Dependence, independence or inter-dependence? Revisiting the concepts of 'care' and 'dependency'

Research and theory on 'dependency' and 'care-giving' have to date proceeded along largely separate lines, with little sense that they are exploring and explaining different aspects of the same phenomenon. Research on 'care', initially linked to feminism during the early 1980s, has revealed and exposed to public gaze what was hitherto assumed to be a 'natural' female activity. Conversely, disability activists and writers who have promoted a social model of disability have seen the language of and the policy focus upon 'care' as oppressive and objectifying. 'Dependency' is an equally contested concept: sociologists have scrutinised the social construction of dependency, politicians have ascribed negative connotations of passivity, while medical and social policy discourse employs the term in a positivist sense as a measure of physical need for professional intervention. Autonomy and independence, in contrast, are promoted as universal and largely unproblematic goals. These contrasting perspectives have led social theory, research and policies to separate and segregate the worlds of 'carers' from those for whom they 'care'. Drawing on the work of Kittay and others, this paper explores the ways in which sociological perspectives can develop new understanding of the social contexts of 'care' and 'dependence'

Space and place: writing encounters self

In addition to contributing this editorial article, Susan Orr and Claire Hind guest edited this issue

Dimensionality of spin modulations in 1/8-doped lanthanum cuprates from the perspective of NQR and muSR experiments

We investigate the dimensionality of inhomogeneous spin modulation patterns in the cuprate family of high-temperature superconductors with particular focus on 1/8-doped lanthanum cuprates. We compare one-dimensional stripe modulation pattern with two-dimensional checkerboard of spin vortices in the context of nuclear quadrupole resonance(NQR) and muon spin rotation(muSR) experiments. In addition, we also consider the third pattern, a two-dimensional superposition of spin spirals. Overall, we have found that none of the above patterns leads to a consistent interpretation of the two types of experiments considered. This, in particular, implies that the spin vortex checkerboard cannot be ruled out on the basis of available NQR/muSR experimental results.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Negative Specific Heat of a Magnetically Self-Confined Plasma Torus

It is shown that the thermodynamic maximum entropy principle predicts negative specific heat for a stationary magnetically self-confined current-carrying plasma torus. Implications for the magnetic self-confinement of fusion plasma are considered.Comment: 10p., LaTeX, 2 eps figure file

Large-N limit of the two-dimensoinal Yang-Mills theory on surfaces with boundaries

The large-N limit of the two-dimensional U$(N)$ Yang-Mills theory on an arbitrary orientable compact surface with boundaries is studied. It is shown that if the holonomies of the gauge field on boundaries are near the identity, then the critical behavior of the system is the same as that of an orientable surface without boundaries with the same genus but with a modified area. The diffenece between this effective area and the real area of the surface is obtained and shown to be a function of the boundary conditions (holonomies) only. A similar result is shown to hold for the group SU$(N)$ and other simple groups.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX2

Rhabdomyolysis in an HIV cohort: epidemiology, causes and outcomes.

BackgroundThe Literature on rhabdomyolysis in the HIV-positive population is sparse and limited. We aimed to explore the incidence, patient characteristics, etiologies and outcomes of rhabdomyolysis in a cohort of HIV-positive patients identified through the Johns Hopkins HIV clinical registry between June 1992 and April 2014.MethodsA retrospective analysis of 362 HIV-positive patients with non-cardiac CK elevation ≥1000 IU/L was performed. Both inpatients and outpatients were included. Incidence rate and potential etiologies for rhabdomyolysis were ascertained. The development of acute kidney injury (AKI, defined as doubling of serum creatinine), need for dialysis, and death in the setting of rhabdomyolysis were determined. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association of peak CK level with the development of AKI.ResultsThree hundred sixty two cases of rhabdomyolysis were identified in a cohort of 7079 patients with a 38,382 person years follow-up time. The incidence rate was nine cases per 1000 person-years (95% CI: 8.5-10.5). Infection was the most common etiology followed by compression injury and drug/alcohol use. One-third of cases had multiple potential etiologies. AKI developed in 46% of cases; 20% of which required dialysis. Thirteen percent died during follow-up. After adjustment, AKI was associated with higher CK (OR 2.05 for each 1-log increase in CK [95% CI: 1.40-2.99]), infection (OR 5.48 [95% CI 2.65-11.31]) and higher HIV viral load (OR 1.22 per 1-log increase [95% CI: 1.03-1.45]).ConclusionRhabdomyolysis in the HIV-positive population has many possible causes and is frequently multifactorial. HIV-positive individuals with rhabdomyolysis have a high risk of AKI and mortality