Research through a camera lens : a rhizomatic search for Lode’s Code

Every family culture is ruled by unspoken codes. Throughout the short film Lode's Code, Marieke Vandecasteele (the first author) searches for these codes within her own family in a visual-ethnographic way. In traditional research, families with a family member with a disability are often pinned down to individual categories linked with linear explanations. Vandecasteele's search for the code of her brother Lode and for her own position in the parental nest-with leaving home as a red thread-resulted in a hybrid animated documentary where subjective experiences prevail over the search for explanations. It shows how layered codes intra-act in the family machine and can (be) move(d). This paper focuses on the rhizomatic process of making the film. How were the keys to Vandecasteele's family code shaped and what was the role of animation film as a medium? An in-depth discussion shows how poetic research of this kind offers opportunities within the interdisciplinary research domain of Disability Studies to let the complexity inherent to a family with a member with a disability emerge in all its richness and multilayeredness

The influence of magazines on men: normalizing and challenging young men’s prejudice with “lads’ mags”

Social psychologists have argued that popular UK and USA men’s magazines known as lads’ mags have normalized hostile sexism among young men. Three studies develop this argument. First, a survey of 423 young UK men found that ambivalent sexism predicted attitudes toward the consumption of lads’ mags, but not other forms of direct sexual consumption (paying for sex or patronizing strip clubs). Second, Study 2 (N = 81) found that young men low in sexism rated sexist jokes as less hostile towards women, but not as either funnier nor more ironic, when those jokes were presented within a lads’ mags context. These findings refute the idea that young men readily read lads’ mags’ sexism as ironic or ‘harmless fun.’ They show instead that placing sexist jokes in lads’ mags contexts makes them appear less hostile. The third study (N = 275) demonstrated that young men perceived lads’ mags as less legitimate after attempting to distinguish the contents of lads’ mags from rapists’ legitimations of their crimes. Implications for contemporary studies of masculinities and consumption are discussed

"Not wishing to be the white rhino in the crowd" : disability-disclosure at University

This article reports on a qualitative study identifying the drivers for and boundaries to disability-disclosure in interability interactions as experienced by 13 students with physical impairments at five Belgian higher education institutions. Through surveys and in-depth interviews, the study explored whether the students experience, prefer, and expect differences in communication about their impairments with temporarily able-bodied peers, instructors, and staff. Interviews provided insight into the nuances of disclosure and topic avoidance decisions that differ by disclosure target: disabilitydisclosure is mainly a balancing act between fulfilling physical needs and maintaining a normal, positive identity. The visibility of impairments seems to play a minor role in the students’ initial orientation toward disclosing. The functions of disability-disclosure as posited by the Communication Predicament of Disability Model and the CARE-keys to effective interability communication (i.e., Contact, Ask, Respect, Empathy) are discussed as well as the implications of the findings for Communication Accommodation Theory

Azathioprine versus mycophenolate mofetil for long-term immunosuppression in lupus nephritis: results from the MAINTAIN Nephritis Trial

Background: Long-term immunosuppressive treatment does not efficiently prevent relapses of lupus nephritis (LN). This investigator-initiated randomised trial tested whether mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) was superior to azathioprine (AZA) as maintenance treatment. Methods: A total of 105 patients with lupus with proliferative LN were included. All received three daily intravenous pulses of 750 mg methylprednisolone, followed by oral glucocorticoids and six fortnightly cyclophosphamide intravenous pulses of 500 mg. Based on randomisation performed at baseline, AZA (target dose: 2 mg/kg/day) or MMF (target dose: 2 g/day) was given at week 12. Analyses were by intent to treat. Time to renal flare was the primary end point. Mean (SD) follow-up of the intent-to-treat population was 48 (14) months. Results: The baseline clinical, biological and pathological characteristics of patients allocated to AZA or MMF did not differ. Renal flares were observed in 13 (25%) AZA-treated and 10 (19%) MMF-treated patients. Time to renal flare, to severe systemic flare, to benign flare and to renal remission did not statistically differ. Over a 3-year period, 24 h proteinuria, serum creatinine, serum albumin, serum C3, haemoglobin and global disease activity scores improved similarly in both groups. Doubling of serum creatinine occurred in four AZA-treated and three MMF-treated patients. Adverse events did not differ between the groups except for haematological cytopenias, which were statistically more frequent in the AZA group (p=0.03) but led only one patient to drop out. Conclusions: Fewer renal flares were observed in patients receiving MMF but the difference did not reach statistical significance.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Long-term follow-up of the MAINTAIN Nephritis Trial, comparing azathioprine and mycophenolate mofetil as maintenance therapy of lupus nephritis

OBJECTIVE: To report the 10-year follow-up of the MAINTAIN Nephritis Trial comparing azathioprine (AZA) and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) as maintenance therapy of proliferative lupus nephritis, and to test different definitions of early response as predictors of long-term renal outcome. METHODS: In 2014, data on survival, kidney function, 24 h proteinuria, renal flares and other outcomes were collected for the 105 patients randomised between 2002 and 2006, except in 13 lost to follow-up. RESULTS: Death (2 and 3 in the AZA and MMF groups, respectively) and end-stage renal disease (1 and 3, respectively) were rare events. Time to renal flare (22 and 19 flares in AZA and MMF groups, respectively) did not differ between AZA and MMF patients. Patients with good long-term renal outcome had a much more stringent early decrease of 24 h proteinuria compared with patients with poor outcome. The positive predictive value of a 24 h proteinuria <0.5 g/day at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months for a good long-term renal outcome was excellent (between 89% and 92%). Inclusion of renal function and urinalysis in the early response criteria did not impact the value of early proteinuria decrease as long-term prognostic marker. CONCLUSIONS: The long-term follow-up data of the MAINTAIN Nephritis Trial do not indicate that MMF is superior to AZA as maintenance therapy in a Caucasian population suffering from proliferative lupus nephritis. Moreover, we confirm the excellent positive predictive value of an early proteinuria decrease for long-term renal outcome

The interplay between (non-)communication about sexuality in private and public contexts and sexual experiences and sexual well-being in women with spinal cord injury

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