Lifeworld Inc. : and what to do about it

Can we detect changes in the way that the world turns up as they turn up? This paper makes such an attempt. The first part of the paper argues that a wide-ranging change is occurring in the ontological preconditions of Euro-American cultures, based in reworking what and how an event is produced. Driven by the security – entertainment complex, the aim is to mass produce phenomenological encounter: Lifeworld Inc as I call it. Swimming in a sea of data, such an aim requires the construction of just enough authenticity over and over again. In the second part of the paper, I go on to argue that this new world requires a different kind of social science, one that is experimental in its orientation—just as Lifeworld Inc is—but with a mission to provoke awareness in untoward ways in order to produce new means of association. Only thus, or so I argue, can social science add to the world we are now beginning to live in

Cellular Radiosensitivity: How much better do we understand it?

Purpose: Ionizing radiation exposure gives rise to a variety of lesions in DNA that result in genetic instability and potentially tumorigenesis or cell death. Radiation extends its effects on DNA by direct interaction or by radiolysis of H2O that generates free radicals or aqueous electrons capable of interacting with and causing indirect damage to DNA. While the various lesions arising in DNA after radiation exposure can contribute to the mutagenising effects of this agent, the potentially most damaging lesion is the DNA double strand break (DSB) that contributes to genome instability and/or cell death. Thus in many cases failure to recognise and/or repair this lesion determines the radiosensitivity status of the cell. DNA repair mechanisms including homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) have evolved to protect cells against DNA DSB. Mutations in proteins that constitute these repair pathways are characterised by radiosensitivity and genome instability. Defects in a number of these proteins also give rise to genetic disorders that feature not only genetic instability but also immunodeficiency, cancer predisposition, neurodegeneration and other pathologies. Conclusions: In the past fifty years our understanding of the cellular response to radiation damage has advanced enormously with insight being gained from a wide range of approaches extending from more basic early studies to the sophisticated approaches used today. In this review we discuss our current understanding of the impact of radiation on the cell and the organism gained from the array of past and present studies and attempt to provide an explanation for what it is that determines the response to radiation

Label reading nutrient criteria: A survey of Australian nutrition professionals

Aim: The aims of the present study were (i) to identify the format of resources that nutrition professionals use to educate consumers about reading nutrition information panels; (ii) to identify the most common nutrient criteria; and (iii) to assess the suitability of the nutrient criteria by assessing them against foods commonly eaten in Australia, from products in NUTTAB 2006. Methods: An online 13-question survey, asking about resources and nutrient criteria used, was distributed by email by the Dietitians Association of Australia. A total of 240 surveys were completed. The most common nutrient criteria were identified and tested against common foods in the NUTTAB 2006 database to make an assessment on suitability. Results: The most common resource format was diet sheet, and the most common criterion for each nutrient was: energy 3 g/serve and sodium <120 mg/100 g. One-third of common foods in Australia met all four of the ‘per 100 g’ nutrient criteria. Conclusions: The majority of respondents had a set of nutrient criteria for educating consumers about reading and understanding nutrition information panels. The most common nutrient criteria allowed sufficient number of foods to choose from, suggesting that the four most common ‘per 100 g’ nutrient criteria are suitable for use with consumers

Altered sympathetic and parasympathetic activity in lung transplantation patients at rest and following autonomic perturbation

Study objectives: To investigate the nature and extent of the alteration in autonomic function following heterotopic lung transplantation