‘It’s not like we’re going to jump them’: how transgressing heteronormativity shapes police interactions with LGBT young people

This paper explores how visibly transgressing heteronormativity shapes police interactions with LGBT young people. While research evidences how sexually and gender diverse bodies can be abused in schools, policing is overlooked. Interviews with 35 LGBT young people demonstrate how bodies transgressing heteronormativity (that is, non-heteronormative bodies) mediate their policing experiences in Queensland, Australia. Drawing on Foucault, Butler, and others, the paper suggests police interactions and use of discretion with LGBT young people was informed by non-heteronormative bodies discursively performing queerness in ways read by police. The paper concludes noting tensions produced for youthful LGBT bodies in public spaces.

Inhibition of p38 pathway leads to OA-like changes in a rat animal model

Objectives The p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signal transduction pathway is involved in a variety of inflammatory responses, including cytokine generation, cell differentiation proliferation and apoptosis. Here, we examined the effects of systemic p38 MAPK inhibition on cartilage cells and osteoarthritis (OA) disease progression by both in vitro and in vivo approaches. Methods p38 kinase activity was evaluated in normal and OA cartilage cells by measuring the amount of phosphorylated protein. To examine the function of p38 signaling pathway in vitro, normal chondrocytes were isolated and differentiated in the presence or absence of p38 inhibitor; SB203580 and analysed for chondrogenic phenotype. Effect of systemic p38 MAPK inhibition in normal and OA (induced by menisectomy) rats were analysed by treating animals with vehicle alone (DMS0) or p38 inhibitor (SB203580). Damage to the femur and tibial plateau was evaluated by modified Mankin score, histology and immunohistochemistry. Results Our in vitro studies have revealed that a down-regulation of chondrogenic and increase of hypertrophic gene expression occurs in the normal chondrocytes, when p38 is neutralized by a pharmacological inhibitor. We further observed that the basal levels of p38 phosphorylation were decreased in OA chondrocytes compared with normal chondrocytes. These findings together indicate the importance of this pathway in the regulation of cartilage physiology and its relevance to OA pathogenesis. At in vivo level, systematic administration of a specific p38 MAPK inhibitor, SB203580, continuously for over a month led to a significant loss of proteoglycan; aggrecan and cartilage thickness. On the other hand, SB203580 treated normal rats showed a significant increase in TUNEL positive cells, cartilage hypertrophy markers such as Type 10 collagen, Runt-related transcription factor and Matrix metalloproteinase-13 and substantially induced OA like phenotypic changes in the normal rats. In addition, menisectomy induced OA rat models that were treated with p38 inhibitor showed aggravation of cartilage damage. Conclusions In summary, this study has provided evidence that the component of the p38 MAPK pathway is important to maintain the cartilage health and its inhibition can lead to severe cartilage degenerative changes. The observations in this study highlight the possibility of using activators of the p38 pathway as an alternative approach in the treatment of OA.

Sponsorship-linked marketing: The role of articulation in memory

Corporate sponsorship of events contributes significantly to marketing aims, including brand awareness as measured by recall and recognition of sponsor‐event pairings. Unfortunately, resultant advantages accrue disproportionately to brands having a natural or congruent fit with the available sponsorship properties. In three cued‐recall experiments, the effect of articulation of sponsorship fit on memory for sponsor‐event pairings is examined. While congruent sponsors have a natural memory advantage, results demonstrate that memory improvements via articulation are possible for incongruent sponsor‐event pairings. These improvements are, however, affected by the presence of competitor brands and the way in which memory is accessed.

Occurrence of LINE, gypsy-like, and copia-like retrotransposons in the clonally propagated sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.)

Retrotransposons are a class of transposable elements that represent a major fraction of the repetitive DNA of most eukaryotes. Their abundance stems from their expansive replication strategies. We screened and isolated sequence fragments of long terminal repeat (LTR), gypsy-like reverse transcriptase (rt) and gypsy-like envelope (env) domains, and two partial sequences of non-LTR retrotransposons, long interspersed element (LINE), in the clonally propagated allohexaploid sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) genome. Using dot-blot hybridization, these elements were found to be present in the ~1597 Mb haploid sweet potato genome with copy numbers ranging from ~50 to ~4100 as observed in the partial LTR (IbLtr-1) and LINE (IbLi-1) sequences, respectively. The continuous clonal propagation of sweet potato may have contributed to such a multitude of copies of some of these genomic elements. Interestingly, the isolated gypsy-like env and gypsy-like rt sequence fragments, IbGy-1 (~2100 copies) and IbGy-2 (~540 copies), respectively, were found to be homologous to the Bagy-2 cDNA sequences of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Although the isolated partial sequences were found to be homologous to other transcriptionally active elements, future studies are required to determine whether they represent elements that are transcriptionally active under normal and (or) stressful conditions.