Out of Site: Digital Cartographies of Memory

If Alois Riegl’s claim that an architectural monument –in the original and ancient sense of the term– meant creating a work with the objective of safeguarding the memory of an event, then this paper asks if photographs and specifically digital images of monuments and memorials can sustain memory by creating a memorial itinerary, one that links projects virtually and physically to each other beyond geographic sites. While some memorials are successful at stimulating memory recall, others become empty, monolithic objects, even when presented in the form of a museum. In a culture of excess and visual inundation, photography and particularly social media of the newest memorials bid for our emotional commitment, particularly when our own histories and memories are often removed from the one aiming to be recovered, and perpetuate our overfed and undernourished souls. Can the cultural imaginary recuperate the memory that a memorial aims to represent? In looking at a series of recent memorial projects made known through social media, particularly Melissa Shiff and Louis Kaplan’s Mapping Ararat, this paper asserts that digital cartographies (that is, images and places) play a crucial role in charting points of memory. The memorial projects discussed here dwell in our virtual, digital and screen-based cultures and imaginaries as complements to the tangible object. Together they explore the cartographic entanglements of geographic and imaginary histories of place as homeland and community in order to suggest that what we choose to remember is set out as part of a selective (both pre- and post-) tour digitized or photographed

An integrated multi-omic analysis of iPSC-derived motor neurons from C9ORF72 ALS patients

Neurodegenerative diseases are challenging for systems biology because of the lack of reliable animal models or patient samples at early disease stages. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) could address these challenges. We investigated DNA, RNA, epigenetics, and proteins in iPSC-derived motor neurons from patients with ALS carrying hexanucleotide expansions in C9ORF72. Using integrative computational methods combining all omics datasets, we identified novel and known dysregulated pathways. We used a C9ORF72 Drosophila model to distinguish pathways contributing to disease phenotypes from compensatory ones and confirmed alterations in some pathways in postmortem spinal cord tissue of patients with ALS. A different differentiation protocol was used to derive a separate set of C9ORF72 and control motor neurons. Many individual -omics differed by protocol, but some core dysregulated pathways were consistent. This strategy of analyzing patient-specific neurons provides disease-related outcomes with small numbers of heterogeneous lines and reduces variation from single-omics to elucidate network-based signatures

The Wedding, A Ceremony : Or Thoughts About an Indecisive Reunion Revisited

This compilation of postcards by seven Canadian artists revolves around the theme of the wedding ceremony. Hornstein-Rabinovitch's introduction encompasses notions of ritual and memory and cites works by Duchamp as conceptual sources. 3 bibl. ref

Effect of Alcohol Consumption on In Vitro Fertilization

To estimate whether alcohol use at the initiation of an in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle is associated with IVF outcomes. METHODS In this prospective cohort study, men and women completed a self-administered questionnaire before their first IVF cycle. Participants reported alcohol type, amount, and frequency consumed. Discrete survival analysis was applied to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for live birth—the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes were cycle characteristics and points of failure in the IVF process (cycle cancellation, failed fertilization, implantation failure, and spontaneous abortion). We conducted multicycle analyses with final models adjusted for potential confounders that included cycle number, cigarette use, body mass index, and age. RESULTS A total of 2,545 couples contributed 4,729 cycles. Forty-one percent of women and 58% of men drank one to six drinks per week. Women drinking at least four drinks per week had 16% less odds of a live birth rate compared with those who drank fewer than four drinks per week (OR 0.84, CI 0.71–0.99). For couples in which both partners drank at least four drinks per week, the odds of live birth were 21% lower compared with couples in which both drank fewer than four drinks per week (OR 0.79; CI 0.66–0.96). CONCLUSION Consumption of as few as four alcoholic drinks per week is associated with a decrease in IVF live birth rate