Postfeminist Media Cultures

This entry provides an overview of postfeminism, which has become central in the last two decades not only within feminist cultural discourse but also within neoliberal discourses and popular culture. The dominant attempts to conceptualize postfeminism often bring to the surface approaches that are complex and contradictory in nature. For instance, postfeminism is viewed as a theoretical framework, as a sensibility, as an expansion of feminist theory, or as a rejection of it. The discussion of postfeminism against the backdrop of media productions further highlights its implications for women and gender representation. A look at quintessential postfeminist texts shows, for instance, that postfeminism essentially problematizes contemporary constructions of gender as it simultaneously evokes and rejects basic feminist tenets

Heart Failure Symptom Biology in Response to Ventricular Assist Device Implantation.

BACKGROUND: We have a limited understanding of the biological underpinnings of symptoms in heart failure (HF), particularly in response to left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to quantify the degree to which symptoms and biomarkers change in parallel from before implantation through the first 6 months after LVAD implantation in advanced HF. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study of 101 patients receiving an LVAD for the management of advanced HF. Data on symptoms (dyspnea, early and subtle symptoms [HF Somatic Perception Scale], pain severity [Brief Pain Inventory], wake disturbance [Epworth Sleepiness Scale], depression [Patient Health Questionnaire], and anxiety [Brief Symptom Inventory]) and peripheral biomarkers of myocardial stretch, systemic inflammation, and hypervolumetric mechanical stress were measured before implantation with a commercially available LVAD and again at 30, 90, and 180 days after LVAD implantation. Latent growth curve and parallel process modeling were used to describe changes in symptoms and biomarkers and the degree to which they change in parallel in response to LVAD implantation. RESULTS: In response to LVAD implantation, changes in myocardial stretch were closely associated with changes in early and subtle physical symptoms as well as depression, and changes in hypervolumetric stress were closely associated with changes in pain severity and wake disturbances. Changes in systemic inflammation were not closely associated with changes in physical or affective symptoms in response to LVAD implantation. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide new insights into the many ways in which symptoms and biomarkers provide concordant or discordant information about LVAD response

Geriatric Cardiology: Coming of Age

Older adults with cardiovascular disease (CVD) contend with deficits across multiple domains of health due to age-related physiological changes and the impact of CVD. Multimorbidity, polypharmacy, cognitive changes, and diminished functional capacity, along with changes in the social environment, result in complexity that makes provision of CVD care to older adults challenging. In this review, we first describe the history of geriatric cardiology, an orientation that acknowledges the unique needs of older adults with CVD. Then, we introduce 5 essential principles for meeting the needs of older adults with CVD: 1) recognize and consider the potential impact of multicomplexity; 2) evaluate and integrate constructs of cognition into decision-making; 3) evaluate and integrate physical function into decision-making; 4) incorporate social environmental factors into management decisions; and 5) elicit patient priorities and health goals and align with care plan. Finally, we review future steps to maximize care provision to this growing population

Everyday Diplomacy: UKUSA Intelligence Cooperation and Geopolitical Assemblages

This article offers an alternative to civilizational thinking in geopolitics and international relations predicated on assemblage theory. Building on literature in political geography and elsewhere about everyday practices that produce state effects, this article theorizes the existence of transnational geopolitical assemblages that incorporate foreign policy apparatuses of multiple states. Everyday material and discursive circulations make up these assemblages, serving as conduits of affect that produce an emergent agency. To demonstrate this claim, I outline a genealogy of the UKUSA alliance, an assemblage of intelligence communities in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. I then trace the circulation of materialities and affects—at the scales of individual subjects, technological systems of mediation, and transnational processes of foreign policy formation. In doing so, I offer a bottom-up process of assemblage that produces the emergent phenomena that proponents of civilizational thinking mistakenly attribute to macroscaled factors, such as culture

Immunosuppressive effects of radiation on human dendritic cells: reduced IL-12 production on activation and impairment of naïve T-cell priming

Dendritic cells (DC) are professional antigen-presenting cells (APC) of the immune system, uniquely able to prime naïve T-cell responses. They are the focus of a range of novel strategies for the immunotherapy of cancer, a proportion of which include treating DC with ionising radiation to high dose. The effects of radiation on DC have not, however, been fully characterised. We therefore cultured human myeloid DC from CD14+ precursors, and studied the effects of ionising radiation on their phenotype and function. Dendritic cells were remarkably resistant against radiation-induced apoptosis, showed limited changes in surface phenotype, and mostly maintained their endocytic, phagocytic and migratory capacity. However, irradiated DC were less effective in a mixed lymphocyte reaction, and on maturation produced significantly less IL-12 than unirradiated controls, while IL-10 secretion was maintained. Furthermore, peptide-pulsed irradiated mature DC were less effective at naïve T-cell priming, stimulating fewer effector cells with lower cytotoxicity against antigen-specific targets. Hence irradiation of DC in vitro, and potentially in vivo, has a significant impact on their function, and may shift the balance between T-cell activation and tolerisation in DC-mediated immune responses

Cure of xenografted human tumors by bispecific monoclonal antibodies and human T cells

Tumor immunotherapy should increase both the number of T cells that kill the tumor and the likelihood that those cells are activated at the tumor site. Bispecific monoclonal antibodies (Bi-mAbs) were designed that bound to a Hodgkin's tumor-associated antigen (CD30) on the tumor and to either CD3 or CD28 on the T cell. Immunodeficient mice were cured of established human tumors when mice were treated with both the CD3-CD30 and the CD28-CD30 Bi-mAbs and then given human peripheral blood lymphocytes that had been incubated with the CD3-CD30 Bi-mAb and cells that expressed CD30. The enrichment of human T cells within the tumor and the fact that established tumors can be cured may indicate in situ activation of both the T cell receptor and the costimulatory pathwa

Longitudinal effects of left ventricular assist device implantation on global and domain-specific cognitive function

Background Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are a common treatment of advanced heart failure, but cognitive dysfunction, which is common in heart failure, could limit the ability to perform postimplantation LVAD care. Implantation of an LVAD has been associated with improved cerebral perfusion and may improve cognitive function post implantation. Objective The aim of this study was to quantify longitudinal change in cognitive function after LVAD implantation. Methods A secondary analysis of data on 101 adults was completed to evaluate cognitive function before implantation and again at 1, 3, and 6 months post implantation of an LVAD. Latent growth curve modeling was conducted to characterize change over time. Serial versions of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment were used to measure overall (total) cognitive function and function in 6 cognitive domains. Result There was moderate, nonlinear improvement from preimplantation to 6 months post implantation in Montreal Cognitive Assessment total score (Hedges' g = 0.50) and in short-term memory (Hedges' g = 0.64). There also were small, nonlinear improvements in visuospatial ability, executive function, and attention from preimplantation to 6 months post implantation (Hedges' g = 0.20–0.28). The greatest improvements were observed in the first 3 months after implantation and were followed by smaller, sustained improvements or no additional significant change. Conclusions Implantation of an LVAD is associated with significant, nonlinear improvement in short-term memory and global cognitive function, with the most significant improvements occurring in the first 3 months after implantation. Clinicians should anticipate improvements in cognitive function after LVAD implantation and modify postimplantation education to maximize effectiveness of LVAD self-care