Edible High Town: Assessing the value of urban community gardens.

This report is the joint product of evaluation by a London South Bank University academic (Dr Barbara Czarnecka) and Edible High Town coordinator (Konni Deppe). This report presents an evaluation of an urban community gardening initiative, Edible High Town. Community gardens, including urban community gardens such as Edible High Town, involve: “the communal cultivation of plants, varying in form according to local contexts and the needs and desires of gardening spaces and local residents. It includes collective gardening undertaken for community development, food production, health promotion, horticultural therapy, collective action, and environmental and permaculture education.” In the past, urban community gardens have been identified as providing a model for promoting sustainable urban living. At present, community gardens, especially those located in deprived urban areas such as High Town in Luton, have been used as a public health tool to foster particular health outcomes related to healthy eating, mental health and physical exercise. Moreover, such gardens are also seen as initiatives that contribute to community cohesion by cultivating connections between neighbours and contributing to the regeneration of deprived areas and hence improving the well-being of residents. Hence, this evaluation focuses on assessing the social, health, economic, and environmental benefits of Edible High Town initiative. The report is divided into the following sections: 1) What is Edible High Town? 2) How did we evaluate Edible High Town? Evaluation framework and evaluation methodology; 3) Evaluation results; and 4) Recommendations and conclusion

High Town Bag Research Report: A report examining the views of the residents in High Town about their local community

This report provides a deeper understanding of the issues raised by residents in the local High Town community in Luton, Bedfordshire. Opinions of these issues build awareness and as a whole will assist in promotion of future improvement initiatives. This research was conducted to delve deep into what the residents really think and feel about key issues and existing initiatives within the High Town area. This gave the opportunity for the residents to have a voice in what they find acceptable and also the changes they would like to see implemented to improve High Town overall

High Town Bag Research Report: A report examining the views of the residents in High Town about their local community

This report provides a deeper understanding of the issues raised by residents in the local High Town community in Luton, Bedfordshire. Opinions of these issues build awareness and as a whole will assist in promotion of future improvement initiatives. This research was conducted to delve deep into what the residents really think and feel about key issues and existing initiatives within the High Town area. This gave the opportunity for the residents to have a voice in what they find acceptable and also the changes they would like to see implemented to improve High Town overall

Influence of waxes remelting used in investment casting on their thermal properties and linear shrinkage

This paper presents the results of thermal properties and linear shrinkage of jewelry waxes utilized in investment casting. Three types of jewelry waxes were cyclically processed (by heating, holding in a molten state and cooling)in the temperature range between 25 and 90 °C for about 7 hours. The samples were tested after 5th, 10th and 15thcycle. The remelting was designed to simulate the process of waxes reusability for production of patterns. Changes in thermal properties of waxes were determined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and linear shrinkage values were specified. The conducted examinations allowed to establish the way of multiple utilization of waxes in producing precise models

Manufacturing and characterization of sustainable and recyclable wood-polypropylene biocomposites:Multiprocessing-properties-structure relationships

In this study, sustainable polymeric materials with a polypropylene matrix reinforced with wood waste were developed for structural applications. The new polymer biocomposites (WPCs) were evaluated for their mechanical and structural properties regarding their susceptibility to multiple processing. As thermo-mechanical degradation processes are associated with the repeated processing of plastics, which causes changes in the properties and structure of these materials. Therefore, to determine the extent to which the composites can be used under operating conditions, the composites were examined by DMA. As a result of the study observed some effects caused by the repeated effects of shear stress and temperature on the rheological and mechanical properties of polymer composites. The first of these is related to a decrease in viscosity of WPC composites subjected to the six times processing and changes in flow conditions during extrusion and injection moulding due to the degradation of the polypropylene matrix. As the viscosity of the composites decreased, a reduction in tensile strength and other mechanical properties of the polypropylene matrix was noted. On the other hand, the second effect observed leads to the conclusion that, as the composites' processing cycles increase, the WPC composite's mechanical properties increase due to an increase in the degree of homogenization of the individual components of the WPC composition. This study aims to describe the relationship between these two primary processes and to determine the relationship between the properties and the structure of the new WPCs.</p

PERSONAL NAVIGATION: EXTENDING MOBILE MAPPING TECHNOLOGIES INTO INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS

This paper discusses some unconventional methods for indoor-outdoor navigation, based on the integration of self-contained sensors, including GPS, IMU, digital barometer, magnetometer compass, and a human locomotion model. The human locomotion model is used as navigation  sensor and it is handled by Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques that form an adaptive knowledge-based system (KBS), which is trained during the GPS signal reception, and is used to support navigation under GPS-denied conditions. A complementary technique used in our solution, which facilitates indoor navigation, is the image-based method (Flash LADAR). In this paper, the system design and an example performance analysis in the mixed indoor-outdoor environment are presented

Culture in embryonic kidney serum and xeno-free media as renal cell carcinoma and renal cell carcinoma cancer stem cells research model

The use of fetal bovine serum hinders obtaining reproducible experimental results and should also be removed in hormone and growth factor studies. In particular hormones found in FBS act globally on cancer cell physiology and influence transcriptome and metabolome. The aim of our study was to develop a renal carcinoma serum free culture model optimized for (embryonal) renal cells in order to select the best study model for downstream auto-, para- or endocrine research. Secondary aim was to verify renal carcinoma stem cell culture for this application. In the study, we have cultured renal cell carcinoma primary tumour cell line (786-0) as well as human kidney cancer stem cells in standard 2D monolayer cultures in Roswell Park Memorial Institute Medium or Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium and Complete Human Kidney Cancer Stem Cell Medium, respectively. Serum-free, animal-component free Human Embryonic Kidney 293 media were tested. Our results revealed that xeno-free embryonal renal cells optimized culture media provide a useful tool in RCC cancer biology research and at the same time enable effective growth of RCC. We propose bio-mimic RCC cell culture model with specific serum-free and xeno-free medium that promote RCC cell viability

Development of extracellular matrix supported 3D culture of renal cancer cells and renal cancer stem cells

Novel experimental conditions of cancer cell line culture have evolved throughout the recent years, with significantly growing interest in xeno-free, serum-free and three-dimensional culture variants. The choice of proper culture media may enable to mimic tumor microenvironment and promotion of cancer stem cells proliferation. To assess whether stem-like phenotype inducing media may be applied in renal cancer stem cell research, we performed a widespread screening of 13 cell culture media dedicated for mesenchymal cells, stem cells as well as mesenchymal stem cells. We have also screened extracellular matrix compounds and selected optimal RCC 3D—ECM supported culture model. Our results revealed that 786-O as well as HKCSCs cell line cultures in xeno-free media (NutriStem/StemXvivo) and laminin coated plates provide a useful tool in RCC cancer biology research and at the same time enable effective drug toxicity screening. We propose bio-mimic 3D RCC cell culture model with specific low-serum and xeno-free media that promote RCC cell viability and stem-like phenotype according to the tested genes encoding stemness factors including E-cadherin, N-cadherin, HIF1, HIF2, VEGF, SOX2, PAX2 and NESTIN