The Impact of Brexit on Cross-Border Trade by the Construction Sector in Ireland: an Exploratory Study

Cross-border co-operation can foster learning and contribute positively to business performance and social cohesion. This paper considers construction firms\u27 economic motivation for co-operation around the Ireland - Northern Ireland border. This area, while impacted by the Brexit uncertainty, shares many of the economic and developmental characteristics of border areas throughout Europe. The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of Brexit on cross border trade by the construction sector in Ireland and investigate the current tensions and barriers to that sector. A qualitative methodology adopted a literature review and semi-structured interview strategy. Data was collected from purposively selected contractors in the North and South of Ireland, who have recent experience of cross border construction. Qualitative analysis identifies themes and issues arising which enabled examination of commonalities and differences between the respondents. Differing regulatory regimes, perceived barriers to cross-border co-operation and uncertainty reduce crossborder trade. The study establishes the lack of Brexit preparedness of industry and the need for more industry specific research regarding the level of existing cross border trade, and the measures that could be adopted to resist fragmentation and integrate Irish cross border construction trade in the context of Brexit

Meaningful & Sustainable School Improvement with Distributed Leadership

School leadership is broadly acknowledged to be the lynchpin for school success. Yet, amongst the countless demands that school leaders face, making wise leadership choices is increasingly challenging. On what should leaders focus their attention and how should they prioritize their improvement efforts? How can they identify, understand, and make headway on the difficult challenges that will substantially enhance the educational experiences of their students, and how can they bring their faculty together with commitment around these improvement efforts? In this essay we lay out a research-informed framework for advancing meaningful school improvement using a distributed leadership approach. This report was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Opinions in this paper reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, that of the funder

Staging the clinical status from blood of cancer patients by chip-based cell enumeration following targeted removal of normal cells

Even though an agreed phenotypic definition of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) remains elusive in the literature, many current detection technologies isolate candidate cells based on molecular recognition of cellular epitopes that may not accurately predict CTC load. Rather than using such an epitope specific “positive-capture” strategy, we present a chip-based, centrifugal microfluidic platform integrating “negative-capture” magnetophoretic removal of normal white blood cells (WBCs) from a sample and subsequent, array-based enumeration of individualized, (untagged) abnormal cells. We compared the numerical recovery of cells on the array with the status of the donor patient, showing that the chip can has the potential to indicate the oncogenic severity of the blood donor

Investigation of the Influence of High Risk Human Papillomavirus on the Biochemical Composition of Cervical Cancer Cells Using Vibrational Spectroscopy

The main aetiology of cervical cancer is infection with high risk human papillomavirus (HPV). Cervical cancer is almost 100% curable if detected in the early stages. Thus, information about the presence and levels of HPV in patient samples has high clinical value. As current screening methods, such as the Pap smear test, are highly subjective and in many cases show low sensitivity and specificity, new supportive techniques are desirable to improve the quality of cervical cancer screening. In this study, vibrational spectroscopic techniques (Raman and Fourier Transform Infra Red absorption) have been applied to the investigation of four cervical cancer cell lines, HPV negative C33A, HPV-18 positive HeLa with 20-50 integrated HPV copies per cell, HPV-16 positive SiHa with 1-2 integrated HPV strands per cell and HPV-16 positive CaSki containing 60-600 integrated HPV copies per cell. Results show that vibrational spectroscopic techniques can discriminate between the cell lines and elucidate cellular differences originating from proteins, nucleic acids and lipids. Similarities between C33A and SiHa cells were exhibited in the Raman and infrared spectra and were confirmed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Analysis of the biochemical composition of the investigated cells, with the aid of PCA showed a clear discrimination between the C33A-SiHa group and HeLa and CaSki cell lines indicating the potential of vibrational spectroscopic techniques as support to current methods for cervical cancer screening

Surface optomechanics: Calculating optically excited acoustical whispering gallery modes in microspheres

Stimulated Brillouin scattering recently allowed experimental excitation of surface acoustic resonances in micro-devices, enabling vibration at rates in the range of 50 MHz to 12 GHz. The experimental availability of such mechanical whispering gallery modes in photonic-MEMS raises questions on their structure and spectral distribution. Here we calculate the form and frequency of such vibrational surface whispering gallery modes, revealing diverse types of surface vibrations including longitudinal, transverse, and Rayleigh-type deformations. We parametrically investigate these various modes by changing their orders in the azimuthal, radial, and polar directions to reveal different vibrational structures including mechanical resonances that are localized near the interface with the environment where they can sense changes in the surroundings.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; journal paper - Optics Express, Accepted for pub. as of 20 Jun 201

Effect of Pre-Exercise Nutrition on Human Skeletal Muscle UCP3 Expression

BACKGROUND: Increased UCP3 expression in skeletal muscle after exercise may be attributed to elevated free fatty acids (FFA) that are known to directly activate UCP3 expression. Pre-exercise glucose consumption has shown to blunt UCP3 expression in response to exercise. Since glucose ingestion before and during exercise is typically not a common practice, the goal of the present study was to assess the effect of a multi-macronutrient meal (drinkable shake) in the pre-exercise period towards human skeletal muscle UCP3 expression. METHODS: Using a crossover design, untrained participants performed an endurance exercise session (350 kcal at 70% of their VO2max) after two experimental conditions 1) consumption of a multi-macronutrient meal and 2) a fasting period of 8 h. Blood samples were taken at baseline, pre-exercise, post-exercise, 1h, and 4h post-exercise, while muscle biopsies were taken at the last four time points. RESULTS: A significant increase in FFA was observed in the fasting condition (p= 0.046) as well as a significant increase in UCP3 mRNA and protein expression at post-exercise (p= 0.042) and 4 h post-exercise (p= 0.036) respectively, in the multi-macronutrient meal condition. DISCUSSION: Variables showed a total opposite response to what has been reported after the consumption of pure glucose before an exercise session. Instead of observing a decrease in UCP3 expression in the non-fasting condition, we observed a significant increase in UCP3 mRNA and protein concentration in the multi-macronutrient condition. According to previous research, variables such as the protein and fat content from the multi-macronutrient meal, as well as the insulin levels, could have played key roles in altering UCP3 mRNA and protein expression in the multi-macronutrient condition; however, further research is needed to confirm this hypothesis. CONCLUSION: The expression of UCP3 mRNA and protein expression as a result of exercise might be controlled by factors other than FFA

Identifying novel hypoxia-associated markers of chemoresistance in ovarian cancer

BACKGROUND Ovarian cancer is associated with poor long-term survival due to late diagnosis and development of chemoresistance. Tumour hypoxia is associated with many features of tumour aggressiveness including increased cellular proliferation, inhibition of apoptosis, increased invasion and metastasis, and chemoresistance, mostly mediated through hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α. While HIF-1α has been associated with platinum resistance in a variety of cancers, including ovarian, relatively little is known about the importance of the duration of hypoxia. Similarly, the gene pathways activated in ovarian cancer which cause chemoresistance as a result of hypoxia are poorly understood. This study aimed to firstly investigate the effect of hypoxia duration on resistance to cisplatin in an ovarian cancer chemoresistance cell line model and to identify genes whose expression was associated with hypoxia-induced chemoresistance. METHODS Cisplatin-sensitive (A2780) and cisplatin-resistant (A2780cis) ovarian cancer cell lines were exposed to various combinations of hypoxia and/or chemotherapeutic drugs as part of a 'hypoxia matrix' designed to cover clinically relevant scenarios in terms of tumour hypoxia. Response to cisplatin was measured by the MTT assay. RNA was extracted from cells treated as part of the hypoxia matrix and interrogated on Affymetrix Human Gene ST 1.0 arrays. Differential gene expression analysis was performed for cells exposed to hypoxia and/or cisplatin. From this, four potential markers of chemoresistance were selected for evaluation in a cohort of ovarian tumour samples by RT-PCR. RESULTS Hypoxia increased resistance to cisplatin in A2780 and A2780cis cells. A plethora of genes were differentially expressed in cells exposed to hypoxia and cisplatin which could be associated with chemoresistance. In ovarian tumour samples, we found trends for upregulation of ANGPTL4 in partial responders and down-regulation in non-responders compared with responders to chemotherapy; down-regulation of HER3 in partial and non-responders compared to responders; and down-regulation of HIF-1α in non-responders compared with responders. CONCLUSION This study has further characterized the relationship between hypoxia and chemoresistance in an ovarian cancer model. We have also identified many potential biomarkers of hypoxia and platinum resistance and provided an initial validation of a subset of these markers in ovarian cancer tissues