Critical Theory, Fascism, and Antifascism: Reflections from a Damaged Polity

The presidency of Trump has produced an increasing sense that we are possibly moving into a period of fascism in the United States. In this essay, we wish to look closely at conditions which define this current political period by taking seriously Max Horkheimer’s plea to see the necessary relation of capitalism to protofascist potentials and fascist aspirations within our liberal democratic context. Drawing upon the work of Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, and others, we will look more closely at the particular political economic conditions that underlie the development of our one-dimensional society, in which “totalitarian” economic-technical control, rampant consumerism, and growing indebtedness and precarity create ripe conditions for the production of destabilizing political discourses that allow fascism to flourish in language and memes, if not necessarily within concrete statist forms that proudly proclaim the end of democracy. While noting the way in which the culture industry in its repetition of jargon helps to give vitality to antidemocratic practices and protofascist potentials, we propose certain important notes toward a critical theory of antifascism that takes seriously the imbrications of fascism and capitalism duly noted by the first generation of the Frankfurt School, one that is resolutely anti-capitalist while attempting to revive the volatility and potentiality of the “democratic void” in the service of true emancipation

Sleep quality is associated with emotion experience and adaptive regulation of positive emotion: An experience sampling study

Poor sleep patterns have been strongly linked to disrupted emotional experiences. Emotion regulation, defined as the capacity to manage one's own emotional responses, comprises strategies to increase, maintain, or decrease the intensity, duration, and trajectory of positive and negative emotions. Poor sleep has been identified as a risk factor for emotional dysregulation, but most of the focus has been on negative emotion regulation. We therefore asked whether natural variations in sleep are associated with the experience and regulation of both positive and negative emotion. Young adults, aged between 18–24 years (N = 101), completed 7 days of ecological momentary assessments using a smartphone application. Duration and quality of the previous night's sleep was reported each morning. Levels of positive and negative emotions, and strategies used to regulate emotions, were measured at pseudorandom timepoints four times a day. Multilevel modelling indicated that higher self-reported sleep quality was significantly associated with increased intensity and duration of positive emotion, and decreased intensity of negative emotion. There were no statistically significant associations between sleep duration and emotion intensity or duration. Sleep quality, and not sleep duration, was also associated with the reported use of positive emotion regulation strategies. For negative emotion regulation strategy use, we found no associations with sleep quality or duration. Naturally occurring fluctuations in daily sleep quality may be important for the experience and regulation of positive emotion in young adults. These findings emphasise the need to examine both positive and negative emotion, and emotion regulation to understand the links between sleep and mood

Bub2 regulation of cytokinesis and septation in budding yeast

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The mitotic exit network (MEN) is required for events at the end of mitosis such as degradation of mitotic cyclins and cytokinesis. Bub2 and its binding partner Bfa1 act as a GTPase activating protein (GAP) to negatively regulate the MEN GTPase Tem1. The Bub2/Bfa1 checkpoint pathway is required to delay the cell cycle in response to mispositioned spindles. In addition to its role in mitotic exit, Tem1 is required for actomyosin ring contraction.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To test the hypothesis that the Bub2 pathway prevents premature actin ring assembly, we compared the timing of actin ring formation in wild type, <it>bub2Δ</it>, <it>mad2Δ</it>, and <it>bub2Δmad2Δ </it>cells both with and without microtubules. There was no difference in the timing of actin ring formation between wild type and mutant cells in a synchronized cell cycle. In the presence of nocodazole, both <it>bub2Δ </it>and <it>mad2Δ </it>cells formed rings after a delay of the same duration. Double mutant <it>bub2Δmad2Δ </it>and <it>bfa1Δmad2Δ </it>cells formed rings at the same time with and without nocodazole. To determine if Bub2 has an effect on actomyosin ring contraction through its regulation of Tem1, we used live cell imaging of Myo1-GFP in a <it>bub2Δ </it>strain. We found a significant decrease in the total time of contraction and an increase in rate of contraction compared to wild type cells. We also examined myosin contraction using Myo1-GFP in cells overexpressing an epitope tagged Bub2. Surprisingly, overexpression of Bub2 also led to a significant increase in the rate of contraction, as well as morphological defects. The chained cell phenotype caused by Bub2 overexpression could be rescued by co-overexpression of Tem1, and was not rescued by deletion of <it>BFA1</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data indicate that the Bub2 checkpoint pathway does not have a specific role in delaying actin ring formation. The observed increase in the rate of myosin contraction in the <it>bub2Δ </it>strain provides evidence that the MEN regulates actomyosin ring contraction. Our data suggest that the overexpression of the Bub2 fusion protein acts as a dominant negative, leading to septation defects by a mechanism that is Tem1-dependent.</p

Size-resolved particle measurements of polybrominated diphenyl ethers indoors: Implications for sources and human exposure

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are flame retardant polymer additives that are widely detected in outdoor and indoor environments. Release of PBDEs from consumer products leads to high concentrations indoors, but mechanisms of release are poorly understood. While ingestion of dust is a well-studied indoor PBDE exposure route, the importance of inhalation exposure is uncertain. To address these unknowns, dust was collected from household vacuum cleaners, and suspended particulate matter (PM) was collected from the same homes in St. John’s, Canada using a cascade impactor. Size-fractionated PM samples (0.01-18 µm diameter) were analysed for PBDEs. The sum of PBDEs in all PM ranged from 8.7 ± 0.5 to 15.7 ± 0.5 pg/m3, with >50% of PBDE mass in respirable PM (<1 µm). Mass loadings as a function of particle size suggested both abrasion and off-gassing led to the presence of PBDEs in PM. Variability in the PM mass loadings indicated emission mechanisms were both product- and location-dependent. Congener profiles in co-located vacuum dust and PM samples were different, indicating vacuum dust cannot accurately predict PBDE congeners in respirable PM. A calculated lower limit inhalation exposure to PBDEs (0.19 ng/day) is lower than exposure via diet or ingestion of dust, although the different biochemical pathways for inhalation compared to ingestion may have biological effects. This work highlights the importance of contaminant analysis in size-fractionated PM to assess human exposure via inhalation compared to traditional vacuum dust methods

Participating in a fruit and vegetable intervention trial improves longer term fruit and vegetable consumption and barriers to fruit and vegetable consumption: A follow-up of the ADIT study

Background: Fruit and vegetable (FV) based intervention studies can be effective in increasing short term FV consumption. However, the longer term efficacy of such interventions is still unclear. The aim of the current study was to examine the maintenance of change in FV consumption 18-months after cessation of a FV intervention and to examine the effect of participating in a FV intervention on barriers to FV consumption. Methods: A follow-up of a randomised controlled FV trial in 83 older adults (habitually consuming ≤2 portions/day) was conducted. At baseline, participants were assigned to continue consuming ≤2 portions FV/day or consume ≥5 portions FV/day for 16-weeks. We assessed FV intake and barriers to FV consumption at baseline, end of intervention and 18-months post-intervention. Results: At 18-months, mean FV intakes in both groups were greater than baseline. The 5 portions/day group continued to show greater increases in FV consumption at 18-months than the 2 portions/day group (p < 0.01). At 18-months, both groups reported greater liking (p < 0.01) and ease in consuming FV (p = 0.001) while difficulties with consuming FV decreased (p < 0.001). The 2 portions/day group reported greater awareness of FV recommendations at 18-months (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Participating in a FV intervention can lead to longer-term positive changes in FV consumption regardless of original group allocation. Trial registration: Clinical Trials.gov NCT00858728

The effect of cleft lip on adults' responses to faces: cross-species findings

Cleft lip and palate is the most common of the congenital conditions affecting the face and cranial bones and is associated with a raised risk of difficulties in infant-caregiver interaction; the reasons for such difficulties are not fully understood. Here, we report two experiments designed to explore how adults respond to infant faces with and without cleft lip, using behavioural measures of attractiveness appraisal (‘liking’) and willingness to work to view or remove the images (‘wanting’). We found that infants with cleft lip were rated as less attractive and were viewed for shorter durations than healthy infants, an effect that was particularly apparent where the cleft lip was severe. Women rated the infant faces as more attractive than men did, but there were no differences in men and women's viewing times of these faces. In a second experiment, we found that the presence of a cleft lip in domestic animals affected adults' ‘liking’ and ‘wanting’ responses in a comparable way to that seen for human infants. Adults' responses were also remarkably similar for images of infants and animals with cleft lip, although no gender difference in attractiveness ratings or viewing times emerged for animals. We suggest that the presence of a cleft lip can substantially change the way in which adults respond to human and animal faces. Furthermore, women may respond in different ways to men when asked to appraise infant attractiveness, despite the fact that men and women ‘want’ to view images of infants for similar durations