Peuples mobiles : configurations transversales

Cet essai tente de penser les « peuples mobiles » comme concept politique. Je considère les peuples mobiles comme norme et non exception, davantage comme des sujets politiques que des peuples sujets. Après avoir discuté la tension entre « peuples » et « mobiles », je m’appuierai sur l’ontologie historique de Ian Hacking pour comprendre comment un peuple advient. Et pour comprendre l’advenir du peuple, ou plutôt la tension entre un peuple qui se constitue comme un tout et ces peuples qui restent à la marge, je m’appuie sur Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Rancière et Ernesto Laclau, qui ont identifié cette tension comme problème fondamental de la pensée politique « occidentale ». Toutefois, leur indifférence au territoire me rapproche des travaux de James Scott sur les premiers États, qui remettent en question notre appréhension usuelle des peuples comme initialement sédentaires. Sa description du mécanisme selon lequel les « barbares » (peuples mobiles) finissent par être considérés comme une menace envers les peuples sédentaires nous permet de comprendre cette tension. Dès lors s’ouvre la voie à une réflexion sur les peuples mobiles en tant que concept politique.This essay is an attempt to think “mobile peoples” as a political concept. I consider mobile peoples as a norm rather than an exception and as political subjects rather than subject peoples. After discussing the tension between “mobile” and ”peoples”, I draw on Ian Hacking’s historical ontology for understanding how a people comes to be. For understanding how the people comes to be, or rather, how the tension between a people that constitutes itself as a whole and those peoples that remain as residual parts, I draw on Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Rancière, and Ernesto Laclau as authors who identified this tension as a fundamental problem of “Western” political thought. Yet, their inattention to territory draws me to James Scott whose work on early states challenges how we have come to understand the people as sedentary in the first place. His account of how “barbarians” (mobile peoples) came to be seen as a threat to sedentary peoples enables us to understand that tension. Then a path opens toward thinking about mobile peoples as a political concept

Obesity Induces Hypothalamic Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and Impairs Proopiomelanocortin (POMC) Post-translational Processing

It was shown previously that abnormal prohormone processing or inactive proconverting enzymes that are responsible for this processing cause profound obesity. Our laboratory demonstrated earlier that in the diet-induced obesity (DIO) state, the appetite-suppressing neuropeptide -melanocyte-stimulating hormone ( -MSH) is reduced, yet the mRNA of its precursor protein proopiomelanocortin (POMC) remained unaltered. It was also shown that the DIO condition promotes the development of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and leptin resistance. In the current study, using an in vivo model combined with in vitro experiments, we demonstrate that obesity-induced ER stress obstructs the post-translational processing of POMC by decreasing proconverting enzyme 2, which catalyzes the conversion of adrenocorticotropin to -MSH, thereby decreasing -MSH peptide production. This novel mechanism of ER stress affecting POMC processing in DIO highlights the importance of ER stress in regulating central energy balance in obesity.Fil: Cakir, Isin. Brown University; Estados UnidosFil: Cyr, Nicole E.. Brown University; Estados UnidosFil: Perello, Mario. Brown University; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Litvinov, Bogdan Patedakis. Brown University; Estados UnidosFil: Romero, Amparo. Brown University; Estados UnidosFil: Stuart, Ronald C.. Brown University; Estados UnidosFil: Nillni, Eduardo A.. Brown University; Estados Unido

Refining of metal melts by filtration method

The article describes the prerequisites of filtration refining of metal melts. When filtering the liquid metals the refining effect is caused by the deposition on the filter surface of suspended non-metallic particles in the melt, and by the release of the non-metallic phase directly from the melt. Along with this the mechanism of melt refining from a superequilibrium dissolved impurity is realized when filtering as a result of the reaction course of chemical binding of the impurity element

Identifying Ligand Binding Conformations of the β2-Adrenergic Receptor by Using Its Agonists as Computational Probes

Recently available G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) structures and biophysical studies suggest that the difference between the effects of various agonists and antagonists cannot be explained by single structures alone, but rather that the conformational ensembles of the proteins need to be considered. Here we use an elastic network model-guided molecular dynamics simulation protocol to generate an ensemble of conformers of a prototypical GPCR, β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR). The resulting conformers are clustered into groups based on the conformations of the ligand binding site, and distinct conformers from each group are assessed for their binding to known agonists of β2AR. We show that the select ligands bind preferentially to different predicted conformers of β2AR, and identify a role of β2AR extracellular region as an allosteric binding site for larger drugs such as salmeterol. Thus, drugs and ligands can be used as "computational probes" to systematically identify protein conformers with likely biological significance. © 2012 Isin et al

Obesity Induces Hypothalamic Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and Impairs Proopiomelanocortin (POMC) Post-translational Processing

It was shown previously that abnormal prohormone processing or inactive proconverting enzymes that are responsible for this processing cause profound obesity. Our laboratory demonstrated earlier that in the diet-induced obesity (DIO) state, the appetite-suppressing neuropeptide -melanocyte-stimulating hormone ( -MSH) is reduced, yet the mRNA of its precursor protein proopiomelanocortin (POMC) remained unaltered. It was also shown that the DIO condition promotes the development of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and leptin resistance. In the current study, using an in vivo model combined with in vitro experiments, we demonstrate that obesity-induced ER stress obstructs the post-translational processing of POMC by decreasing proconverting enzyme 2, which catalyzes the conversion of adrenocorticotropin to -MSH, thereby decreasing -MSH peptide production. This novel mechanism of ER stress affecting POMC processing in DIO highlights the importance of ER stress in regulating central energy balance in obesity.Fil: Cakir, Isin. Brown University; Estados UnidosFil: Cyr, Nicole E.. Brown University; Estados UnidosFil: Perello, Mario. Brown University; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Litvinov, Bogdan Patedakis. Brown University; Estados UnidosFil: Romero, Amparo. Brown University; Estados UnidosFil: Stuart, Ronald C.. Brown University; Estados UnidosFil: Nillni, Eduardo A.. Brown University; Estados Unido

Tracking the reflexivity of the (dis)engaged citizen: some methodological reflections

The relationship between governments and citizens in many contemporary democracies is haunted by uncertainty and sociologists face the task of listening effectively to citizens’ own reflections on this uncertain relationship. This article reflects on the qualitative methodology of a recently completed UK project which used a combination of diary and multiple interviews/ focus groups to track over a fieldwork period of up to a year citizens’ reflections on their relationship to a public world and the contribution to this of their media consumption. In particular, the article considers how the project’s multiple methods enabled multiple angles on the inevitable artificiality and performative dimension of the diary process, resulting in rich data on people’s complex reflections on the uncertain position of the contemporary citizen

Impossible protest: noborders in Calais

Since the closure of the Red Cross refugee reception centre in Sangatte, undocumented migrants in Calais hoping to cross the border to Britain have been forced to take refuge in a number of squatted migrant camps, locally known by all as ‘the jungles.’ Unauthorised shanty-like residences built by the migrants themselves, living conditions in the camps are very poor. In June 2009, European ‘noborder’ activists set up a week-long protest camp in the area with the intention of confronting the authorities over their treatment of undocumented migrants. In this article, we analyse the June 2009 noborder camp as an instance of ‘immigrant protest.’ Drawing on ethnographic materials and Jacques Rancière's work on politics and aesthetics, we construct a typology of forms of border control through which to analyse the different ways in which the politics of the noborder camp were staged, performed and policed. Developing a critique of policing practices which threatened to make immigrant protest ‘impossible’, we highlight moments of protest which, through the affirmation of an ‘axiomatic’ equality, disrupted and disarticulated the borders between citizens and non-citizens, the political and non-political