Dr Andrew Murray, Reader in Metabolic Physiology from the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience discusses the body’s responses to altitude and considers the different evolutionary strategies adopted by Sherpas and other high-altitude dwelling people.
As we ascend to high altitude, our bodies experience low oxygen availability - a condition known as hypoxia. In response, our heart rate and breathing rate are adjusted in an attempt to maintain oxygen supply to our vital organs, whilst levels of oxygen-carrying red cells increase in our blood. Despite this, we are limited by the low oxygen available to us, and this impacts on our ability to think and exercise. In human populations that have spent thousands of years residing at altitude, such as the Himalayan Sherpas, there has been a selection of genetic variations which enable them to live, work and reproduce in this environment.
In this talk, Andrew Murray will discuss work that he has carried out for more than 15 years and across two major research expeditions in collaboration with the Xtreme Everest Research Group. Andrew will look at some of the paradoxes of our own bodies' responses to altitude, and consider the different evolutionary strategies adopted by Sherpas and other high-altitude dwelling people.
Finally, Andrew will describe how this research is beginning to help in the treatment of patients who are experiencing hypoxia in other life-threatening contexts, such as the intensive care unit.
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Dementia is a topic of considerable public interest. How empirical evidence has contributed to this societal awareness and indeed fear will be covered in this talk. It will span research from the 1980s when not much was understood about dementia up to contemporary perspectives. The focus will be on the epidemiological and public health evidence base, and how this relates to the results published from clinical and lab based research. The findings from UK and other high income countries of reduced age specific prevalence (%) will be explored, and the implications of results from brain based studies that dementia is not inevitable in the presence of ‘alzheimer’ type changes. The role of inequalities, risk varying across countries and time and our knowledge about protective factors have strengthened during recent years, and the balance of high risk with whole population approaches to reducing risk for society will be considered.
The structural mechanics of shape-changing structures: from bending armadillos, self-deploying satellites, to roll-up displays.
Most structures, e.g. buildings & bridges, are designed to be near rigid when loaded: in view of high winds or heavy traffic, their movements are barely noticeable. Formally, they are stiff, strong and stable, in terms of their “structural mechanics” – the study of their loaded deformation. Large movements from material weakness, overloading, or bad design, typically portend failure & eventual collapse. Embracing large movements, i.e. deliberate changes in shape, can admit new behaviour if safe and reversible, to yield transformer-like technologies and simple explanations of biological morphology, for example. In this talk, I will describe several structural mechanics principles for making shape-changing structures, out of ordinary materials, complete with physical demonstrations.
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