Metallothionein I and II gene expression as a response to metal contamination in bank vole Clethrionomys glareolus

The expression of two metallothionein genes (Mt-I and Mt-II) in the liver, kidney, and gonad of bank voles collected at four metal-contaminated sites (Cd, Zn, Pb, and Fe) were measured using the quantitative real-time PCR method (QPCR). Relative Mt gene expression was calculated by applying a normalization factor (NF) using the expression of two housekeeping genes, ribosomal 18S and beta-actin. Relative Mt expression in tissues of animals from contaminated sites was up to 54.8-fold higher than those from the reference site for Mt-I and up to 91.6-fold higher for Mt-II. Mt-II gene expression in the livers of bank voles from contaminated sites was higher than Mt-I gene expression. Inversely, Mt-II expression in the kidneys of voles was lower than Mt-I expression. Positive correlations between cadmium levels in the tissues and Mt-I were obtained in all studied tissues. Zinc, which undergoes homeostatic regulation, correlated positively with both Mt-I and Mt-II gene expression only in the kidney. Results showed that animals living in chronically contaminated environments intensively activate detoxifying mechanisms such as metallothionein expression. This is the first time that QPCR techniques to measure MT gene expression have been applied to assess the impact of environmental metal pollution on field collected bank voles.

A comparative study of the effects of metal contamination on collembola in the field and in the laboratory

We examined the species diversity and abundance of Collembola at 32 sampling points along a gradient of metal contamination in a rough grassland site ( Wolverhampton, England), formerly used for the disposal of metal-rich smelting waste. Differences in the concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn between the least and most contaminated part of the 35 metre transect were more than one order of magnitude. A gradient of Zn concentrations from 597 to 9080 mug g(-1) dry soil was found. A comparison between field concentrations of the four metals and previous studies on their relative toxicities to Collembola, suggested that Zn is likely to be responsible for any ecotoxicological effects on springtails at this site. Euedaphic ( soil dwelling) Collembola were extracted by placing soil cores into Tullgren funnels and epedaphic ( surface dwelling) species were sampled using pitfall traps. There was no obvious relationship between the total abundance, or a range of commonly used diversity indices, and Zn levels in soils. However, individual species showed considerable differences in abundance. Metal "tolerant'' (e.g., Ceratophysella denticulata) and metal "sensitive'' (e.g., Cryptopygus thermophilus) species could be identified. Epedaphic species appeared to be influenced less by metal contamination than euedaphic species. This difference is probably due to the higher mobility and lower contact with the soil pore water of epedaphic springtails in comparison to euedaphic Collembola. In an experiment exposing the standard test springtail, Folsomia candida, to soils from all 32 sampling points, adult survival and reproduction showed small but significant negative relationships with total Zn concentrations. Nevertheless, juveniles were still produced from eggs laid by females in the most contaminated soils with 9080 mug g(-1) Zn. Folsomia candida is much more sensitive to equivalent concentrations of Zn in the standard OECD soil. Thus, care should be taken in extrapolating the results of laboratory toxicity tests on metals in OECD soil to field soils, in which, the biological availability of contaminants is likely to be lower. Our studies have shown the importance of ecotoxicological effects at the species level. Although there may be no differences in overall abundance, sensitive species that are numerous in contaminated sites, and which may play important roles in decomposition("keystone species'') can be greatly reduced in numbers by pollution.

"I don't know what you are trying to establish": The socio-environmental 'problems' of visual impaired children

This paper uses the social model of disability to examine visually impaired children's experiences of their housing and neighbourhoods and finds that they did not experience any significant problems with the design of them. The source of their problems was within these environments, and was caused by factors such as the intensity of movement, for example, from flows of traffic. We conclude by discussing the social policy implications of these findings.

Don't we care?: the ethics and emotional labour of early years professionalism

This paper argues that early childhood education and care (ECEC) has a legitimate aspiration to be a 'caring profession' like others such as nursing or social work, defined by a moral purpose. For example, practitioners often draw on an ethic of care as evidence of their professionalism. However, the discourse of professionalism in England completely excludes the ethical vocabulary of care. Nevertheless, it necessarily depends on gendered dispositions towards emotional labour, often promoted by training programmes as 'professional' demeanours. Taking control of the professionalisation agenda therefore requires practitioners to demonstrate a critical understanding of their practice as 'emotion work'. At the same time, reconceptualising practice within a political ethic of care may allow the workforce, and new trainees in particular, to champion 'caring' as a sustainable element of professional work, expressed not only in maternal, dyadic key-working but in advocacy for care as a social principle.

Reducing contamination by exposure plus safety behaviour

Background and objectives: It has been proposed that the judicious use of safety behaviour can facilitate improvements in the acceptability of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). It was decided to explore the possibility of facilitating CBT by introducing a form of safety behaviour.We sought to assess the degree to which Exposure plus Safety Behaviour (E þ SB) is an effective intervention for contamination fears. Methods: A comparison was made between the effects of a control condition (Exposure and Response Prevention; ERP) and an experimental condition (Exposure plus Safety Behaviour; E þ SB) in which each exposure to a contaminant was followed by the use of a hygienic wipe in a sample of (n ¼ 80) undergraduate students. In session one, each participant touched a confirmed contaminant 20 times. After each exposure participants were asked to report their feelings of contamination, fear, disgust, and danger. In the second session, two weeks later, the same procedure was carried out for a further 16 trials. Results: The ERP and the E þ SB conditions both produced large, significant and stable reductions in contamination. Significant reductions in fear, danger and disgust were also reported in both conditions. Limitations: The treatment was provided to an analogue sample and over two sessions. Conclusions: The use of hygienic wipes, the safety behaviour used in this experiment, did not preclude significant reductions in contamination, disgust, fear and danger. If it is replicated and extended over a longer time-frame, this finding may enable practitioners to enhance the acceptability of cognitive behavioural treatments and boost their effectiveness.

Modern lovers

Modern Lovers was a survey show of contemporary art practices in dialogue with modernism, bringing together established and emerging artists based in London and international artists from Berlin, Jerusalem and Zagreb. The show features video, film, installation, sculpture, music and performance work that addresses the legacy of the avant garde and the survival of its aesthetics within contemporary culture. In 1976, as punk rock was busy smashing the cultural rubble left behind by the second world war and rejecting the consumer society that had emerged from the ruins, one band bravely announced that it wanted no part in this destruction. Jonathan Richman's Modern Lovers sang about how they still loved the old world. Neither parents nor girlfriends could understand, but the decaying inner city with its false promises of progress still held a fascination for Richman, who claimed he wanted to keep his place in this arcane landscape. Punk's assault on culture was the logical conclusion of modernism's linear narrative of art as a force of innovation that must reject preceding artistic movements to establish new ones. Echoing the negations of Dada, it set out to put an end to this narrative, an end to culture. It is partly because of this inherently destructive and totalising side of Modernism that it has come under harsh critique in the post modern era. Nevertheless, we are still caught up in the same dialectic of progress, revolution and destruction. Post modernism has failed to unseat our desire for the revolutionary moment, even as it has been co-opted to the degree of meaninglessness by the discourses of marketing and Capitalism. But, like Jonathan Richman, the artists in the exhibition "Modern Lovers" keep returning to modernism for something else. Instead of taking it at its word when it proffers revolution, they turn to it in search of reform. Still loving the old world and desiring a dialogue with the past, perhaps as an antidote to the eternal present of Capitalism, they are willing to engage with its aesthetics and ideas on equal ground. Leaving behind the ironic deconstructions of post modernism, they find perspectives worth salvaging and juxtapose them with contemporary visual productions. Trading in the grand narratives of modernity for a more personal approach, they don't seek the purity of form that drove the avant garde movements that inspire them but rather revel in adulteration, dilution and contamination of the past by the present". A live performance by sala-manca was sponsored by the British Council and took place May 26th, 19:00. MODERN LOVERS was accompanied by a catalogue (14.80 cm x 14.80 cm) including essays by Avi Pitchon, the sala-manca group and the curators. A discussion panel about the exhibition themes, as well as the catalogue launch,took place at Goldsmiths College's cinema on the 27th of May at 14:00, chaired by Dr. Suhail Malik (Senior Lecturer & Course Leader Postgraduate Fine Art Critical Studies at Goldsmiths College) and with the participation of Tom Morton (curator, Cubitt Gallery, and regular contributor to Frieze magazine), sala-manca (artist group), Dr. Amanda Beech (artist, curator and senior lecturer at the Wimbledon School of Art), Matthew Poole (course director of MA Gallery Studies, dept. of Art History and Theory at the University of Essex).

Poisoning the mind: Arsenic contamination of drinking water wells and children's educational achievement in rural Bangladesh

Bangladesh has experienced the largest mass poisoning of a population in history owing to contamination of groundwater with naturally occurring inorganic arsenic. Prolonged drinking of such water risks development of diseases and therefore has implications for children's cognitive and psychological development. This study examines the effect of arsenic contamination of tubewells, the primary source of drinking water at home, on the learning outcome of school-going children in rural Bangladesh using recent nationally representative data on secondary school children. We unambiguously find a negative and statistically significant correlation between mathematics scores and arsenic-contaminated drinking tubewells at home, net of the child's socio-economic status, parental background and school specific unobserved correlates of learning. Similar correlations are found for an alternative measure of student achievement and subjective well-being (i.e. self-reported measure of life satisfaction), of the student. We conclude by discussing the policy implication of our findings in the context of the current debate over the adverse effect of arsenic poisoning on children.

Preventing carbon contamination of optical devices for X-rays: the effect of oxygen on photon-induced dissociation of CO on platinum

Platinum is one of the most common coatings used to optimize mirror reflectivity in soft X-ray beamlines. Normal operation results in optics contamination by carbon-based molecules present in the residual vacuum of the beamlines. The reflectivity reduction induced by a carbon layer at the mirror surface is a major problem in synchrotron radiation sources. A time-dependent photoelectron spectroscopy study of the chemical reactions which take place at the Pt(111) surface under operating conditions is presented. It is shown that the carbon contamination layer growth can be stopped and reversed by low partial pressures of oxygen for optics operated in intense photon beams at liquidnitrogen temperature. For mirrors operated at room temperature the carbon contamination observed for equivalent partial pressures of CO is reduced and the effects of oxygen are observed on a long time scale.