Practicing Ecological Security and Making Multispecies Relations in Anti-Base Resistance: Insights from Environmental-Oriented Anti-Base Activists in Henoko and Takae struggles in Okinawa

Henoko and Takae are two Okinawan villages entangled in the struggles against militarization of Henoko-Oura Bay and Yanbaru forest, respectively. These struggles highlight the problems associated with the US military bases and operations in relation to environmental justice (EJ), conservation, and ecological security concerns. Focusing on environmental-focused anti-base resistance, my research asks what activities activists engage in and how those activities relate to activists’ understanding of the problems associated with the US military bases in Okinawa. Drawing on in-depth interviews with environmental-oriented anti-base activists and participant observation in protest sites and activist communities, my research explores how activists ascribe meanings to their current resistance activities in Henoko and Takae, particularly direct action interferences, monitoring, and translocal collaborations. My analysis of activists’ perceptions, experiences, and behaviours in these activities contributes to (Critical) EJ and social movement studies (SMS) literatures by highlighting non-western forms of resistance and activists’ interpretation and articulation of their particular approaches. Additionally, informed by assemblage theory, my research investigates how activists interact with human and nonhuman entities in their activism and how those interactions shape activists’ perceptions of their relations with others and their ideas of security. My analysis reveals activists’ exceptional humility to and practice of ecological security from the ways in which they interact with the local community, those on ‘the other side,’ and nonhuman surroundings. My analysis also demonstrates how protest sites become spaces of knowledge production and relationship-building, which challenge the Japanese and US governments’ colonialist, militaristic, and anthropocentric governance and security narratives. Such findings contribute to the theoretical understanding and practical application of assemblage theory, particularly in relation to the SMS and environmental sociology literatures. The activists’ practices of ecological security and multispecies relations in Henoko and Takae can be an exemplar for EJ and other social justice activism

Hyphenation in Present-day English Complex Words: Analysis of Style Manuals and Corpora

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A useful approach to total analysis of RISC-associated RNA

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ACO-Inspired Energy-Aware Routing Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2019, nr 1

Multi-hop networks, such as WSNs, become an object of increasing attention as an emerging technology which plays an important role for practical IoT applications. These multi-hop networks generally consist of mobile and small terminals with limited resources, which makes them vulnerable to various network status changes. Moreover, the limited nature of terminal resources available, especially in terms of battery capacity, is one of the most important issues to be addressed in order to prolong their operating time. In order to ensure efficient communications in such networks, much research has already been conducted, especially in the field of routing and transmission technologies. However, conventional approaches adopted in the routing field still suffer from the so-called energy hole problem, usually caused by unbalanced communication loads existing due to difficulties in adaptive route management. To address this issue, the present paper proposes a novel routing algorithm that utilizes ACO-inspired routing based on residual energy of terminals. Operational evaluation reveals its potential to ensure balanced energy consumption and to boost network performance

External antigen uptake by Langerhans cells with reorganization of epidermal tight junction barriers

Outermost barriers are critical for terrestrial animals to avoid desiccation and to protect their bodies from foreign insults. Mammalian skin consists of two sets of barriers: stratum corneum (SC) and tight junctions (TJs). How acquisition of external antigens (Ags) by epidermal Langerhans cells (LCs) occur despite these barriers has remained unknown. We show that activation-induced LCs elongate their dendrites to penetrate keratinocyte (KC) TJs and survey the extra-TJ environment located outside of the TJ barrier, just beneath the SC. Penetrated dendrites uptake Ags from the tip where Ags colocalize with langerin/Birbeck granules. TJs at KC–KC contacts allow penetration of LC dendrites by dynamically forming new claudin-dependent bicellular- and tricellulin-dependent tricellular TJs at LC–KC contacts, thereby maintaining TJ integrity during Ag uptake. Thus, covertly under keratinized SC barriers, LCs and KCs demonstrate remarkable cooperation that enables LCs to gain access to external Ags that have violated the SC barrier while concomitantly retaining TJ barriers to protect intra-TJ environment

Molecular Epidemiology of Trichophyton tonsurans Strains Isolated in Japan between 2006 and 2010 and Their Susceptibility to Oral Antimycotics

SUMMARY: Trichophyton tonsurans has been isolated among judo practitioners, wrestlers, and sumo wrestlers during an epidemic of tinea corporis and tinea capitis in Japan. A previous study using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the non-transcribed spacer (NTS) region of the ribosomal RNA gene revealed different sources for the causative fungus in epidemics among judo practitioners and among wrestlers. Many different fungal strains have since been isolated from practitioners of these sports. The present study evaluated fungal characteristics of strains newly isolated between July 2006 and December 2010 using this molecular method. PCR-RFLP analysis using MvaI and AvaI was performed on 263 strains, composed of 186 isolates from judo practitioners, 32 from wrestlers, 30 from sumo wrestlers, 5 from other sports, 7 from family members or friends of the sports practitioner patients, and 3 from sporadic (non-epidemic) cases. Four molecular types, NTS I, II, III, and VII were detected. Of these, NTS I was the most predominant, occurring in 243 of 263 strains (92.4z). All of the 30 strains isolated from sumo wrestlers were classified as NTS I, suggesting that the epidemic among sumo wrestlers originated from an earlier epidemic among judo practitioners. Thirteen strains were classified as NTS II; all were related to wrestling and were isolated mainly from the Chubu and Kansai areas in the central part of Honshu island. NTS III was detected in 6 strains, and one strain classified as NTS VII was isolated from a sporadic case of tinea capitis in a Peruvian immigrant. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of terbinafine, itraconazole, fluconazole, and griseofulvin on 10 strains of NTS I and NTS II and 4 strains of NTS III were examined; there were no differences in MIC between these molecular types