Isolation of pigment cell specific genes in the sea urchin embryo by differential macroarray screening

New secondary mesenchyme specific genes, expressed exclusively in pigment cells, were isolated from sea urchin embryos using a differential screening of a macroarray cDNA library. The comparison was performed between mRNA populations of embryos having an expansion of the endo-mesodermal territory and embryos blocked in secondary mesenchyme specification. To be able to isolate transcripts with a prevalence down to five copies per cell, a subtractive hybridization procedure was employed. About 400 putative positive clones were identified and sequenced from the 5' end. Gene expression analysis was carried out on a subset of 66 clones with real time quantitative PCR and 40 clones were positive. This group of clones contained sequences highly similar to: the transcription factor glial cells missing (gcm); the polyketide synthase gene cluster (pks-gc); three different members of the flavin-containing monooxygenase gene family (fmo); and a sulfotransferase gene (sult). Using whole mount in situ hybridization, it was shown that these genes are specifically expressed in pigment cells. A functional analysis of the S. purpuratus pks and of one S. purpuratus fmo was carried out using antisense technology and it was shown that their expression is necessary for the biosynthesis of the sea urchin pigment echinochrome. The results suggest that S. purpuratus pks, fmo and sult could belong to a differentiation gene battery of pigment cells

Supporting girls and young women victims of sexual harassment in schools: 'me and you and everyone we know'

This article highlights an innovative project, across three European countries (Italy, Sweden and Romania), that used a pictorial co-design educational tool to empower young women to counter sexual harassment and abuse. Data is very hard to obtain on levels of sexual harassment and the project revealed that there was a need to educate female and male students, as well as professionals of its long-term impact. The co-designed cards generated discussion and comments both with the young participants and educational professionals. Focus groups were organised in the three countries with students using the co-design tool. What emerged from those focus groups are different attitudes towards sexual harassment and how this may affect girls and young women in the three participating countries. This article reflects upon the use of a transnational co-design tool to prevent sexual harassment and abuse in schools. The main aim was to promote a dialogue with young people on the complexity of issues surrounding this topic in order to promote change in this area. Findings from this project revealed that there was much variation between the three countries in a number of important areas, such as the support and knowledge base on the issu

An Anthropology of Well-Being: Local Perspectives and Cultural Constructions in the Bolivian Altiplano

This thesis focuses on individual and collective definitions of 'the good life' in the Bolivian plateau. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in the urban area of EI Alto, the thesis explores potential contradictions between different orientations and models of well-being. The increasing interest amongst a group of Aymara intellectuals (GTZ) in an indigenous perspective on this topic provides the point of departure for an exploration of the complexity of ideas relating to this issue and an account of different definitions of 'the good life' among Aymara people. The thesis makes a contribution to debates regarding poverty and well-being and the problems attached to universal definitions, which tend to be based on simplified and economic criteria. By considering what different people value and prioritise in terms of their own well-being and, where applicable, their children's well-being and happiness, the thesis offers a contribution to Andean anthropology and to the understanding of 'poverty'. This entails an exploration of the moments of tension and synergy that exist between Aymara and Bolivian identity. It offers a detailed analysis of different collective and individual actions adopted for the achievement of well-being. In particular, these include social protests, moments of fiesta, household cooperation, and the resort to supernatural forces and 'making of luck (suerte), with a specific focus on gender and generational differences

Managing Chronicity in Unequal States: Ethnographic perspectives on caring

By portraying the circumstances of people living with chronic conditions in radically different contexts, from Alzheimer’s patients in the UK to homeless people with psychiatric disorders in India, Managing Chronicity in Unequal States offers glimpses of what dealing with medically complex conditions in stratified societies means. While in some places the state regulates and intrudes on the most intimate aspects of chronic living, in others it is utterly and criminally absent. Either way, it is a present/absent actor that deeply conditions people’s opportunities and strategies of care. This book explores how individuals, groups and communities navigate uncertain and unequal healthcare systems, in which inherent moral judgements on human worth have long-lasting effects on people’s wellbeing. This is key reading for anyone wishing to deconstruct the issues at stake when analysing how care and chronicity are entangled with multiple institutional, economic, and other circumstantial factors. How people access the available informal and formal resources as well as how they react to official diagnoses and decisions are important facets of the management of chronicity. In the arena of care, people with chronic conditions find themselves negotiating restrictions and handling issues of power and (inter)dependency in relationships of inequality and proximity. This is particularly relevant in current times, when care has given in to the lure of the market, and the possibility of living a long and fulfilling life has been drastically reduced, transformed into a ‘reward’ for the few who have been deemed worthy of it

Critical chain length and superconductivity emergence in oxygen-equalized pairs of YBa2Cu3O6.30

The oxygen-order dependent emergence of superconductivity in YBa2Cu3O6+x is studied, for the first time in a comparative way, on pair samples having the same oxygen content and thermal history, but different Cu(1)Ox chain arrangements deriving from their intercalated and deintercalated nature. Structural and electronic non-equivalence of pairs samples is detected in the critical region and found to be related, on microscopic scale, to a different average chain length, which, on being experimentally determined by nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR), sheds new light on the concept of critical chain length for hole doping efficiency.Comment: 7 RevTex pages, 2 Postscript figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

South London Community Education Provider Networks : evaluation report

Community Education Provider Networks (CEPNs) are innovative network organisations designed to support workforce transformation, through education and training, for a primary and community orientated National Health Service . In developing CEPNs, Health Education England (HEE) has been a pathfinder for innovation in primary care workforce development across a diverse health care system which covers a population of approximately three and quarter million people. This final evaluation report, following on from the interim report of 2015, offers a system wide assessment. It also identifies key issues and learning points for the development of such education and training network organisations

Identification of Three Required Positive Cis-Regulated Inputs of the Sea Urchin Pigment Cell Gene Polyketide Synthase 1

Sea urchin pigment cells are single cells of mesodermal origin embedded in the aboral ectoderm. Strongylocentrotus purpuratus polyketide synthase 1 (Sp-PKS1) is required for the biosynthesis of the echinochrome pigment. Evidence suggests that pigment cells are immune cells. In order to reconstruct the gene regulatory network of pigment cells a bottom-up approach combined with comparative genomics has been used in this study. We compared the cis-regulatory regions of five pigment cell genes, Sp-Pks1, flavin monooxygenase 1, 2, and 3 (Sp-Fmo) and sulfotransferase (Sp-Sult), across three different species, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, Mesocentrotus franciscanus, and Strongylocentrotus fragilis. The computational tool used was multiple expectation maximization motif elicitation analysis. Thirty cis-regulatory motif candidates were identified, three of which were considered for further analysis. The functionality of these motifs was tested by injecting embryos with a -2KbPks-Gfp DNA construct having one of the three motifs mutagenized. All three motifs resulted to be functional cis-regulatory sequences. Specifically, they contained DNA-binding sites for transcriptional activators of Sp-Pks1

Political markets: recycling, economization and marketization

This paper considers recycling as an economic activity, locating it in debates about economization, marketization and performativity. It argues that recycling is a reflexive intervention in economic activity which extends the boundaries of markets, by internalizing objects formerly externalized as wastes and by attending to the temporal properties of materials. It differentiates between activities based on manufacturing recycled products and the activities of materials recovery linked to commodity markets in secondary materials. By taking the in vivo economic experiment resulting from the UK's Ship Recycling Strategy as its empirical focus, the paper demonstrates how recycling connects to wider debates about experimentation and the constitution of markets, and shows the importance of assaying and assay devices as market devices to the economization of recycling. It further shows that, in materials recovery, measurement is estimation and things are hard to pacify. This makes recycling difficult to stabilize as an economic activity. The consequences are considerable: notably, the possibility of economic failure can threaten to contaminate stabilized (or ‘cold’) forms of politics. The importance of contracts as a means to securing politicized markets in secondary materials recovery is indicated