The embodied becoming of autism and childhood: a storytelling methodology

In this article I explore a methodology of storytelling as a means of bringing together research around autism and childhood in a new way, as a site of the embodied becoming of autism and childhood. Through reflection on an ethnographic story of embodiment, the body is explored as a site of knowledge production that contests its dominantly storied subjectivation as a ‘disordered’ child. Storytelling is used to experiment with a line of flight from the autistic-child-research assemblage into new spaces of potential and possibility where the becomings of bodies within the collision of autism and childhood can be celebrated

ProPIG - Organic pig health, welfare and environmental impact across Europe

Organic production is perceived by consumers as being superior in animal welfare and sustainability and the demand for organic pork products is slowly increasing. Within the past ten years a variety of husbandry and management systems have been developed across the EU, ranging from farms with pigs outdoors all year round using local breeds to farms with housed pigs having concrete outside runs and using conventional breeds (CorePIG, Rousing et al, 2011). So far, mainly clinical parameters have been used to describe the health situation on organic pig farms, identifying some key problems, such as weaning diarrhoea and piglet mortality. Organic pig production is - amongst others - characterised through a holistic approach based on the EU Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 and the IFOAM principles: ‘health, ecology, fairness and care’. This clearly states that health is more than absence of clinical symptoms and, the relation between animals and their environment is identified: ‘Health’ is defined as ‘the wholeness and integrity of living systems. It is not simply the absence of illness, but the maintenance of physical, mental, social and ecological well-being’ (IFOAM; 2006). Concepts of animal welfare include physical and mental welfare as well as the concept of naturalness (Fraser 2003), which is often interpreted as the ability to perform natural behaviour. Verhoog et al (2003) describe three main approaches within organic agriculture’s concept of nature and naturalness: the no-chemicals approach, the agro-ecology approach and the integrity approach. Applying those concepts to organic pig production can highlight potential conflicts: outdoor systems are perceived as the optimal housing system for pigs, as they allow natural behaviour such as rooting. However, this behaviour can cause damage to the grass cover and furthermore the manure fate in outdoor areas needs to be considered. A few studies on outdoor pig production have shown a clear N and P surplus and a high degree of distribution heterogeneity in outdoor areas, increasing the risk of N and P losses (Watson et al. 2003). Robust and competitive organic pig production needs to encompass low environmental impacts and good animal health and welfare. So far few studies have quantified both aspects in different pig husbandry systems. In addition, the theory that improving animal health and welfare reduces environmental impacts through decreased medicine use, improved growth rate and feed conversion efficiency has still to be verified. The aim of the CoreOrganic2 project ProPIG (2011-2014; carried out in eight European countries) is to examine the relationship between health, welfare and environmental impact. On-farm assessment protocols will be carried out on 75 farms in three pig husbandry systems (outdoor, partly outdoor, indoor with concrete outside run). Environmental impact will be assessed using both Life Cycle Assessment and calculations of nutrient balances at farm and outdoor area level. Animal health and welfare will be evaluated from animal based parameters including clinical and selected behavioural parameters. Results will be fed back and used by the farmers to decide farm specific goals and strategies to achieve these goals. As an outcome, all farms will create their individual health, welfare and environmental plan, which will be reviewed after one year to allow continuous development. This will provide the opportunity not only to investigate, but also improve the influence of organic pig farming systems on animal welfare and environmental impact. This fulfils the fourth IFOAM principle of care: ‘Organic Agriculture should be managed in a precautionary and responsible manner to protect the health and well-being of current and future generations and the environment’ (IFOAM, 2006)

Nuclear dependence of the transverse-single-spin asymmetry for forward neutron production in polarized pp++AA collisions at sNN=200\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200 GeV

During 2015 the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provided collisions of transversely polarized protons with Au and Al nuclei for the first time, enabling the exploration of transverse-single-spin asymmetries with heavy nuclei. Large single-spin asymmetries in very forward neutron production have been previously observed in transversely polarized $p$$+$$p$ collisions at RHIC, and the existing theoretical framework that was successful in describing the single-spin asymmetry in $p$$+$$p$ collisions predicts only a moderate atomic-mass-number ($A$) dependence. In contrast, the asymmetries observed at RHIC in $p$$+$$A$ collisions showed a surprisingly strong $A$ dependence in inclusive forward neutron production. The observed asymmetry in $p$$+$Al collisions is much smaller, while the asymmetry in $p$$+$Au collisions is a factor of three larger in absolute value and of opposite sign. The interplay of different neutron production mechanisms is discussed as a possible explanation of the observed $A$ dependence.Comment: 315 authors, 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. v2 is version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

Pseudorapidity Dependence of Particle Production and Elliptic Flow in Asymmetric Nuclear Collisions of p+Al, p+Au, d+Au, and ^{3}He+Au at sqrt[s_{NN}]=200 GeV.

Asymmetric nuclear collisions of p+Al, p+Au, d+Au, and ^{3}He+Au at sqrt[s_{NN}]=200  GeV provide an excellent laboratory for understanding particle production, as well as exploring interactions among these particles after their initial creation in the collision. We present measurements of charged hadron production dN_{ch}/dη in all such collision systems over a broad pseudorapidity range and as a function of collision multiplicity. A simple wounded quark model is remarkably successful at describing the full data set. We also measure the elliptic flow v_{2} over a similarly broad pseudorapidity range. These measurements provide key constraints on models of particle emission and their translation into flow

The CCR4-NOT Complex Physically and Functionally Interacts with TRAMP and the Nuclear Exosome

BACKGROUND: Ccr4-Not is a highly conserved multi-protein complex consisting in yeast of 9 subunits, including Not5 and the major yeast deadenylase Ccr4. It has been connected functionally in the nucleus to transcription by RNA polymerase II and in the cytoplasm to mRNA degradation. However, there has been no evidence so far that this complex is important for RNA degradation in the nucleus. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this work we point to a new role for the Ccr4-Not complex in nuclear RNA metabolism. We determine the importance of the Ccr4-Not complex for the levels of non-coding nuclear RNAs, such as mis-processed and polyadenylated snoRNAs, whose turnover depends upon the nuclear exosome and TRAMP. Consistently, mutation of both the Ccr4-Not complex and the nuclear exosome results in synthetic slow growth phenotypes. We demonstrate physical interactions between the Ccr4-Not complex and the exosome. First, Not5 co-purifies with the exosome. Second, several exosome subunits co-purify with the Ccr4-Not complex. Third, the Ccr4-Not complex is important for the integrity of large exosome-containing complexes. Finally, we reveal a connection between the Ccr4-Not complex and TRAMP through the association of the Mtr4 helicase with the Ccr4-Not complex and the importance of specific subunits of Ccr4-Not for the association of Mtr4 with the nuclear exosome subunit Rrp6. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We propose a model in which the Ccr4-Not complex may provide a platform contributing to dynamic interactions between the nuclear exosome and its co-factor TRAMP. Our findings connect for the first time the different players involved in nuclear and cytoplasmic RNA degradation