172 research outputs found
Around the world in eighty gays : retranslating Jules Verne from a queer perspective
No full textStudies of multiple causation of literary translation outcomes (e.g. Brownlie 2003,
2006) have found that individual translators may have a significant idiosyncratic input
into the form of the translated text, in tandem with other causal influences, including
the source text itself, translation norms and skopoi. The nature of translatorial selfinscription
and creativity may include an original deconstruction of a source text,
indeed, a radical reinterpretation of same. The translator Butcher has reinterpreted
Around the World in Eighty Days (1873/1995) in the context of its author Jules
Verne’s life history, original manuscripts of the French novel in question, prior to
subsequent expurgation by their publisher Hetzel, and textual clues themselves.
Butcher's Queer Studies readings have had an important influence on his translation
decisions. Examples of his translation solutions throughout this Verne novel are
discussed, and are seen to purposively accentuate perceived sexual and sometimes
specifically gay subtexts. This article also investigates, linguistically, the plausibility
of some of Butcher's controversial reinterpretations of the Verne imaginary
Around the world in eighty changes: a diachronic study of the multiple causality of six complete translations (1873-2004), from French to English, of Jules Verne's novel 'Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours' (1873)
No full textIdentification of potential antimicrobial targets of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms through a novel screening approach
No full textPseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen of considerable medical importance, owing to its pronounced antibiotic tolerance and association with cystic fibrosis and other life-threatening diseases. The aim of this study was to highlight the genes responsible for P. aeruginosa biofilm tolerance to antibiotics and thereby identify potential new targets for the development of drugs against biofilm-related infections. By developing a novel screening approach and utilizing a public P. aeruginosa transposon insertion library, several biofilm-relevant genes were identified. The Pf phage gene (PA0720) and flagellin gene (fliC) conferred biofilm-specific tolerance to gentamicin. Compared with the reference biofilms, the biofilms formed by PA0720 and fliC mutants were completely eliminated with a 4-fold-lower gentamicin concentration. Furthermore, the mreC, pprB, coxC, and PA3785 genes were demonstrated to play major roles in enhancing biofilm tolerance to gentamicin. The analysis of biofilm-relevant genes performed in this study provides important novel insights into the understanding of P. aeruginosa antibiotic tolerance, which will facilitate the detection of antibiotic resistance and the development of antibiofilm strategies against P. aeruginosa. IMPORTANCE Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen of high medical importance and is one of the main pathogens responsible for the mortality of patients with cystic fibrosis. In addition to inherited antibiotic resistance, P. aeruginosa can form biofilms, defined as communities of microorganisms embedded in a self-produced matrix of extracellular polymeric substances adhering to each other and/or to a surface. Biofilms protect bacteria from antibiotic treatments and represent a major reason for antibiotic failure in the treatment of chronic infections caused by cystic fibrosis. Therefore, it is crucial to develop new therapeutic strategies aimed at specifically eradicating biofilms. The aim of this study was to generalize a novel screening method for biofilm research and to identify the possible genes involved in P. aeruginosa biofilm tolerance to antibiotics, both of which could improve the understanding of biofilm-related infections and allow for the identification of relevant therapeutic targets for drug development.</p
Role of the flagellar hook in the structural development and antibiotic tolerance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms
No full textPseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms exhibit an intrinsic resistance to antibiotics and constitute a considerable clinical threat. In cystic fibrosis, a common feature of biofilms formed by P. aeruginosa in the airway is the occurrence of mutants deficient in flagellar motility. This study investigates the impact of flagellum deletion on the structure and antibiotic tolerance of P. aeruginosa biofilms, and highlights a role for the flagellum in adaptation and cell survival during biofilm development. Mutations in the flagellar hook protein FlgE influence greatly P. aeruginosa biofilm structuring and antibiotic tolerance. Phenotypic analysis of the flgE knockout mutant compared to the wild type (WT) reveal increased fitness under planktonic conditions, reduced initial adhesion but enhanced formation of microcolony aggregates in a microfluidic environment, and decreased expression of genes involved in exopolysaccharide formation. Biofilm cells of the flgE knock-out mutant display enhanced tolerance towards multiple antibiotics, whereas its planktonic cells show similar resistance to the WT. Confocal microscopy of biofilms demonstrates that gentamicin does not affect the viability of cells located in the inner part of the flgE knock-out mutant biofilms due to reduced penetration. These findings suggest that deficiency in flagellar proteins like FlgE in biofilms and in cystic fibrosis infections represent phenotypic and evolutionary adaptations that alter the structure of P. aeruginosa biofilms conferring increased antibiotic tolerance
Spatiotemporal pattern formation in E. coli biofilms explained by a simple physical energy balance
No full textInternational audienceWhile the biofilm growth mode conveys notable thriving advantages to bacterial populations, the mechanisms of biofilm formation are still strongly debated. Here, we investigate the remarkable spontaneous formation of regular spatial patterns during the growth of an Escherichia coli biofilm. These patterns reported here appear with non-motile bacteria, which excludes both chemotactic origins and other motility-based ones. We demonstrate that a minimal physical model based on phase separation describes them well. To confirm the predictive capacity of our model, we tune the cell-cell and cell-surface interactions using cells expressing different surface appendages. We further explain how F pilus-bearing cells enroll their wild type kindred, poorly piliated, into their typical pattern when mixed together. This work supports the hypothesis that purely physicochemical processes, such as the interplay of cell-cell and cell-surface interactions, can drive the emergence of a highly organized spatial structure that is potentially decisive for community fate and for biological functions
Meta-analyses identify 13 loci associated with age at menopause and highlight DNA repair and immune pathways
No full textTo newly identify loci for age at natural menopause, we carried out a meta-analysis of 22 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in 38,968 women of European descent, with replication in up to 14,435 women. In addition to four known loci, we identified 13 loci newly associated with age at natural menopause (at P < 5 × 10(-8)). Candidate genes located at these newly associated loci include genes implicated in DNA repair (EXO1, HELQ, UIMC1, FAM175A, FANCI, TLK1, POLG and PRIM1) and immune function (IL11, NLRP11 and PRRC2A (also known as BAT2)). Gene-set enrichment pathway analyses using the full GWAS data set identified exoDNase, NF-κB signaling and mitochondrial dysfunction as biological processes related to timing of menopause
The fluorescence enhancement of 1-anilinonaphthalene-8-sulfonate (ANS) by modified beta-cyclodextrins
No full textThe fluorescence enhancement of the probe molecule 1-anilino-8-naphthalenesulfonate (ANS) by a number of modified beta-cyclodextrins has been studied. Alkyl-and hydroxyalkyl-substituted beta-cyclodextrins show significantly greater enhancement of ANS fluorescence than does the parent unmodified beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD). In the cases of methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (Me-beta) and hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodentrin (HP-beta), enhancements by a factor of 120 and 180, respectively, were observed for ANS fluorescence, compared to a factor of only 8.4 in the case of beta-CD The binding constant for formation of the 1:1 ANS:CD complex was determined to be 370 +/- 80 M-1 for Me-beta and 430 +/- 70 M-1 for HP-beta. The large increase in enhancement ability was shown to be a result of the relatively less polar environment experienced by the ANS probe incorporated in the modified as compared to the unmodified cyclodextrin cavities. The dielectric constants of the HP-beta and Me-beta cavities experienced by the included ANS were found to be 22 and 25, respectively. These polarities are similar to that of ethanol, whereas that of beta-CD was found to be 54, a polarity similar to that of a 3.1 methanol:water mixture. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.PT: J; CR: BENESI HA, 1949, J AM CHEM SOC, V71, P2703 BICZOK L, 1994, J INCLUS PHENOM MOL, V18, P237 BORTOLUS P, 1996, ADV PHOTOCH, V21, P1 BRIGHT FV, 1990, J AM CHEM SOC, V112, P1343 CATENA GC, 1989, ANAL CHEM, V61, P905 CHAKRABARTI SK, 1971, J CHEM PHYS, V55, P5494 COX GS, 1984, J AM CHEM SOC, V106, P422 CRAMER F, 1967, J AM CHEM SOC, V89, P14 CROFT AP, 1983, TETRAHEDRON, V39, P1417 DELAPENA AM, 1993, J INCLUS PHENOM MOL, V15, P131 EDDAOUDI M, 1996, J CHEM SOC PERK MAY, P955 ENGLMAN R, 1970, MOL PHYS, V18, P145 FEMIA RA, 1985, ENVIRON SCI TECHNOL, V19, P155 FRANKE J, 1985, J INCLUSION PHENOM, V3, P471 FRANKEWICH RP, 1991, ANAL CHEM, V63, P2924 FUJITA K, 1988, CHEM LETT, P1947 HAMAI S, 1988, J PHYS CHEM-US, V92, P6140 HAMAI S, 1990, J PHYS CHEM-US, V94, P2595 HANSEN JE, 1992, J PHYS CHEM-US, V96, P6904 HARADA A, 1977, MACROMOLECULES, V10, P676 HEREDIA A, 1985, J CHEM SOC CHEM COMM, P1814 HUANG JF, 1990, J PHYS CHEM-US, V94, P8457 HUANG JF, 1992, APPL SPECTROSC, V46, P606 ITO N, 1996, J CHEM SOC PERK MAY, P965 JULES O, 1985, ANAL CHIM ACTA, V169, P355 KONIG WA, 1991, NEW TRENDS CYCLODEXT, CH16 KOSOWER EM, 1975, J AM CHEM SOC, V97, P2167 LERNER DA, 1989, ANAL CHIM ACTA, V227, P297 LI S, 1992, CHEM REV, V92, P1457 LIAO Y, 1996, J PHYS CHEM-US, V100, P734 LITWILER KS, 1992, APPL SPECTROSC, V46, P169 LOVE LJC, 1985, ANAL CHIM ACTA, V170, P3 NAKAMURA A, 1989, CHEM LETT, P2209 NAKAMURA A, 1991, CHEM PHYS LETT, V187, P110 NIGAM S, 1996, J PHYS CHEM-US, V100, P7135 PAGINGTON JS, 1987, CHEM BRIT, V23, P455 PARK JW, 1989, J PHYS CHEM-US, V93, P6454 PENN SG, 1994, J CHROMATOGR A, V680, P233 RAMAMURTHY V, 1988, ACCOUNTS CHEM RES, V21, P300 REEUWIJK HJEM, 1993, J CHROMATOGR-BIOMED, V614, P95 ROBINSON GW, 1978, J AM CHEM SOC, V100, P7145 SAENGER W, 1980, ANGEW CHEM INT EDIT, V19, P344 SANRAME CN, 1996, J PHYS CHEM-US, V100, P8151 SCHNEIDER HJ, 1991, J AM CHEM SOC, V113, P1996 STREET KW, 1988, APPL SPECTROSC, V42, P1315 TABUSHI I, 1976, J AM CHEM SOC, V98, P7855 UENO A, 1990, ANAL CHEM, V62, P2461 VAZQUEZ ML, 1991, ANAL CHIM ACTA, V255, P343 WAGNER BD, 1992, J PHYS CHEM-US, V96, P7904 WONG M, 1976, J AM CHEM SOC, V98, P2391; NR: 50; TC: 23; J9: J PHOTOCHEM PHOTOBIOL A-CHEM; PG: 7; GA: ZH118Source type: Electronic(1
RESTORATION OF MOTOR AND NON-MOTOR FUNCTIONS BY NEUROTROPHIC FACTORS IN NONHUMAN PRIMATES WITH DOPAMINE DEPLETION
No full textParkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive debilitating neurodegenerative disorder characterized by resting tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia and postural instability. As the disease progresses there is a loss of dopamine (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra projecting to the various forebrain and sub-cortical regions. Current treatments for PD are unable to prevent or curtail the neurodegenerative process; so rescuing remaining dopamine in the mid-brain has been the recent focus of research examining the effectiveness of neurotrophic factors (NTFs) in the treatment of PD. In this dissertation, the ability of three novel, recently discovered NTFs to restore DA neurons and motor function in a nonhuman primate model of PD was examined. The NTFs were Cerebral Dopamine Neurotrophic Factor (CDNF) and two variants of Neurturin (NRTN), N2 and N4, that have mutations that prevent binding to heparin sulfate binding sites in the brain. These studies used the unilateral low dose (0.15 ± 0.001 mg/kg) monkey 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) model of PD to cause loss of DA neurons. Six groups of monkeys were studied: vehicle-treated (negative control), Glial Cell-line Derived Neurotropic Factor (GDNF, positive control), two groups of CDNF-treated monkeys (450 μg and 150 μg), and N2 and N4-treated groups. After MPTP, monkeys developed moderate symptoms of PD (PD rating scale score=7.9±0.5 on a scale of 0-22, p<0.001), motor dysfunction and increased daytime sleepiness. After three months of infusions, all three NTFs (150 μg CDNF, N2 and N4) significantly increased the number of DA neurons in the substantia nigra, p=0.03, and improved parkinsonian symptoms measured by rating scale, p<0.001. Most motor functions were significantly correlated with the number of DA neurons in the substantia nigra. N4 significantly improved daytime sleep duration, bouts and wake-latency (p=0.02, p=0.06 and p=0.02, respectively). In summary, CDNF, N2 and N4 trophic factors are neurorestorative to DA neurons, motor function is tightly correlated with DA neuronal number, and N4 improved the non-motor symptom of increased daytime sleepiness in this monkey PD model. These factors hold promise for clinical therapy for PD patients
Agricultural extension - generic challenges and the ingredients for solutions
No full textIs agricultural extension in developing countries up to the task of providing the information, ideas, and organization needed to meet food needs? What role should governments play in implementing or facilitating extension services? Roughly 80 percent of the world's extension is publicly funded and delivered by civil servants, providing a range of services to the farming population, commercial producers, and disadvantaged target groups. Budgetary constraints and concerns about performance create pressure to show the payoff on investment in extension and to explore alternatives to publicly providing it. The authors analyze the challenges facing policymakers who must decide what role governments should play in implementing or facilitating extension services. Focusing on developing country experience, they identify generic challenges that make it difficult to organize extension: a) The magnitude of the task. b) Dependence on wider policy and other agency functions. c) Problems in identifying the cause and effect needed to enable accountability and to get political support and funding. d) Liability for public service functions beyond the transfer of agricultural knowledge and information. e) Fiscal sustainability. f) Inadequate interaction with knowledge generators. The authors show how various extension approaches were developed in attempts to overcome the challenges of extension: 1) Improving extension management. 2) Decentralizing. 3) Focusing on single commodities. 4) Providing free-for-service public extension services. 5) Establishing institutional pluralism. 6) Empowering people by using participatory approaches. 7) Using appropriate media. Each of the approaches has weaknesses and strengths, and in their analysis the authors identify the ingredients that show promise. Rural people know when something is relevant and effective. The aspects of agricultural extension services that tend to be inherently low cost and build reciprocal, mutually trusting relationships are those most likely to produce commitment, accountability, political support, fiscal sustainability, and the kinds of effective interaction that generate knowledge.ICT Policy and Strategies,Decentralization,Enterprise Development&Reform,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Agricultural Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,ICT Policy and Strategies,Agricultural Research
Schooling for 'lesser beings'
No full textUsing Edward Said’s notion of ‘lesser beings’, it is argued that the political culture of schooling for Maori was and still is part of a pervasive Western European intellectual climate and culture which has a quite recent history, and which provided powerful support for the notion of Europe possessing a categorical superiority over all other continents, which in turn justified imperialism or neo-colonialism as civilising missions.
Racism and violence were endemic in colonialism and, despite the claimed moral high ground, were endemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand. War was eulogised in the Native School system more than once. The rise and demise of the World War II Maori War Organisation is illustrative of the rejection of Maori aspirations. There were still no Maori in the senior echelons of the Maori Department in 1972.
The Native, later Maori, School system was overtly designed to 'Europeanise' Maori children and therefore Maori society. Individualism was deeply embedded in English and set-tler thinking, whilst communal, ‘communist’ Maori society was to be destroyed.
The thesis examines images of colonialism, empire and imperialism in fiction and non-fiction, New Zealand and British, for adults and children, and notes the attitudes of think-ers like J S Mill and Darwin, of children’s authors Jules Verne and G H Henty, and of New Zealand author William Satchell. The images continue, pervasive and endemic, in recent adult novels. Science also played a role, as did history.
Ranginui Walker, who is Maori, is the only historian to have written a history of New Zea-land which addressed the issue of waste lands, an issue on which Pakeha historians have a blind spot. New Zealand encyclopedia do not index ‘waste land’ or ‘confiscation’. Only two Waikato histories deal adequately, or even accurately, with confiscation, the central episode in the history of the Waikato. Tourist material is equally illustrative.
The Native Schools section of the Education Department ran the Native Schools like a fiefdom, operating in legislative and regulatory black holes for the first thirty years and for much of the time after that. Teachers were moved around at will.
The practice of James H Pope, the first inspector of Native Schools, is closely and critically examined, and negatively assessed. His official writings were consistently derogatory of Maori, and his decisions in respect of Te Kopua Native School were at times detrimental to the pupils. Pope was a product of his times.
The Te Kopua record is closely scrutinised, and the practice of the Education Department is frequently found wanting. It is probable that the establishment of the school was aimed to destabilise King Country Maori, not to benefit the children. It is a story of Maori co-operation and contribution.
Part Two is a detailed partial biography of Te Kopua, it being argued that until there is a significant corpus of studies of Native Schools a valid history of the Native/Maori School system and of schooling for Maori is not possibl
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