Playing on the boundaries: a childhood across cultural and geographical lines

This is not a conventional paper. It is a personal narrative. It is subjective not only to its author but to the child-self of the author. It is not a detached academic look at a personal history. In fact it could be described more as ‘archaeological’ than historical; an examination of what appears to be a random collection of fragments of a personal history, found in memory and artefacts of a childhood. The telling of the story is an attempt to understand the development and trajectory of an individual identity across geographical, cultural, and religious boundaries. It is not the whole story, but it gives the writer and the reader a few selected pieces of the full picture

The effect of network topology on the stability of discrete state models of genetic control

Boolean networks have been proposed as potentially useful models for genetic control. An important aspect of these networks is the stability of their dynamics in response to small perturbations. Previous approaches to stability have assumed uncorrelated random network structure. Real gene networks typically have nontrivial topology significantly different from the random network paradigm. In order to address such situations, we present a general method for determining the stability of large Boolean networks of any specified network topology and predicting their steady-state behavior in response to small perturbations. Additionally, we generalize to the case where individual genes have a distribution of `expression biases,' and we consider non-synchronous update, as well as extension of our method to non-Boolean models in which there are more than two possible gene states. We find that stability is governed by the maximum eigenvalue of a modified adjacency matrix, and we test this result by comparison with numerical simulations. We also discuss the possible application of our work to experimentally inferred gene networks.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures; added supplementary information, fixed typos and figure, reformatte

Memories of childhood in post-war Grimsby

This paper details the vivid memories of the author’s childhood in the fishing port of Grimsby, shortly after the Second World War. It was a time of shortages, overcrowding, improvisation and cannibalisation of anything that could be re-used. In time it became a period of reconstruction but not without its upheavals and difficulties. It begins in the ‘old town’ of workers’ small terrace houses, typically in a poor state of repair. Then it moves to the ‘new’ council estates. Similarly, the narrative also begins with a ‘Victorian’ technology of steam, coal and horses with very few petrol-engined vehicles and moves to the very beginnings of early consumer society. The principal analytic content of the paper concerns the status of what is clearly a ‘personal history’ – if that is not too great a contradiction – or as the author suggests: my story. The obvious ‘critical’ response – that it could have been otherwise – is contrasted against the suggestion that this story is a non-negotiable foundation of the author’s identity and that this ‘critical’ response is not appropriate. Some of the interdisciplinary options thrown up by this problem are considered

The Influence of Prednisolone (PRED) and Methotrexate (MTX) on the Cell and Connective Tissue Content of Subcutaneously Implanted Polyurethane Sponges in Rats

Findings indicate that prednislone and methotrexate have profound effects on the cellular events of acute and chronic inflammation, and influence the synthesis or degradation of connective tissue macromolecules at certain stages of the inflammatory process

A sociologist teaches history: some epistemological and pedagogical reflections

This article discusses the concept of ‘historical sociology’ in relation to the teaching of a module on an undergraduate degree in Education Studies at a university in the United Kingdom. The module examines the history of education policy in England from 1870 until the present day. Drawing upon comparisons with Social Foundations of Education programs in the United States, I examine some key epistemological and pedagogical issues raised by the inter-disciplinary approach to teaching and learning followed within the module in which we combine historical and sociological perspectives as a means to understand the evolution of the English education system. In particular, using Bernstein’s concept of the pedagogic device as an analytical framework, I consider the epistemological congruence of sociology and history as the contributory disciplines of the undergraduate module. From a discussion of the concept of historical sociology, I conclude that although sociology and history are distinct subjects, they share a large amount of analytical ground which thus facilitates the inter-disciplinary approach pursued within the module. Following that, I examine some pedagogical issues that have arisen in my experience of teaching upon the module and I discuss how I have addressed these. I conclude the article by making comparisons to relevant examples from pedagogical practices in Social Foundations of Education programs in the United States

One-Step Preservation of Phosphoproteins and Tissue Morphology at Room Temperature for Diagnostic and Research Specimens

BACKGROUND: There is an urgent need to measure phosphorylated cell signaling proteins in cancer tissue for the individualization of molecular targeted kinase inhibitor therapy. However, phosphoproteins fluctuate rapidly following tissue procurement. Snap-freezing preserves phosphoproteins, but is unavailable in most clinics and compromises diagnostic morphology. Formalin fixation preserves tissue histomorphology, but penetrates tissue slowly, and is unsuitable for stabilizing phosphoproteins. We originated and evaluated a novel one-step biomarker and histology preservative (BHP) chemistry that stabilizes signaling protein phosphorylation and retains formalin-like tissue histomorphology with equivalent immunohistochemistry in a single paraffin block. RESULTS: Total protein yield extracted from BHP-fixed, routine paraffin-embedded mouse liver was 100% compared to snap-frozen tissue. The abundance of 14 phosphorylated proteins was found to be stable over extended fixation times in BHP fixed paraffin embedded human colon mucosa. Compared to matched snap-frozen tissue, 8 phosphoproteins were equally preserved in mouse liver, while AMPKβ1 Ser108 was slightly elevated after BHP fixation. More than 25 tissues from mouse, cat and human specimens were evaluated for preservation of histomorphology. Selected tissues were evaluated in a multi-site, independent pathology review. Tissue fixed with BHP showed equivalent preservation of cytoplasmic and membrane cytomorphology, with significantly better nuclear chromatin preservation by BHP compared to formalin. Immunohistochemical staining of 13 non-phosphorylated proteins, including estrogen receptor alpha, progesterone receptor, Ki-67 and Her2, was equal to or stronger in BHP compared to formalin. BHP demonstrated significantly improved immunohistochemical detection of phosphorylated proteins ERK Thr202/Tyr204, GSK3-α/β Ser21/Ser9, p38-MAPK Thr180/Tyr182, eIF4G Ser1108 and Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase Ser79. CONCLUSION: In a single paraffin block BHP preserved the phosphorylation state of several signaling proteins at a level comparable to snap-freezing, while maintaining the full diagnostic immunohistochemical and histomorphologic detail of formalin fixation. This new tissue fixative has the potential to greatly facilitate personalized medicine, biobanking, and phospho-proteomic research

Durability of treatment effects of the Sleep Position Trainer versus oral appliance therapy in positional OSA: 12-month follow-up of a randomized controlled trial

The Sleep Position Trainer (SPT) is a new option for treating patients with positional obstructive sleep apnea (POSA). This study investigated long-term efficacy, adherence, and quality of life during use of the SPT device compared with oral appliance therapy (OAT) in patients with POSA. This prospective, multicenter trial randomized patients with mild to moderate POSA (apnea-hypopnea index [AHI] 5-30/h) to SPT or OAT. Polysomnography was performed at baseline and after 3 and 12 months' follow-up. The primary endpoint was OSA severity; adherence, quality of life, and adverse events were also assessed. Ninety-nine patients were randomized and 58 completed the study (29 in each group). Median AHI in the SPT group decreased from 13.2/h at baseline to 7.1/h after 12 months (P < 0.001); corresponding values in the OAT group were 13.4/h and 5.0/h (P < 0.001), with no significant between-group difference (P = 1.000). Improvements throughout the study were maintained at 12 months. Long-term median adherence was also similar in the two treatment groups; the proportion of patients who used their device for ≥ 4 h for 5 days in a week was 100% in the SPT group and 97.0% in the OAT group (P = 0.598). The efficacy of SPT therapy was maintained over 12 months and was comparable to that of OAT in patients with mild to moderate POSA. Adherence was relatively high, and similar in the two groups. www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02045576