‘What’s it like to have ME?’ The discursive construction of ME in computer-mediated communication and face-to-face interaction

ME/CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) is a debilitating illness for which no cause or medical tests have been identified. Debates over its nature have generated interest from qualitative researchers. However, participants are difficult to recruit because of the nature of their condition. Therefore, this study explores the utility of the internet as a means of eliciting accounts. We analyse data from focus groups and the internet in order to ascertain the extent to which previous research findings apply to the internet domain. Interviews were conducted among 49 members of internet (38 chatline, 11 personal) and 7 members of two face-to-face support groups. Discourse analysis of descriptions and accounts of ME/CFS revealed similar devices and interactional concerns in both internet and face-to-face communication. Participants constructed their condition as serious, enigmatic and not psychological. These functioned to deflect problematic assumptions about ME/CFS and to manage their accountability for the illness and its effects

Gamma-ray bursts and terrestrial planetary atmospheres

We describe results of modeling the effects on Earth-like planets of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) within a few kiloparsecs. A primary effect is generation of nitrogen oxide compounds which deplete ozone. Ozone depletion leads to an increase in solar UVB radiation at the surface, enhancing DNA damage, particularly in marine microorganisms such as phytoplankton. In addition, we expect increased atmospheric opacity due to buildup of nitrogen dioxide produced by the burst and enhanced precipitation of nitric acid. We review here previous work on this subject and discuss recent developments, including further discussion of our estimates of the rates of impacting GRBs and the possible role of short-duration bursts.Comment: 12 pages including 5 figures (4 in color). Added discussion of GRB rates and biological effects. Accepted for publication in New Journal of Physics, for special issue "Focus on Gamma-Ray Bursts

The Electromyographic Threshold in Girls and Women.

BACKGROUND: The electromyographic threshold (EMGTh) is thought to reflect increased high-threshold/type-II motor-unit (MU) recruitment and was shown higher in boys than in men. Women differ from men in muscular function. PURPOSE: Establish whether females' EMGTh and girls‒women differences are different than males'. METHODS: Nineteen women (22.9±3.3yrs) and 20 girls (10.3±1.1yrs) had surface EMG recorded from the right and left vastus lateralis muscles during ramped cycle-ergometry to exhaustion. EMG root-mean-squares were averaged per pedal revolution. EMGTh was determined as the least residual sum of squares for any two regression-line data divisions, if the trace rose ≥3SD above its regression line. EMGTh was expressed as % final power-output (%Pmax) and %VO2pk power (%PVO2pk). RESULTS: EMGTh was detected in 13 (68%) of women, but only 9 (45%) of girls (p<0.005) and tended to be higher in the girls (%Pmax= 88.6±7.0 vs. 83.0±6.9%, p=0.080; %PVO2pk= (101.6±17.6 vs. 90.6±7.8%, p=0.063). When EMGTh was undetected it was assumed to occur at 100%Pmax or beyond. Consequently, EMGTh values turned significantly higher in girls than in women (94.8±7.4 vs. 88.4±9.9 %Pmax, p=0.026; and 103.2±11.7 vs. 95.2±9.9 %PVO2pk, p=0.028). CONCLUSIONS: During progressive exercise, girls appear to rely less on higher-threshold/type-II MUs than do women, suggesting differential muscle activation strategy

Incorporation by coordination and release of the iron chelator drug deferiprone from zinc-based metal–organic frameworks

A series of new zinc-based metal–organic framework materials has been prepared in which deferiprone is incorporated as a chelating ligand on infinite or tri-zinc secondary building units following deprotonation. Deferiprone is immediately released from the MOFs on treatments with 1 N hydrochloric acid or buffer, but slow release is observed in ethanoic acid

Bibliometrics of systematic reviews : analysis of citation rates and journal impact factors

Background: Systematic reviews are important for informing clinical practice and health policy. The aim of this study was to examine the bibliometrics of systematic reviews and to determine the amount of variance in citations predicted by the journal impact factor (JIF) alone and combined with several other characteristics. Methods: We conducted a bibliometric analysis of 1,261 systematic reviews published in 2008 and the citations to them in the Scopus database from 2008 to June 2012. Potential predictors of the citation impact of the reviews were examined using descriptive, univariate and multiple regression analysis. Results: The mean number of citations per review over four years was 26.5 (SD +/-29.9) or 6.6 citations per review per year. The mean JIF of the journals in which the reviews were published was 4.3 (SD +/-4.2). We found that 17% of the reviews accounted for 50% of the total citations and 1.6% of the reviews were not cited. The number of authors was correlated with the number of citations (r = 0.215, P =5.16) received citations in the bottom quartile (eight or fewer), whereas 9% of reviews published in the lowest JIF quartile (<=2.06) received citations in the top quartile (34 or more). Six percent of reviews in journals with no JIF were also in the first quartile of citations. Conclusions: The JIF predicted over half of the variation in citations to the systematic reviews. However, the distribution of citations was markedly skewed. Some reviews in journals with low JIFs were well-cited and others in higher JIF journals received relatively few citations; hence the JIF did not accurately represent the number of citations to individual systematic reviews

Evaluation of Rehabilitation of Memory in Neurological Disabilities (ReMiND): a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE:The evidence for the effectiveness of memory rehabilitation is inconclusive. The aim was to compare the effectiveness of two group memory rehabilitation programmes with a self-help group control. DESIGN:Single-blind randomized controlled trial. PARTICIPANTS:Participants with memory problems following traumatic brain injury, stroke or multiple sclerosis were recruited from community settings. INTERVENTIONS:Participants were randomly allocated, in cohorts of four, to compensation or restitution group treatment programmes or a self-help group control. All programmes were manual-based and comprised two individual and ten weekly group sessions. MAIN MEASURES:Memory functions, mood, and activities of daily living were assessed at baseline and five and seven months after randomization. RESULTS:There were 72 participants (mean age 47.7, SD 10.2 years; 32 men). There was no significant effect of treatment on the Everyday Memory Questionnaire (P = 0.97). At seven months the mean scores were comparable (restitution 36.6, compensation 41.0, self-help 44.1). However, there was a significant difference between groups on the Internal Memory Aids Questionnaire (P = 0.002). The compensation and restitution groups each used significantly more internal memory aids than the self-help group (P 0.05). CONCLUSIONS:There results show few statistically significant effects of either compensation or restitution memory group treatment as compared with a self-help group control. Further randomized trials of memory rehabilitation are needed

‘You can’t stand on a corner and talk about it …’: Medicinal cannabis use, impression management and the analytical status of interviews

In this article, I examine how four medicinal cannabis users used impression management during in-depth, qualitative interviews to attend to self-presentational concerns. I examine the rhetorical strategies and narratives articulated by the participants while also attending to the role that I played in co-construction as the interviewer. Later I discuss how, although the participants’ accounts are occasioned by the interviews, they can still provide significant insights into the social worlds of the participants beyond the interviews. While discussions about whether to treat interviews as topic, resource or both are not new, I argue that we can treat interviews as both topic and resource because impression management is a product of the individual’s habitus and it and the accounts it produces are part of their social world

Review Article: When 'life itself' goes to work: Reviewing shifts in organizational life through the lens of biopower

This review article suggests the English publication of Foucault’s lectures on biopower, The Birth of Biopolitics (2008), might be useful for extending our understandings of how organizational power relations have changed over the last 20 years. Unlike disciplinary power, which constrains and delimits individuals, the concept of biopower emphasizes how our life abilities and extra-work qualities (bios or ‘life itself’) are now key objects of exploitation – particularly under neoliberalism. The term biocracy is introduced to analyse recent reports on workplace experiences symptomatic of biopower. Finally, the conceptual weaknesses of biopower for organizational theorizing are critically evaluated to help develop the idea for future scholarship

Lower versus Higher Glycemic Criteria for Diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes.

BACKGROUND: Treatment of gestational diabetes improves maternal and infant health, although diagnostic criteria remain unclear. METHODS: We randomly assigned women at 24 to 32 weeks' gestation in a 1:1 ratio to be evaluated for gestational diabetes with the use of lower or higher glycemic criteria for diagnosis. The lower glycemic criterion was a fasting plasma glucose level of at least 92 mg per deciliter (≥5.1 mmol per liter), a 1-hour level of at least 180 mg per deciliter (≥10.0 mmol per liter), or a 2-hour level of at least 153 mg per deciliter (≥8.5 mmol per liter). The higher glycemic criterion was a fasting plasma glucose level of at least 99 mg per deciliter (≥5.5 mmol per liter) or a 2-hour level of at least 162 mg per deciliter (≥9.0 mmol per liter). The primary outcome was the birth of an infant who was large for gestational age (defined as a birth weight above the 90th percentile according to Fenton-World Health Organization standards). Secondary outcomes were maternal and infant health. RESULTS: A total of 4061 women underwent randomization. Gestational diabetes was diagnosed in 310 of 2022 women (15.3%) in the lower-glycemic-criteria group and in 124 of 2039 women (6.1%) in the higher-glycemic-criteria group. Among 2019 infants born to women in the lower-glycemic-criteria group, 178 (8.8%) were large for gestational age, and among 2031 infants born to women in the higher-glycemic-criteria group, 181 (8.9%) were large for gestational age (adjusted relative risk, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.80 to 1.19; P = 0.82). Induction of labor, use of health services, use of pharmacologic agents, and neonatal hypoglycemia were more common in the lower-glycemic-criteria group than in the higher-glycemic-criteria group. The results for the other secondary outcomes were similar in the two trial groups, and there were no substantial between-group differences in adverse events. Among the women in both groups who had glucose test results that fell between the lower and higher glycemic criteria, those who were treated for gestational diabetes (195 women), as compared with those who were not (178 women), had maternal and infant health benefits, including fewer large-for-gestational-age infants. CONCLUSIONS: The use of lower glycemic criteria for the diagnosis of gestational diabetes did not result in a lower risk of a large-for-gestational-age infant than the use of higher glycemic criteria. (Funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand and others; GEMS Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry number, ACTRN12615000290594.)

Industrial Systems Biology of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Enables Novel Succinic Acid Cell Factory.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the most well characterized eukaryote, the preferred microbial cell factory for the largest industrial biotechnology product (bioethanol), and a robust commerically compatible scaffold to be exploitted for diverse chemical production. Succinic acid is a highly sought after added-value chemical for which there is no native pre-disposition for production and accmulation in S. cerevisiae. The genome-scale metabolic network reconstruction of S. cerevisiae enabled in silico gene deletion predictions using an evolutionary programming method to couple biomass and succinate production. Glycine and serine, both essential amino acids required for biomass formation, are formed from both glycolytic and TCA cycle intermediates. Succinate formation results from the isocitrate lyase catalyzed conversion of isocitrate, and from the alpha-keto-glutarate dehydrogenase catalyzed conversion of alpha-keto-glutarate. Succinate is subsequently depleted by the succinate dehydrogenase complex. The metabolic engineering strategy identified included deletion of the primary succinate consuming reaction, Sdh3p, and interruption of glycolysis derived serine by deletion of 3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase, Ser3p/Ser33p. Pursuing these targets, a multi-gene deletion strain was constructed, and directed evolution with selection used to identify a succinate producing mutant. Physiological characterization coupled with integrated data analysis of transcriptome data in the metabolically engineered strain were used to identify 2nd-round metabolic engineering targets. The resulting strain represents a 30-fold improvement in succinate titer, and a 43-fold improvement in succinate yield on biomass, with only a 2.8-fold decrease in the specific growth rate compared to the reference strain. Intuitive genetic targets for either over-expression or interruption of succinate producing or consuming pathways, respectively, do not lead to increased succinate. Rather, we demonstrate how systems biology tools coupled with directed evolution and selection allows non-intuitive, rapid and substantial re-direction of carbon fluxes in S. cerevisiae, and hence show proof of concept that this is a potentially attractive cell factory for over-producing different platform chemicals