Thinking Alternatives in Science Fiction: Octavia Butler Meets Judith Butler

This paper starts from the premise that the capitalist system is inherently violent and destructive. The only way to a future lies in its abolition. With the help of capitalism’s numerous gatekeepers, the system has constantly perpetuated itself. However, maintaining narrow ideologies that establish what is sold as the norm makes the system extremely fragile. I argue that tackling one of capitalism’s agents, such as gender, has the potential to crush the whole system. Radically imagining different societies, worlds, and spaces, threatens capitalism’s monopoly on what is sold as natural and normative. An ideal space to do that is science fiction. Octavia Butler’s novels think through and beyond capitalistic notions of gender by offering alternatives. That is why I put her novels Wild Seed and Lilith’s Brood in conversation with Judith Butler’s binary-breaking work Gender Trouble

Carolyn Forche: 11-04-1982

In an interview recorded November 4, 1982, Carolyn Forché discusses her Slovak grandmother; living and writing poetry in El Salvador; and her education and process as a poet. Forché reads her poems Endurance and Selective Service.https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/writers_videos/1025/thumbnail.jp

O razvoju euro-engleskog kao europske varijante engleskog jezika – stavovi i tumačenja

The question whether the appropriation of English by non-native speakers in Continental Eu-rope is giving rise to a potential European variety of English has not yet been resolved. In a study based on three main criteria (expansion of function, nativization of form, and institu-tionalization of norms), Mollin (2006) rejected the hypothesis of Euro-English as a variety in its own right, arguing that if Euro English did exist, it would first materialize amongst aca-demics “because other speakers do not use English as often with other Europeans” (2006: 163). However, young mobile Europeans seem to fall into the same category and therefore might act as an ‘engine’ in the emergence of this potential variety. In order to examine this hypothesis, Mollin’s study was partially replicated focusing on a questionnaire survey with about 60 Erasmus students from 25 European countries (all studying in Pécs, Hungary, but within a variety of academic disciplines), detailing their attitudes towards English in general, towards Euro-English, and towards certain structures that have been proposed to be character-istic for this potential variety in the literature (e.g. the omission of the third person singular -s). As an addition to the original study it seeks to find out if comparable or different results can be yielded.Još uvijek nije ponuđen odgovor na pitanje da li engleski jezik kojeg koriste ne-izvorni go-vornici u kontinentalnoj Europi vodi do stvaranja potencijalne europske varijante engleskog. U istraživanju koje se temelji na tri glavna kriterija (širenje funkcije, nativizacija forme, insti-tucionalizacija normi), Mollin (2006) je odbacio hipotezu o euro-engleskom kao zasebnoj va-rijanti, zastupajući tezu da kad bi euro-engleski postojao, prvo bi se materijalizirao među sveučilišnim profesorima i znanstvenicima “jer drugi govornici ne koriste engleski tako često s drugim Europljanima” (2006: 163). Međutim, mladi mobilni Europljani mogu se također svrstati u istu kategoriju i stoga mogu biti “motor” koji pokreće nastanak ove moguće vari-jante. Kako bismo istražili tu hipotezu, studija koju je proveo Mollin je dijelom replicirana i provedena putem upitnika sa 60 Erasmus studenata iz 25 europskih zemalja (svi su bili na razmjeni u Pečuhu u Mađarskoj, no na različitim studijima), u kojem su istraženi njihovi stavovi prema engleskom jeziku, prema euro-engleskom, i prema određenim strukturama koje su u literature navedene kao tipične za ovu varijantu (npr. ispuštanje nastavka –s u trećem licu jednine prezenta). Ova studija također ima za cilj utvrditi jesu li dobiveni usporedivi ili različ-iti rezultati

\u27Loosening the Emotional Knot \u27: A Conversation with Carolyn Forche

Poets Harriet Susskind and Stan Sanvel Rubin, speak with poet Carolyn Forche during a Writers Forum interview at the State University of New York College at Brockport on November 3, 1982. This interview was edited by Earl Ingersoll and Stan Sanvel Rubin

Haploidization in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Induced by a Deficiency in Homologous Recombination

Diploid Saccharomyes cerevisae strains lacking the RAD52 gene required for homologous recombination have a very high rate of chromosome loss. Two of four isolates subcultured ∼20 times (∼500 cell divisions) became haploid. These strains were capable of mating with wild-type haploids to produce diploid progeny capable of undergoing meiosis to produce four viable spores

Ermittlung der Kalium- und Calciumverteilung in Traubenachsen von Vitis vinifera mit Hilfe der Röntgenstrahlenmikroanalyse am Rasterelektronenmikroskop

Bei einem Limberger-Klon wurden Untersuchungen durchgeführt, welche Beziehungen zwischen der Kalium/Calcium-Relation und der Stiellähmeerkrankung aufzeigen. Hierfür wurde ein Verfahren mit dem Rasterelektronenmikroskop und einem Röntgenspektrometer angewandt. Es gestattet die Analyse kleinster Gewebekomplexe im Anfangsstadium der Krankheit. Untersucht wurden völlig gesunde und kranke Pflanzen - bei letzteren sowohl gesund erscheinende Stellen an Traubenstielen als auch schwach erkrankte Gewebe. Die Messungen erfolgten an der Stieloberfläche und an Querschnitten.Alle Untersuchungen zeigen, daß mit Beginn der Stiellähmekrankheit der Kalium/Calcium-Quotient größer wird. Davon sind die Oberfläche, das Rindenparenchym und auch das Xylem betroffen. Die größte Disharmonie zwischen Kalium und Calcium besteht im großzelligen Rindenparenchym.Determination of the K/Ca ratio in rachises of the vine clusters (Vitis vinifera L.) by an X-ray microanalyser with a scanning electron microscopeThe present study was conducted on rachises of Vitis vinifera L. during the early phase of stalk necrosis disease ('Stiellähme'). Amounts of K and Ca were recorded by an energy dispersion X-ray analyser with a scanning electron microscope.Samples were taken from healthy and diseased plants, the affected plants being divided into seemingly healthy and slightly necrotic tissues.In the case of the healthy-looking tissue from diseased plants, the ratio of K/Ca is high when compared with healthy plants. This tendency is accentuated in tissues with visible symptoms in the early phase of stalk necrosis disease.The imbalance between K and Ca was considerable, especially in the large parenchyma cells of the cortex and was less accentuated in the xylem and on the surface of the rachis

Aneuploidy and isochromosome formation in drug-resistant Candida albicans

Resistance to the limited number of available antifungal drugs is a serious problem in the treatment of Candida albicans. We found that aneuploidy in general and a specific segmental aneuploidy, consisting of an isochromosome composed of the two left arms of chromosome 5, were associated with azole resistance. The isochromosome forms around a single centromere flanked by an inverted repeat and was found as an independent chromosome or fused at the telomere to a full-length homolog of chromosome 5. Increases and decreases in drug resistance were strongly associated with gain and loss of this isochromosome, which bears genes expressing the enzyme in the ergosterol pathway targeted by azole drugs, efflux pumps, and a transcription factor that positively regulates a subset of efflux pump genes

Haplotype Mapping of a Diploid Non-Meiotic Organism Using Existing and Induced Aneuploidies

Haplotype maps (HapMaps) reveal underlying sequence variation and facilitate the study of recombination and genetic diversity. In general, HapMaps are produced by analysis of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) segregation in large numbers of meiotic progeny. Candida albicans, the most common human fungal pathogen, is an obligate diploid that does not appear to undergo meiosis. Thus, standard methods for haplotype mapping cannot be used. We exploited naturally occurring aneuploid strains to determine the haplotypes of the eight chromosome pairs in the C. albicans laboratory strain SC5314 and in a clinical isolate. Comparison of the maps revealed that the clinical strain had undergone a significant amount of genome rearrangement, consisting primarily of crossover or gene conversion recombination events. SNP map haplotyping revealed that insertion and activation of the UAU1 cassette in essential and non-essential genes can result in whole chromosome aneuploidy. UAU1 is often used to construct homozygous deletions of targeted genes in C. albicans; the exact mechanism (trisomy followed by chromosome loss versus gene conversion) has not been determined. UAU1 insertion into the essential ORC1 gene resulted in a large proportion of trisomic strains, while gene conversion events predominated when UAU1 was inserted into the non-essential LRO1 gene. Therefore, induced aneuploidies can be used to generate HapMaps, which are essential for analyzing genome alterations and mitotic recombination events in this clonal organism

Stress Alters Rates and Types of Loss of Heterozygosity in Candida albicans

Genetic diversity is often generated during adaptation to stress, and in eukaryotes some of this diversity is thought to arise via recombination and reassortment of alleles during meiosis. Candida albicans, the most prevalent pathogen of humans, has no known meiotic cycle, and yet it is a heterozygous diploid that undergoes mitotic recombination during somatic growth. It has been shown that clinical isolates as well as strains passaged once through a mammalian host undergo increased levels of recombination. Here, we tested the hypothesis that stress conditions increase rates of mitotic recombination in C. albicans, which is measured as loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at specific loci. We show that LOH rates are elevated during in vitro exposure to oxidative stress, heat stress, and antifungal drugs. In addition, an increase in stress severity correlated well with increased LOH rates. LOH events can arise through local recombination, through homozygosis of longer tracts of chromosome arms, or by whole-chromosome homozygosis. Chromosome arm homozygosis was most prevalent in cultures grown under conventional lab conditions. Importantly, exposure to different stress conditions affected the levels of different types of LOH events, with oxidative stress causing increased recombination, while fluconazole and high temperature caused increases in events involving whole chromosomes. Thus, C. albicans generates increased amounts and different types of genetic diversity in response to a range of stress conditions, a process that we term “stress-induced LOH” that arises either by elevating rates of recombination and/or by increasing rates of chromosome missegregation

Stress Alters Rates and Types of Loss of Heterozygosity in Candida albicans

Genetic diversity is often generated during adaptation to stress, and in eukaryotes some of this diversity is thought to arise via recombination and reassortment of alleles during meiosis. Candida albicans, the most prevalent pathogen of humans, has no known meiotic cycle, and yet it is a heterozygous diploid that undergoes mitotic recombination during somatic growth. It has been shown that clinical isolates as well as strains passaged once through a mammalian host undergo increased levels of recombination. Here, we tested the hypothesis that stress conditions increase rates of mitotic recombination in C. albicans, which is measured as loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at specific loci. We show that LOH rates are elevated during in vitro exposure to oxidative stress, heat stress, and antifungal drugs. In addition, an increase in stress severity correlated well with increased LOH rates. LOH events can arise through local recombination, through homozygosis of longer tracts of chromosome arms, or by whole-chromosome homozygosis. Chromosome arm homozygosis was most prevalent in cultures grown under conventional lab conditions. Importantly, exposure to different stress conditions affected the levels of different types of LOH events, with oxidative stress causing increased recombination, while fluconazole and high temperature caused increases in events involving whole chromosomes. Thus, C. albicans generates increased amounts and different types of genetic diversity in response to a range of stress conditions, a process that we term “stress-induced LOH” that arises either by elevating rates of recombination and/or by increasing rates of chromosome missegregation