Metabolic potential of uncultured bacteria and archaea associated with petroleum seepage in deep-sea sediments

Little is known about the microbial ecology of the deep seabed. Here, Dong et al. predict metabolic capabilities and microbial interactions in deep seabed petroleum seeps using shotgun metagenomics, sediment geochemistry, metabolomics, and thermodynamic modelling

Civil Society, Everyday Life and the Possibilities for Development Studies

Civil society is one of the most contentious terms in political thought. There is considerable, and highly significant, difference between academic debate about the meaning of ‘civil society’ and the way the term is mobilized in international development discourse. In particular, narratives of civil society in international development are often dominated by reference to organizational descriptions and measurability. But I would like to suggest here that the term should be reclaimed as a way of giving meaning to the stories of the everyday lives of the people who create, shape and embody civil society. Used in this way, the idea of civil society can be understood as intersecting emotions, discourses and practices and can add to the body of scholarly work that nurtures and values everyday life as a lens through which to view wider social processes. Paying attention to the everyday life of civil society may have implications for that way the civil society is engaged with academically, and also has the potential to refresh how civil society is thought about in development practice

Mechanisms of T cell organotropism

F.M.M.-B. is supported by the British Heart Foundation, the Medical Research Council of the UK and the Gates Foundation

Qualitative evaluation of learning between different professional groups

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a qualitative evaluation of a learning initiative between different mental health professional groups, the Collaborative Learning Initiative (CLI). These qualitative results are after the first year of a two year evaluation of the CLI in which social work, clinical psychology and nursing students together with post-registration medics undertook a sequence of joint learning in relation to mental health theory and practice. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 81 post-course evaluations were qualitatively analysed using a process of thematic analysis based on the guidelines outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006). Each academic involved with the CLI thematically analysed the post-course evaluations from their discipline. Following the generation of key themes each set of evaluations was separately analysed by an academic from a different professional discipline associated with the initiative. Findings – The evaluation of this initiative demonstrates that the model of interdisciplinary teaching whereby service user and carers facilitating small group working is an effective model for delivering interprofessional mental health education. The paper highlights the convergent and divergent themes between the different groups involved in the initiative. Most of the social work, medics, nursing and all clinical psychology participants evaluated the programme positively, however some of the themes were not positive and these are also discussed within the paper. Originality/value – Based on this qualitative evaluation, the evaluation of the service user and carer small group facilitators and observations by the CLI organizers, changes will be made to the second year of the evaluation cycle and these changes are highlighted in the paper. The uniqueness and value of this initiative lies in both having service users and carers involved in the design, delivery, evaluation and dissemination of the CLI and also in the strength of having four professional disciplines involved. Limitations of the study are highlighted. </jats:sec

Cognitive style in bipolar disorder

Background Abnormalities of cognitive style in bipolar disorder are of both clinical and theoretical importance. Aims To compare cognitive style in people with affective disorders and in healthy controls. Method Self-rated questionnaires were administered to 118 individuals with bipolar I disorder, 265 with unipolar major recurrent depression and 268 healthy controls. Those with affective disorder were also interviewed using the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry and case notes were reviewed. Results Those with bipolar disorder and those with unipolar depression demonstrated different patterns of cognitive style from controls; negative self-esteem best discriminated between those with affective disorders and controls; measures of cognitive style were substantially affected by current levels of depressive symptomatology; patterns of cognitive style were similar in bipolar and unipolar disorder when current mental state was taken into account. Conclusions Those with affective disorder significantly differed from controls on measures of cognitive style but there were no differences between unipolar and bipolar disorders when current mental state was taken into account