Creative industries work across multiple contexts: common themes and challenges

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the precarious nature of creative industries (CIs) work in Australia, Canada and the Netherlands, with a focus on job security, initial and on-going training and education, and access to benefits and protection. Design/methodology/approach: The paper reports from a largely qualitative study featuring an in-depth survey answered by 752 creative workers in the three locations. Findings: Survey data identified common themes including an increase in non-standard forms of employment and the persistence of precarious work across the career lifespan; criticism of initial education and training with particular reference to business skills; the need for and challenges of life-long professional learning; and lack of awareness about and access to benefits and protection. Respondents also reported multiple roles across and beyond the CIs. Practical implications: The presence of common themes suggests avenues for future, targeted creative workforce research and signals the need for change and action by CIs educators, policy makers and representative organizations such as trade unions. Originality/value: While precarious labour is common across the CIs and has attracted the attention of researchers worldwide, a lack of comparative studies has made it difficult to identify themes or issues that are common across multiple locations. © 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited

Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome with scoliosis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Study Design</p> <p>Case report.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>The authors present the case of a 14-year-old boy with Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RSTS) presenting scoliosis.</p> <p>Summary of Background Data</p> <p>There have been no reports on surgery for RSTS presenting scoliosis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The patient was referred to our hospital for evaluation of a progressive spinal curvature. A standing anteroposterior spine radiograph at presentation to our hospital revealed an 84-degree right thoracic curve from T6 to T12, along with a 63-degree left lumbar compensatory curve from T12 to L4. We planned a two-staged surgery and decided to fuse from T4 to L4. The first operation was front-back surgery because of the rigidity of the right thoracic curve. The second operation of lumbar anterior discectomy and fusion was arranged 9 months after the first surgery to prevent the crankshaft phenomenon due to his natural course of adolescent growth. To avoid respiratory complications, the patient was put on a respirator in the ICU for several days after both surgeries.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Full-length spine radiographs after the first surgery revealed no instrumentation failure and showed that the right thoracic curve was corrected to 31 degrees and the left lumbar curve was corrected to 34 degrees. No postoperative complications occurred after both surgeries.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We succeeded in treating the patient without complications. Full-length spine standing radiographs at one year after the second operation demonstrated a stable bony arthrodesis with no loss of initial correction.</p

Self-authorship and creative industries workers’ career decision-making

Career decision-making is arguably at its most complex within professions where work is precarious and career calling is strong. This article reports from a study that examined the career decision-making of creative industries workers, for whom career decisions can impact psychological well-being and identity just as much as they impact individuals’ work and career. The respondents were 693 creative industries workers who used a largely open-ended survey to create in-depth reflections on formative moments and career decision-making. Analysis involved the theoretical model of self-authorship, which provides a way of understanding how people employ their sense of self to make meaning of their experiences. The self-authorship process emerged as a complex, non-linear and consistent feature of career decision-making. Theoretical contributions include a non-linear view of self-authorship that exposes the authorship of visible and covert multiple selves prompted by both proactive and reactive identity work

Plasma cholesterol levels and brain development in preterm newborns.

BackgroundTo assess whether postnatal plasma cholesterol levels are associated with microstructural and macrostructural regional brain development in preterm newborns.MethodsSixty preterm newborns (born 24-32 weeks gestational age) were assessed using MRI studies soon after birth and again at term-equivalent age. Blood samples were obtained within 7 days of each MRI scan to analyze for plasma cholesterol and lathosterol (a marker of endogenous cholesterol synthesis) levels. Outcomes were assessed at 3 years using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Third Edition.ResultsEarly plasma lathosterol levels were associated with increased axial and radial diffusivities and increased volume of the subcortical white matter. Early plasma cholesterol levels were associated with increased volume of the cerebellum. Early plasma lathosterol levels were associated with a 2-point decrease in motor scores at 3 years.ConclusionsHigher early endogenous cholesterol synthesis is associated with worse microstructural measures and larger volumes in the subcortical white matter that may signify regional edema and worse motor outcomes. Higher early cholesterol is associated with improved cerebellar volumes. Further work is needed to better understand how the balance of cholesterol supply and endogenous synthesis impacts preterm brain development, especially if these may be modifiable factors to improve outcomes

Late Holocene canyon-carving floods in northern Iceland were smaller than previously reported

Catastrophic floods have formed deep bedrock canyons on Earth, but the relationship between peak discharge and bedrock erosion is not clearly understood. This hinders efforts to use geological evidence of these cataclysmic events to constrain their magnitude – a prerequisite for impact assessments. Here, we combine proxy evidence from slackwater sediments with topographic models and hydraulic simulations to constrain the Late Holocene flood history of the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river in northern Iceland. We date floods to 3.5, 1.5 and 1.35 thousand years ago and confirm that flow peaks during these events were at most a third of previous estimates. Nevertheless, exposure ages suggests that nearby knickpoints retreated by more than 2 km during these floods. These findings support a growing consensus that the extent of bedrock erosion is not necessarily controlled by discharge and that canyon-carving floods may be smaller than typically assumed

Alkenone Distributions and Hydrogen Isotope Ratios Show Changes in Haptophyte Species and Source Water in the Holocene Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea, a dynamic, marginal marine basin, experienced a number of large changes in salinity during the Holocene as a result of fluctuations in global and local sea level related to melting of glacial ice sheets and subsequent isostatic rebound. These changes likely had pronounced effects on the species composition of haptophytes, a common phytoplankton group found in the Baltic Sea. This dynamic environment provides the ideal setting to study how species change impacts distribution and hydrogen isotope ratios of long‐chain alkenones (δ²H_(C37)), haptophyte‐specific biomarkers. Here we analyzed the aforementioned parameters in Holocene sediments covering the contrasting hydrological phases of the Baltic Sea. Alkenone distributions changed with different Baltic Sea salinity phases, suggesting that species shifts coincide with salinity change. δ²H_(C37) values show two major shifts: one in the middle of the freshwater Ancylus Lake phase (10.6 to 7.7 ka) and a second at the transition from the brackish Littorina Sea phase (7.2 to 3 ka) into the fresher Modern Baltic (3 ka to the present). The first shift represents a significant enrichment of 50‰, which cannot be explained by salinity or species changes only. At this time, the isotopically depleted ice sheets had melted, and only the relatively enriched freshwater source remained. The second shift, coincident with a change in distribution, is likely caused by a change in species composition alone. These findings show that hydrogen isotope ratios of long‐chain alkenones, combined with their relative distribution, can be used to reconstruct changes in source water

The role of transducin β-like 1 X-linked receptor 1 (TBL1XR1) in thyroid hormone metabolism and action in mice

Transducin β-like 1 X-linked receptor 1 (TBL1XR1) is a WD40 repeat-containing protein and part of the corepressor complex SMRT/NCoR that binds to the thyroid hormone receptor (TR). We recently described a mutation in TBL1XR1 in patients with Pierpont syndrome. A mouse model bearing this Tbl1xr1 mutation (Tbl1xr1Y446C/Y446C) displays several aspects of the Pierpont phenotype. Although serum thyroid hormone (TH) concentrations were unremarkable in these mice, tissue TH action might be affected due to the role of TBL1XR1 in the SMRT/NCoR corepressor complex. The aim of the present study was to evaluate tissue TH metabolism and action in a variety of tissues of Tbl1xr1Y446C/Y446C mice. We studied the expression of genes involved in TH metabolism and action in tissues of naïve Tbl1xr1Y446C/Y446C mice and wild type (WT) mice. In addition, we measured deiodinase activity in liver (Dio1 and Dio3), kidney (Dio1 and Dio3) and BAT (Dio2). No striking differences were observed in the liver, hypothalamus, muscle and BAT between Tbl1xr1Y446C/Y446C and WT mice. Pituitary TRα1 mRNA expression was lower in Tbl1xr1Y446C/Y446C mice compared to WT, while the mRNA expression of Tshβ and the positively T3-regulated gene Nmb were significantly increased in mutant mice. Interestingly, Mct8 expression was markedly higher in WAT and kidney of mutants, resulting in (subtle) changes in T3-regulated gene expression in both WAT and kidney. In conclusion, mice harboring a mutation in TBL1XR1 display minor changes in cellular TH metabolism and action. TH transport via MCT8 might be affected as the expression is increased in WAT and kidney. The mechanisms involved need to be clarified