Bukatsudo: the educational role of Japanese school clubs

Bukatsudo (extracurricular school clubs) are a longstanding feature of Japanese secondary education. These 'communities of practice' employ a model of learning akin to apprenticeship, stressing imitation and repetition while socializing students into values and behavior demanded in adult society, notably in terms of a hierarchy of seniors (senpai) and juniors (kohai). In sports clubs, values associated with 'spiritual education' (seishin kyoiku) are often prominent. Club participation promotes school order, aided by ritual, routine, and the often intense emotional attachment and group spirit engendered in club activities. Understanding bukatsudo illuminates the nature of order, selfhood, human development, and learning in Japan

Vivisection and Misanthropy

The author comments on several articles in the media that imply or state that antivivisectionists are misanthropes who like animals more than people. The author notes that one commentator mistakenly claims that Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation, equates animals and people. Singer does not claim that animals and people should be treated identically. Instead, Singer argues that animals and people are entitled to equal consideration of their interests. Different treatments will be justified if there are relevant differences between animals and people

Vivisection and Misanthropy

Goodman recognizes that it is reasonable to question whether all experiments performed on animals really contribute to human welfare, and he even concedes that the use of animals in laboratories could no doubt be reduced further without harm to humankind. On the other hand, it is quite clear that he is completely unaware of the sheer quantity of absolutely worthless experiments currently being conducted, ,and that he subscribes to the popular misconception, deliberately perpetrated by the research establishment, that animal experimentation is coextensive with biomedical research, thereby contributing directly to human welfare through the conquering of disease. Furthermore, Goodman seems to be largely ignorant of the extent to which nonanimal alternatives are already available to the researcher, a fact that those with a vested economic interest in perpetuating animal experimentation naturally play down

Owner perceptions of their cat's quality of life when treated with a modified University of Wisconsin-Madison protocol for lymphoma

The objectives of this study were to assess owner perceptions of their cat’s quality of life during treatment for lymphoma with a doxorubicin-containing multi-agent chemotherapy protocol, whether various health-related parameters correlated with quality of life scores, and to assess owner satisfaction with the protocol

Autoradiographic Study of the Turnover of Chromatin-Associated Phospholipids in Vicia Faba L.

SUMMARYAutoradiographic data from labelling studies on the incorporation of [14C] ethanolamine into nuclear phospholipids of meristem cells from roots of Vicia faba indicated the presence of a continuous labelling pattern for the nuclear membrane throughout the cell cycle. In contrast, a periodic labelling pattern was observed in chromatin of interphase nuclei which closely paralleled the synthesis pattern for DNA. This corroborated biochemical data from previously published studies of hepatocyte nuclear membranes and chromatin

Attitudes of venture capital investors towards entrepreneurs with previous business failure, Belfast (June)

Business failure represents a significant outcome of entrepreneurial activity and yet remains an underdeveloped area of research. This article focuses on the attitudes of VC investors towards entrepreneurs with a previous failure experience. It illustrates that VCs recognise the complex, contextual nature of failure and do not necessarily perceive the entrepreneur to be the primary cause of the venture's demise. Consequently, the article differentiates between 'business', 'entrepreneurial' and 'venture capitalist' failure. The article demonstrates that VCs often adopt a tolerant, flexible and open-minded attitude to failure and are keen to understand the circumstances in which it occurred. The majority of the VCs in the study emphasise that their decision to invest in an entrepreneur is not negatively affected to any significant degree by a previous experience of failure. A number of influential factors are presented, such as a high quality concept, which can offset this aspect of the entrepreneur's track record. The article concludes that business failure is not automatically considered a 'black mark' by VCs. It is important for entrepreneurs involved in business failure to be aware of these positive and sympathetic attitudes when considering putting forward new proposals to the VC community

Call Me Caitlyn: Making and making over the 'authentic' transgender body in Anglo-American popular culture

A conception of transgender identity as an ‘authentic’ gendered core ‘trapped’ within a mismatched corporeality, and made tangible through corporeal transformations, has attained unprecedented legibility in contemporary Anglo-American media. Whilst pop-cultural articulations of this discourse have received some scholarly attention, the question of why this 'wrong body' paradigm has solidified as the normative explanation for gender transition within the popular media remains underexplored. This paper argues that this discourse has attained cultural pre-eminence through its convergence with a broader media and commercial zeitgeist, in which corporeal alteration and maintenance are perceived as means of accessing one’s ‘authentic’ self. I analyse the media representations of two transgender celebrities: Caitlyn Jenner and Nadia Almada, alongside the reality TV show TRANSform Me, exploring how these women’s gender transitions have been discursively aligned with a cultural imperative for all women, cisgender or trans, to display their authentic femininity through bodily work. This demonstrates how established tropes of authenticity-via-bodily transformation, have enabled transgender to become culturally legible through the wrong body trope. Problematically, I argue, this process has worked to demarcate ideals of ‘acceptable’ transgender subjectivity: self-sufficient, normatively feminine, and eager to embrace the possibilities for happiness and social integration provided by the commercial domain

Peripheral blood mononuclear cell gene expression and cytokine profiling in patients with intermittent claudication who exhibit exercise induced acute renal injury.

BACKGROUND: Intermittent claudication (IC) is a common manifestation of peripheral arterial disease. Some patients with IC experience a rise in Urinary N-acetyl-β-D-Glucosaminidase (NAG)/ Creatinine (Cr) ratio, a marker of renal injury, following exercise. In this study, we aim to investigate whether peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients with IC who exhibit a rise in urinary NAG/ Cr ratio following exercise exhibit differential IL-10/ IL-12 ratio and gene expression compared to those who do not have a rise in NAG/ Cr ratio. METHODS: We conducted a single center observational cohort study of patients diagnosed with IC. Blood and urine samples were collected at rest and following a standardised treadmill exercise protocol. For comparative analysis patients were separated into those with any rise in NAG/Cr ratio (Group 1) and those with no rise in NAG/Cr ratio (Group 2) post exercise. Isolated PBMC from pre- and post-exercise blood samples were analysed using flow cytometry. PBMC were also cultured for 20 hours to perform further analysis of IL-10 and IL-12 cytokine levels. RNA-sequencing analysis was performed to identify differentially expressed genes between the groups. RESULTS: 20 patients were recruited (Group 1, n = 8; Group 2, n = 12). We observed a significantly higher IL-10/IL-12 ratio in cell supernatant from participants in Group 1, as compared to Group 2, on exercise at 20 hours incubation; 47.24 (IQR 9.70-65.83) vs 6.13 (4.88-12.24), p = 0.04. 328 genes were significantly differentially expressed between Group 1 and 2. The modulated genes had signatures encompassing hypoxia, metabolic adaptation to starvation, inflammatory activation, renal protection, and oxidative stress. DISCUSSION: Our results suggest that some patients with IC have an altered immune status making them 'vulnerable' to systemic inflammation and renal injury following exercise. We have identified a panel of genes which are differentially expressed in this group of patients