Thoughts on “Heroinism” in French Fairy Tales

Fairy tales starring cross-dressed knights who make war present a clear case of “heroinism.” What, then, of other female characters who populate the corpus of 1690s France? Can famously persecuted heroines like Cinderella be said to do anything brave and worthy of note? I take the motif of war as an opportunity to reflect on heroinism as broadly conceived in French fairy tales. Active heroines manage their domestic spheres, and other heroines rhetorically maneuver their way out of binds. Viewed against the spectacle of war, these ordinary actions may seem quiet, but they are no less heroic

What makes adoptive family life work? Adoptive parents’ narratives of the making and remaking of adoptive kinship

Adoption theory, policy and practice have undergone considerable change in the period between the introduction of the Adoption Act (1976) and the Adoption and Children Act (2002). In this period, in particular, adoption has increasingly come to be understood within the context of an ethic of 'openness'. This has had implications for the day to day lives of members of the adoption triad, that is, adoptive parents, adoptees and birth family members, and their attempts to 'make adoption work’ across their lifecourse. The thesis draws on theories of family and kinship in order to develop understandings of day to day family practices that emerge in adoptive families and the way these shape and are shaped by adoption discourse. The thesis provides an analysis of local and national statistical data and the biographical accounts of twenty two adoptive parents who had children placed with them between 1977 and 2001. These were all domestic 'stranger' adoptions. From the adopters’ narratives it was apparent that the core and ongoing challenge facing adoptive parents was to find a unique way of 'doing' adoptive family life which acknowledged the importance both of biological ties and legal kinship. This was the ease regardless of the year of the adoption and continues to challenge these families today. The thesis explores the tasks which flow from this core challenge, that is, developing and maintaining family relationships between adopters and adoptees where none previously existed, finding a place for birth relatives within the adoptive kinship model and developing a positive identity as a non conventional family. The thesis challenges the conceptualisation of adoptive relations as 'fictive kinship' and biological connectedness as 'real' kinship and presents evidence of the fragility of both the biological family and the adoptive family where there has been a legal adoption of a child. At the same time the thesis reveals the ability of both biological and adoptive family ties to endure over time despite cultural barriers. The study also reveals that existing typologies of adoption as 'confidential', 'mediated' and 'fully disclosed' fail to capture the complexity of adoptive family life. A new definition of both adoptive kinship and 'openness' in adoption are developed and the implications of these redefinitions for adoption policy and practice are explore

Association Between Sedentary Time and Quality of Life From the Osteoarthritis Initiative: Who Might Benefit Most From Treatment?

Objective To investigate the relationship between sedentary behavior and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) among participants in the Osteoarthritis Initiative. Design Longitudinal, observational design. Setting Osteoarthritis Initiative cohort. Participants Individuals (N=1794) from a prospective, multicenter longitudinal cohort were classified into quantile groups based on average daily sedentary time (most sedentary, quartile 1 [Q1] ≥11.6h; 10.7h≤ Q2 Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Individual QALYs were estimated over 2 years from the area under the curve of health-related utility scores derived from the Medical Outcomes Study 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey versus time. The relationship between baseline sedentary behavior and median 2-year QALYs was estimated using quantile regression adjusted for socioeconomic factors and body mass index. Results Lower QALYs over 2 years were more frequently found among the most sedentary (Q1, median 1.59), and QALYs increased as time spent in baseline sedentary behavior decreased (median QALYs for Q2, 1.64; Q3, 1.65; Q4, 1.65). The relationship of sedentary time and median QALY change was only significant for the most sedentary Q1 group, where an additional hour of sedentary behavior significantly reduced QALYs by −.072 (95% confidence interval, −.121 to −.020). Conclusions Our findings suggest that individuals with the most extreme sedentary profiles may be vulnerable to additional losses of quality of life if they become more sedentary. Targeting these individuals to decrease sedentary behavior has the potential to be cost-effective

A Multi-wavelength Study of the Host Environment of SMBHB 4C+37.11

4C+37.11, at z=0.055 shows two compact radio nuclei, imaged by VLBI at 7mas separation, making it the closest known resolved super-massive black hole binary (SMBHB). An important question is whether this unique object is young, caught on the way to a gravitational in-spiral and merger, or has `stalled' at 7pc. We describe new radio/optical/X-ray observations of the massive host and its surrounding X-ray halo. These data reveal X-ray/optical channels following the radio outflow and large scale edges in the X-ray halo. These structures are promising targets for further study which should elucidate their relationship to the unique SMBHB core.Comment: To appear in the Astrophysical Journa

Buoyant AGN bubbles in the quasi-isothermal potential of NGC 1399

The Fornax Cluster is a low-mass cool-core galaxy cluster. We present a deep {\sl Chandra} study of NGC 1399, the central dominant elliptical galaxy of Fornax. The cluster center harbors two symmetric X-ray cavities coincident with a pair of radio lobes fed by two collimated jets along a north-south axis. A temperature map reveals that the AGN outburst has created a channel filled with cooler gas out to a radius of 10 kpc. The cavities are surrounded by cool bright rims and filaments that may have been lifted from smaller radii by the buoyant bubbles. X-ray imaging suggests a potential ghost bubble of $\gtrsim$ 5\,kpc diameter to the northwest. We find that the amount of gas lifted by AGN bubbles is comparable to that which would otherwise cool, demonstrating that AGN driven outflow is effective in offsetting cooling in low-mass clusters. The cluster cooling time scale is $>30$ times longer than the dynamical time scale, which is consistent with the lack of cold molecular gas at the cluster center. The X-ray hydrostatic mass is consistent within 10\% with the total mass derived from the optical data. The observed entropy profile rises linearly, following a steeper slope than that observed at the centers of massive clusters; gas shed by stars in NGC 1399 may be incorporated in the hot phase. However, it is far-fetched for supernova-driven outflow to produce and maintain the thermal distribution in NGC 1399 and it is in tension with the metal content in the hot gas.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, Matches the version published in Ap

IL-2 limits IL-12 enhanced lymphocyte proliferation during \u3ci\u3eLeishmania amazonensis\u3c/i\u3e infection

C3H mice infected with Leishmania amazonensis develop persistent, localized lesions with high parasite loads. During infection, memory/effector CD44hiCD4+ T cells proliferate and produce IL-2, but do not polarize to a known effector phenotype. Previous studies have demonstrated IL-12 is insufficient to skew these antigen-responsive T cells to a functional Th1 response. To determine the mechanism of this IL-12 unresponsiveness, we used an in vitro assay of repeated antigen activation. Memory/effector CD44hiCD4+ T cells did not increase proliferation in response to either IL-2 or IL-12, although these cytokines upregulated CD25 expression. Neutralization of IL-2 enhanced CD4+ T cell proliferation in response to IL-12. This cross-regulation of IL-12 responsiveness by IL-2 was confirmed in vivo by treatment with anti-IL-2 antibodies and IL-12 during antigen challenge of previously infected mice. These results suggest that during chronic infection with L. amazonensis, IL-2 plays a dominant, immunosuppressive role independent of identifiable conventional Treg cells

IL-2 limits IL-12 enhanced lymphocyte proliferation during \u3ci\u3eLeishmania amazonensis\u3c/i\u3e infection

C3H mice infected with Leishmania amazonensis develop persistent, localized lesions with high parasite loads. During infection, memory/effector CD44hiCD4+ T cells proliferate and produce IL-2, but do not polarize to a known effector phenotype. Previous studies have demonstrated IL-12 is insufficient to skew these antigen-responsive T cells to a functional Th1 response. To determine the mechanism of this IL-12 unresponsiveness, we used an in vitro assay of repeated antigen activation. Memory/effector CD44hiCD4+ T cells did not increase proliferation in response to either IL-2 or IL-12, although these cytokines upregulated CD25 expression. Neutralization of IL-2 enhanced CD4+ T cell proliferation in response to IL-12. This cross-regulation of IL-12 responsiveness by IL-2 was confirmed in vivo by treatment with anti-IL-2 antibodies and IL-12 during antigen challenge of previously infected mice. These results suggest that during chronic infection with L. amazonensis, IL-2 plays a dominant, immunosuppressive role independent of identifiable conventional Treg cells