Speaking Animals: Notes on the Human Voiceover in Wildlife Documentaries

Nature conservationists have often credited wildlife documentaries with doing much to awaken public environmental concern. But these assertions have given too little critical thought to what I take to be a central problem: the failure of such programs to address what we might term issues of ideology. Wildlife documentaries present a view of the world in which such issues are deliberately kept underdeveloped, and are isolated conceptually from other· social and political domains. We need then to ask the following questions: In what ways do these documentaries serve to legitimate existing human relationships with the nonhuman? And how do they affect our perception of, and our willingness to take action on, environmental problems

The Other Side of Utopia: The Opacity of Perception in the Poetry of the First Run of Tish, 1961-63

The editorials included in the first run of Tish magazine (1961-63) show editors George Bowering, Frank Davey, and Fred Wah at their most optimistic about the role of poetry, the possibility of community, and the project of recovering a non-appropriative relationship to the world. Key to Tish's nascent aesthetic was the notion of "embodied" poetics, of denying the mind/body divide instituted by the ancients, a stance that owes much to the influence of Black Mountain poets such as Charles Olson. Moreover, the Tish editors' poetry aims to track, map, and relate intimately to place, or what Olson calls "locus." Yet, oddly, Tish poetry seems less optimistic than its prose. This is because, unlike the Black Mountain poets, the Tish poets found that the self is an effect of social organization not escaped by fiat, and that their particular urban social world demanded an atomized anti-communal self, in keeping with J.P. Sartre's concept of seriality

Keeping what counts: Should limited-life foundations create archives?

When a foundation chooses to wind down and close its doors, it will at some point confront the question of what to leave behind. In approaching that question, some consider establishing a foundation archive.While there is no common playbook when it comes to archiving, foundations considering an archive might ask:1. Do we have knowledge or experience that could benefit others?2. Which people, organizations, and networks do we most want to reach with that knowledge?3. Is an archive the right or best way to reach them?This essay seeks to help foundations confront these questions. It examines what foundations leave behind when they close, the benefits and challenges of establishing archives, how and where archives live, and how foundations can begin the archiving process

Domination and Preservation: Reflections on Wildlife Cinematography

Contemporary wildlife documentaries, geared for the television market, exhibit a recurrent pattern: their narratives tend to emphasize the predatory pursuit of wild animals. In large part this problem is a consequence of the masculinist and scientistic legacies which wildlife filmmakers have taken over from the natural sciences, in order to seek legitimacy for this genre.1 Other (even contradictory) forces also come into play in the production of wildlife documentaries, namely those arising from commercial demands. The differences between wildlife programming and entertainment specials are at times only ones of modality. Thus, while the contemporary writings of deep ecology and ecofeminism very clearly reflect alternate ideals of human interconnectedness with the nonhuman environment, wildlife documentaries seem compelled to answer to two rather "environmentally unsympathetic" task-masters: objective science and entertainment

Epidémiologie des trypanosomoses africaines. Analyse et prévision du risque dans des paysages en transformation

International audienceL'OMS estime qu'en Afrique, 60 millions de personnes sont soumises au risque de trypanosomosehumaine ou « maladie du sommeil ». Depuis 1995, la maladie est en augmentation constante, les estimations récentes avançant 300 000 cas par an, chiffre certainement sous-estimé du fait de la rareté des campagnes de dépistage. Certains pays, actuellement en crise, sont dans des situations particulièrement graves, des localités de la République démocratique du Congo étant infestées à plus de 70% avec les taux de mortalité dépassant ceux liés au SIDA. En fait, la situation est aujourd'hui jugée pire que dans les années 1920

Monitoring and investigating the process for cytosolic translocation after tau endocytosis

Tau pathology is well documented in Alzheimer's disease and its build up follows a stereotypical spread correlating with disease severity. This reveals an apparent anatomically linked spread of tau, supporting the hypothesis that tau can propagate via cell-to-cell transfer. However, a direct visualisation of tau entering the cytosol of a recipient cell and a full understanding of the mechanism at the basis of this process are still lacking. I have setup and optimised a strategy based on split-green fluorescent protein (GFP) to conclusively demonstrate cytosolic translocation of tau. Split-GFP is derived from the superfolder beta-barrel structure of GFPs truncated between 10th and 11th beta strands generating two non-fluorescent fragments named GFP1-10 and GFP11. In this project, the GFP11 is used to tag tau whereas the GFP1-10 is cytosolically expressed and acts as a sensor to detect the presence of tau in the cytoplasmic environment; only when the two GFP fragments associate will they reconstitute the fluorophore, thus maximising the signal to noise ratio. I have demonstrated the ability of the split-GFP assay to detect cellular uptake and release of tau into the cytosol in living cells. With this technique I have observed the real-time uptake dynamics of all six tau isoforms and the disease relevant P301S mutant and investigated potential mechanisms underpinning this process, including pH sensitivity and Rab GTPase activity. This assay has been tested both in cell-lines and primary neuronal cultures grown in custom-made microfluidic chambers, with the aim to improve the tools available to study tau propagation in vitro and in vivo

Special grantmaking: A purposeful, flexible resource for foundations

Many foundations that are guided by a long-term commitment to move the needle in a finite set of issue areas also hold "special grantmaking" funds. These program dollars can be flexibly deployed for nascent opportunities, innovative ideas, emergencies, local causes, and/or areas of high interest to their leaders.Little has been written about special grants as a vibrant resource for philanthropy. While these funds are not always advertised publicly, they are more than purely discretionary. On the contrary, special grants can be made with purpose in mind and aim to advance the holistic goals of their respective foundations.This essay is rooted in the experience and observations of Matthew La Rocque and Barbara Kibbe, members of the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation's Effectiveness team. It explores the purpose of special grants, how they are made and monitored, and their advantages and challenges