Sweden’s Feminist Initiative are on the rise, but what does the history of women’s parties tell us about their prospects?

With the success of Soraya Post and Feminist Initiative in Sweden this year, Claire McGing looks at women’s political parties, how they emerge, what influences they can have, and the challenges they face. While the influence of women’s parties has historically frequently been transitory, they nonetheless have a ‘contagion’ effect on mainstream parties, who seek to protect their status by feminising their organisations

Analysis of the women selected and elected by quota in Ireland dispel the myth that they were under-qualified

The introduction of legal gender quotas for the 2016 general election in Ireland resulted in a marked improvement in the number of women candidates selected and TDs (parliamentarian) elected. However, questions of merit and qualifications were continually raised about women candidates throughout the campaign. In this blog Fiona Buckley and Claire McGing assess the political experience of women candidates and dispel the myth that women candidates were unqualified or unmerited candidates

Is local office a springboard for women to Dáil Éireann?

Previous research has found the single transferable vote electoral system is relatively friendly to women candidates. Despite this, female representation in the Irish Parliament remains substantially lower than in most other democracies. Drawing on pipeline theory and localism, we assess the impact of local office-holding on the success of male and female major party candidates in the 2007 and 2011 Irish general elections. We find previous experience in local office is a key springboard to higher office for men and women, and when women serve in local government the likelihood of election increases significantly

Non-invasive approaches to identify the cause of premature fatigue in Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) fatigue is a pervasive secondary disease symptom. The aetiology is poorly understood, meaning that treatment options are sparse. This is of particular concern for the relatively large proportion of patients with quiescent disease, who continue to report an increased perception of fatigue and demonstrate premature exercise fatigue, relative to healthy individuals. Fatigue is multidimensional and can manifest as a disproportionate perception of tiredness, perturbed cognitive functioning and an inability to sustain a required work output during exercise. In contrast to other chronic disease, to date there has been no mechanistic assessment of IBD fatigue reported in the literature. This is congruent with the essential absence of any effective treatment strategies convincingly shown to reduce IBD fatigue burden, independent of targeting known clinical causes. The application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Spectroscopy (MRS) techniques during exercise represents a unique opportunity to non-invasively probe in-vivo metabolism across multiple organs. This thesis seeks to characterise IBD fatigue aetiology by combining laboratory-based assessment of peripheral muscle function and cardiorespiratory fitness, with proton (1H) MRI and phosphorus (31P) MRS during within-bore exercise. This thesis represents the first attempt to comprehensively interrogate IBD physiology with the aim of identifying potential treatment targets for fatigue. Following an introduction to IBD in Chapter one, a detailed review of IBD fatigue aetiology follows in Chapter 2. Chapters 3 and 4 outline the methodology and developmental experiments undertaken to facilitate the MRI and 31P MRS experiments. Chapter 5 details the assessment of peripheral muscle function and body composition in quiescent Crohn’s disease patients relative to a healthy age and BMI matched control group. This is followed by the assessment of cardiovascular, brain and peripheral muscle deconditioning in Chapter 6 and 7. A final discussion chapter is dedicated to a review of the collective findings of this thesis in the context of existing data within the literature base. Suggestions are then made for future research priorities in the field of IBD fatigue

Non-invasive approaches to identify the cause of premature fatigue in Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) fatigue is a pervasive secondary disease symptom. The aetiology is poorly understood, meaning that treatment options are sparse. This is of particular concern for the relatively large proportion of patients with quiescent disease, who continue to report an increased perception of fatigue and demonstrate premature exercise fatigue, relative to healthy individuals. Fatigue is multidimensional and can manifest as a disproportionate perception of tiredness, perturbed cognitive functioning and an inability to sustain a required work output during exercise. In contrast to other chronic disease, to date there has been no mechanistic assessment of IBD fatigue reported in the literature. This is congruent with the essential absence of any effective treatment strategies convincingly shown to reduce IBD fatigue burden, independent of targeting known clinical causes. The application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Spectroscopy (MRS) techniques during exercise represents a unique opportunity to non-invasively probe in-vivo metabolism across multiple organs. This thesis seeks to characterise IBD fatigue aetiology by combining laboratory-based assessment of peripheral muscle function and cardiorespiratory fitness, with proton (1H) MRI and phosphorus (31P) MRS during within-bore exercise. This thesis represents the first attempt to comprehensively interrogate IBD physiology with the aim of identifying potential treatment targets for fatigue. Following an introduction to IBD in Chapter one, a detailed review of IBD fatigue aetiology follows in Chapter 2. Chapters 3 and 4 outline the methodology and developmental experiments undertaken to facilitate the MRI and 31P MRS experiments. Chapter 5 details the assessment of peripheral muscle function and body composition in quiescent Crohn’s disease patients relative to a healthy age and BMI matched control group. This is followed by the assessment of cardiovascular, brain and peripheral muscle deconditioning in Chapter 6 and 7. A final discussion chapter is dedicated to a review of the collective findings of this thesis in the context of existing data within the literature base. Suggestions are then made for future research priorities in the field of IBD fatigue

Systematic review: the impact of inflammatory bowel disease-related fatigue on health-related quality of life

Background: Fatigue is frequently reported in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and impacts on Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). HRQoL has not been systematically reviewed in IBD fatigue. Aim: To investigate what impact IBD fatigue has on HRQoL in adults with IBD.Methods: Systematic searches (CINAHL, EMBASE, PsychInfo, Medline) were conducted 25.09.2018, restricted to ‘human’, ‘adult’, ‘primary research’ and ‘English language’. Search terms encompassed concepts of ‘Fatigue’, ‘IBD’ and ‘HRQoL’. A 5 year time limit (2013-2018) was set to include the most relevant publications. Publications were screened, data extracted, and quality appraised by two authors. A narrative synthesis was conducted.Results: Eleven studies were included, presenting data from 2823 participants. Fatigue experiences were significantly related to three HRQoL areas: symptom acceptance, psychosocial wellbeing, and physical activity. Patients reporting high fatigue levels had low symptom acceptance. Psychosocial factors were strongly associated with both, fatigue and HRQoL. Higher social support levels were associated with higher HRQoL. Physical activity was impaired by higher fatigue levels, lowering HRQoL, but it was also used as a means of reducing fatigue and improving HRQoL. Quality appraisal revealed methodological shortcomings in a number of studies. Notably use of multiple measures, comparison without statistical adjustment and fatigue and HRQoL assessment using the same tool

The impact of online misogyny on women’s participation: democracy experts respond

Many women, including a number of high-profile British politicians, have been the targets of misogynistic abuse via social media. Democratic Audit recently featured an article by Laura Bates, arguing that this trend has negative effect on rates of female participation in public life. In this post we ask leading democracy and gender experts to respond, sharing their experiences and views on how misogyny undermines democracy

Gender and Electoral Representation in Ireland

This article reviews the historic and contemporary challenges to women’s electoral representation in Ireland. After summarizing the cultural and institutional obstacles to greater female representation, this article analyzes candidate selection, especially in relation to the 2011 Irish General Election, a process that appears to be the significant hurdle preventing more women from attaining elected office. It also discusses the proposed legislation that uses quotas to ensure the major political parties in Ireland nominate initially at least 30 per cent of their candidates to be women. It is hoped that this measure will redress the historic and chronic underrepresentation of women in Irish electoral politics.Dans cet article, les auteurs reconsidèrent les défis auxquels les femmes candidates à la représentation électorale ont fait et font encore face en Irlande. Après avoir résumé les obstacles culturels et institutionnels qui s’opposent à une plus grande représentation des femmes, cet article analyse le processus de sélection des candidats notamment lors des élections législatives irlandaises de 2011. Ce processus semble être un obstacle visiblement considérable à l’élection de davantage de femmes. Cet article s’interroge aussi sur la législation qui propose d’imposer des quotas afin de garantir la nomination d'au moins 30 % de femmes au sein des partis politiques principaux d'Irlande. Cette mesure devrait parvenir à résoudre le problème de la sous-représentation des femmes dans les élections irlandaises

The dark side of the Empire:Roman expansionism between object agency and predatory regime

This paper offers a critique of some recent new materialist approaches and their application to Roman expansionism. According to certain authors, ‘Romanisation’ should be about “understanding objects in motion”, a perspective that carries ethical implications. In contrast, we introduce the notion of a predatory political economy as an alternative for conceptualising Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome. Our approach aims to make visible the dark sides of Roman expansionism in order to produce a more balanced and inclusive account. Two archaeological cases studies –Roman conquest and rural communities– are presented to illustrate the potential of such a perspective

The relationship between Central Nervous System morphometry changes and key symptoms in Crohn’s disease

Alterations in grey matter volume (GMV) and cortical thickness (CT) in Crohn’s disease (CD) patients has been previously documented. However, the findings are inconsistent, and not a true representation of CD burden, as only CD patients in remission have been studied thus far. We investigate alterations in brain morphometry in patients with active CD and those in remission, and study relationships between brain structure and key symptoms of fatigue, abdominal pain, and extraintestinal manifestations (EIM).Magnetic Resonance Imaging brain scans were collected in 89 participants; 34 CD participants with active disease, 13 CD participants in remission and 42 healthy controls (HCs); Voxel based morphometry (VBM) assessed GMV and white matter volume (WMV), and surface-based analysis assessed cortical thickness (CT).We show a significant reduction in global cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volume in CD participants compared with HCs, as well as, a reduction in regional GMV, WMV and CT in the left precentral gyrus (motor cortex), and an increase in GMV in the frontal brain regions in CD compared with HCs. Atrophy of the supplementary motor area (SMA) was associated with greater fatigue in CD. We also show alterations in brain structure in multiple regions in CD associated with abdominal pain and extraintestinal inflammations (EIMs).These brain structural alterations likely reflect neuroplasticity to a chronic systemic inflammatory response, abdominal pain, EIMs and fatigue. These findings will aid our understanding of the cross-linking between chronic inflammation, brain structural changes and key unexplained CD symptomatology like fatigue