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“Some People Sit, Some People Stand, That’s Just What We Do ”: a Qualitative Exploration of Sit-Stand Desk Use in Naturalistic SettingsProlonged sedentary behaviour is associated with poor health. Office-based workers spend much of the working day sitting. Sit-stand desks have become a popular intervention, but real-life experiences of the value of sit-stand desks remain relatively unexplored outside of research-led interventions. A qualitative study was therefore undertaken to explore real-life experiences, including perceived barriers, and facilitators of using sit-stand desks. Six focus-group interviews were undertaken with a total of 34 desk-based employees in North-West England. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Three main themes emerged: The Sedentary Office, Motivators, and The Active Office. The Sedentary Office highlighted participants’ frustration with an increasingly sedentary office environment. Motivators to reducing sitting time were knowledge of the health consequences of prolonged sitting, previous (ill) health, and the potential benefits expected. The Active Office highlighted the importance of control, choice, enhanced interaction with colleagues, and the benefits associated with moving more and enhancing an overall sense of workplace wellbeing. Perceived benefits, facilitators, and barriers - experienced and observed – from sit-stand desk use in the real world were examined, thus contributing to important discussions of transferability. Overall, the study shed light on the perceived facilitators, benefits, and drawbacks of sit-stand desk work whilst also giving evidence of the real-world acceptability and research translation of sit-stand desk use. Future research should examine this in multiple contexts and should explore implications of an increasing prevalence in home working.
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The Supporters of the Macclesfield Society for Acquiring Useful KnowledgeThe Macclesfield Society for Acquiring Useful Knowledge was founded in 1835 and became one of the East Cheshire silk town's most successful educational institutions by the mid nineteenth century. The Macclesfield version was part of the second wave of mechanics' institutes and lasted for fifty-seven years. The Society originated from two mutual improvement groups who enlisted the help of a leading silk manufacturer. As a result, the Society was founded to provide useful knowledge to the town's inhabitants without any political or religious bias. The Society's supporters tended to be businessmen, professionals and representatives from prominent families in the area, in common with those of many other mechanics' institutes. The extant reports contain information on the institution, together with speeches given by its prominent patrons which cover a broad range of topics, from local and regional issues to national legislation. This source material gives an insight into the beliefs of the Society's supporters and how they changed in response to different influences, such as the introduction of the 1870 Education Act, the effects of trade depression on Macclesfield and the loss of protective tariffs for the English silk industry. © The University of Leeds, 2011.
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How Can We Do This? Power Constraints & Barriers to InnovationThe author explores how power constraints and other barriers may factor into the innovative progress of careers services and professionalism of the career development sector - in this study funded by the Jisc careers research grant. In the rapidly evolving landscape of higher education institutions, career development practitioners stand at a critical juncture. At the heart of their role lies a critical challenge: navigating the intricate power dynamics that define and often constrain their ability to innovate. Practitioner voices on the process of innovation in their work have not been examined extensively in the sector's research literature before. This study examines the factors influencing their decision making about innovative practices.
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From Power Gaps to ProgressThis article discusses the power gaps faced by career development practitioners when applying innovative practices in higher education. Innovative practices have the potential to meet the demands of the evolving future of work, and power gaps can undermine our professionalism.
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How can we do this? An investigation of power constraints and other barriers to career development practitioners’ innovation in higher educationThis article investigates the factors influencing career development practitioners’ decisions in relation to innovation in a Higher Education context. Drawing on a dissertation research project, it presents an early substantive grounded theory of practitioners ‘Constructing Empowerment’ to overcome power constraints and other barriers to innovation. The article provides an argument that the sector is at a ‘critical juncture’ in which radical ideas can rapidly be implemented, and that a decision-making model to discern good, from bad or ambiguous ideas may be beneficial for maintaining quality standards and healthy professional boundaries.</jats:p>
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Presenting a theory of how career development practitioners innovateThe presentation shares an introduction to a theory of how careers practitioners innovate in higher education. It explores the output from a grounded theory study in a cathedrals group university, where practitioner voices about innovation are explored. Previously their voices have only been based on conjecture, not grounded in their own words.
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A theory of how career development practitioners innovateAn exploration of the power constraints and other barriers to innovation by career development practitioners in HE. Based upon a grounded theory study of a Cathedral's Group University.
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Community, Cholera, Chapel and Children: The History of Chester Royal Infirmary’s Surviving Stained-glass WindowsThe installation of two sets of stained-glass windows at Chester Royal Infirmary in the early twentieth century represent one of the ways in which Florence Nightingale’s suggested improvements to the lives of patients could be achieved through attractive and colourful objects in the hospital environment. Generations of patients were thus able to benefit from these artefacts until the closure of the hospital in 1994 and the removal of the windows from the original building. Four of these windows were installed at the University of Chester’s Wheeler Building (formerly County Hall) as a community project in 2023. Background research was undertaken to piece together the stories behind these windows and the many people involved, who themselves contributed to the hospital, city and beyond in many different ways. Therefore, this article explores the history behind the windows and their time as popular features of this key medical institution, which provided care for Chester’s patients for over 230 years.
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Back into the light: The unveiling of Chester Royal Infirmary’s stained-glass windows at the University of ChesterOn 7 June 2023, the University of Chester’s Faculty of Health, Medicine and Society (FHMS) Historical Society hosted an event at the University’s Wheeler Building, when four stained glass windows from the former Chester Royal Infirmary were unveiled in their new home
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Macclesfield Baths and Washhouses and its patrons in the nineteenth centuryThe East Cheshire market town of Macclesfield had grown to become the leading centre of the English silk industry by the mid nineteenth century and this resulted in severe pressure on the town’s inadequate services. One element of the national campaign to improve sanitary conditions in urban areas was the public baths and washhouses movement from the 1840s, which resulted in the Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts in 1846 and 1847. Macclesfield’s Baths and Washhouses opened in January 1850 and it was one of the first provincial towns after Liverpool to provide such facilities. This article will therefore explore the national baths and washhouses movement, the impact of industrialisation on living conditions in Macclesfield, the history of the town’s Baths and Washhouses in the nineteenth century, the people active in its development and the range of motives which may have encouraged their support for this early addition to the public services for inhabitants.
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The Fall of the House of Wynnstay: The 1885 Election in East DenbighshireThis article discusses the 1885 election in East Denbighshire when the Williams-Wynn family of Wynnstay lost the parliamentary seat that the family had represented for over 170 years. The election took place amidst the backdrop of legislative changes to corrupt practices, the electorate, and changing constituency boundaries. Conservative and Liberal party organisation in East Denbighshire is discussed.
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The role of the local newspaper during World War One: An important link between the home front and the battle frontThis article discusses the role of the local newspapers during World War One and argues that it provided a link between the home front and the battle front, in particular as a reminder of the home front, keeping up morale and encouraging recruitment, providing war news and descriptions of wartime experiences, helping to send gifts to soldiers, alleviating boredom, and creating a community of soldiers.
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Trabant: Go with the legend"The car is that mediation between state and society. If you look at when they finally opened the borders for people to go West, the Trabis also went with them." Modern Languages undergraduate Austen Lowe was invited to Drystone Radio's Backseat Driver show to discuss his research on the Trabant with Mark Stone. This radio broadcast outlines the misunderstandings surrounding GDR mobility. The conversation focusses on how the wooden and plastic car personifies the state in which it was made. The broadcast aims to draw parallels between production techniques in the GDR and the FRG, relating these methods to cars produced more recently in Zwickau. What did quality actually mean in the GDR and is the Trabant really a motoring legend?
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Two independent proteomic approaches provide a comprehensive analysis of the synovial fluid proteome response to Autologous Chondrocyte ImplantationBackground: Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) has a failure rate of approximately 20%, but it is yet to be fully understood why. Biomarkers are needed that can pre-operatively predict in which patients it is likely to fail, so that alternative or individualised therapies can be offered. We previously used label-free quantitation (LF) with a dynamic range compression proteomic approach to assess the synovial fluid (SF) of ACI responders and non-responders. However, we were able to identify only a few differentially abundant proteins at baseline. In the present study, we built upon these previous findings by assessing higher-abundance proteins within this SF, providing a more global proteomic analysis on the basis of which more of the biology underlying ACI success or failure can be understood. Methods: Isobaric tagging for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) proteomic analysis was used to assess SF from ACI responders (mean Lysholm improvement of 33; n = 14) and non-responders (mean Lysholm decrease of 14; n = 13) at the two stages of surgery (cartilage harvest and chondrocyte implantation). Differentially abundant proteins in iTRAQ and combined iTRAQ and LF datasets were investigated using pathway and network analyses. Results: iTRAQ proteomic analysis confirmed our previous finding that there is a marked proteomic shift in response to cartilage harvest (70 and 54 proteins demonstrating ≥ 2.0-fold change and p < 0.05 between stages I and II in responders and non-responders, respectively). Further, it highlighted 28 proteins that were differentially abundant between responders and non-responders to ACI, which were not found in the LF study, 16 of which were altered at baseline. The differential expression of two proteins (complement C1s subcomponent and matrix metalloproteinase 3) was confirmed biochemically. Combination of the iTRAQ and LF proteomic datasets generated in-depth SF proteome information that was used to generate interactome networks representing ACI success or failure. Functional pathways that are dysregulated in ACI non-responders were identified, including acute-phase response signalling. Conclusions: Several candidate biomarkers for baseline prediction of ACI outcome were identified. A holistic overview of the SF proteome in responders and non-responders to ACI has been profiled, providing a better understanding of the biological pathways underlying clinical outcome, particularly the differential response to cartilage harvest in non-responders.
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The impact of severe haemophilia and the presence of target joints on health-related quality-of-lifeBackground: Joint damage remains a major complication associated with haemophilia and is widely accepted as one of the most debilitating symptoms for persons with severe haemophilia. The aim of this study is to describe how complications of haemophilia such as target joints influence health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Methods: Data on hemophilia patients without inhibitors were drawn from the ‘Cost of Haemophilia across Europe – a Socioeconomic Survey’ (CHESS) study, a cost-of-illness assessment in severe haemophilia A and B across five European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK). Physicians provided clinical and sociodemographic information for 1285 adult patients, 551 of whom completed corresponding questionnaires, including EQ-5D. A generalised linear model was developed to investigate the relationship between EQ-5D index score and target joint status (defined in the CHESS study as areas of chronic synovitis), adjusted for patient covariates including socio-demographic characteristics and comorbidities. Results: Five hundred and fifteen patients (42% of the sample) provided an EQ-5D response; a total of 692 target joints were recorded across the sample. Mean EQ-5D index score for patients with no target joints was 0.875 (standard deviation [SD] 0.179); for patients with one or more target joints, mean index score was 0.731 (SD 0.285). Compared to having no target joints, having one or more target joints was associated with lower index scores (average marginal effect (AME) -0.120; SD 0.0262; p < 0.000). Conclusions: This study found that the presence of chronic synovitis has a significant negative impact on HRQOL for adults with severe haemophilia. Prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of target joints should be an important consideration for clinicians and patients when managing haemophilia.
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Association of apolipoprotein E gene polymorphisms with blood lipids and their interaction with dietary factorsBackground: Several candidate genes have been identified in relation to lipid metabolism, and among these, lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene polymorphisms are major sources of genetically determined variation in lipid concentrations. This study investigated the association of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at LPL, seven tagging SNPs at the APOE gene, and a common APOE haplotype (two SNPs) with blood lipids, and examined the interaction of these SNPs with dietary factors. Methods: The population studied for this investigation included 660 individuals from the Prevention of Cancer by Intervention with Selenium (PRECISE) study who supplied baseline data. The findings of the PRECISE study were further replicated using 1238 individuals from the Caerphilly Prospective cohort (CaPS). Dietary intake was assessed using a validated food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) in PRECISE and a validated semi-quantitative FFQ in the CaPS. Interaction analyses were performed by including the interaction term in the linear regression model adjusted for age, body mass index, sex and country. Results: There was no association between dietary factors and blood lipids after Bonferroni correction and adjustment for confounding factors in either cohort. In the PRECISE study, after correction for multiple testing, there was a statistically significant association of the APOE haplotype (rs7412 and rs429358; E2, E3, and E4) and APOE tagSNP rs445925 with total cholesterol (P = 4 × 10− 4 and P = 0.003, respectively). Carriers of the E2 allele had lower total cholesterol concentration (5.54 ± 0.97 mmol/L) than those with the E3 (5.98 ± 1.05 mmol/L) (P = 0.001) and E4 (6.09 ± 1.06 mmol/L) (P = 2 × 10− 4) alleles. The association of APOE haplotype (E2, E3, and E4) and APOE SNP rs445925 with total cholesterol (P = 2 × 10− 6 and P = 3 × 10− 4, respectively) was further replicated in the CaPS. Additionally, significant association was found between APOE haplotype and APOE SNP rs445925 with low density lipoprotein cholesterol in CaPS (P = 4 × 10− 4 and P = 0.001, respectively). After Bonferroni correction, none of the cohorts showed a statistically significant SNP-diet interaction on lipid outcomes. Conclusion: In summary, our findings from the two cohorts confirm that genetic variations at the APOE locus influence plasma total cholesterol concentrations, however, the gene-diet interactions on lipids require further investigation in larger cohorts.
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The relationship between target joints and direct resource use in severe haemophiliaObjectives Target joints are a common complication of severe haemophilia. While factor replacement therapy constitutes the majority of costs in haemophilia, the relationship between target joints and non drug-related direct costs (NDDCs) has not been studied. Methods Data on haemophilia patients without inhibitors was drawn from the ‘Cost of Haemophilia across Europe – a Socioeconomic Survey’ (CHESS) study, a cost assessment in severe haemophilia A and B across five European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) in which 139 haemophilia specialists provided demographic and clinical information for 1285 adult patients. NDDCs were calculated using publicly available cost data, including 12-month ambulatory and secondary care activity: haematologist and other specialist consultant consultations, medical tests and examinations, bleed-related hospital admissions, and payments to professional care providers. A generalized linear model was developed to investigate the relationship between NDDCs and target joints (areas of chronic synovitis), adjusted for patient covariates. Results Five hundred and thirteen patients (42% of the sample) had no diagnosed target joints; a total of 1376 target joints (range 1–10) were recorded in the remaining 714 patients. Mean adjusted NDDCs for persons with no target joints were EUR 3134 (standard error (SE) EUR 158); for persons with one or more target joints, mean adjusted NDDCs were EUR 3913 (SE EUR 157; average mean effect EUR 779; p < 0.001). Conclusions Our analysis suggests that the presence of one or more target joints has a significant impact on NDDCs for patients with severe haemophilia, ceteris paribus. Prevention and management of target joints should be an important consideration of managing haemophilia patients.
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Modelling low velocity impact induced damage in composite laminatesThe paper presents recent progress on modelling low velocity impact induced damage in fibre reinforced composite laminates. It is important to understand the mechanisms of barely visible impact damage (BVID) and how it affects structural performance. To reduce labour intensive testing, the development of finite element (FE) techniques for simulating impact damage becomes essential and recent effort by the composites research community is reviewed in this work. The FE predicted damage initiation and propagation can be validated by Non Destructive Techniques (NDT) that gives confidence to the developed numerical damage models. A reliable damage simulation can assist the design process to optimise laminate configurations, reduce weight and improve performance of components and structures used in aircraft construction.
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Autologous chondrocyte implantation-derived synovial fluids display distinct responder and non-responder proteomic profilesBackground Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) can be used in the treatment of focal cartilage injuries to prevent the onset of osteoarthritis (OA). However, we are yet to understand fully why some individuals do not respond well to this intervention. Identification of a reliable and accurate biomarker panel that can predict which patients are likely to respond well to ACI is needed in order to assign the patient to the most appropriate therapy. This study aimed to compare the baseline and mid-treatment proteomic profiles of synovial fluids (SFs) obtained from responders and non-responders to ACI. Methods SFs were derived from 14 ACI responders (mean Lysholm improvement of 33 (17–54)) and 13 non-responders (mean Lysholm decrease of 14 (4–46)) at the two stages of surgery (cartilage harvest and chondrocyte implantation). Label-free proteome profiling of dynamically compressed SFs was used to identify predictive markers of ACI success or failure and to investigate the biological pathways involved in the clinical response to ACI. Results Only 1 protein displayed a ≥2.0-fold differential abundance in the preclinical SF of ACI responders versus non-responders. However, there is a marked difference between these two groups with regard to their proteome shift in response to cartilage harvest, with 24 and 92 proteins showing ≥2.0-fold differential abundance between Stages I and II in responders and non-responders, respectively. Proteomic data has been uploaded to ProteomeXchange (identifier: PXD005220). We have validated two biologically relevant protein changes associated with this response, demonstrating that matrix metalloproteinase 1 was prominently elevated and S100 calcium binding protein A13 was reduced in response to cartilage harvest in non-responders. Conclusions The differential proteomic response to cartilage harvest noted in responders versus non-responders is completely novel. Our analyses suggest several pathways which appear to be altered in non-responders that are worthy of further investigation to elucidate the mechanisms of ACI failure. These protein changes highlight many putative biomarkers that may have potential for prediction of ACI treatment success.
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Transposing tirtha: Understanding religious reforms and locative piety in early modern HinduismThe paper deals with a historical and hitherto obscure case of de-commercialisation of sacred geography of India. Sahajanand Swami, an eighteenth century religious leader from Gujarat who became popular as Bhagwan Swaminarayan took an initiative to eliminate corruption in Dwarka, one of the most sacred destination in Hindu imagination. He also attempted to transpose the piety of Dwarka and recreate a parallel religious experience at Vadtal, an important site in Swaminarayan Hinduism. This process of making sacred sites more egalitarian is classified here as a 'religious reform'. The paper assesses this bivalent pursuit as an institutional reform within religion as well as a religious process in the context of piety, authority and orthodoxy. Through the example of Sahajanand Swami, it is argued to calibrate the colonial paradigm of reform that was largely contextual to social issues and western thought and failed to appreciate the religious reforms of that era. By constructing a nuanced typology of 'religious reform' distinct from 'social reforms', the paper eventually calls for a reassessment of religious figures who have significantly contributed in reforming the Hindu tradition in the medieval and modern era.
