“Fond and Frivolous Gestures”: A Blocking Workshop on Marlowe’s Tamburlaine

Since 2012, second-year English and Drama undergraduates at the University of Exeter have had the opportunity to take a course called “Theatrical Cultures”. This option introduces students to plays and entertainments that were popular between the 1580s and the 1640s, with a view to opening an understanding of the period that is deeply informed by theatre history. In this essay, we share and reflect on our teaching of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Parts One and Two, which examines the plays as productions by the Lord Admiral’s Men in the Rose playhouse. We start by explaining the learning context for the blocking workshop we use as a practical teaching method. We then share instructions for setting up the workshop and outline our “learning-by-doing” methodology, which involves placing the bodies of our students and the properties necessary to perform a scene within the dimensions of the first Rose stage. The intended learning outcomes of the workshop include a practical understanding of the affordances of the early modern playhouse and the ability to translate this understanding into a critical interpretation of Marlowe’s drama. As students deliver lines, wield swords and crowns, and try to imagine how a chariot navigates the stage space available, they recognise moments of potential bathos and physical comedy in the plays, hinting at those “fond and frivolous gestures” that Marlowe’s publisher, Richard Jones, sought to remove from the 1590 play-text. In the third section of the essay, we evaluate these insights and the workshop’s pedagogical value by sharing reflections by tutors and students who have participated in the blocking workshop

Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia (AMP® SCZ):Rationale and Study Design of the Largest Global Prospective Cohort Study of Clinical High Risk for Psychosis

This article describes the rationale, aims, and methodology of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia (AMP® SCZ). This is the largest international collaboration to date that will develop algorithms to predict trajectories and outcomes of individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis and to advance the development and use of novel pharmacological interventions for CHR individuals. We present a description of the participating research networks and the data processing analysis and coordination center, their processes for data harmonization across 43 sites from 13 participating countries (recruitment across North America, Australia, Europe, Asia, and South America), data flow and quality assessment processes, data analyses, and the transfer of data to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Data Archive (NDA) for use by the research community. In an expected sample of approximately 2000 CHR individuals and 640 matched healthy controls, AMP SCZ will collect clinical, environmental, and cognitive data along with multimodal biomarkers, including neuroimaging, electrophysiology, fluid biospecimens, speech and facial expression samples, novel measures derived from digital health technologies including smartphone-based daily surveys, and passive sensing as well as actigraphy. The study will investigate a range of clinical outcomes over a 2-year period, including transition to psychosis, remission or persistence of CHR status, attenuated positive symptoms, persistent negative symptoms, mood and anxiety symptoms, and psychosocial functioning. The global reach of AMP SCZ and its harmonized innovative methods promise to catalyze the development of new treatments to address critical unmet clinical and public health needs in CHR individuals.</p

Phenotypic expansion of CACNA1C-associated disorders to include isolated neurological manifestations

International audiencePurpose:CACNA1C encodes the alpha-1-subunit of a voltage-dependent L-type calcium channel expressed in human heart and brain. Heterozygous variants in CACNA1C have previously been reported in association with Timothy syndrome and long QT syndrome. Several case reports have suggested that CACNA1C variation may also be associated with a primarily neurological phenotype.Methods:We describe 25 individuals from 22 families with heterozygous variants in CACNA1C, who present with predominantly neurological manifestations.Results:Fourteen individuals have de novo, nontruncating variants and present variably with developmental delays, intellectual disability, autism, hypotonia, ataxia, and epilepsy. Functional studies of a subgroup of missense variants via patch clamp experiments demonstrated differential effects on channel function in vitro, including loss of function (p.Leu1408Val), neutral effect (p.Leu614Arg), and gain of function (p.Leu657Phe, p.Leu614Pro). The remaining 11 individuals from eight families have truncating variants in CACNA1C. The majority of these individuals have expressive language deficits, and half have autism.Conclusion:We expand the phenotype associated with CACNA1C variants to include neurodevelopmental abnormalities and epilepsy, in the absence of classic features of Timothy syndrome or long QT syndrome