Education, Covid-19 and care : social inequality and social relations of value in the South Africa and the United States

Abstract:Education has not been spared during the Covid-19 pandemic that has exposed deep inequalities across the world along lines of ‘race’, class, gender and geography, as well as the digital divide. However, many of the policy responses and solutions proffered to mitigate the crisis fail to address the generative structures that made public education institutions so vulnerable to shocks in the first place. Using the work of Nancy Fraser and Social Reproduction Theory (Bhattacharya, 2017), we argue that understanding the prevailing capitalist social institutional order, and the relations it generates between spheres of production and spheres of reproduction (including education), is fundamental to theories of change that not only respond to the Covid-19 moment justly, but also avoid reproducing and deepening the conditions that made Covid so cataclysmic to begin with. By analysing the conditions of public education across South Africa and the United States comparatively, a case is built for distinguishing between affirmative responses that leave inequitable structures intact and transformative responses that seek to address the root causes of injustice and violence amplified by the pandemic

Small Business Identity and Entrepreneurial Identity in a Destination Resort Town: Are Birds of a Feather Flocking to the Beach?

Identities can be considered an intangible resource when they support the competitive advantage of a firm. Some work has shown that the context of an organization matters but will that hold true at a beach location filled with large numbers of micro-businesses and small businesses where entrepreneurs and small business owners engage their world both as individuals and as organizations? We examine the literature on identity and utilize a zoomorphic metaphor to elicit unbiased understandings of the coherence or dissonance of entrepreneurial and organizational identities. We found some intriguing results showing unexpected similarities and an affinity for coherent identities

An independent review into the impact on employment outcomes of drug or alcohol addiction, and obesity.

With drugs and alcohol, our research has highlighted three main areas where action is needed: • Addiction treatment does not, in itself, ensure employment, though it brings other social gains. Work has not hitherto been an integral part of treatment, and it needs to be if progress is to be made. • The benefits system, which has a central role in helping people enter or return to work, requires significant change. The system is hampered by a severe lack of information on health conditions, poor incentives for staff to tackle difficult or long-term cases, and a patchy offer of support for those who are reached. • Employers are the gatekeepers to employment and, without their co-operation employment for our cohorts is impossible. Employers are understandably reluctant to hire people with addiction and/or criminal records. They have told us that they need Government, quite simply, to de-risk these recruitment decisions for them. Part 1 – Drugs and alcohol: employment outcomes, the benefit system and the role of employers p.16 • Chapter 1 Improving the employment outcomes of drug and alcohol dependent people: the role of treatment p.17 • Chapter 2 Improving employment outcomes for drug and alcohol dependent people: the role of the benefits system p.36 • Chapter 3 The role of employers: in recruitment, support and prevention p.4

Clinical trials and basic research: defining mechanisms and improving treatment in connective tissue disease

Despite advances in elucidating the pathogenic factors responsible for its development, systemic sclerosis remains complex and poorly understood, and treatment options are limited. Multidisciplinary collaborative efforts are needed to better characterize clinical and prognostic parameters and to design and implement large-scale clinical trials in well defined populations with therapies that target potential disease modulators

Systemic sclerosis and related connective tissue diseases: present and future

Greece, to discuss systemic sclerosis (SSc) and related connective tissue diseases (CTDs). SSc is a clinically heterogeneous and complex disease that is characterized by vascular dysfunction, vascular and extravascular fibrosis, and characteristic immune derangements, and for which few treatment options are available. The aims of the CTD International Scientific Advisory Board were threefold: to define the role of local mediators in CTDs, in particular to identify the nature of the initial insult in CTDs and to consider the role of genetic perturbations in CTDs; to translate what has been learned from clinical trials into clinical practice and to evaluate current treatment options for CTDs and their complications; and to address future directions for the management of CTDs and associated rare diseases, based on the biologic mechanisms elucidated. This supplemen

Tumour necrosis factor-α production in fibrosing alveolitis is macrophage subset specific

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have revealed that tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α is upregulated in fibrosing alveolitis (FA) in humans. The aim of this study was to compare the TNF-α secretory profile of alveolar macrophages (AMs) and peripheral blood monocytes (Mos) of patients with cryptogenic FA and systemic sclerosis (SSc), a rheumatological disorder in which lung fibrosis can occur. In particular, we wished to assess whether TNF-α levels differ between SSc patients with FA (FASSc) and a nonfibrotic group. METHODS: The reverse haemolytic plaque assay was used to evaluate the secretion of cytokine at a single cell level while immunostaining allowed subtyping of AMs and Mos. RESULTS: This study demonstrated a difference in total TNF-α levels produced by AMs when the levels in subjects with FA (cryptogenic FA and FASSc) were compared to levels in either SSc patients without FA (P = 0.0002) or normal healthy controls (P < 0.001). In addition, AMs from patients with FASSc secreted more TNF-α than those of patients with no FA (P = 0.003). In contrast, there were no significant differences in Mo TNF-α secretion between the groups. A positive correlation was found between total TNF-α level and number of neutrophils obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage from patients with FA (r = 0.49, P < 0.04). Finally, it was demonstrated that there was significant heterogeneity of TNF-α secretion and that a numerically significant subset of mononuclear phagocytes, RFD7, was responsible for more than 80% of TNF-α production. CONCLUSION: By demonstrating the primary cell source of TNF-α in FASSc, more accurately targeted, possibly localized, anti-TNF strategies might be employed with success in the future

Initial Development of a Patient-Reported Instrument Assessing Harm, Efficacy, and Misuse of Long-Term Opioid Therapy

Guidelines on long-term opioid therapy recommend frequent reassessment of harm, efficacy, and misuse of these potentially harmful and sometimes ineffective medications. In primary care, there is a need for a brief, patient-reported instrument. This report details the initial steps in the development of such an instrument. An interdisciplinary team of clinician-scientists performed four discrete steps in this study: (1) conceptualization of the purpose and function of the instrument, (2) assembly of an item pool, (3) expert rating on which items were most important to include in the instrument, and (4) modification of expert-selected items based on a reading level check and cognitive interviews with patients. A diverse panel of 47 subject matter experts was presented with 69 items to rate on a 1–9 scale in terms of importance for inclusion in the instrument. The panel highly rated 37 items: 8 related to harm, 4 related to efficacy, and 25 related to misuse. These 37 items were then tested for patient comprehension and modified as needed. Next steps in development will include further item reduction, testing against a gold standard, and assessment of the instrument’s effect on clinical outcomes

Nxt1 Is Necessary for the Terminal Step of Crm1-Mediated Nuclear Export

Soluble factors are required to mediate nuclear export of protein and RNA through the nuclear pore complex (NPC). These soluble factors include receptors that bind directly to the transport substrate and regulators that determine the assembly state of receptor–substrate complexes. We recently reported the identification of NXT1, an NTF2-related export factor that stimulates nuclear protein export in permeabilized cells and undergoes nucleocytoplasmic shuttling in vivo (Black, B.E., L. Lévesque, J.M. Holaska, T.C. Wood, and B.M. Paschal. 1999. Mol. Cell. Biol. 19:8616–8624). Here, we describe the molecular characterization of NXT1 in the context of the Crm1-dependent export pathway. We find that NXT1 binds directly to Crm1, and that the interaction is sensitive to the presence of Ran-GTP. Moreover, mutations in NXT1 that reduce binding to Crm1 inhibit the activity of NXT1 in nuclear export assays. We show that recombinant Crm1 and Ran are sufficient to reconstitute nuclear translocation of a Rev reporter protein from the nucleolus to an antibody accessible site on the cytoplasmic side of the NPC. Further progress on the export pathway, including the terminal step of Crm1 and Rev reporter protein release, requires NXT1. We propose that NXT1 engages with the export complex in the nucleoplasm, and that it facilitates delivery of the export complex to a site on the cytoplasmic side of NPC where the receptor and substrate are released into the cytoplasm