Talking about breastfeeding - emotion, context and 'good' mothering

The benefits of breastfeeding are now recognised and promoted by governments and healthcare services internationally (WHO 2007),with feeding regarded as a significant part of the maternal role: in the words of the World Health Organization: ‘no gift is more precious than breastfeeding’. The idea that breastfeeding can be a ‘gift’ signifies the increasing, heavy cultural and emotional load of feeding for mothers. Feeding practices can be used to differentiate ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mothers, ‘high’ or ‘low’ social status and can also be associated with feelings of intimacy, estrangement, guilt, joy, failure or success. In this article we discuss the findings from the Open University's ‘Becoming aMother’ study (www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/ identities/findings/Hollway.pdf) in the light of these wider issues and current policy initiatives

Chromium vI induced cytoskeletal damage and cell death in isolated hepatocytes

Cr(VI) is a known human carcinogen. Although it has been investigated widely, the mechanism(s) of its action is/are not fully understood. The aim of this study was to evaluate Cr(VI)-induced damage to the cell cytoskeleton and the mode of cell death in primary cultures of hepatocytes. Exposure of the cultured cells (10(5)/cm(2)) to 1 and 5 microM Cr(VI) for 24 h resulted in loss of the cell cytoskeleton, and this was accompanied by membrane blebbing and shrinking of the cell. Staining of the cells with annexin V and propidium iodide showed that Cr(VI) induces apoptosis at low concentrations (5 microM), whereas at higher concentrations (25 microM) it induces necrosis. This study shows that Cr(VI) causes damage to the cell cytoskeleton, and induces apoptosis at low concentrations. However, the importance of necrosis and apoptosis in vivo, and the effects of longer exposure times, which simulate environmental and occupational exposure to Cr(VI), remain to be investigated

Thermocouple Embedding for the Production of a Substrate for Rapid Manufacturing

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‘Not in my name’: empathy and intimacy in volunteer refugee hosting

This paper draws on 13 narrative interviews with 15 volunteers in an English charity that provides temporary accommodation to destitute migrants and refugees. The aim is to investigate the complexities and ambivalence that inhere in the tensions between hospitality and hostility and the entanglements between conditional and unconditional hospitality, with a focus on stories of empathy. The paper engages Ken Plummer’s (2001; 2003) concept of ‘intimate citizenship’ within what William Walters (2004) calls the assent of “domopolitics”. The latter refers to how immigration is narrativised as a threat to the domestic order of the nation. Hosting in this regard has the potential to invert the logic of domopolitics where the aspiration to govern the state like a home is one that can encounter fluid, albeit conditional and contingent, socialities of care, generosity and hospitality

Death and the Migrant

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Death and the Migrant is a sociological account of transnational dying and care in British cities. It chronicles two decades of the ageing and dying of the UK’s cohort of post-war migrants, as well as more recent arrivals. Chapters of oral history and close ethnographic observation, enriched by photographs, take the reader into the submerged worlds of end-of-life care in hospices, hospitals and homes. While honouring singular lives and storytelling, Death and the Migrant explores the social, economic and cultural landscapes that surround the migrant deathbed in the twenty-first century. Here, everyday challenges - the struggle to belong, relieve pain, love well, and maintain dignity and faith – provide a fresh perspective on concerns and debates about the vulnerability of the body, transnationalism, care and hospitality. Blending narrative accounts from dying people and care professionals with insights from philosophy and feminist and critical race scholars, Yasmin Gunaratnam shows how the care of vulnerable strangers tests the substance of a community. From a radical new interpretation of the history of the contemporary hospice movement and its ‘total pain’ approach, to the charting of the global care chain and the affective and sensual demands of intercultural care, Gunaratnam offers a unique perspective on how migration endows and replenishes national cultures and care. Far from being a marginal concern, Death and the Migrant shows that transnational dying is very much a predicament of our time, raising questions and concerns that are relevant to all of us

Design and fabrication of a climate-controlled lysimeter and testing of new controlled-release fertilisers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PHD) in Agricultural Engineering and Environmental Sciences at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Pastoral agriculture is the backbone of the New Zealand (NZ) economy and nearly 9 million hectares of land (33% of the total land area in NZ) is under pastoral farming. The higher and continuous applications of readily available N fertilisers to pastoral land use increase nitrogen (N) losses, which degrade the water and air quality. Controlled-release fertilisers (CRFs) have been shown to be an effective strategy to mitigate N losses in many parts of the world. This study was undertaken to develop different CRF formulations and test their effect on ryegrass under a simulated climate condition. A new controlled-environment lysimeter system was designed and fabricated, since lysimeter designs available in the literature are not suitable to conduct a controlled-environment study. The lysimeter was permanently capped to provide a confined space for controlling the microclimate of ryegrass, and equipped with sensors to monitor the environmental variables. An environmental controlling unit (ECU) was designed to emulate a climate model and control the environmental variables in the lysimeter. Taranaki region’s (spring season of the year 2013) climate model was selected to emulate in this design. The ECU modifies the ambient air according to the climate model and circulates it through 40 lysimeters using air conduits and distributors. The ryegrass was grown for three months under simulated climate conditions, and DM yield was measured. In addition, microclimate temperature, relative humidity (RH), evapotranspiration and drainage of each lysimeter during the experimental period were recorded. The performance of the ECU was tested by comparing the observed temperature and RH values of the plant proximity with setpoints of the climate model. In addition, the performance of the lysimeter system on recreating the climate model was tested by comparing the observed drainage, evapotranspiration, and DM yield values with the estimated values derived from the climate model. The root-mean-square error (RMSE) of temperature was 1.96 °C day⁻¹, which was marginally higher than the targeted temperature variation range of 1 °C day⁻¹. However, the RMSE of RH was 4.45% day⁻¹, which was within the targeted fluctuation range of 5% day⁻¹. These observations showed that the ECU satisfactorily controlled the environmental variables as per the climate model. The observed drainage, evapotranspiration and total DM yield were within the estimated values; 525 mm, 104 mm and 2167 kg-DM ha⁻¹, respectively. These results revealed that the selected Taranaki climate model was successfully emulated in the newly developed lysimeter system design. A low-cost, simple lysimeter soil retriever (LSR) design was fabricated to retrieve the soil, and its performance was examined. The soil moisture influenced the retrieval process, where lower disturbances for soil block structure and roots were observed for soil with high moisture (28%) than low moisture (13%). The linear actuator used in this design was powerful enough to perform soil retrieval and showed consistent performance after 80 soil columns were retrieved. Force given by the linear actuator did not damage the lysimeter body, but was sufficient to push the soil column out of the lysimeter. Therefore, this design is suitable to retrieve soil blocks from mini (<100 kg) and small (100-1000 kg) lysimeters. Different forms of CRFs were developed by coating urea with epoxy-lignite (Epox) or polyester-lignite (Poly) polymer composites. Each composite was coated three or five times, and therefore four CRFs were formulated depending on the type of composite and coating thickness; Epox3, Epox5, Poly3, and Poly5. The complete release of urea took place at 144, 408, 120 and 175 hours for Epox3, Epox5, Poly3 and Poly5, respectively, in water. Increasing the coating thickness prolonged the duration of urea release for both composites. Although no cracks were identified in all the CRF coatings, micropores were seen under high magnification in the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. The interactions between lignite and polymer were demonstrated using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The lignite dominated in all coatings compared to the polymer, and lignite compositions were 2.1 to 5.3-fold higher than polymers in CRFs. The Epox5 showed overall better performance than other formulations. The CRF formulations which showed more controlled-release characteristics in water; Epox5 and Poly5, were selected to study their performance on ryegrass against urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP) in the climate-controlled lysimeter system. The total DM yield, root DM distribution, herbage N recovery and nitrogen utilisation efficiencies (NUE) were not significantly different between N treatments. Although N₂O emission and nitrate leaching losses were not significantly different between N treatments, the values were very low in comparison to the values obtained in similar studies reported in the literature. An investigation was carried out to find out the reason for these observed low N₂O and nitrate levels with different hypotheses. The only hypothesis tested that showed a significant relationship with these observed results; the high iron content of sand could have decreased the nitrate in leachate and N₂O emission. In this study, a 2 x 4 factorial design was used with two types of sand (low and high iron sand) and four N levels (0, 50, 100 and 200 kg-N ha⁻¹). It was found that high iron sand significantly lowered (P<0.05) the nitrate leaching at all N levels compared to low iron sand, except for the 0 kg-N ha⁻¹ treatment. The N2O emission was significantly lower (P<0.05) for high iron sand than low iron sand, only at the 200 kg-N ha⁻¹ application level. These observations support the hypothesis, that iron is involved in nitrate reduction and the possible mechanism was dissimilatory nitrate reduction (DNR) pathway. A new controlled-release fertiliser (Ver-1) was developed by Verum Group Ltd using lignite and urea. In this study, the effectiveness of two different types of CRFs (Epox5 and Ver-1) and two levels of iron application (239 and 478 kg-FeSO4 ha-1) on controlling N losses were tested in lysimeters where ryegrass was grown. The Epox5 and Ver-1 significantly (P<0.05) reduced N leaching losses by 37% and 47%, respectively, whereas only Epox5 significantly (P<0.05) increased N₂O emission compared to the urea treatment. Iron treatments were not effective in controlling N losses, which suggests that the expected DNR pathway was not prominent in this study. The DM yield and NUE were not significantly increased by CRFs and iron applications compared to the urea treatment. The hierarchical clustering analysis revealed that Ver-1 was the best treatment for controlling N leaching losses. Future research is recommended to investigate (a) the mechanism which underlies the reduction of nitrate in high iron content sand, (b) the effectiveness of iron application on N leaching losses on different soils, and (c) the performance of new CRFs formulations (Epox5 and Ver-1) at the field level

Drug policy in Australia: the supervised injecting facilities debate

Many theories have been developed to explain the influence of different groups in policy making. Some focus on public opinion, claiming that especially in issues of high salience, public opinion will play a decisive role in determining policy directions. Other theories claim interest groups (including professionals) and politicians are more critical in shaping the agenda and the solutions which are seen as viable in addressing a particular problem. The supervised injecting facilities debate in Australia, which reached its peak between 1999 and 2001 when the ACT, Victoria and NSW attempted to establish such facilities, was one characterised by a high degree of conflict between groups with differing moral and political beliefs about drug use. Case studies of each jurisdiction were assembled to delineate the impact of these different groups on the eventual failure to establish trials in ACT and Victoria, compared to success in NSW. The results indicate public opinion was sharply divided on the issue, therefore cannot be considered a major determinant of public policy in this area. Politicians however, because of their ability to block the legislation and funding needed to establish the trials, undoubtedly had the greatest influence in policy making

On researching climates of hostility and weathering

The focus of the chapter is on researching the intersecting effects of the mobility of contemporary borders, ‘hostile environment’ government immigration campaigns and longer histories of racism and xenophobia in the UK. Together these disparate forces are theorised as constituting and mediating a pervasive climate. Engaging with three literatures on: (1) weathering; (2) debility; and (3) social suffering, the chapter draws from original research studies on dying migrants and UK immigration information campaigns to show how climates of hostility and structural injustice can wear down and debilitate racially marked migrants. A critical, methodological question that is tackled is how researchers might become empirically receptive to the complex intertwining of experiences of the debilitations of weathering and social suffering that are overlooked in the media interest in migration as a series of short-term events. The author describes her use of scalar analysis that includes bringing together different genres and forms such as social theory and poetry, images, art and fiction to trace the impact of hostile climates and the slow moving violations of weathering. The chapter suggests that scalar analysis and the use of performance methods in migration research can help researchers to discern and trace the effects of migration and racialised hostility over time and serves to highlight discussions of what constitutes ‘proof’ in research and activism

OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNOEA AND PERIODONTITIS

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and its associated daytime symptoms form a syndrome, obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS) that affects about 5% of the population worldwide (Young et al 2002a, Pack 2006). OSA is characterized by repeated episodes of upper airway obstruction during sleep, resulting in recurrent hypoxemia and sleep fragmentation (Hensley & Ray 2005). These in turn are associated with neurocognitive disorders, hypertension and cardiovascular complications (Pack 2006). Current therapies for this condition include surgical interventions, oral appliances and continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP). Systemic and local airway inflammation has recently been linked to OSA and is hypothesized to increase the risk of cardiovascular complications (Lavie 2005). While the exact mechanism is not certain, it is believed that the underlying systemic inflammation from OSA is due to the hypoxia/reperfusion injury from intermittent hypoxia that occurs with OSA (Lavie 2005). Specifically, the episodic hypoxia in OSA leads to increased production of reactive oxidative species (ROS) and, via various pathways, in the formation of systemic inflammatory mediators. The resultant inflammatory response is then responsible for the increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality by potentiating disease in those that already have inflammatory disease or triggering inflammatory diseases in people with existing genetic, behavioural and environmental exposure. Periodontitis involves the supporting structures of the tooth and is a disease caused by specific bacteria that triggers an inflammatory response (Kinane 2001). Tissue damage and destruction, including loss of the connective tissue attachment between the tooth and the jaw, together with resorption of supporting bone, is initiated by the micro-organisms and mediated by the host response. Periodontitis, which is a severe form of periodontal disease, is one of the most common chronic infections in the world. The prevalence of moderate to severe periodontitis across the globe is in the range of 5 to 20 % (Burt 2005). Recent studies have speculated on an association between periodontitis and systemic inflammation in, for example, diabetes (Soskolne & Klinger 2001), rheumatoid arthritis (Mercado et al. 2000) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) (Beck & Offenbacher 2005), but no research has been undertaken on the link between OSA and periodontitis. This review will focus on features of OSA, inflammation and periodontitis to examine if there is a possible link between OSA and periodontitis by means of systemic inflammation

Reimagining the frontline from heaven’s edge

This piece draws from social reproduction theory to discuss trade union activism in Sri Lanka (plantation and domestic workers unions). It suggests a reimagining of the frontline to include global chains of production and reproduction