Beyond the ‘other’ as constitutive outside: : The politics of immunity in Roberto Esposito and Niklas Luhmann

This article re-conceptualises the ‘constitutive outside’ through Roberto Esposito’s theory of immunity to detach it from Laclau and Mouffe’s political antagonism. It identifies Esposito’s thought as an innovative epistemological perspective to dissolve post-ontological political theories of community from the intertwinement with a foundational self/other dialectic. Esposito shows how a community can sustain its relations through introversive immunisation against a primarily undefined outside. But it is argued that his theory of immunity slips back to a vitalist depth ontology which ultimately de-politicises the construction of the communal outside. This article draws on Niklas Luhmann’s immunity theory to resituate immunisation in the political production of social connectivity. Following Luhmann, politics relies on immunisation through contradictions to reproduce its functional role as a decision-making institution, but is at the same time constantly exposed to potential rupture through the political openness immunity introduces. Through Esposito and Luhmann, this article identifies the relationship between a social inside and its outside as open-ended and secondary to an introversive process of socio-political self-differentiation. It can involve, but does epistemologically necessitate, the construction of an external otherPeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Was the EU Crisis the elephant in the Room? Revisiting Angela Merkel’s victory in the German elections

While debates about the possibilities and conditions necessary to form a new German government are still ongoing amongst the different political parties, the general election result appears indisputable. Chancellor Angela Merkel was confirmed as Germany’s unchallenged conservative leader – her unaltered popularity seems to belie all political criticism. The public perception of Merkel’s EU crisis management likely explains this support. Engaging in a political strategy which satisfied both conservative and centre-left voters, I argue that Merkel managed to establish a reputation as reliable crisis-manager which underpinned her election success

The Library in Literature

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College

Pop, Lock, and Bach it/ The Places I\u27ve Been

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College

Einfluss von Elektromyostimulationstraining und proteinreicher Ernährung auf gastrointestinale Tumorpatienten in palliativer und kurativer Behandlungssituation

Background and Objective: There are multiple clinical trials that prove the effect of physical exercise on muscular strength, Quality of life and prognosis of cancer patients. So far there is a lack of standardized recommendations concerning modality and setting especially for patients with advanced cancer under comprehension of the nutritional status. From the view of patients themselves, as well as with regard to the growing number of long-term survivors still undergoing antineoplastic therapy, integrated programs of supportive care are needed. Aim of this study was to investigate the effect of an Electrical Myostimulation training (EMS) on parameters as quality of life, performance-status and body composition in comparison of cancer patients to a control group under optimized nutritional intake particularly protein. Methods: 75 patients with gastrointestinal cancer from the Medical Department 1 of the University Hospital Erlangen were split in treatment group (n=46), that participated in the EMS-training and control group (n=29), who was treated according the clinical routine. The EMS-group performed the training twice weekly for 20 minutes in a period of 12 weeks. Both groups received nutritional therapy by the nutrition department of the University Hospital Erlangen. Primary endpoints were muscle mass and phase angle, measured by bioelectrical impedance analysis, hand grip strength (by hand grip dynamometer), 6-Minute-Walking-Test and Performance-Status (ECOG/KPS). Secondary endpoints as quality of life, Fatigue and symptoms of depression were collected by means of questionnaires (EORTC QLQ-C30, FACIT-F, BDI). Results: Compliance to the training sessions was 88,3%. Performance-Status (ECOG p=0,002/KPS p=0,019), emotional functioning (p=0,046) and 6MWT (p=0,0021) improved significantly in comparison to the control group. Within the EMS group there were significant changes in the NRS (p=0,003), Handkraft (r=0,0017; l=0,0012) und BDI, (p=0,0367) that were not significant anymore comparing to the control group. The increase of the skeletal muscle mass (EMS: +0,27kg ± 1,78, vs KG: -0,39 ± 1,58) was not significant; phase angles, FACIT-F and most items of the EORTC QLQ-C30 did not show significant changes. The nutritional counselling resulted in suitable intake of calories and protein. Conclusion: EMS-training improved performance-status, quality of life and endurance. The rates of compliance to the training attest a high acceptance and make it suitable and feasible for patients with advanced cancer.Hintergrund und Ziele: Es existieren bereits Studien, die die Auswirkungen körperlicher Aktivität auf Muskelkraft, Lebensqualität und Prognose bei Tumorpatienten belegen. Bisher bestehen jedoch keine standardisierten Empfehlungen zu Modalität und Setting - insbesondere bei Patienten in fortgeschrittener Krankheitssituation unter Einbeziehung des Ernährungsstatus. Sowohl aus Patientensicht, als auch im Hinblick auf Langzeitüberlebende unter laufender Therapie, bedarf es hier ganzheitlicher Angebote der Supportivtherapie. Ziel dieser Studie war, den Einfluss von WB-EMS (=Whole-Body-Elektromyostimulation) auf Parameter der Lebensqualität, des Performance-Status und der Körperzusammensetzung im Vergleich zu einer Kontrollgruppe unter Optimierung der Gesamtkalorien- und Proteinzufuhr zu untersuchen. Setting und Methoden: 75 Patienten mit gastrointestinalen Tumorerkrankungen der Medizinischen Klinik 1 des Universitätsklinikums Erlangen wurden in eine EMS- (n=46) und eine Kontrollgruppe (n=29) aufgeteilt, die gemäß der klinischen Routine betreut wurden. Die EMS-Gruppe erhielt zweimal wöchentlich über 12 Wochen ein 20-minütiges EMS-Training; beide Gruppen erhielten eine individuelle ernährungstherapeutische Betreuung. Primäre Endpunkte waren Muskelmasse und Phasenwinkel, erfasst durch bioelektrische Impedanzanalyse, Handkraft (gemessen mit Handkraft-Dynamometer), 6-Minuten-Gehtest (= 6MWT) und Performance-Status (ECOG=Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group/KPS=Karnofsky Performance Status). Sekundäre Endpunkte wie Lebensqualität, Fatigue und Depressionssymptome wurden anhand von Fragebögen erfasst (EORTC-QLQ C30 (= European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of life – Questionnaire, FACIT-F (= Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy), BDI (= Beck-DepressionsInventar)). Die ernährungsmedizinische Betreuung erfolgte durch das Ernährungsteam der Medizinischen Klinik 1. Ergebnisse und Beobachtungen: Die Trainingsadhärenz lag bei 88,3%. In der EMS-Gruppe verbesserte sich der Performance-Status (ECOG p=0,002/KPS p=0,019), das Emotional Functioning (p=0,046) und der 6MWT (p=0,0021) im Vergleich zur Kontrollgruppe. Im Innergruppenvergleich zeigte die EMS-Gruppe im Nutritional Risk screening (=NRS) (p=0,003), Handkraft (r=0,0017; l=0,0012) und BDI (p=0,0367) signifikante Verbesserungen, die im Vergleich mit der KG nicht signifikant waren. Die Zunahme der Skelettmuskelmasse (EMS: +0,27 kg ± 1,78, vs KG: -0,39 ± 1,58) war nicht signifikant; Phasenwinkel, FACIT-F und die meisten Items des EORTC QLQ-C30 veränderten sich nicht signifikant. Durch die Ernährungsintervention konnte eine adäquate Gesamtkalorien- und Proteinaufnahme gewährleistet werden. Schlussfolgerung: EMS-Training verbesserte den Performance-Status, Parameter der Lebensqualität und Leistungsfähigkeit. Die hohe Trainingsadhärenz bescheinigt dem EMS-Training eine hohe Akzeptanz von Seiten der Patienten

Making Sense, Making Politics: Towards a Political Theory of Sense with Gilles Deleuze and Niklas Luhmann

This dissertation develops a political theory of sense against the background of a synthetic reading of Gilles Deleuze's post-structuralist philosophy and Niklas Luhmann's sociological systems theory. The aim of this exploratory theoretical project is two-fold: firstly, it seeks to provide an innovative "third way" perspective on onto-epistemological genesis designed to escape the ontological aporias of the linguistic turn and those of the new materialisms by identifying the production of the world as it can be made sense of as ungrounded and relationally immanent. Secondly, this perspective is to be made productive to analyse the functionality of contemporary politics. The arguments developed in this dissertation are grounded in and unfold from a conceptualisation of sense as an ungrounded, self-productive relationality which is always already composed of the creative singularities of both matter and signs. Having established the synthetic quality of productive sense in Deleuze and Luhmann by retracing their respective uses of Leibniz's monadology, I suggest that this conception of sense allows both thinkers to subvert any strong notion of ontological foundationalism in favour of thinking onto-epistemological genesis as relationally self-grounding. Through Husserl and Nietzsche, on whom both Luhmann and Deleuze draw as philosophical sources of inspiration, I explore how sense is grounded in nothing but relations of time. These relations of time, on their part, also operate self-productively, relying on the eternal return of the event as a moment of rupture to transform circular time into a contingent, but continuous flow of past-future lines. While conditioned by its necessary position within the process of onto-epistemological production, Deleuze's and Luhmann's Whiteheadian event is yet a moment of creative complexity in which a particular future is opened in the relational nexus of sense. Against this background, the relationally emergent decision which selectively continues a particular line of sense in the eternally returning evental rupture is identified as the operational hinge of a contemporary politics whose legitimacy is no longer based on effective steering power, but rather on the provision of self-observations in sense for society as a whole. It is argued that politics is tied to evental multiplicity in a double-bind: it needs the former to reproduce itself in the decision on the continuation of sense but it must also keep its threatening complexity at bay in order to make this decision possible in the first place. Understood as the operational logic of contemporary institutional-democratic politics, I show how self-productive, recuperative sense-making functions in a way which not only mirrors the functionality of but is also socio-historically intertwined with the rise of capital identified as a mode of social relationality with Marx. Against this background, the proposed political theory of sense firstly makes it possible to critically unpack how the recuperative autopoiesis of a politics of sense functions through complexity-reducing forms such as the crisis. But it secondly also identifies the socio-politically conditioned sense-event as a realm of immanent openness which can be accessed and employed to actualise a different sense of the world

Control Of Thermogenesis By Nuclear Receptor Corepressors And Rev-Erbs In Brown Adipose Tissue

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a key thermogenic organ, whose expression of Uncoupling Protein 1 (UCP1) and ability to maintain body temperature in response to acute cold exposure requires histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3). HDAC3 exists in tight association with nuclear receptor corepressors NCoR1 and NCoR2 (also known as Silencing Mediator of Retinoid and Thyroid Receptors, or SMRT), but the functions of NCoR1/2 in BAT have not been established. This corepressor complex of HDAC3 and NCoR1/2 can interact with a variety of nuclear receptors, including REV-ERBa/b which are related nuclear receptors (NRs) that couple the molecular clock with metabolism. Here we report that, as expected, genetic loss of NCoR1/2 in BAT (NCoR1/2 BAT-dKO) leads to loss of HDAC3 activity. In addition, HDAC3 is no longer bound at its physiological genomic sites in the absence of NCoR1/2, leading to a shared deregulation of BAT lipid metabolism between the NCoR1/2 BAT-dKO and HDAC3 BAT KO mice. Despite these commonalities, however, loss of NCoR1/2 in BAT does not phenocopy the cold sensitivity observed in the HDAC3 BAT-KO, nor does loss of either corepressor alone. Instead, BAT lacking NCoR1/2 is inflamed, particularly with respect to the IL-17 axis that increases thermogenic capacity by enhancing innervation. Integration of BAT RNA-seq and ChIP-seq data revealed that NCoR1/2 directly regulate Mmp9, which integrates extracellular matrix remodeling and inflammation. We also find that REV-ERBa/b do not tissue-autonomously control acute and circadian BAT thermogenesis. However, BAT REV-ERBa/b do regulate lipogenesis via Srebp1c in conditions of chronic cold. These findings reveal pleiotropic functions of the NCoR/HDAC3 corepressor complex in BAT, and one of their associated nuclear receptor partners, REV-ERBa/b. In sum, HDAC3-independent suppression of BAT inflammation counterbalances NCoR1/2 stimulation of HDAC3 activity in the control of thermogenesis, while REV-ERBa/b only control thermogenesis in BAT via fuel availability

Alpha-Synuclein Pathology Coincides With Increased Number of Early Stage Neural Progenitors in the Adult Hippocampus

Alpha-synuclein pathology driven impairment in adult neurogenesis was proposed as a potential cause of, or at least contributor to, memory impairment observed in both patients and animal models of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). Mice overexpressing wild-type alpha-synuclein under the Thy-1 promoter (Thy1-aSyn, line 61) uniquely replicate early cognitive deficits together with multiple other characteristic motor and non-motor symptoms, alpha-synuclein pathology and dopamine loss. Here we report overt intracellular accumulation of phosphorylated alphasynuclein in the hippocampus of these transgenic mice. To test whether this alters adult neurogenesis and total number of mature neurons, we employed immunohistochemistry and an unbiased stereology approach to quantify the distinct neural progenitor cells and neurons in the hippocampal granule cell layer and subgranular zone of 6 (prodromal stage) and 16-month (dopamine loss) old Thy1-aSyn mice. Surprisingly, we observed an increase in the number of early stage, i.e., Pax6 expressing, progenitors whereas the numbers of late stage, i.e., Tbr2 expressing, progenitors and neurons were not altered. Astroglia marker was increased in the hippocampus of transgenic mice, but this was not specific to the regions where adult neurogenesis takes place, arguing against a commitment of additional early stage progenitors to the astroglia lineage. Together, this uncovers a novel aspect of alpha-synuclein pathology in adult neurogenesis. Studying its mechanisms in Thy1-aSyn mice could lead to discovery of effective therapeutic interventions for cognitive dysfunction in PD and DLB