Performing thinking in action: the meletē of live coding

Within this article, live coding is conceived as a meletē, an Ancient Greek term used to describe a meditative thought experiment or exercise in thought, especially understood as a preparatory practice supporting other forms of critical — even ethical — action. Underpinned by the principle of performing its thinking through 'showing the screen', live coding involves 'making visible' the process of its own unfolding through the public sharing of live decision-making within improvisatory performance practice. Live coding can also be conceived as the performing of 'thinking-in-action', a live and embodied navigation of various critical thresholds, affordances and restraints, where its thinking-knowing cannot be easily transmitted nor is it strictly a latent knowledge or 'know how' activated through action. Live coding involves the live negotiation between receptivity and spontaneity, between the embodied and intuitive, between an immersive flow experience and split-attention, between human and machine, the known and not yet known. Moreover, in performing 'thinking-in-action', live coding emerges as an experimental site for reflecting on different perceptions and possibilities of temporal experience within live performance: for attending to the threshold between the live and mediated, between present and future-present, proposing even a quality of atemporality or aliveness

Dorsal Practices—Towards a Back-Oriented Being-in-the-World

Dorsal Practices is a process-based, interdisciplinary artistic collaboration between choreographer Katrina Brown and writer–artist Emma Cocker. This research enquiry explores the notion of dorsality and the cultivation of a back-oriented awareness in relation to how we as sentient bodies orientate to the self, others (human, more-than-human), and interconnected world. Since 2021, Dorsal Practices has unfolded through the interrelation of three fields of experimental, embodied research practice: movement-based practices, conversation practices, and experimental reading practices. Dorsal Practices explores how the tilt or inclination towards dorsal (dis)orientation might enable new modes of thinking–perceiving and being–with, and more connected, sustainable ways of living and aliveness based on the reciprocal, entangled relationship between self/environment. We ask: How does the cultivation of a back-oriented awareness and attitude shape and inform our embodied, affective, and relational experience of being-in-the-world? Rather than a mode of withdrawal, of turning one’s back, how might a back-leaning orientation support an open, receptive ethics of relation? Central to this enquiry is an attempt to explore how different linguistic practices might be developed in fidelity to the embodied experiences of dorsality: how the experiences of listening, languaging, even thinking, might be shaped differently through this embodied tilt of awareness and attention towards the back

Managing dramaturgical dilemmas:youth drinking and multiple identities

Purpose This paper aims to understand how young people manage the dramaturgical dilemmas related to drinking alcohol and performing multiple identities. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on qualitative data collected with 16-18-year olds, the authors adopt Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective to examine youth alcohol consumption in relation to multiple identities. Findings Young people continuously and skilfully juggle multiple identities across multiple contexts, where identities overflow and audiences and interactions overlap. Techniques of audience segregation, mystification and misrepresentation and justification are used to perform and manage multiple identities in a risky health behaviour context. Research limitations/implications The approach may facilitate some over- and under-claiming. Future studies could observe young people’s performances of self across multiple contexts, paying particular attention to how alcohol features in these performances. Practical implications Social marketing campaigns should demonstrate an understanding of how alcohol relates to the contexts of youth lives beyond the “night out” and engage more directly with young peoples’ navigation between different identities, contexts and audiences. Campaigns could tap into the secretive nature of youth alcohol consumption and discourage youth from prioritising audience segregation and mystification above their own safety. Originality/value Extant work has argued that consumers find multiplicity unmanageable or manage multiple identities through internal dialogue. Instead, this paper demonstrates how young people manage multiple identities through interaction and performance. This study challenges the neat compartmentalisation of identities identified in prior literature and Goffman’s clear-cut division of performances into front and back stage

Miscellaneous Rheumatic Diseases [73-83]: 73. Is There a Delay in Specialist Referral of Hot Swollen Joint?

Background: Patients with acute, hot, swollen joints commonly present to general practitioners, emergency departments and/or acute admitting teams rather than directly to rheumatology. It is imperative to consider septic arthritis in the differential diagnosis of these patients. The British Society of Rheumatology (BSR) has produced guidelines for the management of this condition, which include recommendations for early specialist referral and joint aspiration of all patients with suspected septic arthritis. We examined whether the initial management of patients with acute hot swollen joint(s) at University College London Hospital (UCLH) follows BSR guidelines. Methods: For the period Feb to Nov 2009, appropriate patients were identified by searching the UCLH database using the diagnostic terms, "pyogenic arthritis”, "septic arthritis” and "gout”; and from all joint aspirate requests sent to microbiology. Medical notes were obtained and any patients who had elective arthroscopies or chronic (> 6 weeks) symptoms were excluded. Data were collected on the time taken from the onset of symptoms to specialist (orthopaedic/rheumatology) referral and joint aspiration, collection of blood cultures and antibiotic treatment with or without microbiology advice. Results: Twenty patients were identified with hot swollen (18 monoarticular, 3 prosthetic) joint(s) of < 2 weeks duration. Of whom, 3/20 (15%) were admitted directly to rheumatology, 7/20 (35%) to the acute admissions unit, 3/20 (15%) to orthopaedic, 4/20 (20%) to a medical team and 1/20 (5%) to general surgery. In 19 (95%) cases, specialist (rheumatology/orthopaedic) advice was sought. Of 14 cases not seen directly by specialists 9 (64%) were referred at 24-48 h and 5 (36%) at 48-192 h. All 20 patients had joint aspiration. In 9/20 (45%) of cases, joint aspiration was performed in less than 6 h, 3/20 (15%) cases at 6-24h and 6/20 (30%) cases at 24-192 h and was not recorded in two patients. Of these, crystals were identified in two and one was culture positive. Blood cultures were received for only 6/20 (30%) of cases and only clearly documented to have been taken prior to antibiotic therapy and none were positive. Of 14/20 (70%) started on antibiotic treatment empirically, only 6 (42%) were preceded by joint aspiration. In the 6 patients not treated with antibiotics due to low index of suspicion of septic arthritis, synovial fluid and blood cultures were negative. Microbiology advice was sought in 10/20 (50%) of cases by the admitting teams but the timing of this advice is unclear. Conclusions: Despite the provision of 24 h rheumatology and orthopaedic cover at UCLH, we found a significant delay in acute medical firms seeking specialist advice on the management of patients with acute, hot swollen joints with subsequent deviation from BSR guidelines. Consequently, we plan to increase awareness of these guidelines amongst medical firms at UCLH. Disclosure statement: All authors have declared no conflicts of interes

An umbrella review of the benefits and risks associated with youths’ interactions with electronic screens

The influence of electronic screens on the health of children and adolescents and their education is not well understood. In this prospectively registered umbrella review (PROSPERO identifier CRD42017076051), we harmonized effects from 102 meta-analyses (2,451 primary studies; 1,937,501 participants) of screen time and outcomes. In total, 43 effects from 32 meta-analyses met our criteria for statistical certainty. Meta-analyses of associations between screen use and outcomes showed small-to-moderate effects (range: r = –0.14 to 0.33). In education, results were mixed; for example, screen use was negatively associated with literacy (r = –0.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) = –0.20 to –0.09, P ≤ 0.001, k = 38, N = 18,318), but this effect was positive when parents watched with their children (r = 0.15, 95% CI = 0.02 to 0.28, P = 0.028, k = 12, N = 6,083). In health, we found evidence for several small negative associations; for example, social media was associated with depression (r = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.05 to 0.19, P ≤ 0.001, k = 12, N = 93,740). Limitations of our review include the limited number of studies for each outcome, medium-to-high risk of bias in 95 out of 102 included meta-analyses and high heterogeneity (17 out of 22 in education and 20 out of 21 in health with I2 > 50%). We recommend that caregivers and policymakers carefully weigh the evidence for potential harms and benefits of specific types of screen use

The role of CD8+ T cell clones in immune thrombocytopenia

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is traditionally considered an antibody-mediated disease. However, a number of features suggest alternative mechanisms of platelet destruction. In this study, we use a multi-dimensional approach to explore the role of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells in ITP. We characterised patients with ITP and compared them to age-matched controls using immunophenotyping, next-generation sequencing of T cell receptor (TCR) genes, single-cell RNA sequencing, and functional T cell and platelet assays. We found that adults with chronic ITP have increased polyfunctional, terminally differentiated effector memory CD8+ T cells (CD45RA+CD62L-) expressing intracellular interferon-g, tumour necrosis factor-a, and Granzyme B defining them as TEMRA cells. These TEMRA cells expand when the platelet count falls and show no evidence of physiological exhaustion. Deep sequencing of the T cell receptor showed expanded T cell clones in patients with ITP. T cell clones persisted over many years, were more prominent in patients with refractory disease, and expanded when the platelet count was low. Combined single-cell RNA and TCR sequencing of CD8+ T cells confirmed that the expanded clones are TEMRA cells. Using in vitro model systems, we show that CD8+ T cells from patients with ITP form aggregates with autologous platelets, release interferon-g and trigger platelet activation and apoptosis through TCR-mediated release of cytotoxic granules. These findings of clonally expanded CD8+ T cells causing platelet activation and apoptosis provide an antibody-independent mechanism of platelet destruction, indicating that targeting specific T-cell clones could be a novel therapeutic approach for patients with refractory ITP