A Preference for Mephedrone: Drug Markets, Drugs of Choice, and the Emerging “Legal High” Scene

This study focuses on individuals' preferences for mephedrone, a new psychoactive substance that has emerged in several countries. We examine the reasons for mephedrone preferences, and describe the positive and negative effects of the drug experience, route of administration and consumers' views about the legality of mephedrone. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 45 adults who had used mephedrone since January 2010. Respondents resided in one of two jurisdictions that were characterized by different legislative controls over mephedrone. The findings suggest the importance of macro-level drug market factors that shaped people's preferences for mephedrone. Additionally, respondents' preferences were guided by pharmacological properties that helped them conceal the effects of mephedrone in public and semi-public spaces. Respondents were not deterred by the (impending) change from legal to illicit drug. The findings have implications for the study of localized drug markets, and in particular, legislative controls over emerging legal highs.

Systemic psychotherapy as an intervention for post-traumatic stress responses: an introduction, theoretical rationale and overview of developments in an emerging field of interest

The purpose of this article is to critically examine the literature to provide a rationale for including systemic family therapy (SFT) in the psycho-social treatment of people suffering the impact of post-traumatic stress (PTS). Attention is drawn to the relatively underdeveloped academic literature on PTS and the family. The impact of PTS is conceptualized within a psycho-social framework and the current evidence base for psycho-social interventions for PTS responses is described, highlighting the opportunity and need to undergird this area of daily practice. The impact of PTS on the family at multiple levels is identified, emphasizing its recursive nature. The case for SFT is articulated and a range of models of family intervention for PTS briefly reviewed, concluding with an emphasis on Walsh's key processes in family resilience as a framework for practice.

The emerging relevance of the cysteine protease Cathepsin S in disease

Cathepsin S is a lysosomal cysteine protease that has been shown to play a key role in MHC class II antigen presentation. Consequently, it has been extensively evaluated as a therapeutic target in autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. Additionally, clinical and mechanistic evidence is emerging, revealing its inappropriate expression and secretion in a wide range of disease states including atherosclerosis and tumourigenesis. This review covers the known role and consequences of cathepsin S activity in these pathological disorders, highlighting various studies that have demonstrated its utility as a therapeutic target. This review also examines challenges that exist towards the development of agents that specifically target this protease and discusses the studies to date that have applied cathepsin S inhibitors in disease models.

Genomic insights into the origin of parasitism in the emerging plant pathogen Bursaphelenchus xylophilus.

Bursaphelenchus xylophilus is the nematode responsible for a devastating epidemic of pine wilt disease in Asia and Europe, and represents a recent, independent origin of plant parasitism in nematodes, ecologically and taxonomically distinct from other nematodes for which genomic data is available. As well as being an important pathogen, the B. xylophilus genome thus provides a unique opportunity to study the evolution and mechanism of plant parasitism. Here, we present a high-quality draft genome sequence from an inbred line of B. xylophilus, and use this to investigate the biological basis of its complex ecology which combines fungal feeding, plant parasitic and insect-associated stages. We focus particularly on putative parasitism genes as well as those linked to other key biological processes and demonstrate that B. xylophilus is well endowed with RNA interference effectors, peptidergic neurotransmitters (including the first description of ins genes in a parasite) stress response and developmental genes and has a contracted set of chemosensory receptors. B. xylophilus has the largest number of digestive proteases known for any nematode and displays expanded families of lysosome pathway genes, ABC transporters and cytochrome P450 pathway genes. This expansion in digestive and detoxification proteins may reflect the unusual diversity in foods it exploits and environments it encounters during its life cycle. In addition, B. xylophilus possesses a unique complement of plant cell wall modifying proteins acquired by horizontal gene transfer, underscoring the impact of this process on the evolution of plant parasitism by nematodes. Together with the lack of proteins homologous to effectors from other plant parasitic nematodes, this confirms the distinctive molecular basis of plant parasitism in the Bursaphelenchus lineage. The genome sequence of B. xylophilus adds to the diversity of genomic data for nematodes, and will be an important resource in understanding the biology of this unusual parasite.

Developmental care for high-risk newborns:Emerging science, clinical application, and continuity from newborn intensive care unit to community

Neonatology has optimized medical outcomes for high-risk newborns yet neurodevelopmental outcomes continue to be a concern. Basic science, clinical research, and environmental design perspectives have shown the impact of the caregiving environment on the developing brain and the role of professional caregivers in providing supportive intervention to both infants and their families. This recognition has prompted a focus on early developmentally supportive care (DSC) for high-risk newborns both in the hospital and in community follow up. DSC has emerged as a recognized standard of care in most neonatal intensive care units. Still, many questions remain and much integrative research is needed.

Evidence from a Baseline Study of Teachers and Young People in Northern Ireland: Implications for Peace Education.

Peace education initiatives in schools are often based on social psychological theories assuming that social identity affects ingroup and outgroup attitudes and, in turn, behaviors relating to relevant outgroups. However, research evidence on the role of young people’s social identity has often failed to take account of different social identity dimensions or to conceptualise outgroup behavior in the context of young people’s understandings of the social world. While recent research relating to bullying and bystander behavior amongst young people has addressed the latter point, this has rarely been considered in conjunction with a differentiated view of social identity. This paper is therefore distinctive as it will address the role of social identity dimensions with regards to behavior as captured in bystander scenarios relating to intergroup discrimination. This is particularly important in the context of divided societies, where peace education initiatives are crucial in promoting positive community relations for the future and where such initiative may be hampered by communities’ concerns about loss of identity and hardened intergroup attitudes. Furthermore, previous research frequently highlighted teachers’ fears to tackle outgroup attitudes in the classroom, especially in contexts where pupils and the wider school community are seen as entrenched in community divisions (Hughes, Donnelly, Hewstone, Gallagher & Carlisle, 2010). However, there is no research investigating the relationship between pupils’ attitudes and teacher confidence to talk about such issues in the classroom, which is explored in this paper.

In the context of Northern Ireland, a divided society emerging from sectarian conflict, social identity, outgroup attitudes and outgroup behaviours have been key concepts addressed by peace educators for many years. Building on this work, this paper provides a detailed picture of young people’s strength of group identification and their willingness to explore ingroup perspectives, sectarian attitudes and their reported willingness to challenge sectarian bullying. Using data from a baseline survey, which forms part of a randomized control trial investigating the effect of an educational intervention aimed to promote reconciliation, the sample involved young people of different denominational backgrounds, attending separate school sectors. The baseline data will be used to compare with post intervention data. Therefore, the data and its findings would be of particular interest to educators and policy makers in other European countries who are working to develop peace education interventions in societies emerging from conflict. Additionally, this paper considers the results from a baseline teacher survey, collected before training and teaching of the intervention began. The teacher survey focused on confidence in tackling sectarian issues in the classroom, previous experience of teaching such issues and their hopes and concerns for the reconciliation intervention.

This paper therefore set out to investigate the relationship between dimensional concept of social identity, sectarian attitudes and pupils’ reported willingness to challenge sectarian bullying and to compare this with their teachers’ attitudes to teaching about sectarian issues in the classroom.



Method

The pupil sample included 35 primary and post-primary schools and about 800 pupils from 8-11 years old who completed an online questionnaire in December 2011 and January 2012. Main instruments for young people’s survey included an adapted version of the Multi-ethnic identity measure (Phinney, 1992) incorporating the dimensions identity affirmation and exploration, outgroup attitude scales, including an adaptation of the social distance measure (Bogardus, 1947), as well as a measure adapted from Palmer and Cameron (2011) involving scenarios to capture pupils’ intentions in bystander situations relating to intergroup discrimination. Results are analysed using regression analysis and take account of potential gender and religious differences. The teacher questionnaire was completed by the 35 primary and post-primary teachers who will deliver the intervention. Results are analysed in terms of how teachers’ responses compare with their pupil attitudes by considering their confidence in tackling sectarian issues in the classroom and how their previous experience and training relate to their hopes and concerns for the intervention.


Expected Outcomes

Results from the young people’s survey are discussed in the light of the role of social identity dimensions and their relationship to sectarian attitudes and reported bystander behaviour in sectarian school incidents. Furthermore, results related to pupils’ sectarian attitudes will be compared with teachers’ reported confidence in tackling sectarianism in the classroom. The teacher questionnaire also presents interesting findings in relation to teachers’ previous training and experience and how this may influence different perspectives on peace and reconciliation interventions and their expectations of what these could achieve. The paper concludes with potential implications for peace education initiatives and related teacher training in Northern Ireland and beyond. The implications will be of particular interest to policy makers, educators and those working in the area of peace education to design and implement interventions.


References

Bogardus, E. S. (1947) Measurement of Personal-Group Relations. Sociometry, 10: 4: 306–311. Hughes, J., Donnelly, C., Hewstone, M., Gallagher, T. & Carlisle, K. (2010) School partnerships and reconciliation: An evaluation of school collaboration in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Queen’s University Belfast. Available online: http://www.schoolsworkingtogether.com/documents/School%20collaboration%20in%20NI%202010.pdf. (accessed 27th Jan 2010) Palmer, S. & Cameron, L. (2011, May). What are the moderators and mediators of children’s bystander behaviour in the context of intergroup discrimination? Paper session presented at the UNA Global Biennial Conference 2011: Building Peaceable Communities: The Power of Early Childhood, Amsterdam, Holland. Phinney, J. S. (1992). The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure: A new scale for use with diverse groups. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7, 156–176.

Regulatory or Regulating Publics? The European Union’s Regulation of Emerging Health Technologies and Citizen Participation

‘Citizen participation’ includes various participatory techniques and is frequently viewed as an unproblematic and important social good when used as part of the regulation of the innovation and implementation of science and technology. This is perhaps especially evident in debates around ‘anticipatory governance’ or ‘upstream engagement’. Here, we interrogate this thesis using the example of the European Union’s regulation of emerging health technologies (such as nanotechnology). In this case, citizen participation in regulatory debate is concerned with innovative objects for medical application that are considered to be emergent or not yet concrete. Through synthesising insights from law, regulatory studies, critical theory, and science and technology studies (STS), we seek to cast new light on the promises, paradoxes and pitfalls of citizen participation as a tool or technology of regulation in itself. As such we aim to generate a new vantage point from which to view the values and sociotechnical imaginaries that are both ‘designed-in’ and ‘designed-out’ of citizen participation. In so doing, we show not only how publics (do not) regulate technologies, but also how citizens themselves are regulated through the techniques of participation. © The Author [2012].

Belfast, the emerging city:1850-1914

This explores the rich social, cultural and economic life of Belfast at the point when it was emerging as Ireland's largest city and a key player in the British industrial and commercial landscape. Drawing on the research of established and emerging scholars this provides a series of snapshots of many aspects of the city's devlopment and its people at this pivotal time in its history