This thesis explores the late-nineteenth century partnership between Bradford worsted manufacturers the Briggs brothers and the German merchant Ernst Posselt, and their subsequent foreign direct investment in a modern factory and workers’ community at Marki, near Warsaw, in Russian Poland. Protectionism and increasing foreign competition are discussed, among many complex economic pressures on British industry, as likely catalysts for this enterprise and the general historiography of the Polish lands is explored to reveal a climate of extraordinary opportunity for well-capitalised foreign industrialists in this period. This thesis provides fresh perspective on the role of the consular service in facilitating British foreign enterprise and, in context of the Bradford partners’ strategy for local integration through social networking and religious affiliation, presents unique findings regarding the character and operations of Warsaw’s elite commercial community in the late-nineteenth century. Through the development and domination of market and raw materials sources, this venture is shown to have monopolised worsted manufacture in the Russian Empire, using state of the art technology to create, and modern marketing techniques to promote, its product range and evolving image. Aspects of British and Polish social history are compared to assess the efficacy of introducing the model-community concept, in combination with a radical employment policy, to less industrially-developed Russian Poland. The instrumentality of an expatriate community of skilled Yorkshire foremen in diffusing British industrial technology throughout the Russian Empire is described, against a backdrop of political instability and social upheaval which dramatically impacted on business behaviour after 1905. / The full text was made available on 29th Nov 2017

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Yes / Previous work on elucidating the tranquillity of various environments has largely focussed on prediction and validation in urban environments. The setting for the latest phase of research was an English country park and surrounding moors on the urban fringe located 8 miles west of Bradford. Within the area selected there were a number of environments and man-made features and sounds that were thought to significantly affect tranquillity and which were not covered in earlier studies. The experiment extended over a number of months and utilised a jury technique for evaluation involving leading small groups of walkers to different locations in quasi-random order. At each location participants were asked to complete a short questionnaire and measurements of the physical soundscape and landscape images were used to interpret the results and give insights into the importance of the various factors affecting tranquillity. Such data will be useful for effective environmental management and conservation in the countryside.

Yes / In the last 10 years the University of Bradford Library Acquisitions Department has shrunk from 13 members of staff to 5. This has led to us embracing new technology to help streamline workflows within the department. As well as utilising EDI functionality, changing processing workflows and using shelf-ready books, we have devised innovative ways of dealing with everyday tasks. Topics included cover: PDA deduplication; spine labelling on a large scale; the weeding of discarded books; using saved global updates on incoming MARC records and using load profiles innovatively.

Background: Pulmonary Embolism (PE) is a potentially life-threatening condition that is characterized by one or several blood clots blocking the arteries in the lungs. The existing diagnostic tools for PE have their shortcomings, highlighting the importance of investigating new diagnostic methods. The development of non-invasive methods to collect microparticles from exhaled breath has opened possibilities to explore new potential biomarkers. SensAbues® is a sampling device that utilizes electrostatic filters to capture microparticles from the exhaled breath. The objective of this project was twofold: firstly, to assess the suitability of SensAbues® sampling device for a future proteomics study where the goal is to identify biomarkers for PE; and secondly, to evaluate the efficacy of various extraction solutions in retrieving proteins from the electrostatic filters. Materials and methods: Samples were collected from three healthy volunteers using the SensAbues® device. The electrostatic filters were then extracted using either PBS or 15% ethanol and the protein content was then estimated using a modified Bradford method. Additionally, two blank SensAbues® filter extracts, from PBS and 15% ethanol were analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Results: The attempts to evaluate extraction solutions using the Bradford method were unsuccessful, as all the samples yielded negative values. The filter-blank extracts analyzed with LC-MS/MS contained a significant amount of polyethylene glycols of varying sizes. Conclusion: The polyethylene glycols from the SensAbues® filters may have interfered with the Bradford method. Polyethylene glycols can also interfere with proteins, making the SensAbues® sampling device unsuitable for the prospective proteomics study.

No / The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the intake of sugar-sweetened (SS) and artificially sweetened (AS) cola beverages during pregnancy and the risk of preterm delivery (PTD). At baseline (2007–2010), 8914 pregnant women were recruited to the Born in Bradford birth cohort study at 24–28 weeks of pregnancy. Women completed a questionnaire describing their health and lifestyle behaviours, including their consumption of AS and SS cola beverages reported as cups per day, which were then linked to maternity records. The relationship between SS and AS cola beverage consumption was examined using logistic regression analyses. No relationship was observed between daily AS cola beverage consumption and PTD. Women who drank four cups per day of SS cola beverages had higher odds of a PTD when compared with women who did not consume these beverages daily. We conclude that high daily consumption of SS cola beverages during pregnancy is associated with increases in the rate of PTD.

Yes / Born in Bradford (BiB) is a prospective multi-ethnic pregnancy and birth cohort study that was established to examine determinants of health and development during childhood and, subsequently, adult life in a deprived multi-ethnic population in the north of England. Between 2007 and 2010, the BiB cohort recruited 12,453 women who experienced 13,776 pregnancies and 13,858 births, along with 3353 of their partners. Forty five percent of the cohort are of Pakistani origin. Now that children are at primary school, the first full follow-up of the cohort is taking place. The aims of the follow-up are to investigate the determinants of children's pre-pubertal health and development, including through understanding parents' health and wellbeing, and to obtain data on exposures in childhood that might influence future health. Methods: We are employing a multi-method approach across three data collection arms (community-based family visits, school based physical assessment, and whole classroom cognitive, motor function and wellbeing measures) to follow-up over 9000 BiB children aged 7-11 years and their families between 2017 and 2021. We are collecting detailed parent and child questionnaires, cognitive and sensorimotor assessments, blood pressure, anthropometry and blood samples from parents and children. Dual x-ray absorptiometry body scans, accelerometry and urine samples are collected on subsamples. Informed consent is collected for continued routine data linkage to health, social care and education records. A range of engagement activities are being used to raise the profile of BiB and to disseminate findings. Discussion: Our multi-method approach to recruitment and assessment provides an efficient method of collecting rich data on all family members. Data collected will enhance BiB as a resource for the international research community to study the interplay between ethnicity, socioeconomic circumstances and biology in relation to cardiometabolic health, mental health, education, cognitive and sensorimotor development and wellbeing. / BiB receives core infrastructure funding from the Wellcome Trust (WT101597MA) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Collaboration for Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for Yorkshire and Humber and Clinical Research Network (CRN) research delivery support. Further support for genome-wide and multiple ‘omics measurements is from the UK Medical Research Council (G0600705), National Institute of Health Research (NF-SI-0611-10196), US National Institute of Health (R01 DK10324), and the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) / ERC grant agreement no 669545. The follow-up of BiB participants, which is the focus of this paper, is funded by a joint grant from the UK Medical Research Council and UK Economic and Social Science Research Council (MR/N024397/1) and a grant from the British Heart Foundation (CS/16/4/32482.) D.A.L. works in a unit that receives UK Medical Research Council funding (MC_UU_00011/6) and is a UK National Institute of Health Research senior investigator (NF-SI-0611-10196).

Honey has been used to heal wounds since ancient times. There are many references in ancient literature that cite honey for its medicinal uses. It is used as an alternative agent to cure infections of wounds, burns, ulcers etc. Researchers have shown some of the antimicrobial properties of honey when used as an ointment. When applied to an affected area, it helps to promote the growth of healthy tissue. One of the factors on which the quality of the honey depends, is its geographical origin. Based on the location, honey types can vary as much as 100-fold from each other in color, aroma, viscosity, and antimicrobial properties. The important components in honey that play an essential part in healing wounds and contributing to the antimicrobial properties are enzymes. Their presence allows honey to kill various types of pathogenic bacteria, viruses, fungi etc. A higher antimicrobial effect is seen in monofloral honey (when a single plant species is the source of nectar), which is often more potent than other types of honey in terms of antibacterial activity. Resistance of pathogens to these antimicrobial actions has never been shown, which makes honey a more promising source of antimicrobial research. Presently, infections of burns and wounds are very challenging to treat, especially when they are caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The purpose of this study was to examine the antimicrobial properties of honey from Utah and other locales, and to identify promising antimicrobial activities that could be useful in treating infections caused by resistant bacteria.

Throughout the nineteenth century, walking for leisure and for spiritual endeavor in America correlated with the rise of literary romanticism. This burgeoning fashion of pedestrian travel, coupled with an impulse to experience the ever expanding nation, spawned a new and enduring subgenre in American letters – the walking text. Many scholars consider Henry David Thoreau and John Muir to be the century’s greatest literary amblers and naturalists; while their catalogs of walking literature are foundational, they are not exclusive. “Beautiful Day. Pleasant Walk: Walking and Landscape in Works of Estwick Evans, John D. Godman, Elizabeth Fries Ellet, and Bradford Torrey” aims to establish the importance of several underappreciated nineteenth century American pedestrians and landscapes. In addition to analyzing the development and importance of walking texts throughout the century, this dissertation also considers the geographies over which the authors traveled. The northern grounds of Ohio’s forgotten Great Black Swamp (Evans) and Philadelphia’s bucolic Wissahickon Creek (Godman), team with the southern worlds of rural Antebellum landscapes (Ellet) and Civil War battlefields (Torrey) to create a compelling map of nineteenth century America. Finally, through first-hand, authorial accounts this study discusses each terrain’s historical contexts as well as their current conditions.

Britain's Asians are a young population and their socio-economic status is low, with racial disadvantage in housing, employment, education and health. Research on their health has usually not been conducted in its socio-economic and demographic context and there is little on their use of primary care. Three studies were conducted to investigate their relationship with primary care in Bradford. A study of general practice attenders of white/British, Pakistani and Indian origin confirmed the demographic and socio-economic differences between the groups. The former had higher rates of alcohol and cigarette consumption. For Pakistanis and Indians, fluency and literacy in English was poor. Ethnic and linguistic match between doctor and patient was more important in patients' choice of doctor than the doctor's sex. Differential employment status of Asian and white/British accounted for some of the differences in health. A study of general practice attendance showed similar rates of surgery consultations between Asians and Non-Asians; the latter made greater use of domiciliary services. Both these studies were conducted in an inner Bradford health centre with an Asian male, a white male and a white female doctor. Bradford GPs were found to perceive that Asian patients made greater use of surgery and domiciliary consultations; attended more often for trivial complaints; and had lower compliance rates than Non-Asians. These perceptions were not supported by objective data. Better qualified GPs had a smaller, and Asian doctors had a greater proportion of Asian patients on their lists. Research, and action on Asians' health, needs to take account of their poorer socio-economic status.