The lumbar spine has an intrinsic shape specific to each individual that remains a characteristic throughout flexion and extension

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Making Integral: Critical essays on Richard Murphy

Richard Murphy frequently treated himself as a literary footnote, a mode of literary self-reproach that presumed a minor status. Renowned in the 1960s and 1970s for poems set in the West of Ireland and the history of the island, Murphy remained, if not prolific, then persistent: reviewing, writing, travelling, and publishing his acclaimed autobiography, The Kick, in 2002. Benjamin Keatinge's collection Making Integral provides a timely account of a poet frequently sidelined in studies of Irish poetry. Yet Murphy's inclusion in the controversial Cambridge Companion to Irish Poets suggests that the renewal of interest in his work preceded his death in 2019. If Irish poetry and its critical coteries have, historically, seemed a notoriously male affair rivetted by the national question, Making Integral contributes to the rethinking of ‘Irish poetry’ beyond the confines of the nation-state. Keatinge's achievement is to bring together a representative set of criticism alongside a comprehensive bibliography which should introduce Murphy's work to wider audiences and catalyse further study. In our turbulent present, as the centenary of Ireland's partition coincides with Brexit's threat of a hard border, and as the flammable rhetoric of ethno-national and racial politics catches across these islands, Richard Murphy's preoccupation with the discredited ‘hypocrisies of the British imperial project’ is deeply relevant

Men, Women, and Not Quite Non-Persons: Derivatization in Roxana

This article argues that Roxana exemplifies a peculiarly modern mode of “derivatization”: a form of “ontological reductionism” articulated by Ann J. Cahill in which individuals are diminished to “the reflection, projection, or expression of another being’s identity, drives, fears [...] reducible in all ways to the derivatizing subject’s existence”. The essay analyses the novel’s representation of secondary characters’ stunted subjectivities and the protagonist’s exploitation of their body, agency, and consent. Reading the sexual assault on Amy as an example of Roxana’s pleasure in overriding subjective autonomy and a violent expression of her “separated capacity”, the article shows how the novel explores the social and subjective self-harm of such instrumental approaches. The article suggests that not only does derivatization characterize all of Roxana’s relations, including those with men, but that its ethical harms are also the ultimate cause of her tragically reduced selfhood

The Man of feeling as dupe of desire: John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Coxcomb (1751)

This essay analyses John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Coxcomb (1751), his idiosyncratic sequel to the more famous Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749). As Kathleen Lubey has recently shown, sensuality was part of literature’s repertoire of moral refinement. Indeed, Lubey has argued that erotica acts as ‘a continuous unfolding of epistemology from the details of amorous scenes’, providing a key means of understanding the self and its relation to the world. Yet despite its amorous plot, Memoirs of a Coxcomb emphasises the limits of sensory knowledge. The novel’s comically inadequate narrator is a ‘Dupe of his desires’: a man misled by feeling. Reading Coxcomb as a transmutation of mid-eighteenth-century ‘it-narratives’, this essay argues that rather than constituting and exercising virile autonomy, sexual passion potentially renders the male subject a mere puppet subjected to the mechanistic demands of feeling. Demonstrating a skeptical approach to the role of the body and sensation in the production of knowledge, the novel also provides an intriguing example of its author’s theory of fiction and an exploration of the fate of the author in commodity culture. Challenging the positivist claims of empiricism, the novel’s derisive depiction of the pell-mell of lust illuminates the compulsive self-abnegation of desire, and demonstrates the difficulty of parsing an idea of the self and the world from a deluge of sensory data. Cleland’s novel thus presents sensuality not as a laboratory of masculine self-fashioning, but as an intractable problem for self-knowledge and understanding

Variation in lifting kinematics related to individual intrinsic lumbar curvature:An investigation in healthy adults

Objective Lifting postures are frequently implicated in back pain. We previously related responses to a static load with intrinsic spine shape, and here we investigate the role of lumbar spine shape in lifting kinematics. Methods Thirty healthy adults (18-65 years) performed freestyle, stoop and squat lifts with a weighted box (6-15 kg, self-selected) while being recorded by Vicon motion capture. Internal spine shape was characterised using statistical shape modelling (SSM) from standing mid-sagittal MRIs. Associations were investigated between spine shapes quantified by SSM and peak flexion angles. Results Two SSM modes described variations in overall lumbar curvature (mode 1 (M1), 55% variance) and the evenness of curvature distribution (mode 2 (M2), 12% variance). M1 was associated with greater peak pelvis (r=0.38, p=0.04) and smaller knee flexion (r=-0.40, p=0.03) angles; individuals with greater curviness preferred to lift with a stooped lifting posture. This was confirmed by analysis of those individuals with very curvy or very straight spines (|M1|&gt;1 SD). There were no associations between peak flexion angles and mode scores in stoop or squat trials (p&gt;0.05). Peak flexion angles were positively correlated between freestyle and squat trials but not between freestyle and stoop or squat and stoop, indicating that individuals adjusted knee flexion while maintaining their preferred range of lumbar flexion and that 'squatters' adapted better to different techniques than 'stoopers'. Conclusion Spinal curvature affects preferred lifting styles, and individuals with curvier spines adapt more easily to different lifting techniques. Lifting tasks may need to be tailored to an individual's lumbar spine shape.</p

Significant morphological change in osteoarthritic hips identified over 6-12 months using Statistical Shape Modelling

Acknowledgements We are grateful to all the study participants. We thank Lana Gibson and Jennifer Scott for their expertise with the iDXA scanner as well as iDXA precision data. Funding source This study was supported by an award (Ref: WHMSB_AU068/071) from the Translational Medicine Research Collaboration – a consortium made up of the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the four associated NHS Health Boards (Grampian, Tayside, Lothian and Greater Glasgow & Clyde), Scottish Enterprise and initially Wyeth, now Pfizer. The funder had no involvement in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Dr J.S. Gregory was the holder of an MRC New Investigator award (Ref: G0901242).Peer reviewedPostprin

The Role of Accounting in the Financial Crisis: Lessons for the Future

The advent of the Great Recession in 2008 was the culmination of a perfect storm of lax regulation, a growing housing bubble, rising popularity of derivatives instruments, and questionable banking practices. In addition to these causes, management incentives as well as certain U.S. accounting standards contributed to the financial crisis. We outline the significant effects of these incentive structures and the role of fair value accounting standards during the crisis, and discuss implications and relevance of these rules to practitioners, standard-setters, and academics

Reproducibility and Diagnostic Accuracy of Kellgren-Lawrence Grading for Osteoarthritis Using Radiographs and Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry Images

Copyright © 2014 The International Society for Clinical Densitometry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. The authors would like to thank all the study volunteers, radiographers Lana Gibson and Jennifer Scott as well as Carol McKerron for administrative support. The acquisition of scans was supported in part by an award (Ref: WHMSB_AU_068_071) from the Translational Medicine Research Initiative - a consortium made up of the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the four associated NHS Health Boards (Grampian, Tayside, Lothian and Greater Glasgow & Clyde), Scottish Enterprise and Pfizer. Kanako Yoshida is funded by the Grampian Osteoporosis Trust (GOT). Jennifer Gregory is supported by the Medical Research Council [G0901242].Peer reviewedPostprin

A historical and proteomic analysis of botulinum neurotoxin type/G

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Clostridium botulinum </it>is the taxonomic designation for at least six diverse species that produce botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs). There are seven known serotypes of BoNTs (/A through/G), all of which are potent toxins classified as category A bioterrorism agents. BoNT/G is the least studied of the seven serotypes. In an effort to further characterize the holotoxin and neurotoxin-associated proteins (NAPs), we conducted an <it>in silico </it>and proteomic analysis of commercial BoNT/G complex. We describe the relative quantification of the proteins present in the/G complex and confirm our ability to detect the toxin activity <it>in vitro</it>. In addition, we review previous literature to provide a complete description of the BoNT/G complex.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>An in-depth comparison of protein sequences indicated that BoNT/G shares the most sequence similarity with the/B serotype. A temperature-modified Endopep-MS activity assay was successful in the detection of BoNT/G activity. Gel electrophoresis and in gel digestions, followed by MS/MS analysis of/G complex, revealed the presence of four proteins in the complexes: neurotoxin (BoNT) and three NAPs--nontoxic-nonhemagglutinin (NTNH) and two hemagglutinins (HA70 and HA17). Rapid high-temperature in-solution tryptic digestions, coupled with MS/MS analysis, generated higher than previously reported sequence coverages for all proteins associated with the complex: BoNT 66%, NTNH 57%, HA70 91%, and HA17 99%. Label-free relative quantification determined that the complex contains 30% BoNT, 38% NTNH, 28% HA70, and 4% HA17 by weight comparison and 17% BoNT, 23% NTNH, 42% HA70, and 17% HA17 by molecular comparison.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The <it>in silico </it>protein sequence comparisons established that the/G complex is phenetically related to the other six serotypes of <it>C. botulinum</it>. Proteomic analyses and Endopep-MS confirmed the presence of BoNT and NAPs, along with the activity of the commercial/G complex. The use of data-independent MS^Edata analysis, coupled to label-free quantification software, suggested that the weight ratio BoNT:NAPs is 1:3, whereas the molar ratio of BoNT:NTNH:HA70:HA17 is 1:1:2:1, within the BoNT/G progenitor toxin.</p

eB4CAST: An Evidence-Based Tool to Promote Dissemination and Implementation in Community-Based, Public Health Research

eB4CAST, evidence-Based forecast C-capture, A-assemble, S-sustain, T-timelessness (eB4CAST), framework was developed from existing dissemination and implementation (D & I) constructs as a dissemination tool to promote community-based program usability and future application in targeted populations. eB4CAST captures and transforms research findings into a dissemination report that shows program need and impact to endorse program continuation and expansion. This is achieved through direct and indirect data collection of community factors and program impact that can showcase the need for program sustainability and potential for future dissemination sites. Testimonials, individual feedback, and program process and outcomes contribute to the direct data while data collected from census, county, and state databases and reports allow for indirect information to be captured and analyzed. Capturing data in the two levels allow eB4CAST to forecast program need and highlight program impact through a footprint. eB4CAST framework for dissemination tool creation is organized into four sections: Capture, Assemble, Sustainability, and Timelessness. Capture encompasses the collection of indirect and direct data related to intervention goals. Assemble is the compilation of the data into a visually appealing and easily understood media. Sustainability encourages the use of dissemination tools to provide forecast of program need and footprint of program impact back to community participants, program leaders, and key stakeholders to endorse program sustainability. Lastly, timelessness encourages cyclic movement through these constructs to continue program monitoring and data sharing to ensure timeless program evaluation and conformation to change in needs. The eB4CAST framework provides a systematic method to capture justification of program need and impact of community-based research that can be modified to fit diverse public health interventions providing a necessary D & I tool