RSS 1.0Welcome to WIRE
(Wolverhampton Intellectual Repository and E-Theses)
WIRE is an open access repository for the research publications and other outputs from postgraduate students and staff at the University of Wolverhampton.
Wolverhampton staff: to deposit your publication to WIRE, go to: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/lib/research/wire/
Use the search box above or the browse function on the left to discover publications from the research community at the University of Wolverhampton.
University students and staff can also search WIRE using LibrarySearch
For further information or help, contact the Scholarly Communications Team at wire@wlv.ac.uk
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Brexpiprazole in the acute management of schizophreniaBrexpiprazole is a new atypical antipsychotic used for the management of psychiatric conditions including schizophrenia and is associated with fewer extrapyramidal side effects compared to traditional antipsychotics due to its additional serotonergic effect, which may improve cognitive symptoms associated with social function decline in schizophrenia. We searched for randomized controlled-trials (RCT) to review the efficacy and tolerability of brexpiprazole in acute management of schizophrenia using different resources including PubMed, Google Scholar, ClinicalTrials.gov and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled-Trials. Data were extracted for adverse effects, positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS), Personal and Social Performance scale (PSP), PANSS Excited Component (PEC) and Response Rate >30%. 5 RCT were identified and showed that brexpiprazole was favorable compared to placebo in improving PANSS with a mean difference (MD) -5.40 [confidence interval (CI) -6.98, -3.82] and PSP 3.2 [CI 2.09, 4.32] (P<0.00001). Improvement in PANSS positive, PANSS negative subscales and response rate were significant (P<0.00001). Brexpiprazole led to reduced treatment discontinuation due to adverse effects (risk ratio (RR) 0.58), however an increased risk of akathisia was observed (RR= 1.31) especially at higher doses but did not reach statistical significance. In summary, brexpiprazole improved significantly the symptoms of schizophrenia and is well-tolerated, while long-term research is still required to establish its role, particularly in patients with co-morbidities. These findings will guide clinical teams in supporting patients suffering from schizophrenia.
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Distributed Ledger Technologies in Supply Chain Security Management: A Comprehensive SurveySupply-chains (SC) present performance bottlenecks that contribute to a high level of costs, infltration of product quality, and impact productivity. Examples of such inhibitors include the bullwhip effect, new product lines, high inventory, and restrictive data fows. These bottlenecks can force manufacturers to source more raw materials and increase production signifcantly. Also, restrictive data fow in a complex global SC network generally slows down the movement of goods and services. The use of Distributed LedgerTechnologies (DLT) in supply chain management (SCM) demonstrates the potentials to to reduce these bottlenecks through transparency, decentralization, and optimizations in data management. These technologies promise to enhance the trustworthiness of entities within the supply chain, ensure the accuracy of data-driven operations, and enable existing SCM processes to migrate from a linear to a fully circular economy. This paper presents a comprehensive review of 111 articles published in the public domain in the use and effcacyofDLTin SC.It acts asaroadmapfor current and futureresearchers whofocus onSC Security Management to better understand the integration of digital technologies such as DLT. We clustered these articles using standard descriptors linked to trustworthiness, namely, immutability, transparency, traceability, and integrity.
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Out of area housing by local authorities in England: displacement of vulnerable households in a neoliberal housing crisisBased on freedom of information responses from English local authorities, the research examines the number of households where a duty to accommodate was accepted that were subsequently housed in other local authority areas. Recognising neoliberal housing policy of increased marketisation and less government intervention, the article identifies market failure, housing unaffordability and welfare reform contributing to households being displaced and social cleansing. Importantly, the research recognises negative housing outcomes beyond the binary of homelessness and the impact on vulnerable households by examining out of area housing, which is currently an under-researched area within housing.
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Cleaning the molecular machinery of cells via proteostasis, proteolysis and endocytosis selectively, effectively, and precisely: intracellular self-defense and cellular perturbationsNetwork coordinates of cellular processes (proteostasis, proteolysis, and endocytosis), and molecular chaperones are the key complements in the cell machinery and processes. Specifically, cellular pathways are responsible for the conformational maintenance, cellular concentration, interactions, protein synthesis, disposal of misfolded proteins, localization, folding, and degradation. The failure of cellular processes and pathways disturbs structural proteins and the nucleation of amyloids. These mishaps further initiate amyloid polymorphism, transmissibility, co-aggregation of pathogenic proteins in tissues and cells, prion strains, and mechanisms and pathways for toxicity. Consequently, these conditions favor and lead to the formation of elongated amyloid fibrils consisting of many-stranded β-sheets (N,N-terminus and C,C-terminus), and abnormal fibrous, extracellular, proteinaceous deposits. Finally, these β-sheets deposit, and cells fail to degrade them effectively. The essential torsion angles (φ, ψ, and ω) define the conformation of proteins and their architecture. Cells initiate several transformations and pathways during the regulation of protein homeostasis based on the requirements for the functioning of the cell, which are governed by ATP-dependent proteases. In this process, the kinetics of the molding/folding phenomenon is disturbed, and subsequently, it is dominated by cross-domain misfolding intermediates; however, simultaneously, it is opposed by small stretching forces, which naturally exist in the cell. The ubiquitin/proteasome system deals with damaged proteins, which are not refolded by the chaperone-type machinery. Ubiquitin-protein ligases (E3-Ub) participate in all the cellular activity initiated and governed by molecular chaperones to stabilize the cellular proteome and participate in the degradation phenomenon implemented for damaged proteins. Optical tweezers, a single-resolution based technique, disclose the folding pathway of linear chain proteins, which is how they convert themselves into a three-dimensional architecture. Further, DNA-protein conjugation analysis is performed to obtain folding energies as single-molecule kinetic and thermodynamic data.
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An extended finite element model for fracture mechanical response of tomato fruitFresh fruit micro-rupture generally occurs during mechanical handling, which severely affects the product’s postharvest quality along the supply chain. An extended finite element (XFEM) model was developed for investigating the fracture mechanical response of tomato fruit under postharvest mechanical compression. A 1/4 tomato fruit was modeled using three parts: exocarp, mesocarp and septa frame, and pre-crack. An amplitude curve-based uniformly distributed pressure load was applied over the internal surface of the locule for replacing the pressure change of the liquid in the fruit locule during compression simulation. The XFEM-based cohesive segments method in conjunction with Phantom nodes was used to simulate the initiation and propagation of the pre-crack in the fruit model. It was assumed that the fruit tissues were linear elastic and ideally brittle solid materials before fracture, the tissue fracture energy was independent of the size and geometry of the cracked tissue specimen, the tissue fracture response met a linear elastic traction-separation behavior, the crack initiation followed the maximum principal stress criterion and the crack evolution followed a linear softening law and a mode-independent and energy-based fracture criterion. The peak force applying over the locule surface was predicted as 0.02 MPa when the crack of the fruit virtually started to propagate. The XFEM model was found to be capable of reproducing the compression force-percentage deformation behavior as well as crack propagation of a tomato fruit in compression up to 28 % deformation with an average relative error was about 8 %. Both XFEM simulation and experiment data showed a rapid pre-crack propagation the percentage deformation was more than 20 %. Furthermore, the propagation length of the crack in the fruit model was sensitive to the peak pressure in the locule and the fracture mechanics (e.g., elastic modulus, Poisson’s ratio, failure stress, fracture energy) of the exocarp and mesocarp. This study demonstrates the application of XFEM as a novel tool to understand how fruit rupture under mechanical loading when the fruit mechanics varies at different conditions (e.g., ripeness), and the extent of crack propagation which are important for improving or developing new mechanical handling technologies.
