The Plasma Capacitor in a Magnetic Field

Impedance computations for parallel plate and coaxial cylinder plasma capacitors in magnetic fiel

Design principles for mobile learning

The New technologies, new pedagogies project used a designbased research approach in the creation and evaluation of pedagogies and their use in a range of higher education classes. This chapter describes the findings of the project as a whole, and presents principles to inform the design of innovative learning environments employing mobile technologies in higher education learning environments

Designing an information system for updating land records in Bangladesh: action design ethnographic research (ADER)

Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Information Systems (IS) has developed through adapting, generating and applying diverse methodologies, methods, and techniques from reference disciplines. Further, Action Design Research (ADR) has recently developed as a broad research method that focuses on designing and redesigning IT and IS in organizational contexts. This paper reflects on applying ADR in a complex organizational context in a developing country. It shows that ADR requires additional lens for designing IS in such a complex organizational context. Through conducting ADR, it is seen that an ethnographic framework has potential complementarities for understanding complex contexts thereby enhancing the ADR processes. This paper argues that conducting ADR with an ethnographic approach enhances design of IS and organizational contexts. Finally, this paper aims presents a broader methodological framework, Action Design Ethnographic Research (ADER), for designing artefacts as well as IS. This is illustrated through the case of a land records updating service in Bangladesh

A Notch/STAT3-driven Blimp-1/c-Maf-dependent molecular switch induces IL-10 expression in human CD4(+) T cells and is defective in Crohn's disease patients

Immunosuppressive Interleukin (IL)-10 production by pro-inflammatory CD4(+) T cells is a central self-regulatory function to limit aberrant inflammation. Still, the molecular mediators controlling IL-10 expression in human CD4(+) T cells are largely undefined. Here, we identify a Notch/STAT3 signaling-module as a universal molecular switch to induce IL-10 expression across human naïve and major effector CD4(+) T cell subsets. IL-10 induction was transient, jointly controlled by the transcription factors Blimp-1/c-Maf and accompanied by upregulation of several co-inhibitory receptors, including LAG-3, CD49b, PD-1, TIM-3 and TIGIT. Consistent with a protective role of IL-10 in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), effector CD4(+) T cells from Crohn's disease patients were defective in Notch/STAT3-induced IL-10 production and skewed towards an inflammatory Th1/17 cell phenotype. Collectively, our data identify a Notch/STAT3-Blimp-1/c-Maf axis as a common anti-inflammatory pathway in human CD4(+) T cells, which is defective in IBD and thus may represent an attractive therapeutic target

Gut microbiota dysbiosis is associated with altered tryptophan metabolism and dysregulated inflammatory response in severe COVID-19

The clinical course of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is variable and to a substantial degree still unpredictable, especially in persons who have neither been vaccinated nor recovered from previous infection. We hypothesized that disease progression and inflammatory responses were associated with alterations in the microbiome and metabolome. To test this, we integrated metagenome, metabolome, cytokine, and transcriptome profiles of longitudinally collected samples from hospitalized COVID-19 patients at the beginning of the pandemic (before vaccines or variants of concern) and non-infected controls, and leveraged detailed clinical information and post-hoc confounder analysis to identify robust within- and cross-omics associations. Severe COVID-19 was directly associated with a depletion of potentially beneficial intestinal microbes mainly belonging to Clostridiales, whereas oropharyngeal microbiota disturbance appeared to be mainly driven by antibiotic use. COVID-19 severity was also associated with enhanced plasma concentrations of kynurenine, and reduced levels of various other tryptophan metabolites, lysophosphatidylcholines, and secondary bile acids. Decreased abundance of Clostridiales potentially mediated the observed reduction in 5-hydroxytryptophan levels. Moreover, altered plasma levels of various tryptophan metabolites and lower abundances of Clostridiales explained significant increases in the production of IL-6, IFNγ and/or TNFα. Collectively, our study identifies correlated microbiome and metabolome alterations as a potential contributor to inflammatory dysregulation in severe COVID-19