A scarred colonial psyche

Anne-Louise Rentell’s production of Marcel Dorney’s new play, Charcoal Creek, imagines a past shimmering with brutality. Set in Charcoal Creek, NSW (now Unanderra), in the late 1870s, the land is lush but devastation – the murdering of Aboriginal people – has scarred the environment and the psyche of the colonials. The narrative doesn’t deal head-on with black and white Australia but instead recreates the kindling of fear and prejudice; the burnt landscape of the mind

Discoursing Love: The writer and X A fictional response to Roland Barthes

Discoursing Love —The Writer and X’ offers a series of microfictions written in response to Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments (1990 [1978]). In A Lover’s Discourse Barthes seeks to ‘stage an utterance not an analysis ... amorously confronting the other (the loved object), who does not speak’ (3). Likewise I have written short pieces—outbursts, ripostes, manoeuvres—each less than seven hundred words and connected by meditations on love as experienced by a writer towards her lover. Questions include: How does love confront us? Can the emotional complexity of love, and of the loved Other, find voice in language? I have also experimented with structure, using Barthes’ text to frame each story. This project, conceived in collaboration with Dr Shady Cosgrove, is the first stage of an ongoing work concerned with the interplay of theory and creative writing

Translit as thought-events: Cloud Atlas and Storyland

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in (and publication of) multi-narration novels that surf time, genre hop and shift geographical location. In 2012, novelist and critic, Dougles Coupland, coined the term \u27translit\u27 to describe such novels (11). If we accept Couopland\u27s term, david Mitchell\u27s Cloud Atlas (2003), Steve Amsterdam\u27s Things We Didn\u27t See Coming (2009), Jennette Winterson\u27s The Stone Gods (2007), and Michael Cunningham\u27s, the Hours (1998) and Specimen Day (2005), might all be called translit, so too Virginia Woolf\u27s not so recent Orlando (1928). By choosing to travel across time, space and genre boundaries, what might a translit author be attempting to do? what might such a novel offer the reader? Through an analysis of David Mitchell\u27s Cloud Atlas and by comparison with my own creative work, a novel Storyland (unpubl.), this paper argues that throught multiple narrations and space-tinme leaps a translit novel might be what Hannah Arendt call a \u27thought-event\u27 (1961 : 10). Thought-events are defined by Arendt as a particular kind of thinking or writing that defies traditional currents of thought in response to unique cultural and political circumstances (3-15). In order to make my arguments I consider the ways temporality and multiplicity interact in two translit novels, and examine how a narrative schema, that juxtaposes an uncertain present with the imagined future and the historical past, might hitch singularity with collectivey to offer a difference way of paying attention to the world and to the construction of our individual and cultural identity

Listening and learning: giving voice to trans experiences of disasters

This article gives voice to trans experiences of disasters, investigating their specific vulnerabilities and resilient capacities. We draw on findings from a project on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) experiences of recent Australian and New Zealand disasters. We present and analyse trans voices from a survey conducted across multiple case study sites and insights from interview data with a trans person who experienced the 2011 Brisbane floods. Conceptually, to provide a robust understanding of trans experiences of disasters, we bring socially sensitive disaster studies into conversation with trans geographies. Disaster studies have begun to examine LGBT experiences, with some suggestion that trans people are most vulnerable. We advance this work by focusing on trans lives. Trans geographies, in turn, underline the importance of space, place and the body in understanding trans lives, and the need to examine the lived reality of trans people’s everyday geographies rather than embodiment as an abstract concept. Applying these insights to the trans voices in our project, we examine four themes that highlight impediments to and possibilities for trans-inclusive disaster planning: apprehension with emergency services and support; concerns about home and displacement; anxiety about compromising the trans body; and the potential of trans and queer interpersonal networks for capacity building. We offer suggestions for trans-inclusive disaster planning and preparedness, and indicate how the insights from trans experience can enrich disaster planning and preparedness for wider social groups.Australian Research Council-DP13010265

A systematic review of multimodal prehabilitation in breast cancer.

Purpose: Breast cancer is the most prevalent malignancy in women. Prehabilitation may offer improvements in physical and psychological wellbeing among participants prior to treatment. This systematic review aimed to determine the efficacy of prehabilitation in participants diagnosed with breast cancer. Methods: A systematic review was performed according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Guidelines. Studies exploring the impact of prehabilitation in participants with breast cancer were included. Studies were assessed independently according to pre-eligibility criteria, with data extraction and methodological quality assessed in parallel. Results: 3184 records were identified according to our search criteria, and 14 articles were included. Articles comprised of quantitative randomised controlled trials (n = 7), quantitative non-randomised studies (n = 5), a qualitative study (n = 1), and a mixed-method study (n = 1). The majority of selected studies completed exercise programs (n = 4) or had exercise components (n = 2), with two focusing on upper-limb exercise. Five articles reported complementary and alternative therapies (n = 5). Two articles reported smoking cessation (n = 2), with a single study reporting multi-modal prehabilitation (n = 1). Mostly, prehabilitation improved outcomes including physical function, quality of life, and psychosocial variables (P < 0.05). The qualitative data identified preferences for multimodal prehabilitation, compared to unimodal with an interest in receiving support for longer. Conclusions: Prehabilitation for patients with breast cancer is an emerging research area that appears to improve outcomes, however, ensuring that adequate intervention timeframes, follow-up, and population groups should be considered for future investigations. Implications for Cancer Survivors: The implementation of prehabilitation interventions for individuals diagnosed with breast cancer should be utilised by multidisciplinary teams to provide holistic care to patients as it has the potential to improve outcomes across the cancer care trajectory

Ars musice

Ars musice, composed in Paris during the late thirteenth century, reflects Johannes de Grocheio\u27s awareness of the complexity of the task of describing music. As the editors note in their introduction, Grocheio is aware of the enormous range of types of music performed in different ways in different places. How can he impose order on this enormous subject matter? He decided to resolve this question by structuring his discussion around the practice of music that he observed in the city of Paris, organized into three main \u27branches\u27: music of the people (musica vulgalis), composite or regular, \u27which they call measured music\u27 (musica mensurata), and ecclesiastical music (musica ecclesiastica), which he claims derives from the other two (AM 6.2). The originality of Grocheio\u27s treatise has attracted considerable scholarly interest. It has long been recognized as a unique source of information about musical life in medieval Paris. Through his treatise, Grocheio enables a modern reader to become aware of the complex auditory environment of that city in the late thirteenth century as well as of its intellectual vitality at a particularly vibrant moment in its history.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/mip_teamsvaria/1003/thumbnail.jp

Phase II Trial of Pembrolizumab after High-Dose Cytarabine in Relapsed/Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

UNLABELLED: Immune suppression, exhaustion, and senescence are frequently seen throughout disease progression in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We conducted a phase II study of high-dose cytarabine followed by pembrolizumab 200 mg i.v. on day 14 to examine whether PD-1 inhibition improves clinical responses in relapsed/refractory (R/R) AML. Overall responders could receive pembrolizumab maintenance up to 2 years. Among 37 patients enrolled, the overall response rate, composite complete remission (CRc) rate (primary endpoint), and median overall survival (OS) were 46%, 38%, and 11.1 months, respectively. Patients with refractory/early relapse and those receiving treatment as first salvage had encouraging outcomes (median OS, 13.2 and 11.3 months, respectively). Grade ≥3 immune-related adverse events were rare (14%) and self-limiting. Patients who achieved CRc had a higher frequency of progenitor exhausted CD8+ T cells expressing TCF-1 in the bone marrow prior to treatment. A multifaceted correlative approach of genomic, transcriptomic, and immunophenotypic profiling offers insights on molecular correlates of response and resistance to pembrolizumab. SIGNIFICANCE: Immune-checkpoint blockade with pembrolizumab was tolerable and feasible after high-dose cytarabine in R/R AML, with encouraging clinical activity, particularly in refractory AML and those receiving treatment as first salvage regimen. Further study of pembrolizumab and other immune-checkpoint blockade strategies after cytotoxic chemotherapy is warranted in AML.See related commentary by Wei et al., p. 551. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 549

Accelerated partner therapy (APT) partner notification for people with Chlamydia trachomatis: protocol for the Limiting Undetected Sexually Transmitted infections to RedUce Morbidity (LUSTRUM) APT cross-over cluster randomised controlled trial

Introduction: Partner notification (PN) is a process aiming to identify, test and treat the sex partners of people (index patients) with sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Accelerated partner therapy (APT) is a PN method whereby healthcare professionals assess sex partners, by telephone consultation, before giving the index patient antibiotics and STI self-sampling kits to deliver to their sex partner(s). The Limiting Undetected Sexually Transmitted infections to RedUce Morbidity programme aims to determine the effectiveness of APT in heterosexual women and men with chlamydia and determine whether APT could affect Chlamydia trachomatis transmission at population level. Methods and analysis: This protocol describes a cross-over cluster randomised controlled trial of APT, offered as an additional PN method, compared with standard PN. The trial is accompanied by an economic evaluation, transmission dynamic modelling and a qualitative process evaluation involving patients, partners and healthcare professionals. Clusters are 17 sexual health clinics in areas of England and Scotland with contrasting patient demographics. We will recruit 5440 heterosexual women and men with chlamydia, aged ≥16 years. The primary outcome is the proportion of index patients testing positive for C. trachomatis 12-16 weeks after the PN consultation. Secondary outcomes include: proportion of sex partners treated; cost effectiveness; model-predicted chlamydia prevalence; experiences of APT. The primary outcome analysis will be by intention-to-treat, fitting random effects logistic regression models that account for clustering of index patients within clinics and trial periods. The transmission dynamic model will be used to predict change in chlamydia prevalence following APT. The economic evaluation will use mathematical modelling outputs, taking a health service perspective. Qualitative data will be analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis and framework analysis. Ethics and dissemination: This protocol received ethical approval from London—Chelsea Research Ethics Committee (18/LO/0773). Findings will be published with open access licences