'Vertige de l'hyperbole': the humours of the High-Rise

This essay assesses and compares the distinct comic registers of Wheatley’s adaptation and Ballard’s novel High-Rise. To understand how Wheatley’s adaptation has coarsened Ballard’s very particular take on the deadpan, it looks to the theories of Sigmund Freud and Paul de Man

A manifold dwelling: how Gemma Anderson-Tempini built a higher spatial home

A catalogue essay that contextualises Gemma Anderson-Tempini's installation And She Built a Crooked House, commissioned by Artangel and Leeds 2023, in the history of higher spatial thinking, and cultural responses to the idea of higher dimemnsions

Reading Redaction: Symptomatic Metadata, Erasure Poetry, and Mark Blacklock’s I’m Jack

In this article, through a reading of Mark Blacklock’s 2015 novel, I’m Jack, alongside the history of erasure poetry, I suggest that an apt literary-critical metaphor for reading redaction in contemporary literature comes from the term “metadata”. The article schematizes the ways in which redaction can work in literary contexts and points to the modalities through which supposedly blank surfaces are, in fact, textured depths that can be read

The Outcomes of Hypertransfusion in Major ABO Incompatible Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation

Major ABO incompatibility may be potentially associated with immediate or delayed hemolysis and delayed onset of erythropoiesis in patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). To determine if hemolysis can be prevented by the inhibition of graft erythropoiesis, we performed hypertransfusion and assessed red cell transfusion requirement and independence. Between October 1995 and December 2001, 28 consecutive patients receiving major ABO incompatible HSCT at Samsung Medical Center were hypertransfused to maintain their hemoglobin levels at 15 g/dL or more. We retrospectively compared the outcomes of these patients with those of 47 patients at Asan Medical Center whose target hemoglobin levels were 10 g/dL. Reticulocyte engraftment was significantly delayed in hypertransfused group (51 days vs. 23 days; p=.001). There was no significant difference in the total amount of red cells transfused within 90 days post-HSCT (25 units vs. 26 units; p=.631). No significant difference in the time to red cell transfusion independence was observed between the two groups (63 days vs. 56 days; p=.165). In conclusion, we failed to improve red cell transfusion requirement and independence in major ABO incompatible HSCT with hypertransfusion

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

PANC Study (Pancreatitis: A National Cohort Study): national cohort study examining the first 30 days from presentation of acute pancreatitis in the UK

Abstract Background Acute pancreatitis is a common, yet complex, emergency surgical presentation. Multiple guidelines exist and management can vary significantly. The aim of this first UK, multicentre, prospective cohort study was to assess the variation in management of acute pancreatitis to guide resource planning and optimize treatment. Methods All patients aged greater than or equal to 18 years presenting with acute pancreatitis, as per the Atlanta criteria, from March to April 2021 were eligible for inclusion and followed up for 30 days. Anonymized data were uploaded to a secure electronic database in line with local governance approvals. Results A total of 113 hospitals contributed data on 2580 patients, with an equal sex distribution and a mean age of 57 years. The aetiology was gallstones in 50.6 per cent, with idiopathic the next most common (22.4 per cent). In addition to the 7.6 per cent with a diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis, 20.1 per cent of patients had a previous episode of acute pancreatitis. One in 20 patients were classed as having severe pancreatitis, as per the Atlanta criteria. The overall mortality rate was 2.3 per cent at 30 days, but rose to one in three in the severe group. Predictors of death included male sex, increased age, and frailty; previous acute pancreatitis and gallstones as aetiologies were protective. Smoking status and body mass index did not affect death. Conclusion Most patients presenting with acute pancreatitis have a mild, self-limiting disease. Rates of patients with idiopathic pancreatitis are high. Recurrent attacks of pancreatitis are common, but are likely to have reduced risk of death on subsequent admissions. </jats:sec

I'm Jack

Book synopsis: In this provocative novel Mark Blacklock portrays the true and complex history of John Humble, aka Wearside Jack, the Ripper Hoaxer, a timewaster and criminal, sympathetic and revolting, the man hidden by a wall of words, a fiction-spinner worthy of textual analysis. In this remarkable work, John Humble leads the reader into an allusive, elusive labyrinth of interpretations, simultaneously hoodwinking and revealing. I’m Jack is a riveting novel about truth, lies, prison and shame. It is also a profound and furious love letter to Sunderland. It is a puzzle, a hoax, a multi-voice portrait and a virtuoso assemblage of textual elements. I’m Jack announces the arrival of a radically talented and innovative novelist

Hinton

Howard Hinton and his family are living in Japan, escaping from a scandal. Hinton's obsession is his work, his voyages into mathematical pure space, into the fourth dimension, but also his wife and sons, each of whom are entangled in the strange and unknown landscapes of Hinton's science fictions. In a bravura and startling meeting of real and philosophical elements, Mark Blacklock has created a ravishing period piece of late-Victorian social, scientific and domestic life. Hinton is about extraordinary discoveries, and terrible choices. It is about people who discover and map other realms, and what the implications might be for those of us left behind

Non-places are robbing us of life

An opinion piece celebrating the work of Marc Auge, and specifically his book Non-places: an Anthropology of Supermodernit

JG Ballard was not a prophet

Opinion piece arguing againts the idea of science fiction as capable of prediction, with a focus on the work of JG Ballar