This article examines the value of using photography as both a methodological and therapeutic tool for the construction – and study – of meanings after a death-related loss. A study case, consisting ...of narratives of mourning elicited through a personal photo diary and a follow-up interview, will be analysed in light of five key advantages of using photography to study grief experiences according to a social constructivist approach. These advantages are (1) agency in the search for meaning; (2) the role of photography as a tool for scaffolding narratives of loss; (3) the role of photography in preserving the continuing bonds with the deceased; (4) the role of photography as technology of the self for emotional self-regulation and (5) photography as a process in the reviewing of the contextualised experience.
There is a growing number of new digital technologies mediating the experiences of grief and the continuing bonds between the bereaved and their loved ones following death. One of the most recent ...technological developments is the “griefbot”. Based on the digital footprint of the deceased, griefbots allow two-way communication between mourners and the digital version of the dead through a conversational interface or chat. This paper explores the mediational role that griefbots might have in the grieving process vis-à-vis that of other digital technologies, such as social media services or digital memorials on the Internet. After briefly reviewing the new possibilities offered by the Internet in the way people relate with the dead, we delve into the particularities of griefbots, focusing on the two-way communication afforded by this technology and the sense of simulation derived from the virtual interaction between the living and the dead. Discussion leads us to emphasize that, while both the Internet and griefbots bring about a significant spatial and temporal expansion to the grief experience –affording a more direct way to communicate with the dead anywhere and at any time– they differ in that, unlike the socially shared virtual space between mourners and loved ones in most digital memorials, griefbots imply a private conversational space between the mourner and the deceased person. The paper concludes by pointing to some ethical issues that griefbots, as a profit-oriented afterlife industry, might raise for both mourners and the dead in our increasingly digital societies.
Recent exome sequencing studies identified filamin C (
) as a candidate gene for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Our aim was to determine the rate of
candidate variants in a large cohort of HCM ...patients who were also sequenced for the main sarcomere genes.
A total of 448 HCM patients were next generation-sequenced (semiconductor chip technology) for the
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
, and
genes. We also sequenced 450 healthy controls from the same population. Based on the reported population frequencies, bioinformatic criteria, and familial segregation, we identified 20
candidate variants (13 new; 1 nonsense; and 19 missense) in 22 patients. Compared with the patients, only 1 of the control's missense variants was nonreported (
=0.007; Fisher exact probability test). Based on the familial segregation and the reported functional studies, 6 of the candidate variants (in 7 patients) were finally classified as likely pathogenic, 10 as variants of uncertain significance, and 4 as likely benign.
We provide a compelling evidence of the involvement of
in the development of HCM. Most of the
variants were associated with mild forms of HCM and a reduced penetrance, with few affected in the families to confirm the segregation. Our work, together with others who found
variants among patients with dilated and restrictive cardiomyopathies, pointed to this gene as an important cause of structural cardiomyopathies.
The growing prominence of social networks has changed the field of death by allowing people to share their personal experience of dying or surviving the death of loved ones. This paper features a ...case study through which we examine the mediational role of new technologies in end-of-life experiences in young cancer patients. The case study revolves around an Instagram account created by a young Spanish woman after being diagnosed with a cancer that would ultimately end her life. The thematic analysis carried out on the 196 posts focuses on three of the main topics addressed in the account: (1) the visibilisation of cancer and its impact on the daily lives of young patients; (2) the life lessons learnt from the experience of cancer; (3) a critique of the traditional imaginary of cancer, understood in terms of an individual struggle, together with the denunciation of the lack of social protection for young cancer patients. Ultimately, the analysis shows how Instagram acts in this case as a mediational tool through which the account’s creator not only relates to her community of followers, but also to herself and to her own illness, giving rise to different meaning-making and self-regulating functions.
Background:Mutations in at least 30 genes have been linked to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Due to the large size of the main HCM genes, Sanger sequencing is labor intensive and expensive. The ...purpose was to develop a next-generation sequencing (NGS) procedure for the main HCM genes.Methods and Results:Multiplex amplification of the coding exons ofMYH7,MYBPC3,TNNT2,TNNI3,ACTC1,TNNC1,MYL2,MYL3, andTPM1was designated, followed by NGS with the Ion Torrent PGM (Life Technologies). A total of 8 pools containing DNA from HCM patients were sequenced in a 2-step approach. First, a total of 60 patients (validation cohort) underwent both PGM and Sanger sequencing for the 9 genes. No false-negative variants were found on NGS (100% sensitivity), and a specificity of 97% and 80% was achieved for single-nucleotide and insertion/deletion variants, respectively. Second, the PGM was used to search for mutations in a total of 76 cases not previously studied (discovery cohort). A total of 19 putative mutations were identified in the discovery pools, which were confirmed and assigned to specific patients on Sanger sequencing.Conclusions:An NGS procedure has been developed for the main sarcomeric genes that would facilitate the screening of large cohorts of patients. In addition, this procedure would facilitate the uncovering of rare gene variants on a population scale. (Circ J 2014; 78: 2963–2971)
In the last decades, a large number of multifactor assetpricing models have emerged with the aim of correcting the estimated equity risk premiums for some well‐documented market anomalies. In any ...case, recent research on asset pricing shows how the higher liquidity resulting from the globalization of financial markets has significantly reduced returns tied to many strategies based on market anomalies. In this framework, questions arise about the possible renovated validity of classic assetpricing models. On this basis, in this paper we study to what extent the capital assetpricing model (CAPM) has recovered its past explanatory power. Specifically, we propose a time‐varying beta CAPM in order to control for the variable nature of beta risk to changes in the market liquidity, using the variation of the Amihud illiquidity measure to account for the degree of trading activity. We test both the time‐varying and constant beta models on different sets of anomaly portfolios for the UK equity market, and we compare their performance to that of the Fama–French three‐ and five‐factor models. Additionally, we test the constant beta model on a set of actively managed portfolios, formed according to the variation in market illiquidity in the previous year. Our results show that the pricing errors of the CAPM have significantly decreased with respect to those of previous literature. Furthermore, the time‐varying beta model performs similarly to the Fama–French models in most cases. These results are consistent with increased trading activity that reduces arbitrage opportunities and, therefore, enhances market efficiency.
We study the relationship between the domestic consumption growth and industry bubbles, under the assumption that, at a global level, the bubbles created by productive countries totally or partially ...offset the bubbles created by unproductive countries. Using a methodology based on a time‐varying parameter vector autoregression, we define the expected consumption growth as a function of the exposure to bubbly episodes and the price of bubbles, among other variables. We test the model for nine European countries. Our results show that the variation of construction and technology bubbles has a strong explanatory power for the domestic consumption growth.
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