THE RELEVANCE OF FEMINISM IN MODERN SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

The aim of this paper is to present the perceptions of social work educators on the relevance of feminism in the undergraduate curriculum. An exploratory pilot study was conducted among ten social work educators from four universities (two in Gauteng and two in Limpopo province) on factors that motivate educators to incorporate feminism in the curriculum. Purposive sampling was employed to select educators who are involved in teaching direct practice with individuals and groups. Unstructured interviews were used to elicit qualitative data from the respondents. The major findings revealed that educators have divergent opinions on the incorporation of feminism in social work training. Even though the results are incon-clusive, different views expressed by educators necessitate future in-depth research in this area

Realigning the electricity city: legacies of energy autarky in Berlin and Hong Kong

Conference theme: Urban Transitions and Transformations: Science, Synthesis and PolicyParallel Session - 0025 Contested Agendas or Aligned Objectives? Intermediation and the Role of Non-State Actors in the Low Carbon Urban Transition: abstract no. 0189Whilst cities are widely regarded as playing a pivotal role in low carbon transitions, recent research is high-lighting the enormous variety in urban responses to climate change. The search for model development tra-jectories for the low carbon city is being clouded by stories of deviation, contestation, appropriation and ad-aptation peculiar to specific urban contexts. This differentiated picture of urban low carbon transitions as they are really happening is helpfully opening up the debate to the multifarious factors shaping urban re-sponses to climate change and the emergent challenges for both policy and research. What is in danger of getting lost in these powerfully ‘presentist' narratives is a sense of where these urban responses are coming from and how historical legacies of energy production and use are influencing (low carbon) options for the …published_or_final_versio

Charge structure in volcanic plumes: a comparison of plume properties predicted by an integral plume model to observations of volcanic lightning during the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland

Cancer is a heterogeneous disease with different combinations of genetic alterations driving its development in different individuals. We introduce CoMEt, an algorithm to identify combinations of alterations that exhibit a pattern of mutual exclusivity across individuals, often observed for alterations in the same pathway. CoMEt includes an exact statistical test for mutual exclusivity and techniques to perform simultaneous analysis of multiple sets of mutually exclusive and subtype-specific alterations. We demonstrate that CoMEt outperforms existing approaches on simulated and real data. We apply CoMEt to five different cancer types, identifying both known cancer genes and pathways, and novel putative cancer genes. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13059-015-0700-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Diversity via datafication? Digital patient records and citizenship for sexuality and gender diverse people

In 2018, the Australian Government adopted an ‘opt-out’ strategy to increase participation in My Health Record (MHR), the national digital patient record system. Opt out was rationalised through discourse on the universal right to health. Media controversy ensued due to privacy fears, security and commercial exploitation of patient information. LGBT community organisations warned that people with complex health needs should consider their privacy and legal situation when deciding whether or not to opt out of MHR. With reference to the health needs of sexuality and gender diverse people, we examine MHR’s rights universalism, possessive individualism, and state-based rationalisation of health governance. MHR hails all but no-one in particular, erasing diversity and straightwashing data medicine. It is a technological solution to state-based imperatives for health governance, an emphasis that does not serve minority communities or address health needs that attract stigma and prejudice. We counterpose these effects with citizenship framings seated in critical approaches to data assemblages and sexuality and gender diversity. We suggest ways in which data medicine, of which MHR is but one example, can be made more relevant and effective for individuals and communities whose healthcare is poorly served by mainstream health systems

Essential features of an interstitial lung disease multidisciplinary meeting : an international Delphi survey

Supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Pulmonary Fibrosis (GNT1116371), and by foundation partner, Boehringer Ingelheim, and program partners, Roche and Galapagos.Rationale : The interstitial lung disease (ILD) multidisciplinary meetings (MDM), composed of pulmonologists, radiologists, and pathologists, is integral to the rendering of an accurate ILD diagnosis. However, there is significant heterogeneity in the conduct of ILD MDMs, and questions regarding their best practices remain unanswered.  Objectives : To achieve consensus among ILD experts on essential components of an ILD MDM.  Methods : Using a Delphi methodology, semi-structured interviews with ILD experts were used to identify key themes and features of ILD MDMs. These items informed two subsequent rounds of online questionnaires that were used to achieve consensus among a broader, international panel of ILD experts. Experts were asked to rate their level of agreement on a five-point Likert scale. An a priori threshold for consensus was set at a median score 4 or 5 with an interquartile range of 0.  Results : We interviewed 15 ILD experts, and 102 ILD experts participated in the online questionnaires. Five items and two exploratory statements achieved consensus on being essential for an ILD MDM following two questionnaire rounds. There was consensus that the presence of at least one radiologist, a quiet setting with a visual projection system, a high-quality chest high-resolution computed tomography, and a standardized template summarizing collated patient data are essential components of an ILD MDM. Experts also agreed that it would be useful for ILD MDMs to undergo an annual benchmarking process and a validation process by fulfilling a minimum number of cases annually. Twenty-seven additional features were considered to be either highly desirable or desirable features based on the degree of consensus. Although our findings on desirable features are similar to the current literature, several of these remain controversial and warrant further research. The study also showed an agreement among participants on several future concepts to improve the ILD MDM, such as performing regular self-assessments and conducting research into shared practices to develop an international expert guideline statement on ILD MDMs.  Conclusions : This Delphi study showed consensus among international ILD experts on essential and desirable features of an ILD MDM. Our data represent an important step toward potential collaborative research into future standardization of ILD MDMs.PostprintPeer reviewe

Prediction Model of Land Cover Changes using the Cellular Automata – Markov Chain Affected by the BOCIMI Toll Road in Sukabumi Regency

The development of a city is a manifestation of regional development. The impact of the development of a city is the occurrence of land cover changes and increase of the settlement areas. In 2002-2018 the vegetation land cover experienced a drastic decline and experienced land conversion into the settlement areas so that the area of settlement land cover increased. This study aims to analyze the spatial patterns of settlement land cover changes that are affected by the existence of BOCIMI Toll road in the Sukabumi Regency, West Java using the Cellular Automata - Markov Chain (CA-MC) method, and modeling for 2032 based on the driving factor (driving factor) applied to the model. CAMC is a simple model of a spatially distributed process in a Geographic Information System (GIS). Five variables used as driving factors, elevation, slope, distance from the river, distance from the road, distance from the toll gates and distance from the toll road. The results of the model show that there are some changes in land cover and an increase of the settlement area that is affected by the physical and infrastructure factors in Sukabumi Regency, it can be seen that the kappa value is 0.8352 or 83.52%. Further, it is necessary to analyze the Sukabumi Regency model and the Regional Spatial Plan (RTRW) to see the growth and direction of the settlement area in Sukabumi Regency

In vivo staging of frontotemporal lobar degeneration TDP-43 type C pathology

Background: TDP-43 type C is one of the pathological forms of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and mainly associated clinically with the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia (svPPA). We aimed to define in vivo the sequential pattern of neuroanatomical involvement in a cohort of patients with FTLD-TDP type C pathology. Methods: We extracted the volumes of a set of cortical and subcortical regions from MRI scans of 19 patients with post mortem confirmed TDP-43 type C pathology (all with left hemisphere-predominant atrophy at baseline). In the initial development phase, we used w-scores computed from 81 cognitively normal controls to define a set of sequential stages of neuroanatomical involvement within the FTLD-TDP type C cohort where a w-score of < − 1.65 was considered abnormal. In a subsequent validation phase, we used 31 follow-up scans from 14 of the 19 patients in the same cohort to confirm the staging model. Results: Four sequential stages were identified in the initial development phase. Stage 1 was defined by atrophy in the left amygdala, medial temporal cortex, temporal pole, lateral temporal cortex and right medial temporal cortex; Stage 2 by atrophy in the left supratemporal cortex; Stage 3 by atrophy in the right anterior insula; and Stage 4 by atrophy in the right accumbens. In the validation phase, calculation of w-scores in the longitudinal scans confirmed the staging system, with all patients either staying in the same stage or progressing to a later stage at follow-up. Conclusion: In vivo imaging is able to detect distinct stages of neuroanatomical involvement in FTLD-TDP type C pathology. Using an imaging-derived staging system allows a more refined stratification of patients with svPPA during life

Variation in methods, results and reporting in electronic health record-based studies evaluating routine care in gout: A systematic review

Objective: To perform a systematic review examining the variation in methods, results, reporting and risk of bias in electronic health record (EHR)-based studies evaluating management of a common musculoskeletal disease, gout. Methods: Two reviewers systematically searched MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, PubMed, EMBASE and Google Scholar for all EHR-based studies published by February 2019 investigating gout pharmacological treatment. Information was extracted on study design, eligibility criteria, definitions, medication usage, effectiveness and safety data, comprehensiveness of reporting (RECORD), and Cochrane risk of bias (registered PROSPERO CRD42017065195). Results: We screened 5,603 titles/abstracts, 613 full-texts and selected 75 studies including 1.9M gout patients. Gout diagnosis was defined in 26 ways across the studies, most commonly using a single diagnostic code (n = 31, 41.3%). 48.4% did not specify a disease-free period before ‘incident’ diagnosis. Medication use was suboptimal and varied with disease definition while results regarding effectiveness and safety were broadly similar across studies despite variability in inclusion criteria. Comprehensiveness of reporting was variable, ranging from 73% (55/75) appropriately discussing the limitations of EHR data use, to 5% (4/75) reporting on key data cleaning steps. Risk of bias was generally low. Conclusion: The wide variation in case definitions and medication-related analysis among EHR-based studies has implications for reported medication use. This is amplified by variable reporting comprehensiveness and the limited consideration of EHR-relevant biases (e.g. data adequacy) in study assessment tools. We recommend accounting for these biases and performing a sensitivity analysis on case definitions, and suggest changes to assessment tools to foster this

Glucocorticoids inhibit apoptosis during fibrosarcoma development by transcriptionally activating Bcl-x(L)

Glucocorticoids influence many physiological processes, and in particular apoptosis, often with opposite effects depending on the cell type examined. We found that during fibrosarcoma development there is a strong increase in apoptosis at the tumor stage, which is repressed by dexamethasone to levels observed in normal fibroblasts. The anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family protein Bcl-x(L) is induced by dexamethasone at the transcriptional level at all stages of fibrosarcoma development. The ligand-activated glucocorticoid receptor (GR) activates the Bcl-x promoter in transient transfection experiments, and GR binds to specific Bcl-x promoter sequences in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, a GR antagonist abolishes this effect, indicating that Bcl-x(L) induction is mediated by GR. Importantly, exogenous Bcl-x(L) inhibits apoptosis and caspase-3 activity in fibrosarcoma cells to levels found in dexamethasone-treated fibrosarcoma cells. We conclude that Bcl-x(L) is a key target mediating the anti-apoptotic effects of glucocorticoids during fibrosarcoma development. These observations provide further understanding of the molecular basis of glucocorticoid regulation of cell death during tumorigenesis