“She knows it is all a load of old socks”: Doris Lessing, anti-psychiatry and bodies that matter

In The Golden Notebook (1962), The Four-Gated City (1969) and Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971), Doris Lessing examines the inadequacies of traditional models of madness and replaces them with an anti-psychiatric model. While ostensibly the three novels strive to conceive of madness in terms of R. D. Laing’s anti-psychiatric theories, this paper will argue that they in fact serve to reveal an impasse between Laing’s “lived body” (but gender neutral) theory of schizophrenia and the discursively constructed, “inscribed” bodies of Lessing’s female characters. Lessing’s madness novels deconstruct Laing’s phallocentric approach to schizophrenia by rewriting his theory of madness as a gendered and embodied experience

Silent ischemia: Evaluation by exercise and redistribution tomographic thallium-201 myocardial imaging

AbstractTo compare the amount of myocardium jeopardized during silent ischemia and painful ischemia, 112 consecutive patients undergoing coronary arteriography with ischemia demonstrated by exercise and redistribution tomographic thallium-201 myocardial imaging (SPECT) were divided into two groups: 84 patients without anginal pain (silent ischemia) and 28 with pain (painful ischemia). The SPECT apical, mid and basal ventricular levels of the short-axis view and the apical portion of the long-axis view were divided into 20 segments.The results were 1) 7.4 ± 4.7 ischemic segments in silent ischemia and 7.6 ± 3.7 in painful ischemia (p = NS) with 4.7 ± 3.6 segments in silent ischemia undergoing total redistribution compared with 5.4 ± 3.4 in painful ischemia (p = NS); 2) no difference in the incidence of single, double or triple vessel disease between silent and painful ischemic groups; 3) similar anatomic distribution of ischemic segments between the two groups; 4) more positive exercise electrocardiographic (ECG) changes in painful ischemia (70%) than in silent ischemia (32%) (p < 0.001) with equal amounts of ischemia associated with positive and negative exercise ECG findings.Conclusions: 1) Patients with silent and painful ischemia during exercise have similar amounts of ischemic myocardium demonstrated by tomographic thallium-201 imaging and similar extent of angiographically documented coronary artery disease despite the absence of pain and the lower incidence of positive exercise ECG findings in silent ischemia. 2) Positive and negative exercise ECG findings were associated with similar amounts of ischemic myocardium

Expression of biopterin transporter (BT1) protein in Leishmania

The present work focuses on the growth phase regulated expression of biopterin transporter gene (BT1) from the LD1 locus on chromosome 35 of Leishmania donovani. Antiserum against recombinant BT1 detected a polypeptide of 45 kDa of equal intensity at lag, log and stationary phases of promastigote growth, both in L. donovani strain LSB-7.1 (MHOM/BL/67/ITMAP263), and strain LSB-146.1 (HOM/IR/95/X81), a natural isolate from Isfehan, Iran that caused cutaneous leishmaniasis. However, in both these strains an additional polypeptide of higher molecular mass (50 kDa) was also observed during lag phase only. In addition, polypeptides of 40, 20, 18 and 16 kDa were seen only during the lag and log phases of both strains. Analysis of L. donovani single, double and triple (null) BT1 knockout mutants confirmed that the 45-kDa polypeptide was the BT1 gene product, as it was absent in the null mutant. These results indicate that 45-kDa BT1 protein in Leishmania is consistently and constitutively expressed in all the growth stages of the parasite

Role of biopterin transporter (BT1) gene on growth and infectivity of Leishmania

Leishmania are known to be auxotrophic for pteridines that are known to play a critical role in the parasites survival. In the present work the role of biopterin transporter in the growth of the parasite and infectivity in to macrophages has been worked out. The role of biopterin transporter in the susceptibility of Leishmania to antimonial compounds has also been demonstrated. This role has been verified by using attenuated strains of Leishmania with single, double, and triple (null) biopterin (BT1) mutants made by targeted gene replacement with specific antibiotic markers. Growth analysis of these mutants revealed that wild type, single and double knock out cell lines maintained high growth rates in the medium supplemented with biopterin and folate, whereas the triple knock out or null BT1 mutants were unable to grow in the absence of supplemental biopterin. Using wild type and null BT1 mutants, we examined the role of BT1 gene in infectivity and parasite survival. The cell lines with amplified BT1 gene showed increased infectivity and survival in the macrophages where as the cell lines with disrupted BT1 gene showed reduced infectivity and survival in the macrophages. We also examined the interaction between pteridine and antimonial compounds using recombinant Leishmania strains with reduced or absent biopterin transporter gene (BT1) alleles. No difference in susceptibility to Pentostam or Glucantime was observed in both wild type and BT1-knock out strains. However, pterin or folate supplementation resulted in reversal of Glucantime but not Pentostam susceptibility in both wild type and BT1-knock out strains. The reversal of Glucantime susceptibility by pterins in BT1-knock out strains suggests that the effect may be exerted independently of biopterin transporter, possibly by blocking Glucantime uptake

Micromechanical finite element analyses of fire retardant woven fabric composites at elevated temperatures using unit cells at multiple length scales

This paper presents a micromechanical Finite Element (FE) model developed to predict the effective mechanical properties of glass fibre-reinforced (woven fabric) polymer composites with/without fire retardant particulate additives at elevated temperatures. The elevated mechanical properties of glass fibre-reinforced epoxy composites with/without fire retardants were predicted using three unit cells of varying length scales in micromechanical FE analysis. Theoretically predictions of flexural behaviour of these fibre-reinforced polymer composites at elevated temperatures were satisfactorily validated against experimentally measured data. The numerical model developed herein was then used for the prediction of other mechanical properties of fibre-reinforced polymer composites that would have been difficult to collect at elevated temperatures. Micromechanical FE models such as the one contained in this paper are useful to architectural engineers as they can be used to guide the design and qualification of new engineering composites that satisfy stringent Building codes in fire prone engineering applications

Serodiagnosis of leishmaniasis with recombinant ORFF antigen

The serodiagnostic potential of recombinant ORFF protein (rORFF) from Leishmania infantum was assessed by ELISA. Of 49 sera from confirmed cases of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), all were seropositive using 5 ng of rORFF and serum diluted 1:20, while only 38 were positive with 500 ng of soluble antigen (SA) and 44 were positive by a direct agglutination test. There was also a positive correlation between spleen size and level of seropositivity with rORFF or SA. The reciprocal endpoint titer with rORFF was 1,280 for sera from VL patients, but &lt; 20 with sera from malaria, filariasis, and tuberculosis patients, as well as with sera from healthy individuals from endemic and non-endemic areas. Sera from 10 confirmed cutaneous leishmaniasis cases from Turkey were negative or only weakly positive with rORFF although 9 were positive with SA. Thus, rORFF protein appears useful as a sensitive reagent for the differential diagnosis of VL caused by the Leishmania donovani complex

Ab-initio calculations of the optical properties of the Si(113)3x2ADI surface

We investigated the stable silicon (113) surface with a 3x2ADI reconstruction by ab-initio methods. The ground state properties have been obtained using the density-functional theory. We present the dispersion of the electronic band structure, where the surface bands have been distinguished from the projected bulk bands by calculating their localization in the slab. The optical spectra, here the reflectance anisotropy (RAS), have been obtained within the independent particle random phase approximation. We identified surface features in the spectra tracing them back to the responsible electronic states and, studied their localization in the slab. A comparison with available experimental data for the band structure and the RAS shows a good agreement.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

The Leishmania donovani LD1 locus gene ORFG encodes a biopterin transporter (BT1)

We have previously described two genes, ORFF and ORFG, from the LD1 locus near one telomere of chromosome 35, which are frequently amplified in Leishmania isolates. In Leishmania donovani LSB-51.1, gene conversion of the rRNA gene locus on chromosome 27 with these two genes resulted in their over-expression, because of their transcription by the RNA polymerase I-mediated rRNA promoter. The predicted ORFG protein has substantial sequence homology to the ESAG10 gene product from the Trypanosoma brucei VSG expression site and both are putative membrane proteins. Using successive rounds of gene replacement of the three ORFG genes in L. donovani LSB-51.1, ORFG null mutants were obtained. These mutant cell lines show a direct relationship between ORFG mRNA, protein expression levels and active transport of biopterin into the cells. Transformation of the null mutant with a plasmid containing ORFG restores biopterin transport activity. In addition, the null mutants are unable to grow in the absence of supplemental biopterin. Thus, ORFG encodes a biopterin transporter and has been renamed BT1

Being more human: rooting learning analytics through resistance and reconnection with the values of higher education

Universities are now compelled to attend to metrics that (re)shape our conceptualisation of the student experience. New technologies such as learning analytics (LA) promise the ability to target personalised support to profiled ‘at risk’ students through mapping large-scale historic student engagement data such as attendance, library use, and virtual learning environment activity as well as demographic information and typical student outcomes. Yet serious ethical and implementation issues remain. Data-driven labelling of students as ‘high risk’, ‘hard to reach’ or ‘vulnerable’ creates conflict between promoting personal growth and human flourishing and treating people merely as data points. This article argues that universities must resist the assumption that numbers and algorithms alone can solve the ‘problem’ of student retention and performance; rather, LA work must be underpinned by a reconnection with the agreed values relating to the purpose of higher education, including democratic engagement, recognition of diverse and individual experience, and processes of becoming. Such a reconnection, this article contends, is possible when LA work is designed and implemented in genuine collaboration and partnership with students

Towards the Construction of Expressed Proteomes Using a Leishmania tarentolae Based Cell-Free Expression System

The adaptation of organisms to a parasitic life style is often accompanied by the emergence of novel biochemical pathways absent in free-living organisms. As a result, the genomes of specialized parasitic organisms often code for a large number (>50%) of proteins with no detectable homology or predictable function. Although understanding the biochemical properties of these proteins and their roles in parasite biogenesis is the next challenge of molecular parasitology, analysis tools developed for free-living organisms are often inadequate for this purpose. Here we attempt to solve some of these problems by developing a methodology for the rapid production of expressed proteomes in cell-free systems based on parasitic organisms. To do so we take advantage of Species Independent Translational Sequences (SITS), which can efficiently mediate translation initiation in any organism. Using these sequences we developed a single-tube in vitro translation system based on the parasitic protozoan Leishmania tarentolae. We demonstrate that the system can be primed directly with SITS containing templates constructed by overlap extension PCR. To test the systems we simultaneously amplified 31 of L. tarentolae's putative translation initiation factors and phosphatases directly from the genomic DNA and subjected them to expression, purification and activity analysis. All of the amplified products produced soluble recombinant proteins, and putative phosphatases could be purified to at least 50% purity in one step. We further compared the ability of L. tarentolae and E. coli based cell-free systems to express a set of mammalian, L. tarentolae and Plasmodium falciparum Rab GTPases in functional form. We demonstrate that the L. tarentolae cell-free system consistently produced higher quality proteins than E. coli-based system. The differences were particularly pronounced in the case of open reading frames derived from P. falciparum. The implications of these developments are discussed