65 results match your criteria: "The University of Durham[Affiliation]"

Indigenous land-based practices for climate crisis adaptions.

Explore (NY)

November 2024

Department of Child Studies and Social Work, Associate Professor, Social Work, Faculty of Health, Community & Education, Mount Royal University, AB, Canada. Electronic address:

Indigenous communities across Canada persist at the forefront of environmental and climate-related challenges, necessitating a concerted effort to integrate traditional Indigenous land-based knowledge and practices that inherently promote environmental protection and resilience. Using a decolonial feminist theoretical framework, this research centers on Indigenous community perspectives on the climate crisis and their land-based adaptions. Such an approach empowers Indigenous communities to reclaim agency over their narratives and shape research agendas congruent with their lived realities and aspirations.

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Article Synopsis
  • BFSP1 is an intermediate filament protein found in the eye lens, and its properties are influenced by myristoylation and caspase cleavage.
  • The addition of trifluoroethanol results in a conformational change in BFSP1, allowing it to adopt a more α-helical structure that can interact with lens lipid bilayers.
  • Transfected BFSP1 fragments localize to plasma membranes and cytoplasmic vesicles, indicating they possess distinct membrane-binding capabilities, independent of their myristoylation status.
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Our cluster analysis of the Cancer Genome Atlas for co-expression of HSP27 and CRYAB in breast cancer patients identified three patient groups based on their expression level combination (high HSP27 + low CRYAB; low HSP27 + high CRYAB; similar HSP27 + CRYAB). Our analyses also suggest that there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between HSP27 and CRYAB and known clinicopathological markers in breast cancer. Screening an unbiased 248 breast cancer patient tissue microarray (TMA) for the protein expression of HSP27 and phosphorylated HSP27 (HSP27-82pS) with CRYAB also identified three patient groups based on HSP27 and CRYAB expression levels.

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BFSP1 C-terminal domains released by post-translational processing events can alter significantly the calcium regulation of AQP0 water permeability.

Exp Eye Res

August 2019

Department of Biosciences, The University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK; Biophysical Sciences Institute, The University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK. Electronic address:

BFSP1 (beaded filament structural protein 1, filensin) is a cytoskeletal protein expressed in the eye lens. It binds AQP0 in vitro and its C-terminal sequences have been suggested to regulate the water channel activity of AQP0. A myristoylated fragment from the C-terminus of BFSP1 was found in AQP0 enriched fractions.

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Evaluation of 'Definite' Anaphylaxis Drug Allergy Alert Overrides in Inpatient and Outpatient Settings.

Drug Saf

March 2018

Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care, The Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 1620 Tremont Street, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.

Introduction: Drug-allergy interaction (DAI) alerts are generated when a known adverse sensitivity-inducing substance is prescribed. A recent study at our institution showed that providers overrode most DAI alerts, including those that warned against potentially life-threatening 'anaphylaxis'.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the rate of anaphylaxis overrides, the reasons for these overrides, whether the overrides were appropriate, and if harm occurred from overrides.

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Evaluation of medication-related clinical decision support alert overrides in the intensive care unit.

J Crit Care

June 2017

The Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice, Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address:

Purpose: Medication-related clinical decision support (CDS) has been identified as a method to improve patient outcomes but is historically frequently overridden and may be inappropriately so. Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) are at a higher risk of harm from adverse drug events (ADEs) and these overrides may increase patient harm. The objective of this study is to determine appropriateness of overridden medication-related CDS overrides in the ICU.

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In vivo, Ex Vivo, and In Vitro Approaches to Study Intermediate Filaments in the Eye Lens.

Methods Enzymol

October 2016

Integrative Cell Biology Laboratory, School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, The University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom. Electronic address:

The role of the eye lens is to focus light into the retina. To perform this unique function, the ocular lens must be transparent. Previous studies have demonstrated the expression of vimentin, BFSP1, and BFSP2 in the eye lens.

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Xenopus LAP2β protein is the single isoform expressed in XTC cells. The protein localizes on heterochromatin clusters both at the nuclear envelope and inside a cell nucleus. The majority of XLAP2β fraction neither colocalizes with TPX2 protein during interphase nor can be immunoprecipitated with XLAP2β antibody.

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A silk purse from a sow's ear-bioinspired materials based on α-helical coiled coils.

Curr Opin Cell Biol

February 2015

School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, The University of Durham, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK; Biophysical Sciences Institute, The University of Durham, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK; Department of Chemistry, The University of Durham, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.

This past few years have heralded remarkable times for intermediate filaments with new revelations of their structural properties that has included the first crystallographic-based model of vimentin to build on the experimental data of intra-filament interactions determined by chemical cross-linking. Now with these and other advances on their assembly, their biomechanical and their cell biological properties outlined in this review, the exploitation of the biomechanical and structural properties of intermediate filaments, their nanocomposites and biomimetic derivatives in the biomedical and private sectors has started.

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A risk-based regulatory framework for health IT: recommendations of the FDASIA working group.

J Am Med Inform Assoc

October 2014

Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) acting through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and in collaboration with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) was tasked with delivering a report on an appropriate, risk-based regulatory framework for health information technology (IT). An expert stakeholder group was established under the auspices of the Health IT Policy Committee to help provide input into the development of this framework, including how healthcare IT systems could be stratified in terms of risk and recommendations about how the regulatory requirements currently in place should be adapted. In this paper, we summarize the public deliberations and final public report of the expert stakeholder group, and conclude with key suggestions intended to address the charge to recommend the features of a risk-based regulatory framework that promote innovation, protect patient safety, and avoid regulatory duplication.

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The return on investment of implementing a continuous monitoring system in general medical-surgical units.

Crit Care Med

August 2014

1The Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice, Division of General Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA. 2School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health, The University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom. 3Eastern Research Group, Inc., Lexington, MA. 4California Hospital Medical Center and David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. 5Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. 6The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.

Objectives: To evaluate the cost savings attributable to the implementation of a continuous monitoring system in a medical-surgical unit and to determine the return on investment associated with its implementation.

Design: Return on investment analysis.

Setting: A 316-bed community hospital.

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Are we heeding the warning signs? Examining providers' overrides of computerized drug-drug interaction alerts in primary care.

PLoS One

February 2015

The Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice, Division of General Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America ; Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America ; Partners Healthcare Systems, Inc., Wellesley, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.

Background: Health IT can play a major role in improving patient safety. Computerized physician order entry with decision support can alert providers to potential prescribing errors. However, too many alerts can result in providers ignoring and overriding clinically important ones.

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IF (intermediate filament) proteins can be cleaved by caspases to generate proapoptotic fragments as shown for desmin. These fragments can also cause filament aggregation. The hypothesis is that disease-causing mutations in IF proteins and their subsequent characteristic histopathological aggregates could involve caspases.

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CRYAB (αB-crystallin) is expressed in many tissues and yet the R120G mutation in CRYAB causes tissue-specific pathologies, namely cardiomyopathy and cataract. Here, we present evidence to demonstrate that there is a specific functional interaction of CRYAB with desmin intermediate filaments that predisposes myocytes to disease caused by the R120G mutation. We use a variety of biochemical and biophysical techniques to show that plant, animal and ascidian small heat-shock proteins (sHSPs) can interact with intermediate filaments.

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It is well documented that adipogenic differentiation of the cell is associated with downregulation of Wnt/beta-catenin signalling. Using preadipocytes and dermal fibroblasts, we have found that activation of the adipogenic program was associated with marked changes in the expression of nuclear beta-catenin-interacting partners, emerin and lamins A/C, to influence expression and activation of peroxisome proliferators-activated receptors gamma (PPARgamma). In addition, silencing of protein expression with siRNA revealed that beta-catenin and emerin influenced each other's levels of expression and the onset of adipogenesis, suggesting that changes in the expression of nuclear lamina proteins were intimately linked to the stability of beta-catenin.

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The glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) gene is alternatively spliced to give GFAP-alpha, the most abundant isoform, and seven other differentially expressed transcripts including GFAP-delta. GFAP-delta has an altered C-terminal domain that renders it incapable of self-assembly in vitro. When titrated with GFAP-alpha, assembly was restored providing GFAP-delta levels were kept low (approximately 10%).

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NEP-A and NEP-B both contribute to nuclear pore formation in Xenopus eggs and oocytes.

J Cell Sci

March 2008

Integrative Cell Biology Laboratories, School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, The University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.

In vertebrates, the nuclear envelope (NE) assembles and disassembles during mitosis. As the NE is a complex structure consisting of inner and outer membranes, nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) and the nuclear lamina, NE assembly must be a controlled and systematic process. In Xenopus egg extracts, NE assembly is mediated by two distinct membrane vesicle populations, termed NEP-A and NEP-B.

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Lamins are intermediate filament proteins and the major component of the nuclear lamina. Current views of the lamina are based on the remarkably regular arrangement of lamin LIII in amphibian oocyte nuclei. We have re-examined the LIII lamina and propose a new interpretation of its organization.

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The type II inner nuclear membrane protein emerin is a component of the LINC complex that connects the nuclear lamina to the actin cytoskeleton. In emerin-null or -deficient human dermal fibroblasts we find that the centrosome is detached from the nucleus. Moreover, following siRNA knockdown of emerin in wild-type fibroblasts, the centrosome also becomes detached from the nucleus.

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Insights into the beaded filament of the eye lens.

Exp Cell Res

June 2007

School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, The University of Durham, DH1 3LE, UK.

Filensin (BFSP1) and CP49 (BFSP2) represent two members of the IF protein superfamily that are thus far exclusively expressed in the eye lens. Mutations in both proteins cause lens cataract and careful consideration of the detail of these cataract phenotypes alerts us to several interesting features concerning the function of filensin (BFSP1) and CP49 (BFSP2) in the lens. With the first filensin (BFSP1) mutation now having been reported to cause a recessive cataract phenotype, there is the suggestion that the mutation could predispose heterozygote carriers to the early onset of age-related nuclear cataract.

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Emerin is a type II inner nuclear membrane (INM) protein of unknown function. Emerin function is likely to be important because, when it is mutated, emerin promotes both skeletal muscle and heart defects. Here we show that one function of Emerin is to regulate the flux of beta-catenin, an important transcription coactivator, into the nucleus.

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Here, we describe the early events in the disease pathogenesis of Alexander disease. This is a rare and usually fatal neurodegenerative disorder whose pathological hallmark is the abundance of protein aggregates in astrocytes. These aggregates, termed "Rosenthal fibers," contain the protein chaperones alpha B-crystallin and HSP27 as well as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an intermediate filament (IF) protein found almost exclusively in astrocytes.

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DNA and Crime Investigation: Scotland and the 'UK National DNA Database'.

Scott J Crim Justice Stud

January 2004

Paul Johnson (B.A. Durham, M.A. Durham, PhD Newcastle) is Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Durham. He has published in the area of police uses of DNA profiling and undertaken research on the formation, implementation and expansion of the UK National DNA Database. He is currently working on a comparative study of forensic DNA databasing and datasharing in the European Union.

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