‘Living in crisis’: Introduction to a special section

[Extract] This special section began to take shape sometime in mid-2020. Much of Australia was then in lockdown, we were working from home, national borders were closed, and it was looking increasingly likely that the annual conference for The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) would not go ahead. At the time, the spread of COVID-19 within Australia was very limited, especially compared to much of the rest of the world. Yet the pandemic had nonetheless brought unprecedented disruption to our everyday lives

An integrated life cycle costing database: a conceptual framework

Life cycle costing (LCC) is a management technique that has been available to the industry for some time, but despite this it continues to languish in obscurity. Some clients, most apparently from the public sector, are fostering the technique by commissioning studies based on the LCC appraisal techniques. However, the majority of building designs are still currently produced unsullied by thoughts of maintenance implications, life expectancy or energy consumption. Recent technological developments, particularly in Web, Virtual Reality (VR), and Object Oriented technologies and mathematical and computational modelling techniques will undoubtedly help in resolving some of the problems associated with life cycle costing techniques. This paper outlines a conceptual framework for an innovative system that facilitates the implementation of LCC in various design and occupancy stages. This system is being developed within an EPSRC-funded research project, undertaken through a joint collaboration between the Robert Gordon University and the University of Salford

Pigs hearts and human bodies: a cultural approach to xenotransplantation

Animals have a significant presence in human lives, with many human interactions involving animals. This role of animals in social life, however, has largely been ignored and marginalised. In the words of Tovey (197), "to read most sociological texts, one might never know that society is populated by non-human as well as human animals". Human-animal relations are evident in everyday human uses of animals as companions, pets, meat sources, and entertainment. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it does demonstrate how humans create and perpetuate systems of human/animal difference which are, at times, contradictory and ambivalent. There are no consistencies in how humans view and understand animal bodies. These differences matter, as they have serious consequences for how humans view and treat animals. It also has dire consequences for animals. While humans and animals are different species, we still live together, co-evolve, and create shared histories. We are, in the words of Haraway, companion species. This exposes that animals are not just nature, but culture

‘Living in crisis’: Introduction to a special section

[Extract] This special section began to take shape sometime in mid-2020. Much of Australia was then in lockdown, we were working from home, national borders were closed, and it was looking increasingly likely that the annual conference for The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) would not go ahead. At the time, the spread of COVID-19 within Australia was very limited, especially compared to much of the rest of the world. Yet the pandemic had nonetheless brought unprecedented disruption to our everyday lives

Dietary, bacterial, and host genetic interactions in the pathogenesis of transmissible murine colonic hyperplasia.

Transmissible murine colonic hyperplasia, cuased by a variant of Citrobacter freundii (4280). was shown to be modified by diet and by host strain and species. Four different diets fed to mice inoculated with C frundii 4280 were found to have a significant but varying influence on the severity of hyperplasia. Diet also influenced the colonic crypt height of uninoculated, control mice. F344 rats, Syrian hamsters, and NIH Swiss [N:(S)], C57BL/6J, C3H/HeJ, and DBA/2J mice were inoculated with C freundii 4280. Marked strain differences were noted in the mice in mortality and severity of the colonic hyperplasia. The NIH Swiss mice had the greatest and the C57BL/6J mice had the least mucosal hyperplasia. The rats and hamsters did not develop disease or maintain infection after inoculation with the organism. Twenty isolates of Citrobacter from a range of biologic sources were inoculated into susceptible mice, but only mice inoculated with C freundii 4280 developed the disease

Pathological changes during aging in barrier-reared Fischer 344 male rats.

Pathology, microbiology, and selected serum chemistries were evaluated in 144 male Fischer rats from 4 to 33 mo of age. The rats were reared and maintained under barrier conditions, which successfully excluded the introduction of major infectious disease agents throughout the entire study, including Mycoplasma pulmonis. A wide variety of pathology was found and tabulated, and many lesions were found to increase in severity and incidence with age. There was a high correlation of renal disease severity with increasing age, while alpha-1 globulin and cholesterol increased

The etiology of transmissible murine colonic hyperplasia.

The etiology of a transmissable colonic mucosal hyperplasia of mice was investigated. Hyperplasia was produced in mice inoculated with unfiltered colonic suspension from affected mice, but infectivity was lost after passage through a 0.45 mum filter. The etiologic agent was subsequently identified as a variant of Citrobacter freundii. The organism induced colonic mucosal hyperplasia when inoculated into germfree mice, and it was recovered in pure culture from the affected animals