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Social work professionals in urban contexts struggle to serve different groups equally. Critical social work literature advocates critical reflexivity in social work practices. Focusing on existing support practices, it encourages scrutinising the implicit ways social work practices can maintain and reproduce power imbalances and othering structures. However, it has not examined the tensions connected with phases in which the first contact between clients and professionals occurs and clients’ engagement in social work programmes begins. Stimulated by an empirical research into parenting-support in a city in the Netherlands, this article examines theoretically the notion of ‘encounter practices’ through which professionals reach out to people considered in need of support but not asking for help. We disentangle how encounter practices can be interpreted through different understandings of professional engagement, emerging from either critical or affirmative traditions of social work. The encounter context poses specific challenges for critical reflexivity, but it also offers the possibility of exploring one’s social positioning in relation to others through informal micro-interactions preceding the instalment of professional relations between professionals and parents. Drawing on insights from urban studies, we distinguish ‘fleeting’, ‘convivial’ and ‘engaged encounters’ as different levels of encounter that allow unsettling othering structures in outreach practices.

The retina is a potential source of biomarkers for the detection of neurodegenerative diseases. Accumulation of phosphorylated tau (p-tau) in the brain is a pathological feature characteristic for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and primary tauopathies. In this study the presence of p-tau in the retina in relation to tau pathology in the brain was assessed. Post-mortem eyes and brains were collected through the Netherlands Brain Bank from donors with AD (n = 17), primary tauopathies (n = 8), α-synucleinopathies (n = 13), other neurodegenerative diseases including non-tau frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) (n = 9), and controls (n = 15). Retina cross-sections were assessed by immunohistochemistry using antibodies directed against total tau (HT7), 3R and 4R tau isoforms (RD3, RD4), and phospho-epitopes Ser202/Thr205 (AT8), Thr217 (anti-T217), Thr212/Ser214 (AT100), Thr181 (AT270), Ser396 (anti-pS396) and Ser422 (anti-pS422). Retinal tau load was compared to p-tau Ser202/Thr205 and p-tau Thr217 load in various brain regions. Total tau, 3R and 4R tau isoforms were most prominently present in the inner plexiform layer (IPL) and outer plexiform layer (OPL) of the retina and were detected in all cases and controls as a diffuse and somatodendritic signal. Total tau, p-tau Ser202/Thr205 and p-tau Thr217 was observed in amacrine and horizontal cells of the inner nuclear layer (INL). Various antibodies directed against phospho-epitopes of tau showed immunoreactivity in the IPL, OPL, and INL. P-tau Ser202/Thr205 and Thr217 showed significant discrimination between AD and other tauopathies, and non-tauopathy cases including controls. Whilst immunopositivity was observed for p-tau Thr212/Ser214, Thr181 and Ser396, there were no group differences. P-tau Ser422 did not show any immunoreactivity in the retina. The presence of retinal p-tau Ser202/Thr205 and Thr217 correlated with Braak stage for NFTs and with the presence of p-tau Ser202/Thr205 in hippocampus and cortical brain regions. Depending on the phospho-epitope, p-tau in the retina is a potential biomarker for AD and primary tauopathies.

Plant-based food provides more ALA (α-linolenic acid) and less EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexanoic acid) than marine food. Earlier studies indicate that cetoleic acid (22:1n-11) stimulates the n-3 pathway from ALA to EPA and DHA. The present study aimed to investigate the dietary effects of camelina oil (CA) high in ALA and sandeel oil (SA) high in cetoleic acid on the conversion of ALA to EPA and DHA. Male Zucker fa/fa rats were fed a diet of soybean oil (Ctrl) or diets of CA, SA, or a combination of CA and SA. Significantly higher levels of DPA (docosapentaenoic acid) and DHA in blood cells from the CA group compared to the Ctrl indicate an active conversion of ALA to DPA and DHA. Increasing the uptake and deposition of EPA and DHA meant that a trend towards a decrease in the liver gene expression of Elovl5, Fads1, and Fads2 along with an increase in the dietary content of SA was observed. However, 25% of the SA could be exchanged with CA without having a significant effect on EPA, DPA, or DHA in blood cells, indicating that bioactive components in SA, such as cetoleic acid, might counteract the inhibiting effect of the high dietary content of DHA on the n-3 biosynthetic pathway.

Two similar watercraft depicted in rock art at Awunbarna, Arnhem Land, Australia, are unlike the Macassan prahus and Western craft shown at other contact sites in northern Australia, but are sufficiently detailed to offer evidence for identification. Both craft appear to display triangular flags, pennants, and prow adornments indicating martial status. By comparing these two depictions with historically recorded watercraft from Island Southeast Asia, their probable origin is shown to have been eastern Maluku Tenggara in Indonesia. These motifs provide the first known direct archaeological evidence for ethnic diversity for the origins of mariners from Island Southeast Asia other than Makassar, Sulawesi. The rock-art depictions are representative of ceremonially decorated fighting craft used to lead trading voyages and raids, and may be linked to trade, fishing, resource exploitation, or slavery. This potentially unique identification of Moluccan watercraft in Arnhem Land rock art offers evidence of the elusive encounters between the Indigenous people of northern Australia and people from the archipelagos to the north, evidence with which to expand both the nature and context of Australia’s contact narrative.