In Liverpool

iD Magazine issue 359 Icons and Idols: Eye | In Liverpool. An Observational Portrait project which captures the unique codes surrounding fashion, beauty and style found in Liverpool. A Love letter to Liverpool records the beauty codes deeply rooted in the fabric of everyday life. But, what has remained untold is the sense of pride and self worth found in this visual language. Love letter to Liverpool is not stereotyping and it does not intend to fuel the talk about Prins, Queens or Wags. Instead it celebrates these women, their power, strength, routines and obsessions for individuality in one of the beauty industry’s capital cities

Developing a Shared Understanding of a Sense of Community in Large Classes

Over the past ten years, universities and other tertiary level institutions have seen a considerable increase in student enrolment. This has led to larger class sizes both in the lecture hall and tutorial classroom. Research has indicated that larger classes at the tertiary level have not only burdened teaching staff, but have also led to student disengagement in the lecture hall. Students, new to university life, have been found to be particularly unprepared for this type of learning environment. This project explores the shared understanding of how to create a sense of community in large class sizes within a School of Education. Three academics formed a partnership in an effort to share techniques that actively created a sense of community in lecture halls of over 200 students. This research is relevant not only in highlighting this problem, but in the sharing of recommendations and suggestions for large group teaching

Assessing and Responding to COVID-19 Pandemic Nutrition and Wellness Impacts on Iowans

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the need for indirect Extension programming. To ensure a consumer-focused response, we gathered data from 452 survey respondents regarding how the pandemic was affecting their food-related and health behaviors. The majority reported obtaining their food from a grocery store as they had prior to the pandemic, albeit less frequently, and having increased their home food preparation. Due to the pandemic, respondents were less physically active and more stressed and were seeking reliable nutrition and wellness information. We describe how we were able to facilitate an immediate response by repackaging and adapting existing programming to meet pressing client needs, and we identify broader implications of our work

The emerging role of cellular senescence in renal diseases

Cellular senescence represents the state of irreversible cell cycle arrest during cell division. Cellular senescence not only plays a role in diverse biological events such as embryogenesis, tissue regeneration and repair, ageing and tumour occurrence prevention, but it is also involved in many cardiovascular, renal and liver diseases through the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). This review summarizes the molecular mechanisms underlying cellular senescence and its possible effects on a variety of renal diseases. We will also discuss the therapeutic approaches based on the regulation of senescent and SASP blockade, which is considered as a promising strategy for the management of renal diseases

The work environment disability-adjusted life year for use with life cycle assessment: a methodological approach

BACKGROUND: Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a systems-based method used to determine potential impacts to the environment associated with a product throughout its life cycle. Conclusions from LCA studies can be applied to support decisions regarding product design or public policy, therefore, all relevant inputs (e.g., raw materials, energy) and outputs (e.g., emissions, waste) to the product system should be evaluated to estimate impacts. Currently, work-related impacts are not routinely considered in LCA. The objectives of this paper are: 1) introduce the work environment disability-adjusted life year (WE-DALY), one portion of a characterization factor used to express the magnitude of impacts to human health attributable to work-related exposures to workplace hazards; 2) outline the methods for calculating the WE-DALY; 3) demonstrate the calculation; and 4) highlight strengths and weaknesses of the methodological approach. METHODS: The concept of the WE-DALY and the methodological approach to its calculation is grounded in the World Health Organization’s disability-adjusted life year (DALY). Like the DALY, the WE-DALY equation considers the years of life lost due to premature mortality and the years of life lived with disability outcomes to estimate the total number of years of healthy life lost in a population. The equation requires input in the form of the number of fatal and nonfatal injuries and illnesses that occur in the industries relevant to the product system evaluated in the LCA study, the age of the worker at the time of the fatal or nonfatal injury or illness, the severity of the injury or illness, and the duration of time lived with the outcomes of the injury or illness. RESULTS: The methodological approach for the WE-DALY requires data from various sources, multi-step instructions to determine each variable used in the WE-DALY equation, and assumptions based on professional opinion. CONCLUSIONS: Results support the use of the WE-DALY in a characterization factor in LCA. Integrating occupational health into LCA studies will provide opportunities to prevent shifting of impacts between the work environment and the environment external to the workplace and co-optimize human health, to include worker health, and environmental health

Circadian rhythm and melatonin in liver carcinogenesis: updates on current findings

: Liver cancer, including hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma, can be devastating if not treated early. The risk factors of liver cancer include alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, disruption of melatonin levels, and dysregulated circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is a 24-hour biological clock that regulates the physiological activities at both central and peripheral levels. Its molecular mechanism exists in every cell in mammals. Disruption of the circadian rhythm has found in liver cancers as an independent risk factor. This review summarized the most recent findings about the molecular mechanisms of circadian rhythm, the crosstalk between core clock genes and melatonin, as well as the role of circadian rhythm and melatonin played in chronic liver diseases and liver cancer. Finally, we discussed the potential clinical application of circadian rhythm and melatonin for the treatment of liver cancer and discussed future perspectives of how understanding the circadian rhythm in liver cancer progression could provide new clinical applications for liver cancer treatment and diagnosis

Concise Review: Functional Roles and Therapeutic Potentials of Long Non-coding RNAs in Cholangiopathies

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are RNAs with lengths exceeding 200 nucleotides that are not translated into proteins. It is well-known that small non-coding RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs), regulate gene expression and play an important role in cholangiopathies. Recent studies have demonstrated that lncRNAs may also play a key role in the pathophysiology of cholangiopathies. Patients with cholangiopathies often develop cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), which is cholangiocyte-derived cancer, in the later stage. Cholangiocytes are a primary target of therapies for cholangiopathies and CCA development. Previous studies have demonstrated that expression levels of lncRNAs are altered in the liver of cholangiopathies or CCA tissues. Some lncRNAs regulate gene expression by inhibiting functions of miRNAs leading to diseased liver conditions or CCA progression, suggesting that lncRNAs could be a novel therapeutic target for those disorders. This review summarizes current understandings of functional roles of lncRNAs in cholangiopathies and seek their potentials for novel therapies

Heating up the forest: Open-top chamber warming manipulation of arthropod communities at Harvard and Duke Forests

1.Recent observations indicate that climatic change is altering biodiversity, and models suggest that the consequences of climate change will differ across latitude. However, long-term experimental field manipulations that directly test the predictions about organisms\u27 responses to climate change across latitude are lacking. Such experiments could provide a more mechanistic understanding of the consequences of climate change on ecological communities and subsequent changes in ecosystem processes, facilitating better predictions of the effects of future climate change. 2.This field experiment uses octagonal, 5-m-diameter (c.22m 3) open-top chambers to simulate warming at northern (Harvard Forest, Massachusetts) and southern (Duke Forest, North Carolina) hardwood forest sites to determine the effects of warming on ant and other arthropod populations and communities near the edges of their ranges. Each site has 12 plots containing open-top chambers that manipulate air temperature incrementally from ambient to 6°C above ambient. Because the focus of this study is on mobile, litter- and soil-dwelling arthropods, standard methods for warming chambers (e.g. soil-warming cables or infrared heaters applied to relatively small areas) were inappropriate and new technological approaches using hydronic heating and forced air movement were developed. 3.We monitor population dynamics, species composition, phenology and behaviour of ants and other arthropods occupying these experimental chambers. Microclimatic measurements in each chamber include the following: air temperature (three), soil temperatures (two each in organic and mineral soil), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), relative humidity and soil moisture (one each). In two chambers, we are also measuring soil heat flux, associated soil temperatures at 2 and 6cm and volumetric water content. To assess the composition, phenology and abundance of arthropod communities within the experiment, we use monthly pitfall trapping and annual Winkler sampling. We also census artificial and natural ant nests to monitor changes in ant colony size and productivity across the temperature treatments. 4.This experiment is a long-term ecological study that provides opportunities for collaborations across a broad spectrum of ecologists, including those studying biogeochemical, microbial and plant responses to warming. Future studies also may include implementation of multifactorial climate manipulations, examination of interactions across trophic levels and quantification of changes in ecosystem processes. © 2011 The Authors. Methods in Ecology and Evolution © 2011 British Ecological Society

The Epigenetic Regulatory Protein CBX2 Promotes mTORC1 Signalling and Inhibits DREAM Complex Activity to Drive Breast Cancer Cell Growth

Chromobox 2 (CBX2) is a chromatin-binding component of polycomb repressive complex 1, which causes gene silencing. CBX2 expression is elevated in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), for which there are few therapeutic options. Here, we aimed to investigate the functional role of CBX2 in TNBC. CBX2 knockdown in TNBC models reduced cell numbers, which was rescued by ectopic expression of wild-type CBX2 but not a chromatin binding-deficient mutant. Blocking CBX2 chromatin interactions using the inhibitor SW2_152F also reduced cell growth, suggesting CBX2 chromatin binding is crucial for TNBC progression. RNA sequencing and gene set enrichment analysis of CBX2-depleted cells identified downregulation of oncogenic signalling pathways, including mTORC1 and E2F signalling. Subsequent analysis identified that CBX2 represses the expression of mTORC1 inhibitors and the tumour suppressor RBL2. RBL2 repression, in turn, inhibits DREAM complex activity. The DREAM complex inhibits E2F signalling, causing cell senescence; therefore, inhibition of the DREAM complex via CBX2 may be a key oncogenic driver. We observed similar effects in oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, and analysis of patient datasets suggested CBX2 inhibits RBL2 activity in other cancer types. Therapeutic inhibition of CBX2 could therefore repress mTORC1 activation and promote DREAM complex-mediated senescence in TNBC and could have similar effects in other cancer types

2006 SQ372: A Likely Long-Period Comet from the Inner Oort Cloud

We report the discovery of a minor planet (2006 SQ372) on an orbit with a perihelion of 24 AU and a semimajor axis of 796 AU. Dynamical simulations show that this is a transient orbit and is unstable on a timescale of 200 Myrs. Falling near the upper semimajor axis range of the scattered disk and the lower semimajor axis range of the Oort Cloud, previous membership in either class is possible. By modeling the production of similar orbits from the Oort Cloud as well as from the scattered disk, we find that the Oort Cloud produces 16 times as many objects on SQ372-like orbits as the scattered disk. Given this result, we believe this to be the most distant long-period comet ever discovered. Furthermore, our simulation results also indicate that 2000 OO67 has had a similar dynamical history. Unaffected by the "Jupiter-Saturn Barrier," these two objects are most likely long-period comets from the inner Oort Cloud