The sounds of sight: Jennifer Rankin's poetics

Attention to Jennifer Rankin's poetry was spare within her lifetime. Twenty-eight years after her death, the time has come to challenge her critical reception and to recognise the importance of her poetics on its own terms. Her work has an antithetical relationship to the generation of '68, and the shadowy place that it takes among the poetry of her peers can be defined by its struggle against subjectivity; a poetics at odds with John Tranter's descriptions of a new Australian poetry. This article reads several of Rankin's poems closely, and in comparison with a poem by Robert Adamson, to demonstrate Rankin's approach to subjectivity and the influence of painting on her poetry

'A tactic of return' : purpose and ground in the poetry of Jennifer Maiden and Jennifer Rankin

Trabalho final do 6 ano médico com vista à atribuição do grau de mestre no âmbito do ciclo de estudos de mestrado integrado em medicina apres. à Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Coimbra.Neurodegenerative movement disorders such as Parkinson´s disease or Huntington´s disease share the same progressive and relentless course with increasing motor disability coupled with neuropsyquiatric impairment and have been, over these last few decades, a passionate topic of experimental and clinical research due to their lack of therapeutic options. Restorative therapies have brought both enthusiasm with the prospect of its potential to restore brain damage and also disbelief for the less than compelling results from clinical trials. The aim of this review is to discuss the cell replacement therapies applied to both Parkinson´s and Huntington´s diseases since their beginning, following their natural sequence from animal studies into the early human trials, addressing fetal neural tissue transplantation and other more recent prominent cell sources. Nowadays, stem cells became at the forefront of cell therapy. Embryonic, neural and induced pluripotent stem cells were successfully able to generate a desired neuron phenotype and/or provide growth factors to the vulnerable or degenerating host cells allowing researchers to enter a new pre-clinical era. There are still many barriers to overcome before clinical application is possible, it must be assured that the stem cell source has an optimal differentiation potential with full integration and functional enhancement, bears measurable clinical benefits with minimum impact on hosts immune system and absence of tumor formation. The future prospects for stem cell therapy are overwhelming but steady and solid basic and pre-clinical progresses must be held before clinical application becomes eligible.As doenças neurodegenerativas do movimento, tais como a doença de Parkinson ou a doença de Huntington partilham o mesmo curso progressivo e inexorável com um aumento gradual da incapacidade motora associada a alterações neuropsiquiátricas. Estas patologias têm sido, nestas últimas décadas, um tema apaixonante de investigação experimental e clínica entusiasta devido à falta de opções terapêuticas. As terapêuticas de substituição celular conduziram tanto ao entusiasmo com a perspectiva do seu potencial para restaurar o dano cerebral, como à descrença devido a resultados menos atractivos dos ensaios clínicos. O objectivo desta revisão é analisar as terapêuticas de substituição celular aplicadas a ambas as doenças de Parkinson e de Huntington, desde o seu início, seguindo a sua sequência natural desde os estudos em animais experimentais até à sua aplicação em humanos, abordando a transplantação de tecido fetal neural bem como as outras fontes celulares recentes e de maior relevo. No momento presente, as células estaminais tornaram-se a vanguarda da terapia celular abrangendo as células estaminais embrionárias, neurais e pluripotentes induzidas, capazes de gerar com sucesso um fenótipo neuronal desejado e/ou fornecer às células vulneráveis ou em degeneração factores de crescimento, o que permitiu aos investigadores a entrata numa nova era pré-clínica. Existem ainda muitos obstáculos a superar antes da sua aplicação clínica ser possível, devendo ser assegurado que a fonte de células estaminais tenha um óptimo potencial de diferenciação, com absoluta integração e ganho funcional, ofereça benefícios clínicos mensuráveis com o mínimo impacto sobre o sistema imunitário do hospedeiro e sem a possibilidade de formação de tumores. As perspectivas futuras para a terapia com células estaminais são encorajadoras, mas progressos firmes e sólidos têm de ser feitos no âmbito da investigação básica e pré-clínica antes da sua aplicação clínica se tornar elegível

Factors associated with internalizing or somatic symptoms in a cross-sectional study of school children in grades 1-10

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>School related factors that may contribute to children's subjective health have not been extensively studied. We assessed whether factors assumed to promote health and factors assumed to have adverse effects were associated with self-reported internalizing or somatic symptoms.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In a cross-sectional study, 230 boys and 189 girls in grades 1-10 from five schools responded to the same set of questions. Proportional odds logistic regression was used to assess associations of school related factors with the prevalence of sadness, anxiety, stomach ache, and headache.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In multivariable analyses, perceived loneliness showed strong and positive associations with sadness (odds ratio, 1.94, 95% CI 1.42 to 2.64), anxiety (odds ratio, 1.78, 95% CI 1.31 to 2.42), and headache (odds ratio, 1.47, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.96), with consistently stronger associations for girls than boys. Among assumed health promoting factors, receiving necessary help from teachers was associated with lower prevalence of stomach ache in girls (odds ratio, 0.51, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.87).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings suggest that perceived loneliness may be strongly related to both internalizing and somatic symptoms among school children, and for girls, the associations of loneliness appear to be particularly strong.</p

Book review : Culture, creativity and environment : new environmental criticism

Review of Becket, F. & Gifford, T. Culture, Creativity and Environment [Amsterdam, Rodopi]; 200

Book review : Culture, creativity and environment : new environmental criticism

Cassidy, B. Book review : Culture, creativity and environment : new environmental criticism. PAN : philosophy activism nature. 2008; 5, 117-12

Julian Burnside on freedom of expression

With the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer tying in with International PEN's 50th anniversary of its Writers in Prison Committee, Julian Burnside and Panel came together to discuss the complex elements that permit and hinder freedom of expression

On the Occasion of Gig Ryan\u27s Sixtieth Birthday

This was a collaborative poem involving 17 poets celebrating Gig Ryan\u27s 60th birthday

Evaluation of transplacental transfer of mRNA vaccine products and functional antibodies during pregnancy and infancy.

Studies are needed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccination during pregnancy, and the levels of protection provided to their newborns through placental transfer of antibodies. Here, we evaluate the transplacental transfer of mRNA vaccine products and functional anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies during pregnancy and early infancy in a cohort of 20 individuals vaccinated during late pregnancy. We find no evidence of mRNA vaccine products in maternal blood, placenta tissue, or cord blood at delivery. However, we find time-dependent efficient transfer of IgG and neutralizing antibodies to the neonate that persists during early infancy. Additionally, using phage immunoprecipitation sequencing, we find a vaccine-specific signature of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein epitope binding that is transplacentally transferred during pregnancy. Timing of vaccination during pregnancy is critical to ensure transplacental transfer of protective antibodies during early infancy

Organic Compounds of Divalent Tin and Lead

This chapter discusses the preparation, structure, and chemical and physical properties of isolable compounds of divalent tin and lead containing direct metal-to-carbon bonds. The local symmetry in pentahapto cyclopentadienyl complexes is D5h while in monohapto species it is Cs. In the chapter, the gas-phase structures of stannocene and plumbocene have been determined by electron diffraction. In keeping with the greater metallic character of lead, divalent organolead compounds appear to be more associated in the solid state than corresponding divalent organotin compounds. The chapter describes the synthesis of bispentamethylcyclopentadienyltin and its crystal structure. Stannocene and plumbocene are synthesized by the salt elimination method. Cyclopentadienyllead halides are synthesized by the reaction of plumbocene with the hydrogen halide in benzene. The angular sandwich structure for stannocene is best explained by proposing sp2 hybridization for the tin atom. There are many instances in which the pentamethylcyclopentadienyl metal compounds are more stable than the cyclopentadienyl compound, and the stannocene system is no exception. Mössbauer spectroscopy has been proven to be a very valuable tool in tin chemistry. The chapter lists out UV-visible spectra of a number of divalent group IV alkyls and amides. Organic compounds of divalent tin and lead form a variety of transition metal complexes. Organostannylene and plumbylene complexes of transition metals can be synthesized from both divalent and tetravalent starting materials