Shades of empire: police photography in German South-West Africa

This article looks at a photographic album produced by the German police in colonial Namibia just before World War I. Late 19th- and early 20th-century police photography has often been interpreted as a form of visual production that epitomized power and regimes of surveillance imposed by the state apparatuses on the poor, the criminal and the Other. On the other hand police and prison institutions became favored sites where photography could be put at the service of the emergent sciences of the human body—physiognomy, anthropometry and anthropology. While the conjuncture of institutionalized colonial state power and the production of scientific knowledge remain important for this Namibian case study, the article explores a slightly different set of questions. Echoing recent scholarship on visuality and materiality the photographic album is treated as an archival object and visual narrative that was at the same time constituted by and constitutive of material and discursive practices within early 20th-century police and prison institutions in the German colony. By shifting attention away from image content and visual codification alone toward the question of visual practice the article traces the ways in which the photo album, with its ambivalent, unstable and uncontained narrative, became historically active and meaningful. Therein the photographs were less informed by an abstract theory of anthropological and racial classification but rather entrenched with historically contingent processes of colonial state constitution, socioeconomic and racial stratification, and the institutional integration of photography as a medium and a technology into colonial policing. The photo album provides a textured sense of how fragmented and contested these processes remained throughout the German colonial period, but also how photography could offer a means of transcending the limits and frailties brought by the realities on the ground.International Bibliography of Social Science

Offspring sex impacts DNA methylation and gene expression in placentae from women with diabetes during pregnancy

<div><p>Aims/Hypothesis</p><p>We hypothesized that diabetes during pregnancy (DDP) alters genome-wide DNA methylation in placenta resulting in differentially methylated loci of metabolically relevant genes and downstream changes in RNA and protein expression.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We mapped genome-wide DNA methylation with the Infinium 450K Human Methylation Bead Chip in term fetal placentae from Native American and Hispanic women with DDP using a nested case-control design (n = 17 pairs). RNA expression and protein levels were assayed via RNA-Seq and Western Blot.</p><p>Results</p><p>Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis revealed 465 CpG sites with significant changes for male offspring, 247 for female offspring, and 277 for offspring of both sexes (p<0.001). Placentae from female offspring were 40% more likely to have significant gains in DNA methylation compared with placentae from male offspring exposed to DDP (p<0.001). Changes in DNA methylation corresponded to changes in RNA and protein levels for 6 genes: PIWIL3, CYBA, GSTM1, GSTM5, KCNE1 and NXN. Differential DNA methylation was detected at loci related to mitochondrial function, DNA repair, inflammation, oxidative stress.</p><p>Conclusions/Interpretation</p><p>These findings begin to explain mechanisms responsible for the increased risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes in offspring of mothers with DDP.</p></div

CpG sites with significant changes in DNA methylation.

<p>CpG sites with (a) <i>AVDM</i> > 10% and (b) <i>AVDM</i> > 15% and p<0.001. (a and b) Black indicates methylation increase in DDP. Gray region indicates methylation loss in DDP. (c) Genes with > 1 CpG site with significant change in DNA methylation (p<0.001).</p

Genes with correlating RNA-Seq and protein levels.

<p>Genes with correlating RNA-Seq and protein levels.</p

Protein abundance for genes with changes in DNA methylation and mRNA expression.

<p>a. PIWIL3 b. CYBA c. GSTM1 d. GSTM5 e. KCNE1 f. NXN; a–f: Protein abundance normalized to Actin or cofillin. a: <i>All</i> pairs (N = 14; 7 male pairs and 7 female pairs). b-d: Male offspring pairs (n = 7). e-f: Female offspring pairs (n = 7). * p<0.05; ** p<0.05.</p

Placental RNA transcripts identified by RNA-Seq with differential expression^*.

<p>Placental RNA transcripts identified by RNA-Seq with differential expression^{<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0190698#t003fn001" target="_blank">*</a>}.</p

Maternal and infant characteristics.

<p>a) HgbA1C, b) Parity c) Gestational Age (weeks). *p<0.05. (n = 17 pairs).</p

Correlation between DNA methylation, RNA-Seq, and protein levels.

<p>Correlation between DNA methylation, RNA-Seq, and protein levels.</p