186 research outputs found
Critical intimacy: an interview with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
No full text
Purpose
This paper is an interview with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, whose work is inspiration for this special issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Public radio interview methodology was used.
Findings
This paper provides autobiographical reflections by Spivak.
Practical implications
The paper provides a glimpse into Spivak’s reflections on her life and work and its impact on her practice.
Originality/value
This is an excerpt of a previously published interview, included here by permission, and adds value to the special issue with insights from the author of “Can the Subaltern Speak?”.
</jats:sec
Role of the Drosophila Melanogaster Indirect Flight Muscles in Flight and Male Courtship Song: Studies on Flightin and Mydson Light Chain-2
No full textComplex behaviors using wings have facilitated the insect evolutionary success and diversification. The Drosophila indirect flight muscles (IFM) have evolved a highly ordered myofilament lattice structure and uses oscillatory contractions by pronounced stretch activation mechanism to drive the wings for high powered flight subject to natural selection. Moreover, the IFM is also utilized during small amplitude wing vibrations for species-specific male courtship song (sine and pulse), an important Drosophila mating behavior subject to sexual selection. Unlike flight, the contractile mechanism and contribution of any muscle gene in courtship song is not known. To gain insight into how separate selection regimes are manifested at the molecular level, we investigated the effect on flight and mating behaviors of mutations in two contractile proteins essential for IFM functions: an IFM-specific protein, flightin (FLN), known to be essential for structural and mechanical integrity of the IFM, and a ubiquitous muscle protein, myosin regulatory light chain (MLC2), known to enhance IFM stretch activation. Comparison of FLN sequences across Drosophila spp., reveal a dual nature with the N-terminal region (63 aa) evolving faster (dN/dS=0.4) than the rest of the protein (dN/dS=0.08). A deletion of the N-terminal region (flnΔN62) resulted in reduced IFM fiber stiffness, oscillatory work and power output leading to a decreased flight ability (flight score: 2.8±0.1 vs 4.2±0.4 for fln+ rescued control) despite a normal wing beat frequency. Interestingly, the FLN N-terminal deletion reduced myofilament lattice spacing and order suggesting that this region is required to improve IFM lattice for enhancing power output and flight performance. Moreover, flnΔN62 males sing the pulse song abnormally with a longer interpulse interval (IPI, 56±2.5 vs 37±0.7 ms for fln+) and a reduced pulse duty cycle (PDC, 2.6±0.2 vs 7.3±0.2 % for fln+) resulting in a 92% reduction in their courtship success. This suggested that FLN N-terminal region fine-tunes sexually selected song parameters in D. melanogaster, possibly explaining its hypervariability under positive selection. That FLN N-terminal region is not essential but required to optimize IFM functions of both flight and song, indicate that FLN could be an evolutionary innovation for IFM-driven behaviors, possibly through its role in lattice improvement. Mutations of the highly conserved MLC2 [N-terminal 46 aa deletion (Ext), disruption of myosin light chain kinase phosphorylations (Phos), and the two mutations put together (Dual)] are known to impair or abolish flight through severe reductions in acto-myosin contractile kinetics and magnitude of the stretch activation response. Unlike FLN, these MLC2 mutations do not show a pleitropic effect on flight and song. Flight abolished Phos and Dual mutants are capable of singing suggesting that these mutations affect song minimally compared to flight. Moreover, unlike FLN, none of these mutations affect interpulse interval, the most critical sexually selected song parameter in Drosophila. Also, in contrary to the known additive effects of Ext and Phos in the Dual mutant on flight wing beat frequency, a subtractive effect on sine song frequency is found in this study. That mutations in MLC2 are manifested differently for song and flight suggest that stretch activation plays a minimal or no role in song production. The results in this study suggest that the conserved regions of FLN and MLC2 are essential to support underlying IFM contractile structure and function necessary for flight, whereas the fast evolving FLN N-terminal region optimizes IFM's biological performance in flight and species-specific song possibly under positive selection regime.BiologyDoctor of Philosophy (PhD
Clinical Utility of Transcriptome Sequencing: Toward a Better Diagnosis for Mendelian Disorders
No full textGene and Variant Annotation for Mendelian Disorders in the Era of Advanced Sequencing Technologies
No full text Comprehensive annotations of genetic and noncoding regions and corresponding accurate variant classification for Mendelian diseases are the next big challenge in the new genomic era of personalized medicine. Progress in the development of faster and more accurate pipelines for genome annotation and variant classification will lead to the discovery of more novel disease associations and candidate therapeutic targets. This ultimately will facilitate better patient recruitment in clinical trials. In this review, we describe the trends in research at the intersection of basic and clinical genomics that aims to increase understanding of overall genomic complexity, complex inheritance patterns of disease, and patient-phenotype-specific genomic associations. We describe the emerging field of translational functional genomics, which integrates other functional “-omics” approaches that support next-generation sequencing genomic data in order to facilitate personalized diagnostics, disease management, biomarker discovery, and medicine. We also discuss the utility of this integrated approach for diagnostic clinics and medical databases and its role in the future of personalized medicine. </jats:p
Remnants and Revenants: politics and violence in the work of Agamben and Derrida
No full textThis is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Frazer, Elizabeth, and Kimberly Hutchings. "Remnants and revenants: politics and violence in the work of Agamben and Derrida." The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 13.2 (2011): 127-144, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-856X.2010.00428.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.Jacques Derrida and Giorgio Agamben both consider the question of whether there can be politics without violence, offering contrasting responses. In the case of Agamben, the remnant (that which remains) is disruptive and destabilising of present institutions; in the case of Derrida the revenant, the spectre, promises a future that is open. This reading of the two theories suggests that Derrida's response to the question of politics and violence is more persuasive than Agamben's. But the abstraction of his argument, like the tensions and contradictions in Agamben's, means that we are not hereby furnished with the resources to think politically about violence
Adopting lean manufacturing techniques in small and medium manufacturing enterprises
No full textSmall and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) form a significant part of national and
regional economic prosperity. They strengthen the capacity to generate employment
and wealth for national and regional benefit. The importance of SMEs to the
prosperity of a society and their contribution to new job creation, coupled with the
recognition that they seem to underperform highlights the need to assist this group of
companies improve their performance.
During the course of this research the author investigated whether SME manufacturing
organisations had opportunities to improve productivity and performance, conducted a
literature review of the application of cellular one piece flow and then tested a model to
implement cellular one piece flow with three SME manufacturing organisations.
This thesis establishes that SME manufacturing organisations do have opportunities to
improve productivity and performance through cellular one piece flow
Governance and economic growth
No full textBecause protection of property rights cannot be appropriated by any individual, it is widely recognized as being the state's responsibility. Moreover, recent empirical evidence suggests that protection of property rights leads to higher investment levels and faster growth. The extent of property rights protection differs significantly across countries. The author integrates the emergence of property rights within a simple growth framework. Drawing on North (1990), he presents a model where economic performance and enforcement of property rights may reinforce each other.Initial conditions determine the economy's convergence to a high-income or a low-income steady state. Existing empirical evidence offers tentative support for this theory.Judicial System Reform,Labor Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Common Property Resource Development,Economic Theory&Research,Inequality,Common Property Resource Development,Environmental Economics&Policies,Governance Indicators
- …
