A cytoplasmic peptide of the neurotrophin receptor p75NTR: induction of apoptosis and NMR determined helical conformation

AbstractThe neurotrophin receptor (NTR) and tumor necrosis factor receptor family of receptors regulate apoptotic cell death during development and in adult tissues [Beutler and van Huffel, Science 264 (1994) 667–668]. We have examined a fragment of p75NTR from the carboxyl terminus of the receptor and a variant form of this peptide via NMR techniques and in vitro assays for apoptotic activity. The wild type peptide induces apoptosis and adopts a helical conformation oriented parallel to the surface of lipid micelles, whereas the variant form adopts a non-helical conformation in the presence of lipid and shows no activity. These experiments suggest a link between structure and function of the two peptides

Discourse and identity in a corpus of lesbian erotica

This article uses corpus linguistic methodologies to explore representations of lesbian desires and identities in a corpus of lesbian erotica from the 1980s and 1990s. We provide a critical examination of the ways in which “lesbian gender,” power, and desire are represented, (re-)produced, and enacted, often in ways that challenge hegemonic discourses of gender and sexuality. By examining word frequencies and collocations, we critically analyze some of the themes, processes, and patterns of representation in the texts. Although rooted in linguistics, we hope this article provides an accessible, interdisciplinary, and timely contribution toward developing understandings of discursive practices surrounding gender and sexuality

Sex positivity and the persistence of shame

This essay considers how we make sense of the persistence of shame in the 20th anniversary year of Sexualities and a broader contemporary context in which the discourse of sex positivity has become predominant? This is an important moment in the development of the field to consider the status of sexual shame, not least because the discourse of sex positivity produces a call to action predicated on a repudiation of shame; shame as regressive, ignorant, reactionary and politically suspect

Young girls embodied experiences of femininity and social class

Based on research with middle-upper class 12-13 year old school girls, we discuss how femininities were embodied and discursively reconstructed in class-based ways. The data suggests the girls understood class antagonisms within the boundaries of neoliberal discourses of responsibilisation, self-discipline, self-worth, and ‘proper’ conduct and choices. With class stripped of any structural or structuring properties, instead imparted to the fleshy sinews of the (excessive) body, the data reveals how social class was made visible and manifest in various mechanisms of, and meanings about, inclusion, exclusion, pathology and ‘normalisation.’ Thus, in explicating the ways in which the school girls embodied middle-class femininity (as the epitome of localised and everyday neoliberalism) we highlight how, in turn, ‘others’ (‘chavs’) were pathologised and deemed in need of regulation, management and governance

‘I don’t know what gender is, but I do, and I can, and we all do’: an interview with Clare Hemmings

What follows is an interview with Clare Hemmings, Professor of Feminist Theory and Head of the Department of Gender Studies at the London School of Economics. A leading figure in UK feminist theory, her research insists that we acknowledge matters of ambivalence and uncertainty in our history-making, storytelling and theorising. As such, it contributes to and has productively intervened in many fields, including feminist epistemology, affect theory, historiography and sexuality studies. Beginning with her first book, Bisexual Spaces: A Geography of Sexuality and Gender (2002), continuing in Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar of Feminist Theory (2011), and most overtly in Considering Emma Goldman: Feminist Political Ambivalence and the Imaginative Archive (2018), Hemmings interrogates and challenges dominant modes and expressions of gender and sexuality from a feminist positionality that is itself under-theorised and rarely articulated: that of a feminine bisexual woman. As Hemmings notes, bisexual positionality encompasses the affective capacity for a ‘combination of heterosexual and homosexual desire’ (Hemmings, 2002a; 2002b: 17) and thus generates ‘radical reconfigurations’ (Hemmings, 2002b: 197) of our understanding of the relations between gender, sex and desire. Yet bisexuality has been repeatedly reproduced, within both feminist and queer theory, ‘as an abstract and curiously lifeless middle. As a lesbian and feminist who has occupied that supposedly ‘lifeless middle ground’, albeit differently (I have had two long-term relationships, one with a man, one with a woman), I was interested in speaking with Clare about these issues, and was compelled to do so after I attended an event that she co-organised at the London School of Economics, a screening of Sylvie Tissot’s film about the French feminist Christine Delphy that included Delphy herself. As soon as Delphy entered the theatre and began walking down the stairs to the podium, the audience burst spontaneously into a standing ovation and long applause: '[T]his moment involved both a shared jouissance and the returning of haunting conflicts within feminism – conflicts that we wish had been resolved long ago –because it entailed both exhilarating and dissonant affects, it became a sort of feminist moment par excellence, a moment where solidarity is never exempted from the (re)emergence of disagreements, and where the fantasy of a collective fusion becomes the condition for those conflicts to emerge' (Eloit in Delphy et al., 2016: 151). Delphy’s presence, and the film about her, reminded me that (1) feminist thinkers from the 1970s and 1980s were extraordinarily sophisticated in their understanding of how gender constitutes us as men and women; (2) this analysis is still mostly absent from public conversations; and (3) we still long for such conversations. My interview with Clare Hemmings is thus a continuation of this moment of shared jouissance and haunting. It was conducted informally, in 2017, in Clare’s office, in what was then the Gender Institute, in Columbia House at the LSE. For over 90 minutes during a grey afternoon in London, we spoke on a range of topics, from Clare’s intellectual history to her (then) forthcoming book on Emma Goldman. We discussed her background as a poststructuralist theorist who also carries out empirical research and the challenge of studying sexuality in the archive. In the portion of the interview that appears below, we talk in detail about Clare’s early work on bisexuality and how her thinking contributes to theorising gender in the present

School toilets : queer, disabled bodies and gendered lessons of embodiment

In this paper we argue that school toilets function as one civilising site (Elias, 1978) in which children learn that disabled and queer bodies are out of place. This paper is the first to offer queer and crip perspectives on school toilets. The small body of existing school toilet literature generally works from a normative position which implicitly perpetuates dominant and oppressive ideals. We draw on data from Around the Toilet, a collaborative research project with queer, trans and disabled people (aroundthetoilet.wordpress.com) to critically interrogate this work. In doing this we consider ‘toilet training’ as a form of ‘civilisation’, that teaches lessons around identity, embodiment and ab/normal ways of being in the world. Furthermore, we show that ‘toilet training’ continues into adulthood, albeit in ways that are less easily identifiable than in the early years. We therefore call for a more critical, inclusive, and transformative approach to school toilet research

The toilet debate: stalling trans possibilities and defending ‘women's protected spaces’

As one of the few explicitly gender-separated spaces, the toilet has become a prominent site of conflict and a focal point for ‘gender-critical’ feminism. In this article we draw upon an AHRC-funded project, Around the Toilet, to reflect upon and critique trans-exclusionary and trans-hostile narratives of toilet spaces. Such narratives include ciscentric, heteronormative and gender essentialist positions within toilet research and activism which, for example, equate certain actions and bodily functions (such as menstruation) to a particular gender, decry the need for all-gender toilets, and cast suspicion upon the intentions of trans women in public toilet spaces. These include explicitly transmisogynist discourses perpetuated largely by those calling themselves ‘gender-critical’ feminists, but also extend to national media, right-wing populist discourses and beyond. We use Around the Toilet data to argue that access to safe and comfortable toilets plays a fundamental role in making trans lives possible. Furthermore, we contend that – whether naive, ignorant or explicitly transphobic – trans-exclusionary positions do little to improve toilet access for the majority, instead putting trans people, and others with visible markers of gender difference, at a greater risk of violence, and participating in the dangerous homogenisation of womanhood

Neotectonics of the SW Iberia margin, Gulf of Cadiz and Alboran Sea: a reassessment including recent structural, seismic and geodetic data

We use a thin-shell approximation for the lithosphere to model the neotectonics of the Gulf of Cadiz, SW Iberia margin and the westernmost Mediterranean, in the eastern segment of the Azores-Gibraltar plate boundary. In relation to previous neotectonic models in the region, we utilize a better constrained structural map offshore, and the recent GPS measurements over NW Africa and Iberia have been taken into account, together with the seismic strain rate and stress data, to evaluate alternative geodynamic settings proposed for the region. We show that by assuming a relatively simple, two-plate tectonic framework, where Nubia and Eurasia converge NW-SE to WNW-ESE at a rate of 4.5-6 mm yr-1, the models correctly predict the amount of shortening and wrenching between northern Algeria-Morocco and southern Spain and between NW Morocco and SW Iberia, as estimated from both GPS data and geological constraints. The consistency between modelled and observed velocities in the vicinity of Gibraltar and NW Morocco indicates that forcing by slab sinking beneath Gibraltar is not required to reproduce current horizontal deformation in these areas. In the Gulf of Cadiz and SW Iberia, the modelling results support a diffuse Nubia-Eurasia Plate boundary, where the convergence is accommodated along NNE-SSW to NE-SW and ENE-WSW thrust faults and WNW-ESE right-lateral strike-slip faults, over an area >200 km wide, in good general agreement with the distribution of the seismic strain rate and associated faulting mechanisms. The modelling results are robust to regional uncertainties in the structure of the lithosphere and have important implications for the earthquake and tsunami hazard of Portugal, SW Spain and Morocco. We predict maximum, long-term average fault slip rates between 1-2 mm yr-1, that is, less than 50 per cent the average plate relative movement, suggesting very long return periods for high-magnitude (Mw > 8) earthquakes on individual structures.publishe

Safety in home care: A research protocol for studying medication management

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patient safety is an ongoing global priority, with medication safety considered a prevalent, high-risk area of concern. Yet, we have little understanding of the supports and barriers to safe medication management in the Canadian home care environment. There is a clear need to engage the providers and recipients of care in studying and improving medication safety with collaborative approaches to exploring the nature and safety of medication management in home care.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A socio-ecological perspective on health and health systems drives our iterative qualitative study on medication safety with elderly home care clients, family members and other informal caregivers, and home care providers. As we purposively sample across four Canadian provinces: Alberta (AB), Ontario (ON), Quebec (QC) and Nova Scotia (NS), we will collect textual and visual data through home-based interviews, participant-led photo walkabouts of the home, and photo elicitation sessions at clients' kitchen tables. Using successive rounds of interpretive description and human factors engineering analyses, we will generate robust descriptions of managing medication at home within each provincial sample and across the four-province group. We will validate our initial interpretations through photo elicitation focus groups with home care providers in each province to develop a refined description of the phenomenon that can inform future decision-making, quality improvement efforts, and research.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The application of interpretive and human factors lenses to the visual and textual data is expected to yield findings that advance our understanding of the issues, challenges, and risk-mitigating strategies related to medication safety in home care. The images are powerful knowledge translation tools for sharing what we learn with participants, decision makers, other healthcare audiences, and the public. In addition, participants engage in knowledge exchange throughout the study with the use of participatory data collection methods.</p