Scaling the mobility of health workers in an enlarged Europe : An open political-economy perspective

The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in European Urban and Regional Studies, Vol. 23 (4), October 2016, published by SAGE Publishing.The enlargement of the European Union in 2004 and 2007 and the marketisation of health care are increasing the mobility of workers and driving a scalar transformation of the sector across Europe. Drawing on questionnaires and interviews in 17 European Union countries, and focusing on two case study New Member States, we analyse inter- and intra-country drivers and impacts of health care labour mobility. The data are analysed from an open political-economy perspective underpinned by an understanding of scale as a socially constructed material entity mediated by national and supranational state institutions, and the collective agency of workers. We emphasise the contradictory and contested nature of rescaling health care and the complex micro-dynamics of mobility. Although absolute outward migration across borders is relatively small, the movement of health care specialists is having a disproportionate effect on sender countries and regions within them.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Reduction of severe visual loss and complications following intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC) for refractory retinoblastoma.

BACKGROUND: Intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC) for retinoblastoma has been documented as causing visual loss and ocular motility problems. A lack of safety data has precluded its acceptance in all centres. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of patients with retinoblastoma from 2013 to 2015 who had a healthy foveola and relapsed following systemic chemotherapy. All required IAC. The correlation of complications with doses of melphalan +/- topotecan used and putative catheterisation complications was assessed. Ocular complications were determined using vision, macular (including pattern visual evoked potentials (PVEPs)), retinal electroretinograms (ERGs) and ocular motility functions. Efficacy (tumour control) was also assessed. RESULTS: All eyes had age appropriate doses of melphalan with five having additional doses of topotecan. Severe physiological reactions requiring adrenaline were seen in six patients during the catheterisation procedure. Difficulty was documented in accessing the ophthalmic artery in 7/27 catheterisations. The median/mean number of courses of chemotherapy was three. No child had severe visual loss as assessed by age appropriate tests (median follow-up 20.9 months, range 3.7-35.2 months). One child had nasal choroidal ischaemia and a sixth nerve palsy. Post-IAC PVEPs were performed in eight and reported as normal. All post-IAC ERGs were normal apart from one (total dose 20 mg melphalan 0.8 mg topotecan). Tumour control was achieved in six of nine cases. CONCLUSION: The proportion of visual and ocular motility complications may be reduced by providing age-adjusted doses of melphalan. Dose rather than complications from catheterisation is the most important risk factor for ocular injury

Both cis and trans Activities of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus 3D Polymerase Are Essential for Viral RNA Replication

The Picornaviridae is a large family of positive-sense RNA viruses that contains numerous human and animal pathogens, including foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). The picornavirus replication complex comprises a co-ordinated network of protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions involving multiple viral and host-cellular factors. Many of the proteins within the complex possess multiple roles in viral RNA replication, some of which can be provided in trans (i.e. via expression from a separate RNA molecule), whilst other are required in cis (i.e. expressed from the template RNA molecule). In vitro studies have suggested that multiple copies of the RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase (RdRp), 3D, are involved in the viral replication complex. However, it is not clear whether all these molecules are catalytically active or what other function(s) they provide. In this study, we aimed to distinguish between catalytically-active 3D molecules and those which build a replication complex. We report a novel non-enzymatic cis-acting function of 3D that is essential for viral genome replication. Using a FMDV replicon in complementation experiments, our data demonstrate that this cis-acting role of 3D is distinct from the catalytic activity, which is predominantly trans-acting. Immunofluorescence studies suggest that both cis- and trans acting 3D molecules localise to the same cellular compartment. However, our genetic and structural data suggest that 3D interacts in cis with RNA stem-loops that are essential for viral RNA replication. Together, this study identifies a previously undescribed aspect of picornavirus replication complex structure-function and an important methodology for probing such interactions further

Global unions: chasing the dream or building the reality?

This article takes as its theme the global restructuring of capital and its impact on worker organization. It argues for a reassertion of class in any analysis of global solidarity, and assesses the opportunities and barriers to effective global unionization. Rooted in the UK experience, the article analyzes the impact of the European social dimension on trade unions, before taking the discussion into a global dimension. It concludes by suggesting that there are reasons for cautious optimism in terms of solidarity building, despite difficult historical legacies and the common replacement of action with rhetoric

International Public Health Research Involving Interpreters: a Case Study from Bangladesh

Background: Cross-cultural and international research are important components of public health research, but the challenges of language barriers and working with interpreters are often overlooked, particularly in the case of qualitative research. Methods: A case-study approach was used to explore experiences of working with an interpreter in Bangladesh as part of a research project investigating women's experiences of emergency obstetric care. The case study: Data from the researcher's field notes provided evidence of experiences in working with an interpreter and show how the model of interviewing was adapted over time to give a more active role to the interpreter. The advantages of a more active role were increased rapport and "flow" in interviews. The disadvantages included reduced control from the researcher's perspective. Some tensions between the researcher and interpreter remained hard to overcome, irrespective of the model used. Independent transcription and translation of the interviews also raised questions around accuracy in translation. Conclusion: The issues examined in this case study have broader implications for public health research. Further work is needed in three areas: 1) developing effective relationships with interpreters; 2) the impact of the interpreter on the research process; and 3) the accuracy of the translation and level of analysis needed in any specific public health research. Finally, this paper highlights the importance to authors of reflecting on the potential impact of translation and interpretation on the research process when disseminating their research

Re-embedding agency at the workplace scale: workers and labour control in Glasgow call centres

Following recent calls for the development of a more embedded sense of labour agency, this paper focuses on the scale of the workplace which is largely absent from recent labour geography debates. Drawing on studies in the labour process tradition, the paper presents empirical research on call centre work in Glasgow, utilising this to revisit the concept of local Labour Control Regimes (LCR). We argue that rather than being simply imposed by capital and the state ‘from above’, workplace control should be seen as the product of a dialectical process of interaction and negotiation between management and labour. Labour’s indeterminacy can influence capital in case specific ways as firms adapt to labour agency and selectively tolerate and collude with certain practices and behaviours. Workers’ learned behaviour and identities are shown to affect not only recruitment patterns in unexpected ways, but also modes of accepted conduct in call centres. Accordingly, the case is made for the influence of subtle – yet pervasive – worker agency expressed at the micro-scale of the labour process itself. This, it is argued, exerts a degree of ‘bottom-up’ pressure on key fractions of capital within the local LCR

BCL-2 family protein expression and platinum drug resistance in ovarian carcinoma

The expression of the BCL-2 family proteins, BCL-2, BAX, BCLXLand BAK have been determined in a panel of 12 human ovarian carcinoma cell lines encompassing a wide range in sensitivity to cisplatin. Whereas BAX, BCLXLand BAK levels did not correlate with sensitivity, there was a statistically significant inverse correlation (r = –0.81;P = 0.002) between growth inhibition by cisplatin and BCL-2 levels. In sublines possessing acquired resistance to various platinum-based drugs or across a panel of human ovarian carcinoma xenografts, there was no consistent pattern of BCL-2 expression. Two relatively sensitive lines (A2780 and CH1) have been stably transfected with bcl-2 and bclXLrespectively and two relatively resistant lines (A2780cisR and SKOV-3) stably transfected with bax. Overexpression of BCL-2 in A2780 cells led to resistance to cisplatin compared to the vector control when assayed at 48 h post-drug incubation but a significant increase in sensitivity at 96 h. Relative rates of apoptosis at 48- and 96-h post-cisplatin exposure mirrored the growth inhibition. There was no significant difference in sensitivity of the pair of lines by clonogenic assay. No significant changes in chemosensitivity to a variety of DNA-damaging or tubulin-interactive agents were observed in the remaining transfected lines. Taken together, these results suggest that, in human ovarian carcinoma cells, high BCL-2 levels (either naturally occurring or through gene transfection) confers a trend towards sensitivity not resistance to platinum drugs. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Scale in education research: towards a multi-scale methodology

This article explores some theoretical and methodological problems concerned with scale in education research through a critique of a recent mixed-method project. The project was framed by scale metaphors drawn from the physical and earth sciences and I consider how recent thinking around scale, for example in ecosystems and human geography might offer helpful points and angles of view on the challenges of thinking spatially in education research. Working between the spatial metaphors of ecology scholars and the critiques of the human geographers, for example the hypercomplex social space in Lefebvre’s political-economic thinking and the fluid, simultaneous, multiple spatialities of Massey’s post-structuralism, I problematize space and scale in education research. Interweaving these geographical ideas with Giddens’ structuration and Bourdieu’s theory of practice, both of which employed what might be termed scale-bridging to challenge social science’s entrenched paradigms, leads me to reconsider what is possible and desirable in the study of education systems. Following the spatial turn in the social sciences generally, there is an outstanding need to theorise multi-scale methodology for education research

Transnational social capital: the socio‐spatialities of civil society

Civil society remains a contested concept, but one that is widely embedded in global development processes. Transnationalism within civil society scholarship is often described dichotomously, either through hierarchical dependency relations or as a more amorphous networked global civil society. These two contrasting spatial imaginaries produce very particular ideas about how transnational relations contribute to civil society. Drawing on empirical material from research with civil society organizations in Barbados and Grenada, in this article I contend that civil society groups use forms of transnational social capital in their work. This does not, however, resonate with the horizontal relations associated with grassroots globalization or vertical chains of dependence. These social relations are imbued with power and agency and are entangled in situated historical, geographical and personal contexts. I conclude that the diverse transnational social relations that are part of civil society activity offer hope and possibilities for continued civil society action in these unexpected spatial arrangements

Dynamics in the murine norovirus capsid revealed by high-resolution cryo-EM

Icosahedral viral capsids must undergo conformational rearrangements to coordinate essential processes during the viral life cycle. Capturing such conformational flexibility has been technically challenging yet could be key for developing rational therapeutic agents to combat infections. Noroviruses are nonenveloped, icosahedral viruses of global importance to human health. They are a common cause of acute gastroenteritis, yet no vaccines or specific antiviral agents are available. Here, we use genetics and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to study the high-resolution solution structures of murine norovirus as a model for human viruses. By comparing our 3 structures (at 2.9- to 3.1-Å resolution), we show that whilst there is little change to the shell domain of the capsid, the radiating protruding domains are flexible, adopting distinct states both independently and synchronously. In doing so, the capsids sample a range of conformational space, with implications for maintaining virion stability and infectivity