Teaching YA Cancer Narratives: The Fault in Our Stars and Issues with Voicing Illness

Increasingly publishers are promoting illness as a commodifiable literary product. There is now a wide range of autobiographical and fictional texts that explore life-threatening illnesses from the embodied perspective of protagonists. This trend is also evidenced in the content of young adult literature where concepts of the diseased self, agency and mortality are explored. The aim of this paper is to provide some background context on illness narratives and offer a close reading of the young adult text, The Fault in our Stars by John Green, in order to highlight important issues such as the accurate and realistic portrayal of cancer, particularly in the lived experience of adolescent readers. It is anticipated that this discussion will allow classroom teachers to engage more fully in conversations about text selection and content, and the ways in which literature can advance realistic representation of illness that previously have been culturally taboo

Swimming in a Sea of Hypocrisy?: The Ethical Ambiguity of David Rieff\u27s Memoir

When noted intellectual Susan Sontag died from myelodysplastic syndrome in 2004 aspects of her illness trajectory and death were captured and curated by photographer Annie Leibovitz. The harrowing photographs of Sontag’s diseased body – and later her corpse laid out in a New York mortuary – were included in travelling global exhibitions and were further commodified in Leibovitz’s book which she titled A Photographer’s Life. The historical events of Sontag’s illness and death were therefore (re)written and (re)presented in a way that involved commercial gain. Sontag’s son, the journalist David Rieff, registered his contempt for the perceived exploitation/unmaking of his mother in a number of media interviews, and most tellingly he recorded and referenced it in his own memoir Swimming in a Sea of Death. However, some critics have questioned Rieff’s own integrity, suggesting that rather than serving as a respectful ‘tribute’ or commemoration of his mother, aspects of his textual portrait may also be read as acts of ‘posthumous humiliation’. This paper explores how Rieff, while rightly questioning Leibovitz’s violation of his mother’s privacy, could be said to have added to that humiliation by the further exploitation of Sontag’s fame and by his revelation of aspects of her final illness that she may not have wanted to share

History: The San and Its Mission

This book is a re-telling of the story of the mission of the Sydney Adventist Hospital - even today still known fondly to many as the San - based on the many stories and vignettes shared by people, and about people, who lived the San\u27s mission, contributing to a hospital that has had an impact on many lives.This is not a chronological and systematic historical narrative, but it uses the motivation and inspiration of individuals and events to illustrate how the mission of the hospital has been fulfilled through its healing and restorative ministry since 1903. It also illustrates how mission inspired individuals, decisions, strategies and the pioneering work that remains the hallmark of the San

Polymorphisms in Cyclooxygenase, Lipoxygenase and TP53 genes predict colorectal polyp risk reduction by aspirin in the seAFOod polyp prevention trial

YesAspirin and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) reduce colorectal adenomatous polyp risk and affect synthesis of oxylipins including prostaglandin E2. We investigated whether 35 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in oxylipin metabolism genes such as cyclooxygenase [PTGS] and lipoxygenase [ALOX], as well as 7 SNPs already associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk reduction by aspirin (eg. TP53; rs104522), modified the effects of aspirin and EPA on colorectal polyp recurrence in the randomised 2x2 factorial seAFOod trial. Treatment effects were reported as the incidence rate ratio (IRR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) by stratifying negative binomial and Poisson regression analyses of colorectal polyp risk on SNP genotype. Statistical significance was reported with adjustment for the false discovery rate as the P and q value. Five hundred and forty-two (of 707) trial participants had both genotype and colonoscopy outcome data. Reduction in colorectal polyp risk in aspirin users compared with non-aspirin users was restricted to rs4837960 (PTGS1) common homozygotes (IRR 0.69 [95%CI 0.53,0.90]; q=0.06), rs2745557 (PTGS2) compound heterozygote-rare homozygotes (IRR 0.60 [0.41,0.88]; q=0.06), rs7090328 (ALOX5) rare homozygotes (IRR 0.27 [0.11,0.64]; q=0.05), rs2073438 (ALOX12) common homozygotes (IRR 0.57 [0.41,0.80]; q=0.05), and rs104522 (TP53) rare homozygotes (IRR 0.37 [0.17,0.79]; q=0.06). No modification of colorectal polyp risk in EPA users was observed. In conclusion, genetic variants relevant to the proposed mechanism of action on oxylipins are associated with differential colorectal polyp risk reduction by aspirin in individuals who develop multiple colorectal polyps. SNP genotypes should be considered during development of personalised, predictive models of CRC chemoprevention by aspirin.Funder(s): Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation Programme (EME) Award Id(s): NIHR128210. Funder(s): NIHR Senior Investigator grant. Funder(s): Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Award Id(s): C23434/A24939. Funder(s): European Union-BBSRC (UK) Award Id(s): BB/P028233/1

Chemical intervention in plant sugar signalling increases yield and resilience

The pressing global issue of food insecurity due to population growth, diminishing land and variable climate can only be addressed in agriculture by improving both maximum crop yield potential and resilience. Genetic modification is one potential solution, but has yet to achieve worldwide acceptance, particularly for crops such as wheat. Trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P), a central sugar signal in plants, regulates sucrose use and allocation, underpinning crop growth and development. Here we show that application of a chemical intervention strategy directly modulates T6P levels in planta. Plant-permeable analogues of T6P were designed and constructed based on a ‘signalling-precursor’ concept for permeability, ready uptake and sunlight-triggered release of T6P in planta. We show that chemical intervention in a potent sugar signal increases grain yield, whereas application to vegetative tissue improves recovery and resurrection from drought. This technology offers a means to combine increases in yield with crop stress resilience. Given the generality of the T6P pathway in plants and other small-molecule signals in biology, these studies suggest that suitable synthetic exogenous small-molecule signal precursors can be used to directly enhance plant performance and perhaps other organism function

Teaching YA Cancer Narratives: The Fault in Our Stars and Issues with Voicing Illness

Increasingly publishers are promoting illness as a commodifiable literary product. There is now a wide range of autobiographical and fictional texts that explore life-threatening illnesses from the embodied perspective of protagonists. This trend is also evidenced in the content of young adult literature where concepts of the diseased self, agency and mortality are explored. The aim of this paper is to provide some background context on illness narratives and offer a close reading of the young adult text, The Fault in our Stars by John Green, in order to highlight important issues such as the accurate and realistic portrayal of cancer, particularly in the lived experience of adolescent readers. It is anticipated that this discussion will allow classroom teachers to engage more fully in conversations about text selection and content, and the ways in which literature can advance realistic representation of illness that previously have been culturally taboo