How Brexit border debate could affect human trafficking into UK

Final Published versio

If telecare is the answer, what was the question? Storyline, tensions and the unintended consequences of technology-supported care

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Critical Social Policy, March 2018, published by SAGE Publishing. Content in the UH Research Archive is made available for personal research, educational, and non-commercial purposes only. Unless otherwise stated, all content is protected by copyright, and in the absence of an open license, permissions for further re-use should be sought from the publisher, the author, or other copyright holder.Telecare—services employing technology to monitor people’s movement, medication and home environment at a distance—has emerged as a key component of global social care and health policies. The relationship between policies about telecare and the experiences and aspirations of service users has been under-interrogated. This paper draws on findings from an organisational case study involving people living with complex conditions using various telecare devices and employs Hajer’s (1995) concept of argumentative discourse analysis to identify two key storylines arguing that telecare improves people’s quality of life and promotes independence. While these storylines point to seemingly logical and incontestable objectives, uncritical policy and practice fails to recognise and prioritise the aspirations of service users, leading to unintended consequences that can deepen people’s isolation and minimise organisational benefits.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

International Cooperation on Trade and Labor Issues

The relationship between the labor market and international trade is a broad and complex subject that has been the focus of significant attention in recent years. Discussion and analysis in this area has covered a number of discrete issues, including the effect of shifting trade patterns on employment levels and earnings in domestic markets, the impact of wage levels and labor legislation on the location of production facilities, and the positive and negative aspects of the cross-border movement of workers, among others. The continuing importance of labor issues within the larger trade debate is highlighted by the inclusion of measures relating to labor standards and/or the cross-border movement of workers in recent bilateral and multilateral trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and the U.S.–Oman Free Trade Agreement. This paper aims to provide background for future work on trade-related labor issues by describing how labor issues such as internationally recognized labor standards and the cross-border movement of workers have been addressed by international organizations, as well as in U.S. trade legislation and recent trade agreements

Investigations of Cerebral Hemodynamics in Infants with Critical Congenital Heart Disease Using Diffuse Optics

Congenital heart defects (CHD) are the most common type of birth defect, affecting approximately 30,000 children each year, one third of whom require cardiac surgery in their first year of life. Surgical advances have improved the cardiac outcomes for these children, and since the majority of these patients now reach school age, the research focus has shifted to address neurodevelopmental difficulties of survivors. A key physiological factor appears to be the high prevalence of hypoxic-ischemic white mater brain injury observed in these children. The exact timing of the injury occurrence, however, is difficult to ascertain due to limitations of the imaging modalities employed for this fragile, infant population. This thesis develops and explores the use of diffuse optical spectroscopy techniques for investigation of the risk factors for hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in these infants. The optical techniques utilize near-infrared (NIR) light and the diffusion approximation to model light transport in order to probe the static and dynamic properties of tissue. Frequency-domain diffuse optical spectroscopy (FD-DOS) is a technology, similar to widely used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), that permits quantification of tissue oxygen saturation and total hemoglobin concentration. Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) is a relatively newer technique, centered on an idea similar to dynamic light scattering, which enables quantification of blood flow. Both FD-DOS and DCS are used in this research. The experiments presented in this thesis explore a variety of biophysics and biomedical questions. Arguably, the most important clinical findings to emerge from this dissertation are new risk factors associated with brain injury in infants with a certain form of CHD called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). Using the aforementioned optical techniques, we found that longer time-to-surgery, lower cerebral oxygen saturation, and higher cerebral blood flow measured on the morning of surgery were associated with the risk of acquiring post-operative brain injury in this cohort. The results are novel for the community and shift our understanding of when these neonates are most at risk for acquiring brain injury. Most importantly, these results and the technology developed should improve current clinical care of this patient population

An intangible claim : Oklahoma Territory and the Victorian divorce crisis.

This study focuses on the cultural phenomenon that occurred in the United States known as the Victorian Divorce Crisis, and the communities known as Divorce Mills, which were often blamed for the situation. The divorce mill that developed in Oklahoma Territory's capital city of Guthrie played a role in the spreading panic, as well as encouraging a dialogue about divorce's increased presence and bringing an end to the crisis...The information that I have compiled will hopefully not only prove that Guthrie was an important divorce mill in the Victorian Divorce Crisis narrative, but will also create a conversation about further research on the topic, which remains fairly unearthed.--Excerpt from preface

The dependence of CD4 T cell development and activation on the kinetics of the TCR:pMHC interaction

The T cell is a critical player in the adaptive immune response. T cells function by stimulating antibody production by B cells, secreting cytokines to attract other immune cells, regulating the response of other T cells, and directly killing infected or damaged targets. The role of the adaptive immune response depends on the specific recognition of foreign antigenic epitopes by the T cell. A T cell\u27s specificity for antigen is conferred by the T cell receptor: TCR). The TCR is designed to bind a peptide antigen presented on an MHC molecule by an antigen presenting cell: APC). The strength of this interaction is determined by the ratio of the rate of dissociation: koff) and the rate of association: kon) between the TCR and the pMHC. The overall affinity of the complex must be sufficient for productive transmission of signals through the TCR to activate a T cell. However, the precise regulation of this event is not fully understood. Structural changes are thought to occur once the TCR encounters pMHC. Because of the energetics involved, kinetic and thermodynamic parameters have been correlated with the pattern and strength of T cell activation but these relationships do not explain all TCR:pMHC. The contact duration or dwell time of the TCR with pMHC takes into account the potential for rebinding events, which can enhance the signal strength and are related to the kon and koff of the complex. A faster kon can balance out a fast koff to have sufficient interaction between the TCR and pMHC for complete T cell activation. The kon also controls the number of rebinding events that can occur. Even so, the role of kon in T cell biology has not been explored independently of changes in koff. Presented in this thesis is a system using two TCRs with specificity for the same antigen to compare how changes in kon alter T cell development and function. The n3.L2 and a mutant version, M2, recognize the Hbd(64-76) antigen presented on the I-Ek MHC class II molecule. M2 had a 3.7 fold stronger affinity for Hb(64-76)/I-Ek due solely to a faster kon. As a consequence, the M2 TCR responded more strongly to a broader range of altered Hb peptide ligands: APLs). While this presumably was due to an overall increased association with the MHC molecule, which could result from increased kon, the M2 TCR still retained antigen specificity and did not respond strongly to all Hb APLs. N3.L2 hybridomas and double positive thymocytes responded more strongly to two APLs of the P2 TCR contact residue. Therefore the changes between the n3.L2 and M2 TCR structures only allow certain residues to productively bind. By measuring the kinetics of n3.L2 and M2 in association with APL/I-Ek, the maximal IL-2 response is accurately predicted by the koff. No kinetic parameter correlated with the amount of APL needed to stimulate IL-2 production, suggesting other factors may be involved. Since the response to APLs can mimic the ability of a TCR to recognize selecting self-peptides in the thymus, peripheral T cell responsiveness may be developmentally controlled. TCR transgenic mice were generated expressing either the n3.L2 or M2 TCR. M2 thymocytes had stronger recognition of endogenous peptides and were deleted through negative selection when exposed to Hb(64-76) as a self peptide. N3.L2 thymocytes underwent full development and were not completely deleted by Hb(64-76). Interestingly, this difference in T cell selection led to functional consequences in peripheral T cells. Ca2+, an early activation signal, was more sustained in n3.L2 CD4 T cells and more oscillatory in M2 CD4 T cells. Interestingly, M2 CD4 T cells failed to proliferate in response to antigen. Therefore, the TCR sensitivity set during T cell selection leads to qualitatively different signaling cascades in the periphery and can generate an anergic population with increased kon for pMHC recognition