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With grandparents providing increasing amounts of childcare, through the lens of food, this paper explores how the provision of regular childcare may be blurring the boundaries of the grandmother role. Drawing on semi-structured, photo elicitation interviews with 23 white British grandparents who regularly look after their grandchildren aged 11 years and under, we demonstrate that there were sometimes competing priorities and tensions between grandmothers and their grandchildren’s parents when it came to feeding children. While the parents’ “intensive feeding” preferences seemed to be shaped by intensive parenting culture, the grandmothers prioritized using eating occasions as an arena for socialization and fostering culinary capital in their grandchildren. Furthermore, while the grandmothers described building bonds with their grandchildren through the provision of treats, there was evidence that the type of foods that were used as treats, or the frequency of their provision, sometimes led to tension with parents. Overall, the data on child feeding shows that grandmothers found their role to be in a constant state of flux, as their assumed authority varied depending on who was present. We consequently conclude that grandmothering is complex, and situationally defined, particularly for those who provide regular care for their grandchildren. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the ways in which the intensification of parenting and the notion of children at risk have influenced grandmothers' narratives and practices. Interviews with grandmothers who regularly look after their grandchildren, reveal that their practices are framed around the notions of children to be protected, educated and entertained. Such notions reveal that aspects of grandmothers' roles as protectors, educators, playmates and confidants involved negotiations with parents around the ideal of 'putting the child first'. The article argues that intensive parenting has influenced grandmothering but the way this is enacted reveals resistance to certain aspects of intensive parenting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Human resistance to re-infection with S. mansoni is correlated with high levels of anti-soluble adult worm antigens (SWAP) IgE. Although it has been shown that IL-4 and IL-5 are crucial in establishing IgE responses in vitro, the active in vivo production of these cytokines by T cells, and the degree of polarization of Th2 vs. Th0 in human schistosomiasis is not known. To address this question, we determined the frequency of IL-4 and IFN-γ or IL-5 and IL-2 producing lymphocytes from schistosomiasis patients with high or low levels of IgE anti-SWAP. Results Our analysis showed that high and low IgE-producers responded equally to schistosomiasis antigens as determined by proliferation. Moreover, patients from both groups displayed similar percentages of circulating lymphocytes. However, high IgE-producers had an increased percentage of activated CD4+ T cells as compared to the low IgE-producers. Moreover, intracellular cytokine analysis, after short-term stimulation with anti-CD3/CD28 mAbs, showed that IgE high-producers display an increase in the percentage of T lymphocytes expressing IL-4 and IL-5 as compared to IgE low-responders. A coordinate control of the frequency of IL-4 and IL-5 producing lymphocytes in IgE high, but not IgE low-responders, was observed. Conclusions High IgE phenotype human schistosomiasis patients exhibit a coordinate regulation of IL-4 and IL-5 producing cells and the lymphocyte derived IL-4 comes from true polarized Th2 like cells, in the absence of measurable Th0 cells as measured by co-production of IL-4 and IFN-γ.

Two tests of divergent thinking were taken by engineering students and business studies students. One concerned nonscientific objects, while the second concerned objects of specific interest to engineers. The result casts doubts on the validity of previous studies showing arts students better at thinking divergently than science students. (KC)

Uncertainty has been highlighted as an important aspect of experiences of chronic conditions generally and epilepsy in particular. However, there is little research exploring the extent to which uncertainty features in the experiences of family members or the form that this uncertainty may take. Drawing on in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with 27 parents who had a child with epilepsy, this article explores parents' experiences of uncertainty and the way in which their views on childhood and epilepsy interacted and contributed to the uncertainties they experienced. It is argued that the occurrence of epilepsy during childhood shaped parents' experiences as they used their 'social clocks' in order to interpret symptoms. Furthermore, parents described what has been termed a 'cycle of uncertainty'. Indeed, the combination of epilepsy (a condition with various inherent forms of uncertainty) and childhood (a period in the life course that is seen as a time of development) meant that parents could not be sure which changes in their child were a result of the condition and which were a normal part of the ageing process. Overall, this article demonstrates that it is important to contextualise experiences of chronic conditions in relation to different stages in the life course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Despite large amounts of care for chronic conditions being provided within the family, information regarding the extent to which siblings contribute to informal care practices in families where a child has a chronic condition is limited. This article draws on multiple perspective data from 24 families that had a child with epilepsy. In doing so, the article illustrates siblings' significant contribution to caring for their brother or sister and further develops the alert assistant concept. Two additional distinct caring roles that the siblings took on are also outlined – the substitute parent and parenting assistant roles. The relationship between siblings' socio‐demographic characteristics and their caring responsibilities is also explored. The paper's findings are that siblings who were older, female and those in families with a higher child to parent ratio took on more caring responsibilities. Consequently, this article contributes to the currently limited literature on siblings who care for a chronically ill brother or sister by increasing understandings of different caring roles and experiences of chronic illness in families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]