"Outside, it is snowing": Experience and finitude in the nonrepresentational landscapes of Alain Robbe-Grillet

Copyright © 2008 PionRomanillos J L, 2008. The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 26(5) 795 – 822 DOI: 10.1068/d6207This paper presents and explicates the anonymous and impersonal spatialities tentatively mapped in the novels of Alain Robbe-Grillet. Emerging from the kinds of landscapes and visualities articulated, these spatialities are at odds with the kind of anthropocentrism characteristic of phenomenological narratives of spatial experience that would start from an apparently stable human-subject position. It is argued that his body of literature dismantles the anthropocentric narratives and biographies that would produce in both the space of the world and the ‘phenomenological subject’ an unwarranted depth and naturalism. Importantly, and reflecting the theoretical turn towards the being of language, Robbe-Grillet questions the legitimacy of linguistic subjects to capture the spaces of the visible. As such, it is argued that his literature reflects an experience of the critiques of phenomenology. Importantly, this ‘critique’ goes hand in hand with the kinds of spatialities and landscapes that are rendered in the novels—the indefinite perspectives they open up, the paradoxical visualities they sustain or deny, and the disorientation they inject into the heart of spatial experience. These literary effects produce a nonanthropocentric and nonpersonal spatiality which, although contributing to an erasure of the ‘subject’, at the same time expose and open up a sociospatiality based on singularities, intensities, and finitude

Evidence of suppression of onchocerciasis transmission in the Venezuelan Amazonian focus.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) has set goals for onchocerciasis elimination in Latin America by 2015. Most of the six previously endemic countries are attaining this goal by implementing twice a year (and in some foci, quarterly) mass ivermectin (Mectizan®) distribution. Elimination of transmission has been verified in Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico. Challenges remain in the Amazonian focus straddling Venezuela and Brazil, where the disease affects the hard-to-reach Yanomami indigenous population. We provide evidence of suppression of Onchocerca volvulus transmission by Simulium guianense s.l. in 16 previously hyperendemic Yanomami communities in southern Venezuela after 15 years of 6-monthly and 5 years of 3-monthly mass ivermectin treatment. METHODS: Baseline and monitoring and evaluation parasitological, ophthalmological, entomological and serological surveys were conducted in selected sentinel and extra-sentinel communities of the focus throughout the implementation of the programme. RESULTS: From 2010 to 2012–2015, clinico-parasitological surveys indicate a substantial decrease in skin microfilarial prevalence and intensity of infection; accompanied by no evidence (or very low prevalence and intensity) of ocular microfilariae in the examined population. Of a total of 51,341 S. guianense flies tested by PCR none had L3 infection (heads only). Prevalence of infective flies and seasonal transmission potentials in 2012–2013 were, respectively, under 1 % and 20 L3/person/transmission season. Serology in children aged 1–10 years demonstrated that although 26 out of 396 (7 %) individuals still had Ov-16 antibodies, only 4/218 (2 %) seropositives were aged 1–5 years. CONCLUSIONS: We report evidence of recent transmission and morbidity suppression in some communities of the focus representing 75 % of the Yanomami population and 70 % of all known communities. We conclude that onchocerciasis transmission could be feasibly interrupted in the Venezuelan Amazonian focus. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-016-1313-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Cross-connections of linear transformation semigroups

Cross-connection theory developed by Nambooripad is the construction of a regular semigroup from its principal left (right) ideals using categories. We use the cross-connection theory to study the structure of the semigroup Sing(V) of singular linear transformations on an arbitrary vector space V over a field K. There is an inbuilt notion of duality in the cross-connection theory, and we observe that it coincides with the conventional algebraic duality of vector spaces. We describe various cross-connections between these categories and show that although there are many cross-connections, upto isomorphism, we have only one semigroup arising from these categories. But if we restrict the categories suitably, we can construct some interesting subsemigroups of the variants of the linear transformation semigroup. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

Photosensitive post tuning of chalcogenide photonic crystal waveguides

This paper was published in Optics Express and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-15-3-1277. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law.We present experimental results on post-tuning the dispersion of a two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide made from Ge(33)As(12)Se(55) chalcogenide glass by exploiting the material photosensitivity to near-bandgap light. The change in the refractive index and volume of the material in response to exposure to 633nm light resulted in a shift of more than 5nm in the resonant coupling wavelength between a tapered optical fiber and the modes of a W1 waveguide. This represents a first proof of principle demonstration of the photosensitive post-tuning of a planar photonic crystal device.Michael W. Lee, Christian Grillet, Cameron L. C. Smith, David J. Moss, Benjamin J. Eggleton, Darren Freeman, Barry Luther-Davies, Steve Madden, Andrei Rode, Yinlan Ruan, and Yong-hee Le

Chalcogenide Glasses for All-optical Processing

Copyright © 2006 IEEEChalcogenide glasses, which contain S, Se or Te atoms combined with network forming elements such as Ge, As, Sb have the largest third order optical nonlinearity of any inorganic glass. As a result they are attractive candidates for fibre and waveguide devices for all-optical signal processing in the telecommunications bands. In this talk I will review our recent progress in all-optical devices such as regenerators, wavelength converters and other devices in chalcogenide glasses.B. Luther-Davies, S. J. Madden, D-Y Choi, R-P Wang, A. V. Rode, A. Prasad, R. A. Jarvis, D. Moss, B. Eggleton, C. Grillet, M. R. E. Lamont, E. Magi, V. Ta’eed, M. Shookooh-Saremi, N. Baker, I. Littler, L. Fu, M. Rochette, Y. Rua

Microfluidic photonic crystal double heterostructures

We demonstrate postprocessed and reconfigurable photonic crystal double-heterostructure cavities via selective fluid infiltration. We experimentally investigate the microfluidic cavities via evanescent probing from a tapered fiber at telecommunication wavelengths. Fabry-Ṕrot fringes associated with modes of the induced cavity are in good agreement with the theory. We also demonstrate a cavity with quality factor Q=4300. Our defect-writing technique does not require nanometer-scale alterations in lattice geometry and may be undertaken at any time after photonic crystal waveguide fabrication. © 2007 American Institute of Physics

Synergistic binding of transcription factors to cell-specific enhancers programs motor neuron identity

Efficient transcriptional programming promises to open new frontiers in regenerative medicine. However, mechanisms by which programming factors transform cell fate are unknown, preventing more rational selection of factors to generate desirable cell types. Three transcription factors, Ngn2, Isl1 and Lhx3, were sufficient to program rapidly and efficiently spinal motor neuron identity when expressed in differentiating mouse embryonic stem cells. Replacement of Lhx3 by Phox2a led to specification of cranial, rather than spinal, motor neurons. Chromatin immunoprecipitation–sequencing analysis of Isl1, Lhx3 and Phox2a binding sites revealed that the two cell fates were programmed by the recruitment of Isl1-Lhx3 and Isl1-Phox2a complexes to distinct genomic locations characterized by a unique grammar of homeodomain binding motifs. Our findings suggest that synergistic interactions among transcription factors determine the specificity of their recruitment to cell type–specific binding sites and illustrate how a single transcription factor can be repurposed to program different cell types.Project ALS FoundationNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant P01 NS055923

A glial amino-acid transporter controls synapse strength and courtship in Drosophila

Mate choice is an evolutionarily critical decision that requires the detection of multiple sex-specific signals followed by central integration of these signals to direct appropriate behavior. The mechanisms controlling mate choice remain poorly understood. Here, we show that the glial amino-acid transporter genderblind controls whether Drosophila melanogaster males will attempt to mate with other males. Genderblind (gb) mutant males showed no alteration in heterosexual courtship or copulation, but were attracted to normally unappealing male species-specific chemosensory cues. As a result, genderblind mutant males courted and attempted to copulate with other Drosophila males. This homosexual behavior could be induced within hours using inducible RNAi, suggesting that genderblind controls nervous system function rather than its development. Consistent with this, and indicating that glial genderblind regulates ambient extracellular glutamate to suppress glutamatergic synapse strength in vivo, homosexual behavior could be turned on and off by altering glutamatergic transmission pharmacologically and/or genetically

Onchocerciasis transmission in Ghana: biting and parous rates of host-seeking sibling species of the Simulium damnosum complex

Background: Ghana is renowned for its sibling species diversity of the Simulium damnosum complex, vectors of Onchocerca volvulus. Detailed entomological knowledge becomes a priority as onchocerciasis control policy has shifted from morbidity reduction to elimination of infection. To date, understanding of transmission dynamics of O. volvulus has been mainly based on S. damnosum sensu stricto (s.s.) data. We aim to elucidate bionomic features of vector species of importance for onchocerciasis elimination efforts. Methods: We collected S. damnosum sensu lato from seven villages in four Ghanaian regions between 2009 and 2011, using standard vector collection, and human- and cattle-baited tents. Taxa were identified using morphological and molecular techniques. Monthly biting rates (MBR), parous rates and monthly parous biting rates (MPBR) are reported by locality, season, trapping method and hour of collection for each species. Results: S. damnosum s.s./S. sirbanum were collected at Asubende and Agborlekame, both savannah villages. A range of species was caught in the Volta region (forest-savannah mosaic) and Gyankobaa (forest), with S. squamosum or S. sanctipauli being the predominant species, respectively. In Bosomase (southern forest region) only S. sanctipauli was collected in the 2009 wet season, but in the 2010 dry season S. yahense was also caught. MBRs ranged from 714 bites/person/month at Agborlekame (100% S. damnosum s.s./S. sirbanum) to 8,586 bites/person/month at Pillar 83/Djodji (98.5% S. squamosum). MBRs were higher in the wet season. In contrast, parous rates were higher in the dry season (41.8% vs. 18.4%), resulting in higher MPBRs in the dry season. Daily host-seeking activity of S. damnosum s.s./S. sirbanum was bimodal, whilst S. squamosum and S. sanctipauli had unimodal afternoon peaks. Conclusions: The bionomic differences between sibling species of the S. damnosum complex need to be taken into account when designing entomological monitoring protocols for interventions and parameterising mathematical models for onchocerciasis control and elimination