Dancing on a Knife’s Edge: Performing Violent Co-Dependency in Bryony Lavery and Frantic Assembly’s Stockholm

Stockholm (2007) is the result of a collaboration between playwright Bryony Lavery and theatre company Frantic Assembly, acclaimed for their usage of expressive movement to develop narrative and character. Using devising methodologies, Artistic Directors Scott Graham and Stephen Hoggett wanted to explore a romantic relationship where both members love each other, but are caught in a cycle of insecurity, manipulation and abuse. Tod and Kali embody the ‘couple goals’ that many young, modern Westerners aspire to, but underneath the sophistication of their home, cookery and travel plans lurk destructive tendencies. Whilst they dance their way through the preparation of Tod’s birthday dinner, there is an undercurrent of violence, both within their movement and the ‘dangerous’ environment in which they operate. At the centre of the relationship is an intense physical attraction to each other which is initially depicted on stage as an ‘accomplished and elegant sex act’ (according to Lavery’s stage directions) which then evolves through the course of the play into something more dark and violent, explored in large part through interpretive physical movement. This chapter explores the process of developing the play, which included two actors, two dancers (who did not appear in the staged version), Lavery, Graham and Hoggett, alongside a critical evaluation of how these processes manifested on the page and stage. Drawing on research undertaken for my PhD, but with a particular and new focus on scenes which depict or suggest sexual acts, I argue that the intention of the collaborators was to create a performance which made the audience feel they were complicit within the action, through competing senses of attraction and horror. Close examination of both process and product reveals the collaborators’ dual goals of portraying the complexity of passionate, but abusive romantic relationships whilst enabling the audience to question how they might respond to a similar situation

A Review of Haptic Spatial Abilities in the Blind

Abstract: We review evidence of spatial abilities in the blind and address proposed limitations of haptic perception (the combination of tactile, proprioceptive, and kinesthetic information) in forming spatial representations. In particular, we counter the idea that touch is sequential and permits only egocentric representations. We consider specific spatial abilities of the blind with regards to development, and two-dimensional depictions of space. We conclude that spatial capacities in the blind are not diminished compared to those of the sighted

Supplier integration, operational capability and firm performance: an investigation in an emerging economy environment

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Production Planning and Control on 12/12/2019, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1700570 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The literature on supplier integration’s (SI) impact on firm performance is intertwined with mixed findings in terms of definitional differences, study context, specific integration components, and the types of relationships examined. This study contributes to the supplier integration and firm performance (SI-FP) literature by investigating how and when supplier integration influences firm performance. Drawing on the relational view, the resource-based view, and the Dynamics Capability theories, we suggest that improvements in firm performance from the supplier integration perspective are dependent on gains in operational capabilities. We test this dependency with survey data from firms in Ghana, a developing economy. The results show positive significant relationships between supplier integration and competitive operational capabilities and between supplier integration and firm performance. Our results highlight the importance for managers in developing economies and elsewhere to improve their firms’ operational capabilities and competitiveness by investing in supplier integration. We also discuss implications of these findings for research.Published versio

Effect of Lactobacillus acidophilus supernatants on body weight and leptin expression in rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Lactobacillus </it>extracts and supernatants have been used as probiotics in human and veterinary medicine for their ability to enhance wound healing and immunity. Previous data from our laboratory demonstrated that <it>Lactobacillus </it>supernatant (LS) stimulated wound healing, angiogenesis and proliferation of embryonic cells after topical application. This current study shows that LS after its administration into the cerebral ventricles of male rats exerts systemic effects.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The right lateral cerebral ventricle of young male rats was accessed through intracerebroventricular cannulation (ICV) under anesthesia and aseptic conditions. One group of control rats received saline solution, a second control group received 0.8 M lactic acid solution (to control for acidity of LS), and a third group received LS. The animals were sacrificed 12, 24, 48, 96 and 120 hours after the injection. Selected tissues were collected, fixed in 10% buffered formalin and used for immunohistochemistry and <it>in situ </it>hybridization. Other tissues were frozen and extracted for immunoblotting</p> <p>Results</p> <p>LS-injected animals had a slight decrease in body weight when compared to their initial weight and to both control groups. Using immunohistochemistry and <it>in situ </it>hybridization leptin expression was studied in multiple brain sections and peripheral adipose tissue of control and LS-injected rats. Strong cytoplasmic stain was observed by both techniques in neurons of the cerebral cortex, thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus and, to lesser degree, in the cells of the choroid plexus in the LS-injected rats. Control animals demonstrated much less intense staining in neurons located in the same regions using immunohistochemistry and almost no staining with <it>in situ </it>hybridization technique. Adipose tissue exhibited slight presence of leptin in LS-treated animals. In contrast no immunohistochemical staining for GM-CSF and TNFα was observed in brains from control and treated rats. Western blotting showed mild increase in leptin and leptin receptors in intestines and retroperitoneal adipose tissues of LS-injected rats.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study demonstrates that direct administration of LS into rat CNS leads to a decrease in body weight of rats and an increase in the expression of leptin in specific areas of the brain and retroperitoneal adipose tissue.</p

The first transcriptome of Italian wall lizard, a new tool to infer about the Island Syndrome

Some insular lizards show a high degree of differentiation from their conspecific mainland populations, like Licosa island lizards, which are described as affected by Reversed Island Syndrome (RIS). In previous works, we demonstrated that some traits of RIS, as melanization, depend on a differential expression of gene encoding melanocortin receptors. To better understand the basis of syndrome, and providing raw data for future investigations, we generate the first de novo transcriptome of the Italian wall lizard. Comparing mainland and island transcriptomes, we link differences in life-traits to differential gene expression. Our results, taking together testis and brain sequences, generated 275,310 and 269,885 transcripts, 18,434 and 21,606 proteins in Gene Ontology annotation, for mainland and island respectively. Variant calling analysis identified about the same number of SNPs in island and mainland population. Instead, through a differential gene expression analysis we found some putative genes involved in syndrome more expressed in insular samples like Major Histocompatibility Complex class I, Immunoglobulins, Melanocortin 4 receptor, Neuropeptide Y and Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen

Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Perceived Stress Scale in Policewomen

BACKGROUND: The 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) is one of most widely used instruments to measure a global level of perceived stress in a range of clinical and research settings. This study was conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the Simplified Chinese version of the PSS-10 in policewomen. METHODOLOGY: A total of 240 policewomen were recruited in this study. The Simplified Chinese versions of the PSS-10, the Beck Depression Inventory Revised (BDI-II), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were administered to all participants, and 36 of the participants were re-tested two weeks after the initial testing. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The overall Cronbach's alpha was 0.86, and the test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.68. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) yielded 2 factors with eigenvalues of 4.76 and 1.48, accounting for 62.41% of variance. Factor 1 consisted of 6 items representing "negative feelings"; whereas Factor 2 consisted of 4 items representing "positive feelings". The item loadings ranged from 0.72 to 0.83. The Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated a very good fit of this two-factor model to this sample. The PSS-10 significantly correlated with both BDI-II and BAI, indicating an acceptable concurrent validity. CONCLUSIONS: The Simplified Chinese version of the PSS-10 demonstrated adequate psychometric properties for evaluating stress levels. The results support its use among the Chinese population

A prospective study of peri-diagnostic and surgical wait times for patients with presumptive colorectal, lung, or prostate cancer

The objective of this study was to prospectively measure peri-diagnostic and surgical time intervals for patients with suspected colorectal, lung, or prostate cancer. Prospective eligible patients were referred to a regional hospital in Ottawa, Canada between February 2004 and February 2005 for diagnostic assessment of presumptive colorectal, lung, or prostate cancer. Chart abstractions were used to measure nine time intervals; the primary interval was the date of referral for diagnostic assessment to the date the patient was informed of the diagnosis. Health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) was assessed 5 days following the patient being informed of their diagnosis. The median (IQR) time for the primary interval was 71 (30–110), 37 (29–49), and 81 (56–100) days for colorectal, lung, and prostate patients, respectively (Kruskal–Wallis P=0.0001). This interval was significantly less for colorectal patients diagnosed with cancer than for those without cancer (median difference=59.0 days; Wilcoxon P=0.003). No differences in HRQL existed for patients with cancer and those without. Colorectal and prostate patients wait longer between referral for suspected cancer and being informed of their diagnosis than current recommendations. The shorter diagnostic intervals for colorectal patients with cancer suggest clinicians have an effective process for triaging patients referred for diagnostic assessment

Expression Profiling Reveals Novel Hypoxic Biomarkers in Peripheral Blood of Adult Mice Exposed to Chronic Hypoxia

Hypoxia induces a myriad of changes including an increase in hematocrit due to erythropoietin (EPO) mediated erythropoiesis. While hypoxia is of importance physiologically and clinically, lacunae exist in our knowledge of the systemic and temporal changes in gene expression occurring in blood during the exposure and recovery from hypoxia. To identify these changes expression profiling was conducted on blood obtained from cohorts of C57Bl-10 wild type mice that were maintained at normoxia (NX), exposed for two weeks to normobaric chronic hypoxia (CH) or two weeks of CH followed by two weeks of normoxic recovery (REC). Using stringent bioinformatic cut-offs (0% FDR, 2 fold change cut-off), 230 genes were identified and separated into four distinct temporal categories. Class I) contained 1 transcript up-regulated in both CH and REC; Class II) contained 202 transcripts up-regulated in CH but down-regulated after REC; Class III) contained 9 transcripts down-regulated both in CH and REC; Class IV) contained 18 transcripts down-regulated after CH exposure but up-regulated after REC. Profiling was independently validated and extended by analyzing expression levels of selected genes as novel biomarkers from our profile (e.g. spectrin alpha-1, ubiquitin domain family-1 and pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase-1) by performing qPCR at 7 different time points during CH and REC. Our identification and characterization of these genes define transcriptome level changes occurring during chronic hypoxia and normoxic recovery as well as novel blood biomarkers that may be useful in monitoring a variety of physiological and pathological conditions associated with hypoxia