cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Using information from electronic patient records for clinical, epidemiological and health services research
Creators: name: Gibson-White, Angela
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2015

description: Background: Improving current and future healthcare is heavily reliant on continuous research and the secondary use of data from patients' medical records, particularly from electronic records. Considerable amounts of data are collected during the care and treatment of a patient, and this data can offer many opportunities, not only for supporting and improving individual patient care or making important contributions to research, but also for investigating causes of diseases, establishing the prevalence of risk factors, and identifying populations at risk of adverse outcomes. However, the management of such data poses challenges, which many believe can be mitigated by storing it electronically. The traditional method of storing medical information in a paper-based format has severe limitations, especially concerning the amount of effort needed to extract information. In contrast, data from electronic patient records (EPRs) is much easier to extract and allows healthcare professionals access to the information needed in a timely manner to provide appropriate care to patients and improve the public’s health. The UK still faces the hurdle of balancing public interest with individual privacy. There is clearly a benefit regarding the use of EPRs but there is an increasing need for public education in order to be able to reap the maximum benefits they offer. This thesis examines the benefits and impact of EPRs in the contexts of clinical care and epidemiological and health services research. Methods: The methods used for this research project involved reviewing published materials available through electronic searching, grey literature and websites of bodies such as the Department of Health, and the Health and Social Care Information Centre. The use of the main national primary care databases and secondary care databases and their growth over time was also examined. Results: EPRs are extremely beneficial to research and have a significant potential to improve patient overall care. The use of EPRs is growing as technology advances and health systems move from paper to electronic records. Conclusions: The use of EPRs will only be successful when both the public, researchers and healthcare providers agree on their benefits. The use of EPRs will take healthcare to another level, where the accuracy of data entered is of very high quality and standardised, data security is well-controlled, and there is acceptance by the public concerning the use of their data both for providing clinical care and for other secondary uses.
title: Neither Dr Jekyll, nor Mr Hyde, Just a National Judge…
title: National Courts’ Strategies of Resistance to International Law
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Koagne Zouapet, Apollin
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: international law
subject: 300 Sozialwissenschaften::340 Recht::340 Recht

description: The development and expansion of international law have also led to greater demands on national courts to interpret and apply international law. However, while this increased demand has confirmed the role of the domestic court as an organ of international law, it has also led to a tension between its tasks as guardian of the rule of law at the domestic level and as guarantor of compliance with the international rule of law. The Kadi case of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the Solange case of the German Constitutional Court and the Mara’abe case of the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ) are some of the symbols of this tension and illustrate the techniques and strategies developed by the domestic courts to apply international law while preserving the domestic legal order. This paper analyses the application of international law by domestic courts and tries to identify the techniques and strategies used by them to oppose, circumvent, undermine or resist international law, sometimes arguing that it is necessary to develop it. In so doing, the paper highlights the difficulties of role splitting (dédoublement fonctionnel) as conceived by Georges Scelle: even in its application of international law, the domestic judge never ceases to be the agent of a domestic legal order whose interests he or she has at heart.
Budgeting for climate change: obstacles and opportunities at the US state level
Creators: name: Gilmore, Elisabeth A.
name: St.Clair, Travis
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Biotechnology
subject: 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Inorganic Chemistry
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences
subject: Science Policy

description: State governments in the United States are well placed to identify opportunities for mitigation and the needs for adaptation to climate change. However, the cost of these efforts can have important implications for budgets that already face pressures from diverse areas such as unfunded pensions and growing health care costs. In this work, the current level of spending on climate-related activities at the state level are evaluated and policy recommendations are developed to improve financial management practices as they relate to climate risk. An examination of state budgets reveals that climate mitigation and adaptation activities represent less than 1% of spending in most states. The data collection highlights the obstacles to collecting accurate spending data and the lack of budgetary and accounting procedures in place. More importantly, the difficulty in benchmarking these activities poses challenges for the analysis of state-level policies as well as planning and modelling future climate-related spending. Other policy contexts, including public pensions and infrastructure, can provide guidance on budgetary and accounting tools that may help states prepare for and more efficiently manage climate-related expenditures. Key policy insightsClimate change mitigation and adaptation will require substantial investments across many levels of government on a wide range of activities.Currently, US states are not clearly demarcating climate expenditures, hindering the identification of climate-related budgetary risks.In the absence of guidelines, these longer term fiscal outlays may remain chronically underfunded in favour of more near-term spending priorities.Establishing appropriate financial management and data collection practices is important for more sophisticated cost-effectiveness and policy analyses. Climate change mitigation and adaptation will require substantial investments across many levels of government on a wide range of activities. Currently, US states are not clearly demarcating climate expenditures, hindering the identification of climate-related budgetary risks. In the absence of guidelines, these longer term fiscal outlays may remain chronically underfunded in favour of more near-term spending priorities. Establishing appropriate financial management and data collection practices is important for more sophisticated cost-effectiveness and policy analyses.
Analytical and computational methods towards a metabolic model of ageing in Caenorhabditis elegans
Creators: name: Geier, Florian
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2013

description: Human life expectancy is increasing globally. This has major socioeconomic implications, but also raises scientific questions about the biological bases of ageing and longevity. Research on appropriate model organisms, such as the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, is a key component of answering these questions. Ageing is a complex phenomenon, with both environmental and genetic influences. Metabolomics, the analysis of all small molecules within a biological system, offers the ability to integrate these complex factors to help understand the role of metabolism in ageing. This thesis addresses the current lack of methods for C. elegans metabolite analysis, with a particular focus on combining analytical and computational approaches. As a first essential step, C. elegans metabolite extraction protocols for NMR, GC-MS and LC-MS based analysis were optimized. Several methods to improve the coverage, automatic annotation and data analysis steps of NMR and GC-MS are proposed. Next, stable isotope labelling was explored as a tool for C. elegans metabolomics. An automated stable isotope based workflow was developed, which identifies all biological, non-redundant features within a LC-MS acquisition and annotates them with molecular compositions. This demonstrated that the vast majority (> 99.5%) of detected features inside LC-MS metabolomics experiments are not of biological origin or redundant. This stable isotope workflow was then used to compare the metabolism of 24 different C. elegans mutant strains from different pathways (e.g. insulin signalling, TOR pathway, neuronal signalling), with differing levels of lifespan extension compared to wild-type worms. The biologically relevant features (metabolites) were detected and annotated, and compared across the mutants. Some metabolites were correlated with longevity across the mutant set, in particular, glycerophospholipids. This led to the formulation of a hypothesis, that lifespan extension in C. elegans requires increased activity of common downstream longevity effector mechanisms (autophagy, and mitochondrial biogenesis), that also involve subcellular compartmentation and hence membrane formation. This results in the alterations in lipid metabolism detected here.
Infrastructural Developmentalism and its Many Types of Global Law – A Comparison between the UN Sustainable Development Goals and China’s Belt & Road Initiative
Creators: name: Rodiles, Alejandro
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: global law
subject: 300 Sozialwissenschaften::340 Recht::340 Recht

description: Today, we are witnessing the making, operation, and evolution of two gigantic development programs at the global level: the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the General Assembly in 2015, and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013. Perceived and real ideological differences notwithstanding, BRI and SDGs place infrastructures at the very heart of global development, strongly favoring pragmatism and immediate responsiveness. This paper analyzes the relations of this new developmental paradigm with law. By resorting to the Infrastructures as Regulation project (InfraReg), it focuses on the regulatability and regulatory effects of physical, informational, and digital infrastructures underlying both initiatives. The fluid re-arrangement of public and private, formal and informal legal frameworks regulating BRI indicate the emergence of a transnational legal infrastructure tied to and facilitated by material pragmatism, which stands in tension with China’s rhetorical embracement of international law as we know it. The implementation infrastructure of SDGs, on its part, reveals a resilience-driven governance style that is hard to reconcile with the futurity attached to the idea of (international) law. Although these findings would suggest a retreat from international law (and with it a decline of the international rule of law), the paper makes the case that actually many types of international and global law are emerging and resurfacing from infrastructural developmentalism which coexist in mutually determining and evolving ways. The hard question remains, nonetheless, whether such a relational condition can uphold the aspiration of order at the global level.
Diglossia and bilingualism: High German in German-speaking Switzerland from a folk linguistic perspective
Creators: name: Studler, Rebekka
Publisher: name: Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Diglossie
subject: Bilingualismus
subject: Deutschschweizer Sprachsituation
subject: Laienlinguistik
subject: Ferguson
subject: 400 - Sprache, Linguistik
subject: 430 - Deutsch

description: Der von Ferguson (1959) eingeführte Begriff ‚Diglossie’, i.e. das funktionale Nebeneinander zweier Varietäten, ist für die Deutschschweiz kontrovers diskutiert worden. Obwohl sich die Sprachsituation, die sich durch die Koexistenz von Schweizerdeutsch und Hochdeutsch auszeichnet, auf den ersten Blick in die Definition einfügt, zeigt eine genauere Betrachtung einige Lücken in der Argumentation. Basierend auf aktuellen Daten einer Fragebogenbefragung mit 750 Teilnehmenden ist es das Ziel dieses Beitrages, das Konzept der Diglossie für die deutschsprachige Schweiz aus laienlinguistischer Perspektive zu diskutieren. Der Beitrag untersucht die aktuellen Laienmeinungen mit einem Hauptaugenmerk auf den wichtigsten Komponenten der Diglossie, i.e. den Sprachstatus, die High-Low-Unterscheidung inklusive des Begriffs ‚Prestige’ und die funktionale Verteilung der beiden Sprachformen.
title: Data Stewardship Maturity Report for GHRSST Level 2P Regional Bulk Sea Surface Temperature from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the NOAA-18 satellite produced by NAVO (GDS version 1)
Creators: name: Lemieux, Paul
Publisher: name: National Centers for Environmental Information (U.S.)
Year: 2021

description: NOAA Technical Information Series NESDIS DSMR-00239
Einsamkeiten. Entwurf eines multimedialen Textnetzes als Zugang zu Einsamkeitsdiskursen für das kulturelle Lernen im DaF-Unterricht
Creators: name: Tobe, Mascha Vanessa
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: digitale Spiele
subject: Deutsch als Fremdsprache
subject: kulturelles Lernen
subject: Textnetz
subject: Einsamkeit
subject: 300 Sozialwissenschaften::370 Bildung und Erziehung::374 Erwachsenenbildung
subject: 800 Literatur::830 Deutsche und verwandte Literaturen::830 Literaturen germanischer Sprachen; Deutsche Literatur

description: Die Arbeit verankert digitale Spiele als fruchtbare Ressource für das kulturelle Lernen im DaF-Unterricht und bietet anhand des exemplarischen Themas Einsamkeit eine Anregung dazu, wie digitale Spiele innerhalb eines Textnetzes eingesetzt werden können.
Mechanistic studies on the molecular toxicology of the carcinogen PhIP: the role of microRNAs
Creators: name: Papaioannou, Michail-Dimitrios
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2016

description: The effect of environmental factors in cellular processes has been an area of interest for decades. Within this research field, emerging research niches appear concominantly with advances in molecular biology and genetics. One such field is the one of molecular toxicology, which investigates the molecular and cellular events that certain chemicals trigger. Chemicals that present genotoxic properties are of particular interest based on the potential contribution to the aetiology of cancer that the discoveries of their effects might provide. A group of chemicals that belong to this category are heterocyclic amines, organic compounds that are formed during the cooking of red meat from the pyrolysis of aminoacids. Research into heterocyclic amines has created a well established description for their ability to create DNA adducts that lead to mutations. Recent reports from our laboratory however, indicated that certain heterocyclic amines, and in particular 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo [4,5-b] pyridine (PhIP), present with molecular effects that are non genotoxic but nevertheless carcinogenic and are very similar to those induce by the natural hormone estradiol in breast cancer cells. Based on these findings this thesis set out to investigate whether these non-genotoxic effects of PhIP also extend to epigenetic mechanisms of gene expression control, and more specifically microRNA expression regulation. MicroRNAs are a class of small non-coding RNA molecules that posttrasncriptionally regulate gene expression and are involved in an array of process including carcinogenesis. Our results showed that PhIP, as well as estradiol, drive differential regulation of microRNAs and that these effects are very similar amongst the two compounds. This deregulation of microRNAs could be an attributing factor to the cancer promoting characteristics of both estradiol and PhIP and they extend the estrogenic character of this heterocyclic amine to the area of epigenetic regulation, and microRNAs in particular.
The role of glycine N-methyltransferase in the androgen-mediated development of prostate cancer
Creators: name: Ottaviani, Silvia
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2012

description: Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy among men in the Western world. The development and growth of prostate cancer is dependent upon androgens, whose effects are mediated by the androgen receptor (AR), a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily of ligand-activated transcription factors. The identification of androgen-regulated genes in prostate cancer cells, particularly those involved in cell growth, cell survival and cell migration are, therefore, of great importance for defining the mechanisms of prostate cancer development and progression, and thus developing new markers and targets for prostate cancer treatment. Our laboratory has previously carried out gene expression microarray analysis using the androgen-responsive LNCaP prostate cancer cell line, to identify androgen-regulated genes. Amongst the most highly androgen-responsive genes was Glycine N-methyltransferase (GNMT). GNMT is a S-adenosylmethionine (SAM)-dependent methyltransferase which catalyses the transfer of the methyl group on SAM to the amino acid glycine to generate N-methyl glycine (sarcosine), a compound with poorly defined biological functions. Previous studies have suggested that GNMT may act as a tumour-susceptibility gene in prostate cancer, although the mechanisms by which GNMT acts in prostate cancer remain obscure. To ascertain the role of GNMT in prostate cancer, I have investigated GNMT expression and its regulation by AR. I show that GNMT expression is stimulated by androgen in AR-expressing cells and that the stimulation occurs at the mRNA and protein levels. I have identified an androgen-response element (ARE) within the first exon of the GNMT gene and demonstrated that AR binds to this element in vitro and in vivo. To investigate the role of GNMT in the androgen-mediated development of prostate cancer, I performed microarray analysis of LNCaP cells treated with two different GNMT small interference RNAs (siRNAs). I identified a cohort of genes that are differentially expressed upon GNMT knockdown, several of which have been implicated in cell cycle progression and motility. Finally, I have shown that GNMT over-expression impaired LNCaP cell migration in vitro, but did not affect LNCaP cell growth. Together, these studies identify GNMT as a direct transcriptional target of the AR and provide evidence for a role for GNMT in the androgen-mediated development and progression of prostate cancer.
title: Fremdsprachenlehrwerke in der Frühen Neuzeit
title: Perspektiven – Potentiale – Herausforderungen
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: (:Unkn) Unknown
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Wissensgeschichte
subject: Fremdsprachenlehrwerke
subject: Frühe Neuzeit
subject: 900 Geschichte und Geografie::900 Geschichte::901 Geschichtsphilosophie, Geschichtstheorie
subject: 400 Sprache::410 Linguistik::410 Linguistik
subject: 400 Sprache::410 Linguistik::415 Grammatik

description: Die ersten Lehrwerke für moderne Fremdsprachen, die zwischen dem 15. und 17. Jahrhundert in Europa gedruckt wurden, sind in vielfacher Hinsicht ein lohnender Untersuchungsgegenstand: Nicht nur das sprachliche, metasprachliche und didaktische Wissen, sondern auch Teile des Weltwissens jener Zeit können anhand dieser Werke rekonstruiert werden. Der Umgang mit Mehrsprachigkeit und die damaligen Vorstellungen von Didaktik geraten in den Blick und damit die Frage nach den Formen und Prinzipien der Vermittlung sprachlichen Wissens. Die Texte bilden zudem eine interessante Quellengattung für die Untersuchung der Prinzipien von historischer sprachlicher Variation und von Sprachwandel generell. In diesem Kontext stellt sich auch die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von sprachlicher Realität und vermitteltem sprachlichem Wissen. Der von Julia Hübner und Horst J. Simon herausgegebene Band versammelt aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven verfasste Beiträge, die neben dem Potential der Lehrwerke für die Analyse grammatischer, pragmatischer, soziolinguistischer und wissensgeschichtlicher Fragestellungen auch die Herausforderungen bei der Arbeit mit dem Material aufzeigen.
Die Erprobung einer Lernumgebung zum Forschenden Lernen im Praxissemester unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Engagiertheit von Kindern
Creators: name: Dinh, Lynn
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Forschendes Lernen
subject: Sachunterricht
subject: Engagiertheit
subject: intrinsische Motivation
subject: Grundschule
subject: Beobachtung
subject: forschende Lernumgebung
subject: Flow-Erleben
subject: Interesse
subject: Kreativität
subject: 300 Sozialwissenschaften::370 Bildung und Erziehung::372 Primär- und Elementarbildung

description: In den vergangenen Jahren wurde im Sachunterricht der Grundschule sowie in der Lehrkräfteausbildung der Fokus zunehmend auf das Forschende Lernen gelegt. Die vorliegende Arbeit hat das Ziel, Wege von der Theorie des Forschenden Lernens zur Praxis in der Schule aufzuzeigen. Es wird dazu an bereits bestehende Konzepte des Forschenden Lernens angeknüpft und eine theoretisch fundierte Lernumgebung zum Forschenden Lernen erprobt und reflektiert. Der Fokus liegt auf der Beobachtung der Kinder in Bezug auf Engagiertheit und das Zusammenwirken von intrinsischer Motivation, Kreativität, Flow und Interesse in einer forschenden Lernumgebung.
Perceived Peer Behavior and Parental Support as Correlates of Marijuana Use: The Role of Age and Gender
Creators: name: Goldstick, Jason E.
name: Heinze, Justin
name: Ngo, Quyen
name: Hsing-Fang Hsieh
name: Walton, Maureen A.
name: Cunningham, Rebecca M.
name: Zimmerman, Marc A.
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Neuroscience
subject: Biotechnology
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: 111714 Mental Health
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: 110309 Infectious Diseases

description: Introduction: Parental support and perceptions of peer behavior on substance use are well-studied, but precisely how their associations vary as a function of age, and how those age-specific patterns vary by gender, remain unknown components of the developmental process underlying substance use. Methods: Using data from an 18-year longitudinal study of predominantly African-American students at high-risk for high school dropout in Flint, Michigan (baseline average age = 14.8 years), we examined longitudinal associations between past 30-day marijuana use and three self-reported variables: perceived friend drug use, perceived friend aggression, parental support. We used varying-coefficient regression models to semiparametrically estimate how covariate effects on past 30-day marijuana use vary smoothly as a function of age; gender differences in these age-specific coefficient trajectories were also tested. Results: In the unadjusted tests, the risk-enhancing effect of perceived friend drug use decreased with age in both genders, but the effect of perceived friend aggression varied only in females; in both cases, gender differences were not significant. In males, parental support had protective effects that decreased with age. The effect of both parental support differed in females, with less protective baseline effects and no evidence of age-variation. Adjusted models simultaneously including both friend and parental variables produced qualitatively similar results. Conclusions: Prevention strategies focusing on social exposures may be more effective if they are age- and gender-specific. In particular, interventions focusing on perceived peer behaviors may be more appropriate during adolescence, and those involving parental relationships may be more appropriate for males.
Patienteninformation und Krankenhausreputation
Creators: name: Eichmüller, Andrea
name: Helbling, Thomas
name: Heuss, Sabina
name: Göldi, Susan
Publisher: name: EMH Schweizerischer Ärzteverlag
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Digitalisierung
subject: Reputationsmanagement
subject: Patienteninformation
subject: Krankenhausreputation
subject: 330 - Wirtschaft
subject: 610 - Medizin und Gesundheit

description: Die Digitalisierung macht auch vor Patientinnen und Patienten nicht halt. 2017 zählt das Internet zu den meistgenutzten Informationsquellen bei der Recherche zu Gesundheitsthemen. Bei der Krankenhauswahl sind nach wie vor die Empfehlungen der Zuweisenden, die Reputation und Mundpropaganda entscheidend, wobei sich diese zunehmend in die digitale Welt verlagern.
The role of the co-chaperone p23 in Androgen signalling and prostate cancer
Creators: name: Querol I Cano, Laia
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2012

description: The binding of ligand by cytoplasmic Androgen Receptor (AR) is a critical step in androgen signalling. In the cytoplasm, unliganded AR requires the recruitment and activity of several factors and chaperones that stabilise the receptor preventing its degradation and maintaining it in a ligand-binding competent state. Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) and p23 are essential components of this apo-receptor complex for the AR as well as several other steriod receptors. p23 is a highly conserved ubiquitously expressed protein that is best characterised as a co-chaperone of HSP90 but appears to have some independent chaperoning activity also. Recently, p23 has been shown to inhibit the activity of glucocorticoid receptor but enhance activity of the oestrogen receptor by increasing its ligand binding activity...
Zum Potential des Spielfilms "El laberinto del fauno" (2006) zur Schulung der filmästhetischen Kompetenz im Spanischunterricht
Creators: name: Schütte, Leonora
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Filmkompetenz
subject: Pans Labyrinth
subject: Medienkompetenz
subject: Francodiktatur
subject: Filmeinsatz im Fremdsprachenunterricht
subject: Hörsehverstehen
subject: literarästhetische Kompetenz
subject: interkulturelle Kompetenz
subject: 400 Sprache::460 Spanisch, Portugiesisch::460 Spanisch, Portugiesisch
subject: 800 Literatur::860 Spanische, portugiesische Literaturen::860 Spanische, portugiesische Literaturen

description: Der Spielfilm „El laberinto del fauno“ von Guillermo del Toro kann im Spanischunterricht für die Förderung filmästhetischer Kompetenz eingesetzt werden. Welche Potentiale der Film zur Schulung dieser komplexen Kompetenz im Spanischunterricht birgt, wird im Folgenden untersucht. Dazu wurden nach einer grundlegenden Darstellung der filmästhetischen Kompetenz, die für eine umfassende Interpretation des Films relevantesten Aspekte analysiert, interpretiert und hinsichtlich ihrer Möglichkeiten der Kompetenzschulung geprüft. Dabei wurde festgestellt, dass „El laberinto del fauno“ ein enormes Potential zur Förderung filmästhetischer Kompetenz in den Bereichen des Filmwissens, der Anschlusskommunikation, der filmspezifischen Reaktionsmuster und der filmbezogenen Kritikfähigkeit aufweist. Zusätzlich wurde entdeckt, dass der Film das Potential zur Schulung weiterer Kompetenzen wie dem ästhetischen Hörsehverstehen, der kulturellen, interkulturellen sowie transkulturellen Kompetenzen und der literarästhetischen Kompetenz besitzt. Daraus lässt sich schließen, dass der Spielfilm ein umfassendes sowie bedeutungsvolles Potential für die Kompetenzentwicklung Spanischlernender beinhaltet und gewinnbringend im Spanischunterricht von Lehrkräften eingesetzt werden sollte.
Mechanisms of pulmonary cell activation during ventilator-induced lung injury
Creators: name: Woods, Samantha
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2016

description: Mechanical ventilation is a life-saving intervention, but through exacerbating inflammation, it can contribute to mortality, known as ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). Patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are particularly susceptible to VILI, however, it is recognised that over-distension of the lung should also be avoided in patients with healthy lungs, whom are also at risk of VILI. It is important to minimise the adverse effects of mechanical ventilation, yet our understanding of how over-distension promotes the devastating inflammatory response in VILI remains poor. In this project, the kinetics of cellular activation were investigated within the lungs of mice following short periods of high tidal volume ventilation using phospho-flow cytometry. The results revealed that the alveolar epithelium is activated prior to alveolar macrophages, suggesting that the epithelium could be responsible for stimulating their activation. The activation observed was very rapid, leading me to hypothesise that communication between these two cell types could either occur via the release of soluble mediators, or through a direct-contact dependent mechanism. Subsequent experiments led to the theory that alveolar macrophages may become activated in response to stretch through the detection of the damage-associated molecular pattern ATP, which is rapidly released by the alveolar epithelium in response to cyclic stretching. These experiments also revealed that pulmonary endothelial cells may be the most sensitive pulmonary cell type to mechanical ventilation in vivo, indicating that stretch-induced inflammation could be immediately disseminated to the systemic circulation. This concept is in contrast to the current ‘decompartmentalisation’ model in which inflammatory mediators released within the alveolar space leak into the vasculature only following the breakdown of the alveolar-capillary barrier. This discovery has important implications for our understanding of the pathogenesis of multiple organ failure which is the most common cause of death in ARDS patients and therefore warrants further research.
Monocyte dysfunction in alcoholic hepatitis
Creators: name: Vergis, Nikhil
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2015

description: Severe alcoholic hepatitis (SAH) is the most florid form of alcohol-related liver disease (ALD). It is caused by hepatic inflammation after a prolonged period of heavy alcohol drinking. Causes of death include liver failure and infection. Inflammatory hepatic injury and systemic immunoparesis are therefore key features in disease pathogenesis. This thesis seeks to evaluate this immune dysfunction in detail, focussing on a key component of the innate immune system, the circulating monocyte. A variety of techniques such as flow cytometry, Western blotting and polymerase-chain reaction (PCR) were used to characterise the phenotype and function of monocytes from peripheral blood. Dysfunction was then related to patient outcome and treatments administered by the randomised placebo controlled Steroids and Pentoxyfilline for Alcoholic Hepatitis (STOPAH) clinical trial. Novel findings from this work include the identification of preserved uptake of bacteria by phagocytosis but defective monocyte oxidative burst and bacterial killing of Escherichia coli. Further, I show that the presence of this defect predicts the subsequent development of infection. In addition, this defect is associated with reduced expression of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase enzyme and may be treatable with N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Secondly, I identify an expanded population of an inflammatory intermediate monocyte subset in SAH that bears high expression of chemokine CC chemokine receptor type 5 (CCR-5), and may be amenable to targeted antibody therapy to reduce hepatic inflammation in SAH patients.
title: Ni la tierra, ni las mujeres somos territorio de conquista
title: Eine ethnographische Analyse der Widerstandspraktiken indigener Aktivist:innen gegen Bergbauextraktivismus auf Twitter und in den Valles Centrales de Oaxaca, Mexiko
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Heuser, Alina Meike
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Bergbau
subject: Extraktivismus
subject: soziale Ungleichheiten
subject: Widerstand
subject: politische Partizipation
subject: Digitaler Aktivismus
subject: Twitter
subject: Geschlechterverhältnisse
subject: Intersektionalität
subject: mining
subject: extractivism
subject: social inequalities
subject: resistance
subject: everyday activism
subject: digital activism
subject: twitter
subject: gender
subject: intersectionality
subject: 300 Sozialwissenschaften::300 Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie::301 Soziologie, Anthropologie

description: Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit den Widerstandspraktiken indigener Aktvist:innen gegen Bergbauextraktivismus in den Valles Centrales de Oaxaca, Mexiko. Am Beispiel des Konfliktes um die Mine El Doctor wird die politische Partizipation indigener Frauen* in den kollektiven Protesten gegen Bergbau analysiert. Dabei wird anhand feministischer und sozialökologischer Theoriekonzepte der Frage nachgegangen, wie sich alltägliche Widerstandspraktiken indigener Frauen* als Form des politischen Protestes gegen Bergbau gestalten und welche Bedeutung diese für die Aushandlung von Geschlechterverhältnissen in ihren Lebenswelten erlangen. Methodische Grundlage dieser Arbeit ist eine ethnographische Datenerhebung auf der Plattform Twitter, wobei im Sinne einer multisituierten Ethnographie on- und offline Praktiken in ihren Verschränkungen wahrgenommen werden.
An analysis of the variation in event rates, case fatality and mortality of Acute Coronary Syndrome across English districts 2006-2010
Creators: name: Asaria, Perviz
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2016

description: Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is a leading cause of hospitalisation, mortality and healthcare spending in the industrialised world. Wide temporal, spatial and social class variations show that high IHD mortality is not inevitable. The temporal decline in IHD in the UK and other industrialised countries since the 1960’s and 1970’s has been decomposed into that caused by reductions in population risk which affect event rate versus that caused by changes in case fatality which can potentially be ameliorated by the health system. The persistent Northern excess in IHD mortality in England has not been studied in the same way. This is because there is no national database of IHD events and thus no systematic way to assess sub-national variation. I focused on the acute, life-threatening component of IHD – acute coronary syndrome (ACS). I constructed a national data set of ACS events using routine hospitalisation and mortality data and estimated ACS event rates, mortality and case fatality for each of the 354 English Local Authority Districts using a Bayesian spatial model to smooth away unwarranted variability. I decomposed spatial variation in ACS mortality into its constituent components of event rates and case fatality. 60-80% of the between district variation in mortality is due to variation in event rates depending on age and sex, and an additional 15-30% is due to variation in case fatality. Further, the proportion of events resulting in an out-of-hospital ACS death has more impact on differences in case fatality than do deaths following hospitalisation. These findings have important implications for directing health policies aimed at reducing ACS burden and addressing regional inequalities in health in England.
CCWI2017: F92 'Spectral Propagation of Parameter Uncertainties in Water Distribution Networks'
Creators: name: Braun, Mathias
name: Piller, Olivier
name: Deuerlein, Jochen
name: Mortazavi, Iraj
Publisher: name: The University of Sheffield
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: 90599 Civil Engineering not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Civil engineering

description: The hydraulic state of a water distribution network is governed by a large number of uncertain parameters. These parameters may be given by uncertain consumer demand, valves states, the value of pipe diameters or the roughness of the pipes. In practice, the influence of parameter variations is important in the decision-making process of water utilities, which emphasizes the need for proper quantification of the resulting uncertainties in head and flow. The central step in uncertainty quantification is the propagation of uncertainties through the system. In the past, the influence of parameter uncertainties on the system state has been studied using perturbation methods, stochastic collocation and interval state estimation. This paper presents the results of an alternative spectral approach that has been examined as part of the French-German research project ResiWater. The generalized Polynomial Chaos Expansion is applied to a small looped water distribution network with multiple uncertain input parameters using a non-intrusive projection method. These results are compared to the Monte Carlo simulation as representative of stochastic collocation methods. It is demonstrated that the Polynomial Chaos Expansion is capable to capture a high order of non-linear effects like the Monte Carlo simulation for a considerably lower computational effort.
Haptic Interface for the Simulation of Endovascular Interventions
Creators: name: Harun, Hafiz
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2015

description: Endovascular interventions are minimally invasive surgical procedures that are performed to diagnose and treat vascular diseases. These interventions use a combination of long and flexible instruments known as guidewire and catheter. A popular method of developing the skills required to manipulate the instruments successfully is through the use of virtual reality (VR) simulators. However, the interfaces of current VR simulators have several shortcomings due to limitations in the instrument tracking and haptic feedback systems design. A major challenge of developing physics-based training simulations of endovascular interventional procedures is to unobtrusively access the central, co-axial guidewire for tracking and haptics. This work sets out to explore the state of the art, to identify and develop novel solutions to this concentric occlusion problem, and to perform a validation of a proof of concept prototype. This multi port haptic interface prototype has been integrated with a 3-D virtual environment and features novel instrument tracking and haptic feedback actuation systems. The former involves the use of an optical sensor to detect guidewire movements through a clear catheter, whereas the latter utilises the placement of a customised electromagnetic actuator within the catheter hub. During the proof of concept validation process, both systems received positive reviews. Whilst the haptic interface prototype designed in this work has met the original objectives, there are still important aspects which need to be addressed to improve its content and face validity. With further development, the prototype has the potential to evolve and become a significant improvement over the haptic interfaces that exist today.
Investigating the roles of AMP-activated protein kinase and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase β in prostate cancer
Creators: name: Penfold, Lucy
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2016

description: Prostate cancer cells are characterised by rapid growth, proliferation and migration, which requires rewiring of cellular metabolism including increased lipid and protein synthesis. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a conserved master regulator of energy homeostasis and acts to downregulate anabolism and cell growth, whilst upregulating catabolism to maintain cellular ATP levels. Whether these actions inhibit or aid cancer progression is controversial. Intriguingly, an upstream activating kinase of AMPK, calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase β (CaMKKβ) has recently been implicated in prostate cancer progression. A small-molecule direct activator of AMPK, 991, was used to test the effects of AMPK activation in a panel of prostate cancer cell lines. AMPK activation led to downregulation of cellular proliferation, 2D migration, invasion and lipogenesis, and upregulation of adhesion in all cell lines. However, in PC3 and 22RV1 cells AMPK activation led to an increase in migration down a chemoattractant gradient. This increase in migration was dependent on CaMKKβ and PAK1 activity. To investigate the role of AMPK and CaMKKβ in vivo the PTEN prostate cancer mouse model was used. AMPKβ1 and CaMKKβ were deleted in this model creating two novel mouse lines. Upon β1-deletion prostate cancer development was increased based on the timing of a switch in protein expression characterised in the PTEN-/- prostate upon disease progression and pathological analysis of tissue sections. In contrast, disease progression was significantly reduced upon CaMKKβ-deletion in the PTEN-/- prostate based on prostate weight, Ki-67 staining and pathological analysis. Disease progression was also inhibited in the PTEN mouse model upon treatment with a pharmacological inhibitor of CaMKKβ, STO609. These data suggest that AMPK and CaMKKβ have different roles in prostate cancer development and progression likely lie on separate pathways in this disease.
Optimising cardiac services using routinely collected data and discrete event simulation
Creators: name: Almashrafi, Ahmed
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2016

description: Background: The current practice of managing hospital resources, including beds, is very much driven by measuring past or expected utilisation of resources. This practice, however, doesn’t reflect variability among patients. Consequently, managers and clinicians cannot make fully informed decisions based upon these measures which are considered inadequate in planning and managing complex systems. Aim: to analyse how variation related to patient conditions and adverse events affect resource utilisation and operational performance. Methods: Data pertaining to cardiac patients (cardiothoracic and cardiology, n=2241) were collected from two major hospitals in Oman. Factors influential to resource utilisation were assessed using logistic regressions. Other analysis related to classifying patients based on their resource utilisation was carried out using decision tree to assist in predicting hospital stay. Finally, discrete event simulation modelling was used to evaluate how patient factors and postoperative complications are affecting operational performance. Results: 26.5% of the patients experienced prolonged Length of Stay (LOS) in intensive care units and 30% in the ward. Patients with prolonged postoperative LOS had 60% of the total patient days. Some of the factors that explained the largest amount of variance in resource use following cardiac procedure included body mass index, type of surgery, Cardiopulmonary Bypass (CPB) use, non-elective surgery, number of complications, blood transfusion, chronic heart failure, and previous angioplasty. Allocating resources based on patient expected LOS has resulted in a reduction of surgery cancellations and waiting times while overall throughput has increased. Complications had a significant effect on perioperative operational performance such as surgery cancellations. The effect was profound when complications occurred in the intensive care unit where a limited capacity was observed. Based on the simulation model, eliminating some complications can enlarge patient population. Conclusion: Integrating influential factors into resource planning through simulation modelling is an effective way to estimate and manage hospital capacity.
CCWI2017: F45 'Dynamic Scenario Selection in Optimal Design Problems and Evolutionary Optimization with Uncertain System Knowledge'
Creators: name: Sankary, Nathan
name: Ostfeld, Avi
Publisher: name: The University of Sheffield
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: 90599 Civil Engineering not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Civil engineering

description: The design of water resource management and control systems have provided a promising space for evolutionary algorithms. In many cases a system for managing a water resource requires a large degree of planning and design before implementation and many stake holders perceive different objectives with different importance. Multiobjective evolutionary algorithms inherently provide a tool that can best satisfy the desires of many stakeholders (many objectives) through computation of a non-dominated solution set. However, the performance of an optimal solution provided by a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm is likely to deteriorate during real-world implementation if design conditions of the optimization framework are not identical to those imposed on the system in practice. This paper focuses on evaluating a scenario based multiobjective evolutionary algorithm for real-world design problems in which the environment where a system will operate is dynamic, and uncertain. A previously developed genetic algorithm termed the “RNSGA-II” used for water distribution system design is augmented to incorporate robust objectives and simple Monte Carlo sampling to solve the classic water quality sensor placement problem. This study aims to further develop an understanding of scenario based optimization methods for optimizing solutions to perform well in the face of uncertainty.
Numerical simulation of aerosol dynamics in an impinging jet with microdroplet coalescence
Creators: name: Wu, Jiandong
name: Xu, Jiyun
name: Wang, Hao
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2020
Subjects: Physical Sciences not elsewhere classified
Cell Biology
Biotechnology
Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
Astronomical and Space Sciences not elsewhere classified
Mathematical Sciences not elsewhere classified

description: Droplet laden jet plays important roles in cutting-edge technologies including spray cooling, aerosol jet printing, pollution control, and cascade impactors. In this work, a numerical simulation scheme for jet flow is proposed. The turbulence is calculated based on the v2¯-f model and the droplets are described by the discrete phase model. The droplet-droplet collisions are calculated by a mesh-independent collision model. The results are compared with an experiment in which concentric dual-ring deposition patterns were observed on the impinging plate. The effects of the droplet volume fraction are investigated. Criteria for the necessity of two-way coupling as well as coalescence calculation are provided. This work provides a practical tool for aerosol impinging research and design. Copyright © 2020 American Association for Aerosol Research
title: Data Stewardship Maturity Report for GHRSST Level 2P North Atlantic Regional Bulk Sea Surface Temperature from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the NOAA-18 satellite produced by NEODAAS (GDS version 1)
Creators: name: Lemieux, Paul
Publisher: name: National Centers for Environmental Information (U.S.)
Year: 2021

description: NOAA Technical Information Series NESDIS DSMR-00232