Fieldnotes and interviews from six hackathons attended as part of the "Hacking for Situated Civic Engagement" project. Further information about these events can be found in: Taylor, N. and Clarke, L.(2018). Everybody’s hacking: participation and the mainstreaming of hackathons. Proceedings of CHI 2018. Due to the wording of the ethics materials used, data can only be made to researchers. Further information about the conditions for access are available from the University of Dundee by writing...

There seems a natural connection between human bodies, animal bodies, and books, not least because they are all containers, vessels of knowledge and experience. So I explored this year many materials that have skin-like qualities. And I began to think about how fabrics are like a second skin, worn to cover the human skin underneath. And I investigated how these exploratory materials might become something like prosthetics, or barriers and protection from anything touching the...

Long acting beta agonists (LABA) and long acting muscarinic receptor antagonists (LAMA) are both used in the treatment of obstructive airway disease, in asthma they are given with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) they may be given with or without ICS. These therapies may attenuate the degree to which airways narrow to a bronchoconstrictor stimulus (airway hyperresponsiveness). Long acting bronchodilators may also change airway geometry as well as pure airway calibre,...

Bronchiectasis is a pulmonary condition defined by abnormal bronchial dilation resulting in chronic cough, inflammation, and repeated chest infections. Cilia are tiny hair-like structures in the airways which beat in a co-ordinated fashion to remove harmful pathogens trapped by mucus. Mucociliary dysfunction is a feature of inflammatory lung diseases like bronchiectasis and COPD which are believed to be primarily Th1 driven, and asthma which is believed to be predominantly Th2 driven. It is now recognised...

We consider the mathematical modelling of smectic A liquid crystals using the continuum dynamic theory for smectic A liquid crystals that has been developed by Stewart [79]. We also examine biaxial nematic liquid crystals using the continuum theory of Leslie and co-workers [50,51] and the review by [80]. The Helfrich-Hurault transition is considered in this thesis to study the influence of the compression coefficient B0 when an electric field is applied. The molecular alignment described...

Background: Preeclampsia (PE) is a severe syndrome complicating 2-8% pregnancies, characterised by multi-system vascular defects and excess levels of the anti-angiogenic factor sFlt1 in the placenta and maternal circulation. Oxidative stress is a hallmark in PE, yet antioxidant supplementation failed to prevent PE and sometimes worsened pregnancy outcomes. Preeclamptic placenta are associated with a global reversal of S-glutathionylation, a common oxidative post-translational modification (oxPTM) reversed by Glutaredoxin (Glrx), and Glrx up-regulation promotes PE-like symptoms in...

Medical devices and implants such as fracture fixators, urinary catheters, prosthetic heart valves and prosthetic joints are intensively used in hospitals nowadays. However, medical devices and implants suffer from biofilm problem, which may result in serious complications and expensive care burden. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report, biofilms are responsible for 65% of microbial infections and 80% of chronic infections (Jamal M 2018). An effective approach to inhibit biofilm formation and decrease...

Borrowing Sceneries: Assembling Inter-medial Narratives through Experiential Walking Encounters uses inter-medial creative works– image, text and performance– to address, through representational, performative and relational means, the mutually determining nature of subject-space encounters. The project draws upon, and intervenes back into, multiple fields: art practice, philosophical aesthetics, ethnography, design theory, and linguistics. The project emerged from the desire to further my understandings of these spatial encounters, and through creative, reflective, and analytical methods, to situate them...

Ubiquitin-fold modifier 1 (UFM1) is one of the recently discovered members of the Ubiquitin-like protein (Ubl) family. With a similar three-dimensional structure to Ubiquitin, UFM1 is covalently conjugated to lysine residues on target proteins, by a process called UFMylation. Protein UFMylation is emerging as a novel protein quality control system with functions focused on ER (Endoplasmic Reticulum) Phagy and Ribosomal Quality Control (RQC). Central to this modification system is the E3 ligase UFL1(UFM1 E3 Ligase...

Background: Orofacial cleft is one of the most common birth defects with aesthetic, functional, and psychological consequences for the patient. Apart from the role of genetics in the aetiology of cleft lip/palate, environmental intervention has a crucial role through both unmodifiable (e.g., race/ethnicity, sex, age) and modifiable factors. These environmental factors can interfere in the preconception period as well as the first trimester of pregnancy. Identification of modifiable risk factors related to orofacial clefts provides...

Evolutionarily conserved sites in an alignment of protein homologues provide insight into the structural and functional pressures on those proteins. Likewise, global patterns of genetic variation across the human genome can reflect the functional and evolutionary constraints in protein-coding regions. Databases of genetic variation in the human population are essential resources to interpret variants causing rare Mendelian diseases clinically. Disease-causing variants cluster at regions of functional or structural importance in proteins, whereas missense variants are...

The transition of children from preschool to kindergarten is somehow similar to the first time children learn to go upstairs, where children are excited but afraid at the same time, looking for encouragement, perhaps a hand gently pushing them to hold the handrail and help them lift their feet off the ground with confidence until they can put it on the first stair, the children then realise they have succeeded and can continue to go...

Tissue engineering is, despite many advances, still a long way from its aim of being able to reproduce in-vitro fully functionalised, vascularised musculoskeletal tissues. Pharmacy and research groups are currently in urgent need of reliable, comparable in-vitro testing grounds to analyse and test new drugs in order to gather more knowledge about physiology and pathology of these tissues and to fight diseases of the musculoskeletal system. This research aims to study different cell culture methodologies...

This research explores how frontline officers experienced, responded to, and enacted the reform of stop and search in Scotland. I foreground the experiences of those tasked with enacting stop and search to reveal the mechanisms that have leveraged, and acted as barriers to, the implementation of stop and search reform into practice, and the significance of these for questions of police identity and organisational reforms in policing. This research follows a particular period in which...

The thesis studies resource adequacy in deregulated electricity markets and the impact of increased shares of renewable energy on electricity system costs focusing on the GB market. It is composed of four substantive chapters. Chapters two and three provide a qualitative analysis of the effectiveness of capacity mechanisms in enhancing the security of electricity supply in Europe and the US by carefully reviewing the academic literature and official documents from government and regulatory agencies. The...

With over 850,000 living with dementia in the UK, it has never been more important to provide meaningful experiences and objects to support the wellbeing of those living with dementia and their communities. Previous studies have investigated the use of interactive textiles and their positive effect on wellbeing. However, there is still an opportunity for this to be explored further through the use and making of interactive textiles within Dementia Friendly Communities (DFCs). There is...

The Renewables International Dispute Resolution (RIDR) has been quietly emerging with its own jurisprudence providing a fertile source for self-drawn customary international law. The diverse body of procedural and substantive law issues are steadily on the rise leading us to a point in between two worlds: Lex Ferenda and Lex Lata yet undoubtedly giving birth to a vibrant ‘Lex Renewables’. Whilst the renewables industry is no longer novel, it has been grappling to assert itself...

The built environment comprises all facilities and civil infrastructure systems, including buildings, transportation, energy and water supply, sewage, and communication systems. Fungi, are widespread microorganisms in rocks, stones, and artificial buildings, and can have profound impacts on the built environment. Fungal activities are well known for rock and mineral transformations resulting in bioweathering of such materials which can have profound cultural, social, and economic consequences. On the other hand, biomineralization abilities related to fungi-metal-mineral transformations...

Since the 1930’s, intermittent negative pressure (INP) has been tested as a means of treating vascular diseases. Recently, the literature has indicated that INP can be used to reduce pain and facilitate wound healing in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) however the physiological mechanism behind these clinical benefits remains unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physiological effects of INP application, in particular vascular function, in both healthy and diseased physiology....

The process of local and nonlocal cancer cells invasion of the surrounding tissue is key for the overall tumour growth and spread within the human body. The past three decades have witnessed intense mathematical modelling efforts in these regards. However, in order to gain a deep understanding of the cancer invasion process and to contribute in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, we need to expand these modelling studies and to complement them with inverse...

The morphological changes of microstructural and microvascular in cutaneous disease are important for describing its physiological processes, like re-epithelialization, extracellular matrix formation, and angiogenesis. A biopsy is the golden standard method that provides the best objective assessment of these information for different dermatological conditions. However, the invasive technique causes further tissue destruction and increases the risk of infection. The study aims to develop Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) techniques that can provide...

Bacteria normally live in closed communities called biofilms. Living within a biofilm can be beneficial for the bacteria. It can protect them from harmful environ- mental conditions and from toxic substrates such as antibiotics. Within the biofilm, identical cells perform different tasks ranging from building extracellular matrix to forming spore cells. These tasks can be performed and processed by complex gene regulation networks. The formation of biofilm is governed by a complex gene reg- ulation...

Dementia is a progressive life-limiting condition. Global prevalence is increasing in line with current rates of population ageing. A number of disciplines have found it useful to measure dementia knowledge levels. Challenges exist in achieving effective measurement across a range of healthcare professionals, but this is important to inform health-related education and professional development interventions. Similarly, effective measurement is required in informal care givers as well as lay populations, to improve evaluation of national public...