Nutritional and Phytochemical Content of High-Protein Crops

The authors acknowledge support from the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) via their strategic research and partnership programs.Peer reviewedPostprin

MicroRNA-155 regulates monocyte chemokine and chemokine receptor expression in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that miR-155 regulates monocyte migratory potential via modulation of chemokine and chemokine receptor expression in rheumatoid arthritis (RA); and thereby is associated with disease activity. Methods: miR-155 copy-number in monocytes from peripheral blood (PB) of healthy (n=22), RA (n=24), and RA synovial fluid (SF; n=11) were assessed by real time- PCR using synthetic miR-155 as quantitative standard. To evaluate the functional impact of miR-155, human monocytes were transfected with control or miR-155 mimic and the effect on transcript levels, and production of chemokines was evaluated by TLDA and multiplex assays. A comparative study evaluated constitutive chemokine receptor expression in miR-155-/- and wild-type murine (CD115+Ly6C+Ly6G-) monocytes. Results: Compared with healthy monocytes, miR-155 copy-number was higher in RA PB and SF monocytes (PB p<0.01, and SF p<0.0001). MiR-155 copy-number in RA PB monocytes were higher in ACPA positive compared with ACPA negative patients (p=0.033) and correlated (95% C.I.) with DAS28 (ESR), R=0.728 (0.460, 0.874), with tender, R=0.631 (0.306, 0.824) and swollen, R=0.503 (0.125, 0.753) joint counts. Enforced-expression of miR-155 in RA monocytes stimulated the production of CCL3, CCL4, CCL5, CCL8; up-regulated CCR7 expression and down-regulated CCR2. Conversely, miR155-/- monocytes showed down-regulated CCR7 and upregulated CCR2 expression. Conclusions: Given the observed correlations with disease activity, these data provide strong evidence that miR-155 can contribute to RA pathogenesis by regulating chemokine production and pro-inflammatory chemokine receptor expression, thereby promoting inflammatory cell recruitment and retention in the RA synovium

Dialogic shifts: The rhythm and sequence of artefacts in aesthetically informed interaction design practice

Aesthetic accounts of interaction design (Löwgren 2008, Wright et al 2008) acknowledge the importance of the descriptive and dialogic roles that design artefacts play. Yet, much of the focus in this aesthetic turn (Udsen 2005) concerns final designs, or products of the design project. Ephemeral artefacts that are produced in the course of these projects or the design actions by those who created the artefacts inside projects are often omitted and rarely discussed. This paper critically reflects on a project to shed some light on the 'secret life of artifacts' and the role they play through making and using by the project team

Incoherent broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy in the near-ultraviolet: application to HONO and NO2

The first application of incoherent broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (IBBCEAS) in the near-ultraviolet for the simultaneous detection of two key atmospheric trace species, HONO and NO2, is reported. For both compounds the absorption is measured between 360 and 380 nm with a compact cavity-enhanced spectrometer employing a high power light-emitting diode. Detection limits of similar to 4 ppbv for HONO and similar to 14 ppbv for NO2 are reported for a static gas cell setup using a 20 s acquisition time. Based on an acquisition time of 10 min and an optical cavity length of 4.5 m detection limits of similar to 0.13 ppbv and similar to 0.38 ppbv were found for HONO and NO2 in a 4 m(3) atmospheric simulation chamber, demonstrating the usefulness of this approach for in situ monitoring of these important species in laboratory studies or field campaigns

The floods: Where do we go from here?

"Support, recovery and lessons learned" from 2015 Cumbria floods. Two months on from devastating flooding in the county various key figures and leaders give their responses to the next stage of recovery, including looking towards strategic solutions for flood prevention

From commitment to control : a labour process study of workers' experiences of the transition from clerical to call centre work at British Gas

Despite their continuing importance to the UK economy and their employment of significant numbers of workers from a range of professions, the utilities have received scant attention from critical scholars of work. This neglect represents a missed opportunity to examine the impact of nearly twenty years of privatisation and marketisation on workers, their jobs and their unions. This thesis aims to make a contribution to knowledge here by investigating, contextualising and explaining changes in the labour processes of a privatised utility in the United Kingdom. The research is informed by oral history methods and techniques, rarely adopted in industrial sociology, and here used alongside labour process theory to reconstruct past experiences of work. Drawing on qualitative data sets, from in-depth interviews with a cohort of employees who worked continuously over three decades at the research site, British Gas’s Granton House, and on extensive company and trade union documentary evidence the research demonstrates how British Gas responded to restrictive regulation and the need to deliver shareholder value by transforming pre-existing forms of work organisation through introducing call centres. The call centre provided the opportunity for management to regain control over the labour process, intensify work and reduce costs. In doing so, the study identifies the principal drivers of organisational change, documents the process of change evaluates the impact on workers’ experience. Thus, as a corrective to much recent labour process theory the research offers both an ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ account of change over an extended time. The contrast between workers’ experience of working in the clerical departments and in the call centre could not be starker. Almost every element of work from which workers derived satisfaction and purpose was abruptly dismantled. In their place workers had to endure the restrictive and controlling nature of call centre work. The relative absence of resistance to such a transformation is shown to be a consequence of failures in collective organisation, rather than the totalisation of managerial control, as the postmodernists and Foucauldians would have it.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

DETERMINATION OF INTERSTITIAL SOLID-SOLUBILITY LIMIT IN TANTALUM AND IDENTIFICATION OF THE PRECIPITATE PHASES

Solid-solubility limits at 1500, 1000, snd 500/sup o/C for carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in high-punity tantalum were determined by x-ray lattice- parameter methods. For carbon, the solubility was found to be 0.17 at. % at 1500/sup o/C and less than 0.07 at. % at l00/sup o/C. A nitrogen solubility of 3.70 at. % at l500/sup o/C decreased linearly with temperature to 2.75 at. % at 1000/sup o/C and 1.8 at. % at 500/sup o/C. In the case of oxygen, the solubility was found to be 3.65 at. % at 1500/sup o/C, 1.95 at. % at l0O0/sup o/ C, and 2.5 at. % at 500/sup o/C. The phases Ta/sub 2/, the lowtemperature modificstion of Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/, and Ta/sub x/N of unknown coznposition hut which has a superlattice structure based upon the oniginsl body-centered-cubic tantalum lattice were identified is the initisl precipitates in the respective systems. (auth

The N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist CPP alters synapse and spine structure and impairs long-term potentiation and long-term depression induced morphological plasticity in dentate gyrus of the awake rat

Long-term morphological synaptic changes associated with homosynaptic long-term potentiation (LTP) and heterosynaptic long-term depression (LTD) in vivo, in awake adult rats were analyzed using three-dimensional (3-D) reconstructions of electron microscope images of ultrathin serial sections from the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus. For the first time in morphological studies, the specificity of the effects of LTP and LTD on both spine and synapse ultrastructure was determined using an N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist CPP (3-[(R)-2-carboxypiperazin-4-yl]-propyl-1-phosphonic acid). There were no differences in synaptic density 24 h after LTP or LTD induction, and CPP alone had no effect on synaptic density. LTP increased significantly the proportion of mushroom spines, whereas LTD increased the proportion of thin spines, and both LTP and LTD decreased stubby spine number. Both LTP and LTD increased significantly spine head evaginations (spinules) into synaptic boutons and CPP blocked these changes. Synaptic boutons were smaller after LTD, indicating a pre-synaptic effect. Interestingly, CPP alone decreased bouton and mushroom spine volumes, as well as post-synaptic density (PSD) volume of mushroom spines.These data show similarities, but also some clear differences, between the effects of LTP and LTD on spine and synaptic morphology. Although CPP blocks both LTP and LTD, and impairs most morphological changes in spines and synapses, CPP alone was shown to exert effects on aspects of spine and synaptic structure