Onstage and off: The shifting relevance of gender in women’s prisons

uncorrected proofEven though international research on men’s prisons is no longer oblivious to gender, approaches to women’s prisons have tended to be more gender-bound as a whole. Besides having informed a specific reflexive agenda of representation, the angle of gender has presided to most research issues as an analytical overall parti pris: from the gendered nature of prison regimes to the gendered character of prison cultures, socialities and ‘pains of imprisonment’. This more ‘gendercentric’ agenda is however becoming more diversified for theoretical and empirical reasons alike. These involve a recognition of the diversity of women prisoners’ experiences and identities, and an attention to a wider variety of aspects of carceral life. Drawing on field approaches to the Portuguese carceral world spanning three decades, I propose to take this debate further by focusing on contextual shifts in the actual saliency of gender as a category of identity and social life in women’s prisons.(undefined)(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Shape Analysis and Computational Fluid Simulations to Assess Feline Left Atrial Function and Thrombogenesis

In humans, there is a well-established relationship between atrial fibrillation (AF), blood flow abnormalities and thrombus formation, even if there is no clear consensus on the role of left atrial appendage (LAA) morphologies. Cats can also suffer heart diseases, often leading to an enlargement of the left atrium that promotes stagnant blood flow, activating the clotting process and promoting feline aortic thromboembolism. The majority of pathological feline hearts have echocardiographic evidence of abnormal left ventricular filling, usually assessed with 2D and Doppler echocardiography and standard imaging tools. Actually, veterinary professionals have limited access to advanced computational techniques that would enable a better understanding of feline heart pathologies with improved morphological and haemodynamic descriptors. In this work, we applied state-of-the-art image processing and computational fluid simulations based on micro-computed tomography images acquired in 24 cases, including normal cats and cats with varying severity of cardiomyopathy. The main goal of the study was to identify differences in the LA/LAA morphologies and blood flow patterns in the analysed cohorts with respect to thrombus formation and cardiac pathology. The obtained results show significant differences between normal and pathological feline hearts, as well as in thrombus vs non-thrombus cases and asymptomatic vs symptomatic cases, while it was not possible to discern in congestive heart failure with thrombus and from non-thrombus cases. Additionally, in-silico fluid simulations demonstrated lower LAA blood flow velocities and higher thrombotic risk in the thrombus cases

Combinations of Toll-like receptor 8 agonist TL8-506 activate human tumor-derived dendritic cells

BackgroundDendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen presenting cells that initiate immune defense to pathogens and tumor cells. Human tumors contain only few DCs that mostly display a non-activated phenotype. Hence, activation of tumor-associated DCs may improve efficacy of cancer immunotherapies. Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists and interferons are known to promote DC maturation. However, it is unclear if DCs in human tumors respond to activation signals and which stimuli induce the optimal activation of human tumor DCs.MethodsWe first screened combinations of TLR agonists, a STING agonist and interferons (IFNs) for their ability to activate human conventional DCs (cDCs). Two combinations: TL8-506 (a TLR8 agonist)+IFN-γ and TL8-506+Poly(I:C) (a TLR3 agonist) were studied in more detail. cDC1s and cDC2s derived from cord blood stem cells, blood or patient tumor samples were stimulated with either TL8-506+IFN-γ or TL8-506+Poly(I:C). Different activation markers were analyzed by ELISA, flow cytometry, NanoString nCounter Technology or single-cell RNA-sequencing. T cell activation and migration assays were performed to assess functional consequences of cDC activation.ResultsWe show that TL8-506 synergized with IFN-γ or Poly(I:C) to induce high expression of different chemokines and cytokines including interleukin (IL)-12p70 in human cord blood and blood cDC subsets in a combination-specific manner. Importantly, both combinations induced the activation of cDC subsets in patient tumor samples ex vivo. The expression of immunostimulatory genes important for anticancer responses including CD40, IFNB1, IFNL1, IL12A and IL12B were upregulated on stimulation. Furthermore, chemokines associated with CD8$^{+}$ T cell recruitment were induced in tumor-derived cDCs in response to TL8-506 combinations. In vitro activation and migration assays confirmed that stimulated cDCs induce T cell activation and migration.ConclusionsOur data suggest that cord blood-derived and blood-derived cDCs are a good surrogate to study treatment responses in human tumor cDCs. While most cDCs in human tumors display a non-activated phenotype, TL8-506 combinations drive human tumor cDCs towards an immunostimulatory phenotype associated with Th1 responses on stimulation. Hence, TL8-506-based combinations may be promising candidates to initiate or boost antitumor responses in patients with cancer

PINT: Pathways INtegration Tool

New pathway databases generally display pathways by retrieving information from a database dynamically. Some of them even provide their pathways in SBML or other exchangeable formats. Integrating these models is a challenging work, because these models were not built in the same way. Pathways integration Tool (PINT) may integrate the standard SBML files. Since these files may be obtained from different sources, any inconsistency in component names can be revised by using an annotation editor upon uploading a pathway model. This integration function greatly simplifies the building of a complex model from small models. To get new users started, about 190 curated public models of human pathways were collected by PINT. Relevant models can be selected and sent to the workbench by using a user-friendly query interface, which also accepts a gene list derived from high-throughput experiments. The models on the workbench, from either a public or a private source, can be integrated and painted. The painting function is useful for highlighting important genes or even their expression level on a merged pathway diagram, so that the biological significance can be revealed. This tool is freely available at http://csb2.ym.edu.tw/pint/

Prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in enteric Escherichia coli from domestic pets and assessment of associated risk markers using a generalized linear mixed model

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global public health problem, which is caused by the use of antimicrobials in both human and animal medical practice. The objectives of the present cross-sectional study were as follows: (1) to determine the prevalence of resistance in Escherichia coli isolated from the feces of pets from the Porto region of Portugal against 19 antimicrobial agents and (2) to assess the individual, clinical and environmental characteristics associated with each pet as risk markers for the AMR of the E. coli isolates. From September 2009 to May 2012, rectal swabs were collected from pets selected using a systematic random procedure from the ordinary population of animals attending the Veterinary Hospital of Porto University. A total of 78 dogs and 22 cats were sampled with the objective of isolating E. coli. The animals’ owners, who allowed the collection of fecal samples from their pets, answered a questionnaire to collect information about the markers that could influence the AMR of the enteric E. coli. Chromocult tryptone bile X-glucuronide agar was used for E. coli isolation, and the disk diffusion method was used to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility. The data were analyzed using a multilevel, univariable and multivariable generalized linear mixed model (GLMM). Several (49.7%) of the 396 isolates obtained in this study were multidrug-resistant. The E. coli isolates exhibited resistance to the antimicrobial agent's ampicillin (51.3%), cephalothin (46.7%), tetracycline (45.2%) and streptomycin (43.4%). Previous quinolone treatment was the main risk marker for the presence of AMR for 12 (ampicillin, cephalothin, ceftazidime, cefotaxime, nalidixic acid, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, tetracycline, streptomycin, chloramphenicol, trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole and aztreonam) of the 15 antimicrobials assessed. Coprophagic habits were also positively associated with an increased risk of AMR for six drugs, ampicillin, amoxicillin–clavulanic acid, cephamycin, ciprofloxacin, streptomycin, and trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole. In summary, pets with a record of one or more previous quinolone treatments and exhibiting coprophagic habits were at an increased risk of harboring multidrug-resistant E. coli strains in their feces compared to pets without these characteristics. AMR is a serious global problem, and assessing the risk markers for the presence of drug-resistant bacteria in pets, a very close source of resistance determinants to humans, is essential for the implementation of safe handling procedures for companion animals and for the prudent selection of antimicrobial compounds in veterinary practice

Improving well-being in Higher Education: Adopting a compassionate approach

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of a chapter published in the 'Values of the University in a Time of Uncertainty'. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15970-2_18Peer reviewe