Physiological effects of KDM5C on neural crest migration and eye formation during vertebrate development

Background: Lysine-specific histone demethylase 5C (KDM5C) belongs to the jumonji family of demethylases and is specific for the di- and tri-demethylation of lysine 4 residues on histone 3 (H3K4 me2/3). KDM5C is expressed in the brain and skeletal muscles of humans and is associated with various biologically significant processes. KDM5C is known to be associated with X-linked mental retardation and is also involved in the development of cancer. However, the developmental significance of KDM5C has not been explored yet. In the present study, we investigated the physiological roles of KDM5C during Xenopus laevis embryonic development. Results: Loss-of-function analysis using kdm5c antisense morpholino oligonucleotides indicated that kdm5c knockdown led to small-sized heads, reduced cartilage size, and malformed eyes (i.e., small-sized and deformed eyes). Molecular analyses of KDM5C functional roles using whole-mount in situ hybridization, -galactosidase staining, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction revealed that loss of kdm5c resulted in reduced expression levels of neural crest specifiers and genes involved in eye development. Furthermore, transcriptome analysis indicated the significance of KDM5C in morphogenesis and organogenesis. Conclusion: Our findings indicated that KDM5C is associated with embryonic development and provided additional information regarding the complex and dynamic gene network that regulates neural crest formation and eye development. This study emphasizes the functional significance of KDM5C in Xenopus embryogenesis; however, further analysis is needed to explore the interactions of KDM5C with specific developmental genes

Migration-related detention centers : The challenges of an ecological perspective with a focus on justice

Background: In recent years, border control and migration-related detention have become increasingly widespread practices affecting the lives of undocumented migrants, their families, and communities at large. In spite of the concern within academia, few studies have directly witnessed the life and experiences of people confined to migration-related detention centers. In the medical and psychological fields, a considerable body of research has demonstrated the pathogenic nature of detention in terms of mental health, showing an association between length of detention and severity of distress. Nevertheless, it was limited to the assessment of individuals’ clinical consequences, mainly focusing on asylum seekers. There currently exists a need to adopt an ecological perspective from which to study detained migrants’ experiences as context-dependent, and influenced by power inequalities. This paper addresses this gap. Discussion: Drawing upon advances in community psychology, we illustrate an ecological framework for the study of migration-related detention contexts, and their effects on the lives of detained migrants and all people exposed to them. Making use of existing literature, Kelly’s four principles (interdependence, cycling of resources, adaptation, succession) are analyzed at multiple ecological levels (personal, interpersonal, organizational, communal), highlighting implications for future research in this field. A focus on justice, as a key-dimension of analysis, is also discussed. Wellbeing is acknowledged as a multilevel, dynamic, and value-dependent phenomenon. Summary: In presenting this alternative framework, the potential for studying migration-related detention through an ecological lens is highlighted, pointing the way for future fields of study. We argue that ecological multilevel analyses, conceptualized in terms of interdependent systems and with a focus on justice, can enhance the comprehension of the dynamics at play in migration-related detention centers, providing an effective tool to address the multi-level challenges of doing research within them. Furthermore, they can contribute to the development of policies and practices concerned with health, equality, and human rights of all people exposed to migration-related detention. Consistent with these assumptions, empirical studies adopting such a framework are strongly encouraged. These studies should use mixed and multi-method culturally situated designs, based on the development of collaborative and empowering relationships with participants. Ethnographic approaches are recommended.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT

<i>Transforming Rehabilitation</i> during a penal crisis: A case study of <i>Through the Gate services</i> in a resettlement prison in England and Wales

In 2013, the UK government published plans to radically reform resettlement provision for released prisoners via a Through the Gate scheme to be introduced as part of its Transforming Rehabilitation agenda. Under the scheme, 70 of the 123 prisons in England and Wales were re-designated ‘resettlement prisons’ and tasked with establishing an integrated approach to service delivery, seamlessly extending rehabilitative support from custody into the community. This article utilises a case study of one resettlement prison to critically consider the implementation of these new arrangements. Drawing on insights by prisoners, prison staff and other key stakeholders, it argues that instead of enhancing resettlement, Through the Gate is actually enhancing resentment with Transforming Rehabilitation appearing to accentuate, rather than mediate, long-standing operational concerns within the prison system. The article argues that unless there is a significant renewal of the structures, processes and mechanisms of administering support for addressing the rehabilitative needs of prisoners, the current operational flaws within Through the Gate provision risk deepening the sense of a penal crisis

Sunken CSR and SMEs

Summary Despite the increased recognition and emphasis attributed to CSR, numerous problems and scandals involving large corporations continue to emerge. This contradiction nurtures a growing interest in intrinsic CSR rooted in ethical concerns spread among the company’s culture. While larger companies have to consider the expectations of shareholders and multiple stakeholders, SMEs do not need to be accountable to stakeholders through a systematic and formalized approach grounded on the adoption of sustainability reports useful to assess and demonstrate their CSR performance. However, the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic CSR is often very difficult (first) to understand and (second) to bridge and some authors advocate that the extrinsic and the intrinsic motive for CSR could evolve and be integrate

Thermal local distribution on the ALT-II limiter of TEXTOR-94 during disruptions

This final brief concluding chapter draws out some of the key lessons that we might take from the analyses presented in the preceding chapters, and in so doing points the way to further developments in what might tentatively be described as critical discursive peace psychology. First, I will consider the essentially contested nature of the objects of peace psychology, most notably ‘peace’ itself, and suggest that the focus on analysts’ definitions of peace (and violence) might usefully be complemented by a greater concern with participants’ constructions. Second, I will consider the potential for discursive peace psychology to contribute to the analysis of cultural violence (and, by extension, to the achievement of cultures of peace), as well as suggesting that a unique contribution might come in terms of the analysis of discursive violence. Third, I will consider the practical implications for discursive psychology, with the encounter with peace psychology encouraging a more interventionist (in the non-military sense) form of practical engagement. Fourth, I will sketch out some potential obstacles to an integration of discursive and peace psychology, focussing in particular on the incompatibilities between the structural focus of peace psychology and the post-structural orientation of discursive psychology. Fifth, and relatedly, I will suggest that a post-structural position has advantages in enabling peace psychology to overcome a residual individualism that it shares with much of the broader discipline of psychology