“Live or die, make your choice”: American Survival Game Horror

From the 2007 remake of Michael Haneke’s Funny Games to Adam Robitel’s Escape Room (2019), the survival game has become a recurring sub-genre of American horror cinema in the last twenty years; however, its haunting presence has yet to be fully analyzed. The American survival game horror film is uniquely able to render neoliberal conceptions of agency and endurance visible. Following Theodore Martin’s call to explore the “historical drag of genre,” I first provide potential early American foundations of survival game horror, including seduction narratives and gothic novels which dramatize the struggle to survive in a nascent democratic nation. Next, through a close examination of James Wan’s Saw (2004), I illuminate the ways in which contemporary survival game horror films provide a particular brand of torture porn that transmits horror to audiences through what Jane Elliott terms “a combination of abstraction and extremity” and “situations in which individuals make agonized choices among unwelcome options.” I argue that the American survival game horror sub-genre is a vital component of late capitalist culture with deep roots in the American gothic tradition. These films render everyday methods of survival and suffering visible through depictions of violent excess and abstraction. This presentation will also claim a radical potential for the survival game horror in its ability to provide an escape from the spectral terrors of neoliberal networks through a hyper-focus on horrors of the material body

Carrier density crossover and quasiparticle mass enhancement in a doped 5dd Mott insulator

High-temperature superconductivity in cuprates emerges upon doping the parent Mott insulator. Robust signatures of the low-doped electronic state include a Hall carrier density that initially tracks the number of doped holes and the emergence of an anisotropic pseudogap; the latter characterised by disconnected Fermi arcs, closure at a critical doping level $p^* \approx 0.19$, and, in some cases, a strongly enhanced carrier effective mass. In Sr$_2$IrO$_4$, a spin-orbit-coupled Mott insulator often regarded as a 5$d$ analogue of the cuprates, surface probes have revealed the emergence of an anisotropic pseudogap and Fermi arcs under electron doping, though neither the corresponding $p^*$ nor bulk signatures of pseudogap closing have as yet been observed. Here, we report electrical transport and specific heat measurements on Sr$_{2-x}$La$_x$IrO$_4$ over an extended doping range 0 $\leq x \leq$ 0.20. The effective carrier density $n_{\rm H}$ at low temperatures exhibits a crossover from $n_{\rm H} \approx x$ to $n_{\rm H} \approx 1+x$ near $x$ = 0.16, accompanied by \textcolor{blue}{a five-orders-of-magnitude increase in conductivity} and a six-fold enhancement in the electronic specific heat. These striking parallels in the bulk pseudogap phenomenology, coupled with the absence of superconductivity in electron-doped Sr$_2$IrO$_4$, disfavour the pseudogap as a state of precursor pairing and thereby narrow the search for the key ingredient underpinning the formation of the superconducting condensate in doped Mott insulators

National level indicators for gender, poverty, food security, nutrition and health in Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) activities

At the global, regional and national levels, governments, donors, research institutions, non-government organizations and private companies are more strategically linking climate change and agriculture development activities, through initiatives such as the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). In this context, it is necessary to have robust metrics and indicators for measuring progress towards CSA-related goals. This requires strategic selection of indicators to assess the type of impact (negative/positive) of adaptation and mitigation activities on specific societal groups (e.g. ethnic groups, women, youth, etc.) to ensure livelihoods are positively impacted by CSA interventions. Gender, poverty, food security, nutrition and health indicators have not been extensively used in CSA programming and planning to date. In this paper, we review a range of gender, poverty, food security, nutrition and health indicators relevant for national planning processes for CSA promotion and scale out. We focus on the CSA CPs developed by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in collaboration with the CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS). The CSA CPs are being developed as an instrument to open dialogues on the baseline situation, identifying opportunities, and challenges for CSA in various countries. The CPs are generated by the CGIAR CCAFS program with national partners, especially those involved in CSA related planning processes, to feed into analytical multi-stakeholder processes to prioritize CSA investment portfolios for scale-up and scale out. Using a ranking system based on data relevance, availability, and applicability to multiple national contexts, we identified a set of indicators that respond to the need for better integration of gender, poverty, food security, nutrition and health concerns when approaching CSA. Strengthened integration of poverty reduction, food security and gender equality indicators into CSA assessments, including the CPs, has been identified by CCAFS as a priority to strengthen the focus on resilience/adaptation efforts, specifically highlighting evidences of gender differences. It can also serve to highlight potential gaps in availability of and access to resources and capacities to adopt CSA practices and technologies among different societal groups (women, men, youth, ethnic groups). Rather than re-invent new indicators, it is important that, where possible, existing national-level indicators can be repurposed for tracking CSA impacts over time on poverty reduction, food security and gender equality outcomes

Interactions of Peptide Triazole Thiols with Env gp120 Induce Irreversible Breakdown and Inactivation of HIV-1 Virions

Background: We examined the underlying mechanism of action of the peptide triazole thiol, KR13 that has been shown previously to specifically bind gp120, block cell receptor site interactions and potently inhibit HIV-1 infectivity. Results: KR13, the sulfhydryl blocked KR13b and its parent non-sulfhydryl peptide triazole, HNG156, induced gp120 shedding but only KR13 induced p24 capsid protein release. The resulting virion post virolysis had an altered morphology, contained no gp120, but retained gp41 that bound to neutralizing gp41 antibodies. Remarkably, HIV-1 p24 release by KR13 was inhibited by enfuvirtide, which blocks formation of the gp41 6-helix bundle during membrane fusion, while no inhibition of p24 release occurred for enfuvirtide-resistant virus. KR13 thus appears to induce structural changes in gp41 normally associated with membrane fusion and cell entry. The HIV-1 p24 release induced by KR13 was observed in several clades of HIV-1 as well as in fully infectious HIV-1 virions. Conclusions: The antiviral activity of KR13 and its ability to inactivate virions prior to target cell engagement suggest that peptide triazole thiols could be highly effective in inhibiting HIV transmission across mucosal barriers and provide a novel probe to understand biochemical signals within envelope that are involved in membrane fusion

Patient Perspectives and Experiences of Preventive Treatments and Self-Injectable Devices for Migraine:A Focus Group Study

BACKGROUND: Although several self-injectable preventive treatments for migraine have become available, they are not yet widely used. Thus, understanding patients’ perceptions towards them is limited. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to inform the design of a preference-elicitation instrument, which is being developed to quantify preventive treatment preferences of people with migraine. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study involving nine in-person focus groups (three per country) in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Participants were adults (n = 47) with episodic or chronic migraine who were currently using or had used a prescription preventive treatment for migraine within the previous 5 years. During the focus groups, participants described their experiences of migraine and preventive treatments; handled and simulated self-injection using five different unbranded, fired demonstration auto-injectors and prefilled syringes; and ranked different aspects of preventive treatments by importance. Focus groups were analyzed with a focus on themes that would be feasible or meaningful to include in a subsequent preference-elicitation instrument. RESULTS: Reducing the frequency and severity of migraine attacks was consistently ranked as the most important aspect of preventive treatment. Participants expressed dissatisfaction with available daily oral preventive treatments for migraine they had previously used because they were ineffective or caused intolerable adverse events. Many participants were willing to self-inject a treatment that was effective and tolerable. When presented with devices for self-injecting a preventive treatment for migraine, participants generally preferred autoinjectors over prefilled syringes. Participants especially valued safety features such as the unlocking step and automated needle insertion, and audible and visual dose confirmation increased confidence in autoinjector use. Autoinjector needle protection mechanisms were also appreciated, especially by participants averse to needles, as the needles are not visible. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the fact that many people with migraine still lack access to a preventive treatment that is effective and tolerable. In addition to efficacy and safety considerations, treatment decisions may be guided by the mode of administration. In the case of self-injectable preventive treatments, key device characteristics affecting these decisions may be ease of use, comfort, and confidence in self-injection. Insights gained from this study were used to help develop a preliminary set of attributes and levels for a preference-elicitation instrument. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40271-021-00525-z

Increased Cell–Cell Coupling Increases Infarct Size and Does not Decrease Incidence of Ventricular Tachycardia in Mice

Increasing connexin43 (Cx43) gap junctional conductance as a means to improve cardiac conduction has been proposed as a novel antiarrhythmic modality. Yet, transmission of molecules via gap junctions may be associated with increased infarct size. To determine whether maintaining open gap junction channels impacts on infarct size and induction of ventricular tachycardia (VT) following coronary occlusion, we expressed the pH- and voltage-independent connexin isoform connexin32 (Cx32) in ventricle and confirmed Cx32 expression. Wild-type (WT) mice injected with adenovirus-Cx32 (Cx32inj) were examined following coronary occlusion to determine infarct size and inducibility of VT. There was an increased infarct size in Cx32inj hearts as compared to WT (WT 22.9 ± 4%; Cx32inj 44.3 ± 5%; p < 0.05). Programmed electrical stimulation showed no difference in VT inducibility in WT and Cx32inj mice (VT was reproducibly inducible in 55% of shams and 50% of Cx32inj mice (p > 0.05). Following coronary occlusion, improving cell–cell communication increased infarct size, and conferred no antiarrhythmic benefit

The Grizzly, October 2, 2014

UC Responds to Drop in Ranking • Ragball Tournament Returns • Assault Addressed • Letter to the Editor • Sustainability Kicks Off • What\u27s the CSCG? • New Art Professor Explains Why She Came to Ursinus • Scudera Adapts Oscar Wilde • Opinion: Curbing Your Enthusiasm; Voting in Mid-Term Elections is Important • Snell Cup Allows Team to Interact with Past Players • Digging In: Groff Leads Volleyball to Hot Start • Fresh Faceshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1911/thumbnail.jp

Evolutionary comparisons of chelonid alphaherpesvirus 5 (ChHV5) genomes from fibropapillomatosis-afflicted green (chelonia mydas), Ooive ridley (lepidochelys olivacea) and kemp’s ridley (lepidochelys kempii) sea turtles

peer-reviewedThe spreading global sea turtle fibropapillomatosis (FP) epizootic is threatening some of Earth’s ancient reptiles, adding to the plethora of threats faced by these keystone species. Understanding this neoplastic disease and its likely aetiological pathogen, chelonid alphaherpesvirus 5 (ChHV5), is crucial to understand how the disease impacts sea turtle populations and species and the future trajectory of disease incidence. We generated 20 ChHV5 genomes, from three sea turtle species, to better understand the viral variant diversity and gene evolution of this oncogenic virus. We revealed previously underappreciated genetic diversity within this virus (with an average of 2035 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), 1.54% of the ChHV5 genome) and identified genes under the strongest evolutionary pressure. Furthermore, we investigated the phylogeny of ChHV5 at both genome and gene level, confirming the propensity of the virus to be interspecific, with related variants able to infect multiple sea turtle species. Finally, we revealed unexpected intra-host diversity, with up to 0.15% of the viral genome varying between ChHV5 genomes isolated from different tumours concurrently arising within the same individual. These findings offer important insights into ChHV5 biology and provide genomic resources for this oncogenic viru