Why is there no queer international theory?

Over the last decade, Queer Studies have become Global Queer Studies, generating significant insights into key international political processes. Yet, the transformation from Queer to Global Queer has left the discipline of International Relations largely unaffected, which begs the question: if Queer Studies has gone global, why has the discipline of International Relations not gone somewhat queer? Or, to put it in Martin Wight’s provocative terms, why is there no Queer International Theory? This article claims that the presumed non-existence of Queer International Theory is an effect of how the discipline of International Relations combines homologization, figuration, and gentrification to code various types of theory as failures in order to manage the conduct of international theorizing in all its forms. This means there are generalizable lessons to be drawn from how the discipline categorizes Queer International Theory out of existence to bring a specific understanding of International Relations into existence

Cigarette smoking, health status, socio-economic status and access to health care in diabetes mellitus: a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: In diabetes mellitus, cigarette smoking is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular mortality and microvascular complications. We evaluated cigarette smoking in people with diabetes mellitus in a socio-economically deprived area. METHODS: We carried out a cross-sectional survey of people registered with diabetes mellitus at 29 general practices in inner London. Responses were analysed for 1,899 (64%) respondents out of 2,983 eligible. RESULTS: There were 1,899 respondents of whom 968 (51%) had never smoked, 296 (16%) were current smokers and 582 (31%) were ex-smokers. Smoking was more frequent in white Europeans (men 22%, women 20%), than in African Caribbeans (men 15%, women 10%) or Africans (men 8%, women 2%). Smoking prevalence decreased with age. Smokers were more likely to be living in rented accommodation (odds ratio, OR 2.02, 95% confidence interval 1.48 to 2.74). After adjusting for confounding, current smokers had lower SF-36 scores than subjects who had never smoked (mean difference in physical functioning score -5.6, 95% confidence interval -10.0 to -1.2; general health -6.1, -9.7 to -2.5). Current smokers were less likely to have attended a hospital diabetic clinic in the last year (OR 0.59, 0.44 to 0.79), and their hypertension was less likely to be treated (OR 0.47, 0.30 to 0.74). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with non-smokers, smokers had lower socio-economic status and worse health status, but were less likely to be referred to hospital or treated for their hypertension. People with diabetes who smoke can be regarded as a vulnerable group who need more intensive support and treatment

He Scores Through a Screen: Mediating Masculinities Through Hockey Video Games

Hockey video games highlight the ways in which the video game medium shapes and conditions the experience of producing and/or performing the sport “in real life.” Indeed, the accumulation of advanced statistics in and through the constant evaluation, measurement, and surveillance which are inherent to video games—and increasingly seen as foundational for sport—reveals important contradictions not only in the way the embodied sport is played and understood, but also in terms of the proofs of masculinity upon which the sport is built. It then becomes clear that the building of masculinity and the empowerment of the character become one and the same. The ludic function reinforces the cultural imperative and vice versa. Thus, our chapter prizes apart the conflation of masculinity with hockey while showing the ways that video game studies can contribute to existing disciplines

Queer Touch Between Holy Women: Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Birgitta of Sweden, and the Visitation

Under embargo until: 2021-12-17This essay takes a new approach to the well-known meeting between two late-medieval English visionary women, Margery Kempe and the anchoress Julian of Norwich, as described in The Book of Margery Kempe. In this analysis their conversation subtly evokes a long history of women concentrating their subversive power through intimate, spiritual exchange, a history reaching back to the Biblical Visitation scene and expressed in its medieval artistic and literary instantiations. A queer reading illuminates the way that such female same-sex relationships challenge patriarchal systems by offering a privileged access to God outside clerical supervision. By examining Margery and Julian’s encounter, Luke’s Visitation passage, its depiction in a late-medieval Book of Hours, and comparing two different Middle English translations of a Visitation vision in Birgitta of Sweden’s Revelations, the full transgressive effect of queer touch between women—or even its unspoken possibility—emerges.acceptedVersio

Staging Loss: Performance as Commemoration

This book locates and critically theorises an emerging field of twenty-first century theatre practice concerned, either thematically, methodologically, or formally, with acts of commemoration and the commemorative. With notions of memorial, celebration, temporality and remembrance at its heart, and as a timely topic for debate, this book asks how theatre and performance intersects with commemorative acts or rituals in contemporary theatre and performance practice. It considers the (re)performance of history, commemoration as a form of, or performance of, ritual, performance as memorial, performance as eulogy and eulogy as performance. It asks where personal acts of remembrance merge with public or political acts of remembrance, where the boundary between the commemorative and the performative might lie, and how it might be blurred, broken or questioned. It explores how we might remake the past in the present, to consider not just how performance commemorates but how commemoration performs

Absolute risk representation in cardiovascular disease prevention: comprehension and preferences of health care consumers and general practitioners involved in a focus group study

Background Communicating risk is part of primary prevention of coronary heart disease and stroke, collectively referred to as cardiovascular disease (CVD). In Australia, health organisations have promoted an absolute risk approach, thereby raising the question of suitable standardised formats for risk communication. Methods Sixteen formats of risk representation were prepared including statements, icons, graphical formats, alone or in combination, and with variable use of colours. All presented the same risk, i.e., the absolute risk for a 55 year old woman, 16% risk of CVD in five years. Preferences for a five or ten-year timeframe were explored. Australian GPs and consumers were recruited for participation in focus groups, with the data analysed thematically and preferred formats tallied. Results Three focus groups with health consumers and three with GPs were held, involving 19 consumers and 18 GPs. Consumers and GPs had similar views on which formats were more easily comprehended and which conveyed 16% risk as a high risk. A simple summation of preferences resulted in three graphical formats (thermometers, vertical bar chart) and one statement format as the top choices. The use of colour to distinguish risk (red, yellow, green) and comparative information (age, sex, smoking status) were important ingredients. Consumers found formats which combined information helpful, such as colour, effect of changing behaviour on risk, or comparison with a healthy older person. GPs preferred formats that helped them relate the information about risk of CVD to their patients, and could be used to motivate patients to change behaviour. Several formats were reported as confusing, such as a percentage risk with no contextual information, line graphs, and icons, particularly those with larger numbers. Whilst consumers and GPs shared preferences, the use of one format for all situations was not recommended. Overall, people across groups felt that risk expressed over five years was preferable to a ten-year risk, the latter being too remote. Conclusions Consumers and GPs shared preferences for risk representation formats. Both groups liked the option to combine formats and tailor the risk information to reflect a specific individual's risk, to maximise understanding and provide a good basis for discussion

Multisite Phosphorylation Provides an Effective and Flexible Mechanism for Switch-Like Protein Degradation

Phosphorylation-triggered degradation is a common strategy for elimination of regulatory proteins in many important cell signaling processes. Interesting examples include cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors such as p27 in human and Sic1 in yeast, which play crucial roles during the G1/S transition in the cell cycle. In this work, we have modeled and analyzed the dynamics of multisite-phosphorylation-triggered protein degradation systematically. Inspired by experimental observations on the Sic1 protein and a previous intriguing theoretical conjecture, we develop a model to examine in detail the degradation dynamics of a protein featuring multiple phosphorylation sites and a threshold site number for elimination in response to a kinase signal. Our model explains the role of multiple phosphorylation sites, compared to a single site, in the regulation of protein degradation. A single-site protein cannot convert a graded input of kinase increase to much sharper output, whereas multisite phosphorylation is capable of generating a highly switch-like temporal profile of the substrate protein with two characteristics: a temporal threshold and rapid decrease beyond the threshold. We introduce a measure termed temporal response coefficient to quantify the extent to which a response in the time domain is switch-like and further investigate how this property is determined by various factors including the kinase input, the total number of sites, the threshold site number for elimination, the order of phosphorylation, the kinetic parameters, and site preference. Some interesting and experimentally verifiable predictions include that the non-degradable fraction of the substrate protein exhibits a more switch-like temporal profile; a sequential system is more switch-like, while a random system has the advantage of increased robustness; all the parameters, including the total number of sites, the threshold site number for elimination and the kinetic parameters synergistically determine the exact extent to which the degradation profile is switch-like. Our results suggest design principles for protein degradation switches which might be a widespread mechanism for precise regulation of cellular processes such as cell cycle progression

Long Lasting Local and Systemic Inflammation after Cerebral Hypoxic ischemia in Newborn Mice

Background: Hypoxic ischemia (HI) is an important cause of neonatal brain injury and subsequent inflammation affects neurological outcome. In this study we performed investigations of systemic and local activation states of inflammatory cells from innate and adaptive immunity at different time points after neonatal HI brain injury in mice. Methodology/Principal Findings: We developed a multiplex flow cytometry based method combined with immunohistochemistry to investigate cellular immune responses in the brain 24 h to 7 months after HI brain injury. In addition, functional studies of ex vivo splenocytes after cerebral hypoxic ischemia were performed. Both central and peripheral activation of CD11b + and CD11c + antigen presenting cells were seen with expression of the costimulatory molecule CD86 and MHC-II, indicating active antigen presentation in the damaged hemisphere and in the spleen. After one week, naïve CD45rb + T-lymphocytes were demonstrated in the damaged brain hemisphere. In a second phase after three months, pronounced activation of CD45rb 2 T-lymphocytes expressing CD69 and CD25 was seen in the damaged hemisphere. Brain homogenate induced proliferation in splenocytes after HI but not in controls. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings demonstrate activation of both local and systemic immune responses months after hypoxic ischemic neonatal brain injury. The long term immune activation observed is of general importance for future studies of the inflammatory response after brain injury as most previous studies have focused on the first few weeks afte