143 research outputs found
A Decolonial Critique of the Racialized âLocalwashingâ of Extraction in Central Africa
Responding to calls for increased attention to actions and reactions âfrom aboveâ within the
extractive industry, we offer a decolonial critique of the ways in which corporate entities and multinational institutions propagate racialized rhetoric of âlocalâ suffering, âlocalâ consultation, and âlocalâ fault for failure in extractive zones. Such rhetoric functions to legitimize extractive intervention within a set of practices that we call localwashing. Drawing from a decade of research on and along the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline, we show how multi-scalar actors converged to assert knowledge of, responsibility for, and collaborations with âlocalâ people within a racialized politics of scale. These corporate representations of the racialized âlocalâ are coded through long-standing colonial tropes. We identify three interrelated and overlapping flexian elite rhetoric(s) and practices of racialized localwashing: (a) anguishing, (b) arrogating, and (c) admonishing. These elite representations of a racialized âlocalâ reveal diversionary efforts âfrom aboveâ to manage public opinion, displace blame for project failures, and domesticate dissent in a context of persistent scrutiny and criticism from international and regional advocates and activists
Assessment of Dietary Intake and Nutrient Gaps, and Development of Food-Based Recommendations, among Pregnant and Lactating Women in Zinder, Niger: An Optifood Linear Programming Analysis.
Pregnant and lactating women in rural Niger are at high risk for inadequate intakes of multiple micronutrients. Thus, 24 h dietary recalls were conducted and analyzed for dietary intakes in this population (n = 202). Using linear programming analyses, micronutrient gaps in women's diets were identified, food-based recommendations (FBR) to improve dietary micronutrient adequacy were developed, and various supplementation strategies were modelled. Energy intakes were below estimated requirements, and, for most micronutrients, >50% of women were at risk of inadequate intakes. Linear programming analyses indicated it would be difficult to select a diet that achieved recommended dietary allowances for all but three (vitamin Bâ, iron and zinc) of 11 modeled micronutrients. Consumption of one additional meal per day, and adherence to the selected FBR (daily consumption of dark green leafy vegetables, fermented milk, millet, pulses, and vitamin A fortified oil), would result in a low percentage of women at risk of inadequate intakes for eight modeled micronutrients (vitamin A, riboflavin, thiamin, B6, folate, iron, zinc, and calcium). Because the promotion of realistic FBRs likely will not ensure that a low percentage of women are at risk of inadequate intakes for all modeled micronutrients, multiple micronutrient supplementation or provision of nutrient-dense foods should be prioritized
Unworking Milton: Steps to a Georgics of the Mind
Traditionally read as a poem about laboring subjects who gain power through abstract and abstracting forms of bodily discipline, John Miltonâs Paradise Lost (1667, 1674) more compellingly foregrounds the erotics of the Garden as a space where humans and nonhumans intra-act materially and sexually. Following Christopher Hill, who long ago pointed to not one but two revolutions in the history of seventeenth-century English radicalismâthe first, âthe one which succeeded[,] . . . the protestant ethicâ; and the second, âthe revolution which never happened,â which sought âcommunal property, a far wider democracy[,] and rejected the protestant ethicââI show how Miltonâs Paradise Lost gives substance to âthe revolution which never happenedâ by imagining a commons, indeed a communism, in which human beings are not at the center of things, but rather constitute one part of the greater ecology of mind within Miltonâs poem. In the space created by this ecological reimagining, plants assume a new agency. I call this reimagining âecology to come.
HTLV-1 Evades Type I Interferon Antiviral Signaling by Inducing the Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling 1 (SOCS1)
Human T cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the etiologic agent of Adult T cell Leukemia (ATL) and the neurological disorder HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). Although the majority of HTLV-1âinfected individuals remain asymptomatic carriers (AC) during their lifetime, 2â5% will develop either ATL or HAM/TSP, but never both. To better understand the gene expression changes in HTLV-1-associated diseases, we examined the mRNA profiles of CD4+ T cells isolated from 7 ATL, 12 HAM/TSP, 11 AC and 8 non-infected controls. Using genomic approaches followed by bioinformatic analysis, we identified gene expression pattern characteristic of HTLV-1 infected individuals and particular disease states. Of particular interest, the suppressor of cytokine signaling 1âSOCS1âwas upregulated in HAM/TSP and AC patients but not in ATL. Moreover, SOCS1 was positively correlated with the expression of HTLV-1 mRNA in HAM/TSP patient samples. In primary PBMCs transfected with a HTLV-1 proviral clone and in HTLV-1-transformed MT-2 cells, HTLV-1 replication correlated with induction of SOCS1 and inhibition of IFN-α/ÎČ and IFN-stimulated gene expression. Targeting SOCS1 with siRNA restored type I IFN production and reduced HTLV-1 replication in MT-2 cells. Conversely, exogenous expression of SOCS1 resulted in enhanced HTLV-1 mRNA synthesis. In addition to inhibiting signaling downstream of the IFN receptor, SOCS1 inhibited IFN-ÎČ production by targeting IRF3 for ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. These observations identify a novel SOCS1 driven mechanism of evasion of the type I IFN antiviral response against HTLV-1
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