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Herta Müller’s work is permeated with images of death and violence associated with the natural world. Plants, processes of growth and decay, and even the earth itself are represented as sentient and threatening, as collaborators with the Ceauşescu regime and enemies of humanity. This trope, part of a wider denaturalisation of food, eating and the natural cycle I term obscene consumption, is particularly evident in the 1994 novel Herztier but can be traced back through earlier works to the author’s first and most enduring artistic preoccupation: the Holocaust. Building on theories of the concentrationary imaginary and Lazarean art, this article explores the role of cultural memory in the creation of Müller’s imagery and argues for a re-evaluation of her writing as a significant contribution to the literature of post-fascism both within and beyond Germany.

The Last Termination (19 000–11 000 a BP) with its rapid and distinct climate shifts provides a perfect laboratory to study the nature and regional impact of climate variability. The sedimentary succession from the ancient lake at Hässeldala Port in southern Sweden with its distinct Lateglacial/early Holocene stratigraphy (>14.1–9.5 cal. ka BP) is one of the few chronologically well‐constrained, multi‐proxy sites in Europe that capture a variety of local and regional climatic and environmental signals. Here we present Hässeldala's multi‐proxy records (lithology, geochemistry, pollen, diatoms, chironomids, biomarkers, hydrogen isotopes) in a refined age model and place the observed changes in lake status, catchment vegetation, summer temperatures and hydroclimate in a wider regional context. Reconstructed mean July temperatures increased between c. 14.1 and c. 13.1 cal. ka BP and subsequently declined. This latter cooling coincided with drier hydroclimatic conditions that were probably associated with a freshening of the Nordic Seas and started a few hundred years before the onset of Greenland Stadial 1 (c. 12.9 cal. ka BP). Our proxies suggest a further shift towards colder and drier conditions as late as c. 12.7 cal. ka BP, which was followed by the establishment of a stadial climate regime (c. 12.5–11.8 cal. ka BP). The onset of warmer and wetter conditions preceded the Holocene warming over Greenland by c. 200 years. Hässeldala's proxies thus highlight the complexity of environmental and hydrological responses across abrupt climate transitions in northern Europe.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the work between statutory sector partners in Staffordshire to establish a transformational rather than transactional health and well being board and its approach to resource allocation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes the principles and process of achieving a shared ambition for Staffordshire, and the practical and strategic considerations of taking a broader and more ambitious approach than current guidance recommends.FindingsSupporting individual organisations to achieve their statutory requirements within the context of the shared vision, and using customer insight intelligently to influence the decision‐making process, are critical to success. The challenge of moving resources in times of financial hardship and organisational flux should not be underestimated.Practical implicationsThe process of moving resources into prevention and early intervention cannot be done in a “one size fits all” way and has to be considered as part of a differentiated approach. In addition, organisations must be willing to cede influence and resources to support the vision, thus challenging culture and traditional organisational boundaries and structures.Social implicationsThe process described in the paper is designed to improve health and well being for citizens in Staffordshire, tackling inequality in an integrated, targeted and proportionate way.Originality/valueThis is an emerging example of “whole system” integration.

A multi-proxy Lateglacial environmental record is described from Sluggan Bog in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Pollen, plant macrofossil, charcoal, sediment chemistry, stable isotope and sedimentological data provide a multi-faceted picture of local and regional environmental changes during the transition from the Last Cold Stage to the beginning of the present interglacial, and enable a series of distinctive palaeoenvironmental ‘events’ to be identified. A combination of radiometric and AMS radiocarbon dates on both humic and humin sediment fractions, and on charcoal fragments and plant macrofossils, provides one of the most closely-constrained radiocarbon timescales for any Lateglacial site in the British Isles. The evidence suggests that an initial period of warm conditions, beginning in the Sluggan record around 14.2 ka b2k (before AD 2000), and when open Salix-Betula woodland was locally present, was succeeded first by a heathland phase, then by a re-establishment of wood and scrub, before this was replaced during the later part of the Lateglacial (Woodgrange) Interstadial by species-rich grassland. In terms of timing, this sequence corresponds very closely to the GI-1e, GI-1d, GI-1c series of events in the Greenland NGRIP ice core. A short-lived Betula phase towards the end of the interstadial in the Sluggan sequence may reflect the short-lived climatic warming of GI-1a, although the radiocarbon age model suggests that it occurred prior to that event. There is a similar age discrepancy between the two sequences at the end of the interstadial with the onset of the Nahanagan (Younger Dryas) Stadial in Sluggan appearing to predate that in NGRIP by up to 200 yrs. By contrast, there is a very close correspondence between the date on the onset of the Holocene inferred from the pollen record in Sluggan (11.69 ka b2k) and the age of the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary (11.7 ka b2k) in NGRIP. While uncertainties remain over the climatic signals in the later interstadial, the evidence suggests that during the early and mid-interstadial and at the onset of the Holocene, Northern Ireland and Greenland appear to have been broadly phase-locked in their response to hemispherical climate change.

Histone acetylation is a fundamental mechanism in the regulation of local chromatin conformation and gene expression. Research has focused on the impact of altered epigenetic environments on the expression of specific genes and their pathways. However, changes in histone acetylation also have a global impact on the cell. In this study we used digital texture analysis to assess global chromatin patterns following treatment with trichostatin A (TSA) and have observed significant alterations in the condensation and distribution of higher-order chromatin, which were associated with altered gene expression profiles in both immortalised normal PNT1A prostate cell line and androgen-dependent prostate cancer cell line LNCaP. Furthermore, the extent of TSA-induced disruption was both cell cycle and cell line dependent. This was illustrated by the identification of sub-populations of prostate cancer cells expressing high levels of H3K9 acetylation in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle that were absent in normal cell populations. In addition, the analysis of enriched populations of G1 cells showed a global decondensation of chromatin exclusively in normal cells.

Casting a vote on election day is one of the most important things we do as citizens in a democracy. Everyone who is entitled to should be able to register to vote and vote. We want people to know voting is as straightforward, accessible and secure as possible. We want to make sure people receive a consistently high-quality service wherever they live.

In 1997 Nirex failed to obtain planning permission to build an underground laboratory (Rock Characterisation Facility) near the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, North-West England. This stopped the UK’s deep disposal programme. Since then there has been much discussion on how the UK should take the issue of long-term radioactive waste management forward. As part of its contribution to the ongoing debate, Nirex needed to reassess how its role in finding a long-term solution could be better played given its history. It has been suggested that the processes required to deal with such a contentious issue, the conduct of individuals and the structural relationships between organisations, all need to change if any progress is to be made. Specifically, one of the difficulties of the past was the lack of a mechanism to allow all stakeholders and the public to clearly see what had been decided and for what reasons. It is suggested that central to these changes needs to be a strong ethical framework based on transparency. This paper will provide an overview of the Nirex Transparency Policy, its operation and some observations of putting it into practice. As a method of ensuring that Nirex does not get complacent about this important aspect of their work, it established an Independent Transparency Review Panel. As part of this panel’s remit they conduct an annual review of the operation of Nirex’s Transparency Policy. Some conclusions and recommendations of operating such a policy will be discussed as will the implications of forthcoming legislation.Copyright © 2003 by ASME

Lena Krichewsky, Olivier Milhaud, Laura Pettinaroli & Marie Scot (Eds), Barbara Budrich, 2011,, ISBN 978-3-86649-3865, €36.00 (pbk), 506 pp. This edited volume has the subtitle ‘Sociology, Politica...

In order to achieve optimal BALSS function, preparation of porcine hepatocytes with high yield, viability, and P450 activity is known to be important. To date hepatocyte yields have varied from 0.58 × 1010 to 3.45 × 10 and viabilities from 75% to 95% within and between laboratories, even when using the same digestion methods and procedures, indicating that hepatocyte isolation during porcine liver digestion is not fully optimized. The aim of this work was to identify the critical parameters affecting cell recovery during porcine liver harvesting by investigating 21 variables involved in the process, including pig body and liver weight, different digestion times of perfusates, pH, a range of concentrations of sodium and chloride in EDTA, and collagenase perfusates. Univariate and multivariate analysis of a retrospective study (n = 23) revealed that low perfusate pH during the process of digestion had a positive effect on hepatocyte yield (p < 0.05), while high (relative) concentrations of sodium and chloride in the perfusates had significant negative effects on hepatocyte viability (both p < 0.05). Sodium and chloride had narrow optimal ranges for achieving a >90% viability. These findings were then tested in a prospective study (n = 10) and further verified. High hepatocyte viabilities (91.8 ± 1.6%, p = 0.036) and yields (2.56 ± 0.48 × 1010) were achieved consistently, and P450IA1 activity was increased after sodium and chloride concentrations and pH in the perfusates were controlled. The physiological mechanism by which sodium and chloride affects hepatocyte viability during porcine liver digestion is discussed.

Alison Margaret Watson died after a short final illness borne with dignity and grace. She started general practice in Colchester, then Thatcham and Reading, combining it and her many other roles with skill. She was a GP trainer for 13 years, then course organiser on Reading …

This paper reviews some major advances in our understanding of the organization of afferent pain pathways, and relates these and other findings to the limited success rate achieved by various surgical interventions used in the treatment of chronic intractable pain. First-order pain afferents, many of which use the transmitter substance P, may enter the spinal cord via both the dorsal and ventral roots. After terminating superficially in the dorsal horn, information may apparently ascend to higher centres via numerous pathways, some of which are contralateral some ipsilateral. The preferred route to the primary somatosensory cortex appears to be the contralateral spinothalamic tract, but alternate pathways may be recruited following anterolateral cordotomy or thalamotomy. In addition to divergence of the central pain pathways and the presence of ventral root afferents, other factors considered that may contribute to surgical failure include denervation supersensitivity, the occurrence of prolonged spontaneous injury discharge, and divergence of the peripheral branches of nociceptive fibres.