Editors Note

The Society for Comparative Cultural Inquiry at UCL (SCCI) is delighted to introduce the fourth issue of our postgraduate journal, Tropos. The papers included were all presented at the 2016 Conference, titled ‘Belonging and Transgression’. The papers addressed a wide variety of disciplinary interests in connection with the title theme, intended to allow a point of convergence for scholars from a number of eclectic intellectual backgrounds. The submissions each explored how notions of Belonging and Transgression could be understood and interpreted across a number of cultural, linguistic, and theoretical contexts. This edition of Tropos presents an exclusive selection of the papers presented at the conference, which in 2016 enjoyed its fourth year running. The conference was held at University College London on 23rd-24th June 2016 and was organised by members of the Society from both the School of European Language, Culture, and Societies (SELCS) and the Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry (CMII). It featured numerous postgraduate speakers from across the UK and Europe as well as keynote addresses from Professor Mairéad Hanrahan (Chair of French, UCL) and Professor John Sutherland (Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature, UCL) The research presented at the conference drew on a wide variety of disciplines, speaking to a range of different subjects as diverse as writings on the politics of AIDS/HIV in France, the 16th century legal discussions on the rights of free-movement of peoples, and mid-twentieth century Hungarian theatre. The conference stimulated lively discussions provoked by the theme and the different methods of addressing it throughout the papers. These conversations continued long after the formal proceedings concluded. We are delighted to share a selection of the papers from this conference with you in these pages, and we hope that a similarly lasting discussion will occur between you, the reader, and the articles in this third edition of Tropos. The conference series will continue in 2017 and organised by the Graduate Society for Comparative Cultural Inquiry

Genome Sequence of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia PML168, Which Displays Baeyer-Villiger Monooxygenase Activity

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia PML168 was isolated from Wembury Beach on the English Coast from a rock pool following growth and selection on agar plates. Here we present the permanent draft genome sequence, which has allowed prediction of function for several genes encoding enzymes relevant to industrial biotechnology, including a novel flavoprotein monooxygenase

Optical manipulation of sphingolipid biosynthesis using photoswitchable ceramides

Ceramides are central intermediates of sphingolipid metabolism that also function as potent messengers in stress signaling and apoptosis. Progress in understanding how ceramides execute their biological roles is hampered by a lack of methods to manipulate their cellular levels and metabolic fate with appropriate spatiotemporal precision. Here, we report on clickable, azobenzene-containing ceramides, caCers, as photoswitchable metabolic substrates to exert optical control over sphingolipid production in cells. Combining atomic force microscopy on model bilayers with metabolic tracing studies in cells, we demonstrate that light-induced alterations in the lateral packing of caCers lead to marked differences in their metabolic conversion by sphingomyelin synthase and glucosylceramide synthase. These changes in metabolic rates are instant and reversible over several cycles of photoswitching. Our findings disclose new opportunities to probe the causal roles of ceramides and their metabolic derivatives in a wide array of sphingolipid-dependent cellular processes with the spatiotemporal precision of light

Seeds of Complexity: An Archaeobotanical Study of Incipient Social Complexity at Late Chalcolithic Çadır Höyük, Turkey

Çadır Höyük, a mounded site on the north central Anatolian plateau occupied almost continuously from the Middle Chalcolithic through the Byzantine periods (5200 B.C.E.–1300 C.E.) yielded over 460 m2 of excavated LC remains. This period witnessed rapid cultural and environmental change providing an opportunity to examine how populations react. Archaeobotany, the study of the relationship between ancient plants and people, is an ideal tool to examine how populations reacted due to plants’ direct relationship with the environment and the fact that plant use can be controlled at both the household and state level. This study presents data from 60 archaeobotanical samples spanning three periods of occupation (3500–3200 B.C.E., 3200 B.C.E., and 3200–3000 B.C.E.) to determine how the population at Çadır modified agricultural and fuel use practices between 3500 and 3000 B.C.E. using descriptive and multivariate statistics. Results reveal that the inhabitants of Çadır relied heavily on barley, emmer, lentils, and flax throughout the LC and dung fuel was preferentially used across the site. Prior to 3200 B.C.E., plant use was stricter and more controlled and animals were routinely provisioned with fodder. After 3200 B.C.E., plant use norms became less strict and the environmental change caused a shift towards provisioning animals through pasturing. This shift to grazing did not fundamentally change the role of plant cultivation at Çadır, just the role of some taxa from fodder to food. By shifting emphasis from agriculture to agropastoralism after 3200 B.C.E., the population at Çadır was able to weather these changes

The course of mental health problems in children presenting with abdominal pain in general practice

Objective. To investigate the course of mental health problems in children presenting to general practice with abdominal pain and to evaluate the extent to which abdominal pain characteristics during follow-up predict the presence of mental health problems at 12 months' follow-up. Design. A prospective cohort study with one-year follow-up. Setting. 53 general practices in the Netherlands, between May 2004 and March 2006. Subjects. 281 children aged 4-17 years. Main outcome measures. The presence of a depressive problem, an anxiety problem, and multiple non-specific somatic symptoms at follow-up and odds ratios of duration, frequency, and severity of abdominal pain with these mental health problems at follow-up. Results. A depressive problem persisted in 24/74 children (32.9%; 95% CI 22.3-44.9%), an anxiety problem in 13/43 (30.2%; 95% CI 17.2-46.1%) and the presence of multiple non-specific somatic symptoms in 75/170 children (44.1%; 95% CI 36.7-51.6%). None of the abdominal pain characteristics predicted a depressive or an anxiety problem at 12 months' follow-up. More moments of moderate to severe abdominal pain predicted the presence of multiple nonspecific somatic symptoms at follow-up. Conclusions. In one-third of the children presenting to general practice for abdominal pain, anxiety and depressive problems persist during one year of follow-up. Characteristics of the abdominal pain during the follow-up period do not predict anxiety or depressive problems after one-year follow-up. We recommend following over time children seen in primary care with abdominal pain

Back pain in Portuguese schoolchildren: prevalence and risk factors

2 Centre of Research, Education, Innovation and Intervention In Sport, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Portugal Background: Regarding children aged _10 years, only a few international studies were conducted to determine the prevalence of and risk factors for back pain. Although other studies on the older Portuguese children point to prevalence between 17% and 39%, none exists for this specific age-group. Thus, the aim of this study was conducted to establish the prevalence of and risk factors for back pain in schoolchildren aged 7–10 years. Methods: A cross-sectional survey among 637 children was conducted. A self-rating questionnaire was used to verify prevalence and duration of back pain, life habits, school absence, medical treatments or limitation of activities. For posture assessment, photographic records with a bio-photogrammetric analysis were used to obtain data about head, acromion and pelvic alignment, horizontal alignment of the scapulae, vertical alignment of the trunk and vertical body alignment. Results: Postural problems were found in 25.4% of the children, especially in the 8- and 9-year-old groups. Back pain occurs in 12.7% with the highest values among the 7- and 10-year-old children. The probability of back pain increased 7 times when the children presented a history of school absences, 4.3 times when they experienced sleeping difficulties, 4.4 times when school furniture was uncomfortable, 4.7 times if the children perceived an occurrence of parental back pain and 2.5 times when children presented incorrect posture. Conclusions: The combination of school absences, parental pain, sleeping difficulties, inappropriate school furniture and postural deviations at the sagittal and frontal planes seem to prove the multifactorial aetiology of back pain

PainDroid: An android-based virtual reality application for pain assessment

Earlier studies in the field of pain research suggest that little efficient intervention currently exists in response to the exponential increase in the prevalence of pain. In this paper, we present an Android application (PainDroid) with multimodal functionality that could be enhanced with Virtual Reality (VR) technology, which has been designed for the purpose of improving the assessment of this notoriously difficult medical concern. Pain- Droid has been evaluated for its usability and acceptability with a pilot group of potential users and clinicians, with initial results suggesting that it can be an effective and usable tool for improving the assessment of pain. Participant experiences indicated that the application was easy to use and the potential of the application was similarly appreciated by the clinicians involved in the evaluation. Our findings may be of considerable interest to healthcare providers, policy makers, and other parties that might be actively involved in the area of pain and VR research