307 research outputs found
Subdural haematoma in infancy
A 1950's medical research paper on Subdural Haematoma during a child's infancy
Pop stars and idolatry: an investigation of the worship of popular music icons, and the music and cult of Prince.
Prince is an artist who integrates elements from the sacred into his work. He uses popular iconography to present himself as an icon of consumer culture, as a deified ‘rock god’ worshipped by his fans, and as a preacher leading his audience like a congregation. His personality cult mixes spirituality and sexuality, and deals with issues of ecstasy and liberation, a transgressional approach that draws both controversy and public interest. This paper investigates Prince’s work and the role of the pop star as an icon within contemporary culture, an icon that contains a physicality and sexuality not present in contemporary western religious traditions. It discusses to what extent popular musical culture operates as a form of religious practice within contemporary western culture, and the implications that this has. The paper investigates the construction of Prince’s public character, his manipulation of the star system, and how he uses popular iconography to blur the distinctions between spirituality and sexuality, the idealised performer and the real world, the sacred and the profane, and the human and the divine. It explores how he possesses and is possessed by the audience, who enter into the hollow vessel he offers up to his fans
Patient-physician interaction in general practice and health inequalities in a multidisciplinary study: design, methods and feasibility in the French INTERMEDE study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The way in which patients and their doctors interact is a potentially important factor in optimal communication during consultations as well as treatment, compliance and follow-up care. The aim of this multidisciplinary study is to use both qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the 'black box' that is the interaction between the two parties during a general practice consultation, and to identify factors therein that may contribute to producing health inequalities. This paper outlines the original multidisciplinary methodology used, and the feasibility of this type of study.</p> <p>Methods and design</p> <p>The study design combines methodologies on two separate samples in two phases. Firstly, a qualitative phase collected ethnographical and sociological data during consultation, followed by in-depth interviews with both patients and doctors independently. Secondly, a quantitative phase on a different sample of patients and physicians collected data via several questionnaires given to patients and doctors consisting of specific 'mirrored' questions asked post-consultation, as well as collecting information on patient and physician characteristics.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The design and methodology used in this study were both successfully implemented, and readily accepted by doctors and patients alike. This type of multidisciplinary study shows great potential in providing further knowledge into the role of patient/physician interaction and its influence on maintaining or producing health inequalities. The next challenge in this study will be implementing the multidisciplinary approach during the data analysis.</p
A meta-analytic review of stand-alone interventions to improve body image
Objective
Numerous stand-alone interventions to improve body image have been developed. The
present review used meta-analysis to estimate the effectiveness of such interventions, and
to identify the specific change techniques that lead to improvement in body image.
Methods
The inclusion criteria were that (a) the intervention was stand-alone (i.e., solely focused on
improving body image), (b) a control group was used, (c) participants were randomly
assigned to conditions, and (d) at least one pretest and one posttest measure of body
image was taken. Effect sizes were meta-analysed and moderator analyses were conducted.
A taxonomy of 48 change techniques used in interventions targeted at body image
was developed; all interventions were coded using this taxonomy.
Results
The literature search identified 62 tests of interventions (N = 3,846). Interventions produced
a small-to-medium improvement in body image (d+ = 0.38), a small-to-medium reduction in
beauty ideal internalisation (d+ = -0.37), and a large reduction in social comparison tendencies
(d+ = -0.72). However, the effect size for body image was inflated by bias both within
and across studies, and was reliable but of small magnitude once corrections for bias were
applied. Effect sizes for the other outcomes were no longer reliable once corrections for
bias were applied. Several features of the sample, intervention, and methodology moderated
intervention effects. Twelve change techniques were associated with improvements in
body image, and three techniques were contra-indicated.
Conclusions
The findings show that interventions engender only small improvements in body image, and
underline the need for large-scale, high-quality trials in this area. The review identifies effective
techniques that could be deployed in future interventions
E pluribus plurima: Multidimensional indices and clinical phenotypes in COPD
as the picture of COPD becomes more complex and the results from large studies generate the need of further research, it is clear the close link between the definition of clinical phenotypes and the validation of either single or multidimensional indices
Facilitation of Male Sexual Behavior in Syrian Hamsters by the Combined Action of Dihydrotestosterone and Testosterone
Testosterone (T) controls male Syrian hamster sexual behavior, however, neither of T's primary metabolites, dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and estradiol (E(2)), even in highly supraphysiological doses, fully restores sexual behavior in castrated hamsters. DHT and T apparently interact with androgen receptors differentially to control male sexual behavior (MSB), but whether these two hormones act synergistically or antagonistically to control MSB has received scant experimental attention and is addressed in the present study.Sexually experienced male Syrian hamsters were gonadectomized and monitored 5 weeks later to confirm elimination of the ejaculatory reflex (week 0), at which time they received subcutaneous DHT-filled or empty capsules that remained in situ for the duration of the experiment. Daily injections of a physiological dose of 25 µg T or vehicle commenced two weeks after capsule implantation. MSB was tested 2, 4 and 5 weeks after T treatment began. DHT capsules were no more effective than control treatment for long-term restoration of ejaculation. Combined DHT + T treatment, however, restored the ejaculatory reflex more effectively than T alone, as evidenced by more rapid recovery of ejaculatory behavior, shorter ejaculation latencies, and a greater number of ejaculations in 30 minute tests.DHT and T administered together restored sexual behavior to pre-castration levels more rapidly than did T alone, whereas DHT and vehicle were largely ineffective. The additive actions of DHT and T on MSB are discussed in relation to different effects of these androgens on androgen receptors in the male hamster brain mating circuit
Different molecular mechanisms causing 9p21 deletions in acute lymphoblastic leukemia of childhood
Deletion of chromosome 9p21 is a crucial event for the development of several cancers including acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Double strand breaks (DSBs) triggering 9p21 deletions in ALL have been reported to occur at a few defined sites by illegitimate action of the V(D)J recombination activating protein complex. We have cloned 23 breakpoint junctions for a total of 46 breakpoints in 17 childhood ALL (9 B- and 8 T-lineages) showing different size deletions at one or both homologous chromosomes 9 to investigate which particular sequences make the region susceptible to interstitial deletion. We found that half of 9p21 deletion breakpoints were mediated by ectopic V(D)J recombination mechanisms whereas the remaining half were associated to repeated sequences, including some with potential for non-B DNA structure formation. Other mechanisms, such as microhomology-mediated repair, that are common in other cancers, play only a very minor role in ALL. Nucleotide insertions at breakpoint junctions and microinversions flanking the breakpoints have been detected at 20/23 and 2/23 breakpoint junctions, respectively, both in the presence of recombination signal sequence (RSS)-like sequences and of other unspecific sequences. The majority of breakpoints were unique except for two cases, both T-ALL, showing identical deletions. Four of the 46 breakpoints coincide with those reported in other cases, thus confirming the presence of recurrent deletion hotspots. Among the six cases with heterozygous 9p deletions, we found that the remaining CDKN2A and CDKN2B alleles were hypermethylated at CpG islands
Visual accountability
In this article, we draw attention to the way in which accountability relations are manifested in and through the use of visual evidence. Through their status as representations of what is the case, evidentiary visual images frequently provide a basis for giving accounts and for raising questions regarding distributions of accountability. At the same time, and in a similar manner to numbers (Munro, 2001), such images become part of organized relations of accountability that can be noted as having ‘hailing’ effects: they call for and prefigure a certain kind of response and dispersing of responsibility. Here we examine how the use of visual evidence is embedded in discursive and material practices that variously create or inhibit possibilities for questioning, or interrogating, this evidence. Drawing on elements of ethnomethodology and actor-network theory, we use ‘interrogation’ as the basis for depicting a three-part analytical schema focused on opening up, closing down and temporality to explore how visual accountability is worked out in surveillance, traffic management and breast screening images
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