Nonlinear consciousness in selected feminist plays: Strategies for survival

This is a guide to survival in a hostile environment. The hostile environment is the patriarchy, the tools for survival are new conceptual patterns, and a guide to their use is found within the works of feminist playwrights. At the core of feminist thought is the mandate to change our way of thinking. The feminist point of view holds that the patriarchy is dangerous, not just to women, or feminists, but to the planet, and one of the fundamentals of the patriarchy is a rational, logical, linear, consciousness. In order to change this environment, feminists assert, a change in consciousness is necessary. The alternative includes intuitive associative, and arrational ways of thinking, and taken together, these can be called a nonlinear consciousness. A world in which a nonlinear consciousness is valued is certainly a goal of feminism, but feminism is also very much a process as well. Nonlinear consciousness can be used in the present in order to survive within and beyond the patriarchy. I assert that an examination of feminist plays offer nonlinear strategies for survival

Immunocytochemical Localization of Atrial Natriuretic Factor (ANF)-Like Peptides in the Brain and Heart of the Treefrog Hyla japonica: Effect of Weightlessness on the Distribution of Immunoreactive Neurons and Cardiocytes

International audienceThe localization of atrial-natriuretic factor (ANF)-like immunoreactivity was investigated in the brain and heart of the treefrog Hyla japonica by the indirect immunofluorescence technique. Concurrently, the effect of weightlessness on the distribution of ANF-containing neurons and cardiocytes was studied in frogs that were sent into space for 9 days on the space station "MIR." In control animals, the amygdala contained the most prominent group of ANF-immunoreactive cells and fibers. ANF-positive neurons and nerve processes were also detected in other areas of the telencephalon such as the nucleus olfactorius, the pallium mediale, and the striatum. In "space frogs," the intensity of labeling of the amygdala and nucleus olfactorius was similar to that seen in control animals. In contrast, the pallium and the striatum of "space frogs" were totally devoid of positive cell bodies. In the diencephalon, of all animals, numerous ANF-immunoreactive perikarya and fibers were seen in the hypothalamus, the anterior thalamus, the infundibulum, and the median eminence. ANF-positive cell bodies were also noted in the lateral forebrain bundle of control frogs but were absent in "space frogs." The major difference between control and "space frogs" was observed in the posterior nuclei of the thalamus. In "space frogs," the nucleus posterocentralis thalami and the nucleus posterolateralis thalami exhibited large ANF-immunoreactive perikarya, while, in control frogs, these nuclei only contained scarce positive nerve fibers. In the mesencephalon, ANF-positive cell bodies and nerve processes were seen in the nucleus tegmenti mesencephali, the interpeduncular nucleus, and the nucleus cerebelli of all animals. However, stained perikarya were only observed in the nucleus reticularis isthmi of control frogs. In the heart, atrial cardiocytes exhibited intense ANF-like immunoreactivity. ANF-positive myocytes were also detected in the subpericardial region of the ventricle. The density and distribution of the staining were identical in the heart of control and "space frogs." These data support the concept that prolonged exposure to microgravity affects biosynthesis and/or release of ANF-related peptides in discrete regions of the amphibian brain. o iw8 Wlley-Llsu, IIK