10,500 research outputs found
Serving to secure "Global Korea": Gender, mobility, and flight attendant labor migrants
This dissertation is an ethnography of mobility and modernity in contemporary South Korea (the Republic of Korea) following neoliberal restructuring precipitated by the Asian Financial Crisis (1997). It focuses on how comparative âservice,â âsecurity,â and âsafetyâ fashioned âGlobal Koreaâ: an ongoing state-sponsored project aimed at promoting the economic, political, and cultural maturation of South Korea from a once notoriously inhospitable, âbackwardâ country (hujinâguk) to a now welcoming, âadvanced countryâ (sĆnjinâguk). Through physical embodiments of the culturally-specific idiom of âsuperiorâ service (sĆbisĆ), I argue that aspiring, current, and former Korean flight attendants have driven the production and maintenance of this national project.
More broadly, as a driver of this national project, this occupation has emerged out of the countryâs own aspirational flights from an earlier history of authoritarian rule, labor violence, and xenophobia. Against the backdrop of the Korean stateâs aggressive neoliberal restructuring, globalization efforts, and current âHell Chosunâ (HelchosĆn) economy, a group of largely academically and/or class disadvantaged young women have been able secure individualized modes of pleasure, self-fulfillment, and class advancement via what I deem âservice mobilities.â Service mobilities refers to the participation of mostly women in a traditionally devalued but growing sector of the global labor market, the âpink collarâ economy centered around âfeminineâ care labor. Korean female flight attendants share labor skills resembling those of other foreign labor migrants (chiefly from the âGlobal Southâ), who perform care work deemed less desirable. Yet, Korean female flight attendants elude the stigmatizing, classed, and racialized category of âlabor migrant.â Moreover, within the context of South Koreaâs unique history of rapid modernization, the flight attendant occupation also commands considerable social prestige.
Based on ethnographic and archival research on aspiring, current, and former Korean flight attendants, this dissertation asks how these unique care laborers negotiate a metaphorical and literal series of sustained border crossings and inspections between Korean flight attendantsâ contingent status as lowly care-laboring migrants, on the one hand, and ostensibly glamorous, globetrotting elites, on the other. This study contends the following: first, the flight attendant occupation in South Korea represents new politics of pleasure and pain in contemporary East Asia. Second, Korean female flight attendantsâ enactments of soft, sanitized, and glamorous (hwaryĆhada) service help to purify South Koreaâs less savory past. In so doing, Korean flight attendants reconstitute the historical role of female laborers as burden bearers and caretakers of the Korean state.U of I OnlyAuthor submitted a 2-year U of I restriction extension request
Elite perceptions of the Victorian and Edwardian past in inter-war England
It is often argued by historians that members of the cultivated Elite after 1918 rejected the pre-war past. or at least subjected it to severe denigration. This thesis sets out to challenge such a view. Above all, it argues that inter-war critics of the Victorian and Edwardian past were unable to reject it even if that was what they felt inclined to do. This was because they were tied to those periods by the affective links of memory, family, and the continually unfolding consequences of the past in the present. Even the severest critics of the pre-war world, such as Lytton Strachey, were less frequently dismissive of history than ambivalent towards it. This ambivalence, it is argued, helped to keep the past alive and often to humanise it. The thesis also explores more positive estimation of Victorian and Edwardian history between the wars. It examines nostalgia for the past, as well as instances of continuity of practice and attitude. It explores the way in which inter-war society drew upon aspects of Victorian and Edwardian history both as illuminating parallels to contemporary affairs and to understand directly why the present was shaped as it was. Again, this testifies to the enduring power of the past after 1918. There are three parts to this thesis. Part One outlines the cultural context in which writers contemplated the Victorian and Edwardian past. Part Two explores some of the ways in which history was written about and used by inter-war society. Part Three examines the ways in which biographical depictions of eminent Victorians after 1918 encouraged emotional negotiation with the pas
In vitro investigation of the effect of disulfiram on hypoxia induced NFÎșB, epithelial to mesenchymal transition and cancer stem cells in glioblastoma cell lines
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most aggressive and lethal cancers with a poor prognosis. Advances in the treatment of GBM are limited due to several resistance mechanisms and limited drug delivery into the central nervous system (CNS) compartment by the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and by actions of the normal brain to counteract tumour-targeting medications. Hypoxia is common in malignant brain tumours such as GBM and plays a significant role in tumour pathobiology. It is widely accepted that hypoxia is a major driver of GBM malignancy. Although it has been confirmed that hypoxia induces GBM stem-like-cells (GSCs), which are highly invasive and resistant to all chemotherapeutic agents, the detailed molecular pathways linking hypoxia, GSC traits and chemoresistance remain obscure. Evidence shows that hypoxia induces cancer stem cell phenotypes via epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), promoting therapeutic resistance in most cancers, including GBM.
This study demonstrated that spheroid cultured GBM cells consist of a large population of hypoxic cells with CSC and EMT characteristics. GSCs are chemo-resistant and displayed increased levels of HIFs and NFÎșB activity. Similarly, the hypoxia cultured GBM cells manifested GSC traits, chemoresistance and invasiveness. These results suggest that hypoxia is responsible for GBM stemness, chemoresistance and invasiveness. GBM cells transfected with nuclear factor kappa B-p65 (NFÎșB-p65) subunit exhibited CSC and EMT markers indicating the essential role of NFÎșB in maintaining GSC phenotypes. The study also highlighted the significance of NFÎșB in driving chemoresistance, invasiveness, and the potential role of NFÎșB as the central regulator of hypoxia-induced stemness in GBM cells. GSC population has the ability of self-renewal, cancer initiation and development of secondary heterogeneous cancer. The very poor prognosis of GBM could largely be attributed to the existence of GSCs, which promote tumour propagation, maintenance, radio- and chemoresistance and local infiltration.
In this study, we used Disulfiram (DS), a drug used for more than 65 years in alcoholism clinics, in combination with copper (Cu) to target the NFÎșB pathway, reverse chemoresistance and block invasion in GSCs. The obtained results showed that DS/Cu is highly cytotoxic to GBM cells and completely eradicated the resistant CSC population at low dose levels in vitro. DS/Cu inhibited the migration and invasion of hypoxia-induced CSC and EMT like GBM cells at low nanomolar concentrations.
DS is an FDA approved drug with low toxicity to normal tissues and can pass through the BBB. Further research may lead to the quick translation of DS into cancer clinics and provide new therapeutic options to improve treatment outcomes in GBM patients
Estudo da remodelagem reversa miocĂĄrdica atravĂ©s da anĂĄlise proteĂłmica do miocĂĄrdio e do lĂquido pericĂĄrdico
Valve replacement remains as the standard therapeutic option for aortic
stenosis patients, aiming at abolishing pressure overload and triggering
myocardial reverse remodeling. However, despite the instant hemodynamic
benefit, not all patients show complete regression of myocardial hypertrophy,
being at higher risk for adverse outcomes, such as heart failure. The current
comprehension of the biological mechanisms underlying an incomplete reverse
remodeling is far from complete. Furthermore, definitive prognostic tools and
ancillary therapies to improve the outcome of the patients undergoing valve
replacement are missing. To help abridge these gaps, a combined myocardial
(phospho)proteomics and pericardial fluid proteomics approach was followed,
taking advantage of human biopsies and pericardial fluid collected during
surgery and whose origin anticipated a wealth of molecular information
contained therein.
From over 1800 and 750 proteins identified, respectively, in the myocardium
and in the pericardial fluid of aortic stenosis patients, a total of 90 dysregulated
proteins were detected. Gene annotation and pathway enrichment analyses,
together with discriminant analysis, are compatible with a scenario of increased
pro-hypertrophic gene expression and protein synthesis, defective ubiquitinproteasome system activity, proclivity to cell death (potentially fed by
complement activity and other extrinsic factors, such as death receptor
activators), acute-phase response, immune system activation and fibrosis.
Specific validation of some targets through immunoblot techniques and
correlation with clinical data pointed to complement C3 ÎČ chain, Muscle Ring
Finger protein 1 (MuRF1) and the dual-specificity Tyr-phosphorylation
regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A) as potential markers of an incomplete
response. In addition, kinase prediction from phosphoproteome data suggests
that the modulation of casein kinase 2, the family of IÎșB kinases, glycogen
synthase kinase 3 and DYRK1A may help improve the outcome of patients
undergoing valve replacement. Particularly, functional studies with DYRK1A+/-
cardiomyocytes show that this kinase may be an important target to treat
cardiac dysfunction, provided that mutant cells presented a different response
to stretch and reduced ability to develop force (active tension).
This study opens many avenues in post-aortic valve replacement reverse
remodeling research. In the future, gain-of-function and/or loss-of-function
studies with isolated cardiomyocytes or with animal models of aortic bandingdebanding will help disclose the efficacy of targeting the surrogate therapeutic
targets. Besides, clinical studies in larger cohorts will bring definitive proof of
complement C3, MuRF1 and DYRK1A prognostic value.A substituição da vĂĄlvula aĂłrtica continua a ser a opção terapĂȘutica de
referĂȘncia para doentes com estenose aĂłrtica e visa a eliminação da
sobrecarga de pressĂŁo, desencadeando a remodelagem reversa miocĂĄrdica.
Contudo, apesar do benefĂcio hemodinĂąmico imediato, nem todos os pacientes
apresentam regressĂŁo completa da hipertrofia do miocĂĄrdio, ficando com maior
risco de eventos adversos, como a insuficiĂȘncia cardĂaca. Atualmente, os
mecanismos biolĂłgicos subjacentes a uma remodelagem reversa incompleta
ainda não são claros. Além disso, não dispomos de ferramentas de
prognóstico definitivos nem de terapias auxiliares para melhorar a condição
dos pacientes indicados para substituição da vålvula. Para ajudar a resolver
estas lacunas, uma abordagem combinada de (fosfo)proteĂłmica e proteĂłmica
para a caracterização, respetivamente, do miocĂĄrdio e do lĂquido pericĂĄrdico
foi seguida, tomando partido de biĂłpsias e lĂquidos pericĂĄrdicos recolhidos em
ambiente cirĂșrgico.
Das mais de 1800 e 750 proteĂnas identificadas, respetivamente, no miocĂĄrdio
e no lĂquido pericĂĄrdico dos pacientes com estenose aĂłrtica, um total de 90
proteĂnas desreguladas foram detetadas. As anĂĄlises de anotação de genes,
de enriquecimento de vias celulares e discriminativa corroboram um cenĂĄrio de
aumento da expressĂŁo de genes pro-hipertrĂłficos e de sĂntese proteica, um
sistema ubiquitina-proteassoma ineficiente, uma tendĂȘncia para morte celular
(potencialmente acelerada pela atividade do complemento e por outros fatores
extrĂnsecos que ativam death receptors), com ativação da resposta de fase
aguda e do sistema imune, assim como da fibrose.
A validação de alguns alvos especĂficos atravĂ©s de immunoblot e correlação
com dados clĂnicos apontou para a cadeia ÎČ do complemento C3, a Muscle
Ring Finger protein 1 (MuRF1) e a dual-specificity Tyr-phosphoylation
regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A) como potenciais marcadores de uma resposta
incompleta. Por outro lado, a predição de cinases a partir do fosfoproteoma,
sugere que a modulação da caseĂna cinase 2, a famĂlia de cinases do IÎșB, a
glicogénio sintase cinase 3 e da DYRK1A pode ajudar a melhorar a condição
dos pacientes indicados para intervenção. Em particular, a avaliação funcional
de cardiomiĂłcitos DYRK1A+/- mostraram que esta cinase pode ser um alvo
importante para tratar a disfunção cardĂaca, uma vez que os miĂłcitos mutantes
responderam de forma diferente ao estiramento e mostraram uma menor
capacidade para desenvolver força (tensão ativa).
Este estudo levanta vårias hipóteses na investigação da remodelagem reversa.
No futuro, estudos de ganho e/ou perda de função realizados em
cardiomiĂłcitos isolados ou em modelos animais de banding-debanding da
aorta ajudarĂŁo a testar a eficĂĄcia de modular os potenciais alvos terapĂȘuticos
encontrados. AlĂ©m disso, estudos clĂnicos em coortes de maior dimensĂŁo
trarão conclusÔes definitivas quanto ao valor de prognóstico do complemento
C3, MuRF1 e DYRK1A.Programa Doutoral em Biomedicin
The Mission Statement of Jesus: Mark 1:15, Mark's Apocalyptically Charged Decision Motif
This dissertation examines the mission statement of Jesus in Mark 1:15: âThe time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospelâ. The statement will be examined from the perspective of the writer, Mark, who - it will be argued - crafted the statement as a rhetorical device to press his audience for a personal decision to accept Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God and as a call for them to be baptized. It will be argued that the mission statement was fully crafted by Mark rather than originating with the historical Jesus. The analysis examines the apocalyptic imagery that the writer invokes, and how he uses that imagery to charge a decision motif with tension and a call to action, prior to what was expected to be the imminent Parousia of Jesus. The statement in Mark 1:15 is examined from a textual, literary, and historical perspective, considering Markâs literary style from a narrative perspective, his rhetorical goals, and the eschatological and apocalyptic expectations that were operating in the background at the time of the Gospelâs composition. Markâs use of apocalyptic imagery for rhetorical purposes will be shown to be the product of his circumstances and of those experienced by his community during the first Jewish-Roman War. These circumstances led him to believe that the end of the age had come and that certain prophetic traditions regarding the âDay of the Lordâ were being fulfilled. This therefore led Mark to frame the mission statement as an imperative for early Christian believers to decide to commit themselves fully, through the act of baptism, to suffering discipleship and imminent death in the final moments before the return of Jesus
The Disputation: The Enduring Representations in William Holman Hunt's âThe Finding of the Saviour in the Temple,â 1860
This interdisciplinary thesis problematizes the Jewish presence in the painting The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (1860) by William Holman Hunt. This âJewish presenceâ refers to characters within the painting, Jews who posed for the picture and the paintingâs portrayal of Judaism. The thesis takes a phenomenological and hermeneutical approach to The Finding providing careful description and interpretation of what appears in the painting. It situates the painting within a newly configured genre of disputation paintings depicting the Temple scene from the Gospel of Luke (2:47 â 52). It asks two questions. Why does The Finding look the way it does? And how did Holman Hunt know how to create the picture? Under the rubric of the first question, it explores and challenges customary accounts of the painting, explicitly challenging the over reliance upon F.G. Stephensâs pamphlet. Additionally, it examines Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian religious contexts and bringing hitherto unacknowledged artistic contexts to the fore. The second question examines less apparent influences through an analysis of the originary Lukan narrative in conjunction with the under-examined genre of Temple âdisputationâ paintings, and a legacy of scholarly and religious disputation. This demonstrates a discourse of disputation informing The Finding over and above the biblical narrative. In showing that this discourse strongly correlates with the paintingâs objectifying and spectacular properties, this thesis provides a new way to understand The Findingâs orientalism which is further revealed in its typological critical reworking of two Christian medieval and renaissance paintings. As a demonstration of the discourse, the thesis includes an examination of Jewish artists who addressed the theme of disputation overtly or obliquely thereby engaging with and challenging the assumptions upon which the disputation rests
Supernatural crossing in Republican Chinese fiction, 1920sâ1940s
This dissertation studies supernatural narratives in Chinese fiction from the mid-1920s to the 1940s. The literary works present phenomena or elements that are or appear to be supernatural, many of which remain marginal or overlooked in Sinophone and Anglophone academia. These sources are situated in the May Fourth/New Culture ideological context, where supernatural narratives had to make way for the progressive intellectualsâ literary realism and their allegorical application of supernatural motifs. In the face of realism, supernatural narratives paled, dismissed as impractical fantasies that distract one from facing and tackling real life.
Nevertheless, I argue that the supernatural narratives do not probe into another mystical dimension that might co-exist alongside the empirical world. Rather, they imagine various cases of the charactersâ crossing to voice their discontent with contemporary society or to reflect on the notion of reality. âCrossingâ relates to charactersâ acts or processes of trespassing the boundary that separates the supernatural from the conventional natural world, thus entailing encounters and interaction between the natural and the supernatural. The dissertation examines how crossing, as a narrative device, disturbs accustomed and mundane situations, releases hidden tensions, and discloses repressed truths in Republican fiction.
There are five types of crossing in the supernatural narratives.
Type 1 is the crossing into âhauntedâ houses. This includes (intangible) human agency crossing into domestic spaces and revealing secrets and truths concealed by the scary, feigned âhauntingâ, thus exposing the hidden evil and the other house occupiersâ silenced, suffocated state.
Type 2 is men crossing into female ghostsâ apparitional residences. The female ghosts allude to heart-breaking, traumatic experiences in socio-historical reality, evoking sympathetic concern for suffering individuals who are caught in social upheavals.
Type 3 is the crossing from reality into the charactersâ delusional/hallucinatory realities. While they physically remain in the empirical world, the charactersâ abnormal perceptions lead them to exclusive, delirious, and quasi-supernatural experiences of reality. Their crossings blur the concrete boundaries between the real and the unreal on the mental level: their abnormal perceptions construct a significant, meaningful reality for them, which may be as real as the commonly regarded objective reality.
Type 4 is the crossing into the netherworld modelled on the real world in the authorsâ observation and bears a spectrum of satirised objects of the Republican society.
The last type is immortal visitors crossing into the human world. This type satirises humanityâs vices and destructive potential.
The primary sources demonstrate their writersâ witty passion to play with super--natural notions and imagery (such as ghosts, demons, and immortals) and stitch them into vivid, engaging scenes using techniques such as the gothic, the grotesque, and the satirical, in order to evoke sentiments such as terror, horror, disgust, dis--orientation, or awe, all in service of their insights into realist issues. The works also creatively tailor traditional Chinese modes and motifs, which exemplifies the revival of Republican interest in traditional cultural heritage. The supernatural narratives may amaze or disturb the reader at first, but what is more shocking, unpleasantly nudging, or thought-provoking is the problematic society and peopleâs lives that the supernatural (misunderstandings) eventually reveals. They present a more compre--hensive treatment of reality than Republican literature with its revolutionary consciousness surrounding class struggle. The critical perspectives of the supernatural narratives include domestic space, unacknowledged history and marginal individuals, abnormal mentality, and pervasive weaknesses in humanity.
The crossing and supernatural narratives function as a means of better understanding the lived reality.
This study gathers diverse primary sources written by Republican writers from various educational and political backgrounds and interprets them from a rare perspective, thus filling a research gap. It promotes a fuller view of supernatural narratives in twentieth-century Chinese literature. In terms of reflecting the social and personal reality of the Republican era, the supernatural narratives supplement the realist fiction of the time
âMental fightâ and âseeing & writingâ in Virginia Woolf and William Blake
This thesis is the first full-length study to assess the writer and publisher Virginia Woolfâs (1882-1941) responses to the radical Romantic poet-painter, and engraver, William Blake (1757-1827). I trace Woolfâs public and private, overt and subtle references to Blake in fiction, essays, notebooks, diaries, letters and drawings. I have examined volumes in Leonard and Virginia Woolfâs library that are pertinent, directly and indirectly, to Woolfâs understanding of Blake. I focus on Woolfâs key phrases about Blake: âMental fightâ, and âseeing & writing.â
I consider the other phrases Woolf uses to think about Blake in the context of these two categories. Woolf and Blake are both interested in combining visual and verbal aesthetics (âseeing & writingâ). They are both critical of their respective cultures (âMental fightâ). Woolf mentions âseeing & writingâ in connection to Blake in a 1940 notebook. She engages with Blakeâs âMental fightâ in âThoughts on Peace in an Air Raidâ (1940).
I map late nineteenth and early twentieth-century opinion on Blake and explore Woolfâs engagement with Blake in these wider contexts. I make use of the circumstantial detail of Woolfâs friendship with the great Blake collector and scholar, Geoffrey Keynes (1887-1982), brother of Bloomsbury economist John Maynard Keynes. Woolf was party to the Blake centenary celebrations courtesy of Geoffrey Keynesâs organisation of the centenary exhibition in London in 1927.
Chapter One introduces Woolfâs explicit references to Blake and examines the record of Woolf scholarship that unites Woolf and Blake. To see how her predecessors had responded, Chapter Two examines the nineteenth-century interest in Blake and Woolfâs engagement with key nineteenth-century Blakeans. Chapter Three looks at the modernist, early twentieth-century engagement with Blake, to contextualise Woolfâs position on Blake. Chapter Four assesses how Woolf and Blake use âMental fightâ to oppose warmongering and fascist politics. Chapter Five is about what Woolf and Blake write and think about the country and the city. Chapter Six discusses Woolfâs reading of John Milton (1608-1674) in relation to her interest in Blake, drawing on the evidence of Blakeâs intense reading of Milton. Chapter Seven examines further miscellaneous continuities between Woolf and Blake. Chapter Eight proposes, in conclusion, that we can only form an impression of Woolfâs Blake.
The thesis also has three appendices. First, a chronology of key publications which chart Blakeâs reputation as well as Woolfâs allusions to Blake. Second a list all of Blakeâs poetry represented in Woolfâs library including contents page. The third lists all the other volumes in Woolfâs library that proved relevant. Although Woolfâs writing is the subject of this thesis, my project necessitates an attempt to recover how Blake was understood and misunderstood by numerous writers in the early twentieth century. The thesis argues Blake is a model radical Romantic who combines the visual and the verbal and that Woolf sees him as a kindred artist
Dirbtinio intelekto juridinis asmuo: uĆŸ, prieĆĄ, susilaikyti?
This article is about the legal personhood of artificial intelligence as one of the existing options of regulating AI and coping with the challenges arising out of its functioning. It begins with the search for the definition of AI and goes on to consider the arguments against the legal personhood of AI, the options of such a legal personhood, and the factors taken into account in devising the legal personhood of AI. The article ends with our vision of the legal personhood of AI.Ć iame straipsnyje raĆĄoma apie dirbtinio intelekto juridinio asmens statusÄ
kaip vienÄ
iĆĄ esamĆł dirbtinio intelekto reguliavimo galimybiĆł ir bĆ«dÄ
susidoroti su iĆĄĆĄĆ«kiais, kylanÄiais dÄl jo veikimo. Pradedama nuo dirbtinio intelekto apibrÄĆŸties paieĆĄkĆł, toliau nagrinÄjami argumentai uĆŸ ir prieĆĄ dirbtinio intelekto juridinio asmens statusÄ
ir veiksniai, ÄŻ kuriuos turÄtĆł bĆ«ti atsiĆŸvelgta kuriant dirbtinio intelekto juridinio asmens statusÄ
. Straipsnis baigiamas autorÄs nuomone dÄl dirbtinio intelekto juridinio asmens statuso
The crisis of cultural authority in museums : contesting human remains in the collections of Britain
Museums in Britain have displayed and researched human remains since the eighteenth century. However, in the last two decades human remains in collections have become subject to claims and controversies. Firstly, human remains associated with acquisition during the colonial period have become increasingly difficult to retain and have been transfered to culturally affiliated overseas indigenous groups. Secondly, a group of British Pagans have formed to make claims on ancient human remains in collections. Thirdly, human remains that are not requested by any community group, and of all ages, have become the focus of concerns expressed about their treatment by members of the profession. A discourse arguing for 'respect' has emerged, which argues that all human remains should be treated with new care. The claims made on human remains have been vigourously but differentially contested by members of the sector, who consider the human remains to be unique research objects. This thesis charts the influences at play on the contestation over human remains and examines its construction. The academic literature tends to understand changes to museums as a result of external factors. This thesis argues that this problem is influenced by a crisis of legitimacy and establishes that there are strong internal influences. Through a weak social constructionist approach I demonstrate that the issue has been promoted by influential members of the sector as part of a broader attempt to distance themselves from their foundational role, as a consequence of a crisis of cultural authority stimulated by external and internal factors. The symbolic character of human remains in locating this problem is informed by the unique properties of dead bodies and is influenced by the significance of the body as a scientific object; its association with identity work and as a site of political struggle, in the high modem period
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