340 research outputs found

    Uncomfortably Numb: Finding Meaningful Agency and Resistance in a World without History, without Future, without End

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    As described by Jean Lyotard and Fredric Jameson, the present postmodern era is one in which transcendent narratives have been revealed as culturally constructed and hegemonic. In this postmodernity, people often feel a loss of history and meaning, as, according to Jameson, the very concept of an individual subject is called into question. Finding meaningful agency in such a world seems, at times, impossible. There is a received cultural assumption of powerlessness and meaninglessness that can be demonstrated metaphorically as zombies or bands of survivors wandering a post-apocalyptic world. This study looks at activist authors in the postmodern era, starting with the post-apocalyptic metaphor in Richard Matheson\u27s I Am Legend and Cormac McCarthy\u27s The Road. It then examines the contingency of historical narrative in the post-historical novels The Book of Daniel, by E. L. Doctorow and The Public Burning, by Robert Coover. Finally, it focuses on the paradox of transformation in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut. These authors metaphorically create the post-apocalyptic postmodern condition in different ways, yet all present the problem of finding meaningful agency within that condition. Applying the concept of contingency, rather than randomness, to postmodern existence, these works demonstrate meaningful agency in free contingent action. The postmodern condition has liberated characters from transcendent narratives, and the acting on that liberation allows for individual transformation from postmodern object (zombie) to individualized subject (human), and allows social transformation from masses to multitudes. Meaningful agency exists through the act of resistance itself

    Mitosis in Leaves

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    The Modernist Sublime: Parenthood and the Intersubjective Sublime Subject in Faulkner, Forster, Lawrence, and Woolf

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    This project explores how the modern novel restructures traditional conceptions of the Romantic sublime through complex depictions of parenthood. Using related strategies of representation, William Faulkner, E.M. Forster, D.H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf rewrite the traditional sublime as an intersubjective experience, dependent upon the recognition of social objectification and an ethics of reciprocal sympathy between mothers and fathers. Ultimately, The Modernist Sublime contributes to modernist scholarship by exploring the dynamics of modernist representations of parenthood and by focusing attention on how modernist authors reconsider the function of the sublime in the modern world.;Juxtaposing traditional aesthetics and Slavoj iek\u27s concept of the sublime object of ideology with recent theoretical work regarding identity, I argue that these modern novelists construct what I term a sublime subject (or a person who functions in the space of the traditional sublime object) in order to reveal the possibility of a sublime experience that favors emotional connection over reason. These novelists critique the objectification of the other in favor of a sublime experience that reveals the subject-shattering power of empathy. Drawing on Agamben\u27s concept of homo sacer, in As I Lay Dying, Faulkner reveals the mother as mater sacer, a woman who both enacts and receives acts of violence that show the ideological rituals regarding the abject mother. Employing recent queer theoretical work on the heteronormative family, Forster\u27s Howards End reveals the possibility of a queer family only through the interaction of a sublime subject. Perhaps more than any other author in this study, Lawrence presents marriage and the creation of family as a radical experience that results in mutual intersubjective sublime experiences through the generational pairings in The Rainbow. Finally, Woolf promotes sublime interactions between women as part of a feminist polemic embedded in To the Lighthouse. Tracing a transatlantic pattern, British and American modern novelists explore the possibility of human connection in direct confrontation to the aesthetic practice of objectification in both the traditional sublime and the theoretical discourse surrounding early twentieth century poetics

    The Ubiquitin Proteasome System Acutely Regulates Presynaptic Protein Turnover and Synaptic Efficacy

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    AbstractBackground: The ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) mediates regulated protein degradation and provides a mechanism for closely controling protein abundance in spatially restricted domains within cells. We hypothesized that the UPS may acutely determine the local concentration of key regulatory proteins at neuronal synapses as a means for locally modulating synaptic efficacy and the strength of neurotransmission communication.Results: We investigated this hypothesis at the Drosophila neuromuscular synapse by using an array of genetic and pharmacological tools. This study demonstrates that UPS components are present in presynaptic boutons and that the UPS functions locally in the presynaptic compartment to rapidly eliminate a conditional transgenic reporter of proteasome activity. We assayed a panel of synaptic proteins to determine whether the UPS acutely regulates the local abundance of native synaptic targets. Both acute pharmacological inhibition of the proteasome (<1 hr) and targeted genetic perturbation of proteasome function in the presynaptic neuron cause the specific accumulation of the essential synaptic vesicle-priming protein DUNC-13. Most importantly, acute pharmacological inhibition of the proteasome (<1 hr) causes a rapid strengthening of neurotransmission (an approximately 50% increase in evoked amplitude) because of increased presynaptic efficacy. The proteasome-dependent regulation of presynaptic protein abundance, both of the exogenous reporter and native DUNC-13, and the modulation of presynaptic neurotransmitter release occur on an intermediate, rapid (tens of minutes) timescale.Conclusions: Taken together, these studies demonstrate that the UPS functions locally within synaptic boutons to acutely control levels of presynaptic protein and that the rate of UPS-dependent protein degradation is a primary determinant of neurotransmission strength

    Postsynaptic membrane addition depends on the Discs-Large-interacting t-SNARE Gtaxin

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    Targeted membrane addition is a hallmark of many cellular functions. In the nervous system, modification of synaptic membrane size has a major impact on synaptic function. However, because of the complex shape of neurons and the need to target membrane addition to very small and polarized synaptic compartments, this process is poorly understood. Here, we show that Gtaxin (GTX), a Drosophila t-SNARE (target-soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor), is required for expansion of postsynaptic membranes during new synapse formation. Mutations in gtx lead to drastic reductions in postsynaptic membrane surface, whereas gtx upregulation results in the formation of complex membrane structures at ectopic sites. Postsynaptic GTX activity depends on its direct interaction with Discs-Large (DLG), a multidomain scaffolding protein of the PSD-95 (postsynaptic density protein-95) family with key roles in cell polarity and formation of cellular junctions as well as synaptic protein anchoring and trafficking. We show that DLG selectively determines the postsynaptic distribution of GTX to type I, but not to type II or type III boutons on the same cell, thereby defining sites of membrane addition to this unique set of glutamatergic synapses. We provide a mechanistic explanation for selective targeted membrane expansion at specific synaptic junctions

    A Comparative Study of Drosophila and Human A-Type Lamins

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    Nuclear intermediate filament proteins, called lamins, form a meshwork that lines the inner surface of the nuclear envelope. Lamins contain three domains: an N-terminal head, a central rod and a C-terminal tail domain possessing an Ig-fold structural motif. Lamins are classified as either A- or B-type based on structure and expression pattern. The Drosophila genome possesses two genes encoding lamins, Lamin C and lamin Dm0, which have been designated A- and B-type, respectively, based on their expression profile and structural features. In humans, mutations in the gene encoding A-type lamins are associated with a spectrum of predominantly tissue-specific diseases known as laminopathies. Linking the disease phenotypes to cellular functions of lamins has been a major challenge. Drosophila is being used as a model system to identify the roles of lamins in development. Towards this end, we performed a comparative study of Drosophila and human A-type lamins. Analysis of transgenic flies showed that human lamins localize predictably within the Drosophila nucleus. Consistent with this finding, yeast two-hybrid data demonstrated conservation of partner-protein interactions. Drosophila lacking A-type lamin show nuclear envelope defects similar to those observed with human laminopathies. Expression of mutant forms of the A-type Drosophila lamin modeled after human disease-causing amino acid substitutions revealed an essential role for the N-terminal head and the Ig-fold in larval muscle tissue. This tissue-restricted sensitivity suggests a conserved role for lamins in muscle biology. In conclusion, we show that (1) localization of A-type lamins and protein-partner interactions are conserved between Drosophila and humans, (2) loss of the Drosophila A-type lamin causes nuclear defects and (3) muscle tissue is sensitive to the expression of mutant forms of A-type lamin modeled after those causing disease in humans. These studies provide new insights on the role of lamins in nuclear biology and support Drosophila as a model for studies of human laminopathies involving muscle dysfunction

    Transfer characteristics of a thermosensory synapse in Caenorhabditis elegans

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    Caenorhabditis elegans is a compact, attractive system for neural circuit analysis. An understanding of the functional dynamics of neural computation requires physiological analyses. We undertook the characterization of transfer at a central synapse in C. elegans by combining optical stimulation of targeted neurons with electrophysiological recordings. We show that the synapse between AFD and AIY, the first stage in the thermotactic circuit, exhibits excitatory, tonic, and graded release. We measured the linear range of the input-output curve and estimate the static synaptic gain as 0.056 (<0.1). Release showed no obvious facilitation or depression. Transmission at this synapse is peptidergic. The AFD/AIY synapse thus seems to have evolved for reliable transmission of a scaled-down temperature signal from AFD, enabling AIY to monitor and integrate temperature with other sensory input. Combining optogenetics with electrophysiology is a powerful way to analyze C. elegans’ neural function
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