(Un)settling the Irish emigrant identity: representation and construction of an Irish emigrant/exile identity in the travel narratives of Kathleen Nevin and William Bulfin

Through an examination of the travel works of William Bulfin, Tales of the Pampas (1900) and Kathleen Nevin's You'll Never Go Back this paper considers the representation of the Irish in Argentina and the contribution of these narratives in the construction of identity and the reconstruction of the emigrant identity into an exilic one. Escaping one colonial framework (Britain/Ireland), travelling to and writing from within another postcolonial construct (Argentina and the Spanish Empire), this paper analyses how Bulfin and Nevin use language as a tool to construct, and even invent, an Irish identity. This identity is inextricably linked to home and the desire to return there. Despite this desire, Argentina becomes internalised to some extent, which in Bulfin can be seen in the mix of the Spanish, English and Irish languages in his stories, highlighting that the Irish were doing with language what they had already done with their lives; trying to adapt it to their new situation. In Nevin, the contrast between us and them (Irish and 'Native') demonstrates her attempts to shape an exilic rather than emigrant mentality. Through these texts I analyse how Argentina never quite becomes a new home, but a place where Irish identity is played out and acquires form.

Diversity in levels of intracellular total creatine and triglycerides in human skeletal muscles observed by 1H-MRS

We used1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy to noninvasively determine total creatine (TCr), choline-containing compounds (Cho), and intracellular (IT) and extracellular (between-muscle fibers) triglycerides (ET) in three human skeletal muscles. Subjects' (n = 15 men) TCr concentrations in soleus [Sol; 100.2 ± 8.3 (SE) mmol/kg dry wt] were lower (P < 0.05) than those in gastrocnemius (Gast; 125.3 ± 9.2 mmol/kg dry wt) and tibialis anterior (TA; 123.7 ± 8.8 mmol/kg dry wt). The Cho levels in Sol (35.8 ± 3.6 mmol/kg dry wt) and Gast (28.5 ± 3.5 mmol/kg dry wt) were higher (P < 0.001 andP < 0.01, respectively) compared with TA (13.6 ± 2.4 mmol/kg dry wt). The IT values were found to be 44.8 ± 4.6 and 36.5 ± 4.2 mmol/kg dry wt in Sol and Gast, respectively. The IT values of TA (24.5 ± 4.5 mmol/kg dry wt) were lower than those of Sol (P < 0.01) and Gast (P < 0.05). There were no differences in ET [116.0 ± 11.2 (Sol), 119.1 ± 18.5 (Gast), and 91.4 ± 19.2 mmol/kg dry wt (TA)]. It is proposed that the differences in metabolite levels may be due to the differences in fiber-type composition and deposition of metabolites due to the adaptation of different muscles during locomotion.

Body fat MRS

The increasing levels of obesity, and its associated comorbidities, have prompted a reassessment of the techniques used for assessing body fat, including content, distribution, and composition. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is one among the many invaluable in vivo tools available today to evaluate the role of body fat in health and disease. However, although MRS has become a powerful technique for assessing ectopic fat in vivo, it has had limited use in other areas of research associated with body fat. MRS has found some success as a fast method to determine whole body adiposity in rodent models of disease, as well as a noninvasive method of obtaining an index of the overall composition of body fat in human subjects. Its more significant use has been in the understanding of bone marrow fat content, where important advances have been made, especially in longitudinal studies. In conclusion, in the area of body fat, MRS continues to be an adjunct technique to more precise and versatile MRI methods.