‘Lacking’ subjects: challenging the construction of the ‘empowered’ graduate in museum, gallery and heritage studies

This article challenges what is now a common assumption in Higher Education; that teaching for employability will result in enabled and empowered graduates. Drawing upon empirical data, and Foucault’s concept of subjectification, we argue that discourses of employability instead encouraged museum, gallery and heritage postgraduate students at one UK-based institution to perceive themselves as subjects ‘lacking’ the resources needed for work – an understanding of self that formed prior to study, which then permeated the entire learning and teaching experience. Moreover, we note that the trajectory from ‘lacking student’ to ‘employable graduate’ is often reliant upon an accrual of assets (e.g. work experience, skills) not openly available to all. As such, the article sounds a note of caution with regards the rhetoric of employability within Higher Education, while giving voice to students’ perspectives and anxieties around employability

Peripheral Nerve Injury Is Associated with Chronic, Reversible Changes in Global DNA Methylation in the Mouse Prefrontal Cortex

Changes in brain structure and cortical function are associated with many chronic pain conditions including low back pain and fibromyalgia. The magnitude of these changes correlates with the duration and/or the intensity of chronic pain. Most studies report changes in common areas involved in pain modulation, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC), and pain-related pathological changes in the PFC can be reversed with effective treatment. While the mechanisms underlying these changes are unknown, they must be dynamically regulated. Epigenetic modulation of gene expression in response to experience and environment is reversible and dynamic. Epigenetic modulation by DNA methylation is associated with abnormal behavior and pathological gene expression in the central nervous system. DNA methylation might also be involved in mediating the pathologies associated with chronic pain in the brain. We therefore tested a) whether alterations in DNA methylation are found in the brain long after chronic neuropathic pain is induced in the periphery using the spared nerve injury modal and b) whether these injury-associated changes are reversible by interventions that reverse the pathologies associated with chronic pain. Six months following peripheral nerve injury, abnormal sensory thresholds and increased anxiety were accompanied by decreased global methylation in the PFC and the amygdala but not in the visual cortex or the thalamus. Environmental enrichment attenuated nerve injury-induced hypersensitivity and reversed the changes in global PFC methylation. Furthermore, global PFC methylation correlated with mechanical and thermal sensitivityin neuropathic mice. In summary, induction of chronic pain by peripheral nerve injury is associated with epigenetic changes in the brain. These changes are detected long after the original injury, at a long distance from the site of injury and are reversible with environmental manipulation. Changes in brain structure and cortical function that are associated with chronic pain conditions may therefore be mediated by epigenetic mechanisms

MicroRNA-210 Regulates Mitochondrial Free Radical Response to Hypoxia and Krebs Cycle in Cancer Cells by Targeting Iron Sulfur Cluster Protein ISCU

BACKGROUND: Hypoxia in cancers results in the upregulation of hypoxia inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) and a microRNA, hsa-miR-210 (miR-210) which is associated with a poor prognosis. METHODS AND FINDINGS: In human cancer cell lines and tumours, we found that miR-210 targets the mitochondrial iron sulfur scaffold protein ISCU, required for assembly of iron-sulfur clusters, cofactors for key enzymes involved in the Krebs cycle, electron transport, and iron metabolism. Down regulation of ISCU was the major cause of induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in hypoxia. ISCU suppression reduced mitochondrial complex 1 activity and aconitase activity, caused a shift to glycolysis in normoxia and enhanced cell survival. Cancers with low ISCU had a worse prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Induction of these major hallmarks of cancer show that a single microRNA, miR-210, mediates a new mechanism of adaptation to hypoxia, by regulating mitochondrial function via iron-sulfur cluster metabolism and free radical generation

Genome Wide Association Identifies PPFIA1 as a Candidate Gene for Acute Lung Injury Risk Following Major Trauma

Acute Lung Injury (ALI) is a syndrome with high associated mortality characterized by severe hypoxemia and pulmonary infiltrates in patients with critical illness. We conducted the first investigation to use the genome wide association (GWA) approach to identify putative risk variants for ALI. Genome wide genotyping was performed using the Illumina Human Quad 610 BeadChip. We performed a two-stage GWA study followed by a third stage of functional characterization. In the discovery phase (Phase 1), we compared 600 European American trauma-associated ALI cases with 2266 European American population-based controls. We carried forward the top 1% of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at p<0.01 to a replication phase (Phase 2) comprised of a nested case-control design sample of 212 trauma-associated ALI cases and 283 at-risk trauma non-ALI controls from ongoing cohort studies. SNPs that replicated at the 0.05 level in Phase 2 were subject to functional validation (Phase 3) using expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analyses in stimulated B-lymphoblastoid cell lines (B-LCL) in family trios. 159 SNPs from the discovery phase replicated in Phase 2, including loci with prior evidence for a role in ALI pathogenesis. Functional evaluation of these replicated SNPs revealed rs471931 on 11q13.3 to exert a cis-regulatory effect on mRNA expression in the PPFIA1 gene (p = 0.0021). PPFIA1 encodes liprin alpha, a protein involved in cell adhesion, integrin expression, and cell-matrix interactions. This study supports the feasibility of future multi-center GWA investigations of ALI risk, and identifies PPFIA1 as a potential functional candidate ALI risk gene for future research

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Recipes for The Suspension of Space-Time

"Recipes for The Suspension of Space-Time is a mail exchange exploring preservation of food, objects, relationships, and time. Fermented, pickled, or dried foods are the basis for parcels of edible mail art. Recipes here become loose scores for time capsules, snapshots of our regional and intimate lives, and documentation of our efforts to reach each other across distance. We see wild fermentation as a form of radical hospitality between human and nonhuman life-forms, and a metaphor for living and thriving under current conditions. Sharing a jar of sauerkraut between cities and across the Canada-US border, we bring closer together, eating pieces of each others' worlds." -- Inner panel of the box

Peripheral nerve injury is associated with chronic, reversible changes in global DNA methylation in the mouse prefrontal cortex.

Changes in brain structure and cortical function are associated with many chronic pain conditions including low back pain and fibromyalgia. The magnitude of these changes correlates with the duration and/or the intensity of chronic pain. Most studies report changes in common areas involved in pain modulation, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC), and pain-related pathological changes in the PFC can be reversed with effective treatment. While the mechanisms underlying these changes are unknown, they must be dynamically regulated. Epigenetic modulation of gene expression in response to experience and environment is reversible and dynamic. Epigenetic modulation by DNA methylation is associated with abnormal behavior and pathological gene expression in the central nervous system. DNA methylation might also be involved in mediating the pathologies associated with chronic pain in the brain. We therefore tested a) whether alterations in DNA methylation are found in the brain long after chronic neuropathic pain is induced in the periphery using the spared nerve injury modal and b) whether these injury-associated changes are reversible by interventions that reverse the pathologies associated with chronic pain. Six months following peripheral nerve injury, abnormal sensory thresholds and increased anxiety were accompanied by decreased global methylation in the PFC and the amygdala but not in the visual cortex or the thalamus. Environmental enrichment attenuated nerve injury-induced hypersensitivity and reversed the changes in global PFC methylation. Furthermore, global PFC methylation correlated with mechanical and thermal sensitivity in neuropathic mice. In summary, induction of chronic pain by peripheral nerve injury is associated with epigenetic changes in the brain. These changes are detected long after the original injury, at a long distance from the site of injury and are reversible with environmental manipulation. Changes in brain structure and cortical function that are associated with chronic pain conditions may therefore be mediated by epigenetic mechanisms

Composición de la dieta de la codorniz Moctezuma (Cyrtonyx montezumae) en municipios del noroeste del Estado de México

Se estudió la composición de la dieta de la codorniz Moctezuma Cyrtonyx montezumae en municipios del noroeste del Estado de México. Se obtuvieron nueve buches de la temporada de cacería invierno 2001-2002. El análisis macrohistológico mostró que el principal componente de la dieta fue el bulbo de Oxalis spp. (41.99% de la materia seca), seguido por grano de trigo (40.97%), semillas de Chenopodium sp. (16.46%), semillas de avena (0.54%) e insectos (0.015%). La concentración estimada de nutrientes fue del 15.3% de proteína cruda, 0.19% Ca, 0.32% P y 3.169 kcal de energía metabolizable/ g de materia seca. Los resultados muestran que el bulbo de Oxalis y el grano de trigo constituyen los principales alimentos energéticos en el invierno

Composición de la dieta de la codorniz Moctezuma (Cyrtonyx montezumae) en municipios del noroeste del Estado de México

Se estudió la composición de la dieta de la codorniz Moctezuma Cyrtonyx montezumae en municipios del noroeste del Estado de México. Se obtuvieron nueve buches de la temporada de cacería invierno 2001-2002. El análisis macrohistológico mostró que el principal componente de la dieta fue el bulbo de Oxalis spp. (41.99% de la materia seca), seguido por grano de trigo (40.97%), semillas de Chenopodium sp. (16.46%), semillas de avena (0.54%) e insectos (0.015%). La concentración estimada de nutrientes fue del 15.3% de proteína cruda, 0.19% Ca, 0.32% P y 3.169 kcal de energía metabolizable/ g de materia seca. Los resultados muestran que el bulbo de Oxalis y el grano de trigo constituyen los principales alimentos energéticos en el invierno

Global Methylation in the Prefrontal Cortex Correlates with the Magnitude of Nerve Injury-Induced Hypersensitivity.

<p>Correlation analysis was performed on the data from <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0055259#pone-0055259-g003" target="_blank">Figure 3</a>. Significant correlations were observed between % global methylation and hypersensitivity to mechanical (<b>a</b>) and cold stimuli (<b>b</b>), in neuropathic but not control mice. * = p<0.05, ** = p<0.01.</p