Battle for the flag

Ten years after the Cronulla riots, the violence, racism and branding of young bodies with signs and symbols of Australian nationalism, along with the reprisal attacks by Lebanese-Australian youth, continues to inflame discussions about race relations in Australia, with many conversations shifting away from ideas of multiculturalism and cultural diversity, and towards patriotism, localism, security and fear of the (predominantly) Muslim 'Other'.Battle for the Flag contextualises and challenges the narrative by drawing upon participant observation and interviews conducted with local residents of diverse backgrounds. By paying attention to the voices of bystanders and those involved, the riot is identified as an unstable and fluid formation, where the Australian flag, the beach and whiteness itself was co-opted into a much more contingent, contested and subcultural formation than hitherto described.

PTEN protein loss and clinical outcome from castration-resistant prostate cancer treated with abiraterone acetate

BACKGROUND: Loss of the tumor suppressor phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) occurs frequently in prostate cancers. Preclinical evidence suggests that activation of PI3K/AKT signaling through loss of PTEN can result in resistance to hormonal treatment in prostate cancer. OBJECTIVE: To explore the antitumor activity of abiraterone acetate (abiraterone) in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) patients with and without loss of PTEN protein expression. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: We retrospectively identified patients who had received abiraterone and had hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (HSPC) and/or CRPC tissue available for PTEN immunohistochemical analysis. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The primary end point was overall survival from initiation of abiraterone treatment. Relationship with outcome was analyzed using multivariate Cox regression and log-rank analyses. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: A total of 144 patients were identified who had received abiraterone post-docetaxel and had available tumor tissue. Overall, loss of PTEN expression was observed in 40% of patients. Matched HSPC and CRPC tumor biopsies were available for 41 patients. PTEN status in CRPC correlated with HSPC in 86% of cases. Loss of PTEN expression was associated with shorter median overall survival (14 vs 21 mo; hazard ratio [HR]: 1.75; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.19-2.55; p=0.004) and shorter median duration of abiraterone treatment (24 vs 28 wk; HR: 1.6; 95% CI, 1.12-2.28; p=0.009). PTEN protein loss, high lactate dehydrogenase, and the presence of visceral metastases were identified as independent prognostic factors in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that loss of PTEN expression was associated with worse survival and shorter time on abiraterone treatment. Further studies in larger and prospective cohorts are warranted. PATIENT SUMMARY: PTEN is a protein often lost in prostate cancer cells. In this study we evaluated if prostate cancers that lack this protein respond differently to treatment with abiraterone acetate. We demonstrated that the survival of patients with loss of PTEN is shorter than patients with normal PTEN expression.

Examining Islamic religiosity and civic engagement in Melbourne

With geopolitical concerns surrounding the rise of militant, transnational groups who draw on Islamic texts for legitimacy, the place of Islam in western societies has become a source of anxiety, fear and suspicion. The central concern is whether Muslims living in the West have the capacity to become fully active citizens. This article uses quantitative and qualitative methods to examine whether Islamic religiosity is a predictor for civic engagement and active citizenship among Muslims living in Melbourne, Australia. The findings show that organized religiosity can be a strong predictor of civic engagement, countering the discourses that demonize Islam as a source of radicalization and social disengagement. While the findings show that suspicion of divisive forces and lack of trust in public institutions might prevent some young Muslims from engaging in formal political participation, grassroots civic engagement enables Muslims to demonstrate care and feel like active citizens of the Australian community without compromising core religious values.

Increased hypoxic dose after training at low altitude with 9h per night at 3000m normobaric hypoxia

This study examined effects of low altitude training and a live-high: train-low protocol (combining both natural and simulated modalities) on haemoglobin mass (Hbmass), maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max), time to exhaustion, and submaximal exercise measures. Eighteen elite-level race-walkers were assigned to one of two experimental groups; lowHH (low Hypobaric Hypoxia: continuous exposure to 1380 m for 21 consecutive days; n = 10) or a combined low altitude training and nightly Normobaric Hypoxia (lowHH+NHnight: living and training at 1380 m, plus 9 h.night-1 at a simulated altitude of 3000 m using hypoxic tents; n = 8). A control group (CON; n = 10) lived and trained at 600 m. Measurement of Hbmass, time to exhaustion and VO2max was performed before and after the training intervention. Paired samples t-tests were used to assess absolute and percentage change pre and post-test differences within groups, and differences between groups were assessed using a one-way ANOVA with least significant difference post-hoc testing. Statistical significance was tested at p < 0.05. There was a 3.7% increase in Hbmass in lowHH+NHnight compared with CON (p = 0.02). In comparison to baseline, Hbmass increased by 1.2% (±1.4%) in the lowHH group, 2.6% (±1.8%) in lowHH+NHnight, and there was a decrease of 0.9% (±4.9%) in CON. VO2max increased by ~4% within both experimental conditions but was not significantly greater than the 1% increase in CON. There was a ~9% difference in pre and post-intervention values in time to exhaustion after lowHH+NH-night (p = 0.03) and a ~8% pre to post-intervention difference (p = 0.006) after lowHH only. We recommend low altitude (1380 m) combined with sleeping in altitude tents (3000 m) as one effective alternative to traditional altitude training methods, which can improve Hbmass.

Habilidades sociales y emocionales del profesorado de educación infantil relacionadas con la gestión del clima de aula

El objetivo central de este trabajo es conocer si existe relación entre las competencias socioemocionales de los maestros de segundo ciclo de Educación Infantil con su habilidad para manejar el clima social y emocional de su aula. Para ello, se realiza un estudio de comprensión y de valoración de las capacidades sociales y emocionales de los profesores y su correspondencia con el clima creado en sus clases La investigación es de carácter cuantitativo de tipo descriptivo-correlacional, ya que se hace un análisis de la relación entre las competencias sociales y emocionales de los maestros y el clima de su aula. Para ello, se ha elegido una muestra de 68 aulas pertenecientes a la población de centros escolares de Educación Infantil del Área Territorial Oeste de la Comunidad de Madrid. Para la recogida de datos de las habilidades socioemocionales se aplica a los maestros un inventario de autoevaluación de reconocimiento del desarrollo de esas capacidades y de su grado de adquisición. Se han sometido a prueba catorce hipótesis. Los resultados indican, al contrastar las respuestas de los maestros sobre su capacidad social y emocional y los resultados del clima de su aula obtenidos por un observador, que no existe siempre relación directa entre ellos. También se han presentado correlaciones negativas entre los profesores que son o no instruidos en cursos de inteligencia emocional y su capacidad de apoyar emocionalmente a sus alumnos, de manejar de forma positiva sus conductas, ni de promover habilidades lingüísticas y de desarrollo cognitivo en sus alumnos. Por otro lado, sí se ha percibido relación entre la comunicación interactiva entre los miembros del aula y la capacidad del maestro de promover habilidades de pensamiento y de lenguaje tanto formales como informales, creando discusiones y realizando actividades variadas en el aula, con la finalidad de fomentar el aprendizaje, el conocimiento, el pensamiento, y la adquisición de vocabulario más rico y variado.

Cuando la lectura y escritura se hacen digitales: aproximaciones para los estudios literarios

Este artículo sitúa la digitalización masiva de materiales literarios en un contexto antropológico primero e histórico después. Enuncia así y explica los terrores que el mundo digital hace emerger en el imaginario actual de la escritura y la lectura literarias. Explica la dificultad de entender la literatura sin el libro en papel. Ante tales desafíos, propone, primero, el estudio de las lecturas en pantalla como una urgencia ética que plantean los jóvenes de la cibercultura, en las diferentes capas sociales, dentro del mundo occidental. Después, el desarrollo de prácticas reales de escritura en pantalla para una alfabetización digital creativa de los nuevos lecto-escritores que desarrollan nuevos rituales de lectura electronica. Propone y analiza diferentes iniciativas que están siendo llevadas a cabo para explotar las posibilidades de las herramientas electrónicas en el campos de la lectura y la escritura literarias en digital.

Accommodative changes produced in response to overnight orthokeratology

Background To evaluate short-term (3 months) and long-term (3 years) accommodative changes produced by overnight orthokeratology (OK). Methods A prospective, longitudinal study on young adult subjects with low to moderate myopia was carried out. A total of 93 patients took part in the study. Out of these, 72 were enrolled into the short-term follow-up: 21 were on a control group, 26 on a Paragon CRT contact lenses group, and 25 on a Seefree contact lenses group. The other 21 patients were old CRT wearers on long-term follow-up. Accommodative function was assessed by means of negative and positive relative accommodation (NRA / PRA), monocular accommodative amplitude (MAA), accommodative lag, and monocular accommodative facility (MAF). These values were compared among the three short-term groups at the follow-up visit. The long- and short-term follow-up data was compared among the CRT groups. Results Subjective accommodative results did not suffer any statistically significant changes in any of the accommodative tests for any of the short-term groups when compared to baseline. There were no statistically significant differences between the three short-term groups at the follow-up visit. When comparing the short- and long-term groups, only the NRA showed a significant difference (p = 0.0006) among all the accommodation tests. Conclusions OK does not induce changes in the ocular accommodative function for either short-term or long-term periods.

Developing physical and physiological employment standards: translation of job analysis findings to assessments and performance standards - a systematic review

Physical employment standards (PES) are developed with the aim of ensuring that an employee's physical and physiological capacities are commensurate with the demands of their occupation. While previous commentaries and narrative reviews have provided frameworks for the development of PES, this is the first systematic review of the methods used to translate job analysis findings to PES tests and performance standards for physically demanding occupations. A search of PubMed and Google Scholar was conducted for research articles published in English up to and including March 2015. Two authors independently reviewed and extracted data.

The search yielded 87 potentially eligible papers, including 60 peer reviewed journal articles and 17 technical reports. 57 papers were excluded leading to a final data set of 31 papers, representing 22 studies. Job analysis was most commonly conducted through subjective determination of job tasks followed by objective quantification and validation. Determination of criterion tasks was evenly distributedthrough subjective and objective methods with criterion tasks being defined most commonly as most demanding, critical and/or frequent. Generic predictive and task-related predictive tests were more commonly observed in isolation or in combination when compared to task simulation tests. Performance standards were more commonly criterion-referenced than norm-referenced with a variety of statistical methods utilised. This review provides recommendations for researchers when developing physical employment standards for a variety of occupations.

FTO genotype and weight loss: systematic review and meta-analysis of 9563 individual participant data from eight randomised controlled trials

OBJECTIVE:  To assess the effect of the FTO genotype on weight loss after dietary, physical activity, or drug based interventions in randomised controlled trials.

DESIGN:  Systematic review and random effects meta-analysis of individual participant data from randomised controlled trials.

DATA SOURCES:  Ovid Medline, Scopus, Embase, and Cochrane from inception to November 2015.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR STUDY SELECTION:  Randomised controlled trials in overweight or obese adults reporting reduction in body mass index, body weight, or waist circumference by FTO genotype (rs9939609 or a proxy) after dietary, physical activity, or drug based interventions. Gene by treatment interaction models were fitted to individual participant data from all studies included in this review, using allele dose coding for genetic effects and a common set of covariates. Study level interactions were combined using random effect models. Metaregression and subgroup analysis were used to assess sources of study heterogeneity.

RESULTS:  We identified eight eligible randomised controlled trials for the systematic review and meta-analysis (n=9563). Overall, differential changes in body mass index, body weight, and waist circumference in response to weight loss intervention were not significantly different between FTO genotypes. Sensitivity analyses indicated that differential changes in body mass index, body weight, and waist circumference by FTO genotype did not differ by intervention type, intervention length, ethnicity, sample size, sex, and baseline body mass index and age category.

CONCLUSIONS:  We have observed that carriage of the FTO minor allele was not associated with differential change in adiposity after weight loss interventions. These findings show that individuals carrying the minor allele respond equally well to dietary, physical activity, or drug based weight loss interventions and thus genetic predisposition to obesity associated with the FTO minor allele can be at least partly counteracted through such interventions.

Evaluación de los contenidos de información de medicamentos en un grupo de agencias reguladoras de medicamentos

OBJETIVO: Evaluar las diferencias de información publicada por el Invima y otras Autoridades Reguladoras de Medicamentos en relación a un grupo de variables seleccionadas y analizar las diferencias aplicando estrategias de visualización de datos. METODOLOGÍA: Estudio descriptivo de corte transversal, en el cual se comparan las diferencias en la información de medicamentos publicada en las agencias reguladoras de medicamentos. Para la definición de los criterios de comparación, más relevantes se utilizó la técnica Delphi como metodología de consenso. Las visualizaciones fueron desarrolladas en Roassal, en el entorno de programación de Grafoscopio/Pharo. RESULTADOS Y CONCLUSIONES: De 24 variables en las que hubo acuerdo de considerarlas importantes y claves por el panel de expertos; el 96% se identificaron en la Aemps, MHRA e Infarmed; el 92% en Anmat, TGA, Anvisa, Health Canada y FDA; el 80% en Anamed. El grupo de agencias en las que se identificó una menor cantidad de información publicada fueron Cofepris, Invima, Dirección Nacional de Farmacias y Drogas de Panamá, Digemid, Arcsa y el Ministerio de Salud pública de Uruguay en las que se identificó el 67%, 58%, 46%, 46%, 38% y 4%, respectivamente. Las ausencias comunes de información en el grupo de agencias con menor cantidad de información se presentó en las variables relacionadas con usos fuera de indicación (off-label), gestión del riesgo, efectos adversos, restricciones especiales, precauciones y advertencias, prospecto, almacenamiento y resumen de las características del producto, es decir que mayor la limitación se presenta en la información relacionada con prescripción y uso.

Modelo de gestión para la atención integral de pacientes con enfermedades huérfanas o raras en Colombia

Las enfermedades raras o huérfanas corresponden a aquellas con baja prevalencia en la población, y en varios países tienen una definición distinta de acuerdo con el número de pacientes que afectan en la población. La Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), las define como un trastorno que afecta de 650 a 1.000 personas por millón de habitantes, de las que se han identificado alrededor de 7.000. En Colombia su prevalencia es menor de 1 por cada 5.000 personas y comprenden: las enfermedades raras, las ultra-huérfanas y las olvidadas. Los pacientes con este tipo de enfermedades imponen retos a los sistemas sanitarios, pues si bien afectan a un bajo porcentaje de la población, su atención implica una alta carga económica por los costos que involucra su atención, la complejidad en su diagnóstico, tratamiento, seguimiento y rehabilitación. El abordaje de las enfermedades raras requiere un manejo interdisciplinar e intersectorial, lo que implica la organización de cada actor del sistema sanitario para su manejo a través de un modelo que abraque las dinámicas posibles entre ellos y las competencias de cada uno. Por lo anterior, y teniendo en cuenta la necesidad de formular políticas sanitarias específicas para la gestión de estas enfermedades, el presente trabajo presenta una aproximación a la formulación de un modelo de gestión para la atención integral de pacientes con enfermedades raras en Colombia. Esta investigación describe los distintos elementos y características de los modelos de gestión clínica y de las enfermedades raras a través de una revisión de literatura, en la que se incluye la descripción de los distintos actores del Sistema de Salud Colombiano, relacionados con la atención integral de estos pacientes para la documentación de un modelo de gestión integral.

Coexistir: libro de producción audiovisual de formato documental

Coexistir cuenta cinco historias de lo que piensan del perdón víctimas del conflicto armado en Colombia. En 2006, grupos paramilitares se desmovilizaron y se encontraron con sus víctimas para responder sus preguntas y pedirles perdón. En 2012, el Gobierno inició un proceso de paz con las FARC, durante el cual se ha puesto en discusión las intenciones de reconciliación de la guerrilla. A partir de casos en Magdalena Medio y Caquetá, Coexistir es un reflejo de los dilemas que enfrentan cientos de víctimas a nivel nacional para lidiar con su dolor, no olvidar y pedir que no se repita la historia.

Espectáculo de identidades nacionales. Presentación de Colombia en las Exposiciones Internacionales de 1992, 1998, 2010

El presente documento analiza como el Estado colombiano ha querido crear una identidad nacional en tres Exposiciones Internacionales a partir de representaciones elaboradas con un discurso entre político, comercial y cultural, generando imágenes que no siempre concuerdan con la realidad.