THE ANGEL OF HISTORY AND THE RUINS OF PARIS: WALTER BENJAMIN IN FRANCE OR THE PROGRESS AS CATASTROPHE

If Walter Benjamin's writings have been mostly interpreted in the fields of art and literature critique, we would like here to take his philosophy of history more seriously, despite its acknowledged lack of unity (Habermas 1988: 32) and systematicity (Arendt 1960: 248). Drawing from the well-known allegory of the “Angel” developed in his theses on the concept of history written at the beginning of the Second World War and just before his death in Port-Bou, we will further analyze his genealogical critique of Parisian modernity contained in the Arcades Project, a work undertook more than a decade before, during his exile in France. In echo with the imagination of prospective ruins which florished during the modernization of the French capital after the 1850's, Benjamin's conception of progress, understood as a catastrophe submitting industrial capitalist societies to a permanent “state of emergency”, is thus combined with the theorization of a “Copernician revolution in the field of historical method” (Benjamin 1999: 348). Beyond Benjamin's phenomenological enterprise of a physiognomy of material modernity, and the romantic and surrealistic sensibility of his “anthropological materialism”, his philosophy of progress inscribes itself in a radical paradigm rendering its centrality to the idea of catastrophe (Anders 1972; Dupuy 2004; Stengers 2009), against the accidental role it holds in the principles of precaution and “responsibility” (Jonas 1979) and in the nowadays dominant paradigm of “risk” (Beck 1986); furthermore, “our” catastrophes would have in a Benjaminian perspective to be diagnosed in the past and the present rather than anticipated for the future. Article visualizations

The Biopolitics of Marriage and Motherhood: Understanding the Transformative Role of White Middle-Class Women in the American Eugenics Movement 1900-1930

Eugenics, the deplorable crusade to “strengthen” family and “save civilized America” from “race suicide” through the regulation of motherhood, emerged in the United States as a cohesive movement in the early twentieth century. The eugenics movement and the coinciding development of eugenic feminism have largely been studied. Where analysis is lacking, however, is the influential role of women who were unattached to the official, organized groups in early twentieth-century America. How did these women participate in the establishment of eugenic ideas as a popular social and cultural norm in the period from 1900 to 1930? This thesis examines of how white middle-class women’s engagement and navigation of eugenic discourses in their daily lives helps us to understand their influential role in the American eugenics movement. These women gained power as citizens by acting ‘morally’ and reproducing ‘intelligently’ according to eugenic standards of race betterment. Analyzing eugenic engagement in five popular women’s journals, two major newspapers and at state fairs helps us imagine the role middle-class white women played in establishing a national engagement with the ideas and conversations of eugenics in America—bringing the discourses of eugenics into the vernacular of the everyday. The work of women who ascribed to gender roles constructed by eugenic biopower reinforced the notion that the female’s worth as a citizen in the United States was predicated by her performance as a eugenic producer and a guardian to America’s future generations. Many different types of white middle-class women from different levels of the movement made connections with each other to expand eugenic circuits of knowledge. Through these informal channels of communication, the biopolitcs of eugenics became both normalized and popularized throughout the nation. The importance of white middle-class women’s biopower can be framed within the Foucauldian concept of the dispersed constellations of contested power. As the primary actors within Better Babies and Fitter Families contests, women helped to obscure the perceived division between what was public and what was private in American society as they exhibited their families and themselves to the world in order to establish their important, intimate value to the state as moral, fit and reproducing fertile bodies

Predictive Model for Design of a 3D Developmental Neurotoxicity Platform

Exposure to developmental toxins during gestation have been shown to be linked to neurological disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, and dyslexia [1] . In this report we describe efforts that represent the ground work to develop a predictive neurotoxicity model to test developmental toxicity on early neuronal differentiation from drugs and toxins for human consumption or exposure. Developmental toxins are toxins that prevent stem cell differentiation into neurons by impacting neural development [2] . Currency technologies used to evaluate a compound\u27s potential as a developmental toxin are centered around culturing stem cells in a two-dimensional environment or exposing animal models to the compound. The stem cells are then monitored for changes in proliferation, differentiation, and death. These classes of experiments proved not only to be expensive, but also extremely time consuming and ineffective in some cases. These technologies do not accurately mimic the in vivo environment, which uses ECM proteins and cell-cell interactions to regulate cellular functions such as migration, apoptosis, and gene expression. Our predictive model would provide a more biologically accurate alternative of the human system compared to two-dimensional cell culture and animal models. Our model would further improve the quality and relevance of developmental neurotoxicity research, reduce the number of animal experiments and overall cost to evaluate the potential for a compound to act as a developmental toxin

A Substance Use Treatment Programme for Mentally Ill Forensic Patients in an Australian Setting: A Pilot Study of Feasibility, Acceptability and Preliminary Efficacy

This study aims to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary efficacy of an Australian-adapted Substance Use Treatment Programme (SUTP) among mentally ill offenders in an Australian secure forensic setting. A single-group non-controlled pilot trial was conducted. Four SUTP treatment groups were run simultaneously (n = 39) with sessions held weekly over 12 weeks. Feasibility was assessed by examining attrition, study retention and motivation for treatment, and measures of therapeutic alliance, client satisfaction and qualitative interviews were used to determine acceptability. Preliminary efficacy was assessed using self-report questionnaires implemented at baseline and post intervention measuring drug related locus of control, confidence to resist substances in thefuture and beliefs about substance use. Low attrition, high levels of satisfaction and moderately positive levels of therapeutic alliance were found. Participants also demonstrated a significant shift towards an internal drug related locus of control upon completion of SUTP. SUTP is a promising intervention for mentally ill offenders with a history of substance use in Australian forensic services. A randomised controlled trial is warranted to rigorously evaluate the efficacy of SUTP in this setting

Livelihood strategies in the rural Kenyan highlands

The concept of a livelihood strategy has become central to development practice in recent years. Nonetheless, precise identification of livelihoods in quantitative data has remained methodologically elusive. This paper uses cluster analysis methods to operationalize the concept of livelihood strategies in household data and then uses the resulting strategy-specific income distributions to test whether the hypothesized outcome differences between livelihoods indeed exist. Using data from Kenya’s central and western highlands, we identify five distinct livelihood strategies that exhibit statistically significant differences in mean per capita incomes and stochastic dominance orderings that establish clear welfare rankings among livelihood strategies. Multinomial regression analysis identifies geographic, demographic and financial determinants of livelihood choice. The results should facilitate targeting of interventions designed to improve household livelihoods.Livelihood strategy, Kenya, Smallholder agriculture, Cluster analysis, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Role of Nanoparticle–Polymer Interactions on the Development of Double-Network Hydrogel Nanocomposites with High Mechanical Strength

Extensive experimental and theoretical research over the past several decades has pursued strategies to develop hydrogels with high mechanical strength. Our study investigated the effect of combining two approaches, addition of nanoparticles and crosslinking two different polymers (to create double-network hydrogels), on the mechanical properties of hydrogels. Our experimental analyses revealed that these orthogonal approaches may be combined to synthesize hydrogel composites with enhanced mechanical properties. However, the enhancement in double network hydrogel elastic modulus due to incorporation of nanoparticles is limited by the ability of the nanoparticles to strongly interact with the polymers in the network. Moreover, double-network hydrogel nanocomposites prepared using lower monomer concentrations showed higher enhancements in elastic moduli compared to those prepared using high monomer concentrations, thus indicating that the concentration of hydrogel monomers used for the preparation of the nanocomposites had a significant effect on the extent of nanoparticle-mediated enhancements. Collectively, these results demonstrate that the hypotheses previously developed to understand the role of nanoparticles on the mechanical properties of hydrogel nanocomposites may be extended to double-network hydrogel systems and guide the development of next-generation hydrogels with extraordinary mechanical properties through a combination of different approaches

A mutation in amino acid permease AAP6 reduces the amino acid content of the Arabidopsis sieve elements but leaves aphid herbivores unaffected

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the amino acid permease gene AAP6 in regulating phloem amino acid composition and then to determine the effects of this altered diet on aphid performance. A genotype of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) was produced in which the function of the amino acid permease gene AAP6 (At5g49630) was abolished. Plants homozygous for the insertionally inactivated AAP6 gene had a significantly larger mean rosette width than the wild type and a greater number of cauline leaves. Seeds from the aap6 mutant were also significantly larger than those from the wild-type plants. Sieve element (SE) sap was collected by aphid stylectomy and the amino acids derivatized, separated, and quantified using Capillary Electrophoresis with Laser Induced Fluorescence (CE-LIF). In spite of the large variation across samples, the total amino acid concentration of SE sap of the aap6 mutant plants was significantly lower than that of the wild-type plants. The concentrations of lysine, phenylalanine, leucine, and aspartic acid were all significantly lower in concentration in the aap6 mutant plants compared with wild-type plants. This is the first direct demonstration of a physiological role for an amino acid transporter in regulating SE composition in vivo. The amino acid availability in sieve element sap is thought to be the major limiting factor for aphid growth and reproduction. Despite the changes in their diet, the aphid Myzus persicae (Sulzer) displayed only small changes in feeding behaviour on mutant plants when measured using the Electronic Penetration Graph (EPG) technique. Salivation by the aphid into the SE (E1 phase) was increased on mutant plants but there was no significant effect on other feeding EPG behaviours, or in the rate of honeydew production. Consistent with the small effect on aphid feeding behaviour, there was only a small effect of reduced sieve element amino acid concentration on aphid reproduction. The data are discussed in relation to the regulation of phloem composition and the role of phloem amino acids in regulating aphid performance

Anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty and restricted and repetitive behaviour: insights directly from young people with ASD

In order to investigate the experience of anxiety and restricted and repetitive behaviours (RRB) in young people with ASD, 19 families with young people with ASD aged between 13 and 20 years completed questionnaire measures of RRB, anxiety, and intolerance of uncertainty. Ten young people also completed a novel semi-structured interview exploring an individualised example of an RRB. Findings demonstrated that young people with ASD can self-report and show insight in to their RRB, and replicated previous findings based on parent report showing a significant positive relationship between RRB and anxiety. This is the first evidence of young person self-report using both quantitative and qualitative data and indicates a range of reasons why young people may engage in RRB