Combining information from related meta-analyses of genetic association studies

Summary.  When synthesizing data from genetic association studies researchers frequently perform several related meta-analyses, perhaps on different polymorphisms of the same gene, or on different outcomes, or they might define subgroups of studies by factors such as ethnicity, gender or study design. Current practice is to perform a totally separate meta-analysis of each set of studies; however, when the meta-analyses investigate related questions, it is possible that the estimates in one meta-analysis could be improved by using information from another. The meta-analytic model for a genetic association study can be parameterized in terms of four meaningful parameters: the size of the genetic effect, the genetic model, the allele frequency in controls and the degree of departure from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in controls. Even when the size of the genetic effect differs across meta-analyses, it may be possible to assume that some of the other parameters are common. The models are applied to a meta-analysis of the same gene–disease relationship in three different ethnic groups.     

An Evaluation of Alternative Safety Criteria for Nuclear Power Plants

Safety criteria for frequency of nuclear-reactor accidents and for reactor-induced risk to individuals and to society are evaluated on the basis of their comprehensiveness, clarity, recognition of uncertainty, practicability, defensibility, simplicity, and internal consistency. Many criteria were found to be comprehensive and practicable; few completely satisfied the other evaluation standards. A consensus inferred from the most favorably evaluated criteria would allow between 1.0time10^-4 and 1.0time10^-3 core melts per reactor year, between 1.0time10^-6 and 2.0time10^-5 fatalities per reactor year per individual, and a total exposure in the United States of between 1000 and 10,000 person rems per reactor year. This consensus is consistent with the criteria proposed in NUREG0880.     

Death of a migrant: transnational death rituals and gender among British Sylhetis

In this article I discuss transnational burial rituals carried out in London and Sylhet. While collective identity and reaffirming social ties are important issues in discussing the burial of migrants in Sylhet, the main focus of the article is on gender. The analysis of what happens when Londonis die reveals a great deal about the differential effects of living between two places on men and women. While transnationalism may in some contexts be understood as potentially subversive, for the majority of Sylhetis in Britain movement between places is highly constrained by poverty and British immigration controls, as well as by particular gender and household relations. These in turn impact on men and women’s experiences of bereavement, as well as on their access to and relationship with the British state.     

Young people's gendered interpretations of suicide and attempted suicide

This paper aims to uncover gendered interpretations of various kinds of suicidal behaviour. Its empirical basis is focus group discussions with a range of young people, including users of social work services. In support of Canetto's research, the authors found some of the young people to be associating ‘successful’ suicides with masculinity and ‘failed’ suicide attempts with femininity. These feminized suicide attempts were subject to some fairly pejorative interpretations, such as being motivated by revenge or manipulation. There was no particular pattern of viewpoints in terms of the sex of respondents. The implications of these findings for social work are discussed.     

A Fifth Generation of Revolutionary Theory is Yet to Come

Despite revolution's recent return to the world stage, the progress of revolutionary theory has markedly stalled. While some have argued that recent work on the 2011 Arab Spring constitutes a new, misguided ‘fifth generation’ of theory, I show this claim to be misplaced, demonstrating the remarkable continuity between foundational fourth‐generation scholarship and present‐day analyses. Furthermore, I critically analyse the theoretical, methodological and professional obstacles which fourth‐generation theory has encountered, concluding that scholars must move beyond the fourth generation if we are to surmount them. Finally, I consider the theoretical, methodological and ethical prospects of a true fifth generation of revolutionary theory.     

Adolescents' Judgments of Doubly Deviant Peers: Implications of Intergroup and Intragroup Dynamics for Disloyal and Overweight Group Members

Group membership, loyalty, and weight are highly relevant for adolescent peer evaluations at school. This research tested how in‐group/out‐group membership affected judgments of peers who deviated from social norms for weight and loyalty. Two hundred and forty 11–13‐year‐olds (49 percent female; 94 percent Caucasian) judged two in‐group or out‐group peers: one was normative (loyal and average weight) and the other was non‐normative (i.e., ‘deviant’). The deviant target was overweight, disloyal to their own group (school), or both (‘doubly deviant’). Derogation of overweight relative to average weight peers was greater if they were in‐group rather than out‐group members, revealing a strong ‘black sheep effect’ for overweight peers. Disloyal out‐group deviants were judged favorably, but this effect was eliminated if they were doubly deviant, suggesting that their disloyalty was insufficient to overcome the overweight stigma. Consistent with developmental subjective group dynamics theory, effects of group membership and types of deviance on adolescents’ favorability toward peers were mediated by adolescents’ perceptions of how well the deviant members would ‘fit’ with the in‐group school. Implications for theory and strategies to reduce peer exclusion, particularly weight stigmatization, are considered.     

Story-telling, women's authority and the "Old Wife's Tale": "The Story of the Bottle of Medicine"

The focus of this article is a single personal narrative – a Shetland woman's telling of a story about two girls on a journey to fetch a cure for a sick relative from a wise woman. The story is treated as a cultural document which offers the historian a conduit to a past that is respectful of indigenous woman-centred interpretations of how that past was experienced and understood. The "story of the bottle of medicine" is more than a skilful telling of a local tale; it is a memory practice that provides a path to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of a culture. Applying perspectives from anthropology, oral history and narrative analysis, three sets of questions are addressed: the issue of authenticity; the significance of the narrative structure and storytelling strategies employed; and the nature of the female performance. Ultimately the article asks what this story can tell us about women's interpretation of their own history.     

IDENTIFICATIONS: BETWEEN NATIONALISTIC ‘CELLS’ AND AN AUSTRALIAN MUSLIM UMMAH

This paper explores the dynamics which have characterised the Australian Muslim (a term which is examined more critically throughout this paper) struggle for identity and self-identification from the late nineteenth century to the present. It will consider the two primary mechanisms through which this struggle has been articulated. The first of these relates to the ways in which many Australian Muslims have used the nationalist, linguistic and cultural affiliations, which played a critical role in their process of migration and settlement, as a way of forging personal and communal ‘cells’ of identification. The second explores the attempts made by Australian Muslims to draw this body of cells into a coherent whole structured around a religious framework, to create the ideal to which all Muslims aspire – a unified Muslim community or ummah. One of the critical questions which the various discourses relating to Australian Muslim identity and culture raise, and which will be considered in this paper, is: on what levels does this struggle for identification operate, and to what extent has it been successful in reconciling a sense of an Australian Muslim past with the present and future?