'Staying in the mess': gender, sexuality and queer heterotopic space in Sarah Waters’s neo-historical narratives

This thesis investigates the way Sarah Waters engages in queer spatiality as well as queer temporality in her historical fiction. Drawing on and extending Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, a space that is established within society but is able to contest its authority, this thesis argues that Waters’s characters create heterotopic spaces where their desire for queer fulfilment is, if partially and temporarily, achieved. Chapters Two through Five discuss how Waters utilises various types of space to articulate her gender and sexual politics, to call into question heteronormative authority that confines her characters, and to contribute to the creation of heterotopic space that allows the characters’ fulfilment of queer desire: the theatre and space of alternative kinship in Tipping the Velvet (Chapter Two), Italy and metatextual space in Affinity (Chapter Three), the bedroom and the library in Fingersmith (Chapter Three), the kitchen in The Paying Guests (Chapter Four), London during the blitz in The Night Watch (Chapter Four), and a country house in The Little Stranger (Chapter Five). Chapter Six aims to bring all of Waters’s novels together to discuss the queer potential of her queer characters’ act of walking the city to challenge the heteronormativity which abounds in the streets of London. In my Conclusion/Coda, I will consider the possibility of widening the scope of neo-Victorian/historical fiction by analysing The Handmaiden, a film adaptation of Fingersmith set in 1930s Korea. Discussion of the temporal and geographical gaps between Fingersmith and The Handmaiden provides an apt opportunity to return to the key concern of this thesis with the importance of queer spatiality and temporality in Waters’s novels. This thesis addresses Waters’s distinct use of space in understanding the link between her characters’ creation of queer heterotopic space and their yearning for a hopeful future, which is the contemporary reader’s present

'Staying in the mess': gender, sexuality and queer heterotopic space in Sarah Waters’s neo-historical narratives

This thesis investigates the way Sarah Waters engages in queer spatiality as well as queer temporality in her historical fiction. Drawing on and extending Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, a space that is established within society but is able to contest its authority, this thesis argues that Waters’s characters create heterotopic spaces where their desire for queer fulfilment is, if partially and temporarily, achieved. Chapters Two through Five discuss how Waters utilises various types of space to articulate her gender and sexual politics, to call into question heteronormative authority that confines her characters, and to contribute to the creation of heterotopic space that allows the characters’ fulfilment of queer desire: the theatre and space of alternative kinship in Tipping the Velvet (Chapter Two), Italy and metatextual space in Affinity (Chapter Three), the bedroom and the library in Fingersmith (Chapter Three), the kitchen in The Paying Guests (Chapter Four), London during the blitz in The Night Watch (Chapter Four), and a country house in The Little Stranger (Chapter Five). Chapter Six aims to bring all of Waters’s novels together to discuss the queer potential of her queer characters’ act of walking the city to challenge the heteronormativity which abounds in the streets of London. In my Conclusion/Coda, I will consider the possibility of widening the scope of neo-Victorian/historical fiction by analysing The Handmaiden, a film adaptation of Fingersmith set in 1930s Korea. Discussion of the temporal and geographical gaps between Fingersmith and The Handmaiden provides an apt opportunity to return to the key concern of this thesis with the importance of queer spatiality and temporality in Waters’s novels. This thesis addresses Waters’s distinct use of space in understanding the link between her characters’ creation of queer heterotopic space and their yearning for a hopeful future, which is the contemporary reader’s present

CPP32/Yama/apopain cleaves the catalytic component of DNA-dependent protein kinase in the holoenzyme

AbstractDNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) is composed of a 460-kDa catalytic component (p460) and a DNA-binding component Ku protein. Immunoblot analysis after treatment of Jurkat cells with anti-Fas antibody demonstrated the cleavage of p460 concomitantly with an increase in CPP32/Yama/apopain activity. Recombinant CPP32/Yama/apopain specifically cleaved p460 in the DNA-PK preparation that had been purified from Raji cells into 230- and 160-kDa polypeptides, the latter of which was detected in anti-Fas-treated Jurkat cells. The regulatory component Ku protein was not significantly affected by CPP32/Yama/apopain. DNA-PK activity was decreased with the disappearance of p460 in the incubation of DNA-PK with CPP32/Yama/apopain. These results suggest that the catalytic component of DNA-PK is one of the target proteins for CPP32/Yama/apopain in Fas-mediated apoptosis

Relevance of Some Damage Factors to Structures Damage in the 1995 Kobe Earthquake

The 1995 Kobe Earthquake (Hyogoken-nanbu Earthquake) caused a severe damage to various kinds of structures. As damage factors of these structures, the characteristics of seismic motion, distance from the earthquake source fault, ground conditions, liquefaction, and strength of structures can be considered. In this paper, paying attention to the distance from the earthquake source fault and ground conditions among them, the relevance to structures damage in wooden houses (on-ground structure) and water supply pipelines (under-ground structure) in Nishinomiya-City area was examined. As the results, the relationship between wooden houses damage and the distance from the fault can be approximately represented as a unique exponential function. In liquefied areas, however, the rate of completely collapsed wooden houses decreases 5 to 20% from the average value. This might be because the damping of earthquake motion brought the decrease of the damage rate. While, the relationship between water supply pipelines damage and the distance from the fault completely differs from the above-mentioned for wooden houses. A characteristic value Tg estimated from the distribution of N value at each location can be used for the ground classification in earthquake-proof design. The damage rate of water supply pipelines increases as increasing Tg , while that of wooden houses decreases as increasing Tg

Observing Supernova Neutrino Light Curves with Super-Kamiokande. III. Extraction of Mass and Radius of Neutron Stars from Synthetic Data

Neutrinos are guaranteed to be observable from the next Galactic supernova (SN). Optical light and gravitational waves are also observable, but may be difficult to observe if the location of the SN in the Galaxy or the details of the explosion are unsuitable. The key to observing the next SN is to first use neutrinos to understand various physical quantities and then link them to other signals. In this paper, we present Monte Carlo sampling calculations of neutrino events from Galactic SN explosions observed with Super-Kamiokande. The analytical solution of neutrino emission, which represents the long-term evolution of the neutrino light curve from SNe, is used as a theoretical template. It gives the event rate and event spectrum through inverse beta decay interactions with explicit model parameter dependence. Parameter estimation is performed on these simulated sample data by fitting least squares using the analytical solution. The results show that the mass, radius, and total energy of a remnant neutron star produced by an SN can be determined with an accuracy of ∼ 0.1 M⊙, ∼1 km, and ∼ 10⁵¹ erg, respectively, for a Galactic SN at 8 kpc

Genetic and clinical landscape of breast cancers with germline BRCA1/2 variants

遺伝性乳癌の遺伝学的・臨床学的特徴を解明 --BRCA1/2 変異乳癌は両アレルの不活化の有無により異なった特徴を持つ--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2020-10-26.The genetic and clinical characteristics of breast tumors with germline variants, including their association with biallelic inactivation through loss-of-heterozygosity (LOH) and second somatic mutations, remain elusive. We analyzed germline variants of 11 breast cancer susceptibility genes for 1, 995 Japanese breast cancer patients, and identified 101 (5.1%) pathogenic variants, including 62 BRCA2 and 15 BRCA1 mutations. Genetic analysis of 64 BRCA1/2-mutated tumors including TCGA dataset tumors, revealed an association of biallelic inactivation with more extensive deletions, copy neutral LOH, gain with LOH and younger onset. Strikingly, TP53 and RB1 mutations were frequently observed in BRCA1- (94%) and BRCA2- (9.7%) mutated tumors with biallelic inactivation. Inactivation of TP53 and RB1 together with BRCA1 and BRCA2, respectively, involved LOH of chromosomes 17 and 13. Notably, BRCA1/2 tumors without biallelic inactivation were indistinguishable from those without germline variants. Our study highlights the heterogeneity and unique clonal selection pattern in breast cancers with germline variants

The Japanese space gravitational wave antenna; DECIGO

DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO) is the future Japanese space gravitational wave antenna. DECIGO is expected to open a new window of observation for gravitational wave astronomy especially between 0.1 Hz and 10 Hz, revealing various mysteries of the universe such as dark energy, formation mechanism of supermassive black holes, and inflation of the universe. The pre-conceptual design of DECIGO consists of three drag-free spacecraft, whose relative displacements are measured by a differential Fabry– Perot Michelson interferometer. We plan to launch two missions, DECIGO pathfinder and pre- DECIGO first and finally DECIGO in 2024

Optimization of prediction methods for risk assessment of pathogenic germline variants in the Japanese population

Predicting pathogenic germline variants (PGVs) in breast cancer patients is important for selecting optimal therapeutics and implementing risk reduction strategies. However, PGV risk factors and the performance of prediction methods in the Japanese population remain unclear. We investigated clinicopathological risk factors using the Tyrer-Cuzick (TC) breast cancer risk evaluation tool to predict BRCA PGVs in unselected Japanese breast cancer patients (n = 1, 995). Eleven breast cancer susceptibility genes were analyzed using target-capture sequencing in a previous study; the PGV prevalence in BRCA1, BRCA2, and PALB2 was 0.75%, 3.1%, and 0.45%, respectively. Significant associations were found between the presence of BRCA PGVs and early disease onset, number of familial cancer cases (up to third-degree relatives), triple-negative breast cancer patients under the age of 60, and ovarian cancer history (all P < .0001). In total, 816 patients (40.9%) satisfied the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines for recommending multigene testing. The sensitivity and specificity of the NCCN criteria for discriminating PGV carriers from noncarriers were 71.3% and 60.7%, respectively. The TC model showed good discrimination for predicting BRCA PGVs (area under the curve, 0.75; 95% confidence interval, 0.69-0.81). Furthermore, use of the TC model with an optimized cutoff of TC score ≥0.16% in addition to the NCCN guidelines improved the predictive efficiency for high-risk groups (sensitivity, 77.2%; specificity, 54.8%; about 11 genes). Given the influence of ethnic differences on prediction, we consider that further studies are warranted to elucidate the role of environmental and genetic factors for realizing precise prediction