Stepping outside normative neoliberal discourse: youth and disability meet – the case of Jody McIntyre

In May 2010, amidst the ‘global financial crisis’ a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government succeeded a 12-year reign of New Labour in the United Kingdom, and ushered in massive welfare cuts. Although New Labour tabled major welfare and disability benefit reform, they arguably did not activate the harshest of these. This paper focuses on the backlash of youth and disability in the form of demonstrations; two groups that are being hit hard by the political shift to work-first welfare in an era of employment scarcity. The case of young disabled activist Jody McIntyre is used to explore parallels and divergences in neoliberal and ‘populist’ discourses of ‘risky’, troubling’ youth and disability

First wave findings: Universal Credit

Universal Credit (UC) is the new working age benefit for those in and out of work (replacing six benefits), which introduces a new enhanced conditionality regime (including the Claimant Commitment and 35 hour per week job search requirements). It represents a step-change in intensifying and extending sanctions and mandatory support for claimants and their partners. This briefing paper presents findings from our research undertaken to date, based on policy stakeholder interviews, practitioner focus groups and interviews with 58 UC recipients (welfare service users, approximately one third of whom were in paid work and two thirds out of work)

First wave findings: Universal Credit

Universal Credit (UC) is the new working age benefit for those in and out of work (replacing six benefits), which introduces a new enhanced conditionality regime (including the Claimant Commitment and 35 hour per week job search requirements). It represents a step-change in intensifying and extending sanctions and mandatory support for claimants and their partners. This briefing paper presents findings from our research undertaken to date, based on policy stakeholder interviews, practitioner focus groups and interviews with 58 UC recipients (welfare service users, approximately one third of whom were in paid work and two thirds out of work)

Psychological Distress in International University Students: An Australian Study

Australia is a much sort after destination of study for many thousands of international university students. However, tertiary study brings with it many challenges that may potentially precipitate psychological distress in international students. Psychological distress may be experienced in various ways. The aim of this study was to investigate the manner in which psychological distress is manifested in international students and the factors that contribute to their psychological distress. The participants consisted of 86 international students enrolled at a Queensland university who completed a battery of nine self-report questionnaires. Results showed that obsessive-compulsiveness reflected by worry, ruminations and perfectionist tendencies was the most common symptom of psychological distress in international students. Dysfunctional coping was the only factor contributing to psychological distress. These findings have important implications for the international students with reference to the assessment of their mental health issues and the designing of suitable intervention programs

Cytochrome P450 1D1: A novel CYP1A-related gene that is not transcriptionally activated by PCB126 or TCDD

Enzymes in the cytochrome P450 1 family oxidize many common environmental toxicants. We identified a new CYP1, termed CYP1D1, in zebrafish. Phylogenetically, CYP1D1 is paralogous to CYP1A and the two share 45% amino acid identity and similar gene structure. In adult zebrafish, CYP1D1 is most highly expressed in liver and is relatively highly expressed in brain. CYP1D1 transcript levels were higher at 9 hours post-fertilization than at later developmental times. Treatment of zebrafish with potent aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) agonists (3,3′,4,4′,5-pentachlorobiphenyl or 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) did not induce CYP1D1 transcript expression. Morpholino oligonucleotide knockdown of AHR2, which mediates induction of other CYP1s, did not affect CYP1D1 expression. Zebrafish CYP1D1 heterologously expressed in yeast exhibited ethoxyresorufin- and methoxyresorufin-O-dealkylase activities. Antibodies against a CYP1D1 peptide specifically detected a single electrophoretically-resolved protein band in zebrafish liver microsomes, distinct from CYP1A. CYP1D1 in zebrafish is a CYP1A-like gene that could have metabolic functions targeting endogenous compounds

Una nuova dedica a Ercole da un manoscritto di Bonifacius Amerbach

The manuscript C VI a 77, once belonged to the XVIth century humanist Bonifacius Amerbach and now preserved in the Universitätsbibliothek Basel, is not a high quality epigraphic manuscript, but includes at least a couple of Roman inscriptions elsewhere unknown. One of them, already published in the previous years, is a dedication to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus set by an eques singularis; the other one is a dedication to Hercules Invictus – here published for the first time - set, when he was an urban praetor, by L. Turranius Venustus Gratianus, member of a well known senatorial family of the III/IV century AD