Revisiting the iconic: the excavation of the reelfitz pit engine and the newcomen steam engine in Cumberland, UK

Examples of excavated 18th century stationary steam engine sites are very rare in Britain. This article records the rescue excavations ahead of road-building works of one such site in 1974-5 at Reelfitz Pit in Little Clifton, Cumberland. The Reelfitz Pit pumping engine was built around 1780 and abandoned in 1781. The remains uncovered show that the site had two external boilers and a narrow engine house with a cylinder on the ground floor. The excavation uncovered three engine parts from within the engine house: the piston flange from the cylinder, the connecting link from the piston rod to the beam and one of the chain links which fitted into the piston head. The current work discusses the site in terms of the development of the West Cumberland coal field and in the context of the surviving 18th century Newcomen engines

Timperley old hall: Rediscovering a moated site

Timperley Old Hall moat is one of the oldest inhabited places in Trafford, Greater Manchester. Stone tools indicate prehistoric activity in the Neolithic and early Bronze Ages. The site was re-used again, briefly, in the mid-Saxon period. From the 13th to the 18th centuries it was the home of the de Timperleigh, de Mascy, and Brereton families. It fell into decay during the 18th century and was demolished by 1800. Between 1989 and 1996 excavations revealed thousands of medieval artefacts, the foundations for the hall, and a timber-lined well. In 2010 a community archaeology project, led by the South Trafford Archaeological Group, set out to rediscover the ancient manorial site and to make the remains accessible to the general public

Poly(alkyl methacrylate) tooth coatings for dental care: evaluation of the demineralisation-protection benefit using a time-resolved in vitro method

An in vitro method for the time-resolved quantification of acid-mediated tooth demineralisation has been developed and evaluated against putative non-permanent protective formulations based on a series of poly(alkyl methacrylate)s. Using a thermostatted carousel, dentally relevant substrates consisting of hydroxyapatite discs or sections of bovine teeth have been exposed to aqueous citric acid under controlled conditions, before and after being treated with the polymeric coatings. The dissolution of phosphate was monitored by the determination of 31P by Inductively Coupled Plasma—Mass Spectrometry and by the spectrophotometric phosphovanadomolybdate method. Dose-response plots constructed for both groups of treated substrates have revealed that the coatings significantly reduce erosion rates but are less effective at inhibiting tooth demineralisation than the standard fluoride treatment. The approach has enabled an evaluation of the erosion-protection efficiency of each coating

The GALNT9, BNC1 and CCDC8 genes are frequently epigenetically dysregulated in breast tumours that metastasise to the brain.

Tumour metastasis to the brain is a common and deadly development in certain cancers; 18-30 % of breast tumours metastasise to the brain. The contribution that gene silencing through epigenetic mechanisms plays in these metastatic tumours is not well understood

AD51B in Familial Breast Cancer

Common variation on 14q24.1, close to RAD51B, has been associated with breast cancer: rs999737 and rs2588809 with the risk of female breast cancer and rs1314913 with the risk of male breast cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of RAD51B variants in breast cancer predisposition, particularly in the context of familial breast cancer in Finland. We sequenced the coding region of RAD51B in 168 Finnish breast cancer patients from the Helsinki region for identification of possible recurrent founder mutations. In addition, we studied the known rs999737, rs2588809, and rs1314913 SNPs and RAD51B haplotypes in 44,791 breast cancer cases and 43,583 controls from 40 studies participating in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC) that were genotyped on a custom chip (iCOGS). We identified one putatively pathogenic missense mutation c.541C>T among the Finnish cancer patients and subsequently genotyped the mutation in additional breast cancer cases (n = 5259) and population controls (n = 3586) from Finland and Belarus. No significant association with breast cancer risk was seen in the meta-analysis of the Finnish datasets or in the large BCAC dataset. The association with previously identified risk variants rs999737, rs2588809, and rs1314913 was replicated among all breast cancer cases and also among familial cases in the BCAC dataset. The most significant association was observed for the haplotype carrying the risk-alleles of all the three SNPs both among all cases (odds ratio (OR): 1.15, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11–1.19, P = 8.88 x 10−16) and among familial cases (OR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.16–1.32, P = 6.19 x 10−11), compared to the haplotype with the respective protective alleles. Our results suggest that loss-of-function mutations in RAD51B are rare, but common variation at the RAD51B region is significantly associated with familial breast cancer risk

A metric analysis of basicranial variation in modern humans

Includes bibliographical references (pages [86]-94)M.A. (Master of Arts

A guide to the industrial archaeology of cheshire

This is a guide and overview of the surviving industrial archaeology remains within Cheshire, UK. It covers the years 1600 to 2000 and reviews 307 Industrial Period sites in six main sections: cornmills; textiles, silk; textiles cotton; minerals, chemicals and engineering; ports and canals; and transport. A summary of each industry is given along with a brief history of the development of industrial archaeology research. It also studies Cheshire's importance to and role within the British Industrial Revolution

Warburton. Glimpses of rural life : the archaeology and history of a Cheshire village

Warburton lies in an ancient landscape, on the border of East Cheshire and Trafford,Greater Manchester, in North West England. Today it is best known for the busy tollbridge that crosses the now dry river bed of the Mersey, and its two parish churches. Warburton hides a rich landscape history with origins in the late prehistoric and Roman periods. This book brings together 19 years of archaeological and historical investigation in Warburton by local groups and academics. There are separate chapters on the development of the landscape and village,the archaeology and history of the old church (one of only 29 medieval timber churches and chapels in England and Wales), the buildings of the area, and a study of the people of the parish from 1600 to 1900 using the manorial and probate documents. Together this information provides a detailed record of a rural community on the edge of the great industrial and social changes of the post-medieval period