Playground of gender : cross-dressing and self-mutilation as negation of gender identity in Tanja Duckers’s Spielzone (1999)

Although it is an outstanding example of writing life as negotiation of gender roles as well as exploration of the body as site of identity constructs, Tanja Dückers’s novel Spielzone, published in 1999, has not yet received the critical attention it deserves. The novel displays an interesting aesthetic technique of representing the milieu of two Berlin districts and their inhabitants, whose identity conflicts can be shown to reflect the state of construction of the urban space before its homogenization through gentrification. Especially with regard to gender identities, Dückers portrays the search for a different lifestyle, which is expressed through a striking focus on aesthetic differentiation and cross-dressing. The protagonists stage masculinity and femininity through a theatrical masquerade, which reveals the construct of gender identities and advocates a postmodern transgender existence. The negotiation of a new identity without binary gender attributions ranges from the negation of traditional role assignments to self-mutilation. In the following paper, Dückers’s text will be analysed as uncanny playground of gender between masquerade and brutal gender embodiment, which nevertheless, with all its negations of conventional values, eventually moves near to a return to traditional patterns.peer-reviewe

The geography of innovation in the Luxembourg metropolitan region: an intra-regional approach

The main objective of the paper is to analyse the local determinants of innovation in the Luxembourg metropolitan region. We are particularly interested in the impact of the local milieu and characteristics of firms. Our paper addresses two specific research questions. Firstly, we examine the extent to which geographic space is a determinant of innovation for five intra-regional units based on an aggregation of municipalities. Secondly, we investigate whether innovation is dependent on accessibility to the mean centre. In both cases, we examine innovation propensity and innovation output using microdata from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS 2006) carried out in Luxembourg. The paper shows that space matters both in terms of spatial units and accessibility within the intra-regional context of Luxembourg. It provides, in particular, first evidence of a close link between the effects on innovation at the intra-regional level of firms? profiles and agglomeration externalities. Both favour innovation for firms from Luxembourg-City and, to a lesser extent, from the Suburban Area.intra-regional innovation; firms' profile; location factors; local polynomial regression; Luxembourg metropolitan region

Ironic inversions: Geographical and political islands in F.C. Delius’ Stroll from Rostock to Syracuse (1995)

The paper analyses Friedrich Christian Delius’ story Der Spaziergang von Rostock nach Syrakus (1995) in the context of island discourses and the discursive construction of insular spaces. It argues that, in a satirical adaptation of Seume’s Stroll to Syracuse (1803), Delius reconceptualises the Mediterranean island of Sicily as the traditional place of longing in German travel literature since the 18th century by contrasting it to the political ‘island’ of the GDR. He constructs the socialist state as a place of yearning and develops a counter-discourse to the established European island imaginary

Transoceanic Trash: International and United States Strategies For the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Part II of this Comment provides an overview of the debris found in the Patch and the associated health impacts. Part III reviews the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Waste and Other Matters (the London Convention) with its corresponding international and U.S. laws, and then separately examines the U.S. Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act (MDRPRA). Part IV argues that the laws identified in Part III can be applied to provide a means to clean up the portion of the Patch affecting U.S. territory. Part V briefly surveys the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Kyoto Protocol) and the U.S. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to provide an understanding of the proposed structure and mechanisms that can be used to create a new international treaty. Part VI details a proposed hybrid cleanup model of international law, using CERCLA and the Kyoto Protocol

Transoceanic Trash: International and United States Strategies For the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Part II of this Comment provides an overview of the debris found in the Patch and the associated health impacts. Part III reviews the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Waste and Other Matters (the London Convention) with its corresponding international and U.S. laws, and then separately examines the U.S. Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act (MDRPRA). Part IV argues that the laws identified in Part III can be applied to provide a means to clean up the portion of the Patch affecting U.S. territory. Part V briefly surveys the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Kyoto Protocol) and the U.S. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to provide an understanding of the proposed structure and mechanisms that can be used to create a new international treaty. Part VI details a proposed hybrid cleanup model of international law, using CERCLA and the Kyoto Protocol

Prevention of infectious tick-borne diseases in humans: Comparative studies of the repellency of different dodecanoic acid-formulations against Ixodes ricinus ticks (Acari: Ixodidae)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ticks of the species <it>Ixodes ricinus </it>are the main vectors of Lyme Borreliosis and Tick-borne Encephalitis – two rapidly emerging diseases in Europe. Repellents provide a practical means of protection against tick bites and can therefore minimize the transmission of tick-borne diseases. We developed and tested seven different dodecanoic acid (DDA)-formulations for their efficacy in repelling host-seeking nymphs of <it>I. ricinus </it>by laboratory screening. The ultimately selected formulation was then used for comparative investigations of commercially available tick repellents in humans.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Laboratory screening tests were performed using the Moving-object (MO) bioassay. All test formulations contained 10% of the naturally occurring active substance DDA and differed only in terms of the quantitative and qualitative composition of inactive ingredients and fragrances. The test procedure used in the human bioassays is a modification of an assay described by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and recommended for regulatory affairs. Repellency was computed using the equation: R = 100 - N_R/N × 100, where N_Ris the number of non-repelled ticks, and N is the respective number of control ticks. All investigations were conducted in a controlled laboratory environment offering standardized test conditions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All test formulations strongly repelled nymphs of <it>I. ricinus </it>(100-81% protection) as shown by the MO-bioassay. The majority of ticks dropped off the treated surface of the heated rotating drum that served as the attractant (1 mg/cm²repellent applied). The 10% DDA-based formulation, that produced the best results in laboratory screening, was as effective as the coconut oil-based reference product. The mean protection time of both preparations was generally similar and averaged 8 hours.</p> <p>Repellency investigations in humans showed that the most effective 10% DDA-based formulation (~1.67 mg/cm²applied) strongly avoided the attachment of <it>I. ricinus </it>nymphs and adults for at least 6 hours. The test repellent always provided protection (83-63%) against <it>I. ricinus </it>nymphs equivalent to the natural coconut oil based reference product and a better protection (88-75%) against adult ticks than the synthetic Icaridin-containing reference repellent.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We found that the 10% DDA-based formulation (ContraZeck^®) is an easily applied and very effective natural repellent against I. ricinus ticks. By reducing the human-vector contact the product minimises the risk of transmission of tick-borne diseases in humans.</p

Children’s and adults’ thinking about autism spectrum disorder: Conceptualizations, dehumanization, and willingness for inclusion

Participants were 82 children aged 9–11 and 169 adults aged 18–65, majority White European; data were collected in Northern Ireland between January and June 2022. Children’s awareness of autism was assessed by asking what they know about autism. Children and adults also judged the extent to which a hypothetical autistic peer had capacity for mental experiences (emotions and personality traits). Emotions and personality traits varied between non-uniquely, or uniquely human, and the effect of valence (positive/negative) was also examined. We describe the extent to which children and adults attribute capacity for mental experiences to an autistic peer, and examine potential dehumanization of the peer through relative denial of uniquely human mental experiences. Denial of uniquely human mental experiences predicted how happy participants expected themselves (adults) and others (children and adults) to be about including the peer. Findings suggest children of this age hold fairly accurate representations of autism, and that dehumanization of autistic people may contribute to their exclusion by neurotypical peers

Molecular characterization of the Arabidopsis thaliana histidine kinase 1 and transitions from the multistep phosphorelay system to Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation

The Arabidopsis thaliana histidine kinase 1 (AHK1) is part of the multistep phosphorelay system in plants and involved in the adjustment of the plant to osmotic stress. The adjustment might be achieved by an AHK1-dependent transition from the multistep phosphorelay system to Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation. This work shows results of the phosphoproteomic analysis of an ahk1 knock down mutant in comparison to the wildtype, an idea, how these differentially phosphorylated proteins can be connected to AHK1-dependent signaling and different phenotypes of ahk1 knock down mutants which confirm these hypotheses