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Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has been used for decades to treat neuropathic pain conditions with limited understanding of its mechanisms of action. The mTOR pathway is a well-known co-factor in chronic pain and has not been previously linked to SCS therapy. Proteomic and phosphorylation analyses allow capturing a broad view of tissue response to an injury model and subsequent therapies such as SCS. Here, we evaluated the effect of differential target multiplexed SCS programming (DTMP) and traditional low-rate spinal cord stimulation (LR-SCS) on the mTOR pathway using proteomic and phosphoproteomic analyses.The spared nerve injury (SNI) model of neuropathic pain in animals was established followed by continuous treatment with either DTMP or LR-SCS for 48 hours. Control groups included sham-stimulated (No-SCS) and uninjured animals (No-SNI). Proteins were extracted from spinal cord tissue removed post-stimulation and subjected to liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry to assess changes in protein expression and states of phosphorylation. Bioinformatics tools and literature were used to identify mTOR-related proteins in the various groups.Over 7000 proteins were identified and filtered to find 1451 and 705 proteins significantly affected by DTMP and LR-SCS (p0.05), respectively, relative to No-SCS. Literature and bioinformatic tools yielded 192 mTOR-related proteins that were cross-referenced to the list of DTMP and LR-SCS affected proteins. Of these proteins, 49 were found in the proteomic dataset. Eight of these proteins showed a significant response to the pain model, 25 were significantly modulated by DTMP, and 8 by LR-SCS. Phosphoproteomic analyses yielded 119 mTOR-related phosphoproteins affected by the injury model with a 66% reversal following DTMP versus a 58% reversal by LR-SCS.Proteomic and phosphoproteomic analyses support the hypothesis that DTMP, and to a lesser extent LR-SCS, reverse injury induced changes of the mTOR pathway while treating neuropathic pain.

Evidence shows that the application of problem-oriented policing can be effective in reducing a wide range of crime and public safety issues, but that the approach is challenging to implement and s...

Abortion access has been found to have more support when the circumstances are traumatic, i.e., rape, rather than personal choice. The study is an examination of the factors that influence support ...

Over the past decade, there has been increased awareness and discourse around the inequalities which structure North–South academic collaboration. The purpose of this discussion is to look at the other side of this dynamic: the gatekeeping burden of African scholars in facilitating Northern fieldwork within the African continent. We argue that this burden further exacerbates inherent inequalities within North–South relationships. By way of conclusion, we offer a number of practical steps that Northern researchers can take when engaging African academics which will contribute to more ethical collaboration, and a more positive and lasting impact within African institutions., Journal of African Cultural Studies, 33 (4)

Across the Global South, post-consumer waste glass is an often dumped, and under-utilised resource. Even in Malawi, with widespread return schemes, many barriers exist, inhibiting reuse, and necessitating appropriate solutions. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the performance of post-consumer waste glass as a coarse aggregate within burnt clay bricks, and to assess the feasibility for the recovery of this waste material from dumped stocks within Chembe. Using a brick design and testing methodology, which could be replicated within a rural African context, we tested a range of glass additions (both quantity and size of particle) for compressive strength and water absorption properties. Our results suggest that waste glass can function as a performance enhancer, with positive effects on compressive strength observed at up to 10% crushed waste glass content. These findings support existing literature on glass waste additions, yet show that optimal results can also be had with post-consumer waste glass and in low income, and less technology-reliant contexts. Moreover, our findings suggest that current above-ground stocks of waste glass are sufficient to support the production of hybrid building materials for decades, however further innovation is necessary in order to achieve a sustainable mode of practice., International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 14 (4), ISSN:1939-7046, ISSN:1939-7038

Social entrepreneurship education is becoming a must-have for academic institutions. However, there is little agreement on how to consider dimensions like international scope, interdisciplinary par...

To support the development and implementation of evidence-based crime reduction, we systematically identified and appraised 70 systematic reviews of single crime reduction measures published betwee...

Background When technically feasible, partial nephrectomy (pN) is preferred over radical nephrectomy (rN) due to similar oncological control with preservation of renal function. Here, we evaluate the incorporation of pN into practice for small renal masses and examine the associated outcomes. Methods We included patients who had undergone either a partial or radical nephrectomy in Alberta, Canada for renal cell carcinomas with pathology tumor stage T1a between 2002 and 2014 (N=1449). Patients were excluded if they had multiple tumors or if they were on dialysis prior to nephrectomy. Results pN use increased over the duration of the study period. Patients treated after the introduction of guidelines (2007) recommending the use of pN were significantly more likely to receive a pN (OR: 2.709, 95% CI: 1.944-3.775; p

The establishment of the Cambridge Information Literacy Network at the University of Cambridge has provided opportunities to explore how libraries in Cambridge can contribute to institutional strat...

Many traditional engineering schools are struggling to balance the calls to provide an innovative engineering education that meet the demands of graduates and their employers with the constraints and momentum of their existing curriculum. In this paper we present the conceptual design behind a framework that integrates existing discipline-specific content with threads of professional skills and design through a backbone of problem-based learning experiences. This framework creates a student-centred pedagogy that has been implemented across eight departments of a large engineering school in a research-intensive university.

While there have been significant developments in the field of inclusive research with people with learning disabilities, there is limited knowledge about the ways inclusive research teams have conducted participatory data analysis. The authors argue this is inherently tied to the sensitivities involved in the inclusive research process. In this article, we present the experiences of two inclusive research teams (from the UK and Australia) who developed ways of working together to collaborate on data analysis. Both studies touched upon sensitive topics and crossed disciplinary boundaries. One was an evaluation of a series of history workshops with young people with learning disabilities; the other was an exploration of effective models of peer support for parents with learning disabilities. The authors explore different approaches to data analysis in inclusive research teams, and reflect on the politics of ‘sensitive’ research in this field, especially in relation to expectations of funders, ethics committees, and stakeholders.

This essay – originally delivered as a more informal talk – explores psychiatrist and comics critic Fredric Wertham’s reflections on the character Wonder Woman in both his notable monograph...

An ethnographic research project undertaken by the libraries of the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Cambridge sought to understand the impact of academic/library relation...

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in The Serials Librarian, Volume 74 issue 1-4

Among the most animating debates in eighteenth-century British ethics was the debate over psychological egoism, the view that our most basic desires are self-interested. An important episode in tha...

This study presents an analysis of self-reported student perceptions and experiences of authenticity during an undergraduate first-year problem-based learning (PBL) engineering module at UCL. The aim is to further understand how students perceive authentic learning experiences in order to support and maximise this kind of learning throughout their degree programmes. The data shows that our students did perceive their first-year experiences as authentic despite the fact that the context they worked in and the outputs that they created were not the most real-world part of their experience. The data supports previous work on authentic learning which suggests what really matters is cognitive realism and not physical realism. However, it may be possible to introduce levels of authenticity at increasing levels of complexity throughout the student journey. The analysis is located within the wider field of authentic learning, PBL and builds on this work to suggest how dimensions of authenticity may be graduated across a degree programme.