Constructing the eastern european other: The horsemeat scandal and the migrant other

The Horsemeat scandal in the UK in 2013 ignited a furore about consumer deception and the bodily transgression of consuming something so alien to the British psyche. The imagination of the horse as a noble and mythic figure in British history and sociological imagination was invoked to construct the consumption of horsemeat as a social taboo and an immoral proposition in the British media debates. This paper traces the horsemeat scandal and its media framing in the UK. Much of the aversion to horsemeat was intertextually bound with discourses of immigration, the expansion of the EU and the threat in tandem to the UK. Food as a social and cultural artefact laden with symbolic meaning and national pride became a platform to construct the ‘Other’ – in this case the Eastern European Other. The media debates on the horsemeat scandal interwove the opening up of the EU and particularly UK to the influx of Eastern European migration. The horsemeat controversy in implicating the Eastern Europeans for the contamination of the supply chain became a means to not just construct the ‘Other’ but also to entwine contemporary policy debates about immigration. This temporal framing of contemporary debates enables a nation to renew and contemporise its notions of ‘otherness’ while sustaining an historic social imaginary of itself

Hybrid Methods Reveal Multiple Flexibly Linked DNA Polymerases within the Bacteriophage T7 Replisome.

The physical organization of DNA enzymes at a replication fork enables efficient copying of two antiparallel DNA strands, yet dynamic protein interactions within the replication complex complicate replisome structural studies. We employed a combination of crystallographic, native mass spectrometry and small-angle X-ray scattering experiments to capture alternative structures of a model replication system encoded by bacteriophage T7. Two molecules of DNA polymerase bind the ring-shaped primase-helicase in a conserved orientation and provide structural insight into how the acidic C-terminal tail of the primase-helicase contacts the DNA polymerase to facilitate loading of the polymerase onto DNA. A third DNA polymerase binds the ring in an offset manner that may enable polymerase exchange during replication. Alternative polymerase binding modes are also detected by small-angle X-ray scattering with DNA substrates present. Our collective results unveil complex motions within T7 replisome higher-order structures that are underpinned by multivalent protein-protein interactions with functional implications

Setting priorities for health education research : A mixed methods study

Introduction: Identifying priority research topics that meet the needs of multiple stakeholders should maximize research investment. Aim: To identify priorities for health education research. Methods: A three-stage sequential mixed methods study was conducted. Priorities for health education research were identified through a qualitative survey with 104 students, patients, academics, and clinicians across five health sciences and 12 professions (stage 1). These findings were analyzed using framework analysis and transposed into a quantitative survey whereby 780 stakeholders rated and ranked the identified priorities. Descriptive statistics identified priorities, exploratory factor analysis grouped priorities and differences between stakeholders were determined using Mann-Whitney U tests (stage 2). Six individual or group interviews with 16 participants (stage 3) further explicated the results from previous stages. Results: Of 30 priorities identified, the top were: how best to ensure students develop the required skills for work; how to promote resiliency and well-being in students; and ensuring the curriculum prepares students for work. For the majority of priorities, no significant differences were found between different stakeholder groups. Conclusions: These findings will be used to inform health educational research strategy both locally and nationally. Further research should explore if setting priorities can be translated effectively into education research policy and practice

Retention of habituation of vestibulo-ocular reflex and sensation of rotation in humans.

International audienceIn humans, habituation of vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) by repeated caloric or rotational stimulation has been well documented. However, less attention has been directed to the effect of habituation on the sensation of self-rotation and little is known about the retention duration of vestibular habituation. To investigate these characteristics, subjects were exposed to ten sessions of angular velocity steps in yaw, with a chair rotating either alternatively in both CW and CCW directions (bidirectional protocol) or always in the same direction (unidirectional protocol), i.e., CW or CCW. The retention of habituation of VOR and sensation of rotation induced by both protocols was studied for a period up to 8 months following the end of the habituation protocols. There was a progressive decline in the VOR peak slow phase velocity and time constant throughout the sessions during both protocols. These parameters then followed an exponential recovery with a time constant of about 1 month. The duration of the sensation of rotation also habituated during repeated angular velocity steps, but it was shorter for both directions of stimulation, including after the unidirectional protocol. Sinusoidal VOR gain was not affected by vestibular habituation to velocity steps, but sinusoidal VOR phase showed an increase in phase lead at 0.02 and 0.04 Hz, which also returned to baseline values within about 1 month. We conclude that vestibular habituation is a long-lasting phenomenon. These results may be helpful for designing and scheduling the protocols for drug studies using crossover design, rehabilitation of balance disorder patients, and for the application of intermittent artificial gravity during space missions