1,935 research outputs found
Book review: gender and the Great War edited by Susan R. Grayzel and Tammy M. Proctor
In Gender and the Great War, editors Susan R. Grayzel and Tammy M. Proctor offer a new collection exploring the role of gender in wartime, examining diverse experiences of World War I that extend beyond the Western Front. While the book is occasionally hindered by the scope of its ambition, this is an insightful, balanced and admirably wide-ranging volume that offers a valuable introduction for new students and supplies ample food for thought for seasoned scholars in the field, finds Matthew Kovac
‘Red Amazons’? Gendering Violence and Revolution in the Long First World War, 1914-23
This article seeks to position gender theory as critical to making sense of one of the First World War’s largest remaining historical problems: the persistence of mass violence after November 1918. While Robert Gerwarth and John Horne’s pathbreaking work on veteran violence has challenged the standard 1914-18 periodisation of the war, their focus on military defeat and revolution obscures the centrality of gender relations to the continuation of violence after the formal end of hostilities. By putting their work into conversation with that of feminist theorists, I argue that countries which experienced more extreme gender dislocation or ‘gender trouble’ witnessed the greatest post-war violence, chiefly in the former German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires. In states where women’s struggles were more successfully contained, patriarchal forces faced a less severe threat and thus responded with considerably less violence. Drawing on the work of Judith Butler, Laura Doan, Joanna Bourke, Klaus Theweleit, and Erika Kuhlman, this article shows how right-wing violence targeting ‘red women’ in this period was not a mere outgrowth of battles between competing nationalisms or communism and fascism, but, crucially, a military clash between feminism and anti-feminism. With revitalised feminist movements sweeping Europe today from Poland to Ireland, understanding the violent restoration of patriarchy in the early 1920s offers crucial lessons –and warnings – for our own dangerously promising political moment
Five recommended reads for the Armistice Day Centenary
To mark the he centenary of the Armistice that ended the First World War, LSE Book Reviews recommend five recent academic books that explore different aspects of the conflict, ranging from the significance of 1917, the crucial role played by women scientists and the often neglected experiences of Muslim combatants
Reading list: 5 recommended reads for the Armistice Day centenary
11 November 2018 is the centenary of the Armistice that ended World War One. To mark the occasion, we recommend five recent academic books that explore different aspects of the conflict, ranging from the significance of 1917, the crucial role played by women scientists and the often neglected experiences of Muslim combatants
Drugs acting at TRPM7 channels inhibit seizure-like activity
Transient receptor potential cation subfamily M7 (TRPM7) channels are ion channels permeable to divalent cations. They are abundantly expressed with particularly high expression in the brain. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of TRPM7 channels in brain diseases such as stroke and traumatic brain injury, yet evidence for a role in seizures and epilepsy is lacking. Here, we show that carvacrol, a food additive that inhibits TRPM7 channels, and waixenicin A, a novel selective and potent TRPM7 inhibitor, completely suppressed seizure-like activity in rodent hippocampal-entorhinal brain slices exposed to pentylenetetrazole or low magnesium. These findings support inhibition of TRPM7 channels as a novel target for antiseizure medications
KEAP<sub>1</sub> inhibition is neuroprotective and suppresses the development of epilepsy
Hippocampal sclerosis is a common acquired disease that is a major cause of drug-resistant epilepsy. A mechanism that has been proposed to lead from brain insult to hippocampal sclerosis is the excessive generation of reactive oxygen species, and consequent mitochondrial failure. Here we use a novel strategy to increase endogenous antioxidant defences using RTA 408, which we show activates nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2, encoded by NFE2L2) through inhibition of kelch like ECH associated protein 1 (KEAP1) through its primary sensor C151. Activation of Nrf2 with RTA 408 inhibited reactive oxygen species production, mitochondrial depolarization and cell death in an in vitro model of seizure-like activity. RTA 408 given after status epilepticus in vivo increased ATP, prevented neuronal death, and dramatically reduced (by 94%) the frequency of late spontaneous seizures for at least 4 months following status epilepticus. Thus, acute KEAP1 inhibition following status epilepticus exerts a neuroprotective and disease-modifying effect, supporting the hypothesis that reactive oxygen species generation is a key event in the development of epilepsy
Benchmark Parameters for CMB Polarization Experiments
The recently detected polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB)
holds the potential for revealing the physics of inflation and gravitationally
mapping the large-scale structure of the universe, if so called B-mode signals
below 10^{-7}, or tenths of a uK, can be reliably detected. We provide a
language for describing systematic effects which distort the observed CMB
temperature and polarization fields and so contaminate the B-modes. We identify
7 types of effects, described by 11 distortion fields, and show their
association with known instrumental systematics such as common mode and
differential gain fluctuations, line cross-coupling, pointing errors, and
differential polarized beam effects. Because of aliasing from the small-scale
structure in the CMB, even uncorrelated fluctuations in these effects can
affect the large-scale B modes relevant to gravitational waves. Many of these
problems are greatly reduced by having an instrumental beam that resolves the
primary anisotropies (FWHM << 10'). To reach the ultimate goal of an
inflationary energy scale of 3 \times 10^{15} GeV, polarization distortion
fluctuations must be controlled at the 10^{-2}-10^{-3} level and temperature
leakage to the 10^{-4}-10^{-3} level depending on effect. For example pointing
errors must be controlled to 1.5'' rms for arcminute scale beams or a percent
of the Gaussian beam width for larger beams; low spatial frequency differential
gain fluctuations or line cross-coupling must be eliminated at the level of
10^{-4} rms.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR
Laminate polyethylene window development for large aperture millimeter receivers
New experiments that target the B-mode polarization signals in the Cosmic
Microwave Background require more sensitivity, more detectors, and thus
larger-aperture millimeter-wavelength telescopes, than previous experiments.
These larger apertures require ever larger vacuum windows to house cryogenic
optics. Scaling up conventional vacuum windows, such as those made of High
Density Polyethylene (HDPE), require a corresponding increase in the thickness
of the window material to handle the extra force from the atmospheric pressure.
Thicker windows cause more transmission loss at ambient temperatures,
increasing optical loading and decreasing sensitivity. We have developed the
use of woven High Modulus Polyethylene (HMPE), a material 100 times stronger
than HDPE, to manufacture stronger, thinner windows using a pressurized hot
lamination process. We discuss the development of a specialty autoclave for
generating thin laminate vacuum windows and the optical and mechanical
characterization of full scale science grade windows, with the goal of
developing a new window suitable for BICEP Array cryostats and for future CMB
applications
The Electron Capture in Ho Experiment - a Short Update
The definition of the absolute neutrino mass scale is one of the main goals of the Particle Physics today. The study of the end-point regions of the β- and electron capture (EC) spectrum offers a possibility to determine the effective electron (anti-)neutrino mass in a completely model independent way, as it only relies on the energy and momentum conservation.
The ECHo (Electron Capture in 163Ho) experiment has been designed in the attempt to measure the effective mass of the electron neutrino by performing high statistics and high energy resolution measurements of the 163 Ho electron capture spectrum. To achieve this goal, large arrays of low temperature metallic magnetic calorimeters (MMCs) implanted with with 163Ho are used. Here we report on the structure and the status of the experiment
Gabapentin for the hemodynamic response to intubation: systematic review and meta-analysis
Purpose
Endotracheal intubation is the gold standard for securing the airway before surgery. Nevertheless, this procedure can produce an activation of the sympathetic nervous system and result in a hemodynamic response which, in high-risk patients, may lead to cardiovascular instability and myocardial ischemia. The aim of this review was to evaluate whether gabapentin can attenuate this response and whether such an attenuation could translate into reduced myocardial ischemia and mortality.
Source
We searched MEDLINE®, EMBASE™, CINAHL, AMED, and unpublished clinical trial databases for randomized-controlled trials that compared gabapentin with control, fentanyl, clonidine, or beta blockers for attenuating the hemodynamic response to intubation. Primary outcomes were mortality, myocardial infarction, and myocardial ischemia. Secondary outcomes were hemodynamic changes following intubation.
Principal findings
We included 29 randomized trials with only two studies at low risk of bias. No data were provided for the primary outcomes and no studies included high-risk patients. The use of gabapentin resulted in attenuation in the rise in mean arterial blood pressure [mean difference (MD), −12 mmHg; 95% confidence interval (CI), −17 to −8] and heart rate (MD, −8 beats·min−1; 95% CI, −11 to −5) one minute after intubation. Gabapentin also reduced the risk of hypertension or tachycardia requiring treatment (risk ratio, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.05 to 0.48). Data were limited on adverse hemodynamic events such as bradycardia and hypotension.
Conclusion
It remains unknown whether gabapentin improves clinically relevant outcomes such as death and myocardial infarction since studies failed to report on these. Nevertheless, gabapentin attenuated increases in heart rate and blood pressure following intubation when compared with the control group. Even so, the studies included in this review were at potential risk of bias. Moreover, they did not include high-risk patients or report adverse hemodynamic outcomes. Future studies are required to address these limitations
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