Rules, Norms and Practices – A Comparative Study Exploring Disposal Practices and Facilities in Northern Europe

We identify and analyse practices and management regimes around burial and handling of ashes across eight case study towns within six Northern European countries. We analyse management of cemeteries and crematoria gardens, majority practices and provision for minority communities, including various burial types, cremated remains, the re-use of graves, and costs for interments. Comparative data is drawn from analysis of national and local regulations, interviews with stakeholders, and observations at cemeteries and crematoria gardens. The findings show significant variation in national and local regulations and practices for burial and cremation particularly around the re-use of graves, handling of ashes and costs for grave space and cremation. We identify the opportunities and constraints of these variations in terms of accessibility, diversity and equality; and argue for national directions to avoid unequal treatment within nations. Furthermore, we stress the importance of a liberal and inclusive management of European cemeteries and crematoria gardens

Underground tales, overground lives: mobile work identities through to post-retirement

Although there has been recent attention given to the subject of mobile work, there has been less focus, within mobility studies, on the work of those who enable movement: the job of the transport worker. This article takes this incarnation of mobile workers as the basis for understanding the ways in which mobile work identities are pulled through into retirement. The article firstly proposes that transport workers, as movement enablers, have particular identities, and are an important and neglected topic of study within mobilities. Secondly, it suggests that the post-work identities of mobile workers are contingent on their experiences during their working lives and that these are particular to mobile work. The article is evidenced through data gathered during a mobile ethnographic study with two retired London Underground employees. The participants joined the researchers on a walking tour of a disused underground railway station in London, ‘Hidden London’, organised by the London Transport Museum and their experiences and emotional responses were recorded and analysed. Understanding post-work identities through the embodied and spatial experiences of the present, the research sought insights of the past and future; the continuity and fluidity of working identities that permeated through to post-work lives. This article argues that mobile work identities are specific identities that shape a distinct post-retirement identity

Current approaches and future role of high content imaging in safety sciences and drug discovery

High content imaging combines automated microscopy with image analysis approaches to simultaneously quantify multiple phenotypic and/or functional parameters in biological systems. The technology has become an important tool in the fields of safety sciences and drug discovery, because it can be used for mode-of-action identification, determination of hazard potency and the discovery of toxicity targets and biomarkers. In contrast to conventional biochemical endpoints, high content imaging provides insight into the spatial distribution and dynamics of responses in biological systems. This allows the identification of signaling pathways underlying cell defense, adaptation, toxicity and death. Therefore high content imaging is considered a promising technology to address the challenges for the Toxicity testing in the 21st century approach. Currently high content imaging technologies are frequently applied in academia for mechanistic toxicity studies and in pharmaceutical industry for the ranking and selection of lead drug compounds or to identify/confirm mechanisms underlying effects observed in vivo. A recent workshop gathered scientists working on high content imaging in academia, pharmaceutical industry and regulatory bodies with the objective to compile the state-of-the-art of the technology in the different institutions. They defined technical and methodological gaps, addressed the need for quality control, suggested control compounds and acceptance criteria, highlighted cell sources and new readouts and discussed future requirements for regulatory implementation. This review summarizes the discussion, proposed solutions and recommendations of the specialists contributing to the workshop.JRC.I.5-Systems Toxicolog

Structure and Mode-of-Action of the Two-Peptide (Class-IIb) Bacteriocins

This review focuses on the structure and mode-of-action of the two-peptide (class-IIb) bacteriocins that consist of two different peptides whose genes are next to each other in the same operon. Optimal antibacterial activity requires the presence of both peptides in about equal amounts. The two peptides are synthesized as preforms that contain a 15–30 residue double-glycine-type N-terminal leader sequence that is cleaved off at the C-terminal side of two glycine residues by a dedicated ABC-transporter that concomitantly transfers the bacteriocin peptides across cell membranes. Two-peptide bacteriocins render the membrane of sensitive bacteria permeable to a selected group of ions, indicating that the bacteriocins form or induce the formation of pores that display specificity with respect to the transport of molecules. Based on structure–function studies, it has been proposed that the two peptides of two-peptide bacteriocins form a membrane-penetrating helix–helix structure involving helix–helix-interacting GxxxG-motifs that are present in all characterized two-peptide bacteriocins. It has also been suggested that the membrane-penetrating helix–helix structure interacts with an integrated membrane protein, thereby triggering a conformational alteration in the protein, which in turn causes membrane-leakage. This proposed mode-of-action is similar to the mode-of-action of the pediocin-like (class-IIa) bacteriocins and lactococcin A (a class-IId bacteriocin), which bind to a membrane-embedded part of the mannose phosphotransferase permease in a manner that causes membrane-leakage and cell death

The (In)Visibility of Gender in Scandinavian Climate Policy-Making

© 2014 Taylor & Francis. This article explores the link between gender representation and climate policy-making in Scandinavia. We ask to what extent equal descriptive representation (critical mass) results in substantive representation (critical acts). Our study shows that women and men are equally represented in administrative and political units involved in climate policy-making, and in some units women are in the majority. However, a text analysis of the outcomes, that is, the Scandinavian climate strategies, reveals a silence regarding gender, further confirmed through interviews. Accordingly, a critical mass of women does not automatically result in gender-sensitive climate policy-making, recognizing established gender differences in material conditions and in attitudes toward climate issues. In interviews, we also note that policy-makers are largely unaware of gender differences on climate issues in the Scandinavian context. We discuss why a critical mass of women in climate policy-making has not led to critical acts and offer alternative explanations informed by feminist IR theory. For example, poststructural feminism claims that masculine norms are deeply institutionalized in climate institutions; hence, policy-makers adapt their actions to the masculinized institutional environment. Thus, substantive representation should be understood in relation to gendered institutional processes