Eco-Traffic: Globalization, Materiality, and Subalternity in Asia-Pacific Literature

This project implicates globalization – the spreading of capital, neoliberalism, and Western totalitarianism – as a primary contributor to the continuing subalternity of colonized cultures and environments in the Global South. Under the guise of shrinking the world or spreading freedom, globalization has resulted in profound material consequences to biomes attempting political decolonization. Where postcolonial theory demands that attention be paid to anthropological difference, be it social, political, economic, or gendered, some ecocritical scholars of the Anthropocene wish to decenter the human from an era in which they – as a species – have emerged as a hazardous geologic force. This project offers “traffic” as a literal and metaphorical framework for the meshing of human subalternity within the material biomes of the Asia-Pacific region, as captured in literature. Examining texts from India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States reveals multiple traffics within globalization that intertwine the subaltern subject within their environs: the mapping and zoning of cities, the congestion of foreign-made automobiles and persons within cities, and the historical and current trade of illegal narcotics and humans. The dissertation actively contributes to a developing subset of ecocriticism that recognizes the subaltern in the intra-action of environmental entities, showing that each animal, plant, object and person has its own vibrancy, its own directionality, which leads to congestion and accidents, but often to new pathways

In reality meager: eluding death anxiety in Walt Whitman and Federico Garcia Lorca\u27s poetics of the body

Christopher Maurer, a leading biographer and critic of Federico Garcia Lorca, describes the Spaniard’s Poet in New York using the adjective “Whitman-esque.” Indeed, the poet’s posthumous collection lambasts the rampant materialism and putrid urbanization of New York through extensive divergent shifts in style and tone from Lorca’s earlier work that point toward the influence of Walt Whitman: radical line lengths, exclamatory prose, and lengthy catalogues. This study proposes that the influence of Whitman upon Lorca is more than cosmetic or strictly imitative. Using the writings of the American anthropologist Ernest Becker as a methodology, I propose that further similarities between Whitman and Lorca can be found in their psychological reactions to death anxiety, as exemplified in their poems on the body. While Whitman imagines achieving immortality through construction of a transcendentalist “over-soul,” Lorca envisions an unending dance with death through the Andalusian ideology of “duende.” Through analysis of the poet’s body, the homosexual body, and the African-American body, I identify the means through which Whitman and Lorca downplay their fears of mortality

Cloning of terminal transferase cDNA by antibody screening

A cDNA library was prepared from a terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-containing thymoma in the phage vector λgt11. By screening plaques with anti-terminal transferase antibody, positive clones were identified of which some had β-galactosidase-cDNA fusion proteins identifiable after electrophoretic fractionation by immunoblotting with anti-terminal transferase antibody. The predominant class of cross-hybridizing clones was determined to represent cDNA for terminal transferase by showing that one representative clone hybridized to a 2200-nucleotide mRNA in close-matched enzyme-positive but not to enzyme-negative cells and that the cDNA selected a mRNA that translated to give a protein of the size and antigenic characteristics of terminal transferase. Only a small amount of genomic DNA hybridized to the longest available clone, indicating that the sequence is virtually unique in the mouse genome

Acclimation, Adaptation, Traits and Trade-Offs in Plankton Functional Type Models: Reconciling Terminology for Biology and Modelling

We propose definitions in terminology to enhance ongoing collaborations between biologists and modellers on plankton ecology. Organism functional type should refer to commonality in ecology not biogeochemistry; the latter is largely an emergent property of the former, while alignment with ecology is also consistent with usage in terrestrial science. Adaptation should be confined, as in genetics, to consideration of species inter-generational change; most so-called adaptive plankton models are thus acclimative, modifying vital rates in response to stimuli. Trait trade-off approaches should ideally only be considered for describing intra-generational interactions; in applications between generations, and certainly between unrelated species, such concepts should be avoided. We suggest that systems biology approaches, through to complex adaptive/acclimative systems modelling, with explicit modelling of feedback processes (which we suggest should define mechanistic models), would provide realistic and flexible bases upon which to develop descriptions of functional type models

Acute dosing of latrepirdine (Dimebon), a possible Alzheimer therapeutic, elevates extracellular amyloid-beta levels in vitro and in vivo.

BACKGROUND: Recent reports suggest that latrepirdine (Dimebon, dimebolin), a retired Russian antihistamine, improves cognitive function in aged rodents and in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the mechanism(s) underlying this benefit remain elusive. AD is characterized by extracellular accumulation of the amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptide in the brain, and Abeta-lowering drugs are currently among the most popular anti-amyloid agents under development for the treatment of AD. In the current study, we assessed the effect of acute dosing of latrepirdine on levels of extracellular Abeta using in vitro and in vivo experimental systems. RESULTS: We evaluated extracellular levels of Abeta in three experimental systems, under basal conditions and after treatment with latrepirdine. Mouse N2a neuroblastoma cells overexpressing Swedish APP were incubated for 6 hr in the presence of either vehicle or vehicle + latrepirdine (500pM-5 muM). Synaptoneurosomes were isolated from TgCRND8 mutant APP-overexpressing transgenic mice and incubated for 0 to 10 min in the absence or presence of latrepirdine (1 muM or 10 muM). Drug-naïve Tg2576 Swedish mutant APP overexpressing transgenic mice received a single intraperitoneal injection of either vehicle or vehicle + latrepirdine (3.5 mg/kg). Picomolar to nanomolar concentrations of acutely administered latrepirdine increased the extracellular concentration of Abeta in the conditioned media from Swedish mutant APP-overexpressing N2a cells by up to 64% (p = 0.01), while a clinically relevant acute dose of latrepirdine administered i.p. led to an increase in the interstitial fluid of freely moving APP transgenic mice by up to 40% (p = 0.01). Reconstitution of membrane protein trafficking and processing is frequently inefficient, and, consistent with this interpretation, latrepirdine treatment of isolated TgCRND8 synaptoneurosomes involved higher concentrations of drug (1-10 muM) and led to more modest increases in extracellular Abeta(x-42 )levels (+10%; p = 0.001); of note, however, was the observation that extracellular Abeta(x-40 )levels did not change. CONCLUSIONS: Here, we report the surprising association of acute latrepirdine dosing with elevated levels of extracellular Abeta as measured in three independent neuron-related or neuron-derived systems, including the hippocampus of freely moving Tg2576 mice. Given the reported association of chronic latrepirdine treatment with improvement in cognitive function, the effects of chronic latrepirdine treatment on extracellular Abeta levels must now be determined.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Captive reptile mortality rates in the home and implications for the wildlife trade

The trade in wildlife and keeping of exotic pets is subject to varying levels of national and international regulation and is a topic often attracting controversy. Reptiles are popular exotic pets and comprise a substantial component of the live animal trade. High mortality of traded animals raises welfare concerns, and also has implications for conservation if collection from the wild is required to meet demand. Mortality of reptiles can occur at any stage of the trade chain from collector to consumer. However, there is limited information on mortality rates of reptiles across trade chains, particularly amongst final consumers in the home. We investigated mortality rates of reptiles amongst consumers using a specialised technique for asking sensitive questions, additive Randomised Response Technique (aRRT), as well as direct questioning (DQ). Overall, 3.6% of snakes, chelonians and lizards died within one year of acquisition. Boas and pythons had the lowest reported mortality rates of 1.9% and chameleons had the highest at 28.2%. More than 97% of snakes, 87% of lizards and 69% of chelonians acquired by respondents over five years were reported to be captive bred and results suggest that mortality rates may be lowest for captive bred individuals. Estimates of mortality from aRRT and DQ did not differ significantly which is in line with our findings that respondents did not find questions about reptile mortality to be sensitive. This research suggests that captive reptile mortality in the home is rather low, and identifies those taxa where further effort could be made to reduce mortality rate

General and age-specific fertility rates in non-affective psychosis : population-based analysis of Scottish women

Women diagnosed with non-affective psychosis have a lower general fertility rate (GFR) and age-specific fertility rate (ASFR) than women in the general population. Contemporary data on GFR in this group remain limited, despite substantive changes in prescribing and management. We calculated contemporary estimates of the GFR and ASFR for women diagnosed with non-affective psychosis compared with the general population of women without this diagnosis. A population-based design combined routinely collected historical maternity and psychiatric data from two representative areas of Scotland. Women were included from the NHS Grampian or Greater Glasgow and Clyde areas and were aged 15-44 between 2005 and 2013 inclusive. The 'exposed' group had a diagnosis of non-affective psychosis (ICD-10 F20-F29) and was compared to the general population of 'unexposed' women in the same geographical areas. Annual GFR between 2005 and 2013 for women with non-affective psychosis varied from 9.6 to 21.3 live births/1000 women per year in the exposed cohort and 52.7 to 57.8 live births/1000 women per year in the unexposed cohort, a rate ratio (RR) of 0.28 [

Supplying the wildlife trade as a livelihood strategy in a biodiversity hotspot

Much of the global wildlife trade is sourced from biodiversity-rich developing countries. These often have high levels of poverty and habitat loss, particularly in rural areas where many depend on natural resources. However, wildlife collection may incentivize local people to conserve habitats that support their livelihoods. Here we examined the contribution of the commercial collection of live animals to rural livelihoods in Madagascar, one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots. Using questionnaires, we investigated the prevalence, profitability relative to other livelihood activities, and local importance of the trade, and its capacity to provide incentives for conservation. Thirteen percent of households were engaged in live animal collection in the study area (~5% trapped reptiles and amphibians and the remainder trapped invertebrates). This formed part of a diverse livelihood strategy, and was more profitable than other activities (in terms of returns per unit of effort), with median earnings of ~US$100 per season (~25% of Gross National Income per year). However, trapping was part-time, usually undertaken by poorer members of the community, and often perceived as opportunistic, risky, and financially unreliable. Further, trappers and nontrappers held similar perceptions regarding conservation, suggesting wildlife trade currently does not incentivize enhanced stewardship of traded species and their habitats. Our study brings together a range of methodologies to present the most comprehensive insights into livelihoods and conservation in poor rural communities involved in the commercial collection of live animals to supply international trade. This improved understanding of the wider socioeconomic dimensions of wildlife trade can inform policy and management interventions for both the threats and opportunities associated with global trade in biodiversity both in Madagascar and more generally