Creative Heath in Communities:Supporting People to Live Well in West Yorkshire

Creating Change involves using a collaborative action inquiry approach working with stakeholder organisations and people with lived experience to explore how to evolve effective and meaningful creative health approaches across West Yorkshire. Rooted in stories from people with lived experience of community-based creative health approaches and the challenges encountered in practice by partner organisations, the project has co-generated in-depth learning about challenges and potential of sustaining creative health provision. Research team: Barry Percy-Smith, Rowan Bailey, Nic Stenberg, Claire Booth-Kurpnieks, Deborah Munt, David McQuillan, Liz Towns-Andrews. Contact Creating Change for further information: https://research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cacs/projects/creatingchang

Control of metallo-supramolecular assemblies via steric, hydrogen bonding and argentophilic interactions; formation of a 3-dimensional polymer of circular helicates

This work shows how multiple non-covalent interactions are employed to control metallosupramolecular architectures and we demonstrate that a ligand, which contains two bidentate domains separated by a ArOH spacer, forms a mesocate when complexed with Ag(I). However, changing this to an ArOCH2CH2Ph spacer unit results in a 1-dimensional helical polymer upon reaction with the same cation. Reaction of Ag(I) with the ArOMe derivative gives a hexanuclear circular helicate which forms inter-assembly Ag⋯Ag interactions resulting in a 3-dimensional honeycomb-like polymer of hexanuclear circular helicates

Effects of isopropanol on collagen fibrils in new parchment

Background: Isopropanol is widely used by conservators to relax the creases and folds of parchment artefacts. At present, little is known of the possible side effects of the chemical on parchments main structural component- collagen. This study uses X-ray Diffraction to investigate the effects of a range of isopropanol concentrations on the dimensions of the nanostructure of the collagen component of new parchment. Results: It is found in this study that the packing features of the collagen molecules within the collagen fibril are altered by exposure to isopropanol. The results suggest that this chemical treatment can induce a loss of structural water from the collagen within parchment and thus a rearrangement of intermolecular bonding. This study also finds that the effects of isopropanol treatment are permanent to parchment artefacts and cannot be reversed with rehydration using deionised water. Conclusions: This study has shown that isopropanol induces permanent changes to the packing features of collagen within parchment artefacts and has provided scientific evidence that its use to remove creases and folds on parchment artefacts will cause structural change that may contribute to long-term deterioration of parchment artefacts. This work provides valuable information that informs conservation practitioners regarding the use of isopropanol on parchment artefacts

Lower age at menarche affects survival in older Australian women: results from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Extent: 10p.Background: While menarche indicates the beginning of a woman's reproductive life, relatively little is known about the association between age at menarche and subsequent morbidity and mortality. We aimed to examine the effect of lower age at menarche on all-cause mortality in older Australian women over 15 years of follow-up. Methods: Data were drawn from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (n = 1,031 women aged 65-103 years). We estimated the hazard ratio (HR) associated with lower age at menarche using Cox proportional hazards models, and adjusted for a broad range of reproductive, demographic, health and lifestyle covariates. Results: During the follow-up period, 673 women (65%) died (average 7.3 years (SD 4.1) of follow-up for decedents). Women with menses onset < 12 years of age (10.7%; n = 106) had an increased hazard of death over the follow-up period (adjusted HR 1.28; 95%CI 0.99-1.65) compared with women who began menstruating aged ≥ 12 years (89.3%; n = 883). However, when age at menarche was considered as a continuous variable, the adjusted HRs associated with the linear and quadratic terms for age at menarche were not statistically significant at a 5% level of significance (linear HR 0.76; 95%CI 0.56 - 1.04; quadratic HR 1.01; 95%CI 1.00-1.02). Conclusion: Women with lower age at menarche may have reduced survival into old age. These results lend support to the known associations between earlier menarche and risk of metabolic disease in early adulthood. Strategies to minimise earlier menarche, such as promoting healthy weights and minimising family dysfunction during childhood, may also have positive longer-term effects on survival in later life.Lynne C Giles, Gary FV Glonek, Vivienne M Moore, Michael J Davies and Mary A Luszc

A simplified (modified) Duke Activity Status Index (M-DASI) to characterise functional capacity: A secondary analysis of the Measurement of Exercise Tolerance before Surgery (METS) study

Background Accurate assessment of functional capacity, a predictor of postoperative morbidity and mortality, is essential to improving surgical planning and outcomes. We assessed if all 12 items of the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) were equally important in reflecting exercise capacity. Methods In this secondary cross-sectional analysis of the international, multicentre Measurement of Exercise Tolerance before Surgery (METS) study, we assessed cardiopulmonary exercise testing and DASI data from 1455 participants. Multivariable regression analyses were used to revise the DASI model in predicting an anaerobic threshold (AT) >11 ml kg −1 min −1 and peak oxygen consumption (VO 2 peak) >16 ml kg −1 min −1, cut-points that represent a reduced risk of postoperative complications. Results Five questions were identified to have dominance in predicting AT>11 ml kg −1 min −1 and VO 2 peak>16 ml.kg −1min −1. These items were included in the M-DASI-5Q and retained utility in predicting AT>11 ml.kg −1.min −1 (area under the receiver-operating-characteristic [AUROC]-AT: M-DASI-5Q=0.67 vs original 12-question DASI=0.66) and VO 2 peak (AUROC-VO2 peak: M-DASI-5Q 0.73 vs original 12-question DASI 0.71). Conversely, in a sensitivity analysis we removed one potentially sensitive question related to the ability to have sexual relations, and the ability of the remaining four questions (M-DASI-4Q) to predict an adequate functional threshold remained no worse than the original 12-question DASI model. Adding a dynamic component to the M-DASI-4Q by assessing the chronotropic response to exercise improved its ability to discriminate between those with VO 2 peak>16 ml.kg −1.min −1 and VO 2 peak<16 ml.kg −1.min −1. Conclusions The M-DASI provides a simple screening tool for further preoperative evaluation, including with cardiopulmonary exercise testing, to guide perioperative management

Integration of the Duke Activity Status Index into preoperative risk evaluation: a multicentre prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) questionnaire might help incorporate self-reported functional capacity into preoperative risk assessment. Nonetheless, prognostically important thresholds in DASI scores remain unclear. We conducted a nested cohort analysis of the Measurement of Exercise Tolerance before Surgery (METS) study to characterise the association of preoperative DASI scores with postoperative death or complications. METHODS: The analysis included 1546 participants (≥40 yr of age) at an elevated cardiac risk who had inpatient noncardiac surgery. The primary outcome was 30-day death or myocardial injury. The secondary outcomes were 30-day death or myocardial infarction, in-hospital moderate-to-severe complications, and 1 yr death or new disability. Multivariable logistic regression modelling was used to characterise the adjusted association of preoperative DASI scores with outcomes. RESULTS: The DASI score had non-linear associations with outcomes. Self-reported functional capacity better than a DASI score of 34 was associated with reduced odds of 30-day death or myocardial injury (odds ratio: 0.97 per 1 point increase above 34; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.96-0.99) and 1 yr death or new disability (odds ratio: 0.96 per 1 point increase above 34; 95% CI: 0.92-0.99). Self-reported functional capacity worse than a DASI score of 34 was associated with increased odds of 30-day death or myocardial infarction (odds ratio: 1.05 per 1 point decrease below 34; 95% CI: 1.00-1.09), and moderate-to-severe complications (odds ratio: 1.03 per 1 point decrease below 34; 95% CI: 1.01-1.05). CONCLUSIONS: A DASI score of 34 represents a threshold for identifying patients at risk for myocardial injury, myocardial infarction, moderate-to-severe complications, and new disability

Structural intermediates in the assembly of taxoid-induced microtubules and GDP-tubulin double rings: time-resolved X-ray scattering

We have studied the self-association reactions of purified GDP-liganded tubulin into double rings and taxoid-induced microtubules, employing synchrotron time-resolved x-ray solution scattering. The experimental scattering profiles have been interpreted by reference to the known scattering profiles to 3 nm resolution and to the low-resolution structures of the tubulin dimer, tubulin double rings, and microtubules, and by comparison with oligomer models and model mixtures. The time courses of the scattering bands corresponding to the different structural features were monitored during the assembly reactions under varying biochemical conditions. GDP-tubulin essentially stays as a dimer at low Mg(2+) ion activity, in either the absence or presence of taxoid. Upon addition of the divalent cations, it associates into either double-ring aggregates or taxoid-induced microtubules by different pathways. Both processes have the formation of small linear (short protofilament-like) tubulin oligomers in common. Tubulin double-ring aggregate formation, which is shown by x-ray scattering to be favored in the GDP- versus the GTP-liganded protein, can actually block microtubule assembly. The tubulin self-association leading to double rings, as determined by sedimentation velocity, is endothermic. The formation of the double-ring aggregates from oligomers, which involves additional intermolecular contacts, is exothermic, as shown by x-ray and light scattering. Microtubule assembly can be initiated from GDP-tubulin dimers or oligomers. Under fast polymerization conditions, after a short lag time, open taxoid-induced microtubular sheets have been clearly detected (monitored by the central scattering and the maximum corresponding to the J(n) Bessel function), which slowly close into microtubules (monitored by the appearance of their characteristic J(0), J(3), and J (n) - (3) Bessel function maxima). This provides direct evidence for the bidimensional assembly of taxoid-induced microtubule polymers in solution and argues against helical growth. The rate of microtubule formation was increased by the same factors known to enhance taxoid-induced microtubule stability. The results suggest that taxoids induce the accretion of the existing Mg(2+)-induced GDP-tubulin oligomers, thus forming small bidimensional polymers that are necessary to nucleate the microtubular sheets, possibly by binding to or modifying the lateral interaction sites between tubulin dimers