"I'm not sure how much this was about music:" Networks, Locations and Rituals of Identity in Pittsburgh's Grassroots Music and Arts Scene

Scenes are dynamic social relationships and experiences that are comprised of networks, locations, and rituals. Scene networks form in recognizable meeting places around activities such as live music shows, bike collectives, drag performances and gambling rings. This paper explores how cultural producers (i.e. band members, DJs, event organizers) perceive and use networks, locations and rituals in Pittsburgh's grassroots music and arts scene. Whereas previous research examines th experience of a single scene, this study explores the many ways cultural producers activate a variety of scenes under the same umbrella. This study examines how predominately white scene networks perceive and benefit from gentrification while also attending to how gender and sexuality affect where scene events are held. Women and queer identified artists do not have the same options as their heterosexual male counterparts when it comes to creating scene events in places opened by urban revitalization projects. This study also demonstrates that the rituals cultural producers engage are particular to the identities they seek to enact. Cultural producers use rituals of identity to deconstruct hegemonic constructions of gender and sexuality. Through performance rituals, participants empower stigmatized social identities

SPIRE - combining SGI-110 with cisplatin and gemcitabine chemotherapy for solid malignancies including bladder cancer: study protocol for a phase Ib/randomised IIa open label clinical trial

Background Urothelial bladder cancer (UBC) accounts for 10,000 new diagnoses and 5000 deaths annually in the UK (Cancer Research UK, http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/bladder-cancer, Cancer Research UK, Accessed 26 Mar 2018). Cisplatin-based chemotherapy is standard of care therapy for UBC for both palliative first-line treatment of advanced/metastatic disease and radical neoadjuvant treatment of localised muscle invasive bladder cancer. However, cisplatin resistance remains a critical cause of treatment failure and a barrier to therapeutic advance in UBC. Based on supportive pre-clinical data, we hypothesised that DNA methyltransferase inhibition would circumvent cisplatin resistance in UBC and potentially other cancers. Methods The addition of SGI-110 (guadecitabine, a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor) to conventional doublet therapy of gemcitabine and cisplatin (GC) is being tested within the phase Ib/IIa SPIRE clinical trial. SPIRE incorporates an initial, modified rolling six-dose escalation phase Ib design of up to 36 patients with advanced solid tumours followed by a 20-patient open-label randomised controlled dose expansion phase IIa component as neoadjuvant treatment for UBC. Patients are being recruited from UK secondary care sites. The dose escalation phase will determine a recommended phase II dose (RP2D, primary endpoint) of SGI-110, by subcutaneous injection, on days 1–5 for combination with GC at conventional doses (cisplatin 70 mg/m2, IV infusion, day 8; gemcitabine 1000 mg/m2, IV infusion, days 8 and 15) in every 21-day cycle. In the dose expansion phase, patients will be randomised 1:1 to GC with or without SGI-110 at the proposed RP2D. Secondary endpoints will include toxicity profiles, SGI-110 pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamic biomarkers, and pathological complete response rates in the dose expansion phase. Analyses will not be powered for formal statistical comparisons and descriptive statistics will be used to describe rates of toxicity, efficacy and translational endpoints by treatment arm. Discussion SPIRE will provide evidence for whether SGI-110 in combination with GC chemotherapy is safe and biologically effective prior to future phase II/III trials as a neoadjuvant therapy for UBC and potentially in other cancers treated with GC

Additional file 3: of SPIRE – combining SGI-110 with cisplatin and gemcitabine chemotherapy for solid malignancies including bladder cancer: study protocol for a phase Ib/randomised IIa open label clinical trial

Copy of the consent form given to participants for phase II dose escalation. (PDF 161 kb

Additional file 2: of SPIRE – combining SGI-110 with cisplatin and gemcitabine chemotherapy for solid malignancies including bladder cancer: study protocol for a phase Ib/randomised IIa open label clinical trial

Copy of the consent form given to participants for phase I dose escalation. (PDF 161 kb

Respiratory Medications in Infants <29 Weeks during the First Year Postdischarge: The Prematurity and Respiratory Outcomes Program (PROP) Consortium

ObjectiveTo determine patterns of respiratory medications used in neonatal intensive care unit graduates.Study designThe Prematurity Respiratory Outcomes Program enrolled 835 babies <29 weeks of gestation in the first week. Of 751 survivors, 738 (98%) completed at least 1, and 85% completed all 4, postdischarge medication usage in-person/telephone parental questionnaires requested at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of corrected age. Respiratory drug usage over the first year of life after in neonatal intensive care unit discharge was analyzed.ResultsDuring any given quarter, 66%-75% of the babies received no respiratory medication and 45% of the infants received no respiratory drug over the first year. The most common postdischarge medication was the inhaled bronchodilator albuterol; its use increased significantly from 13% to 31%. Diuretic usage decreased significantly from 11% to 2% over the first year. Systemic steroids (prednisone, most commonly) were used in approximately 5% of subjects in any one quarter. Inhaled steroids significantly increased over the first year from 9% to 14% at 12 months. Drug exposure changed significantly based on gestational age with 72% of babies born at 23-24 weeks receiving at least 1 respiratory medication but only 40% of babies born at 28 weeks. Overall, at some time in the first year, 55% of infants received at least 1 drug including an inhaled bronchodilator (45%), an inhaled steroid (22%), a systemic steroid (15%), or diuretic (12%).ConclusionMany babies born at <29 weeks have no respiratory medication exposure postdischarge during the first year of life. Inhaled medications, including bronchodilators and steroids, increase over the first year

Students' participation in collaborative research should be recognised

Letter to the editor