Just One? Solo Dining, Gender and Temporal Belonging in Public Spaces

In recent years, various lifestyle websites have offered tips on eating out alone as well as lists of the best restaurants for solo dining in major cities of the world. Utilising the theoretical concepts of participation units, territories of the self (Goffman 1972[1971]) and belonging (Author B2011, 2013), this paper explores the challenges that spatio-temporal conventions pose for women solo diners in particular. Through the lens of solo dining, we explore being alone and belonging in shared public spaces, and the gendered nature of aloneness and respectability. The papercontributes to existing theory by examining the influence that time has on a woman solo diner’s ‘single’ participation unit, her ability to lay claim to public space and her relationship with the surrounding social environment. The paper concludes by exploring what the new trend of solo dining can offer and the consequences this has for how sociologists conceptualise sociality inpublic spaces

Enabling the classroom and the curriculum: higher education, literary studies and disability

In this article the tripartite model of disability is applied to the lived experience of twenty-first-century higher education. The tripartite model facilitates a complex understanding of disability that recognises assumptions and discrimination but not at the cost of valued identity. This being so, not only the normative positivisms and non-normative negativisms but also the non-normative positivisms of the classroom and the curriculum are explored. Inclusion is taken as the starting point and the argument progresses to a profound and innovational appreciation of disability. The problem addressed is that inclusion, as shown in The Biopolitics of Disability, constitutes little more than inclusion-ism until disability is recognised in the context of alternative lives and values that neither enforce nor reify normalcy. Informed by this understanding, the article adopts the disciplinary example of literary studies and refers to Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney as a primary text. The conclusion is that, despite passive and active resistance, disability enters higher education in many ways, most of which are beneficial to students and educators alike

Not forgetting happiness: The tripartite model of disability and its application in literary criticism

This interdisciplinary article draws on the social sciences to posit a tripartite model from which literary research into disability can benefit. Ableism and disablism are defined by normative positivisms and non-normative negativisms respectively, but consideration is also given to non-normative positivisms. Informed by experiential knowledge, the model is illustrated with reference to a trilogy of literary representations of blindness: George Sava’s novel Happiness is blind (1987), Brian Friel’s play Molly Sweeney (1994), and Stephen Kuusisto’s memoir Eavesdropping (2006). The result is a complex reading that recognises problems but also non-normative renderings of happiness

An exploration of the use of infant observation methods to research the identities of severely learning disabled adolescents and to enhance relationship-based practice for professional social work practice

This paper considers how infant observation methods may be adapted to explore and research the identities of severely learning disabled adolescents, a group of young people whose experiences are poorly represented in the literature. Through focusing on emotion and relationship, this ‘practice-near’ research method also offers a way for social workers to develop their reflective capacity in relation to the often hidden, uncomfortable emotions aroused by experiencing impairment and difference, but without the defences usually involved in assuming the professional role. The importance of taking time to get on a disabled child’s ‘wavelength’ is illustrated through extracts from the research which show how a young person’s agency and identity can be appreciated. The method also has the potential to develop social workers’ awareness of the powerful undercurrent of emotions apparent at times within families of severely disabled young people and tentative suggestions are made about the projective processes and hidden hostilities at work within one of the families observed as part of the research project. Professionals may be able to use this knowledge to become resilient and reflective practitioners and the observation method itself has something to offer by way of a containing experience for families

Pretending to be a Normal Human Being: Peep Show, Sitcom, and the Momentary Invocation of Disability

This interdisciplinary article presents research about the place of disability in the British sitcom Peep Show, whose 54 episodes span more than a decade in their transmission (2003-2015). The methodology of Critical Discourse Analysis is employed to probe the relationship between casual word choice and broader themes such as normalcy, humour, and social attitudes. This analysis is informed by classic and new work in cultural disability studies, as well as by work in literary studies and television studies. The conclusion is that, despite its apparent irrelevance to disability studies, Peep Show reveals much about conversational invocations of disability

Dietary calcium and vitamin D intakes in childhood and throughout adulthood and mammographic density in a British birth cohort

We examined the role of dietary calcium and vitamin D intakes in childhood and throughout adulthood in relation to mammographic density using data from a nationally representative cohort of 1161 women followed up since their birth in 1946. Dietary intakes at the age of 4 years were determined by 24-h recalls and at the ages of 36, 43 and 53 years by 5-day food records. After adjusting for known risk factors and confounders, no evidence of a relationship between dietary calcium or vitamin D intakes and mammographic density approximately at the age of 50 years was found, except for a cross-sectional relationship between dietary calcium intake at the age of 53 years and breast density in women who were post-menopausal at the time of mammography, with those in the top fifth of the distribution of calcium intake having a 0.53 s.d. lower percent breast density than those in the lowest fifth (P-value <0.01 for linear trend)

Teaching disability : strategies for the reconstitution of disability knowledge

As teachers of disability studies, working with students from the health and psychological sciences, we tackle some of our pedagogical challenges and offer productive possibilities. We begin by introducing the offerings of disability studies and then consider our first question: how might we invite disability into our teaching? We introduce a Spanish tale – Por cuatro esquinitas de nada – that, while aimed at children and not explicitly engaged with a disability, permits us to engage in inter-textual analyses of disability. We find that students move through different stages of what we term distinction, idealisation and invisibility/concealment. We then address our second question – what does it mean to teach disability? We answer this with reference to the generative practices of two teaching methodologies: disposal and disavowal. We conclude the paper by considering the importance of generating critical theories of disability

Antioxidants and breast cancer risk- a population-based case-control study in Canada

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The effect of antioxidants on breast cancer is still controversial. Our objective was to assess the association between antioxidants and breast cancer risk in a large population-based case-control study.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study population included 2,362 cases with pathologically confirmed incident breast cancer (866 premenopausal and 1,496 postmenopausal) and 2,462 controls in Canada. Intakes of antioxidants from diet and from supplementation as well as other potential risk factors for breast cancer were collected by a self-reported questionnaire.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared with subjects with no supplementation, 10 years or longer supplementation of zinc had multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of 0.46 (0.25-0.85) for premenopausal women, while supplementation of 10 years or longer of multiple vitamin, beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E and zinc had multivariable-adjusted ORs (95% CIs) of 0.74 (0.59, 0.92), 0.58 (0.36, 0.95), 0.79 (0.63-0.99), 0.75 (0.58, 0.97), and 0.47 (0.28-0.78), respectively, for postmenopausal women. No significant effect of antioxidants from dietary sources (including beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, lycopene, lutein and zeaxanthin, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium and zinc) or from supplementation less than 10 years was observed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study suggests that supplementation of zinc in premenopausal women, and supplementation of multiple vitamin, beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E and zinc in postmenopausal women for 10 or more years may protect women from developing breast cancer. However, we were unable to determine the overall effect of total dose or intake from both diet and supplement.</p

Selenium, Selenoenzymes, Oxidative Stress and Risk of Neoplastic Progression from Barrett's Esophagus: Results from Biomarkers and Genetic Variants

Clinical trials have suggested a protective effect of selenium supplementation on the risk of esophageal cancer, which may be mediated through the antioxidant activity of selenoenzymes. We investigated whether serum selenium concentrations, selenoenzyme activity, oxidative stress and genetic variation in selenoenzymes were associated with the risk of neoplastic progression to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) and two intermediate endpoints, aneuploidy and tetraploidy. In this prospective cohort study, during an average follow-up of 7.3 years, 47 EA cases, 41 aneuploidy cases and 51 tetraploidy cases accrued among 361 participants from the Seattle Barrett's Esophagus Research Study who were free of EA at the time of blood draw and had at least one follow-up visit. Development to EA was assessed histologically and aneuploidy and tetraploidy by DNA content flow cytometry. Serum selenium concentrations were measured using atomic absorption spectrometry, activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPX) 1 and GPX3 by substrate-specific coupled test procedures, selenoprotein P (SEPP1) concentrations and protein carbonyl content by ELISA method and malondialdehyde concentrations by HPLC. Genetic variants in GPX1-4 and SEPP1 were genotyped. Serum selenium was not associated with the risk of neoplastic progression to EA, aneuploidy or tetraploidy (P for trend = 0.25 to 0.85). SEPP1 concentrations were positively associated with the risk of EA [hazard ratio (HR) = 3.95, 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 1.42–10.97 comparing the third tertile with the first] and with aneuploidy (HR = 6.53, 95% CI = 1.31–32.58), but not selenoenzyme activity or oxidative stress markers. No genetic variants, overall, were associated with the risk of neoplastic progression to EA (global p = 0.12–0.69). Our results do not support a protective effect of selenium on risk of neoplastic progression to EA. Our study is the first to report positive associations of plasma SEPP1 concentrations with the risk of EA and aneuploidy, which warrants further investigation