Asian migrant writers in Australia and the negotiation of the third space

This thesis is a comparative study of three selected texts by Australian novelistsYasmine Gooneratne, A Change of Skies,(1991) Adib Khan, SeasonalAdjustments (1994) and Brian Castro, Birds of Passage ((1983). All three writersexplore the experiences and perceptions of their protagonists in relating to thelandscape, people and cultural traditions within the Australian context into whichthey have migrated from different Asian countries. Brian Castro’s centralcharacters, Lo Yun Shan and Seamus O’Young, are drawn from two contexts, theformer from the 19th century China while the latter is a contemporary Australianborn Chinese. Gooneratne’s and Khan’s protagonists hail from South-East Asiancontexts, which are again interestingly different, Gooneratne’s character beingfrom Sri Lanka and Khan’s from Bangladesh. From the multiplicity of culturesfrom which these texts emerge with their inevitable movements of theprotagonists between the originary and adoptive homes, there seems to be areaching towards a necessary ‘inter’ space, what Homi Bhabha calls the ‘ThirdSpace.’ In terms of perception of identity and belonging this borderline positionwould appear to be crucial to the diasporic condition. (1994, p. 53) While thisstudy explores the problematics, accommodations, resolutions and synergiesinvolved in the experience of negotiating this liminal space and living whatRushdie calls a ‘translated’ existence, (1991, p. 17) the focus is on particularprocesses crucial to that translation. My study will suggest that the arrival at the ‘Third Space’ is represented neitheras a benign experience of adaptation to a different sense of home nor a sense ofbeing relegated to a state of permanent loss and alienation. Rather it will beapparent that the migrant experience is more mosaic than formulaic resisting neatdefinitions of movement from an initial sense of estrangement from the hostnation to accommodation and assimilation within the new society. It seems thateach individual character is poised on different and differing configurations ofcultural allegiances and identities within the’ Third Space’. The representationand perception of the’ Third Space’ ‘in relation to the performance of identity as iteration and the recreation of self…[particularly in terms of] the desire forrecognition’ (Bhabha, 2004, p.12) appears more diverse than originally envisagedby Bhabha. There appears to be a plurality of articulations within thisformulation, suggesting it is not a single, homogenous in-between space but aconstellation of ‘Third Spaces’, fluid and changing, overriding the possibility of a‘happy hybridity’ which, in any case. most theorists in the field find an untenableconcept. The tracing of this highly complex . inter-related and entangled plethoraof experiences which constitute the fate of the migrant will be explored in depthand detail in this thesis. Finally, no arrival at certain certainties is promised at itsconclusion; only, possibly, a heightening of awareness, an expansion ofunderstanding.. This provides an opportunity to revisit, indeed to rethink thecomplexities of migrant experience as not only transcending dichotomies ofinsider/outsider, belonging/alterity which are encoded in the narrative of a nation,while simultaneously affirming the processes of hybridity as crucial to theformation of a ‘double selved’ identity

GENETICS OF OBESITY IN STARR COUNTY, TEXAS MEXICAN AMERICANS

Currently, over two-thirds of Americans are classified as over-weight or obese. Obesity increases risk for many other diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer, making obesity the largest public health problem in America and most other Westernized nations. Hispanics have a higher rate of both obesity and type 2 diabetes, making them a particularly interesting population in which to study obesity. For the last 33 years, the Starr County Health Studies has collected an array of phenotypes and biological samples from residents of Starr County, along Texas-Mexico border. This study includes 825 subjects who were not known to have diabetes at ascertainment. These subjects have now been seen a second time, on average 8.5 years later. At both visits we measured several aspects of obesity including BMI, bioimpedance to estimate percent body fat, and waist, hip, and arm circumferences. By using multivariate approaches to leverage the array of obesity measures, we have better captured both the amount of adipose tissue and the location of fat deposits. To assess association of obesity related traits with genetic variation from both genome-wide array data imputed to 1000 Genomes Phase 1 integrated dataset and exome sequencing, both gene-based and single variant tests were conducted. Through these single variant tests, we identified an association with waist to hip ratio and low frequency variants, in two adjacent GABA receptor subunit genes, GABRB2 and GABRA6, including a nonsynonymous variant in GABRA6. Additional associations include an association with a composite measure of adiposity that encompasses degree of adiposity and location of excess fat above or below the waist and TREK1, a gene responsible for trafficking the GABAA receptor to the cell membrane. Gene based tests of rare variants yielded associations between central versus peripheral adiposity and ACSL1, a gene involved in triglyceride biosynthesis. Further replication is required to confirm these associations. While the importance of neuronal signaling pathways in body fat distribution has long been known, many aspects of these pathways are poorly understood. Better understanding of these pathways may identify potential pharmaceutical targets

Wire scanners in low energy accelerators

Fast wire scanners are today considered as part of standard instrumentation in high energy synchrotrons. The extension of their use to synchrotrons working at lower energies, where Coulomb scattering can be important and the transverse beam size is large, introduces new complications considering beam heating of the wire, composition of the secondary particle shower and geometrical consideration in the detection set-up. A major problem in treating these effects is that the creation of secondaries in a thin carbon wire by a energetic primary beam is difficult to describe in an analytical way. We are here presenting new results from a full Monte Carlo simulation of this process yielding information on heat deposited in the wire, particle type and energy spectrum of secondaries and angular dependence as a function of primary beam energy. The results are used to derive limits for the use of wire scanners in low energy accelerators.Comment: 20 pages, 8 Postscript figures, uses elsart.cl

The PPARγ Agonist Rosiglitazone Is Antifibrotic for Scleroderma Lung Fibroblasts: Mechanisms of Action and Differential Racial Effects

We present novel data demonstrating that the expression of PPARγ is reduced in lung fibroblasts from black SSc-ILD patients as compared to white patients. Activating PPARγ with the agonist rosiglitazone increased the expression of MMP-1 and inhibited collagen type I in lung fibroblasts isolated from white, but not black, SSc-ILD patients. Blocking the c-Met receptor abolishes rosiglitazone's effects on collagen and MMP-1 in lung fibroblasts isolated from white SSc-ILD patients, while augmenting the expression of the c-Met receptor in fibroblasts from black SSc-ILD patients replicates the effects of rosiglitazone seen in whites. We conclude that PPARγ agonists warrant consideration as potential antifibrotic drugs in patients with SSc-ILD. Differential therapeutic effects might be anticipated especially relative to racial differences and the functional expression of the c-Met receptor

Impact of lung function and baseline clinical characteristics on patient-reported outcome measures in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease.

OBJECTIVE: The SENSCIS® trial demonstrated a significant reduction of lung function decline in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc)-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) treated with nintedanib, but no significant effect on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). To assess whether SSc/SSc-ILD severity and large changes in lung function correlate with HRQoL, a post-hoc analysis of SENSCIS®, aggregating treatment arms, was undertaken. METHODS: Patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures (St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire [SGRQ], Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy [FACIT]-Dyspnoea, and Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index [HAQ-DI], incorporating the Scleroderma Health Assessment Questionnaire visual analogue scale [SHAQ VAS]) at baseline and week 52 were assessed for associations to SSc-ILD severity. RESULTS: At baseline and at week 52, forced vital capacity (FVC) 30% fibrosis on high-resolution computed tomography at baseline demonstrated worse PRO measure scores at week 52. After 1 year, patients with a major (>10%) improvement/worsening in FVC demonstrated corresponding improvement/worsening in SGRQ and other PRO measures, significant for the SGRQ symptom domain (p< 0.001). CONCLUSION: Severe SSc-ILD and major deteriorations in lung function have important impacts on HRQoL. Treatments that slow lung function decline and prevent severe SSc-ILD are important to preserve HRQoL. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov, www.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02597933