Sisters and the English Household

Sisters and the English Household revalues unmarried adult sisters in nineteenthcentury English literature as positive figures of legal and economic autonomy representing productive labor in the domestic space. As a crucial site of contested values, the adult unmarried sister carries the discursive weight of sustained public debates about ideals of domesticity in nineteenth-century England. Engaging scholarly histories of the family, and providing a detailed account of the 70-year Marriage with a Deceased Wife’s Sister controversy, Anne Wallace traces an alternative domesticity anchored by adult sibling relations through Dorothy Wordsworth’s journals; William Wordsworth’s poetry; Mary Lamb’s essay “On Needle-Work”; and novels by Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, Dinah Mulock Craik and George Eliot. Recognizing adult sibling relationships, and the figure of the adult unmarried sibling in the household, as primary and generative rather than contingent and dependent, and recognizing material economy and law as fundamental sources of sibling identity, Sisters and the English Household resets the conditions for literary critical discussions of sibling relations in nineteenth-century England

Editors’ Note

Editors’ Not

Glucosamine and Chondroitin for Osteoarthritis

Glucosamine reduces pain and improves function in patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis. (Strength of recommendation: B, based on systematic reviews and a meta-analysis) Glucosamine may be beneficial in other forms of osteoarthritis as well. (Strength of recommendation: B, based on a randomized controlled trial [RCT]) Chondroitin has not consistently been found to improve pain or functional status. (Strength of recommendation: B, based on a systematic review and a meta-analysis

Improving The Landscape Design Skills of North Carolina Green Industry Professionals

A 2-day hands-on landscape design workshop was presented to landscape design professionals in the North Carolina green industry who had never received formal training in the design process. All attendees were satisfied, significantly increased their knowledge of landscape design, and adopted key strategies for improving their designs and design skills

Positive Surgical Margins in the 10 Most Common Solid Cancers.

A positive surgical margin (PSM) following cancer resection oftentimes necessitates adjuvant treatments and carries significant financial and prognostic implications. We sought to compare PSM rates for the ten most common solid cancers in the United States, and to assess trends over time. Over 10 million patients were identified in the National Cancer Data Base from 1998-2012, and 6.5 million had surgical margin data. PSM rates were compared between two time periods, 1998-2002 and 2008-2012. PSM was positively correlated with tumor category and grade. Ovarian and prostate cancers had the highest PSM prevalence in women and men, respectively. The highest PSM rates for cancers affecting both genders were seen for oral cavity tumors. PSM rates for breast cancer and lung and bronchus cancer in both men and women declined over the study period. PSM increases were seen for bladder, colon and rectum, and kidney and renal pelvis cancers. This large-scale analysis appraises the magnitude of PSM in the United States in order to focus future efforts on improving oncologic surgical care with the goal of optimizing value and improving patient outcomes

Tumour characteristics and survival in familial breast cancer prospectively diagnosed by annual mammography

Women from breast cancer families without a demonstrable BRCA1/2 mutation were subjected to annual mammography from age 30 years onwards. One-hundred and ninety-eight patients were diagnosed prospectively with invasive breast cancer and followed for a total of 1513 years. Overall 10-year survival was 88 %. Together with our previous report that women in such kindreds had about twice the population risk of breast cancer, the combined conclusion was that the overall chances of developing breast cancer causing death within 10 years before 50 years of age was 1 % or less when subjected to annual mammography and current treatment. These are empirical prospective observations which may be used for genetic counselling. The majority (160/194 = 84 %) of patients had ER+ and/or low grade tumours with 92 % 10-year survival. One minor group of the patients had ER- tumours, another small group had high grade tumours with nodal spread, both groups were associated with worse prognosis, but the two groups were not mutually associated

Application of functional genomics to the chimeric mouse model of HCV infection: optimization of microarray protocols and genomics analysis

BACKGROUND: Many model systems of human viral disease involve human-mouse chimeric tissue. One such system is the recently developed SCID-beige/Alb-uPA mouse model of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection which involves a human-mouse chimeric liver. The use of functional genomics to study HCV infection in these chimeric tissues is complicated by the potential cross-hybridization of mouse mRNA on human oligonucleotide microarrays. To identify genes affected by mouse liver mRNA hybridization, mRNA from identical human liver samples labeled with either Cy3 or Cy5 was compared in the presence and absence of known amounts of mouse liver mRNA labeled in only one dye. RESULTS: The results indicate that hybridization of mouse mRNA to the corresponding human gene probe on Agilent Human 22 K oligonucleotide microarray does occur. The number of genes affected by such cross-hybridization was subsequently reduced to approximately 300 genes both by increasing the hybridization temperature and using liver samples which contain at least 80% human tissue. In addition, Real Time quantitative RT-PCR using human specific probes was shown to be a valid method to verify the expression level in human cells of known cross-hybridizing genes. CONCLUSION: The identification of genes affected by cross-hybridization of mouse liver RNA on human oligonucleotide microarrays makes it feasible to use functional genomics approaches to study the chimeric SCID-beige/Alb-uPA mouse model of HCV infection. This approach used to study cross-species hybridization on oligonucleotide microarrays can be adapted to other chimeric systems of viral disease to facilitate selective analysis of human gene expression

Beef production from feedstuffs conserved using new technologies to reduce negative environmental impacts

End of project reportMost (ca. 86%) Irish farms make some silage. Besides directly providing feed for livestock, the provision of grass silage within integrated grassland systems makes an important positive contribution to effective grazing management and improved forage utilisation by grazing animals, and to effective feed budgeting by farmers. It can also contribute to maintaining the content of desirable species in pastures, and to livestock not succumbing to parasites at sensitive times of the year. Furthermore, the optimal recycling of nutrients collected from housed livestock can often be best achieved by spreading the manures on the land used for producing the conserved feed. On most Irish farms, grass silage will remain the main conserved forage for feeding to livestock during winter for the foreseeable future. However, on some farms high yields of whole-crop (i.e. grain + straw) cereals such as wheat, barley and triticale, and of forage maize, will be an alternative option provided that losses during harvesting, storage and feedout are minimised and that input costs are restrained. These alternative forages have the potential to reliably support high levels of animal performance while avoiding the production of effluent. Their production and use however will need to advantageously integrate into ruminant production systems. A range of technologies can be employed for crop production and conservation, and for beef production, and the optimal options need to be identified. Beef cattle being finished indoors are offered concentrate feedstuffs at rates that range from modest inputs through to ad libitum access. Such concentrates frequently contain high levels of cereals such as barley or wheat. These cereals are generally between 14% to 18% moisture content and tend to be rolled shortly before being included in coarse rations or are more finely processed prior to pelleting. Farmers thinking of using ‘high-moisture grain’ techniques for preserving and processing cereal grains destined for feeding to beef cattle need to know how the yield, conservation efficiency and feeding value of such grains compares with grains conserved using more conventional techniques. European Union policy strongly encourages a sustainable and multifunctional agriculture. Therefore, in addition to providing European consumers with quality food produced within approved systems, agriculture must also contribute positively to the conservation of natural resources and the upkeep of the rural landscape. Plastics are widely used in agriculture and their post-use fate on farms must not harm the environment - they must be managed to support the enduring sustainability of farming systems. There is an absence of information on the efficacy of some new options for covering and sealing silage with plastic sheeting and tyres, and an absence of an inventory of the use, re-use and post-use fate of plastic film on farms. Irish cattle farmers operate a large number of beef production systems, half of which use dairy bred calves. In the current, continuously changing production and market conditions, new beef systems must be considered. A computer package is required that will allow the rapid, repeatable simulation and assessment of alternate beef production systems using appropriate, standardised procedures. There is thus a need to construct, evaluate and utilise computer models of components of beef production systems and to develop mathematical relationships to link system components into a network that would support their integration into an optimal system model. This will provide a framework to integrate physical and financial on-farm conditions with models for estimating feed supply and animal growth patterns. Cash flow and profit/loss results will be developed. This will help identify optimal systems, indicate the cause of failure of imperfect systems and identify areas where applied research data are currently lacking, or more basic research is required

Identification of Complex Rumen Microbiome Interaction Within Diverse Functional Niches as Mechanisms Affecting the Variation of Methane Emissions in Bovine

A network analysis including relative abundances of all ruminal microbial genera (archaea, bacteria, fungi, and protists) and their genes was performed to improve our understanding of how the interactions within the ruminal microbiome affects methane emissions (CH 4). Metagenomics and CH 4 data were available from 63 bovines of a two-breed rotational cross, offered two basal diets. Co-abundance network analysis revealed 10 clusters of functional niches. The most abundant hydrogenotrophic Methanobacteriales with key microbial genes involved in methanogenesis occupied a different functional niche (i.e., "methanogenesis" cluster) than methylotrophic Methanomassiliicoccales (Candidatus Methanomethylophylus) and acetogens ( Blautia). Fungi and protists clustered together and other plant fiber degraders like Fibrobacter occupied a seperate cluster. A Partial Least Squares analysis approach to predict CH 4 variation in each cluster showed the methanogenesis cluster had the best prediction ability (57.3%). However, the most important explanatory variables in this cluster were genes involved in complex carbohydrate degradation, metabolism of sugars and amino acids and Candidatus Azobacteroides carrying nitrogen fixation genes, but not methanogenic archaea and their genes. The cluster containing Fibrobacter, isolated from other microorganisms, was positively associated with CH 4 and explained 49.8% of its variability, showing fermentative advantages compared to other bacteria and fungi in providing substrates (e.g., formate) for methanogenesis. In other clusters, genes with enhancing effect on CH 4 were related to lactate and butyrate ( Butyrivibrio and Pseudobutyrivibrio) production and simple amino acids metabolism. In comparison, ruminal genes negatively related to CH 4 were involved in carbohydrate degradation via lactate and succinate and synthesis of more complex amino acids by γ-Proteobacteria. When analyzing low- and high-methane emitters data in separate networks, competition between methanogens in the methanogenesis cluster was uncovered by a broader diversity of methanogens involved in the three methanogenesis pathways and larger interactions within and between communities in low compared to high emitters. Generally, our results suggest that differences in CH 4 are mainly explained by other microbial communities and their activities rather than being only methanogens-driven. Our study provides insight into the interactions of the rumen microbial communities and their genes by uncovering functional niches affecting CH 4, which will benefit the development of efficient CH 4 mitigation strategies

Initial postmarketing experience with crotalidae polyvalent immune Fab for treatment of rattlesnake envenomation.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: We describe our postmarketing experience with patients receiving Crotalidae polyvalent immune Fab (CroFab; FabAV) antivenom for treatment of rattlesnake envenomation. METHODS: The charts of 28 patients admitted between March 1 and September 9, 2001, with rattlesnake envenomation and treated with FabAV were reviewed for demographic information, time until antivenom treatment, laboratory findings, evidence of hypersensitivity reaction, length of hospital stay, and readmission to the hospital. RESULTS: All patients had swelling, 20 patients had elevated prothrombin times (\u3e14 seconds), 12 patients had low fibrinogen levels (/dL), and 6 patients had thrombocytopenia (platelet count \u3c120,000/mm(3)) on presentation. The total dose of FabAV ranged from 10 to 47 vials per patient. Hypofibrinogenemia was resistant to FabAV in some patients. On follow-up, recurrence of coagulopathy was detected in 3 patients, and recurrence of thrombocytopenia was detected in 1 patient. Two patients demonstrated delayed-onset severe thrombocytopenia. Recurrence or delayed-onset toxicity might have been underestimated because of incomplete follow-up in some patients. No acute hypersensitivity reactions occurred. Two patients reported mild symptoms of possible serum sickness on follow-up. CONCLUSION: FabAV effectively controlled the effects of envenomation; however, initial control of coagulopathy was difficult to achieve in some cases, and recurrence or delayed-onset hematotoxicity was common. When initially managing hematotoxicity, a trend toward normalization of laboratory values might be a more reasonable end point for FabAV treatment than attainment of normal reference values in nonbleeding patients