Fish Consumption and Mercury Exposure among Louisiana Recreational Anglers

Ba c k g r o u n d: Methylmercury (MeHg) exposure assessments among average fish consumers in the United States may underestimate exposures among U.S. subpopulations with high intakes of region-ally specific fish. obj e c t i v e s: We examined relationships among fish consumption, estimated mercury (Hg) intake, and measured Hg exposure within one such potentially highlyexposed group, recreational anglers in the state of Louisiana, USA. Me t h o d s: We surveyed 534 anglers in 2006 using interviews at boat launches and fishing tourna-ments combined with an Internet-based survey method. Hair samples from 402 of these anglers were collected and analyzed for total Hg. Questionnaires provided information on species-specific fish consumption during the 3 months before the survey. re s u l t s: Anglers’ median hairHg concentration was 0.81 μg/g (n = 398; range, 0.02–10.7 μg/g);40% of participants had levels >1 μg/g, which approximately corresponds to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s reference dose. Fish consumption and Hg intake were significantly positively associated with hairHg. Participants reported consuming nearly 80 different fish types, many of which are specific to the region. Unlike the general U.S. population, which acquires most of its Hg from commercial seafood sources, approximately 64% of participants’ fish meals and 74% of their estimated Hg intake came from recreationally caught seafood. co n c l u s i o n s: Study participants had relatively elevated hairHg concentrations and reported con-sumption of a wide variety of fish, particularly locally caught fish. This group represents a highlyexposed subpopulation with an exposure profile that differs from fish consumers in other regions of the United States, suggesting a need for more regionallyspecific exposure estimates and public health advisories.ISSN:1552-9924ISSN:0091-676

Phase II trial of the regulatory T cell-depleting agent, denileukin diftitox, in patients with unresectable stage IV melanoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We previously found that administration of an interleukin 2/diphtheria toxin conjugate (DAB/IL2; Denileukin Diftitox; ONTAK) to stage IV melanoma patients depleted CD4⁺CD25^HIFoxp3⁺regulatory T cells and expanded melanoma-specific CD8⁺T cells. The goal of this study was to assess the clinical efficacy of DAB/IL2 in an expanded cohort of stage IV melanoma patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In a single-center, phase II trial, DAB/IL2 (12 μg/kg; 4 daily doses; 21 day cycles) was administered to 60 unresectable stage IV melanoma patients and response rates were assessed using a combination of 2-[¹⁸F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) imaging.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After DAB/IL2 administration, 16.7% of the 60 patients had partial responses, 5% stable disease and 15% mixed responses. Importantly, 45.5% of the chemo/immuno-naïve sub-population (11/60 patients) experienced partial responses. One year survival was markedly higher in partial responders (80 ± 11.9%) relative to patients with progressive disease (23.7 ± 6.5%; <it>p </it>value < 0.001) and 40 ± 6.2% of the total DAB/IL2-treated population were alive at 1 year.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data support the development of multi-center, randomized trials of DAB/IL2 as a monotherapy and in combination with other immunotherapeutic agents for the treatment of stage IV melanoma.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p><a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00299689">NCT00299689</a></p

Features and Outcomes of 899 Patients With Drug-Induced Liver Injury: The DILIN Prospective Study

The drug-induced liver injury network (DILIN) is conducting a prospective study of patients with DILI in the United States. We present characteristics and subgroup analyses from the first 1257 patients enrolled in the study

INVISIBLE NARRATIVES -NEW CONVERSATIONS ABOUT TIME AND PLACE exhibition at Newlyn Art Gallery

“A rural ecologist, an urban drifter and a diasporic optimist examine the invisible layers underneath, the lost spaces on the edge and the forgotten places in between.” Lubaina Himid. Curated by Lubaina Himid, winner of the 2017 Turner Prize, Invisible Narratives explores the work of three artists, Rebecca Chesney, Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska-Beavan, who consider the poetic investigation of place, space and time, through painting, sound installation and place-based research. All three artists use their work to uncover the hidden narratives of place; is it possible to remember an apparently unknown history? Each artist has made new work for the show. Magda Stawarska-Beavan is showing several pieces, including Translating the City, a sound piece featuring the interwoven voices of two women, Ekin Sanac (from Istanbul) and Lubaina Himid, who were asked to listen to a sound composition created from recordings captured by Stawarska-Beavan in Istanbul. She will also be showing three silkscreen prints from the series To Follow (2018) along with two new paintings on paper in a conversation between Casablanca and Berlin about loss and neglect. “I have worked on several projects, including the listening to and recording of unknown cities from a very personal viewpoint using binaural microphones. Often, with those past projects, I let the city lead me through its structure, but it was always my innate curiosity which consciously and sometimes subconsciously controlled my movements.

NEW CONVERSATIONS ABOUT TIME AND PLACE Panel Discussion at Newlyn Art Gallery Magda Stawarska-Beavan, Rebecca Chesney and Lubaina Himid

Is it Possible to Remember an Apparently Unknown History? Invisible Narratives explores the work of three artists, Magda Stawarska-Beavan, Rebecca Chesney and Lubaina Himid. Drawing on the connections between their work in the exhibition the three artists investigate questions of place and memory. The conversation explores the work of three artists, Magda Stawarska-Beavan, Rebecca Chesney and Lubaina Himid, who consider the poetic investigation of place, space and time, through painting, sound installation and place-based research. Recorded at Newlyn Art Gallery, 25 May 2019

Re-imagining rural mythologies: interdisciplinary conference strand

Together with Elaine Speight (University of Central Lancashire), Rebecca Chesney (independent artist, associated with UCLan) & Dr Rosemary Shirley (Manchester Metropolitan University) I co-convened an interdisciplinary conference strand. It brought together 12 academics/artists from UK, USA, Denmark, Greece, Sweden, Turkey who all shared an interest in ‘the rural’. The papers, presentations of artworks, short films, performances and readings, challenged preconceptions about the contemporary countryside by engaging with the complexities and contradictions of specific rural places. In particular, we sought to examine how imagination and creative work, as a means of exploration and documentation, could produce new forms of geographical knowledge, which promote more complex and generative interpretations of rural environments. We were interested to discern how, and through which processes, rural mythologies are perpetuated. How might binary perceptions of ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ serve particular cultural, economic and political agendas, and what role does imagination play within social constructions of the countryside? Keywords: rural; imagination; mytholog

Invisible Narratives²

Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix is pleased to announce the book launch for ‘Invisible Narratives’ and an exhibition ‘Invisible Narratives²’ both of which explore the work of three artists, Rebecca Chesney, Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska-Beavan who consider the poetic investigation of place, space and time, through painting, sound installation and place-based research. All three artists use their work to uncover the hidden, understand a place as it is experienced by those who know it well, and remember apparently unknown histories. The investigation is made all the more intricate as each artist brings in her sensibility and layers to the infinitely-intertwined picture. Some of the questions being asked include; when places are on the edge of time and memory, how can we see what is there and talk about what appears not to be there, while there are issues no one wants to acknowledge? Or how can we examine trauma by picturing the sublime; can incomprehensible events and dilemmas eventually provide openings for new political formations? Listening also comes into play; for some people sounds are familiar because they are heard every day, for others they seem familiar but at the same time unknown. Each artist has made new work for the show which marks for them an opportunity to develop ideas and relationships forged in the first iteration of ‘Invisible Narratives’ at Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall in 2019. To celebrate both exhibitions they have produced a book of stunning visuals from the Newlyn show which explore their individual but occasionally overlapping creative agendas and a suite of short essays including two written by art historian/curators Ella Spencer Mills and Christine Eyene

Invisible Narratives² Exhibition at Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix 22nd May -19th June 2021

‘July 1976’ Silkscreen print, with painted and collage elements ‘Courtyard 13040’ Mixed Media installation presented as part of Invisible Narrative² “A rural ecologist, an urban drifter and a diasporic optimist examine the invisible layers underneath, the lost spaces on the edge and the forgotten places in between.” Lubaina Himid ‘Invisible Narratives²’ exhibition explored the work of three artists, Rebecca Chesney, Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska-Beavan who consider the poetic investigation of place, space and time, through painting, sound installation and place-based research. All three artists use their work to uncover the hidden, understand a place as it is experienced by those who know it well, and remember apparently unknown histories. The investigation is made all the more intricate as each artist brings in her sensibility and layers to the infinitely-intertwined picture. Some of the questions being asked include; when places are on the edge of time and memory, how can we see what is there and talk about what appears not to be there, while there are issues no one wants to acknowledge? Or how can we examine trauma by picturing the sublime; can incomprehensible events and dilemmas eventually provide openings for new political formations? Listening also comes into play; for some people sounds are familiar because they are heard every day, for others they seem familiar but at the same time unknown. Each artist has made new work for the show which marks for them an opportunity to develop ideas and relationships forged in the first iteration of ‘Invisible Narratives’ at Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall in 2019. (from press release Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix

Practising Place – Working the Land: Art, Landscape and the Everton Meadows

Practising Place is a programme of public conversations, designed to examine the relationship between art practice and place. Each event is hosted at a different venue in the North of England and explores a specific aspect of place by bringing artists together with people from different backgrounds, who share a common area of interest. Practising Place – Working the Land: Art, Landscape and the Everton Meadows was an evening with artist Rebecca Chesney, in conversation with Dr. Rosemary Shirley, Senior Lecturer in Art History at Manchester Metropolitan University. The event, which was the first in the Practising Place programme, marked the launch of I’m Blue, You’re Yellow – a new limited-edition publication, which documents the two acres of meadow planted by Rebecca Chesney as an artwork in Everton Park. Drawing on examples from the project, as well as Rebecca’s wider practice, the speakers examined popular perceptions of the landscape, and discussed the ways in which artists engage with, and reveal, the political, cultural and economic processes through which it is produced

A Fine Toothed Comb

The publication includes: essays by Lubaina Himid, Lauren Elkin, author of Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art, Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London, and Clarissa Corfe. Edited by Beth Hughes. Designed by Pony Ltd, London. A Fine Toothed Comb was an exhibition curated by Turner Prize-winning artist Lubaina Himid. Bringing together new commissions by Himid as well as artists Magda Stawarska, Rebecca Chesney and Tracy Hill, the exhibition focussed on unearthing hidden layers within the city of Manchester. Through four unique installations spanning painting on found objects, multi-screen moving image, site-specific drawing and sound compositions, the artists’ work uncovered invisible geological, historical, environmental and political layers of the city. From hidden waterways and disappearing wildlife, to lost music and communities hidden in plain sight, A Fine Toothed Comb invited us to look closer at what surrounds us. This is the first time all four artists’ work was presented together, following many years of discussion and collaboration. The publication includes: essays by Lubaina Himid, Lauren Elkin, author of Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art, Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London, and Clarissa Corfe