Avatars of Eurocentrism in the critique of the liberal peace

Recent scholarly critiques of the so-called liberal peace raise important political and ethical challenges to practices of postwar intervention in the global South. However, their conceptual and analytic approaches have tended to reproduce rather than challenge the intellectual Eurocentrism underpinning the liberal peace. Eurocentric features of the critiques include the methodological bypassing of target subjects in research, the analytic bypassing of subjects through frameworks of governmentality, the assumed ontological split between the ‘liberal’ and the ‘local’, and a nostalgia for the liberal subject and the liberal social contract as alternative bases for politics. These collectively produce a ‘paradox of liberalism’ that sees the liberal peace as oppressive but also the only true source of emancipation. However, the article suggests that a repoliticization of colonial difference offers an alternative ‘decolonizing’ approach to critical analysis through repositioning the analytic gaze. Three alternative research strategies for critical analysis are briefly developed

Evaluation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate, prolylpeptidyl isomerase A, and a set of stably expressed genes as reference mRNAs in urate crystal inflammation

ABSTRACT

A Study to investigate the role of p27 and Cyclin E immunoexpression as a prognostic factor in early breast carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cyclin E and p27 expression is easy to assess in human tissues by standard immunohistochemical techniques. Immunohistochemistry is cost effective, relatively easy to perform and will play more of a role in the future management of cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of p27 and cyclin E immunoexpression as a prognostic factor in early breast carcinoma.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cyclin E and p27 immunohistochemistry was performed on sixty six cases of breast carcinoma submitted over a five year period to the Division of Anatomical Pathology, Groote Schuur hospital; Whittaker and Associates; and PathCare. All tumours included in this study were less than 5 cm in diameter (pT1 and pT2 stage) and all the patients had wide local excisions performed. Follow up information was obtained from patient folders in the Department of Radiation Oncology.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was no significant association of cyclin E and p27 expression with distant metastasis free survival (MFS) for all invasive carcinomas in contrast to grade, lymph node spread and vascular invasion. However, there was a statistically significant direct association of cyclin E with distant metastases in all invasive carcinomas, in the subgroup of infiltrating duct carcinomas (IDC) and in the node negative group when cyclin E was stratified as negative and positive (low/high). In this study of early breast carcinoma, only 9/66 cases showed cyclin E expression. Of these, four patients had distant metastases, one patient had a local recurrence and four patients were alive at last follow-up. Furthermore, cyclin E expression was significantly associated with grade, lymph node spread, oestrogen receptor status and histological type. None of the lobular carcinomas showed cyclin E positivity and only one case of lobular carcinoma presented with distant metastases.</p> <p>59/66 cases were positive (low/high) for p27 while seven cases were negative, 22 cases showed low expression and 37 cases demonstrated high p27 expression.</p> <p>p27 was significantly associated with oestrogen receptor status only for all invasive carcinomas and in the IDC group. There was no statistical relationship between p27 and cyclin E, but 50 (76%) tumours with positive p27 expression were negative for cyclin E. There were similar results for the invasive ductal carcinoma subgroup.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study shows that p27 and cyclin E are not good independent prognostic markers for early breast carcinoma in contrast to grade, lymph node spread and vascular invasion for all invasive carcinomas. However, cyclin E provides some prognostic value as there is a direct statistical association with the development of distant metastases. Many previous studies have correlated overexpression of cyclin E with an aggressive course. The inverse relationship between p27 and cyclin E expression which has been reported in the literature has been highlighted, but this was not statistically significant. Most cases showed positive p27 expression and negative Cyclin E expression. This may be due to the early stage of the disease.</p

Cultural Consumption Through the Epistemologies of the South: 'Humanization' in Transnational Football Fan Solidarities

In 2014, Boaventura de Sousa Santos awoke the global sociological community to the need to privilege ‘humanization’ in the exploration of transnational solidarities. This article presents the cultural consumption of a football club – Liverpool FC – to understand the common ‘love’, ‘suffering’, ‘care’ and ‘knowledge’ that fans who are part of the ‘Brazil Reds’ or ‘Switzerland Reds’ (although not all fans engaged in such communities are ‘from’ Brazil or Switzerland) experience. The argument is that the global North lexicon of social class, ethnicity, gender and, especially, nationality is less significant as starting points for analysis than humanization through shared love, which consolidates Liverpool FC fans’ transnational solidarities. Accordingly, the article calls for the epistemologies of the global South to be used to understand the practices of cultural consumption that constitute activities in the sphere of everyday life, such as those involved in ‘love’ for a football club

COMP-Angiopoietin-1 Recovers Molecular Biomarkers of Neuropathy and Improves Vascularisation in Sciatic Nerve of ob/ob Mice

mice. mice displayed regeneration of small-diameter endoneural microvessels. Effects of COMP-Ang-1 corresponded to increased phosphorylation of Akt and p38 MAPK upon Tie-2 receptor. mice suggesting COMP-Ang-1 as novel treatment option to improve morphologic and protein expression changes associated with diabetic neuropathy

Suppression of Radiation-Induced Salivary Gland Dysfunction by IGF-1

Radiation is a primary or secondary therapeutic modality for treatment of head and neck cancer. A common side effect of irradiation to the neck and neck region is xerostomia caused by salivary gland dysfunction. Approximately 40,000 new cases of xerostomia result from radiation treatment in the United States each year. The ensuing salivary gland hypofunction results in significant morbidity and diminishes the effectiveness of anti-cancer therapies as well as the quality of life for these patients. Previous studies in a rat model have shown no correlation between induction of apoptosis in the salivary gland and either the immediate or chronic decrease in salivary function following gamma-radiation treatment.A significant level of apoptosis can be detected in the salivary glands of FVB mice following gamma-radiation treatment of the head and neck and this apoptosis is suppressed in transgenic mice expressing an activated mutant of Akt (myr-Akt1). Importantly, this suppression of apoptosis in myr-Akt1 mice preserves salivary function, as measured by saliva output, three and thirty days after gamma-radiation treatment. In order to translate these studies into a preclinal model we found that intravenous injection of IGF1 stimulated activation of endogenous Akt in the salivary glands in vivo. A single injection of IGF1 prior to exposure to gamma-radiation diminishes salivary acinar cell apoptosis and completely preserves salivary gland function three and thirty days following irradiation.These studies suggest that apoptosis of salivary acinar cells underlies salivary gland hypofunction occurring secondary to radiation of the head and neck region. Targeted delivery of IGF1 to the salivary gland of patients receiving head and neck irradiation may be useful in reducing or eliminating xerostomia and restoring quality of life to these patients

Deep Theorizing in International Relations

This paper starts from the observation that, at a time when the popularity of grand theory is in decline among IR scholars, they do not agree on what they mean by theory. In fact, the celebration of theoretical pluralism is accompanied by the relative absence of a serious conversation about what ‘theory’ is, could, or should be. Taking the view that we need such a conversation, this puts forward the notion of ‘deep theorizing’. Countering both the shallow theorizing of modern scholarship that conflates theory with scientific method, and the postmodern view that abstract narratives must be deconstructed and rejected, it offers a reading of the parameters along which substantial theorizing proceeds. Specifically, it suggests that ‘deep theorizing’ is the conceptual effort of explaining (inter)action by developing a reading of drives/basic motivations and the ontology of its carrier through an account of the human condition, that is, a particular account of how the subject (the political actor) is positioned in social space and time. The paper illustrates the plausibility of this meta-theoretical angle in a discussion of realist, liberal and postcolonial schools of thought

A discursive review of the textual use of ‘trapped’ in environmental migration studies: The conceptual birth and troubled teenage years of trapped populations

First mooted in 2011, the concept of Trapped Populations referring to people unable to move from environmentally high-risk areas broadened the study of human responses to environmental change. While a seemingly straightforward concept, the underlying discourses around the reasons for being ‘trapped’, and the language describing the concept have profound influences on the way in which policy and practice approaches the needs of populations at risk from environmental stresses and shocks. In this article, we apply a Critical Discourse Analysis to the academic literature on the subject to reveal some of the assumptions implicit within discussing ‘trapped’ populations. The analysis reveals a dominant school of thought that assisted migration, relocation, and resettlement in the face of climate change are potentially effective adaptation strategies along a gradient of migrant agency and governance

‘Other’ Posts in ‘Other’ Places: Poland through a Postcolonial Lens?

Postcolonial theory has tended to focus on those spaces where European colonialism has had a territorial and political history. This is unsurprising, as much of the world is in this sense ‘postcolonial’. But not all of it. This article focuses on Poland, often theorised as peripheral to ‘old Europe’, and explores the application of postcolonial analyses to this ‘other’ place. The article draws upon reflections arising from a study of responses to ethnic diversity in Warsaw, Poland. In doing so we conclude that postcolonialism does indeed offer some important insights into understanding Polish attitudes to other nationalities, and yet more work also needs to be done to make the theoretical bridge. In the case of Poland we propose the ‘triple relation’ be the starting point for such work