Allelic variation in HLA-B and HLA-C sequences and the evolution of the HLA-B alleles

Several new HLA-B (B8, B51, Bw62)- and HLA-C (Cw6, Cw7)-specific genes were isolated either as genomic cosmid or cDNA clones to study the diversity of HLA antigens. The allele specificities were identified by sequence analysis in comparison with published HLAB and -C sequences, by transfection experiments, and Southern and northern blot analysis using oligonucleotide probes. Comparison of the classical HLA-A, -B, and -C sequences reveals that allele-specific substitutions seem to be rare events. HLA-B51 codes only for one allelespecific residue: arginine at position 81 located on the cd helix, pointing toward the antigen binding site. HLA-B8 contains an acidic substitution in amino acid position 9 on the first central/3 sheet which might affect antigen binding capacity, perhaps in combination with the rare replacement at position 67 (F) on the Alpha-l helix. HLA-B8 shows greatest homology to HLA-Bw42, -Bw41, -B7, and -Bw60 antigens, all of which lack the conserved restriction sites Pst I at position 180 and Sac I at position 131. Both sites associated with amino acid replacements seem to be genetic markers of an evolutionary split of the HLA-B alleles, which is also observed in the leader sequences. HLA-Cw7 shows 98% sequence identity to the JY328 gene. In general, the HLA-C alleles display lower levels of variability in the highly polymorphic regions of the Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 domains, and have more distinct patterns of locusspecific residues in the transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains. Thus we propose a more recent origin for the HLA-C locus

In Defense of Jack: Gay Cowboys and Fairy Actors in Brokeback Mountain and Will & Grace

An investigation of the gender politics of Ang Lee\u27s Brokeback Mountain

Nietzsche/Pentheus: The Last Disciple of Dionysus and Queer Fear of the Feminine

This article examines the scholarly preoccupation with the hypothesis that Nietzsche was gay by offering a reading of Nietzsche\u27s texts as autobiographical that puts them in conversation with Euripides\u27s drama The Bacchae. Drawing a number of parallels between Nietzsche, self-avowed disciple of Dionysus, and Pentheus, the main character of The Bacchae and demonstrated antidisciple of Dionysus, I argue that both men experience their sexual attraction to women as somehow intolerable, and they negotiate this discomfort—which is simultaneously an unjustified paranoia and fear of the feminine—through the appropriation of feminine capacities and qualities for themselves. This appropriation ultimately expresses these men\u27s fear of the erosion of male power and the coherence of distinct gender categories that I call a “queer fear of the feminine.” However, this is neither a sign of incipient homosexuality nor a feminist move; rather, it is good old-fashioned patriarchy dressed up in drag. I conclude by offering a symptomatic reading of the popularity of the thesis that Nietzsche was gay, arguing that this reflects our own twenty-first-century tendency to read gender deviance as only ever a sign of sexual “orientation,” which is always already presumed to be homosexuality

Usage-based and emergentist approaches to language acquisition

It was long considered to be impossible to learn grammar based on linguistic experience alone. In the past decade, however, advances in usage-based linguistic theory, computational linguistics, and developmental psychology changed the view on this matter. So-called usage-based and emergentist approaches to language acquisition state that language can be learned from language use itself, by means of social skills like joint attention, and by means of powerful generalization mechanisms. This paper first summarizes the assumptions regarding the nature of linguistic representations and processing. Usage-based theories are nonmodular and nonreductionist, i.e., they emphasize the form-function relationships, and deal with all of language, not just selected levels of representations. Furthermore, storage and processing is considered to be analytic as well as holistic, such that there is a continuum between children's unanalyzed chunks and abstract units found in adult language. In the second part, the empirical evidence is reviewed. Children's linguistic competence is shown to be limited initially, and it is demonstrated how children can generalize knowledge based on direct and indirect positive evidence. It is argued that with these general learning mechanisms, the usage-based paradigm can be extended to multilingual language situations and to language acquisition under special circumstances

Against Totalitarianism: Agamben, Foucault, and the Politics of Critique

Despite appearances, Agamben’s engagement with Foucault in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life is not an extension of Foucault’s analysis of biopolitics but ra-ther a disciplining of Foucault for failing to take Nazism seriously. This moralizing rebuke is the result of methodological divergences between the two thinkers that, I argue, have fun-damental political consequences. Re-reading Foucault’s most explicitly political work of the mid-1970s, I show that Foucault’s commitment to genealogy is aligned with his commitment to “insurrection”—not simply archival or historical, but practical and political insurrection—even as his non-moralizing understanding of critique makes space for the resistances he hopes to proliferate. By contrast, Agamben’s resurrection of sovereignty turns on a moraliz-ing Holocaust exceptionalism that anoints both sovereignty and the state with inevitably totalitarian powers. Thus, while both Agamben and Foucault take positions “against” totali-tarianism, their very different understandings of this term and method of investigating it unwittingly render Agamben complicit with the totalitarianism he otherwise seeks to reject

A quantum interface between light and nuclear spins in quantum dots

The coherent coupling of flying photonic qubits to stationary matter-based qubits is an essential building block for quantum communication networks. We show how such a quantum interface can be realized between a traveling-wave optical field and the polarized nuclear spins in a singly charged quantum dot strongly coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity. By adiabatically eliminating the electron a direct effective coupling is achieved. Depending on the laser field applied, interactions that enable either write-in or read-out are obtained.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, final versio

Exploration of all-3d Heusler alloys for permanent magnets: an ab initio based high-throughput study

Heusler alloys have attracted interest in various fields of functional materials since their properties can quite easily be tuned by composition. Here, we have investigated the relatively new class of all-3d Heusler alloys in view of its potential as permanent magnets. To identify suitable candidates, we performed a high-throughput study using an electronic structure database to search for X$_2$YZ-type Heusler systems with tetragonal symmetry and high magnetization. For the alloys which passed our selection filters, we have used a combination of density functional theory calculations and spin dynamics modelling to investigate their magnetic properties including the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy and exchange interactions. The candidates which fulfilled all the search criteria served as input for the investigation of the temperature dependence of the magnetization and determination of Curie temperature. Based on our results, we suggest that Fe$_2$NiZn, Fe$_2$NiTi and Ni$_2$CoFe are potential candidates for permanent magnets with large out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy (1.23, 0.97 and 0.82 MJ/m$^3$ respectively) and high Curie temperatures lying more than 200 K above the room temperature. We further show that the magnitude and direction of anisotropy is very sensitive to the strain by calculating the values of anisotropy energy for several tetragonal phases. Thus, application of strain can be used to tune the anisotropy in these compounds

Utilisation and usefulness of face composites in the South African Police Service - an evaluation study

The current study investigates the degree to which face composites are utilised as an investigative tool in the South African Police Service. The article provides an overview of the conditions under which composites are produced by eyewitnesses to a crime, and points out constraints in terms of their usefulness and applicability. Composites were found to be produced after a longer delay than is recommended, and predominantly in violent and menacing crimes. Conviction rates for composite-related crimes were very low. However, more insight into actual use and case characteristics is needed before concluding on the usefulness of composites as an investigative tool or evidence. Directions for further research in this area are explored