102 research outputs found
Childcare, choice and social class: Caring for young children in the UK
This paper draws on the results of two qualitative research projects examining parental engagements with the childcare market in the UK. Both projects are located in the same two London localities. One project focuses on professional middle class parents, and the other on working class families, and we discuss the key importance of social class in shaping parents' differential engagement with the childcare market, and their understandings of the role childcare plays in their children's lives. We identify and discuss the different "circuits" of care (Ball et al 1995) available to and used by families living physically close to each other, but in social class terms living in different worlds. We also consider parents' relationships with carers, and their social networks. We conclude that in order to fully understand childcare policies and practices and families' experiences of care, an analysis which encompasses social class and the workings of the childcare market is needed
Women and higher education: perspectives of middle-class, mother-daughter dyads
This qualitative research explores women’s experiences of accessing higher education (HE) in England, through the mother–daughter relationship. Women’s pathways to university and their funding histories are presented from both past and recent generations, to contextualise an understanding of funding HE in light of the 2012 tuition fee increase. Interview data indicate that the middle-class mothers in this study continue to engage and mediate their social, cultural and economic capital to enhance their daughters’ education beyond secondary school and into the tertiary sector. Subsequently, social and educational mobility has been reproduced or transformed positively in all of the dyads. A Bourdieusian approach is used to explore the class-inflected patterns and themes between habitus, capital and field in the process of accessing HE. The advantage of mothers’ continuing support through the mobilisation of capitals, along with their suggestions of anxiety surrounding tuition fees exacerbate the possibility of the marginalisation of access to HE for those from more disadvantaged or less supported social backgrounds
Novel Patient Cell-Based HTS Assay for Identification of Small Molecules for a Lysosomal Storage Disease
Small molecules have been identified as potential therapeutic agents for lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs), inherited metabolic disorders caused by defects in proteins that result in lysosome dysfunctional. Some small molecules function assisting the folding of mutant misfolded lysosomal enzymes that are otherwise degraded in ER-associated degradation. The ultimate result is the enhancement of the residual enzymatic activity of the deficient enzyme. Most of the high throughput screening (HTS) assays developed to identify these molecules are single-target biochemical assays. Here we describe a cell-based assay using patient cell lines to identify small molecules that enhance the residual arylsulfatase A (ASA) activity found in patients with metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD), a progressive neurodegenerative LSD. In order to generate sufficient cell lines for a large scale HTS, primary cultured fibroblasts from MLD patients were transformed using SV40 large T antigen. These SV40 transformed (SV40t) cells showed to conserve biochemical characteristics of the primary cells. Using a specific colorimetric substrate para-nitrocatechol sulfate (pNCS), detectable ASA residual activity were observed in primary and SV40t fibroblasts from a MLD patient (ASA-I179S) cultured in multi-well plates. A robust fluorescence ASA assay was developed in high-density 1,536-well plates using the traditional colorimetric pNCS substrate, whose product (pNC) acts as “plate fluorescence quencher” in white solid-bottom plates. The quantitative cell-based HTS assay for ASA generated strong statistical parameters when tested against a diverse small molecule collection. This cell-based assay approach can be used for several other LSDs and genetic disorders, especially those that rely on colorimetric substrates which traditionally present low sensitivity for assay-miniaturization. In addition, the quantitative cell-based HTS assay here developed using patient cells creates an opportunity to identify therapeutic small molecules in a disease-cellular environment where potentially disrupted pathways are exposed and available as targets
Domestic knowledge, inequalities and differences
Research suggests that domestic knowledge is an expression of gender differences, which is constructed and deployed through unequal social relations, and is able to empower women if it gains collective spaces of expression. The article presents an analysis of parental involvement at school in Spain so as to underpin the former thesis and highlight its connection with the political theory about the "sexual contract"
Doing narrative research? Thinking through the narrative process
Across social science disciplines there has been a growth in narrative research—the so called ‘narrative turn’. This turn echoes broader shifts associated with more complex social worlds, epistemological challenges and feminist responses. Narrative research typically involves exploring individual, subjective experiences through interview-based research, but can also range across researching group and organisational dynamics to document-based analysis. In this chapter the question of what constitutes narrative research is explored and illuminated using data from a qualitative longitudinal study on transition to first-time motherhood. The importance of developing a theoretical rationale when choosing a narrative research approach, together with suggested ways of analysing data once collected, is noted. Researching individual accounts of subjective experience and transitions as a feminist researcher provides opportunities, but challenges too
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Comparing children's care work across majority and minority worlds
Comparative qualitative methodologies that investigate children's lives in sharply contrasting socio-economic, political and welfare contexts are relatively unusual. Yet within an increasingly interdependent globalised world, comparative research and dialogue across binaries seems ever more important. In this chapter, we critically reflect on global conceptualisations of young caregiving and discuss the methodological and ethical challenges that arose in our comparative study of children caring for a parent/relative living with HIV in Tanzania and the UK. We discuss the potential problems and benefits of using the term "young carer" and suggest that levels of support and recognition of children's caring roles in particular countries do not follow a simple Majority/Minority world binary, but rather reveal a more complex picture. We argue that developing global perspectives that work across geographical, linguistic and disciplinary boundaries can facilitate greater understanding of the commonalities and diversities of children's caring lives globally
Overview of cattle diseases listed under category C, D or E in the animal health law for wich control programmes are in place within Europe
13 páginas, 5 figuras, 3 tablas.The COST action “Standardising output-based surveillance to control non-regulated
diseases of cattle in the European Union (SOUND control),” aims to harmonise the results
of surveillance and control programmes (CPs) for non-EU regulated cattle diseases to
facilitate safe trade and improve overall control of cattle infectious diseases. In this paper
we aimed to provide an overview on the diversity of control for these diseases in Europe.
A non-EU regulated cattle disease was defined as an infectious disease of cattle with no
or limited control at EU level, which is not included in the European Union Animal health
law Categories A or B under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/2002.
A CP was defined as surveillance and/or intervention strategies designed to lower the
incidence, prevalence, mortality or prove freedom from a specific disease in a region
or country. Passive surveillance, and active surveillance of breeding bulls under Council
Directive 88/407/EEC were not considered as CPs. A questionnaire was designed to
obtain country-specific information about CPs for each disease. Animal health experts
from 33 European countries completed the questionnaire. Overall, there are 23 diseases
for which a CP exists in one or more of the countries studied. The diseases for which
CPs exist in the highest number of countries are enzootic bovine leukosis, bluetongue,
infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, bovine viral diarrhoea and anthrax (CPs reported by
between 16 and 31 countries). Every participating country has on average, 6 CPs
(min–max: 1–13) in place. Most programmes are implemented at a national level (86%)
and are applied to both dairy and non-dairy cattle (75%). Approximately one-third
of the CPs are voluntary, and the funding structure is divided between government
and private resources. Countries that have eradicated diseases like enzootic bovine
leukosis, bluetongue, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and bovine viral diarrhoea have
implemented CPs for other diseases to further improve the health status of cattle in their
country. The control of non-EU regulated cattle diseases is very heterogenous in Europe.
Therefore, the standardising of the outputs of these programmes to enable comparison
represents a challenge.Peer reviewe
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