[Review of] David Leiwei Li, Imagining the Nation: Asian American Literature and Cultural Consent

Whenever the nation is imagined, Americans of Asian ancestry are excluded by common cultural consent as alien/alienated Others, as citizens of their ancestral nations. Due to recent immigration from many Asian nations, the globalization of economies, including the Pacific Rim, and especially the efforts of some Asian American writers, the situation has improved--somewhat. Still, if Asian-American writers stress the American in their representations, they are denying the Asian. If they stress the Asian, they have bought into American cultural consent its racist representations of Asian-Americans. Further, they themselves can\u27t help but think within the nation\u27s ongoing restrictive racist cultural consent paradigm, because as Americans they have unconsciously internalized it

[Review of] Manuel de Jesus Hemandez-Gutierrez and David William Foster, eds. Literatura Chicana, 1965-1995: An Anthology in Spanish, English, and Calo

The works included in this anthology, many of them previously printed, reflect six characteristic themes of Chicana/o contemporary literature: the search for identity, feminism, conservatism, revisionism, homoeroticism, and internationalism (xix). Organized chronologically according to various literary genres and replete with many useful notes, the anthology contains no index. Further, Literatura Chicana could also be assigned as required reading in American Studies courses, specifically in contemporary American literature courses, even though the editors suggest that the anthology be adopted for university level humanities, Spanish, ethnic, Chicana/o literature courses, in women\u27s studies programs and social science departments

[Review of] Farida Karodia. Coming Home and Other Stories

In Coming Home and Other Stories, Farida Karodia, South African born author now residing in Canada, has written a classic text which I recommend for use in African, contemporary, world literature, and women\u27s studies courses

QU Carinae: a SNeIa progenitor?

Optical spectra obtained in 2006-07 of the nova-like cataclysmic variable QU Car are studied for radial velocities, line profiles, and line identifications. We are not able to confirm the reported 10.9 hr orbital period from 1982,partly because our sampling is not ideal for this purpose and also, we suspect, because our radial velocities are distorted by line profile changes due to an erratic wind. P-Cygni profiles are found in several of the emission lines, including those of C IV. Carbon lines are abundant in the spectra, suggesting a carbon enrichment in the doner star. The presence of [O III] 5007\AA and [N II] 6584\AA is likely due to a diffuse nebula in the vicinity of the system. The wind signatures in the spectra and the presence of nebular lines are in agreement with the accretion wind evolution scenario that has been suggested to lead to SNeIa. We argue that QU Car is a member of the V Sge subclass of CVs, and a possible SNeIa progenitor. It is shown that the recent light curve of QU Car has ~1 mag low states, similar to the light curve of V Sge, strengthening the connection of QU Car with V Sge stars, supersoft x-ray sources, and SNeIa progenitors.Comment: Accepted in the Astronomical Journal. 11 pages, 3 tables, 5 figure

Discovery of an Unusual High State in the Long-Term Light Curve of AM Herculis

The magnetic cataclysmic variable archetype AM Herculis is known to display high and low photometric states, in which it switches from Roche lobe-overflow accretion (high) to wind accretion (low). The origin of this behavior is still unknown (although it is believed to be linked to the presence of starspots located near the L1 point on the secondary star), as are the specifics of duration and frequency of the two states. During the recent (2007) transition from an exceptionally long period of persistent low state behavior back to the high state, AM Her entered a short (~2 month) intermediate state, in which its brightness remained at ~0.5 mag fainter than the normal high-state level. Within the recorded history of AM Her, this was the first time the system displayed such behavior. Using data from the American Association of Variable Star Observers, we compare the characteristics of this faint high state to the subsequent normal high state, and a prior "failed high state," in which the system briefly reached a brightness level near that of the normal high state before rapidly returning to the low state. The distribution of magnitude values attained during each state, along with the shapes of the orbital light curve in each state, support a scenario in which the specific configuration of the accretion flow between the secondary star and the white dwarf must be rapidly established at the end of a low state, even before the mass transfer rate has reached the normal high-state level

Wind Variability in BZ Camelopardalis

(Shortened) Sequences of spectra of the nova-like cataclysmic variable (CV) BZ Cam were acquired on 9 nights in 2005-2006 in order to study the time development of episodes of wind activity known to occur frequently in this star. We confirm past results that the P-Cygni absorption components of the lines mostly evolve from a higher expansion velocity to lower velocity as an episode progresses. We also commonly find blueshifted emission components in the Halpha line profile, whose velocities and durations strongly suggest that they are also due to the wind. We suggest that the progression from larger to smaller expansion velocities is due the higher velocity portions of a wind concentration moving beyond the edge of the continuum light of the disk first, leaving a net redward shift of the remaining absorption profile. We also derive a new orbital ephemeris for BZ Cam, using the radial velocity of the core of the HeI 5876AA line, finding P = 0.15353(4). Using this period the wind episodes in BZ Cam are found to be concentrated near inferior conjuction of the emission line source. This result confirms that the winds in nova-like CVs are often phase dependent, in spite of the puzzling implication that such winds lack axisymmetry. We argue that the radiation-driven wind in BZ Cam receives an initial boost by acting on gas that has been lifted above the disk by the interaction of the accretion stream with the disk, thereby imposing flickering time scales onto the wind events, as well as leading to an orbital modulation of the wind due to the non-axisymmetric nature of the stream/disk interaction.Comment: The Astronomical Journal, in pres

Molecular Genetics of Intracranial Meningiomas with Emphasis on Canonical Wnt Signalling.

Research over the last decade recognized the importance of novel molecular pathways in pathogenesis of intracranial meningiomas. In this review, we focus on human brain tumours meningiomas and the involvement of Wnt signalling pathway genes and proteins in this common brain tumour, describing their known functional effects. Meningiomas originate from the meningeal layers of the brain and the spinal cord. Most meningiomas have benign clinical behaviour and are classified as grade I by World Health Organization (WHO). However, up to 20% histologically classified as atypical (grade II) or anaplastic (grade III) are associated with higher recurrent rate and have overall less favourable clinical outcome. Recently, there is emerging evidence that multiple signalling pathways including Wnt pathway contribute to the formation and growth of meningiomas. In the review we present the synopsis on meningioma histopathology and genetics and discuss our research regarding Wnt in meningioma. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, a process in which Wnt signalling plays an important role, is shortly discussed

Verwirklichung einer vollkommenen Glücksmöglichkeit/A perfect bliss-potential realized: “Wunsch, Indianer zu werden” im Lichte des Dao Kafkas übersetzend gelesen/Transreading “Wish, to Become Indian” in light of Kafka’s Dao

Walking an unexplored path, Huiwen Helen Zhang contextualizes Kafka's pithy and cryptic parable, “Wish, to Become Indian” in his transplantation of Daoist philosophy—an astonishing cross-cultural enigma that Zhang terms “Kafka's Dao”—and parses it through a micro-level approach that Zhang terms “transreading.” Contextualizing “Wish, to Become Indian” in Kafka's dialogue with ancient Chinese philosophers such as Laozi, Liezi, and Zhuangzi enables the reader to comprehend a series of otherwise incomprehensible puzzles. Zhang's scrutiny of Kafka's Dao shows how, through creative writing, Kafka not only penetrates esoteric Daoist classics, but also furthers their spirit in a way that transcends Richard Wilhelm, the pioneer European Sinologist. Transreading “Wish, to Become Indian” illuminates nuances that otherwise might have been overlooked. Wordplay, punctuational oddity, syntactic complexity, lyric density, and the curiously interlaced tenses and cases are all part of the idiosyncratic delivery of Kafka's message. Integrating the four activities of transreading—lento reading demanded and enhanced by cultural hermeneutics, creative writing required and inspired by poetic translation—unravels Kafka's riddle as a historical-cultural phenomenon.publishedVersio