The Experience of Unemployment in Ireland: A Thematic Analysis

This paper reports on the results of 13 semi-structured focus groups carried out with unemployed respondents across Ireland in 2010. The purpose of the research is to examine the subjective experience of unemployment across a wide range of dimensions. 15 overarching themes emerged from a detailed thematic analysis of the texts of the interviews. The themes highlight a wide range of aversive psychological states associated with unemployment. The themes examine: perceptions of the economic boom; reactions to the recession; attitudes toward media coverage; gender differences in experiences of unemployment; financial worries relating to unemployment; perceptions of the position of young people; uncertainty about the future; lack of structure and routine associated with unemployment; health issues associated with unemployment; identity challenges; the social context of unemployment; issues surrounding reentering employment; attitudes toward social protection payments; social comparison effect and perceptions of training services. This paper concludes with a brief discussion of the psychological impact of unemployment.

The Values-Based Trade Agenda

With the increasing trade tensions between the United States and China, pressures created by Brexit, and the COVID-19 pandemic, most trade scholars have focused on rising protectionism exhibited through defensive strategies such as tariffs and export controls. However, this focus ignores the fundamental shift in international trade goals of the United States and the European Union towards a values-based trade agenda. Instead of merely focusing on free trade based on efficiency and market access, trade regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have independently pursued measures designed to address environmental sustainability and social equity. These policies resonate with their domestic constituencies and allows them to promote their values along global supply chains. These values-based agendas, however, are likely to create new trade conflicts rather than partnerships. This is due in part to the fact that the transatlantic trade relationship remains embedded in international regulatory frameworks predominantly focused on efficiency gains and cutting red tape to ease the flow of products and services. Through two comparative case studies on cosmetics and medical devices, we highlight how the promotion of competitive liberalization in transatlantic trade has not generated the promised harmonization result. Instead, it has created social and environmental inequities. The case studies point out that to incorporate social and environmental equity adjustments for vulnerable and marginalized communities, trade regulators, negotiators, and lawyers alike ought to assess the ex-ante distributive effects in regulatory cooperation and the ex-post enforcement tools of regulation of their valuesbased trade agenda

Circumstellar Structure around Evolved Stars in the Cygnus-X Star Formation Region

We present observations of newly discovered 24 micron circumstellar structures detected with the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) around three evolved stars in the Cygnus-X star forming region. One of the objects, BD+43 3710, has a bipolar nebula, possibly due to an outflow or a torus of material. A second, HBHA 4202-22, a Wolf-Rayet candidate, shows a circular shell of 24 micron emission suggestive of either a limb-brightened shell or disk seen face-on. No diffuse emission was detected around either of these two objects in the Spitzer 3.6-8 micron Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) bands. The third object is the luminous blue variable candidate G79.29+0.46. We resolved the previously known inner ring in all four IRAC bands. The 24 micron emission from the inner ring extends ~1.2 arcmin beyond the shorter wavelength emission, well beyond what can be attributed to the difference in resolutions between MIPS and IRAC. Additionally, we have discovered an outer ring of 24 micron emission, possibly due to an earlier episode of mass loss. For the two shell stars, we present the results of radiative transfer models, constraining the stellar and dust shell parameters. The shells are composed of amorphous carbon grains, plus polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the case of G79.29+0.46. Both G79.29+0.46 and HBHA 4202-22 lie behind the main Cygnus-X cloud. Although G79.29+0.46 may simply be on the far side of the cloud, HBHA 4202-22 is unrelated to the Cygnus-X star formation region.Comment: Accepted by A

Evidence for niche adaptation in the genome of the bovine pathogen Streptococcus uberis.

BACKGROUND: Streptococcus uberis, a Gram positive bacterial pathogen responsible for a significant proportion of bovine mastitis in commercial dairy herds, colonises multiple body sites of the cow including the gut, genital tract and mammary gland. Comparative analysis of the complete genome sequence of S. uberis strain 0140J was undertaken to help elucidate the biology of this effective bovine pathogen. RESULTS: The genome revealed 1,825 predicted coding sequences (CDSs) of which 62 were identified as pseudogenes or gene fragments. Comparisons with related pyogenic streptococci identified a conserved core (40%) of orthologous CDSs. Intriguingly, S. uberis 0140J displayed a lower number of mobile genetic elements when compared with other pyogenic streptococci, however bacteriophage-derived islands and a putative genomic island were identified. Comparative genomics analysis revealed most similarity to the genomes of Streptococcus agalactiae and Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus. In contrast, streptococcal orthologs were not identified for 11% of the CDSs, indicating either unique retention of ancestral sequence, or acquisition of sequence from alternative sources. Functions including transport, catabolism, regulation and CDSs encoding cell envelope proteins were over-represented in this unique gene set; a limited array of putative virulence CDSs were identified. CONCLUSION: S. uberis utilises nutritional flexibility derived from a diversity of metabolic options to successfully occupy a discrete ecological niche. The features observed in S. uberis are strongly suggestive of an opportunistic pathogen adapted to challenging and changing environmental parameters.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Multiple signals mediate proliferation, differentiation, and survival from the granulocyte colony-stimulating factor receptor in myeloid 32D cells

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) regulates neutrophil production through activation of its cognate receptor, the G-CSF-R. Previous studies with deletion mutants have shown that the membrane-proximal cytoplasmic domain of the receptor is sufficient for mitogenic signaling, whereas the membrane-distal domain is required for differentiation signaling. However, the function of the four cytoplasmic tyrosines of the G-CSF-R in the control of proliferation, differentiation, and survival has remained unclear. Here we investigated the role of these tyrosines by expressing a tyrosine 'null' mutant and single tyrosine 'add back' mutants in maturation-competent myeloid 32D cells. Clones expressing the null mutant showed only minimal proliferation and differentiation, with survival also reduced at low G-CSF concentrations. Analysis of clones expressing the add-back mutants revealed that multiple tyrosines contribute to proliferation, differentiation, and survival signals from the G-CSF-R. Analysis of signaling pathways downstream of these tyrosines suggested a positive role for STAT3 activation in both differentiation and survival signaling, whereas SHP-2, Grb2 and Shc appear important for proliferation signaling. In addition, we show that a tyrosine- independent 'differentiation domain' in the membrane-distal region of the G- CSF-R appears necessary but not sufficient for mediating neutrophilic differentiation in these cells

Evaluating compliance to a low glycaemic index (GI) diet in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A low Glycaemic Index (GI) diet may decrease some long-term health risks in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) such as endometrial cancer. This study was performed to assess compliance to a low GI diet in women with PCOS. Food diaries prospectively collected over 6 months from women on a low GI diet or healthy eating diet were analysed retrospectively. The women were recruited for a pilot randomised control trial investigating whether a low GI diet decreased the risk of Endometrial Cancer. Nine women with PCOS completed 33 food diaries (17 from women on a low GI diet and 16 from women on a healthy eating diet) recording 3023 food items (low GI group:n = 1457; healthy eating group:n = 1566). Data was analysed using Foster-Powell international values inserted into an SPSS database as no scientifically valid established nutrition software was found. The main outcome measures were mean item GI and Glyacemic Load (GL), mean meal GL, percentage high GI foods and mean weight loss.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Women allocated the low GI diet had a statistically significant lower GI of food items (33.67 vs 36.91, p < 0.05), lower percentage of high GI foods (4.3% vs 12.1%, p < 0.05) and lower GL of food items and meals.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Women with PCOS on a low GI diet consumed food items with a significantly lower mean GI and GL compared to the healthy eating diet group. Longer term compliance needs evaluation in subsequent studies to ascertain that this translates to reduced long term health risks.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ISRCTN: <a href="http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN86420258">ISRCTN86420258</a></p

Cystic Fibrosis-Niche Adaptation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Reduces Virulence in Multiple Infection Hosts

The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa is able to thrive in diverse ecological niches and to cause serious human infection. P. aeruginosa environmental strains are producing various virulence factors that are required for establishing acute infections in several host organisms; however, the P. aeruginosa phenotypic variants favour long-term persistence in the cystic fibrosis (CF) airways. Whether P. aeruginosa strains, which have adapted to the CF-niche, have lost their competitive fitness in the other environment remains to be investigated. In this paper, three P. aeruginosa clonal lineages, including early strains isolated at the onset of infection, and late strains, isolated after several years of chronic lung infection from patients with CF, were analysed in multi-host model systems of acute infection. P. aeruginosa early isolates caused lethality in the three non-mammalian hosts, namely Caenorhabditis elegans, Galleria mellonella, and Drosophila melanogaster, while late adapted clonal isolates were attenuated in acute virulence. When two different mouse genetic background strains, namely C57Bl/6NCrl and Balb/cAnNCrl, were used as acute infection models, early P. aeruginosa CF isolates were lethal, while late isolates exhibited reduced or abolished acute virulence. Severe histopathological lesions, including high leukocytes recruitment and bacterial load, were detected in the lungs of mice infected with P. aeruginosa CF early isolates, while late isolates were progressively cleared. In addition, systemic bacterial spread and invasion of epithelial cells, which were detected for P. aeruginosa CF early strains, were not observed with late strains. Our findings indicate that niche-specific selection in P. aeruginosa reduced its ability to cause acute infections across a broad range of hosts while maintaining the capacity for chronic infection in the CF host

Medial longitudinal arch development of school children : The College of Podiatry Annual Conference 2015: meeting abstracts

Background Foot structure is often classified into flat foot, neutral and high arch type based on the variability of the Medial Longitudinal Arch (MLA). To date, the literature provided contrasting evidence on the age when MLA development stabilises in children. The influence of footwear on MLA development is also unknown. Aim This study aims to (i) clarify whether the MLA is still changing in children from age 7 to 9 years old and (ii) explore the relationship between footwear usage and MLA development, using a longitudinal approach. Methods We evaluated the MLA of 111 healthy school children [age = 6.9 (0.3) years] using three parameters [arch index (AI), midfoot peak pressure (PP) and maximum force (MF: % of body weight)] extracted from dynamic foot loading measurements at baseline, 10-month and 22-month follow-up. Information on the type of footwear worn was collected using survey question. Linear mixed modelling was used to test for differences in the MLA over time. Results Insignificant changes in all MLA parameters were observed over time [AI: P = .15; PP: P = .84; MF: P = .91]. When gender was considered, the AI of boys decreased with age [P = .02]. Boys also displayed a flatter MLA than girls at age 6.9 years [AI: mean difference = 0.02 (0.01, 0.04); P = .02]. At baseline, subjects who wore close-toe shoes displayed the lowest MLA overall [AI/PP/MF: P < .05]. Subjects who used slippers when commencing footwear use experienced higher PP than those who wore sandals [mean difference = 31.60 (1.44, 61.75) kPa; post-hoc P = .04]. Discussion and conclusion Our findings suggested that the MLA of children remained stable from 7 to 9 years old, while gender and the type of footwear worn during childhood may influence MLA development. Clinicians may choose to commence therapy when a child presents with painful flexible flat foot at age 7 years, and may discourage younger children from wearing slippers when they commence using footwear