Curious hybrids: Creating 'not-quite' beings to explore possible childhoods

Communications between adults and young children can expose different ideas and opinions. Adults and children have different capacities to speak, these discursive spaces can become filled with assumptions, stereotyping and conventional thinking about power and agency. If communication shifts away from the purely discursive, what might be exposed about the explorations, investigations and fantasies adults and children indulge in? Some time ago my young daughter obsessively drew hybrid beings. Created from mixtures of animal, object, human and creature forms, these beings, which are ‘not-quite’, are becoming, able to transform via myriad mutations. We agreed to collaborate and draw additional hybrid beings to experiment with becoming-other through complex entanglements of forms, to complicate, morph and (trans)form from our human selves to hybrid others. The ‘not- quite-ness’ of our monstrous hybrids subvert the conventions of ‘being’ and prompt contemplations about childhood subjectivities, identities, conventionalities and actively interrogate the assumptive knowledges and subjectifications that are held about young children in early childhood professional and academic systems.

Harrison's Analytical digest of all the reported cases determined in the House of lords, the several courts of common law, in banc and nisi prius, and the Court of bankruptcy: from Michaelmas term, 1856, to Easter term 1843; including also the crown cases reserved, and a full selection of equity decisions: with the manuscript cases cited in the best modern treaties not elsewhere reported: to which is added a Supplement continuing work to the year 1846.

Mode of access: Internet.

Review of Modern Babylon? Prostituting Children in Thailand by Heather Montgomery

Johnson reviews Modern Babylon?: Prostituting Children in Thailand by Heather Montgomery.

Valerian does not appear to reduce symptoms for patients with chronic insomnia in general practice using a series of randomised n-of-I trials

Objectives: To investigate the effectiveness of valerian for the management of chronic insomnia in general practice. Design: Valerian versus placebo in a series of n-of-1 trials, in Queensland, Australia. Results: Of 42 enrolled patients, 24 (57%) had sufficient data for inclusion into the n-of-1 analysis. Response to valerian was fair for 23 (96%) participants evaluating their 'energy level in the previous day' but poor or modest for all 24 (100%) participants' response to 'total sleep time' and for 23 (96%) participants' response to 'number of night awakenings' and 'morning refreshment'. As a group, the proportion of treatment successes ranged from 0.35 (95% CI 0.23, 0.47) to 0.55 (95% CI 0.43, 0.67) for the six elicited outcome sleep variables. There was no significant difference in the number (P = 0.06), distribution (P = 1.00) or severity (P = 0.46) of side effects between valerian and placebo treatments. Conclusions: Valerian was not shown to be appreciably better than placebo in promoting sleep or sleep-related factors for any individual patient or for all patients as a group. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

All's fair in love and war - but not contract

Changes to Queensland's unfair terms in consumer contracts expected - nature of the changes outlined - protections given to consumers, with respect to unfair contracts, in Victoria and the United Kingdom.

'Slippage' is not a dirty word: Considering the usefulness of Giddens' notion of knowledgeability in understanding the possibilities for teacher education

The attempt to understand the relationship between messages intended and messages received has been an enduring issue in teacher education. For the past three decades researchers have made forays into understanding this enduring issue, and in the process have drawn on various explanatory frameworks, one of them being socialisation. In this paper we work with Giddens' structuration theory as well as his concept of knowledgeability as analytical frameworks for understanding the relationship between messages intended (by the teacher educator) and messages received (by the student-teachers). Our discussion is informed by the findings of a study that investigated student-teachers' interpretations of the pedagogical process of a physical education teacher education course. Data generated from conversations with, and observations of, the student-teachers indicated that there was considerable “slippage” between the teacher educator's critical pedagogy inspired intentions and what was understood by the student-teachers.

Nutrient partitioning during treatment of tuberculosis: gain in body fat mass but not in protein mass

Background: Tuberculosis is an important cause of wasting. The functional consequences of wasting and recovery may depend on the distribution of lost and gained nutrient stores between protein and fat masses. Objective: The goal was to study nutrient partitioning, ie, the proportion of weight change attributable to changes in fat mass (FM) versus protein mass (PM), during anti mycobacterial treatment. Design: Body-composition measures were made of 21 men and 9 women with pulmonary tuberculosis at baseline and after 1 and 6 mo of treatment. All subjects underwent dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and deuterium bromide dilution tests, and a four-compartment model of FM, total body water (TBW), bone minerals (BM), and PM was derived. The ratio of PM to FM at any time was expressed as the energy content (p-ratio). Changes in the p-ratio were related to disease severity as measured by radiologic criteria. Results: Patients gained 10% in body weight (P < 0.001) from baseline to month 6. This was mainly due to a 44% gain in FM (P < 0.001); PM, BM, and TBW did not change significantly. Results were similar in men and women. The p-ratio decreased from baseline to month 1 and then fell further by month 6. Radiologic disease severity was not correlated with changes in the p-ratio. Conclusions: Microbiological cure of tuberculosis does not restore PM within 6 mo, despite a strong anabolic response. Change in the p-ratio is a suitable parameter for use in studying the effect of disease on body composition because it allows transformation of such effects into a normal distribution across a wide range of baseline proportion between fat and protein mass.

Inhibition of 19-kDa C-terminal region of merozoite surface protein-1-specific antibody responses in neonatal pups by maternally derived 19-kDa C-terminal region of merozoite surface protein-1-specific antibodies but not whole parasite-specific antibodies

Immunizing pregnant women with a malaria vaccine is one approach to protecting the mother and her offspring from malaria infection. However, specific maternal Abs generated in response to vaccination and transferred to the fetus may interfere with the infant's ability to respond to the same vaccine. Using a murine model of malaria, we examined the effect of maternal 19-kDa C-terminal region of merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP1(19)) and Plasmodium yoelii Abs on the pups' ability to respond to immunization with MSP1(19). Maternal MSPI,g-specific Abs but not A yoelii-specific Abs inhibited Ab production following MSP1(19) immunization in 2-wk-old pups. This inhibition was correlated with the amount of maternal MSP1(19) Ab present in the pup at the time of immunization and was due to fewer specific B cells. Passively acquired Ab most likely inhibited the development of an Ab response by blocking access to critical B cell epitopes. If a neonate's ability to respond to MSP1(19) vaccination depends on the level of maternal Abs present at the time of vaccination, it may be necessary to delay immunization until Abs specific for the vaccinating Ag have decreased.

Water and nutrient availabilities do not affect lignotuber growth and sprouting ability of three eucalypt species of south-eastern Queensland

Shoot biomass and lignotuber size of seedlings of three eucalypt species, Eucalyptus acmenoides Schauer, E. siderophloia Benth. and Corymbia variegata [syn. E. maculata (F. Muell.)K. D. Hill and L. A. S. Johnson], were measured for glasshouse-grown seedlings established under two water and nutrient regimes. Seedlings were subjected to shoot removal (clipping) at ages from 9 to 19 weeks, and transferred to the high water treatment for a further 8 weeks to assess shoot emergence from lignotubers. Seedling shoot biomass was greater in both the high than the low nutrient and water treatments, but lignotuber diameter was not affected significantly. C. variegata seedlings had the largest lignotuber diameters, followed by E. siderophloia and E. acmenoides, respectively. Although growth of shoots was influenced by nutrient availability, results suggest that species differences in the growth of lignotubers was less affected. It is suggested that lignotuber growth was strongly influenced by genotype. More than 70% of C. variegata seedlings clipped at 9 weeks sprouted, compared with only 5 and 10% of seedlings of E. siderophloia and E. acmenoides, respectively. All C. variegata seedlings sprouted after being clipped at 19 weeks, but < 80% of E. siderophloia and < 60% of E. acmenoides sprouted when clipped at the same age. It was concluded that seedlings forming part of the regeneration stratum in dry sclerophyll forests need to be protected from damage for at least 4 months (for C. variegata) or at least 6 months (for E. siderophloia and E. acmenoides) if they are to survive by sprouting from lignotubers.

Fusing subunit antigens to interleukin-2 and encapsulating them in liposomes improves their antigenicity but not their protective efficacy

Subunit vaccines commonly lack sufficient immunogenicity to stimulate a comprehensive protective immune response in vivo. We have investigated the potential of specific cytokines (interleukin-2) and particulate delivery systems (liposomes) to enhance antigenicity. Here we report that the IgG1 and IFN-gamma responses to a subunit antigen, consisting of a T and B-cell epitope from Influenza haemagglutinin, can be improved when it is both fused to interelukin-2 and encapsulated in liposomes. However, this vaccine formulation was not able to protect animals against a challenge with live Influenza A/PR/8/34 virus. The addition of more potent immune stimulators may be necessary to improve responses. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.