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In the background here, Rizq has in mind the long and troubled relationship between psychoanalysis and literary criticism, where psychoanalysis has placed itself as "the master discourse", holding a superior knowing position and asserting its right to interpret. In a fascinating chapter on Colm Toibin's I Testament of Mary i , Rizq sets out to cross disciplinary divides in a slightly different and potentially controversial way, bringing fiction and post-modern philosophy to bear on psychoanalysis, here Winnicott's I Use of An Object i . [Extracted from the article]

Background Mental health issues are increasingly prevalent across Canada, reflected in rising presentations to emergency departments. To effectively address the needs of children and youth seeking mental health-related care in the emergency department and to judiciously use scarce mental health-related resources, we need to better identify the specific areas of psychosocial needs and accessibility of associated services. Objective To describe the types and severity of paediatric mental health-related presentations evaluated at a quaternary paediatric emergency department, and to explore the accessibility of community mental health-related resources. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of children and youth presenting to a quaternary paediatric emergency department who were assessed using HEARTSMAP, a validated mental health assessment and management tool. We reported the proportion who sought care for a psychiatric, social, or youth health-related mental health complaint. We contacted community mental health-related resources for their estimated wait times to determine accessibility. Results Of 1,530 paediatric emergency presentations, 98.8% of patients had psychiatric issues (40.1% were severe), 78.0% of patients had social issues (17.1% were severe), and 71.5% had youth health issues (18.1% were severe). We contacted 123 community mental health-related resources. Community youth health and social services were somewhat accessible, with 50.0% and 38.7%, respectively, able to intake youth within a week of referral. Community psychiatric programs were least accessible, with 59.3% having wait times greater than 1 month. Conclusions Many psychiatric concerns presenting in paediatric emergency departments have complex psychosocial challenges requiring non-psychiatric support. A need exists for improved accessibility to community psychiatric programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the exquisite specificity and high affinity of antibody-based cancer therapies, treatment side effects can occur since the tumor-associated antigens targeted are also present on healthy cells. However, the low pH of the tumor microenvironment provides an opportunity to develop conditionally active antibodies with enhanced tumor specificity. Here, we engineered the human IgG1 Fc domain to enhance pH-selective binding to the receptor FcγRIIIa and subsequent antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). Wedisplayed the Fc domain on the surface of mammalian cells and generated a site-directed library by altering Fc residues at the Fc-FcγRIIIa interface to support interactions with positively charged histidine residues. We then used a competitive staining and flow cytometric selection strategy to isolate Fc variants exhibiting reduced FcγRIIIa affinities at neutral pH, but physiological affinities at the tumor-typical pH 6.5. We demonstrate that antibodies composed of Fab arms binding the breast cell epithelial marker Her2 and the lead Fc variant, termed acid-Fc, exhibited an ~2-fold pH-selectivity for FcγRIIIa binding based on the ratio of equilibrium dissociation constants Kd,7.4/Kd,6.5, due to a faster dissociation rate at pH 7.4. Finally, in vitro ADCC assays with human FcγRIIIa-positive natural killer and Her2-positive target cells demonstrated similar activities for anti-Her2 antibodies bearing the wild-type or acid-Fc at pH 6.5, but nearly 20-fold reduced ADCC for acid-Fc at pH 7.4, based on EC50 ratios. This work shows the promise of mammalian cell display for Fc engineering and the feasibility of pH-selective Fc activation to provide a second dimension of selective tumor cell targeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the transition from Fordist to flexible accumulation in the last decades of the twentieth century, social reproduction was externalized onto families and communities. In the United States, this “crisis of care” was mitigated by the incorporation of illegalized Mexican immigrants’ low-cost reproductive labor in private and public services. From a feminist perspective on social reproduction and migration, we argue that the impacts of the COVID-19 economic crisis on Mexican immigrant communities were related to the specific ways that immigrants’ labor was incorporated into the circuits of social reproduction. Drawing on interviews with migrants from rural central Mexico in the United States, we analyze how immigrants absorbed the worst effects of the crisis by cheapening their labor, transferring unpaid reproductive labor to other household members, and engaging in informalized activities. Anti-immigrant policies exacerbated the precarious situations of undocumented immigrants and mixed-status Mexican families during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dexmedetomidine often is used for sedation before or during abdominal ultrasonography. The effect of dexmedetomidine on gallbladder wall thickness is unknown. Hypothesis/Objectives: To investigate the relationship between dexmedetomidine administration and gallbladder wall thickening in dogs. The hypothesis was that sedation with dexmedetomidine will cause transient gallbladder wall thickening. Gallbladder wall thickness will be associated with duration of sedation and recumbency position. Animals Seventy‐nine client owned dogs and 10 healthy research dogs. Methods: A prospective observational study (n = 79) was used to establish the prevalence of gallbladder wall thickening (> 2.0 mm) after sedation with dexmedetomidine. A randomized, crossover study (n = 10) was used to evaluate the effect of time and recumbency position on the development of gallbladder wall thickening. Linear mixed models were used. Results: The proportion of client‐owned dogs that developed gallbladder wall thickening was 24.05% (19/79; 95% confidence interval [CI], 15.1%‐35.0%) with a median dose of dexmedetomidine of 5.0 μg/kg (range, 2.0‐12.5 μg/kg). After sedation, the proportion of research dogs that developed gallbladder wall thickening in left lateral (5/10, 50%; 95% CI, 18.7%‐81.3%) and dorsal (7/10, 70%; 95% CI, 34.8%‐93.3%) recumbency did not differ significantly (P =.45). Gallbladder wall thickening developed within 20 to 40 minutes. Duration of sedation was significantly associated with thickening of the gallbladder wall (P <.001). Five dogs developed 9 instances of peritoneal effusion in both lateral (5) and dorsal (4) recumbency. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Sedation with dexmedetomidine is associated with gallbladder wall thickening (> 2.0 mm) and peritoneal effusion that could be confused with pathologic etiologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Evidence-based guidelines for JSRV diagnosis using OPA lesions have been provided. • Macroscopic + histologic exam combined in parallel: Used to select lungs for RT-PCR. • If macroscopic and histologic exam are both negative, JSRV RT-PCR is not required. • If macroscopic and/or histologic exam are positive, JSRV RT-PCR is recommended. • Approach may be applied to efficiently detect JSRV infection in a flock. Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV) is the causative agent of ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA). JSRV infection is usually detected post-mortem by macroscopic and histological examination of lungs for lesions of OPA. Subsequently, the presence of JSRV may be confirmed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on tumour tissue. Our goal was to determine the most effective way of combining macroscopic and histological examination with reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) to detect JSRV infection post-mortem. Lungs of slaughtered sheep (n = 369) with macroscopic lesions were examined macroscopically and histologically to identify lesions consistent with OPA, and subsequently subjected to RT-PCR for JSRV. Positive (P pos) and negative (P neg) agreement and Cohen's Kappa were calculated between RT-PCR and: 1) macroscopic examination; 2) histological examination; 3) macroscopic and histological examinations combined in series, and 4) in parallel. The highest P pos was between macroscopic and histological examination in parallel and RT-PCR (0.38). Conversely, P neg for all combinations of RT-PCR and macroscopic and histological examinations was high (0.95-0.96). All Kappa values were low (0.1-0.33). This indicates that macroscopic and histological examination combined in parallel is the most effective way to identify animals that should be tested using RT-PCR for JSRV. If a positive result is obtained on macroscopic examination and/or histological examination, RT-PCR for JSRV should be carried out. The high P neg indicates that if a negative result is obtained on macroscopic and histological examination, RT-PCR testing is not merited, as the result is likely to be negative. This provides an evidence-base for the diagnosis of JSRV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study used Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to investigate whether maternal immune challenge during late gestation altered programming of the offspring hypothalamus and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPAA). In addition, interactions of maternal diet, supplementation with fish oil (FO) or microalgae (AL), and complex vs. simple weaning diets were investigated. Briefly, Landrace × Yorkshire sows (N = 48) were randomly assigned to diets supplemented with FO, AL, or a standard gestation control diet (CON) from day 75 of gestation (gd 75) until parturition. On gd 112, half the sows from each dietary treatment were immune challenged with LPS (10 μg/kg BW) or saline as a control. At 21 d postpartum, the offspring were weaned, and half the animals from each maternal treatment were allocated to either a complex or simple weaning diet. At 28 d postpartum, the offspring's hourly fever and 2-h cortisol responses to LPS immune challenge (40 μg/kg BW) were measured to assess hypothalamus and HPAA function. Results indicated that the maternal temperature of sows on the FO diet returned to baseline levels faster than sows on the AL and CON diets after LPS immune challenge (P < 0.05). In contrast, there was no difference in the maternal cortisol response across the dietary treatments (P > 0.10). Regardless of the dietary treatments, the maternal LPS immune challenge induced a greater cortisol response in male offspring (P = 0.05) and a greater fever response in female offspring (P = 0.03) when they were LPS immune challenged post-weaning. Male offspring from LPS-immune-challenged sows fed the FO and AL diets had a greater fever response than male offspring from the maternal CON diet group (P ≤ 0.05). Last, no effect of the complex or simple weaning diets was observed for the nursery pig cortisol or fever responses to LPS immune challenge. In conclusion, LPS immune challenge during late pregnancy altered responsiveness of the offspring hypothalamus and HPAA to this same microbial stressor, and a sex-specific response was influenced by maternal dietary supplementation with FO and AL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Lanchester's darkly funny The Debt to Pleasure (1996) mixes genres such as the cookbook, the travelogue, and the detective story. Its Decadent narrator, Tarquin Winot, is a gourmet, an aesthete, and a murderer. As narrator, Tarquin is keen to provide the reader a glittering surface but to deny access to his story's hidden meanings. A critical approach to the novel through theories of artifice drawn from nineteenth-century Decadence challenges recent theories of surface reading, and argues that the text's surface, its literary style, is not transparent, but an aesthetic means that makes more visible the artifice of fiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interviews with return migrants in Puebla, Mexico before and after the massive border build-up of the mid-2000s reveal how increased border enforcement entailed greater risks of arrest and potentiated the violence migrants experienced at the hands of smugglers and criminals, reducing circular migration. Dispossessed of physical security and psychological well-being, illegal mobile bodies create value for multiple accumulation processes: at the point of production as vulnerable workers, as well as commodities for trafficking organizations and private detention centers. The violence inflicted on undocumented border crossers disciplines them for the more exploitative labor relations of temporary worker programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An unusual presentation of skin disease was identified in two related neonatal Pedigree Limousin calves presented to University Veterinary Hospital, University College Dublin, following detailed post mortem examination a diagnosis of dermatosparaxis was made. Dermatosparaxis in animals or Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which is the analogous condition seen in humans, is a connective tissue disorder characterised by extreme skin fragility. To the authors' knowledge this is the first report of such a diagnosis in the Limousin breed and the features of this lethal phenotype were severe in comparison to previous reports of the condition. Case presentation: Two calves, which were full siblings, a pedigree Limousin bull (Calf A) and pedigree Limousin heifer (Calf B) were examined clinically after presenting collapsed since birth, both had grossly abnormal skin with multiple skin fissures visible and both calves were subsequently euthanised. Both calves underwent gross post mortem examination, after which histological samples were reviewed and electron microscopical examination of selected skin samples was carried out. Histological features of dysplastic dermal collagen were identified. The diagnosis of dermatosparaxis in the Limousin breed was confirmed. Genetic testing was conducted to determine if the current cases had the same mutation as has previously been described in Belgian Blue cattle. Some common parentage was traced but genetic testing did not show a similar mutation to that previously described in cattle. The specific genetic cause in this case is unknown. Conclusions: This is the first report of dermatosparaxis in the Limousin and the presentation of the dermatosparaxis phenotype has some noteworthy features thus further genetic testing is required to pinpoint the causative mutation or other genetic defect. Given the popularity of the breed and the lethal nature of the phenotype in this case it is important to raise awareness of the condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The Kidney Donor Risk Index (KDRI) is a quantitative evaluation of the quality of donor organs and is implemented in the US allocation system. This single-centre study investigates whether the implementation of the KDRI in our decision-making process to accept or decline an offered deceased donor kidney, increases our acceptance rate. Methods. From April 2015 until December 2016, we prospectively calculated the KDRI for all deceased donor kidney offers allocated by Eurotransplant to our centre. The number of the transplanted versus declined kidney offers during the study period were compared to a historical set of donor kidney offers. Results. After implementation of the KDRI, 26.1% (75/288) of all offered donor kidneys were transplanted, compared with 20.7% (136/657) in the previous period (P<0.001). The median KDRI of all transplanted donor kidneys during the second period was 0.97 [Kidney Donor Profile Index (KDPI) 47%], a value significantly higher than the median KDRI of 0.85 (KDPI 34%) during the first period (P=0.047). A total of 68% of patients for whom a first-offered donor kidney was declined during this period were transplanted after a median waiting time of 386 days, mostly with a lower KDRI donor kidney. Conclusions. Implementing the KDRI in our decision-making process increased the transplantation rate by 26%. The KDRI can be a supportive tool when considering whether to accept or decline a deceased donor kidney offer. More data are needed to validate this score in other European centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is an endangered tiger subspecies. An adult zoo-bred female was found collapsed, and died despite supportive treatment. Hematology and biochemistry showed pancytopenia and hyperglobulinemia, and serum protein electrophoresis revealed a monoclonal band in the ß-globulin region. Necropsy demonstrated hemoabdomen, multifocal lytic bone marrow lesions, splenomegaly, and hemorrhagic hepatic nodules, with left medial lobe rupture. There were mutifocal hemorrhages in the subcutis, lung, epicardium, and intestinal mucosa. Histopathology demonstrated plasmacytoid cells infiltrating the bone marrow, liver and spleen, and circulating within blood vessels. On immunohistochemistry, cell infiltrates of the three tissues were positive for λ light chains, bone marrow infiltrates were positive for MUM-1 and bone marrow and spleen infiltrates were positive for CD20. These findings indicate that this animal died of hemoabdomen subsequent to multiple myeloma. This is the first time this disease has been reported in a tiger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jacob sheep (Ovis aries) are a pedigree breed known for their "polycerate" (multihorned) phenotype. We describe a four-horned Jacob lamb that exhibited progressive congenital hindlimb ataxia and paresis, and was euthanased four weeks post-partum. Necropsy and CT-scan revealed deformity and asymmetry of the occipital condyles, causing narrowing of the foramen magnum and spinal cord compression. Histopathology demonstrated Wallerian degeneration of the cervical spinal cord at the level of the foramen magnum. These findings are consistent with occipital condylar dysplasia. This condition has been infrequently reported in the literature as a suspected heritable disease of polycerate Jacob sheep in the USA, and is assumed to arise during selection for the polycerate trait. This is the first reported case in European-bred Jacob sheep. Occipital condylar dysplasia should be considered as a differential diagnosis in polycerate Jacob lambs showing ataxia. It is important to raise awareness of this disease due to its suspected heritability and link to the popular polycerate trait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper female-to-female friendship as depicted in the Neapolitan novels of Elena Ferrante is used to think about aspects of unconscious relating, and of feminine identity. The two girls in the stories 'blur' into one another, in a way that is at times a source of creative strength, and at times a quasi-psychotic state. The idea of 'merger' as characterizing female relationships is considered through the narrative. Friendship stands outside conventional psychoanalytic models of family relating, but Ferrante explores their internal workings, particularly in the developing child and adolescent, and unfolds the importance of their place in growing up, asserting a unique psychic place for the female-to-female bond in identity formation. Psychoanalytic ideas of separation and individuation are brought to bear, alongside Juliet Mitchell's work on sibling relationships, and Rozsika Parker's work on the internal 'other' necessary for creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the book "The Book of Prefaces" by Alasdair Gray is presented. It examines the complexity, intricacy and excessiveness of physical books. It mentions the bibliographic structure and complex integration of the book. It notes the self-consciousness of the author on the material presence of the book.

Rationale Household air pollution causes 3.5 million deaths annually. Personal exposure assessments required for examining health associations are expensive and require technical expertize, limiting the quality of research in resource-poor settings Objectives To assess the feasibility of exhaled carbon monoxide and its relationship to continuous personal carbon monoxide monitoring and markers of respiratory health in female cooks primarily cooking with biomass fuels in Araihazar, Bangladesh Methods and measure For a 24-h period, exhaled carboxyhemoglobin (eCOHb) % saturation was measured before and after each cooking episode while simultaneous 24-h personal carbon monoxide monitoring was conducted. The Coburn–Forester–Kane (CFK) equation was used to convert continuous personal CO exposures to predicted COHb % saturation. Respiratory symptoms were assessed by St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire, airway inflammation measured by exhaled breath condensate pH, and lung function determined by spirometry. Spearman's correlation was used to examine the relationship between eCOHb and CKF-derived COHb, EBC pH, and lung function variables. eCOHb % saturation was dichotomized around the median and odds ratios calculated for each respiratory symptom Main results Measurement of eCOHb % saturation is feasible in a resource-poor setting. eCOHb % saturation responds to cooking episodes and demonstrates consistency when measured at the same time point 24-h later, suggesting that eCOHb may be a sensitive biomarker of recent HAP exposures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The allocation of deceased donor kidneys has become more complex because of the increasing spectrum of donors and recipients age and comorbidities. Several scoring systems have been proposed to evaluate the donor quality of deceased donor kidneys, based on clinical, pathological or combined parameters to predict the risk of renal allograft failure. Nonetheless, besides the dichotomous extended criteria donor (ECD) score, none of the others have been used in clinical practice because of numerous reasons, ranging from lack of robust validation to the technical challenges associated with the evaluation of donor biopsies. Recently, the Kidney Donor Risk Index (KDRI) and Profile Index (KDPI) were introduced in the USA as a refined version of the ECD score. This scoring system is based on 10 donor factors, therefore providing a finely granulated evaluation of donor quality without the need of a kidney biopsy. Here, we review the advantages and drawbacks of the main scoring systems, and we describe the components of the KDRI and KDPI. It is an easily accessible online tool, based solely on donor factors readily available at the moment of the donor offer. Importantly, the KDPI has also been made part of the longevity matching' allocation in the USA, where the best kidneys are allocated to the recipients with the longest predicted post-transplant survival. The KDRI should provide us with a robust qualitative evaluation of deceased donor quality, and therefore will probably play a role in deceased donor kidney allocation policies across Europe in the near future. Hopefully, the KDRI and the KDPI should help transplant programmes to better allocate the scarce resource of deceased donor kidneys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of jawed vertebrates (gnathostomes) from jawless vertebrates was accompanied by major morphological and physiological innovations, such as hinged jaws, paired fins and immunoglobulin-based adaptive immunity. Gnathostomes subsequently diverged into two groups, the cartilaginous fishes and the bony vertebrates. Here we report the whole-genome analysis of a cartilaginous fish, the elephant shark (Callorhinchus milii). We find that the C. milii genome is the slowest evolving of all known vertebrates, including the 'living fossil' coelacanth, and features extensive synteny conservation with tetrapod genomes, making it a good model for comparative analyses of gnathostome genomes. Our functional studies suggest that the lack of genes encoding secreted calcium-binding phosphoproteins in cartilaginous fishes explains the absence of bone in their endoskeleton. Furthermore, the adaptive immune system of cartilaginous fishes is unusual: it lacks the canonical CD4 co-receptor and most transcription factors, cytokines and cytokine receptors related to the CD4 lineage, despite the presence of polymorphic major histocompatibility complex class II molecules. It thus presents a new model for understanding the origin of adaptive immunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims There is a paucity of data on the pattern of intravenous immunoglobulin ( IVIG) usage in the paediatric population. This study aimed to assess the prevalence, trends, indications and burden of cost of IVIG usage in the Singaporean paediatric population. Methods Pharmacy data of all IVIG prescriptions between 2000 and 2009 in the two major paediatric public hospitals in Singapore were retrospectively reviewed. Each prescription was cross-referenced with the patient's hospital records to confirm the administration of IVIG and indication of use. Results Over the 10-year period, a total 78 155 g of IVIG valued at an estimated $5.2 million was prescribed. There was an increasing trend of 445.6 g/year ( P = 0.02) over this period. Analysis of patients showed that the most common indication for IVIG use was Kawasaki disease, both in terms of the proportion of patients (60%) and amount of IVIG used (34%). Kawasaki disease was also the only indication where there were significant increasing trends in both patient numbers (7.4 patients/year) and amount of IVIG used (247.5 g/year). The indications with the highest amount of IVIG used per patient were for conditions related to primary immunodeficiency diseases and stem cell transplantation, where repeat transfusions were required. More than 75% of indications were Food and Drug Administration approved. Conclusion Albeit substantial and increasing, the use of IVIG in Singaporean children is mostly evidence based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammation is a key element in many cardiovascular diseases. Both estrogen loss, caused by menopause, and aging have inflammatory consequences. Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) are anti-inflammatory molecules synthesized by various cytochrome P450 (Cyp) enzymes from arachidonic acid. EETs are in the third (Cytochrome P450) pathway of arachindonic acid metabolism, others being cyclooxygenases and lipoxygenases. We hypothesized that aging and estrogen loss would reduce levels of anti-inflammatory EETs. Adult (6 mo) and aged (22 mo) ovariectomized rats with (OP) and without (Ovx) 17-∃-estradiol replacement were used in this study. Mass spectrometry was used to measure levels of EETs and their metabolites, dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids (DHETs). Levels of Cyp2C2, Cyp2C6, and Cyp2J2, the principal Cyps responsible for EETs synthesis, as well as soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH), which metabolizes EETS to DHETs, were determined via western blot. Overall Cyp levels decreased with age, though Cyp2C6 increased in the liver. sEH was increased in the kidney with estrogen replacement. Despite protein changes, no differences were measured in plasma or aortic tissue levels of EETs. However, plasma 14,15 DHET was increased in aged Ovx, and 5,6 DHET in adult OP. In conclusion neither aging nor estrogen loss decreased the anti-inflammatory EETs in the cardiovascular system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on theoretical work within ethnography and poststructuralism, this article discusses a conceptualization of autoethnography as assemblage. The concept of assemblage includes but goes beyond the literal bringing together of a range of heterogeneous elements in different modalities to offer different perspectives on a phenomenon. It challenges and displaces boundaries between the individual and the social through a focus on practice, which offers a new ontology of the social. These ideas are illustrated through excerpts from an autoethnographic study of an occupational therapist working with young people in a Sydney children's hospital in the mid-1980s. The article makes visible a material, relational, and affective landscape of remembered practice. Through successive displacements of the self as the primary site of experience and meaning, we seek to contribute new understandings about the potential for autoethnography to engage with professional practice as a space of multiplicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression at work has been the subject of a growing body of research. However, though increasing attention is being paid to more contextualized orientations to the phenomenon, little is known of the experience of the depressed worker as worker, rather than (just) as depressed patient. There are few empirical accounts of how the workplace itself is implicated in the processes of becoming depressed. This article discusses the findings of an in-depth narrative interview study of 20 workers diagnosed with depression. A Systemic Family Therapy interview framework was utilized, enabling a focus not merely on medical symptoms but also on the network of workplace relations within which workers had been embedded prior to diagnosis. Implications of the findings for the management of work-related depression are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary retheorisation of affect is impacting on an increasingly wide range of disciplines/inter-disciplines in the human sciences. Of particular relevance for this paper are, on the one hand, the emphasis on embodiment and, on the other, the ideas of “flow”, “intensity” and “contagion”. Together, these challenge traditional views of affect as equivalent to emotion, emanating from the self and ending at the boundary of the self. Discourse studies has not yet been significantly influenced by the “affective turn” now taking place within social and cultural theory. It has largely maintained, albeit implicitly, the traditional view of affect. Yet, if all human interaction is inflected with affect, in the sense indicated above, a different model of discourse seems called for. This paper aims to make a contribution to the development of a new “affect-ed” discourse analytics by identifying a variety of linguistic and discursive phenomena that could contribute to such a project. We draw primarily on the work of linguistics, bringing to notice a range of phenomena that may be unfamiliar either because of their technicality or because of the problematic status of linguistics in much cultural theory. The paper proceeds via a brief genealogical account of current affect theory to note a range of language phenomena that have been or can be read in terms of individual feeling and suggests an analysis of several forms of interaction re-read in terms of affective contagion. This section of the paper constitutes a preliminary inventory of components of an affect-ed discourse analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article addresses the question of the implications for professional education of economic, social and political changes that are transforming the boundaries, accountabilities and governance of professional practice. We argue that approaches to professional education that are uni-disciplinary and focused on the individual, cannot prepare students for practising a profession in circumstances requiring transformative change. We pose a conceptual alternative, drawing on practice theory, which, we argue, engages more effectively with the nature of practice in changing circumstances. Our particular concern is to find better ways to understand how learning is situated and embodied in practices and complexly implicated in change and innovation. In developing these new understandings, we draw on material from a case study of practice change in the area of health, to theorise learning as relational and embedded in the practices of an organisation in an intense state of change and becoming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vertebrate Lhx2 is a member of the LIM homeobox family of transcription factors. It is essential for the normal development of the forebrain, eye, olfactory system and liver as well for the differentiation of lymphoid cells. However, despite the highly restricted spatio-temporal expression pattern of Lhx2, nothing is known about its transcriptional regulation. In mammals and chicken, Crb2, Dennd1a and Lhx2 constitute a conserved linkage block, while the intervening Dennd1a is lost in the fugu Lhx2 locus. To identify functional enhancers of Lhx2, we predicted conserved noncoding elements (CNEs) in the human, mouse and fugu Crb2-Lhx2 loci and assayed their function in transgenic mouse at E11.5. Four of the eight CNE constructs tested functioned as tissue-specific enhancers in specific regions of the central nervous system and the dorsal root ganglia (DRG), recapitulating partial and overlapping expression patterns of Lhx2 and Crb2 genes. There was considerable overlap in the expression domains of the CNEs, which suggests that the CNEs are either redundant enhancers or regulating different genes in the locus. Using a large set of CNEs (810 CNEs) associated with transcription factor-encoding genes that express predominantly in the central nervous system, we predicted four over-represented 8-mer motifs that are likely to be associated with expression in the central nervous system. Mutation of one of them in a CNE that drove reporter expression in the neural tube and DRG abolished expression in both domains indicating that this motif is essential for expression in these domains. The failure of the four functional enhancers to recapitulate the complete expression pattern of Lhx2 at E11.5 indicates that there must be other Lhx2 enhancers that are either located outside the region investigated or divergent in mammals and fishes. Other approaches such as sequence comparison between multiple mammals are required to identify and characterize such enhancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of intensifying accountability for academic work internationally, there are increasing pressures on individual supervisors, departments and universities to evaluate the quality of doctoral supervision. Existing evaluation tools are focused at departmental rather than individual level and are mostly quantitative. Evaluation for supervisors is usually limited to reflective self-assessment and peer critique. It has been difficult to elicit sustained feedback from doctoral students regarding their experiences of working with an individual supervisor, or even a supervisory panel, for ethical and practical reasons. This article discusses one attempt to address this problem: an online survey instrument that draws on previous research and qualitative methods to elicit sustained reflective commentary from doctoral students, in an anonymous format, about their experiences of supervision. The article describes the design and development of the survey, named the Research Student Feedback Survey (RSFS), and raises a number of critical conceptual and methodological issues for further exploration and debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores some of the trends in educational research in Australia. It references the paper "Decentred Education," by Kathleen Ferguson and Terri Seddon, which addresses the image of the school. It also discusses the response by the educational research community to changes happening in the field. In addition, the article describes the sectoring of education and its effect on educational research.

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including workforce planning, research capacity building and the development of a strategic research agenda for education research.

The article examines the question of the boundaries and limits around what can count as educational research. According to the author, the intellectual, financial and moral neglect of the further education sector is an unintended consequence of the professional educational research community's tight contact with the compulsory school. The effects of the lifelong learning movement to make visible learning which occurs in spaces associated with other activities are described.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Bill Green on the question of the object of education, another by Lina Markauskaite on the epistemological challenges and practical potential that exists in eResearch, and one by Johanna Fahey and Jane Kenway on the issues of mobility within the academy in connection with the global experiences of researchers in the social sciences and humanities.

Background: Doctors are poor at help-seeking, particularly for mental ill health; attitudes of colleagues refl ecting stigmatisation may be important factors infl uencing decisions to seek support. Aims: This article focuses on doctors' attitudes to depression rather than mental illness in general. It seeks to determine the extent to which doctors perceive depressionis stigmatised within the medical profession and whether the level of perceived stigma affects patterns of help-seeking behaviour. Method: A postal survey was sent to 1488 General Practitioners and 152 psychiatrists in Devon and Cornwall. Questions assessed stigmatising attitudes to depression; help-seeking behaviour and barriers to help-seeking. Prevalence of self-reported depression and time off work was measured. Results: The response rate was 76.6%. Doctors perceived that many of their profession hold stigmatising views of depression. Some 46.2% of respondents reported that they had suffered an episode of depression. Help-seeking was signifi cantly reduced in those with a history of depression. Barriers to help-seeking were reported as letting colleagues down (73.1%), confi dentiality (53.4%), letting patients down (51.9%) and career progression (15.7%). Gender and a history of depression signifi cantly affected help-seeking behaviour and perceived stigmatisation. Higher levels of perceived stigma increased concerns about help-seeking and reduced help-seeking from own GP or colleagues. Conclusion: Stigma associated with depression in doctors is endemic in the medical profession and the level of perceived stigma is related to reduced helpseeking behaviour. Efforts need to be made by the profession to reduce the stigma anticipated by those who become depressed, to enable appropriate help-seeking and support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computerized kinetic modeling is a valuable automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) prescription tool for optimizing dialysis adequacy. However, non-compliance results in failure to achieve adequacy targets. The aim of this study was to determine if a nomogram could estimate dialysis compensations for shortfalls in simulated non-compliant patients, such that total weekly urea clearance (Kt/Vurea) targets are met. Individualized nomograms comprising a series of curves were derived from PD Adequest (ver. 2.0)-predicted Kt/Vurea data ( r2 > 0.99) for different APD prescriptions. The nomogram was then used to estimate the (Nomogram-computed) average of the daily Kt/Vurea in 14 patients. The study comprised three 1-month phases. Patients were compliant to dialysis in phase I, where Adequest-predicted Kt/Vurea showed good agreement with both measured ( rI = 0.72), and Nomogram-computed values ( rI > 0.99) ( p < 0.001). Conversely, in non-compliant phase II, Nomogram-computed values were lower than Adequest-predicted values ( p < 0.002). In phase III, the nomogram estimated prescription adjustments required to compensate for shortfalls, such that there was significantly less difference between Nomogram-computed and Adequest-predicted Kt/Vurea than in phase II ( p = 0.005). Thus, despite non-compliance, predicted Kt/Vurea targets were attained using the nomogram to adjust the daily APD prescriptions. This concept is potentially useful for patients desiring to compensate for inadvertent shortfalls, rather than for ‘truly non-compliant’ patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes up the question of the language within which discussion of research degree supervision is couched and framed, and the consequences of such framings for supervision as a field of pedagogical practice. It examines the proliferation and intensity of metaphor, allegory and allusion in the language of candidature and supervision, which appears to run counter to attempts to bring a contemporary rationality into the intensifying public discourse about supervision. The article examines, not how the problem of metaphorical language can be resolved and overcome, but rather how it defines and shapes dispositions, practices of knowledge making and knowledge itself. Some conceptual tools for expanding the conceptual-discursive field of supervision are presented. Three 'arche-metaphors' are considered, and supervision itself is discussed as a metaphor of the Enlightenment and the modern university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 40 years after its beginnings, academic development stands uncertainly on the threshold of becoming a profession or discipline in its own right. While it remains marginal to the dominant stories of the university, it has become central to the institution's contemporary business. This Research Note describes an enquiry that uses a multiple histories approach to explore the emergence of academic development in three national sites. Our intention is to provoke a more critical engagement with academic development's current forms and future possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of publication in taking forward the work of the doctorate. Low publication rates from doctoral degrees have been noted as a problem in the quality of doctoral education for preparing students to participate in research cultures. At the same time there is ambivalence and some resistance among doctoral supervisors and candidates about the place of publication in doctoral work. This article argues that issues of writing and publication need to be systematically addressed within doctoral pedagogy. In a climate of increasing pressure to publish during and after candidature, pedagogies need to take up a more explicitly outward-looking stance, developing a stronger orientation to induction and participation in the world of peer-reviewed publication. These arguments are developed through two case studies that illustrate ways of supporting doctoral researchers to effectively recontextualise their dissertation writing for wider audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the anxieties and political struggles around the professionalisation of academic development in contemporary universities. It seeks to go beyond the work of classification and categorisation of 'roles and identities' of academic developers with its attendant oppositional or conciliatory metaphors, to re-describe the contemporary field of academic development in universities through an ironic lens. We work with Foucault's notion of 'games of truth and error' and Rorty's scholarship of 're-description' in an attempt to tell the contradictions and tensions of the field more effectively. We discuss the implications that arise from these for academic development to engage productively in the ongoing reinvention of the academy. Cet article explore les anxiétés et les luttes politiques entourant la professionnalisation du développement pédagogique dans les universités contemporaines. L'article cherche à aller plus loin que les efforts de classification et de catégorisation déjà entrepris quant aux 'rôles et identités' des conseillers pédagogiques, avec leurs métaphores d'opposition et de conciliation, de façon à re-décrire le champs contemporain du développement pédagogique universitaire au moyen d'une lentille ironique. A l'aide de notions telles que les 'jeux de vérité et d'erreur' de Foucault ou l'approche de 're-description' de Rorty, nous cherchons à indentifier les contradictions et les tensions du champs d'une façon davantage efficace. Nous discutons des implications qui émanent de celles-ci de façon à ce que le développement pédagogique puisse s'engager de façon productive dans la réinvention perpétuelle du milieu académique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many healthy human experiences and practices have become medicalized and professionalized within health during the past century. In the example used in this article, the legitimation of formal, 'evidence-based' scientific knowledge about parenting within nursing and midwifery can have the effect of replacing and discrediting embodied, informal and culturally located ways of knowing and learning. At the same time, recent developments within health policy increasingly focus on the need for active engagement by members of the community in the production and maintenance of their own health. This is often promoted in terms of partnership between 'consumers' of health services and 'providers'. The dominant metaphor of 'knowledge transfer', however, produces a prescriptive text that assumes a unidirectional movement from expert professional knowledge providers towards the consumers of that knowledge. This article addresses this problematic by discussing a case study of one woman learning to breastfeed her first baby. It examines, through discursive analysis, the complex and contradictory dynamics of her knowing and learning, situated in relation to formal knowledge about breastfeeding, in order to explore and elaborate an argument for more complex 'cultural and relational' understandings of knowing and learning than that offered by the 'knowledge transfer' metaphor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing remains significantly under-theorized within research degree programs in universities. Vet there is clearly more at stake than the application of generic structural rules or guidelines for writing research. Whatever the discipline, these mechanics are inadequate so account for the complexities of writing faced by doctoral students. This article takes up the challenge of research writing as a social, situated practice and calls for it to be embraced as such within research education. The article identifies problems of policy, theory and pedagogy in relation to research writing. It then examines recent initiatives, undertaken by the authors and others, in the formation of research writing groups, in an attempt to address some of these problems. Despite wide variation, these groups have in common a strong reliance on the pedagogical principles of identification and peer review, community, and writing as 'normal business' in the doing of research. These are advanced as key principles for a broader conceptualization of the requirements for research writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hox genes in vertebrates are clustered, and the organization of the clusters has been highly conserved during evolution. The conservation of Hox clusters has been attributed to enhancers located within and outside the Hox clusters that are essential for the coordinated ‘temporal’ and ‘spatial’ expression patterns of Hox genes in developing embryos. To identify evolutionarily conserved regulatory elements within and outside the Hox clusters, we obtained contiguous sequences for the conserved syntenic blocks from the seven Hox loci in fugu and carried out a systematic search for conserved noncoding sequences (CNS) in the human, mouse, and fugu Hox loci. Our analysis has uncovered unusually large conserved syntenic blocks at the HoxA and HoxD loci. The conserved syntenic blocks at the human and mouse HoxA and HoxD loci span 5.4 Mb and 4 Mb and contain 21 and 19 genes, respectively. The corresponding regions in fugu are 16- and 12-fold smaller. A large number of CNS was identified within the Hox clusters and outside the Hox clusters spread over large regions. The CNS include previously characterized enhancers and overlap with the 5′ global control regions of HoxA and HoxD clusters. Most of the CNS are likely to be control regions involved in the regulation of Hox and other genes in these loci. We propose that the regulatory elements spread across large regions on either side of Hox clusters are a major evolutionary constraint that has maintained the exceptionally long syntenic blocks at the HoxA and HoxD loci. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research education has been dominated in recent years by policy‐driven preoccupations with doctoral completions, funding and contributions to the economy. This has led universities to focus on enhanced institutional support for research degrees, with an emphasis on supervision, in particular the training of supervisors, and provision of a richer environment for students. This article uses examples from interviews with research students to show how the provision of a rich environment is not in itself sufficient. A new discourse is needed so that students are able to take up opportunities that are available. The article questions the current emphasis and argues that a new focus on pedagogy is explicitly needed. It challenges the dominant focus on supervision and ‘provisionism’ and suggests that a more appropriate pedagogic discourse should draw on the familiar notion of ‘peer’ from the world of research. It argues that peer learning, appropriately theorized and situated within a notion of communities of research practice, might be a productive frame through which to view research education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information sharing and social interaction are the Web's main features that have enabled online communities to abound and flourish. However, the Web is lacking cues and browsing mechanisms for the online social spaces. That is, such spaces look and feel abstract and informational rather than inviting for social interaction. Consequently, newcomers and occasional visitors to such sites cannot quickly assess who the participants are; what the purpose, tenor, and norms of the space are; which sorts of newcomers are welcomed; and what forms of participation are valued. Thus, users need support for social browsing in such spaces. On the flip side, active contributors to social spaces such as Web communities lack the means to present a public face to visitors. Gathering places in the physical world, in contrast, reflect artifacts, patterns, and traces of social presence, activities, and organization. They convey the life, character, relationships, and social cues that are important for social interaction and organization. Such social information and patterns exist in the electronic world but are buried in the content-centric information. INSET: Social Visualizations..

Most Salmonella serovars are general pathogens that infect a variety of hosts. These "generalist" serovars cause disease in many animals from reptiles to mammals. In contrast, a few serovars cause disease only in a specific host. Host-specific serovars can cause a systemic, often fatal disease in one species yet remain avirulent in other species. Host-specific Salmonella frequently have large genomic rearrangements due to recombination at the ribosomal RNA (rrn) operons while the generalists consistently have a conserved chromosomal arrangement. To determine whether this is the result of an intrinsic difference in recombination frequency or a consequence of lifestyle difference between generalist and host-specific Salmonella, we determined the frequency of rearrangements in vitro. Using latZ genes as portable regions of homology for inversion analysis, we found that both generalist and host-specific serovars of Salmonella have similar tolerances to chromosomal rearrangements in vitro. Using PCR and genetic selection, we found that generalist and host-specific serovars also undergo rearrangements at rrn operons at similar frequencies in vitro. These observations indicate that the observed difference in genomic stability between generalist and host-specific serovars is a consequence of their distinct lifestyles, not intrinsic differences in recombination frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the research potential of university staff has been given less attention than many other aspects of professional development, particularly teaching development. Yet there is an important need for the development of staff in the research role in the light of growth of higher education and changes to the organisation of the sector in many countries. This article examines one strategy for research development: the use of writing groups. It argues that writing is best seen as a starting point, rather than an endpoint, of the research process and hence that fostering academic writing is a useful place to do research development work. The article provides details of the use of a number of writing groups over three years in a particular faculty and explores the responses of leaders and participants. It identifies factors important in the use of this strategy and focuses on the contextual conditions required for initiatives of this kind to be effectively implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The astigmatid mite Psoroptes ovis is the causative agent of sheep scab, a highly contagious parasitic disease of sheep. Infection causes severe allergic dermatitis, resulting in damage to the fleece and hide, loss of condition and occasional mortality. Interest in the P. ovis allergens led us to characterise a glutathione S-transferase (GST) which displays homology to GST allergens isolated from the house dust mite, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and the cockroach, Blatella germanica. A cDNA encoding a mu-class GST from P. ovis was expressed in Escherichia coli and the recombinant protein purified for biochemical analysis. SDS-PAGE analysis indicated that the purified product was homogeneous and had an apparent molecular weight of 30 kDa. The recombinant GST (rGST) is active towards the substrate 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB), whereas 1,2-dichloro-4-nitrobenzene (DCNB) is a poor substrate. The recombinant protein was also tested for recognition by IgE and IgG antibodies in serum from P. ovis naı¨ve and P. ovis infested sheep. Neither IgE nor IgG antibodies were detected to the rGST. Prausnitz–Ku¨stner testing with rGST did not provoke a characteristic weal and flare response. Biopsies collected at the PK test sites were stained for eosinophils, neutrophils, mast cells and basophils. Neutrophil, mast cell and basophil counts were not significantly different to the controls. Eosinophil numbers were significantly higher than controls, but were not due to an IgE response. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We describe our experiences with the design, implementation, deployment and evaluation of a Portholes tool which provides group and collaboration awareness through the Web. The research objective was to explore as to how such a system would improve communication and facilitate a shared understanding among distributed development groups. During the deployment of our Portholes system, we conducted a naturalistic study by soliciting user feedback and evolving the system in response. Many of the initial reactions of potential users indicated that our system projected the wrong image so that we designed a new version that provided explicit cues about being in public and who is looking back to suggest a social rather than information interface. We implemented the new design as a Java applet and evaluated design choices with a preference study. Our experiences with different Portholes versions and user reactions to them provide insights for designing awareness tools beyond Portholes systems. Our approach is for the studies to guide and to provide feedback for the design and technical development of our system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To our knowledge, no investigations have been undertaken to determine whether depression impacts performance on two commonly used tests to detect malingering of cognitive symptoms, the Rey 15-item Memorization Test and the Rey Dot Counting Test. This is a critical issue because of the high rate of depressive symptoms in patients with neurological conditions. It was hypothesized that depressed individuals, especially those with more severe depression, might be at risk for failing the tests, because these patients exhibit mild deficits in mental speed, visual perceptual/spatial skills, and visual memory, abilities required for successful completion of the malingering tests. However, examination of test performance in 64 older participants with major depression generally revealed very low false positive rates for most test scores, and severity of depression was unrelated to test scores. These results add to accumulating data supporting the validity of these cognitive malingering tests by documenting few false positive identifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]