RSM and LES on the coarse grid. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Association study of rs10768683 and rs968857 polymorphisms with transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) in a southern Iranian population

Previous studies reported that detection of polymorphisms inherited through paternal model could be potential markers for the Non-Invasive Prenatal Diagnosis (NIPD) of β-thalassemia. The aim of the current study was to find out the associations of rs10768683 and rs968857 with transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) in a southern Iranian population. A total of 175 subjects were investigated, divided into patients with TDT as case group (n = 75) and healthy people as control group (n = 100). Genomic DNAs were extracted from peripheral blood using salting out procedure. Genotyping rs10768683 and rs968857 was carried out by ARMS-PCR, then statistical analyses were assessed using SPSS, and Medcalc ver. 18 software. Data showed that rs10768683 was statistically significant in co-dominant model of inheritance (P = 0.025, OR = 2.11 [1.08-4.15]) and genotype frequencies of CG among controls and cases were 0.68 and 0.80, respectively. However, according to genotype frequencies, there was no association between rs968857 and TDT among cases and healthy controls in any models of inheritance. In conclusion, the present study showed the association of rs10768683 with major β-thalassemia through ARMS-PCR techniqu

CD44 polymorphisms and its variants, as an inconsistent marker in cancer investigations

Among cell surface markers, CD44 is considered the main marker for identifying and isolating the cancer stem cells (CSCs) among other cells and has attracted significant attention in a variety of research areas. Many studies have shown the essential roles of CD44 in initiation, metastasis, and tumorigenesis in different types of cancer; however, the validity of CD44 as a therapeutic or diagnostic target has not been fully confirmed in some other studies. Whereas the association of specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the CD44 gene and related variants with cancer risk have been observed in clinical investigations, the significance of these findings remains controversial. Here, we aimed to provide an up-to-date overview of recent studies on the association of CD44 polymorphisms and its variants with different kinds of cancer to determine whether or not it can be used as an appropriate candidate for cancer tracking. © 2021 Elsevier B.V

Opportunities and challenges of the tag-assisted protein purification techniques: Applications in the pharmaceutical industry

Tag-assisted protein purification is a method of choice for both academic researches and large-scale industrial demands. Application of the purification tags in the protein production process can help to save time and cost, but the design and application of tagged fusion proteins are challenging. An appropriate tagging strategy must provide sufficient expression yield and high purity for the final protein products while preserving their native structure and function. Thanks to the recent advances in the bioinformatics and emergence of high-throughput techniques (e.g. SEREX), many new tags are introduced to the market. A variety of interfering and non-interfering tags have currently broadened their application scope beyond the traditional use as a simple purification tool. They can take part in many biochemical and analytical features and act as solubility and protein expression enhancers, probe tracker for online visualization, detectors of post-translational modifications, and carrier-driven tags. Given the variability and growing number of the purification tags, here we reviewed the protein- and peptide-structured purification tags used in the affinity, ion-exchange, reverse phase, and immobilized metal ion affinity chromatographies. We highlighted the demand for purification tags in the pharmaceutical industry and discussed the impact of self-cleavable tags, aggregating tags, and nanotechnology on both the column-based and column-free purification techniques. © 202

Molecular characterization and antibiotic resistance pattern of isolated Acinetobacter baumannii in Iran

In this study, the prevalence of efflux pump genes (AdeABC) and genetic association of MDR A. baumanii isolated from intensive care units were investigated. Detection of A. baumanii was performed using species-specific PCR. Disc-diffusion antibiotic susceptibility tests of isolated strains and amplification of AdeABC genes (adeA, adeB, adeC, and adeM) were performed. Isolates were also subjected to the Repetitive Extragenic Palindromic-PCR (rep-PCR) to identify isolates clonality. The highest number of resistant A. baumanii isolates was observed in response to cephalexin, tetracycline, and cefixime (over 80 of isolates). A. baumanii isolates had the highest sensitivity in response to imipenem and amikacin (~ 50 of isolates). The distribution of adeA, adeB, adeM, and adeC in isolates were as follow; 186, 165, 172, and 117 isolates. A. baumanii was observed at an alarming level in this study (183, 93.84). Based on rep-PCR, remarkable interspecific diversity was observed among isolates. © 2021 Elsevier Inc