Constructions of Families in the Legal Regulation of Care

This article considers the extent to which constructions of care within law and policy continue to privilege the heterosexual family model of care giving i.e., two parents cohabiting in a monogamous, long-standing relationship acting as one economic unit with joint children with one primary wage earner and one primary carer. Taking its focal point in the legal frameworks that surround parental leave, it explores the manner in which ‘non-traditional’ family forms are conceived in legal frameworks surrounding care, using recent changes to Danish parental leave policies as a case study.This article considers the extent to which constructions of care within law and policy continue to privilege the heterosexual family model of care giving i.e., two parents cohabiting in a monogamous, long-standing relationship acting as one economic unit with joint children with one primary wage earner and one primary carer. Taking its focal point in the legal frameworks that surround parental leave, it explores the manner in which ‘non-traditional’ family forms are conceived in legal frameworks surrounding care, using recent changes to Danish parental leave policies as a case study

Constructions of Families in the Legal Regulation of Care

This article considers the extent to which constructions of care within law and policy continue to privilege the heterosexual family model of care giving i.e., two parents cohabiting in a monogamous, long-standing relationship acting as one economic unit with joint children with one primary wage earner and one primary carer. Taking its focal point in the legal frameworks that surround parental leave, it explores the manner in which ‘non-traditional’ family forms are conceived in legal frameworks surrounding care, using recent changes to Danish parental leave policies as a case study.This article considers the extent to which constructions of care within law and policy continue to privilege the heterosexual family model of care giving i.e., two parents cohabiting in a monogamous, long-standing relationship acting as one economic unit with joint children with one primary wage earner and one primary carer. Taking its focal point in the legal frameworks that surround parental leave, it explores the manner in which ‘non-traditional’ family forms are conceived in legal frameworks surrounding care, using recent changes to Danish parental leave policies as a case study

Rural Transport & Rural Isolation: A Case Study on the Impact of Rural Transport Provision on Older People in one Rural Area

This case study is a very valuable contribution to the local needs and services for rural isolated people. Miriam McKenna is a committed leader. Miriam with the board of Flexibus and the support of the Rural Transport Initiative (RTI) has had a life enhancing impact on the lives of many people in Meath. The Flexibus staff and the community groups around Meath and South Cavan have a great deal to be proud of. This document is a way of recognising the impact of Flexibus and the many projects like it. What is so valuable in this document is the voice of the people who use the Flexibus service. Read this document and let the people who use the service speak to you through it. You will come to know them and when furnished you will feel that you have travelled with them

Rural Transport & Rural Isolation: A Case Study on the Impact of Rural Transport Provision on Older People in one Rural Area

This case study is a very valuable contribution to the local needs and services for rural isolated people. Miriam McKenna is a committed leader. Miriam with the board of Flexibus and the support of the Rural Transport Initiative (RTI) has had a life enhancing impact on the lives of many people in Meath. The Flexibus staff and the community groups around Meath and South Cavan have a great deal to be proud of. This document is a way of recognising the impact of Flexibus and the many projects like it. What is so valuable in this document is the voice of the people who use the Flexibus service. Read this document and let the people who use the service speak to you through it. You will come to know them and when furnished you will feel that you have travelled with them

Chromatin extrusion explains key features of loop and domain formation in wild-type and engineered genomes

We recently used in situ Hi-C to create kilobase-resolution 3D maps of mammalian genomes. Here, we combine these maps with new Hi-C, microscopy, and genome-editing experiments to study the physical structure of chromatin fibers, domains, and loops. We find that the observed contact domains are inconsistent with the equilibrium state for an ordinary condensed polymer. Combining Hi-C data and novel mathematical theorems, we show that contact domains are also not consistent with a fractal globule. Instead, we use physical simulations to study two models of genome folding. In one, intermonomer attraction during polymer condensation leads to formation of an anisotropic “tension globule.” In the other, CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) and cohesin act together to extrude unknotted loops during interphase. Both models are consistent with the observed contact domains and with the observation that contact domains tend to form inside loops. However, the extrusion model explains a far wider array of observations, such as why loops tend not to overlap and why the CTCF-binding motifs at pairs of loop anchors lie in the convergent orientation. Finally, we perform 13 genome-editing experiments examining the effect of altering CTCF-binding sites on chromatin folding. The convergent rule correctly predicts the affected loops in every case. Moreover, the extrusion model accurately predicts in silico the 3D maps resulting from each experiment using only the location of CTCF-binding sites in the WT. Thus, we show that it is possible to disrupt, restore, and move loops and domains using targeted mutations as small as a single base pair.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant PHY-1427654)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (New Innovator Award 1DP2OD008540-01)Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (Scholar Award R1304)Baylor College of Medicine (McNair Medical Institute Scholar Award)Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineer

Elucidating connections between the strigolactone biosynthesis pathway, flavonoid production and root system architecture in Arabidopsis thaliana

Strigolactones (SLs) are the most recently discovered phytohormones, and their roles in root architecture and metabolism are not fully understood. Here, we investigated four MORE AXILLARY GROWTH (MAX) SL mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana, max3-9, max4-1, max1-1 and max2-1, as well as the SL receptor mutant d14-1 and karrikin receptor mutant kai2-2. By characterising max2-1 and max4-1, we found that variation in SL biosynthesis modified multiple metabolic pathways in root tissue, including that of xyloglucan, triterpenoids, fatty acids and flavonoids. The transcription of key flavonoid biosynthetic genes, including TRANSPARENT TESTA4 (TT4) and TRANSPARENT TESTA5 (TT5) was downregulated in max2 roots and seedlings, indicating that the proposed MAX2 regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis has a widespread effect. We found an enrichment of BRI1-EMS-SUPPRESSOR 1 (BES1) targets amongst genes specifically altered in the max2 mutant, reflecting that the regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis likely occurs through the MAX2 degradation of BES1, a key brassinosteroid-related transcription factor. Finally, flavonoid accumulation decreased in max2-1 roots, supporting a role for MAX2 in regulating both SL and flavonoid biosynthesis

The Day-to-Day Impact of Urogenital Aging: Perspectives from Racially/Ethnically Diverse Women

Urogenital symptoms affect up to half of women after menopause, but their impact on women’s day-to-day functioning and wellbeing is poorly understood. Postmenopausal women aged 45 to 80 years reporting urogenital dryness, soreness, itching, or pain during sex were recruited to participate in in-depth focus groups to discuss the impact of their symptoms. Focus groups were homogenous with respect to race/ethnicity and stratified by age (for White or Black women) or language (for Latina women). Transcripts of sessions were analyzed according to grounded theory. Six focus groups were conducted, involving 44 women (16 White, 14 Black, 14 Latina). Five domains of functioning and wellbeing affected by symptoms were identified: sexual functioning, everyday activities, emotional wellbeing, body image, and interpersonal relations. For some participants, symptoms primarily affected their ability to have and enjoy sex, as well as be responsive to their partners. For others, symptoms interfered with everyday activities, such as exercising, toileting, or sleeping. Participants regarded their symptoms as a sign that they were getting old or their body was deteriorating; women also associated symptoms with a loss of womanhood or sexuality. Additionally, participants reported feeling depressed, embarrassed, and frustrated about their symptoms, and expressed reluctance to discuss them with friends, family, or health care providers. Urogenital symptoms can have a marked impact on sexual functioning, everyday activities, emotional wellbeing, body image, and interpersonal relations after menopause. Clinicians may need to question women actively about these symptoms, as many are reluctant to seek help for this problem

Anger in brain and body: the neural and physiological perturbation of decision-making by emotion

Emotion and cognition are dynamically coupled to bodily arousal: The induction of anger, even unconsciously, can reprioritise neural and physiological resources toward action states that bias cognitive processes. Here we examine behavioural, neural and bodily effects of covert anger processing and its influence on cognition, indexed by lexical decision-making. While recording beat-to-beat blood pressure, the words ANGER or RELAX were presented subliminally just prior to rapid word/non-word reaction-time judgements of letter-strings. Subliminal ANGER primes delayed the time taken to reach rapid lexical decisions, relative to RELAX primes. However, individuals with high trait anger were speeded up by subliminal anger primes. ANGER primes increased systolic blood pressure and the magnitude of this increase predicted reaction time prolongation. Within the brain, ANGER trials evoked an enhancement of activity within dorsal pons and an attenuation of activity within visual occipitotemporal and attentional parietal cortices. Activity within periaqueductal grey matter, occipital and parietal regions increased linearly with evoked blood pressure changes, indicating neural substrates through which covert anger impairs semantic decisions, putatively through its expression as visceral arousal. The behavioural and physiological impact of anger states compromises the efficiency of cognitive processing through action-ready changes in autonomic response that skew regional neural activity