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DNA Methylation in Genes Associated with the Evolution of Ageing and Disease: A Critical Review
Get PDFAgeing is characterised by a physical decline in biological functioning which results in a progressive risk of mortality with time. As a biological phenomenon, it is underpinned by the dysregulation of a myriad of complex processes. Recently, however, ever-increasing evidence has associated epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation (DNAm) with age-onset pathologies, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. These diseases compromise healthspan. Consequently, there is a medical imperative to understand the link between epigenetic ageing, and healthspan. Evolutionary theory provides a unique way to gain new insights into epigenetic ageing and health. This review will: (1) provide a brief overview of the main evolutionary theories of ageing; (2) discuss recent genetic evidence which has revealed alleles that have pleiotropic effects on fitness at different ages in humans; (3) consider the effects of DNAm on pleiotropic alleles, which are associated with age related disease; (4) discuss how age related DNAm changes resonate with the mutation accumulation, disposable soma and programmed theories of ageing; (5) discuss how DNAm changes associated with caloric restriction intersect with the evolution of ageing; and (6) conclude by discussing how evolutionary theory can be used to inform investigations which quantify age-related DNAm changes which are linked to age onset pathology
Afrofuturism in clipping.’s Splendor & Misery
No full textThis article examines the manner by which clipping.’s 2016 album Splendor & Misery—a conceptual hip-hop space opera—freely enlists and reclaims texts from the African cultural tradition in order to manifest its Afrofuturist agenda. A countercultural movement characterised by a dynamic understanding of the narrative authority held by texts, Afrofuturism rewrites African culture in a speculative vein, granting African and Afrodiasporic peoples a culturally empowered means of writing their own future. The process by which Afrofuturism reclaims and rewrites culture is paralleled within Splendor & Misery through the literary device of mise en abyme; just as the album itself does, its central protagonist rewrites narratives of African cultures and traditions in an act of counterculture
A town between dialects: Accent levelling, psycho-social orientation and identity in Merseyside, UK
No full text© John Benjamins Publishing Company. This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a published work that appeared in final form in [P. Auer, J. C. Reina, G. Kaufmann (Eds.) Language Variation - European Perspectives IV: Selected papers from the Sixth International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 6), Freiburg, June 2011. https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.14]. The final published work can be accessed: https://benjamins.com/catalog/silv.14Speakers’ psycho-social orientation and social knowledge have often been identified as having an important role in linguistic change. We know, for example, that speakers’ adoption of linguistic features from a neighbouring region often correlates with their positive social orientation towards that region (Llamas 2007), and that their social orientation can be discussed with reference to their interpretation of physical, political and social ‘boundaries’ (Llamas 2010). Southport, located 17 miles north of the large industrial city of Liverpool, is historically an independent borough but was absorbed into Merseyside in 1974. Southport and Liverpool are well connected by frequent transport links and, given the high levels of contact between people, it has been predicted that phonetic features of the Liverpool accent will diffuse into the traditional Lancashire accent of Southport (cf. Grey & Richardson 2007). However, a complicating factor is Liverpool’s negative stereotype (Montgomery 2007), which may be predicted to act as a barrier to the diffusion of Liverpool features.
This paper aims to analyse the diffusion of two local Liverpool features –the lenition of intervocalic and word-final /t/ and /k/ – in speech from a corpus of 39 speakers stratified by age, gender and socio-economic status. I show that despite the links between the two locations, the features of Liverpool are not diffusing into Southport speech as rapidly as originally hypothesised. The second aim is to investigate whether there is a correlation between speakers’ language use and their spatial mobility patterns by mapping their external (contact) and extra-linguistic (attitudinal) behaviour onto their linguistic production. I show that varying patterns of contact could provide an explanation for the reduced level of diffusion of Liverpool features.
In conclusion, I argue that understanding speakers’ psycho-social orientations and social awareness, in conjunction with correlative patterns of speech production is crucial for explaining language change
What are the aetiology, drives and experiences of the non-sexual adult baby?
Get PDFAdult Babies (ABs) are predominantly categorised as paraphiliacs, kink practitioners or fetishists. However, whilst this may be true for some within the Adult Baby/Diaper Lover (ABDL) community, this stance does not consider a subgroup of the community whose practice is devoid of sexual or adult gratifications. A Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) methodology was employed to capture the lived experience, historic and current, of a sample of the UK ABDL community by answering the question “what are the aetiology, drives and experiences of the non-sexual adult baby?” 10 participants were interviewed and the data analysed by single coder analysis. The key themes identified within the data were: a non-sexual process; a history of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs); early onset; the juvenile process is not limited to an infantile process; the juvenile configuration is not bound to gender; the process is experienced as intractable (until apposite therapeutic intervention); the juvenile process is inherently about affect management. From these findings a theoretical framework, Trauma Induced Age Regressive Process (TIARP), was developed.
It is a finding of this study that, for this specific subgroup of the UK ABDL community, the aetiology of said behaviours lies in developmental trauma, itself a distinguishing feature demarcating this specific subgroup from the broader ABDL community. The data from this sample confirmed the presence of a discrete subgroup of the UK ABDL community whose experiences and drives are unconnected to paraphilic infantilism or fetishistic and kink practices. Additionally, as this thesis will evidence, this subgroup is vulnerable in the wider social milieu, their practice being erroneously conflated with paedophilic intent and being subject to sexual predation. The TIARP framework is introduced and discussed, as too are the implications and limitations of this research
Understanding active travel as a public health issue in Greater Manchester: A figurational sociology study
Get PDFSeveral policies in the United Kingdom (UK) have highlighted the multifaceted benefits to be gained from active travel (AT), and in doing so, have increasingly positioned AT as a public health issue. However, little is known about the experiences and views of public health individuals in relation to AT. Accordingly, this thesis explores the realities of AT as a public health issue, focusing on public health figurations in Greater Manchester (GM). GM was identified as an area of interest because of ‘devolvement deals’ in health and transport. The devolution deals afforded GM leaders with greater powers to make decisions, separate from national government. Importantly for this study, health devolution policies focused heavily on ‘shifts’ towards ill-health prevention, where AT was described as a key activity.
The study was informed by figurational sociology in order to trace the relational processes formed and maintained across participants’ figurations. Primary data consisted of 42 semi-structured interviews with people in various roles related to public health. Thematic analysis was applied to the data, generating four theoretically informed themes.
Findings illustrated how various processes meant that AT work within public health figurations in GM was often more constrained than it was enabled. Constraining processes included: habitual attachments to cars and car dominated environments; enduring financial constraints; entrenched medicalised and individualistic habituses amongst figurations. These processes meant that AT programmes were regularly pushed to the peripheries of key concerns. This was strongly related to the relatively weak power of those most interested in AT to counter the stronger collective power of those who prioritised more treatment-centred work. This was exacerbated by a heavy reliance on assumptions that individuals in GM were well-placed to be ‘successful’ in implementing devolution. However, the more detailed elements of implementation were not deliberated until after the government’s financial deal. Here the realities were found to be quite different from some early, more fantasy-laden, intentions, which contributed to stagnation for ‘newer’ public health issues such as AT.
A further layer of complexity was that many were, to varying degrees, dependent on councillors when seeking to make AT changes, as councillors were often closest to the centre of power dynamics in local decision-making. However, there appeared to be disparity between public health aspirations for evidence-based policy making, and the political forms of decision making that councillors had become accustomed to. In particular, councillors often placed greater importance on communication with local residents. Decisions on AT were therefore often the outcomes of blends between evidence, political and financial thinking, and various ideologies, often leading to partial stasis for AT within public health figurations
Understanding Marketing Responses to a Tax on Sugary Drinks: A Qualitative Interview Study in the United Kingdom, 2019
Get PDFBackground: The World Health Organization recommends that countries implement fiscal policies to reduce the health impacts of sugary drinks. Few studies have fully examined the responses of industry to these policies, and whether they support or undermine health benefits of sugary drinks taxes. We aimed to explore the changes that sugary drinks companies may make to their marketing, and underlying decision-making processes, in response to such a tax. Methods: Following introduction of the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) in 2018, we undertook one-to-one semi-structured interviews with UK stakeholders with experience of the strategic decision-making or marketing of soft drink companies. We purposively recruited interviewees using seed and snowball sampling. We conducted telephone interviews with 6 representatives from each of industry, academia and civil society (total n=18), which were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Four transcripts were double-coded, three were excluded from initial coding to allow comparison; and findings were checked by interviewees. Results: Themes were organised into a theoretical framework that reveals a cyclical, iterative and ongoing process of soft drink company marketing decision-making, which was accelerated by the SDIL. Decisions about marketing affect a product’s position, or niche, in the market and were primarily intended to maintain profits. A product’s position is enacted through various marketing activities including reformulation and price variation, and non-marketing activities like lobbying. A soft drink company’s selection of marketing activities appeared to be influenced by their internal context, such as brand strength, and external context, such as consumer trends and policy. For example, a company with low brand strength and an awareness of trends for reducing sugar consumption may be more likely to reformulate to lower-sugar alternatives. Conclusion: The theoretical framework suggests that marketing responses following the SDIL were coordinated and context-dependent, potentially explaining observed heterogeneity in responses across the industry
An International Validation of the Bolton Unistride Scale (BUSS) of Tenacity
Get PDFAcademic success at University is increasingly believed to be a combination of personal characteristics like grit, resilience, strength-use, self-control, mind-set and wellbeing. The authors have developed a short 12-item measure of academic tenacity, the Bolton Uni-Stride Scale (BUSS) which incorporates these elements. Previous work in the UK had established the reliability and validity of the BUSS. The present paper reports the findings of an International validation of BUSS across 30 countries (n = 1043). Participants completed the BUSS alongside other recognised scales. Factor analysis revealed an almost identical two-factor solution to previous work and the reliability and validity of the scale were supported using an international sample. The authors recommend however that the scale be used as a single score combining all 12 items. In the light of this, the authors suggest that the BUSS will be a useful measure to incorporate in studies of academic attainment
Volume IV: Manufactured Things
No full textThis book is one of a five-volume series, Victorian Material Culture (general editors Tatiana Kontou and Vicky Mills), designed to present primary source materials on aspects of Victorian culture. This volume (volume IV) focuses on manufactured things, including textiles (fabrics, clothing, paper, carpets etc.), metal goods (cutlery, pins, locks etc.), and household items (including ceramics, glassware, soap, candles etc.). The volume's editors, Wynne and Yates, offer detailed introductions to each section as well as an extensive introduction to the whole volume, which demonstrates the significance of manufacturing to the political, social and cultural environment of the Victorian period
Integrating theory and practice in physical education: Preservice Teachers' views on practitioner research
Get PDFThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Curriculum Studies in Health and Physical Education on 25/03/2022, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/25742981.2022.2056066Practitioner enquiry is a well-established approach to professional learning that can facilitate teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and improve their educational practice. That said, practitioner enquiry is less frequently seen in physical education (PE) initial teacher education and in the general practice of PE teachers. This study examines the experiences and perceptions of 17 secondary PE preservice teachers (PTs) who completed a small-scale practitioner enquiry as part of their one-year postgraduate initial teacher education programme. A questionnaire and group interviews - conducted before, during, and at the end of the small-scale enquiry - were used to generate data. The findings revealed that the practitioner enquiry promoted greater collaboration between the PTs and their school-based mentors as they worked together to develop their shared understanding of the teaching and learning process. The practitioner enquiry also facilitated the PTs’ critical engagement with pedagogical research, enhanced their curricular knowledge and nurtured their independent professional identity
Editorial: Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): The Mental Health, Resilience, and Communication Resources for the Short- and Long-term Challenges Faced by Healthcare Workers
Get PDFDuring the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world initially focused on measures to suppress COVID-19 transmission and protect their populations by developing vaccines and drug treatments for the most vulnerable and a host of social actions, including implementing social distancing, working from home, travel restrictions, lockdowns, and face coverings. Nearly 2 years after the initial outbreak, at the time of writing this editorial, and through research conducted as part of this Research Topic, it is clear that the mental health impacts of COVID-19 on healthcare workers (HCW) are significant. There is an urgent need to understand and address these impacts (Greenberg et al., 2020). This is particularly true given the World Health Organisation has outlined a series of mental health and psychosocial considerations aimed explicitly at HCWs (World Health Organisation, 2020). The present Research Topic on Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) and HCWs has added to the scientific knowledge in several main areas, including barriers and enablers to healthcare delivery, understanding HCWs' mental health and well-being, resilience, coordination and communication within the workforce, and specific interventions to promote mental health and well-being
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