"Bravely and Loyally They Answered the Call": St. John Ambulance, the Red Cross, and the Patriotic Service of Canadian Women During the Great War

During the Great War (1914-1918), thousands of middle-class Canadian women temporarily redirected their activist, feminist energies towards patriotic war relief under the patriarchal constraints of the Canadian Red Cross and St. John Ambulance. Authorized under the authority of the National Relief Committee to oversee all military medical relief efforts, these two male-directed service agencies successfully engaged the emotional commitment and physical energies of a significant segment of Canadian women by employing a gendered patriotic rhetoric encompassing both the maternal ideology of the early women's movement and the militarist spirit of the era. This paper considers the largely unheralded role of civilian women's essential unpaid support for Canada's war effort as an active, emotional, and political undertaking, consciously exploiting traditional nurturant and feminine ideologies to validate their role as maternal patriots. In examining both the print and visual representations of Canadian women as voluntary nurses and Red Cross workers, the paper explores the contradictions between patriotism, feminism, and maternalism. Challenging traditional interpretations of war as a solely masculine endeavour, it recognizes the value of women's unpaid labour to the state, and women's inherent satisfaction in their active, if non-combatant involvement

Book Review: Canadian and American Women: Moving from Private to Public Experiences in the Atlantic World

Review of Canadian and American Women: Moving from Private to Public Experiences in the Atlantic World, edited by Valeria Gennara Lerda and Roberto Maccarin

Borrowed Halos: Canadian Teachers as Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurses during the Great War

Teaching and nursing were frequent career choices for unmarried, middle-class women in the Great War era, but only nurses were eligible for active service in Canadian military hospitals overseas. Teachers were expected to remain at home, volunteering for patriotic projects like other women. This role proved too passive for some, who relinquished their careers to become, temporarily, Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses (VADs); many served in British military hospitals overseas. The history of this unique group offers new insights into societal expectations for Canadian women’s professional work in the early twentieth century. The transformation of teachers into nurses during the crisis of war was legitimized by the substitution of gender and class attributes for specialized training, allowing women teachers the otherwise unattainable opportunity for active service abroad. Their experience raises important issues regarding the meaning of “professional identity” in traditional women’s occupations, and professional development later in the century.L’enseignement et le soin des malades étaient les principales carrières que choisissaient les femmes célibataires de la classe moyenne à l’époque de la Grande Guerre mais, seules les infirmières étaient éligibles au service actif, accompli au sein des hôpitaux militaires outre-mer. On s’attendait à ce que les institutrices restent à la maison et, comme les autres femmes, se portent volontaires pour des projets patriotiques. Ce rôle s’avérait trop passif pour certaines, qui renoncèrent à leurs carrières pour former, temporairement, un corps d’aidesinfirmières volontaires; plusieurs servirent outre-mer dans les hôpitaux militaires britanniques. L’histoire de ce groupe particulier permet de découvrir de nouvelles facettes des attentes sociales à l’égard du travail professionnel des femmes canadiennes au début du XXe siècle. La transformation des institutrices en infirmières durant la guerre était légitimée par le remplacement des qualités de genre et de classe pour permettre la formation spécialisée, offrant aux institutrices une occasion autrement inaccessible d’accomplir un service actif outre-mer. Leur expérience soulève d’importantes questions sur la signification de l’identité professionnelle des occupations féminines traditionnelles et du développement professionnel qui survint après la guerre

“Sharing the Halo”: Social and Professional Tensions in the Work of World War I Canadian Volunteer Nurses

The experience of some 500 Canadian and Newfoundland women who served overseas as Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurses during the Great War has been eclipsed by the British record. Sent as auxiliary assistants to trained nurses in the military hospitals, Canadian VADs confronted a complex mix of emotional, physical, and intellectual challenges, including their “colonial” status. As casually trained, inexperienced amateurs in an unfamiliar, highly structured hospital culture, they were often resented by the overworked and undervalued trained nurses, whose struggle for professional recognition was necessarily abandoned during the crisis of war. The frequently intimate physical needs of critically ill soldiers also demanded a rationalisation of the VAD's role as “nurse” within a maternalist framework that eased social tensions for both VAD and patient. As volunteers assisting paid practitioners, the Canadian VAD experience offers new insights into a critical era of women's developing professional identities.L'expérience de quelque 500 femmes canadiennes et terre-neuviennes qui, pendant la Grande Guerre, ont servi outre-mer en tant qu 'auxiliaires volontaires, a été oblitérée dans les registres britanniques. Envoyées dans les hôpitaux militaires comme assistantes des infirmières diplômées, les auxiliaires volontaires canadiennes étaient placées devant des défis d'ordre émotif, physique et intellectuel, auxquels leur statut de ressortissantes d'une colonie n'était pas étranger. Sommairement formées, et inexpérimentées dans un milieu hospitalier très structuré, elles subissaient souvent le ressentiment des infirmières diplômées surmenées et sous-estimées, dont la lutte pour la reconnaissance professionnelle avait été mise en veilleuse par la guerre. Les besoins physiques souvent intimes de soldats très malades exigeaient la rationalisation de leur rôle d'« infirmières » dans un contexte de maternage qui désamorçait les tensions sociales entre elles et les patients. En tant que bénévoles qui aidaient des professionnelles rémunérées, les auxiliaires volontaires canadiennes ont vécu une expérience qui jette un nouvel éclairage sur une époque qui a été critique pour l'acquisition d'une identité professionnelle par les femmes

Early Postoperative Death in Patients Undergoing Emergency High-Risk Surgery:Towards a Better Understanding of Patients for Whom Surgery May Not Be Beneficial

The timing, causes, and quality of care for patients who die after emergency laparotomy have not been extensively reported. A large database of 13,953 patients undergoing emergency laparotomy, between July 2014 and March 2017, from 28 hospitals in England was studied. Anonymized data was extracted on day of death, patient demographics, operative details, compliance with standards of care, and 30-day and in-patient mortality. Thirty-day mortality was 8.9%, and overall inpatient mortality was 9.8%. Almost 40% of postoperative deaths occurred within three days of surgery, and 70% of these early deaths occurred on the day of surgery or the first postoperative day. Such early deaths could be considered nonbeneficial surgery. Patients who died within three days of surgery had a significantly higher preoperative lactate, American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status (ASA-PS) grade, and Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the enumeration of Mortality and morbidity (P-POSSUM). Compliance with perioperative standards of care based on the Emergency Laparotomy Collaborative care bundle was high overall and better for those patients who died within three days of surgery. Multidisciplinary team involvement from intensive care, care of the elderly physicians, and palliative care may help both the communication and the burden of responsibility in deciding on the risk–benefit of operative versus nonoperative approaches to care

Veiled Concerns : Social and Professional Tensions of Voluntary Aid Detachments and Military Nurses during the 1st World War

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the UBC School of Nursing and the Consortium for Nursing History Inquiry. With only a brief training and minimal hospital experience, the VADs entered the unfamiliar world of the military hospital to work alongside the qualified Canadian military nurses at home, and British military nurses overseas, performing tasks that ranged from scrubbing floors and cleaning bedpans, to applying dressings and foments, and even assisting in the operating theatres. In this discussion Linda Quiney examines the boundaries that defined the VADs’ place at the bedside, the contested space of the wartime hospital wards, and the challenges they presented to the authority of the nursing professionals.Applied Science, Faculty ofArts, Faculty ofHistory, Department ofNursing, School ofUnreviewedFacultyResearche

Thrombospondin-1 Mimetic Agonist Peptides Induce Selective Death in Tumor Cells: Design, Synthesis, and Structure–Activity Relationship Studies

International audienceAbstract ImageThrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) is a glycoprotein considered as a key actor within the tumor microenvironment. Its binding to CD47, a cell surface receptor, triggers programmed cell death. Previous studies allowed the identification of 4N1K decapeptide derived from the TSP-1/CD47 binding epitope. Here, we demonstrate that this peptide is able to induce selective apoptosis of various cancer cell lines while sparing normal cells. A structure–activity relationship study led to the design of the first serum stable TSP-1 mimetic agonist peptide able to trigger selective programmed cell death (PCD) of at least lung, breast, and colorectal cancer cells. Altogether, these results will be of valuable interest for further investigation in the design of potent CD47 agonist peptides, opening new perspectives for the development of original anticancer therapies

PKHB1 treatment results in sustained Ca²⁺ mobilization that induces mitochondrial damage and PCD in CLL cells.

<p>(A) Representative Ca²⁺ mobilization recorded in 200-μM PKHB1-treated normal (left) and CLL (right) B cells (<i>n</i> = 4 each). Ionomycin (Iono, 1 μM) was utilized as a control to show the maximum response. The histograms show mean ± SD of the area under the curve (AUC) (in arbitrary units [A.U.]) (<i>n</i> = 12). (B) Representative Ca²⁺ release from internal stores was visualized in PKHB1-treated normal (left) and CLL (right) B cells (<i>n</i> = 4 each) in Ca²⁺-free medium (plus 5 mM BAPTA). Histograms represent mean ± SD of the area under the curve (<i>n</i> = 13). (C) Representative Ca²⁺ mobilization curves were recorded in CLL cells after treatment with different concentrations of PKHB1. Ionomycin (1 μM) was used as a control to show the maximum response. (D) The loss of ΔΨ_m induced by PKHB1 (200 μM, 2 h) was measured in CLL cells pre-incubated with vehicle (−) or the mitochondrial Ca²⁺ uniporter inhibitor Ru360 (+). Representative cytofluorometric plots are shown. The percentages refer to cells with low ΔΨ_m. The data from eight patients are presented in a plot as mean ± SD. The Mann-Whitney test was used in (A) and (B) and the <i>t</i>-test in (D).</p

PLCγ1 is over-expressed in CLL cells.

<p>(A) <i>PLCG1</i> mRNA levels were determined in normal (<i>n</i> = 11) and CLL (<i>n</i> = 50) B cells. The numbers refer to mean <i>PLCG1</i> transcript expression. <i>GUSB</i> mRNA expression was used to normalize the data. (B) PLCγ1 was detected by immunoblot analysis in normal and CLL B lymphocytes. Equal loading was confirmed by α-tubulin detection. The optical density (OD) ratio represents the difference in protein expression. The plot depicts mean ± SD (<i>n</i> = 3 independent blots). (C) Left: <i>PLCG1</i> mRNA levels measured in the normal and leukemic B cells used in (A) are shown by the clinical Binet stage of the CLL patients. The numbers refer to mean <i>PLCG1</i> mRNA expression. Right: <i>PLCG1</i> mRNA levels measured in patients #48 and #50 at different times. In 2010, both CLL patients were classified as having Binet Stage A, and in 2012 as having Binet Stage B/C. Note that the <i>PLCG1</i> mRNA levels measured in these patients correlate with CLL progression. <i>GUSB</i> mRNA expression was used to normalize the data. The <i>t</i>-test was used in (A) and (C), and the Mann-Whitney test was used in (B).</p

Transcript expression levels of Ca^<b>2+</b>-related signaling molecules.

<p>Quantitative RT-PCR was performed on B cells from 11 healthy donors and 50 representative CLL patients (Binet Stage A, <i>n</i> = 30; Binet Stage B/C, <i>n</i> = 20; five samples with dysfunctional <i>TP53</i>). Expression values indicate the mean value obtained for transcripts in CLL cells related to the mean value obtained for the same transcripts in normal B lymphocytes. Data were analyzed using the comparative threshold cycle method. The amount of cDNA measured is normalized to the endogenous references <i>GUSB</i> or <i>ABL</i> (see <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001796#sec010" target="_blank">Methods</a> for gene details). <i>PLCG1</i> is given in bold.</p><p>Transcript expression levels of Ca^<b>2+</b>-related signaling molecules.</p