Eradicating Sexual Violence in Tertiary Education: A report from UCU’s sexual violence task group

This report represents the work of 13 UCU members who were convened in September 2020 to examine sexual violence in tertiary education across the UK and inform the union’s campaigning and representation of members affected by the issue. The report reinforces previous research about the worryingly high levels of prevalence of sexual violence in the sector, with a focus on the past five years. As well as highlighting the severity of the problem in general terms, some of the report’s most important findings are about the disproportionate prevalence of sexual violence against groups that are marginalised by employment status or protected characteristics. Precariously employed staff and postgraduate researchers, disabled staff, trans and non-binary staff, and staff whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual are all significantly more likely to have directly experienced sexual violence in the past five years. The report presents a number of recommendations for employers, alongside recommendations for UCU to implement to enhance its campaigning against sexual violence, as well as its support for and representation of survivors. Selected recommendations include: Employers should abandon the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with perpetrators, disclose outcomes of complaints to survivors, and include information about disciplinary proceedings in references provided for perpetrators. Employers should recognise that casualisation exacerbates gender-based violence and work with UCU to end it through collective agreements and lobbying for wider policy change. Employers should develop policies to allow proceedings against alleged perpetrators to continue after they have left the institution, where necessary and in accordance with the wishes of the complainant. UCU should consider withholding at least some forms of representation from perpetrators. UCU should provide guidance and support for survivors and union representatives against retaliatory defamation proceedings by perpetrators. The findings and recommendations presented are based on a wide range of sources and methods, including: A survey of UCU members which received nearly 4,000 responses. A survey of UCU reps which received 100 responses. A survey of professionals whose work covers this area, including officials in UCU and other campus trade unions, lawyers, and other professionals. Follow-up interviews with a number of respondents from the survey of professionals. One-on-one conversations with survivors. Creative submissions from Survivors Create! Online portal. Written submissions from four of UCU’s national elected committees. Other interviews and meetings with UCU committees, representatives and officials

Factors predicting early outcome in patients admitted at emergency department with severe head trauma

Objective: To determine predictive factors of early mortality among severe traumatic brain injury in emergency department. Methods: This study is based on a retrospective analysis of 198 admitted in emergency depatment with severe head injury (Glasgow coma scale score ≤8) of an university hospital (Sfax, Tunisia). Basic demographic, clinical, biological and radiological data were recorded on admission and during emergency department stay. Results: Forty two patients were died. Univariate analysis showed that the presence of shock, cardiac arrest, bilateral mydriasis, high value of injury severity score and low value of Glasgow coma scale were associated with mortality. Moreover, meningeal hemorrhage, cerebral and subdural haematoma were associated with poorer outcome. Multivariate analysis showed that factors associated with a poor prognosis were cardiac arrest cerebral and the presence of cerebral haematoma. Conclusions: Improving pre-hospital care and ovoid futile resuscitation to given priority in resource allocation and urgent CT scan of the head to look for operable mass lesions as early detection should improve the prognosis of severe head injury at emergency department

Helix aspersa maxima mucus exhibits antimelanogenic and antitumoral effects against melanoma cells

International audienceSnail secretion is currently revolutionizing the world of cosmetics and human skin care. The efficacy of snail secretion in wounds healing has been proven both in vitro and by clinical studies. However, the potential anti-tumor effect of snail secretion was poorly investigated. In this report, our in vitro study showed that Helix aspersa maxima species snail slime (SS) could not only treat melanogenesis but also endowed with anti-tumoral activity against human melanoma cells. Indeed, SS reduced melanin content and tyrosinase activity on B16F10 cells with IC50 values of 288 μg/mL and 286 μg/mL, respectively, without altering cell viability. This effect was also observed, at a lesser extent, on human melanoma IGR-39 and SK-MEL-28 cell lines. On another hand, SS specifically inhibited the viability of IGR-39 and SK-MEL-28 cells associated to an apoptotic effect highlighted by PARP cleavage. It is worth to note that SS did not affect the viability of B16F10 cells and non tumorigenic HaCaT cells. Interestingly, this extract was found to inhibit migration and invasion of both human melanoma cells through reducing the expression of Matrix metalloproteinase MMP2. Snail slime also exerted a high inhibitory effect on IGR-39 cell adhesion through blocking the function of α2β1 (45%), αvβ3 (38%) integrins and by reducing the expression levels of αv and β1 integrins. The presented results shed light on the potential anti-melanoma effect of SS and support its use against skin diseases