952 research outputs found
Narratives of Feminist Resistance: Women\u27s Bodily Autonomy and the Dystopian Mode
This undergraduate thesis examines how dystopian fiction has responded to the sociopolitical issue of restrictions on womenâs bodily autonomy, a question that has become more timely since the reversal of Roe v. Wade in Summer 2022. Particularly, I aim to understand how readers can use dystopian novels to shape real-world dialogue and how authors can use narrative strategies to encourage readers to resist oppression. My first chapter takes a broad approach, tracing the development of dystopian fiction from a genre to a mode and using Marge Piercyâs Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) as a case study of how an author can use the dystopian mode to model resistance. My second chapter analyzes how, with its plausible predictions and intimate first-person stream-of-consciousness narrative style, Margaret Atwoodâs The Handmaidâs Tale (1985) has become a cultural intervention that many women still turn to as a symbol of protest almost four decades after its publication. Finally, my third chapter considers how Octavia Butlerâs Dawn (1987) has become a feminist resistorâs narrativeâespecially for Black women like its protagonist, Lilith, who resists the aftereffects of slavery as well as patriarchal oppressionâthat shows readers how women can gain power, especially by using their voice in protest, exhibiting empathy, and never losing hope. My thesis is prefaced and concluded by a personal memoir, tracing my identity as a feminist in twenty-first century America
Resumption of mass accretion in RS Oph
The latest outburst of the recurrent nova RS Oph occurred in 2006 February. Photometric data presented here show evidence of the resumption of optical flickering, indicating re-establishment of accretion by day 241 of the outburst. Magnitude variations of up to 0.32 mag in V band and 0.14 mag in B band on time-scales of 600â7000 s are detected. Over the two-week observational period, we also detect a 0.5 mag decline in the mean brightness, from Vâ 11.4 to 11.9, and record Bâ 12.9 mag. Limits on the mass accretion rate of [inline image] are calculated, which span the range of accretion rates modelled for direct wind accretion and Roche lobe overflow mechanisms. The current accretion rates make it difficult for thermonuclear runaway models to explain the observed recurrence interval, and this implies average accretion rates are typically higher than seen immediately post-outburst
A Scattered Light Echo around SN 1993J in M81
A light echo around SN 1993J was observed 8.2 years after explosion by a HST
WFPC2 observation, adding to the small family of supernovae with light echoes.
The light echo was formed by supernova light scattered from a dust sheet, which
lies 220 parsecs away from the supernova, 50 parsecs thick along the line of
sight, as inferred from radius and width of the light echo. The dust inferred
from the light echo surface brightness is 1000 times denser than the intercloud
dust. The graphite to silicate fraction can not be determined by our BVI
photometric measurements, however, a pure graphite model can be excluded based
on comparison with the data. With future observations, it will be possible to
measure the expansion rate of the light echo, from which an independent
distance to M81 can be obtained.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, in AASTeX format, submitted to ApJ Part
Suppression of mitochondrial respiration through recruitment of p160 myb binding protein to PGC-1α : modulation by p38 MAPK
The transcriptional coactivator PPAR gamma coactivator 1 α (PGC-1α) is a key regulator of metabolic processes such as mitochondrial biogenesis and respiration in muscle and gluconeogenesis in liver. Reduced levels of PGC-1α in humans have been associated with type II diabetes. PGC-1α contains a negative regulatory domain that attenuates its transcriptional activity. This negative regulation is removed by phosphorylation of PGC-1α by p38 MAPK, an important kinase downstream of cytokine signaling in muscle and ÎČ-adrenergic signaling in brown fat. We describe here the identification of p160 myb binding protein (p160MBP) as a repressor of PGC-1α. The binding and repression of PGC-1α by p160MBP is disrupted by p38 MAPK phosphorylation of PGC-1α. Adenoviral expression of p160MBP in myoblasts strongly reduces PGC-1α's ability to stimulate mitochondrial respiration and the expression of the genes of the electron transport system. This repression does not require removal of PGC-1α from chromatin, suggesting that p160MBP is or recruits a direct transcriptional suppressor. Overall, these data indicate that p160MBP is a powerful negative regulator of PGC-1α function and provide a molecular mechanism for the activation of PGC-1α by p38 MAPK. The discovery of p160MBP as a PGC-1α regulator has important implications for the understanding of energy balance and diabetes
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