The most precious of all things is life itself – ultimate cost for perfect value”: The Alien and the Struggle of Life and Death in Starship Troopers

This paper will consider Hegelian and post-Hegelian discussion of the struggle of life and death in relationship to Starship Troopers. Robert Heinlein wrote Starship Troopers in 1959 and it has been interpreted as a right-wing, “fascist,” and Greco- Roman-inspired discussion of citizen-soldiership. At the centre of Heinlein’s work lies an explicit political and civil morality: there are many human bodies, but only some that have earned full political citizenship by staking their life in military service. But what significance does the Other have in Heinlein’s book? Why is the Other destroyed, occupied, alienated? How does this struggle form the basis of subjectivation? This paper will consider how we can interpret the Other, the alien, on the basis of Hegelian and post-Hegelian discussion of the struggle of life and death. It will utilize Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, and Hegel to interpret the struggle for life and death in Heinlein’s work and the Film interpretation by Paul Verhoeven (1997). This struggle is a central pivot of Hegel’s social ontology: selfconsciousness exists only through an explicit staking of life and struggle (the famous dialectic of Lord and Bondsman, or Mastery and Servitude as interpreted by Kojève). Further, Foucault—in his attempt to escape dialectics and Hegel— utilized the struggle over life and death, and war, as the basis for power and subjectivation

Multilocus sequence typing of Cronobacter sakazakii and Cronobacter malonaticus reveals stable clonal structures with clinical significance which do not correlate with biotypes

Background: The Cronobacter genus (Enterobacter sakazakii) has come to prominence due to its association with infant infections, and the ingestion of contaminated reconstituted infant formula. C. sakazakii and C. malonaticus are closely related, and are defined according their biotype. Due to the ubiquitous nature of the organism, and the high severity of infection for the immunocompromised, a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme has been developed for the fast and reliable identification and discrimination of C. sakazakii and C. malonaticus strains. It was applied to 60 strains of C. sakazakii and 16 strains of C. malonaticus, including the index strains used to define the biotypes. The strains were from clinical and non-clinical sources between 1951 and 2008 in USA, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the Far East. Results: This scheme uses 7 loci; atpD, fusA, glnS, gltB, gyrB, infB, and pps. There were 12 sequence types (ST) identified in C. sakazakii, and 3 in C. malonaticus. A third (22/60) of C. sakazakii strains were in ST4, which had almost equal numbers of clinical and infant formula isolates from 1951 to 2008. ST8 may represent a particularly virulent grouping of C. sakazakii as 7/8 strains were clinical in origin which had been isolated between 1977 - 2006, from four countries. C. malonaticus divided into three STs. The previous Cronobacter biotyping scheme did not clearly correspond with STs nor with species. Conclusion: In conclusion, MLST is a more robust means of identifying and discriminating between C. sakazakii and C. malonaticus than biotyping. The MLST database for these organisms is available online at http://pubmlst.org/cronobacter

Mathematics background and early performance of a sample of first year chemistry students

Background and Aims: The number of students taking the easier Maths A in Queensland exceeds that of the other two mathematics subjects combined, and there is a consistent drop out from Maths B into Maths A in year 12, with students presumably wishing to maximize their university entrance score. The decline in Australian students taking more advanced mathematics subjects has previously been highlighted (McPhan et al. 2008). Other studies have shown that students entering university are deficient in areas of mathematics deemed necessary in science based university subjects (Hoyles et al. 2001, Matthews et al. 2013). The aims of this project were to examine the background of students enrolled in a first semester, first year chemistry course and to investigate the relationship between prior chemistry and mathematics studies, and students’ results in early assessment items of the course. In addition student confidence in mathematics and chemistry and their perception of the importance of mathematical skills in their study were investigated. Methodology: The students enrolled in the chemistry course (n = 455) were in various degree programs with different entry requirements and pre-requisite mathematical knowledge. The chemistry course provided the ideal case study for evaluation of the relevance of a student’s mathematics background at the commencement of their studies. Some students (n = 57) from the total cohort, completed a voluntary survey which identified their perception of the importance of mathematical skills in their study and their confidence with mathematics. The survey data and the student mathematics and chemistry background (where available), was correlated with an early chemistry diagnostic test and the mid-semester examination results. We analysed student access to extra online mathematics support (c.f. Jackson & Johnson, 2013), which was provided to all students prior to the mid-semester exam in chemistry. Results and Conclusion: The survey responses indicated that students generally did not have high confidence with their mathematical skills; especially those with poorer mathematics backgrounds. By contrast, students’ perception of the importance of mathematical skills to their chemistry studies was high (average rating of 4.2 on a 5-point scale (5 = very important). The correlation data revealed that prior achievement in mathematics impacted on performance within chemistry, despite prior studies in chemistry. A possible solution is to integrate foundational and enabling mathematical skills with curriculum, which would build student confidence and is more likely to have success in enabling science students to engage and succeed. However, preliminary results indicated that very few students

Snapshot of Mathematical Background Demographics of a Broad Cohort of First Year Chemistry Science Students

A case study of the background mathematical skills of a varied group of first year chemistry students (n = 455) is presented. Potential student demographic factors, including school leaver, mature age, non-English speaking background, and pre-requisite or prior assumed mathematical and chemistry knowledge, were examined. The student cohort had a diverse background in mathematical knowledge with only 53% meeting the pre-requisite mathematics admission criteria used in Queensland. A voluntary survey was completed by some students (n = 57) from the total cohort, which identified the individual mathematical background of students, their perception of the importance of mathematical skills in their study and their confidence with mathematics. The survey responses indicated that students generally did not have high confidence with their mathematical skills; especially for those with poorer mathematics backgrounds. Interestingly, all students were in strong agreement regarding the importance of mathematics to their study of chemistry. Correlation of the student mathematics background with a chemistry diagnostic test revealed that prior achievement in mathematics impacted on performance within chemistry. We propose that integration of foundational and enabling mathematical skills with curriculum would build student confidence and is more likely to have success in enabling science students to engage and succeed

Induction of a chemoattractant transcriptional response by a Campylobacter jejuni boiled cell extract in colonocytes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Campylobacter jejuni</it>, the commonest cause of bacterial diarrhoea worldwide, can also induce colonic inflammation. To understand how a previously identified heat stable component contributes to pro-inflammatory responses we used microarray and real-time quantitative PCR to investigate the transcriptional response to a boiled cell extract of <it>Campylobacter jejuni </it>NCTC 11168.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>RNA was extracted from the human colonocyte line HCA-7 (clone 29) after incubation for 6 hours with <it>Campylobacter jejuni </it>boiled cell extract and was used to probe the Affymetrix Human Genome U133A array. Genes differentially affected by <it>Campylobacter jejuni </it>boiled cell extract were identified using the Significance Score algorithm of the Bioconductor software suite and further analyzed using the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis program. The chemokines CCL20, CXCL3, CXCL2, Interleukin 8, CXCL1 and CXCL6 comprised 6 of the 10 most highly up-regulated genes, all with Significance Scores ≥ 10. Members of the Tumor Necrosis Factor α/Nuclear Factor-κB super-family were also significantly up-regulated and involved in the most significantly regulated signalling pathways (Death receptor, Interleukin 6, Interleukin 10, Toll like receptor, Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor-γ and apoptosis). Ingenuity Pathway Analysis also identified the most affected functional gene networks such as cell movement, gene expression and cell death. In contrast, down-regulated genes were predominantly concerned with structural and metabolic functions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A boiled cell extract of <it>Campylobacter jejuni </it>has components that can directly switch the phenotype of colonic epithelial cells from one of resting metabolism to a pro-inflammatory one, particularly characterized by increased expression of genes for leukocyte chemoattractant molecules.</p

Role of genetic testing for inherited prostate cancer risk: Philadelphia prostate cancer consensus conference 2017

Purpose: Guidelines are limited for genetic testing for prostate cancer (PCA). The goal of this conference was to develop an expert consensus-dri

Research priorities to reduce the impact of musculoskeletal disorders: A priority setting exercise with the child health and nutrition research initiative method

Involving research users in setting priorities for research is essential to ensure the outcomes are patient-centred and maximise its value and impact. The Musculoskeletal Disorders Research Advisory Group Versus Arthritis led a research priority setting exercise across musculoskeletal disorders. The Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) method of setting research priorities with a range of stakeholders was used, involving four stages and two surveys, to: (1) gather research uncertainties, (2) consolidate these, (3) score uncertainties against importance and impact, and (4) analyse scoring for prioritisation. 213 people responded to the first survey and 285 people to the second, representing clinicians, researchers, and people with musculoskeletal disorders. Key priorities included developing and testing new treatments, better treatment targeting, early diagnosis, prevention, and better understanding and management of pain, with an emphasis on understanding underpinning mechanisms. We present a call to action to researchers and funders to target these priorities

The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care