“This Is How to Make a Good Medicine to Throw Away a Child Before It Even Becomes a Child”: The Maternal Voice in Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” and the Politics of Nature and Knowing in the Caribbean

This article argues that Jamaica Kinkaid’s short prose piece “Girl” (1978)—sometimes referred to as a poem, sometimes a short story—merits a rereading based on the politics of contraception and natural knowledge in the Caribbean. In sparse and delicate prose, Kincaid manages to reflect on the historical ability of women to be both creative and practical in managing the relationship between their bodies and the natural world. A central theme of the story is the often-overlooked disappearance of particular forms of knowledge in particular places. The story is also about how human knowledge can arise from necessity and can provide individuals and communities with both power and agency. One of the key lessons in the story links Kincaid’s characters to the Caribbean practice of resisting gender norms and colonialism through the use of plant-based abortifacients

Using air quality monitoring to reduce second-hand smoke exposure in homes : the AFRESH feasibility study

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council’s Public Health Intervention Development scheme. The research team would like to thank Christine Foster and the staff and volunteers of Healthy Valleys, Lanarkshire, for their support in carrying out this work, and Beverley Scheepers and Joanne Buchan of ASH Scotland for their assistance in developing training material. FUNDING Medical Research Council PHIND Grant MR/M026159/1.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

General practice views of managing childhood obesity in primary care: a qualitative analysis:managing childhood obesity in primary care

Objective: To explore general practice staff views of managing childhood obesity in primary care. Design: A qualitative study to elicit the views of clinical and non-clinical general practice staff on managing childhood obesity. Setting: Interviews were conducted at 30 general practices across England. These practices were interviewed as part of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) Pilot Study. Participants: A total of 52 staff from 30 practices took part in a semi structured interview. Main outcome measures: Key themes were identified through thematic analysis of transcripts using an inductive approach. Results: Three themes were identified: lack of contact with well children, sensitivity of the issue, and the potential impact of general practice. Identifying overweight children was challenging because well children rarely attended the practice. Interviewees felt ill equipped to solve the issue because they lacked influence over the environmental, economic and lifestyle factors underpinning obesity. They described little evidence to support general 4 practice intervention and seemed unaware of other services. Raising the issue was described as sensitive. Conclusion: General practice staff were unconvinced they could have a significant role in managing childhood obesity on a large scale. Participants believed schools have more contact with children and should coordinate the identification and management of overweight children. Future policy could recommend a minor role for general practice involving opportunistically identifying overweight children and signposting to obesity services

Stigma and Smoking in the Home:Parents' Accounts of Using Nicotine Replacement Therapy to Protect Their Children from Second-Hand Smoke

Evidence and campaigns highlighting smoking and secondhand smoke risks have significantly reduced smoking prevalence and denormalised smoking in the home in Scotland. However, smoking prevalence remains disproportionally high in socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. Using stigma as a theoretical lens, this article presents a thematic analysis of parents' accounts of attempting to abstain from smoking at home, using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), in disadvantaged areas of Edinburgh and the Lothians. Smoking stigma, particularly self-stigma, underpinned accounts, with two overarching themes: interplaying barriers and enablers for creation of a smoke-free home and reconceptualisation of the study as an opportunity to quit smoking. Personal motivation to abstain or stop smoking empowered participants to reduce or quit smoking to resist stigma. For those struggling to believe in their ability to stop smoking, stigma led to negative self-labelling. Previously hidden smoking in the home gradually emerged in accounts, suggesting that parents may fear disclosure of smoking in the home in societies where smoking stigma exists. This study suggests that stigma may act both as an enabler and barrier in this group. Reductions in smoking in the home were dependent on self-efficacy and motivations to abstain, and stigma was entwined in these beliefs

Exploiting synthetic lethality in ovarian cancer

PhD ThesisThe term ovarian cancer describes a set of distinct and heterogeneous diseases with an overall poor prognosis. Standard treatment strategies are limited and new novel therapies targeting the molecular pathways dysregulated in ovarian cancer are being explored with a goal of personalising provision of treatment, based upon accurate biomarker testing. There are two major challenges if progress is to continue with a measureable clinical impact. Firstly, the mechanism of action of emerging therapies must be understood with reliable biomarkers capable of accurately predicting response to therapy. Secondly, for biomarkers to be useful in their accurate prediction of response, a thorough understanding of how to test a patient is needed. As our understanding of inter- and intra-tumour heterogeneity grows, the ability to test a single sample of tumour that is representative becomes more challenging and it is likely that new clinical strategies for testing multiple areas of the same tumour, at multiple time points, are required if our understanding of tumour biology is to translate into survival benefit for patients. Detection and subsequent testing of circulating tumour cells may offer the ability to test cells representative of the entire tumour without the need for invasive testing but a clear understanding of the consequences of intra-tumoural heterogeneity is needed. This PhD aimed to address these challenges by firstly exploring the potential role of sapacitabine, a novel oral nucleoside analogue, for the treatment of ovarian cancer alongside the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor rucaparib and platinum. Homologous recombination DNA repair functional status has been explored as a biomarker for their stratified use. Additionally, this project aimed to explore the feasibility of detecting circulating tumour cells in ovarian cancer using ImageStream technology, which combines flow cytometry with high resolution immunofluorescent microscopy.NGOC, Clovis and Cyclace