Redefining Stewardship over Body Parts

This paper proposes one possible avenue for defining a framework to address body parts. I begin with the presumption that given the increasing use of body parts outside of our bodies, either after death or during life, society requires a framework with institutions and rules to govern our body parts. Yet there is no settled framework. Much of the controversy over differing approaches stems from whether people should be able to sell body parts. Thus, each potential framework implicitly addresses the question of monetary value. While multiple possibilities exist, the predominant models are (1) property, most often meaning ownership that permits monetary compensation; (2) stewardship, implying altruism and no monetary compensation to the donor; and (3) a compromise solution involving regulatory bodies, which could assign monetary value under certain circumstances

Conceptualising Flexibility:Challenging Representations of Time and Society in the Energy Sector

There is broad agreement that the need to decarbonise and make better use of renewable and more intermittent sources of power will require increased flexibility in energy systems. However, organisations involved in the energy sector work with very different interpretations of what this might involve. In describing how the notion of flexibility is reified, commodified, and operationalised in sometimes disparate and sometimes connected ways, we show that matters of time and timing are routinely abstracted from the social practices and forms of provision on which the rhythms of supply and demand depend. We argue that these forms of abstraction have the ironic effect of stabilising interpretations of need and demand, and of limiting rather than enabling the emergence of new practices and patterns of demand alongside, and as part of, a radically decarbonised energy system. One way out of this impasse is to conceptualise flexibility as an emergent outcome of the sequencing and synchronisation of social practices. To do so requires a more integrated and historical account of how supply and demand constitute each other and how both are implicated in the temporal organisation of everyday life. It follows that efforts to promote flexibility in the energy sector need to look beyond systems of provision, price, technology, and demand-side management narrowly defined, and instead focus on the social rhythms and the timing of what people do

La littératie financière : vers une éducation financière féministe autochtone

In this article, we demonstrate how current approaches to financial literacy education might benefit from the inclusion of Indigenous feminist perspectives. We argue that Indigenous feminisms can add a unique critical view of financial literacy education that may help to address shortcomings in ongoing conversations and practices in the field. In consideration of this, we offer a framework to change the mindset of educators from one of financial literacy to one of financial consciousness.Dans cet article, nous démontrons comment les approches actuelles en matière d’éducation financière pourraient bénéficier de l’inclusion des perspectives féministes autochtones. Nous soutenons que les féminismes autochtones peuvent ajouter une vision critique unique de l’éducation en littératie financière, ce qui pourrait aider à combler les lacunes des conversations et des pratiques en cours dans ce domaine. En tenant compte de cela, nous proposons un cadre pour changer la mentalité des éducateurs d’une mentalité de littératie financière à une mentalité de conscience financière

Characterisation of the role of two two-component signal transduction systems and a putative zinc metalloprotease in the virulence of Streptococcus pneumoniae

This thesis aimed to evaluate the contribution of several pneumococcal two-component systems to virulence by analysis of null mutants in a murine model of infection. In addition, a putative zinc metalloprotease, ZmpB, located immediately downstream of one of the TCS, was analysed for its role in virulence. Data indicated that one of the systems studied, TCS08, does not contribute significantly to virulence in serotype 2 pneumococcus, but may have a slightly more important role in a serotype 3 background. A second two-component system, TCS09, was found to be essential for virulence in a serotype 2. Despite the completely avirulent phenotype of the mutant, no difference in expression of many of the previously identified pneumococcal virulence-associated genes was detected in the mutant compared to its isogenic parental strain. Microarray analysis indicated that in serotype 2, TCS09 may be involved in nutrient perception in nutrient perception. TCS09 was found to be required for full virulence in a serotype 3 strain. In this strain, mutants appeared to be impaired in their ability to disseminate from the lungs to the blood in a pneumonia model of infection, but were not attenuated in virulence following direct inoculation into the systemic circulation. These data provide evidence that virulence determinants can behave differently based on the genetic background of the parental strain. ZmpB was found to contribute significantly to pneumococcal virulence in a serotype 3 strain. Further analysis of the contribution of this protein to infection found that ZmpB appears to have a role in promoting inflammation. Thus this work has identified ZmpB as being a novel pneumococcal virulence factor. The role of this protein in inflammation is being investigated further. This thesis has thus identified several genes important in the virulence of S. pneumoniae and work is currently ongoing to assess the potential of these genes as future vaccine or drug candidates. Data presented within this work also provides evidence that virulence determinants can behave differently based on the genetic background of the parent bacterial strain. This important observation could have significant implication for the future characterisation of pneumococcal virulence factors and may apply to other bacterial pathogens

Theories of practice and public health:understanding (un)healthy practices

Psychological understandings and individualistic theories of human behaviour and behaviour change have dominated both academic research and interventions at the ‘coalface’ of public health. Meanwhile, efforts to understand persistent inequalities in health point to structural factors, but fail to show exactly how these translate into the daily lives (and hence health) of different sectors of the population. In this paper, we suggest that social theories of practice provide an alternative paradigm to both approaches, informing significantly new ways of conceptualising and responding to some of the most pressing contemporary challenges in public health. We introduce and discuss the relevance of such an approach with reference to tobacco smoking, focusing on the life course of smoking as a practice, rather than on the characteristics of individual smokers or on broad social determinants of health. This move forces us to consider the material and symbolic elements of which smoking is comprised, and to follow the ways in which these elements have changed over time. Some of these developments have to do with the relation between smoking and other practices such as drinking alcohol, relaxing and socialising. We suggest that intervening in the future of smoking depends, in part, on understanding the nature of these alliances, and how sets of practices co-evolve. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of taking social practices as the central focus of public health policy, commenting on the benefits of such a paradigmatic turn, and on the challenges that this presents for established methods, policies and programmes

Self-Efficacy in Introductory Physics in Students at Single-Sex and Coeducational Colleges

We surveyed 88 students at four colleges: one men’s college, two women’s colleges, and one coeducational college. The questions, modified from Reid (2007), asked about in-class participation, how fulfilled they were by their achievement in their calc-based physics class, their attitude toward their class, and their self-efficacy (Bandura 1994) in the class. While a t-test showed no difference between men and women, an ANOVA showed a significant interaction between sex and type of school. Detailed results will be presented and discussed

Ethical Guidelines for Social Work Supervisors in Rural Settings

Little research literature exists integrating ethics, supervision, and rural/small community practice. This paper reports results of a study conducted by a joint student-faculty team. The study engaged supervisors in rural and small communities in two Midwestern states in semi-structured interviews. Interview data were then used to develop guidelines for BSW students about what constitutes ethical supervisory practice in rural environments

Value of Mendelian Laws of Segregation in Families: Data Quality Control, Imputation, and Beyond

When analyzing family data, we dream of perfectly informative data, even whole-genome sequences (WGSs) for all family members. Reality intervenes, and we find that next-generation sequencing (NGS) data have errors and are often too expensive or impossible to collect on everyone. The Genetic Analysis Workshop 18 working groups on quality control and dropping WGSs through families using a genome-wide association framework focused on finding, correcting, and using errors within the available sequence and family data, developing methods to infer and analyze missing sequence data among relatives, and testing for linkage and association with simulated blood pressure. We found that single-nucleotide polymorphisms, NGS data, and imputed data are generally concordant but that errors are particularly likely at rare variants, for homozygous genotypes, within regions with repeated sequences or structural variants, and within sequence data imputed from unrelated individuals. Admixture complicated identification of cryptic relatedness, but information from Mendelian transmission improved error detection and provided an estimate of the de novo mutation rate. Computationally, fast rule-based imputation was accurate but could not cover as many loci or subjects as more computationally demanding probability-based methods. Incorporating population-level data into pedigree-based imputation methods improved results. Observed data outperformed imputed data in association testing, but imputed data were also useful. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of existing methods and suggest possible future directions, such as improving communication between data collectors and data analysts, establishing thresholds for and improving imputation quality, and incorporating error into imputation and analytical models

Secondary metabolites from Pseudomonas fluorescens and Microcystis aerugionosa : isolation, structure elucidation, and quantification

This study focused on two separate topics. First, potentially beneficial products from the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens were investigated and in the second, methods were developed for the detection of toxins produced by the blue-green alga Microcystis aeruginosa. In both studies, a variety of separation techniques in conjunction with spectroscopic analytical detection methods were utilized. Three secondary metabolites were isolated from cultured broth of Pseudomonas fluorescens NCIB 10586. From these studies the structures of these compounds were found to correlated with those for tryptophol, indole-3-aldehyde, and indole-3-carboxylic acid. These compounds were all found to be quorum-sensing compounds, and have the potential to interfere with quorum sensing processes in other bacteria. The quorum sensing properties displayed by these compounds may account for the auxin-like characteristics common among this group of molecules. A fourth unrelated compound, that displayed no quorum sensing activity was also isolated, but the structure of this compound could not be determined based on the spectroscopic data obtained. A new sample preparation strategy and quantification method has been established to improve the detection of microcystins, potent hepatotoxins produced by the cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa, in natural waters. Both C18 column and hydrophilic liquid interaction (HILIC) chromatography methods were developed using several common microcystin standards. Based on the HILIC system, quantification curves for microcystin LR (MCLR), microcystin RR (MCRR), and microcystin YR (MCYR) were produced using LC/MS detection. Based on this study the LOD for each of these microcystins was found to be 0.08 µg/L, below the current maximum allowable level for microcystins in drinking water supplies

Flexibilities in energy supply and demand: Legacies and lessons from the past

The goal of maintaining current levels of energy supply and demand whilst reducing their carbon intensity will require greater use of renewables. As a result, new forms of flexibility will be needed. While the emerging “flexibility industry” promises solutions based on current configurations, this collection shows that the problem of managing fluctuations in the relation between supply demand is not new. The papers included in this special issue work with different approaches and scales of analysis, but all show that lessons for balancing energy supply and demand today can be drawn from the past. Just as important, they show that the legacies of past practices and infrastructures live on and have effect in contemporary energy systems