Geo-Archive

Reflections on archiving in the context of a special issue of Pages (Sahfeh) on the biology and politics of oil seep

Writing on the Animal's Side

Review of: Éric Baratay, Animal Biographies: Toward a History of Individuals. Translated by Lindsay Turner. Animal Voices / Animal Worlds. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2022. 240 pp. $28.95 (pb

New Light from the Middle East

Review of New Light from the Middle East, Exhibition of photography at the Victoria and Albert Museu

Locating the Archive

In 2009, by chance, I came upon an archive in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. It turned out that I was to be involved with this archive in different ways (reading and researching it, helping to raise funds to conserve it, writing inventories of it, and, ultimately, writing about it), over a period of approximately four year

What Matters?

This paper takes as its platform a body of work which often draws upon - or rather, is located at the intersection of - philosophy, feminist theory and science studies and which frequently deploys concepts such as materiality, ontology, process, and performativity in order to offer non-reductionist accounts of the material world. It seeks to shift the focus of attention in this work slightly in order to ask not how something comes to matter, or what it is that materialises, but rather: what matters? It begins by briefly exploring the ways in which three different theoretical interventions, interventions which might loosely be described as 'post-constructivist', seem somehow to lose slight of the very thing that is at the heart of their analyses (the very things that matter to them). These are: events, in Deleuze's account of the difference between a fact and an event in The Fold (2001); values, in Latour's account of a fact and a value in Politics of Nature (2004b); and (political) difference/transformation in Law and Urry's account of the constitutive power of social science research methods in 'Enacting the Social' (2004). The paper goes on to argue that the concept of event holds some potentially useful orientations with regards the question 'what matters?' and also, importantly, that insofar as this concept overlaps with theories of materialisation, it neither compromises nor betrays the valuable contributions of work in this area

An "ethical moment" in data sharing

This study draws on interviews with forty-nine members of a biomedical research community in the UK that is involved in negotiating data sharing and access. During an interview, an interviewee used the words “ethical moment” to describe a confrontation between collaborators in relation to data sharing. In this article, I use this as a lens for thinking about relations between “the conceptual and the empirical” in a way that allows both analyst and actor to challenge the status quo and consider other ethical possibilities. Drawing on actor network theory (ANT), I approach “the empirical” using the concepts of controversy and ontological uncertainty as methodological tools to tackle the problem of ethics. I suggest that these concepts also provide a bridge for understanding the ontological structure of the virtual and the actual, as described in Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition. While other science and technology studies scholars have sought to draw on Deleuze, this article addresses the integration of ethics and empirical research. It arises as a critical reaction to existing treatments of this problem as found in empirical ethics, especially in the sociology of bioethics, and indirectly in ANT texts

Striking a Chord: Dementia and Song

We have co-written this piece to relay what can be achieved with song and music in familial and non-familial settings when caring for a person with dementia. This article started as a conversation we had in the Wellcome Collection cafe in London to catch up with each other while Prabhjot was en route from Canada to India, to meet her father. We shared how dementia was becoming a part of our parents’ lives. This article is dedicated to the chords Prabhjot Parmar has struck with her father, Major Harbhajan Singh (25 Dec 1925 – 16 April 2018) and Nirmal Puwar has had the pleasure of sharing with her mother, Kartar Kaur. Both of us have been drawn to understanding how our own performance of song with our respective parent enabled them and us to maintain a register of connection. Song became a means of trying to keep striking a parental and musical chord. We aimed to connect by engendering ‘therapeutic atmospheres’ (Sonntag 2016) through song. We use song and music interchangeably, operating with performance as an umbrella term that includes gesture, utterance, dance, singing and playing musical instruments, for example. Two autoethnographic relational contributions provide a substantive basis to our article, each written by a researcher-carer-daughter, seeking to sustain contact with what remains in her parent living with dementia

Genetic loci implicated in meta-analysis of body shape in Africans.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Obesity is one of the leading causes of non-communicable diseases (NCD). Thus, NCD risk varies in obese individuals based on the location of their fat depots; while subcutaneous adiposity is protective, visceral adiposity increases NCD risk. Although, previously anthropometric traits have been used to quantify body shape in low-income settings, there is no consensus on how it should be assessed. Hence, there is a growing interest to evaluate body shape derived from the principal component analysis (PCA) of anthropometric traits; however, this is yet to be explored in individuals of African ancestry whose body shape is different from those of Europeans. We set out to capture body shape in its multidimensional structure and examine the association between genetic variants and body shape in individuals of African ancestry. METHOD AND RESULTS: We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for body shape derived from PCA analysis of anthropometric traits in the Ugandan General Population Cohort (GPC, n = 6407) and the South African Zulu Cohort (SZC, n = 2595), followed by a GWAS meta-analysis to assess the genetic variants associated with body shape. We identified variants in FGF12, GRM8, TLX1NB and TRAP1 to be associated with body shape. These genes were different from the genes been associated with BMI, height, weight, WC and waist-hip ration in continental Africans. Notably, we also observed that a standard deviation change in body shape was associated with an increase in blood pressure and blood lipids. CONCLUSION: Variants associated with body shape, as a composite variable might be different for those of individual anthropometric traits. Larger studies are required to further explore these phenomena

Dog words – or, How to think without language

This paper is situated in the context of debates about animals and language, and animal-human relations. It is also informed by the argument that words are neither the exclusive property of language (Motamedi Fraser 2015), nor the exclusive property of humans. The paper illustrates this point by exploring how some companion dogs make 'dog words' with their bodies and, further, how they are able/can be enabled to transform the meanings of these words by inventing and/or participating in word encounters. In the spirit of Lev Vygotsky, the paper argues that such encounters are a way of thinking with words in 'complexes.' Through a series of concrete examples, the paper shows how intimacy is integral to this thinking, in its every dimension. The ethically optimistic dimension of this analysis, however, simultaneously draws attention to how fragile are the relations between dogs, humans, and words, and how proximate intimacy is to 'other kinds of relations.' With this in mind, the paper addresses three 'other kinds of relations' that potentially limit animal-human 'talking' and thinking: scientific behaviourism, speciesism, and 'languagism.

Physical function endpoints in cancer cachexia clinical trials: Systematic Review 1 of the cachexia endpoints series

In cancer cachexia trials, measures of physical function are commonly used as endpoints. For drug trials to obtain regulatory approval, efficacy in physical function endpoints may be needed alongside other measures. However, it is not clear which physical function endpoints should be used. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the frequency and diversity of physical function endpoints in cancer cachexia trials. Following a comprehensive electronic literature search of MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane (1990-2021), records were retrieved. Eligible trials met the following criteria: adults (≥18 years), controlled design, more than 40 participants, use of a cachexia intervention for more than 14 days and use of a physical function endpoint. Physical function measures were classified as an objective measure (hand grip strength [HGS], stair climb power [SCP], timed up and go [TUG] test, 6-min walking test [6MWT] and short physical performance battery [SPPB]), clinician assessment of function (Karnofsky Performance Status [KPS] or Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group-Performance Status [ECOG-PS]) or patient-reported outcomes (physical function subscale of the European Organisation for the Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaires [EORTC QLQ-C30 or C15]). Data extraction was performed using Covidence and followed PRISMA guidance (PROSPERO registration: CRD42022276710). A total of 5975 potential studies were examined and 71 were eligible. Pharmacological interventions were assessed in 38 trials (54%). Of these, 11 (29%, n = 1184) examined megestrol and 5 (13%, n = 1928) examined anamorelin; nutritional interventions were assessed in 21 trials (30%); and exercise-based interventions were assessed in 6 trials (8%). The remaining six trials (8%) assessed multimodal interventions. Among the objective measures of physical function (assessed as primary or secondary endpoints), HGS was most commonly examined (33 trials, n = 5081) and demonstrated a statistically significant finding in 12 (36%) trials (n = 2091). The 6MWT was assessed in 12 trials (n = 1074) and was statistically significant in 4 (33%) trials (n = 403), whereas SCP, TUG and SPPB were each assessed in 3 trials. KPS was more commonly assessed than the newer ECOG-PS (16 vs. 9 trials), and patient-reported EORTC QLQ-C30 physical function was reported in 25 trials. HGS is the most commonly used physical function endpoint in cancer cachexia clinical trials. However, heterogeneity in study design, populations, intervention and endpoint selection make it difficult to comment on the optimal endpoint and how to measure this. We offer several recommendations/considerations to improve the design of future clinical trials in cancer cachexia