Sound Studies Meets Deaf Studies

Sound studies and Deaf studies may seem at first impression to operate in worlds apart. We argue in this article, however, that similar renderings of hearing, deafness, and seeing as ideal types - and as often essentialized sensory modes - make it possible to read differences between Sound studies and Deaf studies as sites of possible articulation. We direct attention to four zones of productive overlap, attending to how sound is inferred in deaf and Deaf practice, how reimagining sound in the register of low-frequency vibration can upend deafhearing dichotomies, how “deaf futurists“ champion cyborg sound, and how signing and other non-spoken communicative practices might undo phonocentric models of speech. Sound studies and Deaf studies emerge as fields with much to offer one another epistemologically, theoretically, and practically

Shear strength model for overconsolidated clay-infilled idealised rock joints

Saturated infilled joints can contribute to the instability of rock masses during undrained shearing. This paper reports an experimental investigation into the effect of the overconsolidation of infilled rough joints on undrained shear behaviour. A revised model is presented for predicting the shear strength of rough infilled joints on the basis of experimental tests carried out on idealised sawtoothed joints with natural silty clay as the infill material. Tests were conducted under consolidated undrained conditions in a high-pressure triaxial apparatus on joints having a dip angle of 60°. Pore pressure development in the infill materials was monitored. The results show that the effect of asperities on shear strength is significant up to a critical asperity height to infill thickness ratio (t/a), whereas the shear behaviour is controlled by the infill alone beyond this critical value. The proposed model for predicting the shear strength of rough infilled joints describes how the OCR influences the shear strength, pore water pressure development, and critical t/a ratio

Orientalising deafness: race and disability in imperial Britain

This article explores the conflations and connections that postcolonial and disability scholars have drawn between ‘race’, ‘colonialism’ and ‘disability’ from a historical perspective. By looking at the connections drawn between ‘race’ and ‘disability’ in the context of nineteenth-century imperial Britain, I hope to probe beyond them to examine the origins and implications of their interplay. I do so by focusing on ideas about deafness, an impairment radically reconfigured in the colonial period, and inflected with concerns about degeneration, belonging, heredity and difference. Disability, I argue, not only operated as an additional ‘category of difference’ alongside ‘race’ as a way of categorising and subjugating the various ‘others’ of Empire, but intersected with it. The ‘colonisation’ of disabled people in Britain and the ‘racial other’ by the British were not simply simultaneous processes or even analogous ones, but were part and parcel of the same cultural and discursive system. The colonising context of the nineteenth century, a period when British political, economic and cultural expansion over areas of South Asia, Australasia and Africa increased markedly, structured the way in which all forms of difference were recognised and expressed, including the difference of deafness. So too did the shifts in the raced and gendered thinking that accompanied it, as new forms of knowledge were developed to justify, explain and contest Britain's global position and new languages were developed through which to articulate otherness. Such developments reconfigured the meaning of disability. Disability was, in effect, ‘orientalised’. ‘Race’ I argue was formative in shaping what we have come to understand as ‘disability’ and vice versa; they were related fantasies of difference

Emerging targets for addiction neuropharmacology: From mechanisms to therapeutics

Drug abuse represents a considerable burden of disease and has enormous economic impacts on societies. Over the years, few medications have been developed for clinical use. Their utilization is endowed with several limitations, including partial efficacy or significant side effects. On the other hand, the successful advancement of these compounds provides an important proof of concept for the feasibility of drug development programs in addiction. In recent years, a wealth of information has been generated on the psychological mechanisms, genetic or epigenetic predisposing factors, and neurobiological adaptations induced by drug consumption that interact with each other to contribute to disease progression. It is now clear that addiction develops through phases, from initial recreational use to excessive consumption and compulsive drug seeking, with a shift from positive to negative reinforcement driving motivated behaviors. A greater understanding of these mechanisms has opened new vistas in drug development programs. Researchers' attention has been shifted from investigation of classical targets associated with reward to biological substrates responsible for negative reinforcement, impulse loss of control, and maladaptive mechanisms resulting from protracted drug use. From this research, several new biological targets for the development of innovative therapies have started to emerge. This chapter offers an overview of targets currently under scrutiny for the development of new medications for addiction. This work is not exhaustive but rather it provides a few examples of how this research has advanced in recent years by virtue of studies carried out in our laboratory

Fatigue of survivors following cardiac surgery: Positive influences of preoperative prayer coping

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93766/1/j.2044-8287.2012.02068.x.pd

Lipid analysis of CO2-rich subsurface aquifers suggests an autotrophy-based deep biosphere with lysolipids enriched in CPR bacteria.

Sediment-hosted CO2-rich aquifers deep below the Colorado Plateau (USA) contain a remarkable diversity of uncultivated microorganisms, including Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR) bacteria that are putative symbionts unable to synthesize membrane lipids. The origin of organic carbon in these ecosystems is unknown and the source of CPR membrane lipids remains elusive. We collected cells from deep groundwater brought to the surface by eruptions of Crystal Geyser, sequenced the community, and analyzed the whole community lipidome over time. Characteristic stable carbon isotopic compositions of microbial lipids suggest that bacterial and archaeal CO2 fixation ongoing in the deep subsurface provides organic carbon for the complex communities that reside there. Coupled lipidomic-metagenomic analysis indicates that CPR bacteria lack complete lipid biosynthesis pathways but still possess regular lipid membranes. These lipids may therefore originate from other community members, which also adapt to high in situ pressure by increasing fatty acid unsaturation. An unusually high abundance of lysolipids attributed to CPR bacteria may represent an adaptation to membrane curvature stress induced by their small cell sizes. Our findings provide new insights into the carbon cycle in the deep subsurface and suggest the redistribution of lipids into putative symbionts within this community

Melting Domain Size and Recrystallization Dynamics of Ice Revealed by Time-Resolved X-ray Scattering

The phase transition between water and ice is ubiquitous and one of the most important phenomena in nature. Here, we performed time-resolved x-ray scattering experiments capturing the melting and recrystallization dynamics of ice. The ultrafast heating of ice I is induced by an IR laser pulse and probed with an intense x-ray pulse, which provided us with direct structural information on different length scales. From the wide-angle x-ray scattering (WAXS) patterns, the molten fraction, as well as the corresponding temperature at each delay, were determined. The small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) patterns, together with the information extracted from the WAXS analysis, provided the time-dependent change of the size and the number of the liquid domains. The results show partial melting (~13 %) and superheating of ice occurring at around 20 ns. After 100 ns, the average size of the liquid domains grows from about 2.5 nm to 4.5 nm by the coalescence of approximately six adjacent domains. Subsequently, we capture the recrystallization of the liquid domains, which occurs on microsecond timescales due to the cooling by heat dissipation and results to a decrease of the average liquid domain size

School Effects on the Wellbeing of Children and Adolescents

Well-being is a multidimensional construct, with psychological, physical and social components. As theoretical basis to help understand this concept and how it relates to school, we propose the Self-Determination Theory, which contends that self-determined motivation and personality integration, growth and well-being are dependent on a healthy balance of three innate psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness and competence. Thus, current indicators involve school effects on children’s well-being, in many diverse modalities which have been explored. Some are described in this chapter, mainly: the importance of peer relationships; the benefits of friendship; the effects of schools in conjunction with some forms of family influence; the school climate in terms of safety and physical ecology; the relevance of the teacher input; the school goal structure and the implementation of cooperative learning. All these parameters have an influence in promoting optimal functioning among children and increasing their well-being by meeting the above mentioned needs. The empirical support for the importance of schools indicates significant small effects, which often translate into important real-life effects as it is admitted at present. The conclusion is that schools do make a difference in children’s peer relationships and well-being

Differential Maintenance of Cortical and Cancellous Bone Strength Following Discontinuation of Bone-Active Agents

Osteoporotic patients treated with antiresorptive or anabolic agents experience an increase in bone mass and a reduction in incident fractures. However, the effects of these medications on bone quality and strength after a prolonged discontinuation of treatment are not known. We evaluated these effects in an osteoporotic rat model. Six-month-old ovariectomized (OVX) rats were treated with placebo, alendronate (ALN, 2 µg/kg), parathyroid hormone [PTH(1–34); 20 µg/kg], or raloxifene (RAL, 2 mg/kg) three times a week for 4 months and withdrawn from the treatments for 8 months. Treatment with ALN, PTH, and RAL increased the vertebral trabecular bone volume (BV/TV) by 47%, 53%, and 31%, with corresponding increases in vertebral compression load by 27%, 51%, and 31%, respectively (p < .001). The resulting bone strength was similar to that of the sham-OVX control group with ALN and RAL and higher (p < .001) with PTH treatment. After 4 months of withdrawal, bone turnover (BFR/BS) remained suppressed in the ALN group versus the OVX controls (p < .001). The vertebral strength was higher than in the OVX group only in ALN-treated group (p < .05), whereas only the PTH-treated animals showed a higher maximum load in tibial bending versus the OVX controls (p < .05). The vertebral BV/TV returned to the OVX group level in both the PTH and RAL groups 4 months after withdrawal but remained 25% higher than the OVX controls up to 8 months after withdrawal of ALN (p < .05). Interestingly, cortical bone mineral density increased only with PTH treatment (p < .05) but was not different among the experimental groups after withdrawal. At 8 months after treatment withdrawal, none of the treatment groups was different from the OVX control group for cortical or cancellous bone strength. In summary, both ALN and PTH maintained bone strength (maximum load) 4 months after discontinuation of treatment despite changes in bone mass and bone turnover; however, PTH maintained cortical bone strength, whereas ALN maintained cancellous bone strength. Additional studies on the long-term effects on bone strength after discontinuation and with combination of osteoporosis medications are needed to improve our treatment of osteoporosis. © 2011 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research