Brunel University London

About: Brunel University London is a education organization based out in London, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 10918 authors who have published 29515 publications receiving 893330 citations. The organization is also known as: Brunel & University of Brunel.

Metabolism and environmental degradation of pyrethroid insecticides produce compounds with endocrine activities

Abstract: Pyrethroids are semisynthetic derivatives of the chrysanthemumic acids that have been developed as insecticides, and they are in widespread use. Considerable information is available regarding the toxicity, metabolism, and environmental degradation of pyrethroids, but almost nothing is known about their interactions with hormone receptors. In this study, seven commercial pyrethroids as well as products of metabolism and environmental degradation of permethrin were tested for steroid activity (both as agonist and as antagonist) in recombinant yeasts expressing the human estrogen and human androgen receptors. Pyrethroid insecticides had steroid receptor–binding activity. Fenpropathrin and permethrin both acted as weak estrogen agonists. Allethrin, bioallethrin, and cypermethrin had antiestrogenic activity, with potencies between 1,000-fold (bioallethrin) and 10,000-fold (allethrin) less than the established antiestrogen 4-OH-tamoxifen. Six of the seven pyrethroids tested had antiandrogenic activity (the most active, bioallethrin, was 70-fold less potent than flutamide). These activities, however, are believed to result either from contaminants/degradation products in the parent compounds or from metabolism of the parent compounds into active metabolites by the yeast. Three derivatives of permethrin all interacted with sex steroid hormone receptors. Three-phenoxybenzyl alcohol had both estrogenic and antiandrogenic activity, with potencies more than 100-fold greater than that of the parent compound, permethrin. Three-phenoxybenzoic acid and the cyclopropane acid derivative both had antiestrogenic activity, with approximately 100-fold and 1,000fold lower potencies than 4-OH-tamoxifen, respectively. The data presented here highlight that an understanding of the metabolism and environmental degradation of chemicals is essential for assessing the potential of chemicals to have endocrine-modulating effects.

How to engage stakeholders in research: design principles to support improvement

Abstract: Closing the gap between research production and research use is a key challenge for the health research system. Stakeholder engagement is being increasingly promoted across the board by health research funding organisations, and indeed by many researchers themselves, as an important pathway to achieving impact. This opinion piece draws on a study of stakeholder engagement in research and a systematic literature search conducted as part of the study. This paper provides a short conceptualisation of stakeholder engagement, followed by ‘design principles’ that we put forward based on a combination of existing literature and new empirical insights from our recently completed longitudinal study of stakeholder engagement. The design principles for stakeholder engagement are organised into three groups, namely organisational, values and practices. The organisational principles are to clarify the objectives of stakeholder engagement; embed stakeholder engagement in a framework or model of research use; identify the necessary resources for stakeholder engagement; put in place plans for organisational learning and rewarding of effective stakeholder engagement; and to recognise that some stakeholders have the potential to play a key role. The principles relating to values are to foster shared commitment to the values and objectives of stakeholder engagement in the project team; share understanding that stakeholder engagement is often about more than individuals; encourage individual stakeholders and their organisations to value engagement; recognise potential tension between productivity and inclusion; and to generate a shared commitment to sustained and continuous stakeholder engagement. Finally, in terms of practices, the principles suggest that it is important to plan stakeholder engagement activity as part of the research programme of work; build flexibility within the research process to accommodate engagement and the outcomes of engagement; consider how input from stakeholders can be gathered systematically to meet objectives; consider how input from stakeholders can be collated, analysed and used; and to recognise that identification and involvement of stakeholders is an iterative and ongoing process. It is anticipated that the principles will be useful in planning stakeholder engagement activity within research programmes and in monitoring and evaluating stakeholder engagement. A next step will be to address the remaining gap in the stakeholder engagement literature concerned with how we assess the impact of stakeholder engagement on research use.

Cultural variation in probabilistic thinking: alternative ways of dealing with uncertainty*

Abstract: This study reviews research on cultural differences in “probabilistic thinking” and presents some intra- and inter-cultural findings. Strong differences are shown to exist between people raised under Asian and British cultures on measures of this ability. These differences were found to out-weigh any influence of subculture, religion, occupation, arts/science orientation and sex. Generally, Asians were found to adopt a less finely differentiated view of uncertainty both numerically and verbally than did the British sample. Numerical probabilities assessed by the Asians were more extreme and less realistic than those assessed by the British sample. Possible antecedents of these differences are outlined, and cultural differences in probabilistic thinking are shown to be compatible with decryptions of cultural differences in business decision making. It is argued that there are qualitative cultural differences in ways of dealing with uncertainty.

Acts of faith: instinct, value and IT investment decisions

Abstract: Although well over 1000 journal articles, conference papers, books, technical notes and theses have been written on the subject of information technology (IT) evaluation, only a relatively small subset of this literature has been concerned with the core issues of what precisely is meant by the term 'value' and with the process of making (specifically) IT investment decisions. All too often, the problem and highly complex issue of value is either simplified, ignored or assumed away. Instead the focus of much of the research to date has been on evaluation methodologies and, within this literature, there are different strands of thought which can be classified as partisan, composite and meta approaches to evaluation. Research shows that a small number of partisan techniques are used by most decision makers with a minority using a single technique and a majority using a mixture of such techniques of whom a substantial minority use a formal composite approach. It is argued that, in mapping the set of evaluatio...

Effect of inspiratory muscle work on peripheral fatigue of locomotor muscles in healthy humans.

Abstract: Support for this project was provided by aNationalHeart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) RO1 Grant (HL-15469-33). A. T. Lovering and H. C. Haverkamp were supported by a NHLBI Training Grant (T32 HL-07654-16).