Detection of the complement fragment C5a in inflammatory exudates from the rabbit peritoneal cavity using radioimmunoassay.

We describe a radioimmunoassay for rabbit C5a and its use to obtain evidence of extravascular C5a generation in two inflammatory reactions in the peritoneal cavity. These observations, together with the potent activity of C5a in inducing increased microvascular permeability involving circulating PMN leukocytes, strengthen the case for considering C5a an important inflammatory mediator. These findings offer an explanation for the many different experimental inflammatory reactions where oedema formation can be suppressed either by systemic depletion of complement or by depletion of circulating PMN leukocytes

Upward flame spread over corrugated cardboard

As part of a study of the combustion of boxes of commodities, rates of upward flame spread during early-stage burning were observed during experiments on wide samples of corrugated cardboard. The rate of spread of the flame front, defined by the burning pyrolysis region, was determined by visually averaging the pyrolysis front position across the fuel surface. The resulting best fit produced a power-law progression of the pyrolysis front, xp=Atn, where xp is the average height of the pyrolysis front at time t, n=3/2, and A is a constant. This result corresponds to a slower acceleration than was obtained in previous measurements and theories (e.g. n=2), an observation which suggests that development of an alternative description of the upward flame spread rate over wide, inhomogeneous materials may be worth studying for applications such as warehouse fires. Based upon the experimental results and overall conservation principles it is hypothesized that the non-homogeneity of the cardboard helped to reduce the acceleration of the upward spread rates by physically disrupting flow in the boundary layer close to the vertical surface and thereby modifying heating rates of the solid fuel above the pyrolysis region. As a result of this phenomena, a distinct difference was observed between scalings of peak flame heights, or maximum " flame tip" measurements and the average location of the flame. The results yield alternative scalings that may be better applicable to some situations encountered in practice in warehouse fires. © 2010 The Combustion Institute

Politics and ethnicity : a study of the role of state security interests in the maintenance of aboriginal difference in Taiwan

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.This thesis analyses the conflicting relationship between Kuomintang (KMT) security measures and assimilation policies in relation to Taiwan's Aboriginal population from 1945 to the beginning of the modern Aboriginal movement. I refer to the social anthropological model of ethnicity in examining the impact of these policies on Aboriginal leaders and expressions of Aboriginality. New evidence is presented showing that expressions of pan-Aboriginality prior to the 228 Incident existed, but that in the main, Aboriginal involvement in the 228 Incident reflected a growing identification with Han Taiwanese in the face of an unpopular administration. I provide the first comprehensive analysis of this involvement, together with the impact of the security census that followed it, which involved replacing the emerging dialectic of ascription between Han Taiwanese and Aborigines with a remote form of assimilationist control. Primary sources of data included newspapers on microfiche between 1945 and 1952, which produced more than one thousand items relating to Aboriginal affairs, and which filled a sizable gap in research on this period. Extensive use was also made of archived material on the 228 Incident and the White Terror, while fieldwork and interviews were conducted in the Aboriginal townships of eight counties. I conclude that Aboriginality was sustained and shaped by the incompatible policy requirements of a martial-law era administration. Factors causing the failure of assimilationist policies include the presence of Christian denominations in Aboriginal communities - which nourished Aboriginality so that they could survive - and the KMT's own appropriation of Aboriginality. From this I conclude that sustained and forcible uses of categorisation in the context of an Aboriginal population are more capable of reinforcing and creating ethnic boundaries than destroying them

Warehouse commodity classification from fundamental principles. Part II: Flame heights and flame spread

In warehouse storage applications, it is important to classify the burning behavior of commodities and rank them according to their material flammability for early fire detection and suppression operations. In this study, a preliminary approach towards commodity classification is presented that models the early stage of large-scale warehouse fires by decoupling the problem into separate processes of heat and mass transfer. Two existing nondimensional parameters are used to represent the physical phenomena at the large-scale: a mass transfer number that directly incorporates the material properties of a fuel, and the soot yield of the fuel that controls the radiation observed in the large-scale. To facilitate modeling, a mass transfer number (or B-number) was experimentally obtained using mass-loss (burning rate) measurements from bench-scale tests, following from a procedure that was developed in Part I of this paper. Two fuels are considered: corrugated cardboard and polystyrene. Corrugated cardboard provides a source of flaming combustion in a warehouse and is usually the first item to ignite and sustain flame spread. Polystyrene is typically used as the most hazardous product in large-scale fire testing. The nondimensional mass transfer number was then used to model in-rack flame heights on 6.19.1 m (2030 ft) stacks of 'C' flute corrugated cardboard boxes on rack-storage during the initial period of flame spread (involving flame spread over the corrugated cardboard face only). Good agreement was observed between the model and large-scale experiments during the initial stages of fire growth, and a comparison to previous correlations for in-rack flame heights is included. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Warehouse commodity classification from fundamental principles. Part I: Commodity & burning rates

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the burning behavior of an individual Group A plastic commodity over time. The objective of the study was to evaluate the use of a nondimensional parameter to describe the time-varying burning rate of a fuel in complex geometries. The nondimensional approach chosen to characterize burning behavior over time involved comparison of chemical energy released during the combustion process with the energy required to vaporize the fuel, measured by a B-number. The mixed nature of the commodity and its package, involving polystyrene and corrugated cardboard, produced three distinct stages of combustion that were qualitatively repeatable. The results of four tests provided flame heights, mass-loss rates and heat fluxes that were used to develop a phenomenological description of the burning behavior of a plastic commodity. Three distinct stages of combustion were identified. Time-dependent and time-averaged B-numbers were evaluated from mass-loss rate data using assumptions including a correlation for turbulent convective heat transfer. The resultant modified B-numbers extracted from test data incorporated the burning behavior of constituent materials, and a variation in behavior was observed as materials participating in the combustion process varied. Variations between the four tests make quantitative values for each stage of burning useful only for comparison, as errors were high. Methods to extract the B-number with a higher degree of accuracy and future use of the results to improve commodity classification for better assessment of fire danger are discussed. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Transcription Factor AP-2 Regulatory Signatures in Breast Cancer

PhDAP-2 transcription factors are highly conserved basic helix-span-helix proteins whose members ((x, ß, y, S and c) are crucial regulators of bryonic development. They also play an important role in human neoplasia. uohis ochemical studies have detected high levels of AP-2y expression in primary tumo of breast cancer patients. This high expression has been correlated with reduced survival in all patients and reduced survival in an ERa positive subset treated with hormone therapy. In breast cancer cell lines, AP- 2 factors have been implicated in the regulation of the ERBB2 proto-oncogene and ERa. In an effort to further understand the role of AP-2y in breast carcinoma, this study has sought to identify additional AP-2 activated cellular pathways and ultimately novel transcriptional targets for AP-2 through the use of gene expression profiling. RNAi using three independent AP-2y targeting sequences, has been used to deplete AP- 2y levels in the ERa positive MCF-7 breast carcinoma cell line, chosen as it exclusively expresses the AP-2y family member. Microarrays were then utilised to create an AP-2y dependent transcription profile. Statistical comparisons between non-silencing control siRNA and AP-2y targeting siRNA groups identified a total of 162 gene expression changes (p<0.01). These changes implicate AP-2y in the control of cell cycle progression and developmental signalling. Indeed a role for AP-2y in the control of cell cycle, in particular at the GUS transition, has been verified using flow cytometry. Several of these gene expression changes, including IGFBP3, Transgelin and KIAA1324, have been confirmed using qPCR and immunoblotting. Finally, elevated levels of p21 mRNA and protein have been observed following AP-2y silencing in MCF-7 cells. Additionally, the activity of a p21 promoter reporter is repressed following transfection with an AP-2y expression construct in HepG2 cells. These results coupled with ChIP experiments showing AP-2y occupancy at the proximal promoter region of p21 in cycling MCF-7 cells, implicate AP-2y in the repression of p21 transcription and suggest a role for AP2y in- the, control of cell cycle in breast carcinoma in part through the transcriptional repression of p21

Different news for different views: Political news-sharing communities on social media through the UK General Election in 2015

This is the final version of the article. Available from AAAI via the URL in this record.Media exposure is a central concept in understanding the dynamics of public opinion and political change. Traditional models of media exposure have been severely challenged by the shift to online news consumption and news-sharing on social media. Here we use network analysis and automated content analysis to examine the interaction between news media and social media around the UK General Election in 2015. We study a large corpus of UK newspaper articles and Twitter content, finding significant temporal correlations between newspaper topic coverage and the content discussed on Twitter. We also identify news-sharing communities around groups of news sources that are ideologically clustered. Analysis of topics covered within each group shows that different communities are exposed to different news content during the election. Our results confirm that ideological bias and selective news-sharing affect patterns of online media exposure in social media.This work was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council ES/N012283/1

Pharmacokinetics and efficacy of oral versus intravenous mixed-micellar phylloquinone (vitamin K-1) in severe acute liver disease

Background/Aims: In patients with severe acute liver dysfunction, i.v. phylloquinone (vitamin K-1) may be given to exclude vitamin K deficiency, rather than impaired hepatic synthesis of coagulation factors alone, as the cause of the coagulopathy. However, there have been no studies of the pharmacokinetics or efficacy of i.v. or oral K-1 in such patients.Methods: 49 adults with severe acute liver disease were randomised double-blind to a single 10 mg dose of i.v. or oral mixed-micellar K-1, or placebo. Serum levels of phylloquinone and undercarboxylated prothrombin (PIVKA-II) were assessed before and after treatment.Results: At admission, 13 patients (27 %) had either low serum K-1 levels or elevated PIVKA-II concentrations, indicative of subclinical vitamin K deficiency. In the 16 patients who received i.v. K-1, there was one (6 %) treatment failure (K-1 rise < 10 ng/ml above baseline), compared with 12 of the 15 (80 %) who received oral K, (P < 0.0001). One patient in the placebo group developed overt vitamin K deficiency.Conclusions: A minority of patients with severe acute liver dysfunction have subclinical vitamin K deficiency at the time of presentation, which is corrected by a single dose of i.v. K-1. The intestinal absorption of mixed-micellar K, is unreliable in adults with severe acute liver dysfunction. (c) 2004 European Association for the Study of the Liver. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Can food vouchers improve nutrition and reduce health inequalities in low-income mothers and young children: A multi-method evaluation of the experiences of beneficiaries and practitioners of the Healthy Start programme in England

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background: Good nutrition is important during pregnancy, breastfeeding and early life to optimise the health of women and children. It is difficult for low-income families to prioritise spending on healthy food. Healthy Start is a targeted United Kingdom (UK) food subsidy programme that gives vouchers for fruit, vegetables, milk, and vitamins to low-income families. This paper reports an evaluation of Healthy Start from the perspectives of women and health practitioners. Methods. The multi-method study conducted in England in 2011/2012 included focus group discussions with 49 health practitioners, an online consultation with 620 health and social care practitioners, service managers, commissioners, and user and advocacy groups, and qualitative participatory workshops with 85 low-income women. Additional focus group discussions and telephone interviews included the views of 25 women who did not speak English and three women from Traveller communities. Results: Women reported that Healthy Start vouchers increased the quantity and range of fruit and vegetables they used and improved the quality of family diets, and established good habits for the future. Barriers to registration included complex eligibility criteria, inappropriate targeting of information about the programme by health practitioners and a general low level of awareness among families. Access to the programme was particularly challenging for women who did not speak English, had low literacy levels, were in low paid work or had fluctuating incomes. The potential impact was undermined by the rising price of food relative to voucher value. Access to registered retailers was problematic in rural areas, and there was low registration among smaller shops and market stalls, especially those serving culturally diverse communities. Conclusions: Our evaluation of the Healthy Start programme in England suggests that a food subsidy programme can provide an important nutritional safety net and potentially improve nutrition for pregnant women and young children living on low incomes. Factors that could compromise this impact include erosion of voucher value relative to the rising cost of food, lack of access to registered retailers and barriers to registering for the programme. Addressing these issues could inform the design and implementation of food subsidy programmes in high income countries. © 2014 McFadden et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.The Policy Research Programme in the Department of Health, UK