Shapeshifting and Sexuality: A Critical Autoethnography of a Selkie

Shapeshifting lore has provided a rich and evocative way to explore human experiences across many different cultures. This author utilizes the mythology of selkies to unpack the perspective of a white queer woman who is dealing with issues of racial privilege, heteronormativity, and patriarchal oppression. Utilizing performative writing and autoethnographic method, the author creates an argument for the integration of intersectional practices within the work of queer theorists, as well as for resistance against assimilation

Inside Families : Review of Laura Briggs, How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics

The shift to neoliberalism is rarely narrated from the vantage point of the household, but it is here – in the realm of unpaid bills and mounting laundry – that the contradictions of our political moment are felt most forcefully, writes Laura Briggs. Her US-focused book, How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics, retells the story of neoliberal economics 'from inside families' and reframes its legacy through the lens of the care crisis. How did it get so hard, Briggs asks, to find the time and resources to do the necessary work of reproduction? The institutionalisation of the 'double day' – the site of one of feminism's great unfinished battles – has, she observes, eroded Americans' collective capacity to have and raise children, care for the elderly and support the sick and disabled. In Briggs' account, the neoliberal economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s curtailed the dissenting energies of twentieth-century radical protest movements: this is the historical moment at which 'all politics became reproductive politics'. It is a controversial headline claim: after all, has there ever been a time under capitalism when 'all politics' were not shot through with the contradictions of social reproduction? The book never fully confronts this question, though it does paint a dynamic portrait of the structural contradictions that attend the contemporary organisation of care work in America

Investigation of nucleation and crystal growth kinetics of nickel manganese oxalates

The nucleation and the crystal growth rates of mixed nickel manganese oxalates have been determined from the changes of the ionic concentration of the solution and the crystal size distribution during the precipitation process within a supersaturation range 0–0.1 M. Thermodynamic solubility calculations have been used to identify the different species contributing the precipitation reaction and for estimation of the thermodynamic constant. Experimental data show that the nucleation rate of mixed nickel manganese oxalate in this supersaturation range is consistent with a primary heterogeneous mechanism and was found to obey to an exponential law. The crystal growth rates indicate a surface-integration-controlled mechanism with a first-order law with respect to the supersaturation

Mitoparans: mitochondriotoxic cell penetrating peptides and novel inducers of apoptosis.

Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Keith Holding at the University of Wolverhampton for his outstanding technical support. This work was supported in part by Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust.Introduction: The amphipathic helical peptide mastoparan (MP; H-INLKALAALAKKIL-NH2) inserts into biological membranes to modulate the activity of heterotrimeric G proteins and other targets. Moreover, whilst cell free models of apoptosis demonstrate MP to facilitate mitochondrial permeability transition and release of apoptogenic cytochrome c, MP-induced death of intact cells has been attributed to its non-specific membrane destabilising properties (necrotic mechanisms). However, MP and related peptides are known to activate other signalling systems, including p42/p44 MAP kinases and could therefore, also modulate cell fate and specific apoptotic events. The ability of MP to facilitate mitochondrial permeability in cell free systems has lead to proposals that MP could be of utility in tumour therapeutics provided that it conferred features of cellular penetration and mitochondrial localization. We have recently reported that our highly potent amphipathic MP analogue mitoparan (mitP; [Lys5,8Aib10]MP; Aib = -aminoisobutyric acid) specifically promotes apoptosis of human cancer cells, as was confirmed by in situ TUNEL staining and activation of caspase-3. Moreover, we have also demonstrated that mitP penetrates plasma membranes and redistributes to co-localize with mitochondria. Complementary studies, using isolated mitochondria, further demonstrated that mitP, through co-operation with a protein of the permeability transition pore complex voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC), induced swelling and permeabilization of mitochondria, leading to the release of the apoptogenic factor cytochrome c. An expanding field of peptide and cell penetrating peptide (CPP) research has focussed on the selective targeting of tumours by engineering constructs that incorporate cell-specific or tissue–specific address motifs. Peptidyl address motifs could enhance the selectivity of drug delivery whilst the improved cellular uptake offered by CPP enhances bioavailability. Thus and as a potential therapeutic strategy, we extended our findings to design target-specific mitP analogues. The integrin-specific address motif RGD and a Fas ligand mimetic WEWT were incorporated by N-terminal acylation of mitP to produce novel tandem-linked chimeric peptides

Intersectionality and Disability

People with identified disabilities intersect every part of humanity – socioeconomic status, ethnicity, culture, geography, et al. – and are entitled to appropriate accommodations in public spaces. Sometimes, more often than we might expect, the accommodations we provide for individuals are beneficial to a much larger group because of this intersectionality. The presenters will offer research and practical information and will discuss with the audience how different accommodations in public spaces, in our classrooms – kindergarten through higher education – can have a larger impact and provide access and support for all. We will present research-based information and include the practical application of the research in hopes of encouraging thought and hopefully, practice