After the Rain – learning the lessons from flood recovery in Hull

The report shows that it is often not so much the floods themselves, but what comes afterwards, that people find so difficult to deal with. The research on which this report is based aimed to undertake a real-time longitudinal study to document and understand the everyday experiences of individuals following the floods of June 2007 in interaction with networks of actors and organisations, strategies of institutional support and investment in the built environment and infrastructure. It had the following objectives: - To identify and document key dimensions of the longer term experience of flood impact and flood recovery, including health, economic and social aspects. - To examine how resilience and vulnerability were manifest in the interaction between everyday strategies of adaptation during the flood recovery process, and modes of institutional support and the management of infrastructure and the built environment. -To explore to what extent the recovery process entailed the development of new forms of resilience and to identify the implications for developing local level resilience for flood recovery in the future. To develop an archive that will be accessible for future research into other aspects of flood recovery. The flooding which affected the city of Kingston-upon-Hull took place in June 2007. Over 110mm of rain fell during the biggest event, overwhelming the city‟s drainage system and resulting in widespread pluvial flooding. The floods affected over 8,600 households and one person was killed. Our research used in-depth, qualitative methods where 44 people kept weekly diaries and participated in interviews and group discussions over an 18-month period

For a Paleogeography of Childcare:Infant-Carrying Technics on a Dynamic Planet

What happens to the mundane practice of carrying infants if we situate it in the context of climate change to come and a deep past of geoclimatic instability? This paper takes the resurgence of baby slings in the UK as an entry point into the deep, evolutionary history of child-carrying, and in this way, as a prompt for an experiment in repurposing the field of paleogeography. This involves viewing the technics of the baby sling both as an aid to mobility and as a materialization of care relations. We extend this approach with the help of the cooperative breeding hypothesis which contends that communally shared childcare has been pivotal to human evolution and survival. We also draw upon theories that attend to the geologically dynamic landscapes of East Africa in which humans evolved and the impact of long-term instabilities of global climate. Fusing these approaches while also accounting for critiques of evolutionary thought, we make a case that infant carrying slings help facilitate a confident, outward-facing orientation both to worlds of complex social interactivity and to an Earth which is rifted, variegated and dynamic

MicroRNA-mediated rescue of fear extinction memory by miR-144-3p in extinction-impaired mice

Background MicroRNA (miRNA)-mediated control of gene expression suggests that miRNAs are interesting targets and/or biomarkers in the treatment of anxiety- and trauma-related disorders, where often memory-associated gene expression is adversely affected. Methods The role of miRNAs in the rescue of impaired fear extinction was assessed using the 129S1/SvlmJ (S1) mouse model of impaired fear extinction. miRNA microarray analysis, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, fluorescent in situ hybridization, lentiviral overexpression, and Luciferase reporter assays were used to gain insight into the mechanisms underlying miRNA-mediated normalization of deficient fear extinction. Results Rescuing impaired fear extinction via dietary zinc restriction was associated with differential expression of miRNAs in the amygdala. One candidate, miR-144-3p, robustly expressed in the basolateral amygdala, showed specific extinction-induced, but not fear-induced, increased expression in both extinction-rescued S1 mice and extinction-intact C57BL/6 (BL6) mice. miR-144-3p upregulation and effects on subsequent behavioral adaption was assessed in S1 and BL6 mice. miR-144-3p overexpression in the basolateral amygdala rescued impaired fear extinction in S1 mice, led to enhanced fear extinction acquisition in BL6 mice, and furthermore protected against fear renewal in BL6 mice. miR-144-3p targets a number of genes implicated in the control of plasticity-associated signaling cascades, including Pten, Spred1, and Notch1. In functional interaction studies, we revealed that the miR-144-3p target, PTEN, colocalized with miR-144-3p in the basolateral amygdala and showed functional downregulation following successful fear extinction in S1 mice. Conclusions These findings identify a fundamental role of miR-144-3p in the rescue of impaired fear extinction and suggest this miRNA as a viable target in developing novel treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder and related disorders

An investigation of the polyphenols in barley, hop and beer using high performance liquid chromatography and electrospray mass spectrometry

Polyphenols from barley, hop and beer were analysed using a system comprising High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) coupled to an Electrospray Mass Spectrometer (ESI-MS). By providing molecular ion information as well as fragmentation information this system enabled structural information to be obtained which allowed identification of specific polyphenols. Use of the HPLC system assisted the identification of polyphenols as separation of complex polyphenolic extracts to a purity required for analysis by mass spectrometry. Various aspects of the extraction method employed and subsequent analysis through the HPLC-ESI-MS system were examined. This included the concentration of polyphenols through using Sephadex LH-20 as an extraction procedure, and the optimisation selectivity of ionisation of compounds in both positive and negative ionisation modes. To assist in structural elucidation of oligomeric polyphenols, two dimeric flavanols were synthesized, and subsequent rationalisation of the fragmentation of the interflavan bond allowed the identification of many novel oligomeric flavanols. Not only were the structures of oligomeric flavanoids elucidated but also many flavonols and their glycosides were also identified without relying on comparison with standards. This study has shown HPLC-ESI-MS to be a suitable technique for the analysis of polyphenols in barley, hop and beer, particularly with regard to the identification of novel compounds for which standards are not currently available