Affirmative Aesthetics and Wilful Women

Fifty years of feminist thought have made the idea that women stay at home while men dominate the streets seem outdated; nevertheless, Ceuterick argues that theoretical considerations of gender, space, and power in film theory remain limited by binary models. Looking instead to more fluid models of spatial relations inspired by Sara Ahmed, Rosi Braidotti, and Doreen Massey, this book discovers wilful, affirmative, and imaginative activations of gender on screen. Through close, micro-analysis of historic European Messidor (Alain Tanner, 1979) and contemporary world cinema: Vendredi Soir (Claire Denis, 2002), Wadjda (Haifaa Al-Mansour, 2012), and Head-On (Fatih Akin, 2004), this book identifies affirmative aesthetics: light, texture, rhythm, movement and sound, all of which that participate in a rewriting of bodies and spaces. Ultimately, Ceuterick argues, affirmative aesthetics can challenge the gender categories and power structures that have been thought to determine our habitation of cars, homes, and city streets. Wilful women drive this book forward, through their movement and stillness, imagination and desire, performance and abjection

Post-cinematic spectatorship in virtual reality: Negotiating 3DoF and 6DoF in ‘Queerskins: Ark’

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Queering cultural memory through technology: Transitional spaces in AR and VR

While cinema boasts of a long history that has placed the representation and aesthetics of memory at its centre, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are only starting to shape their own aesthetic and narrative engagement with memory. Through the analysis of Chez Moi (Caitlin Fisher and Tony Vieira, 2014), Queerskins: Ark (Illja Szilak, 2020), and Homestay (Paisley Smith, 2018), this essay shows how cinematic AR and VR involve the viewers’ movement to produce and transform collective memory and spatial habitation. Feminist digital geographies, film and media theory, and the concept of orientation developed by Sara Ahmed in Queer Phenomenology (2006) give sense to how sound, images and viewers’ movement participate to rewrite collective memory and cultural symbols. As these artworks present personal memories of struggles to find a home within present spaces, they queer hegemonic orientations of the subject, and invite viewers to re-align body and space within ever-changing virtual and digital spaces

A new combined bodian-luxol technique for staining unmyelinated axons in semithin, resin-embedded peripheral nerves: a comparison with electron microscopy.

peer reviewedaudience: researcher, professionalQuantitation of unmyelinated fibers (UF) in peripheral nerves has classically relied upon ultrastructural morphometry. Because this method is time-consuming, it is not typically performed in routine analysis of nerve biopsies. We applied the Bodian-Luxol technique to detect unmyelinated axons by light microscopy on semithin sections from resin-embedded nerve tissue. Estimates were compared to ultrastructural counts. The staining appeared highly specific for axons. Excellent correlation was found between optic densities and the population of UF larger than 0.5 microm. The smallest profiles detected by light microscopy had a diameter close to 0.6 microm. This new technique is not a substitute for ultrastructural quantitative morphometry of UF, as very small unmyelinated axons, especially regenerating ones, can not be reliably visualized. However, it provides a valuable light microscopic method for evaluating axonal loss among UF

From economic survival to recreation: contemporary uses of wild food and medicine in rural Sweden, Ukraine and NW Russia

Background: There are many ethnobotanical studies on the use of wild plants and mushrooms for food and medicinal treatment in Europe. However, there is a lack of comparative ethnobotanical research on the role of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) as wild food and medicine in local livelihoods in countries with different socio-economic conditions. The aim of this study was to compare the present use of wild food and medicine in three places representing different stages of socio-economic development in Europe. Specifically we explore which plant and fungi species people use for food and medicine in three selected rural regions of Sweden, Ukraine and the Russian Federation.Methods: We studied the current use of NWFPs for food and medicine in three rural areas that represent a gradient in economic development (as indicated by the World Bank), i. e., Smaland high plain (south Sweden), Roztochya (western Ukraine), and Kortkeros (Komi Republic in North West Russia). All areas were characterised by (a) predominating rural residency, (b) high forest coverage, and (c) free access to NWFPs. A total of 205 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with local residents in the three study areas. The collected NWFPs data included (1) the species that are used; (2) the amount harvested, (3) uses and practices (4) changes over time, (5) sources of knowledge regarding the use of NWFPs as wild food and medicine and (6) traditional recipes.Results: In Sweden 11 species of wild plant and fungi species were used as food, and no plant species were used for medicinal purposes. In Ukraine the present use of NWFPs included 26 wild foods and 60 medicinal species, while in Russia 36 food and 44 medicinal species were reported.Conclusions: In the economically less developed rural areas of Ukraine and Russia, the use of NWFPs continues to be an important part of livelihoods, both as a source of income and for domestic use as food and medicine. In Sweden the collection of wild food has become mainly a recreational activity and the use of medicinal plants is no longer prevalent among our respondents. This leads us to suggest that the consumption of wild food and medicine is influenced by the socio-economic situation in a country

From prescribing dilemma to knowledge in practice: The ontological politics of benzodiazepines and Z-drugs

peer reviewedThe discrepancy between official guidelines and clinical practice is hardly more pronounced than in the case of benzodiazepines and Z-drugs, also known as benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRA). Using social-constructionist positioning theory, we unravel how health care professionals deal with the dilemma of prescribing this medication. Our results reveal a prescribing spectrum that is discursively organised around four different storylines used by professionals. The storylines are organised along three axes that are related to a) prescribers' opinions on prescribing and the negotiation of the related risks, b) the power dynamics between provider and patient in the prescribing process and c) the rhetorical use of arguments. The discerned storylines allow us to explore the emotional and moral side of prescribing and demarcate clinical mindlines -internalised tacit guidelines-that professionals adhere to when they prescribe. By relying on Annemarie Mol's conceptualisation of ontological politics, we explain how these storylines enact multiple versions of this class of medication and justify seemingly contradictory prescribing practices

Functional characterization of novel MFSD8 pathogenic variants anticipates neurological involvement in juvenile isolated maculopathy

Biallelic MFSD8 variants are an established cause of severe late-infantile subtype of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (v-LINCL), a severe lysosomal storage disorder, but have also been associated with nonsyndromic adult-onset maculopathy. Here, we functionally characterized two novel MFSD8 variants found in a child with juvenile isolated maculopathy, in order to establish a refined prognosis. ABCA4 locus resequencing was followed by the analysis of other inherited retinal disease genes by whole exome sequencing (WES). Minigene assays and cDNA sequencing were used to assess the effect of a novel MFSD8 splice variant. MFSD8 expression was quantified with qPCR and overexpression studies were analyzed by immunoblotting. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was performed on a skin biopsy and ophthalmological and neurological re-examinations were conducted. WES revealed two novel MFSD8 variants: c.[590del];[439+3A>C] p.[Gly197Valfs*2];[Ile67Glufs*3]. Characterization of the c.439+3A>C variant via splice assays showed exon-skipping (p.Ile67Glufs*3), while overexpression studies of the corresponding protein indicated expression of a truncated polypeptide. In addition, a significantly reduced MFSD8 RNA expression was noted in patient's lymphocytes. TEM of a skin biopsy revealed typical v-LINCL lipopigment inclusions while neurological imaging of the proband displayed subtle cerebellar atrophy. Functional characterization demonstrated the pathogenicity of two novel MFSD8 variants, found in a child with an initial diagnosis of juvenile isolated maculopathy but likely evolving to v-LINCL with a protracted disease course. Our study allowed a refined neurological prognosis in the proband and expands the natural history of MFSD8-associated disease