Seeking goals in the urban estuary : how a personal migrant subjectivity is reified into productive strategies and generative social effects.

Using a micro-level frame of analysis, and working from in-depth interviews in Johannesburg's migrant-rich ‘urban estuaries,’ this research report considers participants’ personal, subjective, understanding of their own migrant-ness. The paper argues that theirs is a migrant subjectivity linked to the praxis of goal seeking, rather than the achievement of belonging. The goal seeking subjectivity is reified into pragmatic social strategies of network building, trust, and opportunity creation that undermine the concepts of generalized trust, communal social capital, and the host/migrant dichotomy. Personal subjectivies are rendered social. Denizens fill the social space with presentations and assessments of ‘mutual beneficence,’ and seek out demographically ambivalent networks of commonality

Eleven Antitheses on Cities and States: Challenging the Mindscape of Chronology and Chorography in Anthropogenic Climate Change

Our basic argument is that we should be thinking in trans-modern ways when considering how to react to anthropogenic climate change. Showing that mainstream approaches to climate change theory and policymaking are overtly modern, we identify this as a mindscape inherently constrained by its particular chronology and chorography. Our contribution to necessary trans-modern thinking is a presentation of eleven basic and widely accepted theses on modern chronology and chorography that we contest through antitheses, which we argue are more suited to engaging with anthropogenic climate change. These support a consumption argument for urban demand being the crucial generator of climate for 8,000 years in direct contradiction to the production argument that greenhouse gases are the crucial generator of climate change for 200 years. The modern policymaking focus on curbing carbon emissions is thus fundamentally flawed - merely feeding energy for continuing an accelerating global consumption in a different way that is only marginally more climate-friendly. Reflecting on the antitheses, we conclude by discussing the difficulties of translating trans-modern ideas into political action

Therapists' techniques in the treatment of adolescent depression

When comparing the relative effectiveness of different psychological treatment approaches using clinical trials, it is essential to establish fidelity to each manualized therapy, and differentiation between the treatment arms. Yet few psychological therapy trials include details about the assessment of treatment integrity and little is known about the specific techniques used by therapists, or to what degree these techniques are shared or distinct across different therapeutic approaches. The aims of this study were to (a) establish the fidelity of two established psychological therapies, cognitive- behavior therapy (CBT) and short-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy (STPP), in the treatment of adolescent depression; and (b) examine whether they were delivered with adherence to their respective treatment modalities, and if they could be differentiated from each other and from a reference treatment (a brief psychosocial intervention; BPI). The study also aimed to identify shared and distinct techniques used within and across the three treatments. Audiotapes (N = 230) of therapy sessions collected as part of a trial were blind double-rated using the Comparative Psychotherapy Process Scale (Hilsenroth, Ackerman, Blagys, Baity, & Mooney, 2003; Hilsenroth, Defife, Blake, & Cromer, 2007), which includes subscales for Cognitive-Behavioral and Psychodynamic- Interpersonal techniques. The treatments were delivered with reasonable fidelity and there was clear differentiation in the use of CBT and STPP, and between these two established psychological therapies and BPI. An item-level analysis identified techniques used across all three treatments, techniques that were shared between BPI and CBT, and techniques that were unique to CBT and STPP

The impacts of telecommuting in Dublin

Telecommuting has been perceived as an effective means of reducing commuter related trips, travel time and emissions. Previously, the lack of access to broadband Internet connection and teleconferencing software from home has acted as a barrier to telecommuting regularly or at all. However, with advances in information and communication technology in recent years telecommuting is becoming a viable option for employers and employees to undertake. This paper examines the current trends of full day and part day telecommuting in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA), and attempts to ascertain the most influential drivers and constraints related to telecommuting. The research presented estimates of the environmental benefits from individuals that telecommute. Finally, this paper seeks to determine the magnitude of carbon emissions savings from individuals adopting telecommuting and provides a social cost of carbon saving value. The survey results presented suggest that approximately 44% of the population of the GDA telecommute at least once a month. The findings also indicate that needing contact with colleagues is the most influential constraint to telecommuting, while greater flexibility and avoiding travelling in peak periods are the most important drivers in the propensity to telecommute. Finally, this study shows that there are substantial carbon reductions and social cost of carbon savings. Thus illustrating how telecommuting can be a viable and sustainable policy in the GDA or in other similar sized regions

Replication factory activation can be decoupled from the replication timing program by modulating Cdk levels

In the metazoan replication timing program, clusters of replication origins located in different subchromosomal domains fire at different times during S phase. We have used Xenopus laevis egg extracts to drive an accelerated replication timing program in mammalian nuclei. Although replicative stress caused checkpoint-induced slowing of the timing program, inhibition of checkpoint kinases in an unperturbed S phase did not accelerate it. Lowering cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) activity slowed both replication rate and progression through the timing program, whereas raising Cdk activity increased them. Surprisingly, modest alteration of Cdk activity changed the amount of DNA synthesized during different stages of the timing program. This was associated with a change in the number of active replication factories, whereas the distribution of origins within active factories remained relatively normal. The ability of Cdks to differentially effect replication initiation, factory activation, and progression through the timing program provides new insights into the way that chromosomal DNA replication is organized during S phase

Towards microbiome-informed dietary recommendations for promoting metabolic and mental health: opinion papers of the MyNewGut project

The gut microbiota coexists in partnership with the human host through adaptations to environmental and physiological changes that help maintain dynamic homeostatic healthy states. Break-down of this delicate balance under sustained exposure to stressors (e.g. unhealthy diets) can, however, contribute to the onset of disease. Diet is a key modifiable environmental factor that modulates the gut microbiota and its metabolic capacities that, in turn, could impact human physiology. On this basis, the diet and the gut microbiota could act as synergistic forces that provide resilience against disease or that speed the progress from health to disease states. Associations between unhealthy dietary patterns, non-communicable diseases and intestinal dysbiosis can be explained by this hypothesis. Translational studies showing that dietary-induced alterations in microbial communities recapitulate some of the pathological features of the original host further support this notion. In this introductory paper by the European project MyNewGut, we briefly summarize the investigations conducted to better understand the role of dietary patterns and food components in metabolic and mental health and the specificities of the microbiome-mediating mechanisms. We also discuss how advances in the understanding of the microbiome's role in dietary health effects can help to provide acceptable scientific grounds on which to base dietary advice for promoting healthy living

Bis(2-acetylpyridine-κ2 N,O)silver(I) tetra­fluoridoborate: a complex with silver in a seesaw coordination geometry

The reaction of 2-acetylpyridine with silver(I) tetra­fluorido­borate leads to the discrete title complex, [Ag(C7H7NO)2]BF4, in the cation of which the Ag atom is coordinated by two 2-acetylpyridine ligands, each of which is N,O-bidentate, albeit with stronger bonding to the N atoms [Ag—N = 2.2018 (15) and 2.2088 (14) Å; Ag—O = 2.5380 (13) and 2.5454 (13) Å]. The four-coordinate Ag atom has a seesaw coordination geometry with a τ4 index of 0.51. The tetra­fluoridoborate anion is disordered over two orientations with 0.568 (10):0.432 (10) occupancies

Objectively measured physical activity and cardiac biomarkers: A cross sectional population based study in older men.

BACKGROUND: N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and high sensitivity Troponin T (hsTnT) are markers of cardiac injury used in diagnosis of heart failure and myocardial infarction respectively, and associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Since physical activity is protective against cardiovascular disease and heart failure, we investigated whether higher levels of physical activity, and less sedentary behaviour were associated with lower NT-proBNP and hsTnT. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cross sectional study of 1130 men, age 70-91years, from the British Regional Heart Study, measured in 2010-2012. Fasting blood samples were analysed for NT-proBNP and hsTnT. Physical activity and sedentary behaviour were measured using ActiGraph GT3X accelerometers. Relationships between activity and NT-proBNP or hsTnT were non-linear; biomarker levels were lower with higher total activity, steps, moderate/vigorous activity and light activity only at low to moderate levels of activity. For example, for each additional 10min of moderate/vigorous activity, NT-proBNP was lower by 35.7% (95% CI -47.9, -23.6) and hsTnT by 8.4% (95% CI -11.1, -5.6), in men who undertook <25 or 50min of moderate/vigorous activity per day respectively. Biomarker levels increased linearly with increasing sedentary behaviour, but not independently of moderate/vigorous activity. CONCLUSION: Associations between biomarkers and moderate/vigorous activity (and between hsTnT and light activity) were independent of sedentary behaviour, suggesting activity is driving the relationships. In these older men with concomitantly low levels of physical activity, activity may be more important in protecting against cardiac health deterioration in less active individuals, although reverse causality might be operating