‘Bordering’ Life: denying the right to live before being born

This study pushes the boundaries of the border thinking discourse to examine grassroots perceptions of foeticide together with how women are valued in a society that is underpinned by preference for a male child. Using a bordering conceptual framework, the paper re-visits the female positionality within epistemic locations of culture and societal values in both colonial and the modern Indian context. Grounded in primary research in the state of Haryana that exhibits lowest female to male ratio at birth in the country, the analyses indicate rigid or at best sluggish movements in social norms as the key driver for India’s declining sex ratio. The border thinking discourse further enables to situate the different aspects of female positionality and gender perceptions in the society into the specific domains of the bordering conceptual framework. This offers a novel approach to engage with social norms that border life and opportunities for females in the society

Need for recovery amongst emergency physicians in the UK and Ireland: A cross-sectional survey

OBJECTIVES: To determine the need for recovery (NFR) among emergency physicians and to identify demographic and occupational characteristics associated with higher NFR scores. DESIGN: Cross-sectional electronic survey. SETTING: Emergency departments (EDs) (n=112) in the UK and Ireland. PARTICIPANTS: Emergency physicians, defined as any registered physician working principally within the ED, responding between June and July 2019. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: NFR Scale, an 11-item self-administered questionnaire that assesses how work demands affect intershift recovery. RESULTS: The median NFR Score for all 4247 eligible, consented participants with a valid NFR Score was 70.0 (95% CI: 65.5 to 74.5), with an IQR of 45.5-90.0. A linear regression model indicated statistically significant associations between gender, health conditions, type of ED, clinical grade, access to annual and study leave, and time spent working out-of-hours. Groups including male physicians, consultants, general practitioners (GPs) within the ED, those working in paediatric EDs and those with no long-term health condition or disability had a lower NFR Score. After adjusting for these characteristics, the NFR Score increased by 3.7 (95% CI: 0.3 to 7.1) and 6.43 (95% CI: 2.0 to 10.8) for those with difficulty accessing annual and study leave, respectively. Increased percentage of out-of-hours work increased NFR Score almost linearly: 26%-50% out-of-hours work=5.7 (95% CI: 3.1 to 8.4); 51%-75% out-of-hours work=10.3 (95% CI: 7.6 to 13.0); 76%-100% out-of-hours work=14.5 (95% CI: 11.0 to 17.9). CONCLUSION: Higher NFR scores were observed among emergency physicians than reported in any other profession or population to date. While out-of-hours working is unavoidable, the linear relationship observed suggests that any reduction may result in NFR improvement. Evidence-based strategies to improve well-being such as proportional out-of-hours working and improved access to annual and study leave should be carefully considered and implemented where feasible

A phase I clinical trial with monoclonal antibody ch806 targeting transitional state and mutant epidermal growth factor receptors

An array of cell-surface antigens expressed by human cancers have been identified as targets for antibody-based therapies. The great majority of these antibodies do not have specificity for cancer but recognize antigens expressed on a range of normal cell types (differentiation antigens). Over the past two decades, our group has analyzed thousands of mouse monoclonal antibodies for cancer specificity and identified a battery of antibodies with limited representation on normal human cells. The most tumor-specific of these antibodies is 806, an antibody that detects a unique epitope on the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) that is exposed only on overexpressed, mutant, or ligand-activated forms of the receptor in cancer. In vitro immunohistochemical specificity analysis shows little or no detectable 806 reactivity with normal tissues, even those with high levels of wild-type (wt)EGFR expression. Preclinical studies have demonstrated that 806 specifically targets a subset of EGFR expressed on tumor cells, and has significant anti-tumor effects on human tumor xenografts, primarily through abrogation of signaling pathways. The present clinical study was designed to examine the in vivo specificity of a chimeric form of mAb 806 (ch806) in a tumor targeting/biodistribution/pharmacokinetic analysis in patients with diverse tumor types. ch806 showed excellent targeting of tumor sites in all patients, no evidence of normal tissue uptake, and no significant toxicity. These in vitro and in vivo characteristics of ch806 distinguish it from all other antibodies targeting EGFR