The Bishop Grosseteste University Associate Award

The Bishop Grosseteste University Associate Award (ABGU) is a new non-credit bearing award:

http://www.bishopg.ac.uk/study/Pages/abgu.aspx

Robert Grosseteste Day Event

Today is Grosseteste Day! To celebrate Dr Michael Huxtable from Durham University will be giving a lecture in the Hardy Lecture Theatre at 3.00 pm on Grosseteste’s wonderful poem The Castle of Love (see attached). It promises to be excellent and it would be great to see you there.

Email overload

So, a while back I was getting hundreds of emails a day, competing deadlines and needs. Information was arriving verbally, orally, by paper and email. Partly, I guess because my job is so varied, I'm a lecturer, I'm a manager, I'm a researcher, I'm a mentor. Thus, tradional business solutions didn't seem to fit my role and job profile. 

Of course, I've increased time actually speaking to people and asking them not to email me, but as I'm connected to lots of different people this doesn't work in the long term.

Then, I tired Getting Things Done, with Evernote and The Secret Weapon.

Basically, can the email reply be done in 2 minutes, if not then tag it and store it for later.

The two big problems I found were that I was really just moving a large in box into a large do it later box, and that I was spending large amounts of time tagging emails, it didn't feel intuitive.

Email zero and bankruptcy seemed like the next logical place, but again works well for business for less so for a complex role like mine. 

So, to today. I'm going to try and blend all of the above.

Using my work exchange email I've set up the following folder:

This Week

Answer

Read

Hold

Wunderlist

Archive

In parallel I'm using Wunderlist to structure work into projects, tasks and finish.

I'll give it a month and report back...

Here goes....

Biom2005

6.1. Acknowledgements

Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an ‘Acknowledgements’ section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

From http://www.uk.sagepub.com/msg/nej.htm#ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Biom2005 HepG2 Student Work

Hep G2 cells are epithelial cells found in the liver, the cells secrete a variety of major plasma proteins including albumin, ά 1 – antitrypsin, transferrin andplasminogen. The cells respond well to stimulation by human growth hormone (HGH). The cells are free from any known hepatotropic viral agents and due to their functional role in cholesterol and triglyceride metabolism they are beneficial for studying the central role of the liver.

Since the introduction of the Hep G2 cell line in1979 more than 250 studies have been published using this resource (Javitt N B 1990). The high proportion of liver specific proteins found in Hep G2 cells make it useful as a model of the human liver.

The optimum culture medium for Hep G2 cells has been found to be 2% Glutamine, 1% non essential amino acids and 10% Foetal bovine serum (JavittN B 1990)

Cultures of Hep G2 cells can be purchased from Sigmaaldrich.com and start from £250 a culture. The culture will be shipped in dry ice.

 

 

Bibliography

1.

Javitt, N B, 1990. Hep G2 cells as a resource for metabolic studies: lipoprotein, cholesterol and bile acids. New York. The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

2.

Sigma Aldrich, (2013) Sigma-Aldrich, http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/sigma/85011430?lang=en®ion=GB, 01/10/2013

Andrew Marr and exercise causing strokes?

Just a few thoughts on this.
We need to be cautious as there is so much bad science about this very complex subject, which wouldn't be allowed if the story was about economics for example.
The key to story is that later on he admits to have had two minor strokes, no rest and stressful period, so does exercise causes strokes is too simplistic cause and effect, he could have collapsed running for the bus...
The best thing is to seek advice from your GP about stroke and cardiovascular risk, and before undertaking a new exercise regime as activity can change your body's chemical and physiological functions. Our bodies are built for exercise, or physical activity, and studies do show that exercise is important to overall health. It helps control oxygen and red blood cells which we need for energy, it uses calories to keep us looking trim and it has psychological factors to improve mood. It is important to consider exercise as a complementary strand of health, along with nutrition, sleep, mental wellness, and drinking plenty of water. So, just jumping on a rowing machine for 3 mins of excessive exercise alone is not likely to be beneficial for all, even elite athletes have different exercise routines.
A stroke is when the brain is starved of oxygen, which is needed to provide energy, usually by a blockage in the artery caused by a dislodged blood clot. This is the same mechanism as a heart attack, but in this case the heart is starved of oxygen, in some countries a stroke is called a 'brain attack' for this reason. Blood clots can be caused by lots of things for example after surgery, following previous strokes or trauma, and through poor lifestyle, smoking and stress. It is bery unlikely that exercise would cause the underlying blood clot, but could it cause the clot to dislodge, damage an artery and cause a stroke? There is a chance this could be the case but we need to to do much more research to fully understand this, which is why if you have any concerns you should see your GP.
Dr Graham Basten is head of Biomedical Science at De Montfort University, comment on this via twitter @grahambasten #exercise?

These are my own views.

More about me here: https://sites.google.com/site/grahambasten/
My free textbooks are here: http://bookboon.com/en/textbooks/search?q=basten
My text book on blood tests here http://www.mkupdate.co.uk/news/new_book_-_blood_results_in_clinical_practice
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Festive Tips

Dear student colleagues,

Please enjoy the break and return refreshed in January; however it’s also a good time to reflect, so before your leave DMU here are 5 top tips:

1.    Collate your lecture notes.

2.    Check out the recommended text book or on-line resources like showme (grahambasten) or bookboon

3.    Obtain previous exam papers

4.    Start to draft or improve on-going assessment due in March or April 2013, pieces like large essays, project thesis, or case studies.

5.    Think about producing your own work, an artwork, a story, information leaflet, even exam questions, to share with your peers and lecturers on your return.