Caring for quality of care: symbolic violence and the bureaucracies of audit.

BACKGROUND: This article considers the moral notion of care in the context of Quality of Care discourses. Whilst care has clear normative implications for the delivery of health care it is less clear how Quality of Care, something that is centrally involved in the governance of UK health care, relates to practice. DISCUSSION: This paper presents a social and ethical analysis of Quality of Care in the light of the moral notion of care and Bourdieu's conception of symbolic violence. We argue that Quality of Care bureaucracies show significant potential for symbolic violence or the domination of practice and health care professionals. This generates problematic, and unintended, consequences that can displace the goals of practice. SUMMARY: Quality of Care bureaucracies may have unintended consequences for the practice of health care. Consistent with feminist conceptions of care, Quality of Care 'audits' should be reconfigured so as to offer a more nuanced and responsive form of evaluation

Smart railways… or not so smart : a cyber security perspective

Welcome to a world where smart railways are here and now. Real-time monitoring, embedded sensors, driverless trains, automated signalling and train control, Internet of Things (IoT), instant travel disruption alerts, and more. Operators not only need to continue to focus on operating railways, but now must monitor and protect all this connected infrastructure from a cyber-attack. The more connections, the more cyber threat attack vectors, the more potential for exploitable vulnerabilities, the more risk of a cyber-attack occurring. As the owner or operator responsible for the railway, how often do you perform risk assessments specific to cyber and/or information security? How confident are you of being proactive towards a cyber-attack? Are you able to identify, classify and/or mitigate a cyber-security related risk? Does your risk management framework allow for accurate classifications of cyber-security related risks in line with industry best practices? Will you be non-compliant and subject to financial penalties from regulations and/or legislation such as the Australian Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme (NDB)? The aim of this paper is to dive into information and cyber-security for rail networks and operations, providing advice into protecting a rail network’s infrastructure from cyber-security threats, to the same high level expected by all involved

An estrogen receptor repressor induces cataract formation in transgenic mice

Despite the high prevalence of age-related cataracts, there are currently no known therapies to delay or prevent their occurrence. Studies in humans and rodent models suggest that estrogen may provide protection against age-related cataracts. The discovery of ocular estrogen receptors (ERs) indicates that estrogen protection may result from direct interactions with its receptors in the eye, instead an indirect consequence from effects on another tissue. Studies in our transgenic mouse model validate the concept that estrogen is beneficial for the eye. These mice express ERΔ3, a dominant-negative form of ERα that inhibits ERα function. In the ERΔ3 transgenic mice, cortical cataracts spontaneously form in ERΔ3 females after puberty and progress with age. The cataracts initiate in the equatorial region of the lens where the epithelial cells differentiate into elongating fiber cells. Cataract formation can be prevented if the females are ovariectomized before, but not after, sexual maturity. Both male and female ERΔ3 mice develop cataracts after neonatal treatment with the potent estrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES). The incidence of spontaneous and DES-induced cataracts in ERΔ3 mice is 100%, yet these cataracts are absent from the wild-type mice. These data suggest that repression of estrogen action induces cortical cataract formation because estrogen is required to activate the ERΔ3 repressor. Evidence of DES-induced cataracts in the ERΔ3 males as well as the females suggests that estrogen is important in lens physiology in both sexes. The ERΔ3 mice provide a powerful model for assessing the role of estrogen in maintaining the transparency of the lens