Habitus, childrearing approach and early child development in Scotland

This thesis is concerned with childrearing approach as one of the prime sites of the reproduction of social inequality. It adopts Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as a way of explaining how social structures are reproduced through childrearing approach, and it draws on Annette Lareau’s definition of the ‘concerted cultivation’ and ‘accomplishment of natural growth’ childrearing approaches (Lareau 2003). During the latter half of the 2000s, UK and Scottish government policy placed increasing emphasis on the importance of parenting and the early years of a child’s life as factors likely to have an impact on health, education and employment outcomes. Between 2005 and 2008 - the timeframe considered by this thesis - a number of policy initiatives emerged which were intended to support ‘better parenting’. Critics of these policy initiatives argue that what was presented as a model of good parenting was in essence a model of middle class parenting which misunderstood and devalued other parenting approaches. Lareau’s typology of childrearing approach is used as a means of situating the UK parenting policy discourse within a broader theoretical context and assessing critically the extent to which this policy discourse reflects childrearing approaches in Scotland. During this period, the policy areas of parenting and neighbourhood began increasingly to overlap in the UK, both through area-based family interventions such as Sure Start and through the central role given to parents in the drive towards community empowerment, greater collective efficacy and reduced anti-social behaviour. The analysis uses data from the ‘Growing up in Scotland’ (GUS) survey to ask whether ‘concerted cultivation’ and the ‘accomplishment of natural growth’ can be observed in the childrearing approaches of Scottish mothers; it assesses whether beliefs about collective efficacy and measures of neighbourhood deprivation are associated with childrearing approach; it explores whether mothers change their childrearing approach over time and considers what factors might influence changes in childrearing approach. Finally, the thesis examines links between a mother’s childrearing approach and her child’s behavioural development at entry to primary school. This thesis builds on previous research on childrearing approach by testing Lareau’s concepts on a quantitative sample of mothers in a different geographical locale and by exploring changes in childrearing approach longitudinally. The analysis presented considers childrearing approach both at the individual and aggregate level. A narrative analysis technique is used to construct biographies for four mothers using the quantitative data in GUS. The constructed biographies inform a discussion of the ways in which childrearing may be experienced and made sense of by the individual. Latent Class Analysis is then used to explore whether patterns of childrearing practice can be discerned in the GUS sample. A typology of four childrearing approaches is presented: two approaches correspond to Lareau’s typology and two further groups are observed: working mothers and socially isolated mothers. The analysis finds that social class differences do not fully explain childrearing approach in the GUS sample. Neighbourhood measures are not found to be associated with childrearing approach when socio-economic factors are controlled for. Changes in socio-economic status are associated with changes in childrearing approach; mothers who experience fewer changes in socio-economic position tend to be those who adopt a childrearing approach similar to ‘concerted cultivation’. The children of these mothers are more likely to display pro-social behaviours at entry to primary school than the children of other childrearing approaches; the children of mothers who adopt a childrearing approach akin to ‘the accomplishment of natural growth’ are more likely to display conduct problems at entry to primary school. The discussion concludes that family policy between 2005 and 2008 did not fully reflect the variety of childrearing approaches in Scotland, and that mothers whose circumstances and childrearing approach diverged from the policy model may not have been adequately supported

Tracking Onslow: a community in transition. edition 3, late 2013

When change is happening, communities talk and some tales get taller in the telling. Opinions are often based on shared stories and collectively these opinions are the community sentiment that affects the way people live and act. This magazine was produced by a collaboration between the ECU Journalism Program and the Shire of Ashburton that set out to track the shifts in the community sentiment in Onslow over the construction phase of the Wheatstone and Macedon gas hubs. The project aims to capture the stories being told in Onslow as the town changes, regardless of their factual accuracy. Where possible we have sought to verify facts and provide balance, but we have not excluded comments by community members on the grounds that they didn\u27t check out, because if we did that, then this would not be an accurate record of what people are saying. In all cases we have been careful to correctly report what people said in our interviews. The result is a sometimes optimistic and sometimes disgruntled reaction to the town\u27s rapid, but in some ways not rapid enough, growth spurt. We hope that you enjoy this snapshot of what was being said in Onslow in the middle of 2013 and find it interesting food for thought about the impact of major resource projects on their host communities. There is a digital version of the magazine available on the website so you can email a link to it to your family and friends in other places. The website also has soon-to-be updated galleries showing how parts of the town have changed almost beyond recognition and video interviews with Onslow locals. We look forward to seeing you when we come back in early 2014

Effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF EMF) on cancer in laboratory animal studies

Background: The carcinogenicity of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF EMF) has been evaluated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2011. Based on limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and in animals, RF EMF were classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B). In 2018, based on a survey amongst RF experts, WHO prioritized six major topics of potential RF EMF related human health effects for systematic reviews. In the current manuscript, we present the protocol for the systematic review of experimental laboratory animal studies (cancer bioassays) on exposure to RF fields on the outcome of cancer in laboratory animals. Objective: In the framework of WHO's Radiation Program, the aim of this work is to systematically evaluate effects of RF EMF exposure on cancer in laboratory animals. Study eligibility and criteria: WHO's Handbook (2014) for guideline development will be followed with appropriate adaptation. The selection of eligible studies will be based on Population, Exposures, Comparators, and Outcomes (PECO) criteria. We will include peer-reviewed articles and publicly available reports from government agencies reporting original data about animal cancer bioassays on exposure to RF EMF. The studies are identified by searching the following databases: MEDLINE (PubMed), Science Citation Index Expanded and Emerging Sources Citation Indes (Web of Science), Scopus, and the EMF Portal. No language or year-of-publication restrictions are applied. The methods and results of eligible studies will be presented in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Study appraisal method: Study evaluation of individual studies will be assessed using a risk of bias (RoB) tool developed by the Office of Health Assessment and Translation (OHAT) with appropriate considerations including sensitivity for evaluating RF EMF exposure in animal cancer bioassays. The final evaluation on the certainty of the evidence on a carcinogenic risk of RF EMF exposure in experimental animals will be performed using the OHAT Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach with appropriate considerations. The protocol has been registered in an open-source repository (PROSPERO)

Think global, act local: using a translocal approach to understand community-based organisations’ responses to planetary health crises during COVID-19

Little is known on how community-based responses to planetary health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can integrate concerns about livelihoods, equity, health, wellbeing, and the environment. We used a translocal learning approach to co-develop insights on community-based responses to complex health and environmental and economic crises with leaders from five organisations working with communities at the front line of intersecting planetary health challenges in Finland, India, Kenya, Peru, and the USA. Translocal learning supports collective knowledge production across different localities in ways that value local perspectives but transcend national boundaries. There were three main findings from the translocal learning process. First, thanks to their proximity to the communities they served, community-based organisations (CBOs) can quickly identify the ways in which COVID-19 might worsen existing social and health inequities. Second, localised CBO actions are key to supporting communities with unique challenges in the face of systemic planetary health crises. Third, CBOs can develop rights-based, ecologically-minded actions responding to local priorities and mobilising available resources. Our findings show how solutions to planetary health might come from small-scale community initiatives that are well connected within and across contexts. Locally-focused globally-aware actions should be harnessed through greater recognition, funding, and networking opportunities. Globally, planetary health initiatives should be supported by applying the principles of subsidiarity and translocalism

Vertigo's Musical Gaze: Neo-Riemannian Symmetries and Spirals

Laura Mulvey coined the term ‘male gaze’ (1975), using Lacanian theory as a ‘political weapon’ against the standard mode of viewing in which the viewing subject turns onscreen women into fantasy objects. While politically laudable, her article misconstrues Lacan's concept of ‘the gaze’, the power of which emanates from the object itself. We might better serve Lacanian theory by inverting Mulvey's reading of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo to suggest that Scottie (James Stewart) is himself objectified by the mystique of the ‘object’ he watches and follows: Madeleine (Kim Novak). The screen's gaze reduces spectators to objects too. From this perspective, rather than watching the film, the film can be said to be watching us. This extends to Bernard Herrmann's soundtrack, famously influenced by the yearning of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde . Developing David Schwarz's (2006) musical gaze (in which repeated pedal points of Schubert songs gaze at us), I analyse Vertigo ’s frequent emphasis on the pitch class D. A pedal D is often repeated in alluring yet sinister bare octaves as Scottie follows Madeleine. But at key moments in the film, the pitch becomes a sophisticated tool that captivates us in unique ways. Around this central pitch third‐relationships circle. These resonate with neo‐Riemannian theory, particularly in their hexatonic ‘poles’, which Cohn shows to be agents of the Freudian ‘uncanny’ (2004) and which here also serve as an alternative gaze to the reiterated D. Other pitch constellations, in symmetries or spirals, form similar obsessional musical ‘gazes’ that, using Lacanian theory, prompt the question about whether we are listening to the music or the music is listening to us

Differential sensing with arrays of de novo designed peptide assemblies

Differential sensing attempts to mimic the mammalian senses of smell and taste to identify analytes and complex mixtures. In place of hundreds of complex, membrane-bound G-protein coupled receptors, differential sensors employ arrays of small molecules. Here we show that arrays of computationally designed de novo peptides provide alternative synthetic receptors for differential sensing. We use self-assembling α-helical barrels (αHBs) with central channels that can be altered predictably to vary their sizes, shapes and chemistries. The channels accommodate environment-sensitive dyes that fluoresce upon binding. Challenging arrays of dye-loaded barrels with analytes causes differential fluorophore displacement. The resulting fluorimetric fingerprints are used to train machine-learning models that relate the patterns to the analytes. We show that this system discriminates between a range of biomolecules, drink, and diagnostically relevant biological samples. As αHBs are robust and chemically diverse, the system has potential to sense many analytes in various settings

?2-Microglobulin Amyloid Fibril-Induced Membrane Disruption Is Enhanced by Endosomal Lipids and Acidic pH

Although the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathology of amyloidoses are not well understood, the interaction between amyloid proteins and cell membranes is thought to play a role in several amyloid diseases. Amyloid fibrils of ?2-microglobulin (?2m), associated with dialysis-related amyloidosis (DRA), have been shown to cause disruption of anionic lipid bilayers in vitro. However, the effect of lipid composition and the chemical environment in which ?2m-lipid interactions occur have not been investigated previously. Here we examine membrane damage resulting from the interaction of ?2m monomers and fibrils with lipid bilayers. Using dye release, tryptophan fluorescence quenching and fluorescence confocal microscopy assays we investigate the effect of anionic lipid composition and pH on the susceptibility of liposomes to fibril-induced membrane damage. We show that ?2m fibril-induced membrane disruption is modulated by anionic lipid composition and is enhanced by acidic pH. Most strikingly, the greatest degree of membrane disruption is observed for liposomes containing bis(monoacylglycero)phosphate (BMP) at acidic pH, conditions likely to reflect those encountered in the endocytic pathway. The results suggest that the interaction between ?2m fibrils and membranes of endosomal origin may play a role in the molecular mechanism of ?2m amyloid-associated osteoarticular tissue destruction in DRA

Molecular Typing of Australian Scedosporium Isolates Showing Genetic Variability and Numerous S. aurantiacum

Molecular typing showed genetic diversity, dismissed 2 suspected outbreaks of scedosporiosis, and identified multiple strains of the newly described species S. aurantiacum

Genetic risk and a primary role for cell-mediated immune mechanisms in multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis is a common disease of the central nervous system in which the interplay between inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes typically results in intermittent neurological disturbance followed by progressive accumulation of disability. Epidemiological studies have shown that genetic factors are primarily responsible for the substantially increased frequency of the disease seen in the relatives of affected individuals, and systematic attempts to identify linkage in multiplex families have confirmed that variation within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) exerts the greatest individual effect on risk. Modestly powered genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have enabled more than 20 additional risk loci to be identified and have shown that multiple variants exerting modest individual effects have a key role in disease susceptibility. Most of the genetic architecture underlying susceptibility to the disease remains to be defined and is anticipated to require the analysis of sample sizes that are beyond the numbers currently available to individual research groups. In a collaborative GWAS involving 9,772 cases of European descent collected by 23 research groups working in 15 different countries, we have replicated almost all of the previously suggested associations and identified at least a further 29 novel susceptibility loci. Within the MHC we have refined the identity of the HLA-DRB1 risk alleles and confirmed that variation in the HLA-A gene underlies the independent protective effect attributable to the class I region. Immunologically relevant genes are significantly overrepresented among those mapping close to the identified loci and particularly implicate T-helper-cell differentiation in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis