Asylum support for children and young people living in Kirklees : stories of mothers

Executive Summary The report is based on a one-year pilot study by academic practitioners at WomenCentre, Kirklees, funded by the Nationwide Children’s Research Centre. This study has taken a localised approach to the Parliamentary Inquiry (2013) into asylum support for children and young people. We have placed the views of mothers of children who live or have lived in receipt of asylum support in Kirklees at the heart of the study. All of the mothers interviewed said that asylum support (accommodation and/or financial subsistence) was or had been their only means of survival and many of them have spent several years in receipt of asylum support with their children. Using the themes that arose in the ‘Parliamentary Inquiry into asylum support for children and young people (2013)’, we have examined the mothers’ accounts of asylum support in relation to children and young people living in Kirklees. Consistent with the Parliamentary Inquiry and central to the analysis, a number of areas of concern were raised by the mothers: ‘essential living needs’, ‘home-life’, ‘education’ and ‘societal attitudes’. A further theme emerged around ‘children’s resilience’. As part of this report we have presented the recommendations put forward by the mothers: • Families seeking asylum should be given the right to work. • Section 4 support should be abolished and a cash-based support system introduced for all children, young people and their families. • Families should have a choice about where they live. • The best interests of the child should be central to decision affecting children.<br/

The socialization of families away from home: group dynamics and family functioning on holiday

The focus on individuals in tourism research has led to limited and fragmented research on family groups and their leisure experiences away from home. This article extends conceptual and theoretical understandings within family tourism research by offering a three-dimensional framework inclusive of group perspectives. A whole-family methodology was used with 10 families (10 fathers, 10 mothers and 20 children) in New Zealand as a more critical and holistic approach to tourism concepts. Empirical findings illustrate group dynamics along with the underrepresented generational perspectives of children and gender perspectives of fathers to provide insights into family functioning. This resulted in a three-layered model of family holiday experiences inclusive of group sociality. The collective intentionality of family togetherness on holiday is contrasted with more balanced modes in own time, highlighting the complexity of socialization within tourism theory and practice

A plug-and-play approach to antibody-based therapeutics via a chemoselective dual click strategy.

Although recent methods for the engineering of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have gone some way to addressing the challenging issues of ADC construction, significant hurdles still remain. There is clear demand for the construction of novel ADC platforms that offer greater stability, homogeneity and flexibility. Here we describe a significant step towards a platform for next-generation antibody-based therapeutics by providing constructs that combine site-specific modification, exceptional versatility and high stability, with retention of antibody binding and structure post-modification. The relevance of the work in a biological context is also demonstrated in a cytotoxicity assay and a cell internalization study with HER2-positive and -negative breast cancer cell lines

In vitro generation of tumor-specific cytotoxic lymphocytes. Secondary allogeneic mixed tumor lymphocyte culture of normal murine spleen cells

In vivo or in vitro immunity to murine leukemia virus (MuLV)-induced leukemia cells which do not effectively produce virus, has been difficult to demonstrate. Because immunizations with allogeneic murine leukemia cells have been used to confer syngeneic tumor immunity to virus- producing cells, we attempted to generate lymphocytes, cytotoxic to syngeneic nonproducer leukemia cells, by stimulating normal murine spleen cells with allogeneic nonproducer leukemia cells in mixed tumor lymphocyte culture (MTLC) reactions in vitro. Secondary allogeneic MTLC of normal C57BL/6 or DBA/2 spleen cells effectively produced syngeneic tumor-specific cytotoxic lymphocytes. Target cells lysed in lymphocyte- mediated cytolysis (LMC) assays, included both Friend and Rauscher virus- induced syngeneic murine leukemia cells and chemically-induced hematopoietic tumor cells. Syngeneic tumor cells were lysed regardless of whether they produced infectious MuLV or expressed viral antigens gp-71, p-30, or p-12 at the cell surface. Syngeneic normal cells (thymus, lymph node, or Concanavalin A-stimulated spleen cells) used as targets in LMC assays were uneffected by lymphocytes harvested from secondary allogeneic MTLC. Several other in vitro culture treatments including secondary syngeneic MTLC and repetitive mixed lymphocyte culture stimulations were incapable of generating tumor-specific cytotoxic lymphocytes. Based upon these results, we propose that secondary MTLC stimulation of normal spleen cells with allogeneic nonproducer leukemia cells selects for the proliferation of two subpopulations of antigen-specific cytotoxic lymphocytes. The population capable of effecting syngeneic tumor cell lysis is directed against tumor-associated cell surface antigens which may be distinct from viral structural proteins or glycoproteins. The growth of these tumor-specific cytotoxic lymphocytes may be enhanced by a soluble allogeneic effect factor produced by the proliferation of the second subpopulation of lymphocytes generated in repetitive allogeneic MTLC, namely those lymphocytes with specificities directed against differing histocompatibility antigens

Rethinking constructed action

We aim to demonstrate the importance of defining linguistic phenomena by using constructed action or CA (i.e. a stretch of discourse that represents one role or combination of roles depicting actions, utterances, thought, attitudes and/or feelings of one or more referents) as an example. The problem is that different assumptions about CA have led to some apparent contradictions about the nature of this phenomenon. Based on observations and analyses of the British Sign Language narrative data, we outline criteria and recommendations for defining and analysing CA. We show that, in carefully defining the phenomenon in question and providing criteria for its identification, applying these criteria to usage data leads to emergence of particular types of Constructed Action. We also show how identifying these types can help resolve some of the apparent contradictions in the literature

T cell growth factor receptors. Quantitation, specificity, and biological relevance

To examine directly the hypothesis that T cell growth factor (TCGF) interacts with target cells in a fashion similar to polypeptide hormones, the binding of radiolabeled TCGF to various cell populations was investigated. The results indicate that TCGF interacts with activated T cells via a receptor through which it initiates the T cell proliferative response. Internally radiolabeled TCGF, prepared from a human T leukemia cell line and purified by gel filtration and isoelectric focusing, retained biological activity and was uniform with respect to size and charge. Binding of radiolabeled TCGF to TCGF-dependent cytolytic T cells occurred rapidly (within 15 rain at 37 degrees C) and was both saturable and largely reversible. In addition, at 37 degrees C, a receptor- and lysosome-dependent degradation of TCGF occurred. Radiolabeled TCGF binding was specific for activated, TCGF-responsive T cells. Whereas unstimulated lymphocytes of human or murine origin and lipopolysaccharide-activated B cell blasts expressed few if any detectable binding sites, lectin- or alloantigen-activated cells had easily detectable binding sites. Moreover, compared with lectin- or alloantigen-activated T cells, long-term TCGF-dependent cytolytic and helper T cell lines and TCGF-dependent neo-plastic T cell lines bound TCGF with a similar affinity (dissociation constant of 5-25 pM) and expressed a similar number of receptor sites per cell (5,000-15,000). In contrast, a number of TCGF-independent cell lines of T cell, B cell, or myeloid origin did not bind detectable quantities of radiolabeled TCGF. Binding of radiolabeled TCGF to TCGF-responsive cells was specific, in that among several growth factors and polypeptide hormones tested, only TCGF competed for binding. Finally, the relative magnitude of T cell proliferation induced by a given concentration of TCGF closely paralleled the fraction of occupied receptor sites. As the extent of T cell clonal expansion depends on TCGF and on the TCGF receptor, the dissection of the molecular events surrounding the interaction of TCGF and its receptor that these studies permit, should provide new insight into the hormonelike regulation of the immune response by this lymphokine

The detection of a spleen focus-forming virus neoantigen by lymphocyte- mediated cytolysis

The existence of a nonvirion tumor-associated cell surface antigen (TASA) on cells transformed with Friend (FLV) on Rauscher (RLV) leukemia virus has been difficult to demonstrate. Antisera raised against classically defined Friend- Moloney-Rauscher antigenic determinants have been shown to react with virus structural proteins coded for by genetic information contained in the lymphatic leukemia or helper (LLV) virus genome. The recent development of nontrans-formed fibroblast cell lines which contain the replication-defective spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV) genome, free of replicating LLV, has allowed investigation of an SFFV-specific antigen. We have applied the techniques of mixed tumor-lymphocyte culture stimulation followed by lymphocyte-mediated cytolysis assays to search for the cell surface expression of an antigen coded expressly by SFFV genetic information. SFFV nonproducer-immune, in vitro activated spleen cells were capable of effecting the lysis of SFFV-containing BALB/c 3T3 and Fischer rat epithelial, cloned cell lines. Normal BALB/c 3T3 and BALB/c 3T3 cells infected with three types of ecotropic LLV were unaffected. Syngeneic FLV and RLV-induced murine leukemia cells were also killed by SFFV nonproducer-immune lymphocytes. In addition, Kirsten sarcoma virus-transformed, replication-defective and replication-rescued BALB/c 3T3 fibroblasts were not susceptible to SFFV antigen-directed cytolysis. Antibody-dependent complement-mediated cytolysis assays using monospecific goat antisera confirmed that SFFV nonproducers lacked cell surface expression of virion structural proteins. These observations suggest that the antigen detected in LMC experiments was not coded for by genetic information contained in the helper component of FLV, and that it represents a true SFFV-specific cell surface antigen. Based upon the recent molecular evaluation of the SFFV genome as consisting of both xenotropic and ecotropic virus sequences, it appears reasonable that xenotropic genetic information may be responsible for expression of the SFFV- specific antigen. Since the replication-defective SFFV genome is also responsible for the malignant transformation associated with FLV-induced erythroleukemia, one might postulate that gene sequences capable of programming transformation may also code for the TASA detected in these studies

International Committee on Mental Health in Cystic Fibrosis: Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and European Cystic Fibrosis Society consensus statements for screening and treating depression and anxiety

Studies measuring psychological distress in individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) have found high rates of both depression and anxiety. Psychological symptoms in both individuals with CF and parent caregivers have been associated with decreased lung function, lower body mass index, worse adherence, worse health-related quality of life, more frequent hospitalisations and increased healthcare costs. To identify and treat depression and anxiety in CF, the CF Foundation and the European CF Society invited a panel of experts, including physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, a pharmacist, parents and an individual with CF, to develop consensus recommendations for clinical care. Over 18 months, this 22-member committee was divided into four workgroups: Screening; Psychological Interventions; Pharmacological Treatments and Implementation and Future Research, and used the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome methodology to develop questions for literature search and review. Searches were conducted in PubMed, PsychINFO, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, Psychiatry online and ABDATA by a methodologist at Dartmouth. The committee reviewed 344 articles, drafted statements and set an 80% acceptance for each recommendation statement as a consensus threshold prior to an anonymous voting process. Fifteen guideline recommendation statements for screening and treatment of depression and anxiety in individuals with CF and parent caregivers were finalised by vote. As these recommendations are implemented in CF centres internationally, the process of dissemination, implementation and resource provision should be closely monitored to assess barriers and concerns, validity and use

Multipurpose High Frequency Electron Spin Resonance Spectrometer for Condensed Matter Research

We describe a quasi-optical multifrequency ESR spectrometer operating in the 75-225 GHz range and optimized at 210 GHz for general use in condensed matter physics, chemistry and biology. The quasi-optical bridge detects the change of mm wave polarization at the ESR. A controllable reference arm maintains a mm wave bias at the detector. The attained sensitivity of 2x10^10 spin/G/(Hz)1/2, measured on a dilute Mn:MgO sample in a non-resonant probe head at 222.4 GHz and 300 K, is comparable to commercial high sensitive X band spectrometers. The spectrometer has a Fabry-Perot resonator based probe head to measure aqueous solutions, and a probe head to measure magnetic field angular dependence of single crystals. The spectrometer is robust and easy to use and may be operated by undergraduate students. Its performance is demonstrated by examples from various fields of condensed matter physics.Comment: submitted to Journal of Magnetic Resonanc