Brendan meets Columbus: A more commodious islescape

This paper proposes that we can reimagine insular literatures and medieval islescapes as commodious seas of cultural and intellectual loci that span time, culture, and text alike. By moving beyond the rhetoric of insular separation or connectivity, we can see that islands connect even when medieval minds saw separation. The essay focuses on the Brendan legend and the commodious cultural ‘sea of islands’ that it inhabits, a space that connects the modern reader to a history of other connections, fact to fancy, and the real and the imaginary. When sailing in this sea, Brendan meets Columbus, and the late medieval idea of a lost island spreads though space and time

Vaccination-based immunotherapy to target profibrotic cells in liver and lung

Fibrosis is the final path of nearly every form of chronic disease, regardless of the pathogenesis. Upon chronic injury, activated, fibrogenic fibroblasts deposit excess extracellular matrix, and severe tissue fibrosis can occur in virtually any organ. However, antifibrotic therapies that target fibrogenic cells, while sparing homeostatic fibroblasts in healthy tissues, are limited. We tested whether specific immunization against endogenous proteins, strongly expressed in fibrogenic cells but highly restricted in quiescent fibroblasts, can elicit an antigen-specific cytotoxic T cell response to ameliorate organ fibrosis. In silico epitope prediction revealed that activation of the genes Adam12 and Gli1 in profibrotic cells and the resulting “self-peptides” can be exploited for T cell vaccines to ablate fibrogenic cells. We demonstrate the efficacy of a vaccination approach to mount CD8+ T cell responses that reduce fibroblasts and fibrosis in the liver and lungs in mice. These results provide proof of principle for vaccination-based immunotherapies to treat fibrosis

Neptune to the Common-wealth of England (1652): the republican Britannia and the continuity of interests

In the seventeenth century, John Kerrigan reminds us, “models of empire did not always turn on monarchy”. In this essay, I trace a vision of “Neptune’s empire” shared by royalists and republicans, binding English national interest to British overseas expansion. I take as my text a poem entitled “Neptune to the Common-wealth of England”, prefixed to Marchamont Nedham’s 1652 English translation of Mare Clausum (1635), John Selden’s response to Mare Liberum (1609) by Hugo Grotius. This minor work is read alongside some equally obscure and more familiar texts in order to point up the ways in which it speaks to persistent cultural and political interests. I trace the afterlife of this verse, its critical reception and its unique status as a fragment that exemplifies the crossover between colonial republic and imperial monarchy at a crucial moment in British history, a moment that, with Brexit, remains resonant

Elevated apoptosis impairs epithelial cell turnover and shortens villi in TNF-driven intestinal inflammation

The intestinal epithelial monolayer, at the boundary between microbes and the host immune system, plays an important role in the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), particularly as a target and producer of pro-inflammatory TNF. Chronic overexpression of TNF leads to IBD-like pathology over time, but the mechanisms driving early pathogenesis events are not clear. We studied the epithelial response to inflammation by combining mathematical models with in vivo experimental models resembling acute and chronic TNF-mediated injury. We found significant villus atrophy with increased epithelial cell death along the crypt-villus axis, most dramatically at the villus tips, in both acute and chronic inflammation. In the acute model, we observed overexpression of TNF receptor I in the villus tip rapidly after TNF injection and concurrent with elevated levels of intracellular TNF and rapid shedding at the tip. In the chronic model, sustained villus atrophy was accompanied by a reduction in absolute epithelial cell turnover. Mathematical modelling demonstrated that increased cell apoptosis on the villus body explains the reduction in epithelial cell turnover along the crypt-villus axis observed in chronic inflammation. Cell destruction in the villus was not accompanied by changes in proliferative cell number or division rate within the crypt. Epithelial morphology and immunological changes in the chronic setting suggest a repair response to cell damage although the villus length is not recovered. A better understanding of how this state is further destabilised and results in clinical pathology resembling IBD will help identify suitable pathways for therapeutic intervention

Ncr1_HIF1_Wound_healing

RNAseq analysis for the gene expression profile of three skin wounds of Ncr1Cre-/HIF-1α+f/+f (WT; H_W_S_W1, H_W_S_W2, H_W_S_W3) mice and of three skin wounds of Ncr1Cre + /HIF-1α+f/+f (H_W_S_K1, H_W_S_K2, H_W_S_K3) mice mice at day 2 post injury

Ncr1_HIF1_GAS

RNAseq analysis for the gene expression profile of three skin lesions of Ncr1Cre-/HIF-1α+f/+f (WT; H_G_S_W1, H_G_S_W2, H_G_S_W3) mice and of three skin wounds of Ncr1Cre + /HIF-1α+f/+f (H_G_S_K1, H_G_S_K2, H_G_S_K3) mice mice at day 2 post infection with group A Streptococcus

Technological wastewater treatment from acetic acid by reactive distillation - esterification reaction kinetics modelling

Zainteresowanie ochroną środowiska leży u podstaw zrównoważonej gospodarki światowej. Koncepcja wytrzymałości światowego systemu ekologicznego opiera się na dwóch podstawowych pojęciach: potrzeby i ograniczenia. W myśl tej tezy prowadzone są poszukiwania nowych "ekologicznych" technologii oraz metod modernizacji już istniejących. Destylacja reaktywna jest jednym z tych innowacyjnych trendów. Pomimo faktu, że w przemyśle chemicznym idea tworzenia procesów hybrydowych nie stanowi novum, to jednak dopiero na przestrzeni ostatnich lat, wskutek wzrostu popytu na dodatki do benzyn bezołowiowych, proces destylacji reaktywnej zaczął cieszyć się zainteresowaniem. W roku 1984 koncern Eastman Kodak Chemicals wykorzystując destylację reaktywną rozpoczął produkcję MTBE na skalę przemysłową. Kombinację dziewięciu kolumn destylacyjnych i reaktora zastąpiono jedną kolumną reaktywną [1, 2].The paper presents possibilities of reactive distillation column application in recovery of acetic acid from waste water and industrial streams. Reaction zone of RD column is equipped with hybrid structural plate. This is new apparatus solution for reactive separation process. There was investigated kinetics of esterification in diluted water solution. Experimental conversion was compared with modeling in process simulator using pseudo homogenous and heterogenous kinetics equation. Hybrid structural plate (Fig. 1b) is a solution that allows to perform the esterification reaction of acetic acid using methanol. The study aimed at mapping the process conditions used in the plate column used in RD column. Satisfying (ca. 50%) conversion rate of 99.5% acetic acid was obtained. The reaction in aqueous solution runs slower, due to the diluted streams of reagents, shift of the equilibrium of reaction and limited use of catalyst accumulated in the perforated container. Presented construction solution, with some modifications, is the subject of the patent application being developed [15]. Esterification of concentrated solutions of acetic acid in plate devices can be described with a heterogeneous model, and diluted with pseudohomogenic model. Mass transport, assuming ideal mixing in the heterogeneous system is very complicated and seems to have a slightly different mechanism for three-phase system (vapour/liquid/solid) in the reactive column with plates working on the idea barbotage than catalytic structural fills. Application of kinetic equations from pseudohomogenic or heterogeneous models is correct for the RD column equipped with only the dumped or structural fill of KATAPAK type [14], working under the streamlined regime

Hypoxic NK cells mediate a trade-off between wound healing and antibacterial defence in the skin

Source data of all graphs used in the manuscrip