Educating for peace? Citizenship education in Quebec and Northern Ireland

The article explores particularities of citizenship education in divided societies by comparing key concepts and theoretical frameworks underpinning citizenship education curricula in two divided societies, one of which could be described as relatively peaceful and the other as slowly emerging from political violence. A document analysis of the citizenship education curricula in both societies is conducted to compare differences and commonalities of attempts to promote citizenship and peaceful community relations. Conceptualizations of and interrelationships between citizenship, human rights, and peace education are explored in theory and curricular documents in both societies. The discussion reflects on the value of citizenship education in the context of community divisions and its possible impact on sustainable peace in divided societies.

Dust and the Type II-Plateau Supernova 2004et

We present mid-infrared (MIR) observations of the Type II-plateau supernova (SN) 2004et, obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope between 64 and 1406 days past explosion. Late-time optical spectra are also presented. For the period 300-795 days past explosion, we argue that the spectral energy distribution (SED) of SN 2004et comprises (1) a hot component due to emission from optically thick gas, as well as free-bound radiation; (2) a warm component due to newly formed, radioactively heated dust in the ejecta; and (3) a cold component due to an IR echo from the interstellar-medium dust of the host galaxy, NGC 6946. There may also have been a small contribution to the IR SED due to free-free emission from ionized gas in the ejecta. We reveal the first-ever spectroscopic evidence for silicate dust formed in the ejecta of a supernova. This is supported by our detection of a large, but progressively declining, mass of SiO. However, we conclude that the mass of directly detected ejecta dust grew to no more than a few times 10(-4) M-circle dot. We also provide evidence that the ejecta dust formed in comoving clumps of fixed size. We argue that, after about two years past explosion, the appearance of wide, box-shaped optical line profiles was due to the impact of the ejecta on the progenitor circumstellar medium and that the subsequent formation of a cool, dense shell was responsible for a later rise in the MIR flux. This study demonstrates the rich, multifaceted ways in which a typical core-collapse supernova and its progenitor can produce and/or interact with dust grains. The work presented here adds to the growing number of studies that do not support the contention that SNe are responsible for the large mass of observed dust in high-redshift galaxies.

Syntactic Structures in Irish-Language Proverbs

In recent years, linguistic studies into the concept of ‘proverbiality’ have provided paremiologists with a more comprehensive understanding of the form and function of proverbial markers in a wide range of languages. Unfortunately, the Irish language has, until now, not featured in any of these linguistic analyses. This paper seeks to re-address this imbalance and to bring the unique structure and style of Irish-language proverbs to the attention of the international community of paremiologistsfor the first time. This research study applies the general methodology adopted by such scholars as Mahgoub (1948), Silverman-Weinreich (1978) and Arora (1984), toa corpus sample of Irish proverbs and provides both a qualitative and quantitative account of the most salient syntactic structures contained in Irish-language proverbs. Proverbial patterns as well as the collocation of proverbial markers are also discussed.

The prevalence of celiac disease in Europe Results of a centralized international mass screening project

Although the prevalence of celiac disease (CD) has been extensively investigated in recent years, an accurate estimate of CD frequency in the European population is still lacking. The aims of this study were: 1) to establish accurately the prevalence of CD in a large sample of the European population (Finland, Germany, Italy, and UK), including both children and adults; and 2) to investigate whether the prevalence of CD significantly varies between different areas of the European continent.

Meta-analysis of 32 genome-wide linkage studies of schizophrenia

A genome scan meta-analysis (GSMA) was carried out on 32 independent genome-wide linkage scan analyses that included 3255 pedigrees with 7413 genotyped cases affected with schizophrenia (SCZ) or related disorders. The primary GSMA divided the autosomes into 120 bins, rank-ordered the bins within each study according to the most positive linkage result in each bin, summed these ranks (weighted for study size) for each bin across studies and determined the empirical probability of a given summed rank (P-SR) by simulation. Suggestive evidence for linkage was observed in two single bins, on chromosomes 5q (142-168 Mb) and 2q (103-134 Mb). Genome-wide evidence for linkage was detected on chromosome 2q (119-152 Mb) when bin boundaries were shifted to the middle of the previous bins. The primary analysis met empirical criteria for 'aggregate' genome-wide significance, indicating that some or all of 10 bins are likely to contain loci linked to SCZ, including regions of chromosomes 1, 2q, 3q, 4q, 5q, 8p and 10q. In a secondary analysis of 22 studies of European-ancestry samples, suggestive evidence for linkage was observed on chromosome 8p (16-33 Mb). Although the newer genome-wide association methodology has greater power to detect weak associations to single common DNA sequence variants, linkage analysis can detect diverse genetic effects that segregate in families, including multiple rare variants within one locus or several weakly associated loci in the same region. Therefore, the regions supported by this meta-analysis deserve close attention in future studies. Molecular Psychiatry (2009) 14, 774-785; doi:10.1038/mp.2008.135; published online 30 December 2008

Genome-wide association study identifies five new schizophrenia loci

We examined the role of common genetic variation in schizophrenia in a genome-wide association study of substantial size: a stage 1 discovery sample of 21,856 individuals of European ancestry and a stage 2 replication sample of 29,839 independent subjects. The combined stage 1 and 2 analysis yielded genome-wide significant associations with schizophrenia for seven loci, five of which are new (1p21.3, 2q32.3, 8p23.2, 8q21.3 and 10q24.32-q24.33) and two of which have been previously implicated (6p21.32-p22.1 and 18q21.2). The strongest new finding (P = 1.6 x 10(-11)) was with rs1625579 within an intron of a putative primary transcript for MIR137 (microRNA 137), a known regulator of neuronal development. Four other schizophrenia loci achieving genome-wide significance contain predicted targets of MIR137, suggesting MIR137-mediated dysregulation as a previously unknown etiologic mechanism in schizophrenia. In a joint analysis with a bipolar disorder sample (16,374 affected individuals and 14,044 controls), three loci reached genome-wide significance: CACNA1C (rs4765905, P = 7.0 x 10(-9)), ANK3 (rs10994359, P = 2.5 x 10(-8)) and the ITIH3-ITIH4 region (rs2239547, P = 7.8 x 10(-9)).

Genome-Wide Association Study of Multiplex Schizophrenia Pedigrees

OBJECTIVE The authors used a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of multiply affected families to investigate the association of schizophrenia to common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and rare copy number variants (CNVs). METHOD The family sample included 2,461 individuals from 631 pedigrees (581 in the primary European-ancestry analyses). Association was tested for single SNPs and genetic pathways. Polygenic scores based on family study results were used to predict case-control status in the Schizophrenia Psychiatric GWAS Consortium (PGC) data set, and consistency of direction of effect with the family study was determined for top SNPs in the PGC GWAS analysis. Within-family segregation was examined for schizophrenia-associated rare CNVs. RESULTS No genome-wide significant associations were observed for single SNPs or for pathways. PGC case and control subjects had significantly different genome-wide polygenic scores (computed by weighting their genotypes by log-odds ratios from the family study) (best p=10-17, explaining 0.4% of the variance). Family study and PGC analyses had consistent directions for 37 of the 58 independent best PGC SNPs (p=0.024). The overall frequency of CNVs in regions with reported associations with schizophrenia (chromosomes 1q21.1, 15q13.3, 16p11.2, and 22q11.2 and the neurexin-1 gene [NRXN1]) was similar to previous case-control studies. NRXN1 deletions and 16p11.2 duplications (both of which were transmitted from parents) and 22q11.2 deletions (de novo in four cases) did not segregate with schizophrenia in families. CONCLUSIONS Many common SNPs are likely to contribute to schizophrenia risk, with substantial overlap in genetic risk factors between multiply affected families and cases in large case-control studies. Our findings are consistent with a role for specific CNVs in disease pathogenesis, but the partial segregation of some CNVs with schizophrenia suggests that researchers should exercise caution in using them for predictive genetic testing until their effects in diverse populations have been fully studied.

"The Heart of Irish-Language Proverbs": A Linguo-Stylistic Analysis of Explicit Metaphor

Metaphor has featured frequently in attempts to define the proverb (see Taylor 1931, Whiting 1932, Mieder 1985, 1996), and since the advent of modern paremiological scholarship, it has been identified as one of the most salient markers of ‘proverbiality’ (Arora 1984) across a broad spectrum of world languages. Significant language-specific analyses, such as Klimenko (1946), Silverman-Weinreich (1981), and Arora (1984) have provided valuable qualitative information on the form and function of metaphor in Russian, Yiddish, and Spanish proverbs respectively. Unfortunately, no academic scholarship has engaged with the subject of metaphor in Irish proverbs. This study builds on international paremiological research on metaphor and provides for the first time a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of the form, frequency, and nature of linguistic metaphors in Irish proverbs (1856-1952). Moreover, from the perspective of paremiology, it presents a methodological template and result-set that can be applied cross-linguistically to compare metaphor in the proverbs of other languages.

Genomewide linkage scan of schizophrenia in a large multicenter pedigree sample using single nucleotide polymorphisms

A genomewide linkage scan was carried out in eight clinical samples of informative schizophrenia families. After all quality control checks, the analysis of 707 European-ancestry families included 1615 affected and 1602 unaffected genotyped individuals, and the analysis of all 807 families included 1900 affected and 1839 unaffected individuals. Multipoint linkage analysis with correction for marker-marker linkage disequilibrium was carried out with 5861 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; Illumina version 4.0 linkage map). Suggestive evidence for linkage ( European families) was observed on chromosomes 8p21, 8q24.1, 9q34 and 12q24.1 in nonparametric and/or parametric analyses. In a logistic regression allele-sharing analysis of linkage allowing for intersite heterogeneity, genomewide significant evidence for linkage was observed on chromosome 10p12. Significant heterogeneity was also observed on chromosome 22q11.1. Evidence for linkage across family sets and analyses was most consistent on chromosome 8p21, with a one-LOD support interval that does not include the candidate gene NRG1, suggesting that one or more other susceptibility loci might exist in the region. In this era of genomewide association and deep resequencing studies, consensus linkage regions deserve continued attention, given that linkage signals can be produced by many types of genomic variation, including any combination of multiple common or rare SNPs or copy number variants in a region. Molecular Psychiatry (2009) 14, 786-795; doi:10.1038/mp.2009.11; published online 17 February 2009