Eulogy

My work is a eulogy for all fauna. It involves a ritual act of suture— a ceremonial process of mending and healing— one that functions as a curative process for myself as well as others. While wandering in the woods, or gleaning from animal specimen collections and negotiating with hunters and beekeepers, I gather the remains of fauna in order to make jewelry. I long to restore the fragmented ruins into wholeness. I long to heal what has been broken. From their death comes rebirth, new life. Quietly, these relics reflect the porosity between all things. Jewelry has a history of holding the intimacy we share with loved ones. It can function as a mnemonic device; a reminder of a loved one’s presence, in their absence. My work references the relics of Roman catacombs, Victorian mourning jewelry, and other funerary rituals that materialize mortality. These relics, traditions, and moments in history use the deceased body, fragmented or whole, as a tangible link between the living and the dead. I employ similar rituals of commemoration, but for other species, species whose lives have been affected by the alteration of their environment. Bones of deer, muskrat, and birds, as well ho ney bees are assembled in a ritual act of healing. My intervention with the material is minimal, as they require a light touch. This allows for the wearer to be in direct contact with the raw remnants–with little mediation. When we physically connect with the body of another species, can we rediscover the connection we once understood? Can we renew our empathy for fauna? These relics seek to suture, not only the loss of an animal being, but our severed relationship to it. With the idea of embracing animals as our counterparts, my intention is for humans to appreciate their lives, feel their pain, and grieve their loss. These contemporary relics are an inquiry: Can a physical experience with these objects mend this lost connection between humans and nonhumans? My aim is to lead viewers to a point of revelation: that animal beings are not separate from humans, that we are ontologically connected. We are all pars pro toto, a part of the whole

From Mother Country to Far Away Relative: The Canadian-British Military Relationship from 1945

Historically, Canada has looked to Great Britain for its military culture. During the First and Second World War, the Canadian army was virtually interchangeable with the British army. However, the decline of the British military power starting in 1940 increasingly caused Canada to gravitate towards her neighbour to the south

Raus aus der Haut : Division and Identity in Current German Cinema

A Report from the 48. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin, February 11-22, 1998 Notes 1. Gerhard Schulze, Die Erlebnisgesellschaft: Kultursoziologie der Gegenwart (Frankfurt/M.: Campus, 1992). For a critical discussion of Schulze\u27s terms, see Axel Honneth, Desintegration: Bruchstücke einer soziologischen Zeitdiagnose (Frankfurt/M.: Fischer, 1995).2. Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994) 70.3. Leslie A. Adelson, Making Bodies, Making History: Feminism and German Identity (Lincoln: Nebraska UP, 1993) 36

Cigarette Smoking and the Risk of Bladder Cancer in Men and Women

Although cigarette smoking is a principal risk factor for bladder cancer in both men and women, few studies have statistically evaluated whether gender modifies the effect of smoking on bladder cancer risk. We initiated the present case-control study at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, U.S., to provide further data on this important issue. We observed similar risk estimates for men and women with comparable smoking exposures, but did not observe a statistically significant interaction between gender and lifetime smoking exposure. We conclude that cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for bladder cancer in both sexes, but that gender does not modify the effect of smoking on bladder cancer risk

Occupation and bladder cancer: a cohort study in Sweden

In a follow-up study of occupational exposures and bladder cancer, an increased risk was observed after an adjustment for smoking, for physicians, administrators and managers, clerical workers and sales agents among men and assistant nurses among women. For physicians, the reason may be early diagnosis; for the other groups a sedentary type of work may have a role in bladder cancer aetiology

Innovative research methods for studying treatments for rare diseases: methodological review

Objective: To examine methods for generating evidence on health outcomes in patients with rare diseases. Design: Methodological review of existing literature. Setting: PubMed, Embase, and Academic Search Premier searched for articles describing innovative approaches to randomized trial design and analysis methods and methods for conducting observational research in patients with rare diseases. Main outcome measures We assessed information related to the proposed methods, the specific rare disease being studied, and outcomes from the application of the methods. We summarize methods with respect to their advantages in studying health outcomes in rare diseases and provide examples of their application. Results: We identified 46 articles that proposed or described methods for studying patient health outcomes in rare diseases. Articles covered a wide range of rare diseases and most (72%) were published in 2008 or later. We identified 16 research strategies for studying rare disease. Innovative clinical trial methods minimize sample size requirements (n=4) and maximize the proportion of patients who receive active treatment (n=2), strategies crucial to studying small populations of patients with limited treatment choices. No studies describing unique methods for conducting observational studies in patients with rare diseases were identified. Conclusions: Though numerous studies apply unique clinical trial designs and considerations to assess patient health outcomes in rare diseases, less attention has been paid to innovative methods for studying rare diseases using observational data

Workers on temporary 457 visas: Challenges they face when working in the Western Australian resources sector

As a response to the shortage of specialised workers in the Western Australian (WA) resources sector, business has resorted to employing workers on temporary 457 visas. This paper provides an insight into some of the challenges workers on 457 visas reported while working in Australia in a study that collected data in 2012. While the study focussed on costs and benefits of employing workers on 457 visas to business, the migrant worker and the larger Australian community, part of the data included the social and financial costs to these workers. It is this data that is reported in this paper. Workers on 457 visas stated that financial costs that directly affected them were the requirement to cover their medical and child care costs as well as some paid up to $3000 to overseas Migration Agents to arrange their visas. The social costs included extreme loneliness, acceptance by Australian workers and difficulties with spouse and family who may be large distances apart that is further exacerbated by fly-in/fly-out working arrangements. Relocation Agents appear to provide the very valuable connection to community for newly arrived migrants in that they facilitate introductions for people to establish new friendships. The emotional and social welfare of these workers emerged as key components of successful assimilation in Australia. Failure to acknowledge these problems resulted in threats to emotional well being of the workers and their families and in some cases led to workers returning home earl

In vivo kinetic approach reveals slow SOD1 turnover in the CNS

Therapeutic strategies that target disease-associated transcripts are being developed for a variety of neurodegenerative syndromes. Protein levels change as a function of their half-life, a property that critically influences the timing and application of therapeutics. In addition, both protein kinetics and concentration may play important roles in neurodegeneration; therefore, it is essential to understand in vivo protein kinetics, including half-life. Here, we applied a stable isotope-labeling technique in combination with mass spectrometric detection and determined the in vivo kinetics of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), mutation of which causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Application of this method to human SOD1-expressing rats demonstrated that SOD1 is a long-lived protein, with a similar half-life in both the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and the CNS. Additionally, in these animals, the half-life of SOD1 was longest in the CNS when compared with other tissues. Evaluation of this method in human subjects demonstrated successful incorporation of the isotope label in the CSF and confirmed that SOD1 is a long-lived protein in the CSF of healthy individuals. Together, the results of this study provide important insight into SOD1 kinetics and support application of this technique to the design and implementation of clinical trials that target long-lived CNS proteins

Maine Perspective, v 7, i 8

The Maine Perspective, a publication for the University of Maine, was a campus newsletter produced by the Department of Public Affairs which eventually transformed into the Division of Marketing and Communication. Regular columns included the UM Calendar, Ongoing Events, People in Perspective, Look Who\u27s on Campus, In Focus, and Along the Mall. The weekly newsletter also included position openings on campus as well as classified ads. Included in this issue are articles about UMaine researchers involved in developing high-performance construction panels, a study finding higher-than-anticipated teen drug use in Maine, and a profile piece on Jennifer McLeod