Deconstructing the Racialized Cannabis User: Cannabis Criminalization and Intersections with the Social Work Profession

Cannabis users have been historically stigmatized and criminalized for non-violent behaviors such as consuming, producing, and distributing cannabis. Racialized cannabis users in particular have been constructed as fundamentally different, dangerous, and mentally unstable, while state actors have benefited from the subjugation of this group. The following article reviews the history of cannabis prohibition with an emphasis on the social construction of racialized cannabis users and role of social workers in the treatment of this group. As laws liberalizing cannabis use and trade are passed across North America, an emergent legal framework is maintaining racial divides and marginalizing non- White cannabis users. Recommendations for social work professionals to advocate for change and take a stand on ongoing social justice issues are provided

Tracing the Invisible Borders of Canadian Citizenship: Critical Analysis of Social Work with Noncitizens

This thesis interrogates the notion of citizenship as a social good through critical analysis of Canadian social work with noncitizens. Drawing on multidisciplinary scholarshipcritical border scholarship, Indigenous studies, critical race studies, settler colonial studies, affect theories, and Foucaults notion of powerI consider both the historical and contemporary contexts in which social work with noncitizens has become invested in Canadian citizenship. My thesis addresses the co-constitutive dimension of border and citizenship and proposes the concept of inner borders to elucidate the ways in which inclusionary and exclusionary functions at the territorial border are internalized within the nation-state. I theorize social work as a site of inner border making where the boundaries of national membership and belonging are drawn through everyday practices of inclusion and exclusion. Weaving together interview data with social workers, policy analysis on immigration and citizenship changes, and historical analysis of border making, I conduct three strands of analysis of border making in social work that attend to: (1) entangled histories of the settler colonial project, immigration, and social work; (2) the contemporary context of neoliberalism and its relations to social work with noncitizens; and (3) affective relations involved in social work with noncitizens. My research findings reveal that the discourse of civility is fundamental to border making in Canada. The discourse of civility was foundational to the settler colonial project, which relied on the discursive construction of Indigenous peoples as uncivilized vis--vis civilized European settlers. The discourse of civility functioned not only to legitimize the violent land dispossession by Europeans but also as a mechanism to govern the internal lives of members of Canadian society, whereby whiteness, Britishness, and masculinity were defined as the ultimate standard of progress and orderliness. Early social work played a key role in reproducing the discourse of white civility as it emerged and developed as the professional helper. The examination of contemporary social work with noncitizens reveals that, though different in its expression, the discourse of civility continues to shape the standard script of Canadian citizenship, demarcating the boundaries of national membership and belonging. However, the manner in which the discourse of civility works on, through, and within contemporary social workers is contingent and complex. My study highlights some of the ways in which the discourse of civility operates in constructing the multiple forms of inner borders in social work with noncitizens

Interrogating the operation of empathy in social work with noncitizens

Based on interviews I conducted with social workers in Canada, this article offers a critique of empathy as a foundation of good social work. More specifically, I examine how empathic feelings produce the social worker as a knowing, moral and innocent subject in their work with noncitizens. Drawing on critical theories of affect and emotions that reconceptualise feelings as social practice, I examine how empathy facilitates proximity with and knowledge production about noncitizens among social workers. I attend to various historical lines of empathic feeling among differently positioned social workers and trace the concrete ways in which the feeling of empathy circulates and ‘sticks’, as social workers navigate exclusionary practices towards noncitizens. I argue that empathy, while imagined as an affective entry to minimising the professional–client distance, could instead function to secure social workers’ sense of innocence and morality, confirming their professional identity as facilitated by the script of whiteness

Coupling the Structural and Functional Assembly of Synaptic Release Sites

Information processing in our brains depends on the exact timing of calcium (Ca2+)-activated exocytosis of synaptic vesicles (SVs) from unique release sites embedded within the presynaptic active zones (AZs). While AZ scaffolding proteins obviously provide an efficient environment for release site function, the molecular design creating such release sites had remained unknown for a long time. Recent advances in visualizing the ultrastructure and topology of presynaptic protein architectures have started to elucidate how scaffold proteins establish “nanodomains” that connect voltage-gated Ca2+ channels (VGCCs) physically and functionally with release-ready SVs. Scaffold proteins here seem to operate as “molecular rulers or spacers,” regulating SV-VGCC physical distances within tens of nanometers and, thus, influence the probability and plasticity of SV release. A number of recent studies at Drosophila and mammalian synapses show that the stable positioning of discrete clusters of obligate release factor (M)Unc13 defines the position of SV release sites, and the differential expression of (M)Unc13 isoforms at synapses can regulate SV-VGCC coupling. We here review the organization of matured AZ scaffolds concerning their intrinsic organization and role for release site formation. Moreover, we also discuss insights into the developmental sequence of AZ assembly, which often entails a tightening between VGCCs and SV release sites. The findings discussed here are retrieved from vertebrate and invertebrate preparations and include a spectrum of methods ranging from cell biology, super-resolution light and electron microscopy to biophysical and electrophysiological analysis. Our understanding of how the structural and functional organization of presynaptic AZs are coupled has matured, as these processes are crucial for the understanding of synapse maturation and plasticity, and, thus, accurate information transfer and storage at chemic

Calcium effects in Neurospora crassa

Calcium effects in N. crass

Nanoscopical analysis reveals an orderly arrangement of the presynaptic scaffold protein Bassoon at the Golgi-apparatus

Bassoon is a core scaffold protein of the presynaptic active zone. In brain synapses, the C-terminus of Bassoon is oriented toward the plasma membrane and its N-terminus oriented towards synaptic vesicles. At the Golgi-apparatus Bassoon is thought to assemble active zone precursor structures, but whether it is arranged in an orderly fashion is unknown. Understanding the topology of this large scaffold protein is important for models of active zone biogenesis. Using stimulated emission depletion nanoscopy in cultured hippocampal neurons, we found that an N-terminal intramolecular tag of recombinant Bassoon, but not C-terminal tag, colocalized with markers of the trans-Golgi network (TGN). The N-terminus of Bassoon was located between 48 nm and 69 nm away from TGN38, while its C-terminus was located between 100 nm and 115 nm away from TGN38. Sequences within the first 95 amino acids of Bassoon were required for this arrangement. Our results indicate that at the Golgi-apparatus Bassoon is oriented with its N-terminus towards and its C-terminus away from the trans-Golgi network membrane. Moreover, they suggest that Bassoon is an extended molecule at the trans-Golgi network with the distance between amino acids 97 and 3938 estimated to be between 46 and 52 nm. Our data are consistent with a model, in which the N-terminus of Bassoon binds to the membranes of the trans-Golgi network, while the C-terminus associates with active zone components, thus reflecting the topographic arrangement characteristic of synapses also at the Golgi-apparatu

Robinson’s cytological grading of breast carcinoma on fine needle aspirates and its correlation with Modified Bloom-Richardson histopathological grading for Breast carcinoma

Introduction:Grading of breast carcinoma on fine needle aspiration cytology provides useful information about prognosis & also beneficial for selecting patients for neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Aim: To grade the breast carcinoma on FNAC using Robinson grading system and to assess the concordance of cytological grading (CG) with histological grading (HG) using Elston‑Ellis modification of Scarff‑Bloom‑Richardson grading system. Material method:This prospective study was done in Department of pathology, B.J medical college & Hospital Ahemdabad from Augustl 2016 to october 2018. A total of 200 cases of cytologically confirmed breast carcinoma were included in this study and correlated with histopathological findings. Robinson’s cytological grading was done on cytology smears and modified Bloom-Richardson grading was done on histological sections. Result:In the present study, majority (110) were Grade II tumors (55%) followed by 53 Grade I tumors (26.5%) and 37 Grade III tumors (18.5%) by cytological grading.where as majority (107 cases) of the tumors (53.5%) were Grade II, followed by 43 (21.5%) Grade I tumors and 50 (25%) Grade I tumors by Histological grading. The result showed overall 78% concordance of CG with HG, with grade II showing highest degree of concordance (86.36%), which is comparable to previous studies. Conclusion: Cytologic grading method is Simple,non–invasive and comparable with histologic grading system.It provides information about aggressiveness of tumor and is also useful parameter while selecting neo adjuvant chemotherapy in patients of breast carcinoma

Sudden sex hormone withdrawal and the effects on body composition in late pubertal adolescents with gender dysphoria

Background: Sex hormones initiate profound physical and physiological changes during the pubertal process, but to what extent are they responsible for continuing the body composition changes of late adolescence and what happens to body composition on sudden sex hormone withdrawal? / Methods: Thirty-six healthy, phenotypically and chromosomally normal late and post-pubertal individuals aged 15–17 years with gender dysphoria (transgirls – birth-registered males identifying as female n = 11; and transboys – birth-registered females identifying as male n = 25) underwent Tanita body composition analysis at 0, 6 and 12 months during reproductive hormone suppression with Triptorelin as part of the standard therapeutic protocol. / Results and conclusions: In the transgirl cohort, paired t-test analysis demonstrated a significant decrease in height and lean mass standard deviation scores over the 12-month period, going against an expected trajectory over that time. In contrast, oestrogen suppression appeared not to affect the body composition of transboys; their measurements were not significantly different at baseline and after 12 months of treatment. The withdrawal of sex hormone secretion does not appear to have a significant impact on female post-pubertal body composition, in contrast to that seen at the menopause. This suggests that other factors may preserve normal body balance in adolescents in the absence of sex steroids