Suchergebnisse

Biopolitics and the 'Obesity Epidemic', the first edited collection of critical perspectives on the ""obesity epidemic,"" provides a comprehensive discussion of current issues in the critical analysis of health, obesity and society, and the impact of obesity discourses on different individuals, social groups and institutions.

AbstractIn May 2013 one of the most profoundly influential books of the late twentieth and early twenty‐first century was released in its fifth edition. Yet, it is not unreasonable to speculate that this newest edition will pass largely unnoticed, even as new diagnoses (and the loss of current ones) seep into the everyday. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM‐5) will undoubtedly be influential in education – defining and re‐defining student maladies. Its list of extensive categories provides, so it is argued, a means to uniformly identify mental disorders. Applied in educational contexts, children and young people can thus be categorized by clinical experts and teachers able to identify an individual's problems, and in theory, respond appropriately. Criticism of the DSM includes debate over its application in cross‐cultural contexts as well as the ways that socio‐economic differences are, to put it bluntly, diagnosed differently. Although these issues of diagnosis do get attention, historical contexts can remain bereft in commentary. In this paper we consider the value that historical perspectives can bring to an analysis of the contemporary effects of DSM‐inspired readings of education and disadvantage. The paper also draws on two projects, one with young people, the other with parents of young children, both of whom experienced disadvantage and precarious relationships with education. In these excluded contexts, people are more likely to come into contact with diagnostic repertoires that originate from the DSM. Drawing on Georges Canguilhem's analysis the 'concept' as well as Michel Foucault's discussion of Canguilhem's work, this paper considers how attention to school problems is important for disengaging with education's appetite for psychiatric disorders.

This is an original manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education on 29 Nov 2017, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2018.1394420 ; There are well documented concerns with the imposition of high stakes testing into the fabric of school education, and there is now an increasing focus on how such tests impact children's 'well-being'. This can be witnessed in reports in the popular news media, where discussion of these impacts frequently refer to 'stress' and 'anxiety'. Yet, there is no work that is able to tell us about what is happening in the bodies of the teachers and children who are living this schooling in the day-to-day; whether this is best considered through the languages of 'stress'; or what the implications – emotional, educational, embodied – of these experiences might be. This paper develops a transdisciplinary approach that brings social and biological accounts together in order to address the 'more-than-social' of the emotionality of childhood and schooling. We seek out opportunities for transdisciplinary connectivity and for new ways of seeing and knowing about learning. We consider what these ways of seeing and knowing might offer to education.

Understanding the origin of fecal pollution is essential in assessing potential health risks as well as for determining the actions necessary to remediate the quality of waters contaminated by fecal matter. As a result, microbial source tracking (MST) has emerged as a field that has evolved and diversified rapidly since the first approaches were described only a decade ago. In response to the emergence of MST, there have been three large multi-laboratory method comparison studies (two in the US and one in Europe), plus numerous workshops, book chapters, and review articles dedicated to synthes

[Image: see text] Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a grand societal challenge with important dimensions in the water environment that contribute to its evolution and spread. Environmental monitoring could provide vital information for mitigating the spread of AMR; this includes assessing antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) circulating among human populations, identifying key hotspots for evolution and dissemination of resistance, informing epidemiological and human health risk assessment models, and quantifying removal efficiencies by domestic wastewater infrastructure. However, standardized methods for monitoring AMR in the water environment will be vital to producing the comparable data sets needed to address such questions. Here we sought to establish scientific consensus on a framework for such standardization, evaluating the state of the science and practice of AMR monitoring of wastewater, recycled water, and surface water, through a literature review, survey, and workshop leveraging the expertise of academic, governmental, consulting, and water utility professionals.

The debate over the suitability of molecular biological methods for the enumeration of regulatory microbial parameters (e.g. Faecal Indicator Organisms [FIOs]) in bathing waters versus the use of traditional culture-based methods is of current interest to regulators and the science community. Culture-based methods require a 24–48 hour turn-around time from receipt at the laboratory to reporting, whilst quantitative molecular tools provide a more rapid assay (approximately 2–3 h). Traditional culturing methods are therefore often viewed as slow and 'out-dated', although they still deliver an internationally 'accepted' evidence-base. In contrast, molecular tools have the potential for rapid analysis and their operational utility and associated limitations and uncertainties should be assessed in light of their use for regulatory monitoring. Here we report on the recommendations from a series of international workshops, chaired by a UK Working Group (WG) comprised of scientists, regulators, policy makers and other stakeholders, which explored and interrogated both molecular (principally quantitative polymerase chain reaction [qPCR]) and culture-based tools for FIO monitoring under the European Bathing Water Directive. Through detailed analysis of policy implications, regulatory barriers, stakeholder engagement, and the needs of the end-user, the WG identified a series of key concerns that require critical appraisal before a potential shift from culture-based approaches to the employment of molecular biological methods for bathing water regulation could be justified.