Genetic diversity at the FMR1 locus in the Indonesian population

We report an analysis of allelic diversity at short tandem repeat polymorphisms within the fragile XA locus in 1069 male volunteers from twelve Indonesian sub-populations. An odd numbered allele of DXS548 was found at high frequency in all Indonesian populations. Greater allelic diversity was identified at the loci under study than has been previously reported for an Asian population. These differences distinguish the Indonesian population from all previously reported Asian, European and African populations. A high frequency of small premutation alleles, 4/120 (3.3%, 95% CI 0.9–8.3%), was identified in the Moluccan population of Hiri Island

Negotiating sexuality and masculinity in school sport: An autoethnography

This autoethnography explores challenging and ethically sensitive issues around sexual orientation, sexual identity and masculinity in the context of school sport. Through storytelling, I aim to show how sometimes ambiguous encounters with heterosexism, homophobia and hegemonic masculinity through sport problematise identity development for young same-sex attracted males. By foregrounding personal embodied experience, I respond to an absence of stories of gay and bisexual experiences among males in physical education and school sport, in an effort to reduce a continuing sense of Otherness and difference regarding same-sex attracted males. I rely on the story itself to express the embodied forms of knowing that inhabit the experiences I describe, and resist a finalising interpretation of the story. Instead, I offer personal reflections on particular theoretical and methodological issues which relate to both the form and content of the story

Remembering, Reflecting, Returning: A Return to Professional Practice Journey Through Poetry, Music and Images:A Return to Professional Practice Journey Through Poetry, Music and Images

<p>Our composition brings together poetry, music, images and personal narratives based around the experiences of an occupational therapist, Karen, who following a family career break, returned to her profession. Our work demonstrates collaborative research practices and illuminates our experiences and journeying as practitioner-artists/researchers/teachers.</p> <p>This autoethnographic inquiry employs bricolage, drawing on theory and hybridized methods, inspired by the notion of ‘returning to practice’. The conversations of Karen and Katherine (mentee and mentor) as qualitative data, analyzed, interpreted and made accessible through poetry and images – along with Peter’s musical and autobiographical compositions – explore possibilities to re-examine and share alternative avenues of scholarship and theoretical understanding, not least in redefining what contribution to knowledge that artistic processes and ‘artwork’ makes methodologically, pedagogically, aesthetically, and therapeutically. Our intention is to engage the reader-viewer-listener to (re)think, take notice, disrupt, re-examine and extend personal meanings about return to practice journeys, enabling each of us to benefit and be (re)inspired.</p> <p>We recast aspects of ‘knowing and experience’ metaphorically, to consider and express our sense of being and becoming in the world. Importantly, we seek to explore how arts informed ways of knowing and learning about the self and other can serve to enhance our students/researchers/practitioners learning experiences.</p

Engaging with arts-based research: A story in three parts

Qualitative psychology researchers of today face numerous practical, ethical, political and theoretical challenges. We have often asked ourselves how we might respond to these multiple and complex challenges. On our evolving research journeys, we have found that arts-based methodologies offer one effective response. We explore here our experiences of doing arts-based research in psychological contexts, by sharing and reflecting on three short stories. The stories illustrate how each arts-based project has required of us three distinct waves of engagement: interdependent engagement with people and place, aesthetic engagement with sense making processes, and emotional engagement with – and of – audiences. We use the story form to evoke each wave of engagement because it allows us to communicate the qualities of that engagement without finalising, foreclosing or restricting the variety of ways arts-based research might be conducted

The Stimulation of Nitrification in an Organically Enriched Soil by Zeolitic Tuff and its Effect on Plant Growing

The adsorption and ion-exchange properties of natural zeolite minerals such as phillipsite, clinoptilolite and mordenite are well studied and these microporous minerals are known to have a high selectivity towards the ammonium ion. Natural zeolites are often found as alteration products of volcanic glass, in deposits of volcaniclastic sediment. In such rocks they are very abundant and commonly exceed 80 percent of the mineral assemblage. Due to their high selectivity towards ammonium ions, rocks containing these minerals can be used to adsorb ammonia from sewage and organic farm waste. It has now been found that a composted mixture of the crushed zeolitic tuff and organic waste will enhance nitrification in soils, when added as an amendment. During composting ammonia, derived from the biological degradation of the organic waste, is adsorbed and ion-exchanged by the zeolite minerals present in the mixture. When added to a soil, nitrification occurs as a result of oxidation of the ammonium ions, first to nitrite and then further to nitrate, together with the production of protons. These reactions were studied in a time-course experiment using the analysis of aqueous leachates taken from untreated and amended soil substrates. Nitrification trends were observed and a linear relationship was found between the electrical conductivity (EC) and the nitrate concentration of the leachates; demonstrating how the ionic mobility of the substrate porewater increases with increase in the degree of nitrification. A comparison of plant growth in substrates without zeolitic tuff with those amended with the organo-zeolitic mixture, showed that plant growth in the amended soil is greatly increased

Organo-zeolitic treatment of mine waste to enhance the growth of vegetation

Zeolitic tuff containing an appreciable abundance of clinoptilolite was composted with animal waste to produce a dry friable non-odorous material that can easily be mixed with soil to produce an amended soil substrate. In earlier work it was found that leachate samples taken from organo-zeolitic treated substrates had nitrate concentrations an order of magnitude greater than those without the amendment. Comparative analysis of separate batches of organic- soil mixtures had shown that those containing zeolitic tuff had a very much higher concentrations of nitrate, in their leachate samples, than those containing only animal manure. Clinoptilolite has an ion-exchange property that is highly selective towards ammonium and it appears that the clinoptilolite component in adsorbing and ion-exchanging ammonia, as it is liberated from the decomposing animal waste, "buffers" its loss from volatilization and leaching. As a result, ammonium oxidizing micro-organisms are stimulated, which leads to enhanced nitrification and increasing ionic mobility of the substrate pore water. These functions allow plant growth to be stabilized on acid mine waste in such a way as to favour luxuriant growth on such sites, which normally are devoid of vegetation. The chemical analysis of plant leaf and stem tissue has identified trends in nutrient uptake and an attempt is made to understand the mechanisms responsible for this behaviour

The geochronology of the Connemara granites and its bearing on the antiquity of the Dalradian Series

Thirty-eight whole-rock samples of Connemara granites give the following Rb–Sr whole-rock ages: Galway granite, 384 ± 1 m.y.; Omey granite, 3884 ± 17m.y.; Roundstone granite, 3954 ± 80m.y.; Inish granite, 404 ± 8m.y.; Oughterard granite, 510 ± 35 m.y.; potash-feldspar gneisses, 725 ± 175 m.y. As the field evidence shows that the Oughterard granite was intruded into the Dalradian metasediments post-F4 in the Connemara fold-sequence, and possibly post-F5, this dates the fold phases F1 to F4 and the metamorphisms M5 to M1 as pre-510 ± 35m.y. The older isotopic age of the potash-feldspar gneisses agrees with their field-deduced age of post-F2pre-F3. Muscovite, potash feldspar, and whole-rock Rb–Sr analyses show that the Oughterard granite was metamorphosed about 444 ± 7 m.y. ago, which is close to the K–Ar age obtained from three hornblendes separated from potash-feldspar gneiss. These results indicate that the post-500 m.y. dates obtained from the Connemara Dalradian rocks, and therefore presumably the Scottish Dalradian also, are the dates of late metamorphisms. While the possibility of Pre-Cambrian metamorphism and folding in the Dalradian is apparent, the results are equally in agreement with a Cambrian age for the main metamorphisms M1 to M5 and foldings F1 to F4, especially in view of the present uncertainty about the age of the Cambrian period. The base of the Arenig would seem to be younger than 510 ± 35m.y