Reconstituted pathos: time and loss in the dramatic works of Samuel Beckett

This thesis looks at Samuel Beckett’s film and selections of his dramatic works for radio, theatre and television to demonstrate the processes in which an intuition of loss may be invoked in the audience. More specifically, interrogating the dominant attitude in Beckett studies that Beckett's works are intellectually demanding of the audience, I maintain in the dissertation that his drama may appeal more to the audience members' intuition than their intellect. Following this trajectory, I posit that the frustration experienced by an audience member could be caused by an intuition of loss that is triggered by the plays’ reconstitution of her habitual framework of understanding. Key texts that influenced the definitions of ‘habit’, ‘intuition’, and ‘time’ in this research are Henri Bergson’s Time and Freewill and Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. In this dissertation, I illustrate that the radio plays thematically appropriate the regard for radio as a ‘blind’ medium to highlight the audience’s entrapment in their habitual way of knowing. Further, Film is analysed as reconstituting the audience member’s habit body to an ecstatic being that is temporarily freed from stratified limits. Whereas Beckett scholars tend to attribute static interminability to Beckettian time because of the pervasiveness of ineffectual repetition depicted in his stage plays, I argue that Beckett’s conception of time may be dual: an incarcerating habitual continuum and a potentially liberating durée. Following that, I analyse how the television plays establish the intuition of loss as seemingly subject-less because the characters and the audience’s reliance on the habitual way of knowing has rendered them amnesiacs who cannot remember what they have lost, except that they have lost. In considering the intersection of Beckett’s dramatic works with the concept of habit, this thesis maps out the process in which each medium could have been exploited by Beckett to reconstitute the audience’s habitual framework of understanding to an intuitive experience of his works

Comparison of domiciliary oxygen using liquid oxygen and concentrator in northern Taiwan

Background/PurposeLong-term oxygen therapy has become standard treatment for patients with chronic respiratory insufficiency. However, patterns of long-term home oxygen therapy have not been well studied in Taiwan. Oxygen concentrator systems are commonly used in Taiwan, but liquid oxygen delivery systems are portable and may provide advantages over the concentrator system. This study compared oxygen usage between patients from a liquid oxygen group (LOG) and an oxygen concentrator group (OCG). The authors also assessed the physiologic responses of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to ambulatory oxygen use at home.MethodsThe study used a retrospective, cross-sectional, observational survey design. The LOG comprised 42 patients, and the OCG comprised 102 patients. We recruited participants in northern Taiwan from July 2009 to April 2010. The questionnaire instruments that were used to collect data consisted of three parts: demographic characteristics, devices used in respiratory care, and activity status with portable oxygen. Two-minute walking tests were performed on COPD patients in their homes.ResultsCOPD was the most common diagnosis in our study, with more than 50% of patients who received oxygen long term in both groups having received this diagnosis. The LOG used oxygen for an average of 21.7 hours per day, whereas OCG averaged 15.2 hours per day (p<0.001). In the OCG, 92.2% of patients used a concentrator alone, whereas 23.8% of the LOG used liquid oxygen alone (p<0.001). The LOG patients were involved in significantly more outdoors activities (p=0.002) and reported traveling with oxygen more often (p<0.001) than the OCG patients. For patients with the same dyspnea level of COPD severity, those using liquid oxygen had a lower increase in pulse rate after the walking test, in comparison with the concentrator users.ConclusionPatients in the LOG used oxygen for longer hours, went on more outings, and were more likely to travel with oxygen than patients in the OCG. Being ambulatory with liquid oxygen might enable patients with COPD to walk more effectively

The endocytosis gene END3 is essential for the glucose-induced rapid decline of small vesicles in the extracellular fraction in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Background: Protein secretion is a fundamental process in all living cells. Gluconeogenic enzymes are secreted when Saccharomyces cerevisiae are grown in media containing low glucose. However, when cells are transferred to media containing high glucose, they are internalized. We investigated whether or not gluconeogenic enzymes were associated with extracellular vesicles in glucose-starved cells. We also examined the role that the endocytosis gene END3 plays in the internalization of extracellular proteins/vesicles in response to glucose addition. Methods: Transmission electron microscopy was performed to determine the presence of extracellular vesicles in glucose-starved wild-type cells and the dynamics of vesicle transport in cells lacking the END3 gene. Proteomics was used to identify extracellular proteins that associated with these vesicles. Results: Total extracts prepared from glucose-starved cells consisted of about 95% small vesicles (30–50 nm) and 5% large structures (100–300 nm). The addition of glucose caused a rapid decline in small extracellular vesicles in wild-type cells. However, most of the extracellular vesicles were still observed in cells lacking the END3 gene following glucose replenishment. Proteomics was used to identify 72 extracellular proteins that may be associated with these vesicles. Gluconeogenic enzymes fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, malate dehydrogenase, isocitrate lyase, and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, as well as non-gluconeogenic enzymes glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and cyclophilin A, were distributed in the vesicle-enriched fraction in total extracts prepared from cells grown in low glucose. Distribution of these proteins in the vesicle-enriched fraction required the integrity of the membranes. When glucose was added to glucose-starved wild-type cells, levels of extracellular fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, malate dehydrogenase, isocitrate lyase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, and cyclophilin A were reduced. In contrast, in cells lacking the END3 gene, levels of these proteins in the extracellular fraction remained high. Conclusion: The END3 gene is required for the rapid decline of extracellular proteins and vesicles in response to glucose addition

Glucose induces rapid changes in the secretome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

BACKGROUND: Protein secretion is a fundamental process in all living cells. Proteins can either be secreted via the classical or non-classical pathways. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, gluconeogenic enzymes are in the extracellular fraction/periplasm when cells are grown in media containing low glucose. Following a transfer of cells to high glucose media, their levels in the extracellular fraction are reduced rapidly. We hypothesized that changes in the secretome were not restricted to gluconeogenic enzymes. The goal of the current study was to use a proteomic approach to identify extracellular proteins whose levels changed when cells were transferred from low to high glucose media. RESULTS: We performed two iTRAQ experiments and identified 347 proteins that were present in the extracellular fraction including metabolic enzymes, proteins involved in oxidative stress, protein folding, and proteins with unknown functions. Most of these proteins did not contain typical ER-Golgi signal sequences. Moreover, levels of many of these proteins decreased upon a transfer of cells from media containing low to high glucose media. Using an extraction procedure and Western blotting, we confirmed that the metabolic enzymes (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, 3-phosphoglycerate kinase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, pyruvate decarboxylase), proteins involved in oxidative stress (superoxide dismutase and thioredoxin), and heat shock proteins (Ssa1p, Hsc82p, and Hsp104p) were in the extracellular fraction during growth in low glucose and that the levels of these extracellular proteins were reduced when cells were transferred to media containing high glucose. These proteins were associated with membranes in vesicle-enriched fraction. We also showed that small vesicles were present in the extracellular fraction in cells grown in low glucose. Following a transfer from low to high glucose media for 30 minutes, 98% of these vesicles disappeared from the extracellular fraction. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that transferring cells from low to high glucose media induces a rapid decline in levels of a large number of extracellular proteins and the disappearance of small vesicles from the extracellular fraction. Therefore, we conclude that the secretome undergoes dynamic changes during transition from glucose-deficient to glucose-rich media. Most of these extracellular proteins do not contain typical ER signal sequences, suggesting that they are secreted via the non-classical pathway

Assessment of hypermucoviscosity as a virulence factor for experimental Klebsiella pneumoniae infections: comparative virulence analysis with hypermucoviscosity-negative strain

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Klebsiella pneumoniae </it>displaying the hypermucoviscosity (HV) phenotype are considered more virulent than HV-negative strains. Nevertheless, the emergence of tissue-abscesses-associated HV-negative isolates motivated us to re-evaluate the role of HV-phenotype.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Instead of genetically manipulating the HV-phenotype of <it>K. pneumoniae</it>, we selected two clinically isolated K1 strains, 1112 (HV-positive) and 1084 (HV-negative), to avoid possible interference from defects in the capsule. These well-encapsulated strains with similar genetic backgrounds were used for comparative analysis of bacterial virulence in a pneumoniae or a liver abscess model generated in either naïve or diabetic mice. In the pneumonia model, the HV-positive strain 1112 proliferated to higher loads in the lungs and blood of naïve mice, but was less prone to disseminate into the blood of diabetic mice compared to the HV-negative strain 1084. In the liver abscess model, 1084 was as potent as 1112 in inducing liver abscesses in both the naïve and diabetic mice. The 1084-infected diabetic mice were more inclined to develop bacteremia and had a higher mortality rate than those infected by 1112. A mini-Tn<it>5 </it>mutant of 1112, isolated due to its loss of HV-phenotype, was avirulent to mice.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results indicate that the HV-phenotype is required for the virulence of the clinically isolated HV-positive strain 1112. The superior ability of the HV-negative stain 1084 over 1112 to cause bacteremia in diabetic mice suggests that factors other than the HV phenotype were required for the systemic dissemination of <it>K. pneumoniae </it>in an immunocompromised setting.</p

Detection of SARS-associated Coronavirus in Throat Wash and Saliva in Early Diagnosis

Early detection of SARS-CoV in throat wash and saliva suggests that these specimens are ideal for SARS diagnosis