This study was funded by an AUT University Faculty of Health Environmental Sciences research grant.

No abstract

This article argues for a biographical and geographical understanding of foods and food choice. It suggests that such an approach highlights one of the most compelling characteristics of food ‐ that being the way in which it connects the wide worlds of an increasingly internationalised food system into the intimate space of the home and the body. More specifically, and based on ongoing empirical research with 12 households in inner north London, the article explores one aspect of food biographies, through an interlinked consideration of what consumers know of the origins of foods and consumers’ reactions to systems of food provision. It concludes that a structural ambivalence can be identified, such that consumers have both a need to know and an impulse to forget the origins of the foods they eat.

Graves' disease may occasionally result in signi cant proptosis that is either cosmetically unacceptable or causes visual loss. This has traditionally been managed surgically by external decompression of the orbital bony skeleton. Trans-nasal endoscopic orbital decompression is emerging as a new minimally-invasive technique, that avoids the need for cutaneous or gingival incisions. Decompression of the medial orbital wall can be performed up to the anterior wall of the sphenoid sinus. This can be combined with resection of the medial and posterior portion of the orbital oor (preserving the infra-orbital nerve). This technique produces decompression which is comparable to external techniques.We present a series of 10 endoscopic orbital decompressions with an average improvement of 4.4.mm in orbital proptosis. There was an improvement in visual acuity in all patients with visual impairment. Endoscopic orbital decompression is recommended as an alternative to traditional decompression techniques.

Although in vitro fertilization (IVF) has offered hope to those struggling with infertility, it has also had some unintended consequences, including the fate of embryos that may be "surplus" to requirement following IVF treatment. The number of embryos in storage across the world is high, creating a dilemma for patients who need to make disposal decisions, as well as presenting an administrative and practical dilemma for clinics. Research has suggested that patients' views of the status of their embryo/s may affect their disposal decisions, and yet the nature of the links between views of the embryo and decisions to either donate or discard remain unclear. In this article, we engage in a discursive analysis of literature on disposal decisions. We discuss the range of ways in which embryos may be constructed, and demonstrate how these discourses make available or constrain particular action possibilities, and offer particular subject positions for patients. The analysis highlights the complexity of the relationship between embryo status and decision making, and may assist clinicians in supporting and guiding patients' decisions.