ImaYDiT - Imagining young disabled people's transitions in a time of major societal change: Research project report

ImaYDiT was funded by DRILL – Disability Research for Independent Living and Learning. This is supported by the Big Lottery Fund. WiltsCIL staff, members of WiltsCIL CoproductionGroup and researchers at UWE came up with the original idea for this project. We wanted to support young disabled people to explore and re-imagine their adult lives and have the best future. This involved taking an ‘assets-based’ approach. This is where we focus on what people can do- rather than what they can’t do – which is a ‘deficit approach’. We also thought that there is not enough research about the whole of young disabled people’s lives. Instead a lot of research only concentrates on transitions through the benefits and service system.Wiltshire Social Services and the Wiltshire Parent Council helped steer the project because, where we could, we also wanted to put young disabled people’s hopes and dreams into action.We want to understand how this group of young disabled people can be supported to become the next generation who are aware of their rights, with ambitions for their futures and able to establish meaningful and independent adult lives

Financialisation of News in China in the Age of the Internet: The Case of Xinhuanet

This paper discusses the recent development of Xinhuanet.com, a news website launched by Xinhua News Agency, one of China’s key central state-owned news organisations. Xinhuanet Co. Ltd., the business entity running the website, went public in October 2016 in Shanghai. This has marked the first step in the state news agency’s financialisation. Two main questions are addressed. First, what were the main driving forces behind Xinhuanet’s transformation from a governmental cultural organisation to a publicly traded enterprise, the majority shareholder of which remains Xinhua? Second, how to understand the nature of this transformation in relation to Xinhua’s wider marketisation process and that of the Chinese media sector as a whole? The paper argues that Xinhua’s financialisation via Xinhuanet is best understood as part of a state-administrated initiative in accord with Xinhua’s own business ambitions. The financialisation of news by state players such as Xinhuanet does not alter the underlying ownership structure of Chinese news media, which remain ultimately state-controlled

A pragmatic, multicentre, randomised controlled trial comparing stapled haemorrhoidopexy to traditional excisional surgery for haemorrhoidal disease (eTHoS): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background: Current interventions for haemorrhoidal disease include traditional haemorrhoidectomy (TH) and stapled haemorrhoidopexy (SH) surgery. However, uncertainty remains as to how they compare from a clinical, quality of life (QoL) and economic perspective. The study is therefore designed to determine whether SH is more effective and more cost-effective, compared with TH. Methods/Design: eTHoS (either Traditional Haemorrhoidectomy or Stapled Haemorrhoidopexy for Haemorrhoidal Disease) is a pragmatic, multicentre, randomised controlled trial. Currently, 29 secondary care centres are open to recruitment. Patients, aged 18 year or older, with circumferential haemorrhoids grade II to IV, are eligible to take part. The primary clinical and economic outcomes are QoL profile (area under the curve derived from the EuroQol Group’s 5 Dimension Health Status Questionnaire (EQ-5D) at all assessment points) and incremental cost per quality adjusted life year (QALY) based on the responses to the EQ-5D at 24 months. The secondary outcomes include a comparison of the SF-36 scores, pain and symptoms sub-domains, disease recurrence, complication rates and direct and indirect costs to the National Health Service (NHS). A sample size of n =338 per group has been calculated to provide 90% power to detect a difference in the mean area under the curve (AUC) of 0.25 standard deviations derived from EQ-5D score measurements, with a two-sided significance level of 5%. Allowing for non-response, 400 participants will be randomised per group. Randomisation will utilise a minimisation algorithm that incorporates centre, grade of haemorrhoidal disease, baseline EQ-5D score and gender. Blinding of participants and outcome assessors is not attempted. Discussion: This is one of the largest trials of its kind. In the United Kingdom alone, 29,000 operations for haemorrhoidal disease are done annually. The trial is therefore designed to give robust evidence on which clinicians and health service managers can base management decisions and, more importantly, patients can make informed choices. Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN80061723 (assigned 8 March 2010

Matrix metalloproteinases 2 and 9 (gelatinases A and B) expression in malignant mesothelioma and benign pleura

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), in particular the gelatinases (MMP-2 and -9), play a significant role in tumour invasion and angiogenesis. The expression and activities of MMPs have not been characterised in malignant mesothelioma (MM) tumour samples. In a prospective study, gelatinase activity was evaluated in homogenised supernatants of snap frozen MM (n = 35), inflamed pleura (IP, n = 12) and uninflammed pleura (UP, n = 14) tissue specimens by semiquantitative gelatin zymography. Matrix metalloproteinases were correlated with clinicopathological factors and with survival using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard models. In MM, pro- and active MMP-2 levels were significantly greater than for MMP-9 (P = 0.006, P<0.001). Active MMP-2 was significantly greater in MM than in UP (P=0.04). MMP-2 activity was equivalent between IP and MM, but both pro- and active MMP-9 activities were greater in IP (P=0.02, P=0.009). While there were trends towards poor survival with increasing total and pro-MMP-2 activity (P=0.08) in univariate analysis, they were both independent poor prognostic factors in multivariate analysis in conjunction with weight loss (pro-MMP-2 P = 0.03, total MMP-2 P = 0.04). Total and pro-MMP-2 also contributed to the Cancer and Leukemia Group B prognostic groups. MMP-9 activities were not prognostic. Matrix metalloproteinases, and in particular MMP-2, the most abundant gelatinase, may play an important role in MM tumour growth and metastasis. Agents that reduce MMP synthesis and/or activity may have a role to play in the management of MM. © 2003 Cancer Research UK

Exile

Byron rehearsed going into exile in 1809, when he was twenty-one years old. Before setting sail for Lisbon, he wrote, “I leave England without regret, I shall return to it without pleasure. – I am like Adam the first convict sentenced to transportation, but I have no Eve, and have eaten no apple but what was sour as a crab and thus ends my first Chapter” (BLJ 1: 211). Byron’s sardonic perception of himself as a biblical exile foreshadowed the allusive character of his second longer-term exile at the age of twenty-eight, when his carefully staged exit required an audience (some of the same friends and servants), expensive props (a replica of Napoleon’s carriage) and a literary precursor. On his last evening in England, Byron visited the burial place of the satirist Charles Churchill, and lay down on his grave. It was a performance of immense weariness with life and solidarity with an embittered outcast.Postprin

The Lake Poets

“If Southey had not been comparatively good,” writes Herbert F. Tucker, “he would never have drawn out Byron’s best in those satirical volleys that were undertaken, at bottom, in order to reprehend not the want of talent but its wastage.” And if Wordsworth and Coleridge had not been dangerously talented, Byron might have spared them some of his stinging sallies. In Table Talk Coleridge proclaimed the conclusion of the “intellectual war” Byron threatened in Don Juan (XI. 62: 496), declaring Wordsworth the poet who “will wear the crown,” triumphing over Byron and his ilk for the poetic laurels of the Romantic period. But Byron was not simply an opponent of his contemporaries. His responses to the Lake poets, particularly to Wordsworth, ran the gamut from “reverence” (HVSV, 129) then “nausea” (Medwin, 237) to Don Juan’s comical though cutting disdain, in under a decade. Focusing on Byron’s relationship with Wordsworth and Coleridge, I will show how Byron’s poetry and drama reveal the range and complexity of his dialogue with his older peers, where, even at their most apparently divergent, the conversation between the poets reveals the depth of the engagement across their works

Pseudomonas aeruginosa Population Structure Revisited

At present there are strong indications that Pseudomonas aeruginosa exhibits an epidemic population structure; clinical isolates are indistinguishable from environmental isolates, and they do not exhibit a specific (disease) habitat selection. However, some important issues, such as the worldwide emergence of highly transmissible P. aeruginosa clones among cystic fibrosis (CF) patients and the spread and persistence of multidrug resistant (MDR) strains in hospital wards with high antibiotic pressure, remain contentious. To further investigate the population structure of P. aeruginosa, eight parameters were analyzed and combined for 328 unrelated isolates, collected over the last 125 years from 69 localities in 30 countries on five continents, from diverse clinical (human and animal) and environmental habitats. The analysed parameters were: i) O serotype, ii) Fluorescent Amplified-Fragment Length Polymorphism (FALFP) pattern, nucleotide sequences of outer membrane protein genes, iii) oprI, iv) oprL, v) oprD, vi) pyoverdine receptor gene profile (fpvA type and fpvB prevalence), and prevalence of vii) exoenzyme genes exoS and exoU and viii) group I pilin glycosyltransferase gene tfpO. These traits were combined and analysed using biological data analysis software and visualized in the form of a minimum spanning tree (MST). We revealed a network of relationships between all analyzed parameters and non-congruence between experiments. At the same time we observed several conserved clones, characterized by an almost identical data set. These observations confirm the nonclonal epidemic population structure of P. aeruginosa, a superficially clonal structure with frequent recombinations, in which occasionally highly successful epidemic clones arise. One of these clones is the renown and widespread MDR serotype O12 clone. On the other hand, we found no evidence for a widespread CF transmissible clone. All but one of the 43 analysed CF strains belonged to a ubiquitous P. aeruginosa “core lineage” and typically exhibited the exoS+/exoU− genotype and group B oprL and oprD alleles. This is to our knowledge the first report of an MST analysis conducted on a polyphasic data set

Diagnosis and treatment of urticaria and angioedema: a worldwide perspective

Urticaria and angioedema are common clinical conditions representing a major concern for physicians and patients alike. The World Allergy Organization (WAO), recognizing the importance of these diseases, has contributed to previous guidelines for the diagnosis and management of urticaria. The Scientific and Clinical Issues Council of WAO proposed the development of this global Position Paper to further enhance the clinical management of these disorders through the participation of renowned experts from all WAO regions of the world. Sections on definition and classification, prevalence, etiology and pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis are based on the best scientific evidence presently available. Additional sections devoted to urticaria and angioedema in children and pregnant women, quality of life and patient-reported outcomes, and physical urticarias have been incorporated into this document. It is expected that this article will supplement recent international guidelines with the contribution of an expert panel designated by the WAO, increasing awareness of the importance of urticaria and angioedema in medical practice and will become a useful source of information for optimum patient management worldwide