Predation of free-flying birds by the Racquet-tailed Treepie Crypsirina temia

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Societal sentience: constructions of the public in animal research policy and practice

The use of non-human animals as models in research and drug testing is a key route through which contemporary scientific knowledge is certified. Given ethical concerns, regulation of animal research promotes the use of less ‘sentient’ animals. This paper draws on a documentary analysis of legal documents, and qualitative interviews with Named Veterinary Surgeons and others at a commercial laboratory in the UK. Its key claim is that the concept of animal sentience is entangled with a particular imaginary of how the general public or wider society views animals. We call this imaginary societal sentience. Against a backdrop of increasing ethnographic work on care encounters in the laboratory, this concept helps to stress the wider context within which such encounters take place. We conclude that societal sentience has potential purchase beyond the animal research field, in helping to highlight the affective dimension of public imaginaries (Welsh and Wynne 2013), and their ethical consequences. Researching and critiquing societal sentience, we argue, may ultimately have more impact on the fate of humans and non-humans in the laboratory, than focusing wholly on ethics as situated practice

Critical animal and media studies: Expanding the understanding of oppression in communication research

Critical and communication studies have traditionally neglected the oppression conducted by humans towards other animals. However, our (mis)treatment of other animals is the result of public consent supported by a morally speciesist-anthropocentric system of values. Speciesism or anthroparchy, as much as any other mainstream ideologies, feeds the media and at the same time is perpetuated by them. The goal of this article is to remedy this neglect by introducing the subdiscipline of Critical Animal and Media Studies. Critical Animal and Media Studies takes inspiration both from critical animal studies – which is so far the most consolidated critical field of research in the social sciences addressing our exploitation of other animals – and from the normative-moral stance rooted in the cornerstones of traditional critical media studies. The authors argue that the Critical Animal and Media Studies approach is an unavoidable step forward for critical media and communication studies to engage with the expanded circle of concerns of contemporary ethical thinking

Robotic milking technologies and renegotiating situated ethical relationships on UK dairy farms

Robotic or automatic milking systems (AMS) are novel technologies that take over the labor of dairy farming and reduce the need for human-animal interactions. Because robotic milking involves the replacement of 'conventional' twice-a-day milking managed by people with a system that supposedly allows cows the freedom to be milked automatically whenever they choose, some claim robotic milking has health and welfare benefits for cows, increases productivity, and has lifestyle advantages for dairy farmers. This paper examines how established ethical relations on dairy farms are unsettled by the intervention of a radically different technology such as AMS. The renegotiation of ethical relationships is thus an important dimension of how the actors involved are re-assembled around a new technology. The paper draws on in-depth research on UK dairy farms comparing those using conventional milking technologies with those using AMS. We explore the situated ethical relations that are negotiated in practice, focusing on the contingent and complex nature of human-animal-technology interactions. We show that ethical relations are situated and emergent, and that as the identities, roles, and subjectivities of humans and animals are unsettled through the intervention of a new technology, the ethical relations also shift. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Prognostic Significance of POLE Proofreading Mutations in Endometrial Cancer

Background: Current risk stratification in endometrial cancer (EC) results in frequent over- and underuse of adjuvant therapy, and may be improved by novel biomarkers. We examined whether POLE proofreading mutations, recently reported in about 7% of ECs, predict prognosis. Methods: We performed targeted POLE sequencing in ECs from the PORTEC-1 and -2 trials (n = 788), and analyzed clinical outcome according to POLE status. We combined these results with those from three additional series (n = 628) by meta-analysis to generate multivariable-adjusted, pooled hazard ratios (HRs) for recurrence-free survival (RFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) of POLE-mutant ECs. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: POLE mutations were detected in 48 of 788 (6.1%) ECs from PORTEC-1 and-2 and were associated with high tumor grade (P < .001). Women with POLE-mutant ECs had fewer recurrences (6.2% vs 14.1%) and EC deaths (2.3% vs 9.7%), though, in the total PORTEC cohort, differences in RFS and CSS were not statistically significant (multivariable-adjusted HR = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.13 to 1.37, P = .15; HR = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.03 to 1.44, P = .11 respectively). However, of 109 grade 3 tumors, 0 of 15 POLE-mutant ECs recurred, compared with 29 of 94 (30.9%) POLE wild-type cancers; reflected in statistically significantly greater RFS (multivariable-adjusted HR = 0.11, 95% CI = 0.001 to 0.84, P = .03). In the additional series, there were no EC-related events in any of 33 POLE-mutant ECs, resulting in a multivariable-adjusted, pooled HR of 0.33 for RFS (95% CI = 0.12 to 0.91, P = .03) and 0.26 for CSS (95% CI = 0.06 to 1.08, P = .06). Conclusion: POLE proofreading mutations predict favorable EC prognosis, independently of other clinicopathological variables, with the greatest effect seen in high-grade tumors. This novel biomarker may help to reduce overtreatment in E

Histone deacetylases 1, 2 and 3 are highly expressed in prostate cancer and HDAC2 expression is associated with shorter PSA relapse time after radical prostatectomy

High activity of histone deacetylases (HDACs) causes epigenetic alterations associated with malignant cell behaviour. Consequently, HDAC inhibitors have entered late-phase clinical trials as new antineoplastic drugs. However, little is known about expression and function of specific HDAC isoforms in human tumours including prostate cancer. We investigated the expression of class I HDACs in 192 prostate carcinomas by immunohistochemistry and correlated our findings to clinicopathological parameters including follow-up data. Class I HDAC isoforms were strongly expressed in the majority of the cases (HDAC1: 69.8%, HDAC2: 74%, HDAC3: 94.8%). High rates of HDAC1 and HDAC2 expression were significantly associated with tumour dedifferentiation. Strong expression of all HDACs was accompanied by enhanced tumour cell proliferation. In addition, HDAC2 was an independent prognostic marker in our prostate cancer cohort. In conclusion, we showed that the known effects of HDACs on differentiation and proliferation of cancer cells observed in vitro can also be confirmed in vivo. The class I HDAC isoforms 1, 2 and 3 are differentially expressed in prostate cancer, which might be important for upcoming studies on HDAC inhibitors in this tumour entity. Also, the highly significant prognostic value of HDAC2 clearly deserves further study

Primary Therapy in Breast Cancer: What Have We Learned from Landmark Trials?:

Primary anticancer therapy is currently accepted as a therapeutic option for patients with early-stage breast cancer. Its objectives are to increase the chance of achieving a conservative surgery and, similar to adjuvant chemotherapy, to reduce the risk of distant recurrence. The prognostic significance of obtaining a pathological complete response has been evaluated in several randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses. Growing evidence suggests that pathological complete response may act as a valid predictor of overall survival. Of note, a significant association between pathological complete response and outcome has especially been observed in patients with HER2-positive and triple-negative (hormonal receptors negative and HER2-negative) breast cancer. This review focuses on recent trials of neoadjuvant treatment with specific attention to HER2-negative disease

‘Now, where were we?’ The highs and lows of hunting data with a research pack

The boundaries of the social have been stretched by recent scholarship in sociological animal studies. Empirical work has begun to open up to the presence of the myriad other creatures that make up social worlds. Yet much of this research relies on standard practices and human-centred methods. This paper reflects on a piece of research characterised by such contradiction drawn from a project investigating everyday lives with canine companions via observation and interviewing. What was methodologically distinctive, was that the majority of interviews involved dogs being present and most were undertaking while walking with dogs. An ethnographic diary was also kept in one field site mapping events, interactions and routines of dogs, humans and others in the space of ‘dog walking’. How might non-humans intervene in data collection and be reflected in the data? What is lost and gained by researching (literally) in the field with a multi-species research pack

Successive influenza virus infection and Streptococcus pneumoniae stimulation alter human dendritic cell function

Background: Influenza virus is a major cause of respiratory disease worldwide and Streptococcus pneumoniae infection associated with influenza often leads to severe complications. Dendritic cells are key antigen presenting cells but its role in such co-infection is unclear.Methods: In this study, human monocyte derived-dentritic cells were either concurrently or successively challenged with the combination of live influenza virus and heat killed pneumococcus to mimic the viral pneumococcal infection. Dendritic cell viability, phenotypic maturation and cytokine production were then examined.Results: The challenge of influenza virus and pneumococcus altered dendritic cell functions dependent on the time interval between the successive challenge of influenza virus and pneumococcus, as well as the doses of pneumococcus. When dendritic cells were exposed to pneumococcus at 6 hr, but not 0 hr nor 24 hr after influenza virus infection, both virus and pneumococcus treated dendritic cells had greater cell apoptosis and expressed higher CD83 and CD86 than dendritic cells infected with influenza virus alone. Dendritic cells produced pro-inflammatory cytokines: TNF-α, IL-12 and IFN-γ synergistically to the successive viral and pneumococcal challenge. Whereas prior influenza virus infection suppressed the IL-10 response independent of the timing of the subsequent pneumococcal stimulation.Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that successive challenge of dendritic cells with influenza virus and pneumococcus resulted in synergistic up-regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines with simultaneous down-regulation of anti-inflammatory cytokine, which may explain the immuno-pathogenesis of this important co-infection. © 2011 Wu et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.published_or_final_versio