Close Off Research Articles

Expectant futures and an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: Knowing and its consequences

Efforts to diagnose Alzheimer's disease (AD) at earlier stages as a means to managing the risks of an ageing population, dominate scientific research and healthcare policy in the UK. It is anticipated that early diagnosis will maximise treatment options and enable patients to 'prepare for their future' in terms of care. Drawing on qualitative data gathered across an out-patient memory service and in-patient hospital in the UK, the purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which the hopeful promissory claims of early diagnosis as it maintains the dominant biomedical model for managing AD, are negotiated by healthcare practitioners. Developing the analytical standpoint of the sociology of expectations, this paper demonstrates that early diagnosis has the potential to ‘close off’ hopeful promissory visions of the future in two ways. Firstly, it (re)produces the fearful anticipations of AD built around expectations concerning the ageing future ‘self’, and secondly it produces uncertainty in terms of the availability of care as material resource. Whilst practitioners account for the uncertainties and anxieties it produces for patients and their families, they also convey a sense of ambivalence concerning early diagnosis. This article captures the internal conflicts and contradictions inherent to practitioners' perspectives regarding the repercussions of early diagnosis and concludes by arguing that it effaces the uncertainties and anxieties that it produces in practice as it restricts the co-existence of narratives for making sense of memory loss beyond ‘loss of self’, and fails to recognise care as a viable alternative for managing AD.

Artistic Challenges within Control Societies: Big Data and Democratic Resistance

This paper will first briefly map out the shift from disciplinary to control societies (what I call designer capitalism, the idea of control comes from Gilles Deleuze) in relation to surveillance and mediation of life through screen cultures. The paper then shifts to the issues of digitalization in relation to big data that have the danger of continuing to close off life as zoë, that is life that is creative rather than captured via attention technologies through marketing techniques and surveillance. The last part of this paper then develops the way artists are able to resist the big data archive by turning the data in on itself to offer viewers and participants a glimpse of the current state of manipulating desire and maintaining copy right in order to keep the future closed rather than being potentially open.

Artistic Challenges within Control Societies: Big Data and Democratic Resistance

This paper will first briefly map out the shift from disciplinary to control societies (what I call designer capitalism, the idea of control comes from Gilles Deleuze) in relation to surveillance and mediation of life through screen cultures. The paper then shifts to the issues of digitalization in relation to big data that have the danger of continuing to close off life as zoë, that is life that is creative rather than captured via attention technologies through marketing techniques and surveillance. The last part of this paper then develops the way artists are able to resist the big data archive by turning the data in on itself to offer viewers and participants a glimpse of the current state of manipulating desire and maintaining copy right in order to keep the future closed rather than being potentially open.

A case study of bicycle theft on the Washington DC Metrorail system using a Routine Activities and Crime Pattern theory framework

This article employs Routine Activities and Crime Pattern theories to explore the factors that lead to increased risk of bike theft, focusing on Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority Metrorail (Metro) property. Utilizing the Metro bike census and other data, we use negative binomial regression analysis to model the relationship between bike thefts and various station- and neighborhood-level risk factors that can either create or close off opportunities for bike thefts. The findings indicate that bike thefts around Metro stations are positively influenced by the number of targets, as measured by the number of bikes per station, and the presence of likely offenders, as measured by the volume of auto-related larcenies. Stations that have greater guardianship, as measured by the number of nearby businesses, are less likely to experience bike theft. The implications of these findings for theory, methodological considerations, and crime prevention are discussed. We suggest that bike racks can be placed in locations with greater informal guardianship, and discuss ways our findings can inform traditional interventions such as bike locking campaigns.

Overview and Design Considerations of Storm Surge Barriers

The risk of flooding in coastal zones is expected to increase due to sea level rise and economic development. In larger bays, estuaries, and coastal waterways, storm surge barriers can be constructed to temporarily close off these systems during storm surges to provide coastal flood protection. Worldwide, 18 storm surge barriers have been constructed thus far, but they are increasingly being considered as a future solution for other coastal locations. This study provides a systematic overview of existing storm surge barriers. It analyzes information about the main functions of each barrier, the type of gates used, and the associated costs. It also shows that functional requirements determine the design and layout of the barrier. The main design challenges are discussed. The study results may be of use in future planning and preliminary storm surge barrier design

Veterans and military masculinity in popular romance fiction

ABSTRACTAlthough popular culture has become an important area of study in international relations, few scholars so far have turned their attention to popular romance fiction, despite its popularity among readers. Through an analysis of contemporary category romances featuring military heroes, and combining the scholarship on popular romance fiction with that of security studies, I open a new area of study for scholars of security. I argue that the structure of the romance genre – which requires the hero and heroine to fall and love and be happy at the end of the novel – reinforces particular kinds of politics. First, the focus on intimate relationships closes off broader critiques of global politics. Second, the focus on the home front reinforces the idea that there is no possible distinction between a peaceful home front to be protected and an international space of war. Third, heroes dealing with grief, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other problems of a return to civilian life after deployment are portrayed as turning chaos into quest, again through a courtship narrative. Because of the familiar settings and stories that ‘feel true’, popular romance fiction is a site for the reproduction of specific kinds of military masculinity and military families. While these fictional accounts can have the beneficial effect of providing more nuanced portrayals of possible intimate lives of soldiers, they also close off critiques of politics and help to order a resilient, war-ready society and reinforce these images among readers who may not otherwise seek out non-fictional stories about the military.

Displaying Garbage: Installations as Spaces of Domination and Resistance

Contemporary artistic installations presenting the detritus of everyday life are an increasingly popular method of raising awareness of what we produce, consume, and throw away. As social critique, these displays examine the political and economic causes and consequences of waste production and resulting ecological degradation. Drawing on Herbert Marcuse’s conceptions of aesthetics, liberation, and ecology in capitalism, this article attempts to discern where we might find hope, encouragement, and active imagination of another possible future through artistic installations. This article cautions that garbage art may both open and close off creative and imaginative spaces for transformation to a liberated society. Differentiating between two categories of art installations, this article explores how installations can reflect back to us our complicated relationship with waste and consumer culture, raising questions as to how the aesthetic realm might serve as a springboard for critique of capitalism.

Mechanistic Basis of Glutaminase Activation: A KEY ENZYME THAT PROMOTES GLUTAMINE METABOLISM IN CANCER CELLS

Glutamine-derived carbon becomes available for anabolic biosynthesis in cancer cells via the hydrolysis of glutamine to glutamate, as catalyzed by GAC, a splice variant of kidney-type glutaminase (GLS). Thus, there is significant interest in understanding the regulation of GAC activity, with the suggestion being that higher order oligomerization is required for its activation. We used x-ray crystallography, together with site-directed mutagenesis, to determine the minimal enzymatic unit capable of robust catalytic activity. Mutagenesis of the helical interface between the two pairs of dimers comprising a GAC tetramer yielded a non-active, GAC dimer whose x-ray structure displays a stationary loop (“activation loop”) essential for coupling the binding of allosteric activators like inorganic phosphate to catalytic activity. Further mutagenesis that removed constraints on the activation loop yielded a constitutively active dimer, providing clues regarding how the activation loop communicates with the active site, as well as with a peptide segment that serves as a “lid” to close off the active site following substrate binding. Our studies show that the formation of large GAC oligomers is not a pre-requisite for full enzymatic activity. They also offer a mechanism by which the binding of activators like inorganic phosphate enables the activation loop to communicate with the active site to ensure maximal rates of catalysis, and promotes the opening of the lid to achieve optimal product release. Moreover, these findings provide new insights into how other regulatory events might induce GAC activation within cancer cells.

Reshaping Gender Norms in Post-Genocide Rwanda

In instances of widespread conflict and mass atrocities, socially prescribed and perpetuated gender roles often begin to dissolve alongside the rule of law and state institutions. Mass violence tears at the social fabric of the community and accepted norms of gendered behavior are suspended. Recent conflicts, including the genocide in Rwanda, have created a temporary space for the inclusion of women in previously restricted public spheres and capacities. Rwanda stands out as unique because these changes were not temporary. Following the end of the genocide, Rwanda's state organs, nongovernmental organizations, and community members did not close off these public spaces or advocate for the return of girls and women to pre-genocide gender structures and patriarchal practices. This paper will analyze Rwanda's gender mainstreaming and gender equality initiatives, identifying three influential factors, and make recommendations for the replication of Rwanda's success in other post-conflict countries.

Ageism Against Older U.S. College Students: A View from Social Closure Theory

This paper examines ageism among older students in U.S. higher education. Ageism involves any uncalled-for reaction to any age and does not require racism and sexism to exist. Social closure theory is the research framework used in this analysis. The theory posits that specific parties (i.e., in-groups) gain benefits by closing off favorable circumstances to others (i.e., out-groups). Adult undergraduates have encountered a vast amount of neglect in terms of their learning interests and styles. Universities attempt to fulfill the needs of adult learners, but a certain number of them “close off” those adult students when it comes to public policies and objectives, making them more invisible. An important conclusion of this analysis is that drug policies and social restrictions can represent a burden for certain groups, like African American male ex-prisoners, who want to go to college. This is why it is vital for college staff to find and create more options for effectively engaging older students in the college environment.

DIRECT AND CROOKED DEMOCRACY

DIRECT AND CROOKED DEMOCRACY

Syrian refugees in Turkey: from “guests” to “enemies”?

AbstractSince the war erupted in Syria in 2011, Turkey has followed an “open door” policy toward Syrian refugees. The Turkish government has been promoting this liberal policy through a humanitarian discourse that leads one to expect that Syrian refugees have not been securitized in Turkey. This article, however, argues that a security framework that emphasizes control and containment has been essential to the governance of Syrian refugees in Turkey, despite the presence of such non-securitarian discourses. To develop this argument, the article first builds an analytical framework based on a critical engagement with the theory of securitization, which was originally developed by the Copenhagen School. Unlike the Copenhagen School’s theory emphasizing “speech acts” as the vector of securitization, this article applies a sociological approach to the analysis of the securitization process by focusing on both discursive and non-discursive practices. In carrying out this analysis, securitizing practices, both discursive and non-discursive, are defined as those that: (1) emphasize “control and containment,” especially in relation to societal/public security concerns (here, specifically, the labor market and employment); and (2) establish a security continuum about various other issues—including criminality, terrorism, socioeconomic problems, and cultural deprivation—and thereby treat migrants as “risky” outsiders. Subsequently, in line with this analytical framework, the article seeks to trace the securitization of non-camp Syrian refugees, especially in the labor market. Finally, the article demonstrates that this securitization process is likely to conceal structural and political problems, and to close off alternative public and political debate about the refugees.

A “Love” Dart Allohormone Identified in the Mucous Glands of Hermaphroditic Land Snails

Animals have evolved many ways to enhance their own reproductive success. One bizarre sexual ritual is the "love" dart shooting of helicid snails, which has courted many theories regarding its precise function. Acting as a hypodermic needle, the dart transfers an allohormone that increases paternity success. Its precise physiological mechanism of action within the recipient snail is to close off the entrance to the sperm digestion organ via a contraction of the copulatory canal, thereby delaying the digestion of most donated sperm. In this study, we used the common garden snailCornu aspersumto identify the allohormone that is responsible for this physiological change in the female system of this simultaneous hermaphrodite. The love dart allohormone (LDA) was isolated from extracts derived from mucous glands that coat the dart before it is stabbed through the partner's body wall. We isolated LDA from extracts using bioassay-guided contractility measurement of the copulatory canal. LDA is encoded within a 235-amino acid precursor protein containing multiple cleavage sites that, when cleaved, releases multiple bioactive peptides. Synthetic LDA also stimulated copulatory canal contractility. Combined with our finding that the protein amino acid sequence resembles previously described molluscan buccalin precursors, this indicates that LDA is partially conserved in helicid snails and less in other molluscan species. In summary, our study provides the full identification of an allohormone that is hypodermically injected via a love dart. More importantly, our findings have important consequences for understanding reproductive biology and the evolution of alternative reproductive strategies.

Probing Structure and Dynamics of Transmembrane Alpha Helices of the S21 Pinholin Protein using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

The final step of the bacteriophage infection cycle is cell death through membrane lysis. The mechanism of lysis uses a small membrane protein called holin and a muralytic enzyme called endolysin. The holin protein of this study is the S21 pinholin, a small hole forming membrane protein comprised of two transmembrane α-helical domains, TMD1 and TMD2. Only TMD2 is required for membrane hole formation, whereas TMD1 acts as the active inhibitory domain of TMD2. Therefore, in the mechanism of hole formation TMD1 must externalize from the cell membrane. Although the function of TMD2 is well characterized, a lack of information exists regarding TMD1. It is currently believed that TMD1 serves no functionality once externalized from the membrane. However, there is literary evidence suggesting otherwise. It is hypothesized that externalized TMD1s interact with each other using the glycine zipper packing motif to inhibit any TMD1s from looping over to close off the holin hole once formed. These stabilizing interactions could aid in hole formation by stabilizing conformational changes of internal TMD2.This study will be the first time solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) is used to create the S21 pinholin protein. The pinholin will be site-specifically spin labeled with MTSL and purified using RP-HPLC. Next will be to determine the degree to which TMD1 is externalized through lipid system incorporation and CW-EPR techniques, followed by confirmation of TMD1 α-helical structure using Circular Dichroism. The TMD1 interactions will be probed using Pulsed EPR DEER technique.Additionally, the local secondary structure of the pinholin's α-helices will be probed using a newly developed deuterated amino acid substituted Pulsed EPR - ESEEM technique. This will be the first application of the technique to a real protein system.

Pain as metaphor: metaphor and medicine

Like many other disciplines, medicine often resorts to metaphor in order to explain complicated concepts that are imperfectly understood. But what happens when medicine's metaphors close off thinking, restricting interpretations...

Dynamic Linkage between Cold Air Outbreaks and Intensity Variations of the Meridional Mass Circulation

Abstract This study investigates the dynamical linkage between the meridional mass circulation and cold air outbreaks using the ERA-Interim data covering the period 1979–2011. It is found that the onset date of continental-scale cold air outbreaks coincides well with the peak time of stronger meridional mass circulation events, when the net mass transport across 60°N in the warm or cold air branch exceeds ~88 × 109 kg s−1. During weaker mass circulation events when the net mass transport across 60°N is below ~71.6 × 109 kg s−1, most areas of the midlatitudes are generally in mild conditions except the northern part of western Europe. Composite patterns of circulation anomalies during stronger mass circulation events greatly resemble that of the winter mean, with the two main routes of anomalous cold air outbreaks being along the climatological routes of polar cold air: namely, via East Asia and North America. The Siberian high shifts westward during stronger mass circulation events, opening up a third route of cold air outbreaks through eastern Europe, where lies the poleward warm air route in the winter-mean condition. The strengthening of the Icelandic low and Azores high during stronger mass circulation events acts to close off the climatological-mean cold air route via western Europe; this is responsible for the comparatively normal temperature there. The composite pattern for weaker mass circulation events is generally reversed, where the weakening of the Icelandic low and Azores high, corresponding to the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), leads to the reopening and strengthening of the equatorward cold air route through western Europe, which is responsible for the cold anomalies there.

Governmentality as critique: the diversification and regulation of the Australian housing sector

As the housing affordability crisis in Australia deepens, policy-makers have expended considerable resources in establishing new regulatory practices to enhance the role of the community housing sector. Ostensibly, the rationale for a new tier of regulation is to assure potential institutional investors (e.g. pension funds, investment trusts and banks) that community housing organisations are accountable and safe places to invest. Our paper adopts an alternative reading of diversity and housing regulation, drawing upon the governmentality thesis advanced by Michel Foucault in an empirical study about the early stages of regulation of affordable housing providers. Amongst our claims are: first, that policies to diversify and regulate the housing sector constitute a radical political project to commercialise welfare provision and second, these policies are likely to generate additional bureaucratic burdens and close off possibilities for progressive reform. The paper also considers the value of the governmentality approach for critical investigations in the field of housing.

How to Scale Factional Divisions in Conflict Situations

In conducting fieldwork among perpetrators of state violence, it is a major methodological problem to gain access to competing factions within the research population. Ethnographers often succeed in finding access to at least one faction but this successful rapport might then immediately close off other factions that mistrust the ethnographer’s politics, intentions, or alleged sympathies. The ethnographic challenge is to find intermediaries or switchboard operators, as they are called in this article, who have established informal channels of communication between hostile factions. Switchboard operators have the following characteristics: discretion, neutrality, lack of formal power, disinterestedness, trustworthiness, and they act as a conduit of communication. This article describes how switchboard operators were located in Argentina, and how they played a crucial role in my fieldwork among a broad spectrum of military perpetrators who had terrorized the Argentine people between 1976 and 1983 with enforced disappearances and state repression.

The Hermeneutics of Omens: The Bankruptcy of Moral Cosmology in Western Han China (206bce–8ce)

AbstractStudents of Chinese intellectual history are familiar with moral cosmology developed in the Han era, a theory that alleges thatruuse omens to admonish the emperor, and thereby to constrain and compete with his absolute political power. This thesis, in theory, is convincing; in actuality it is not. This article questions the autonomous power of omen discourse. Focusing on the socio-political conditions in which this discourse functioned, it demonstrates that, in real politics, the enactment of omen interpretation had nothing to do with restraining the power of the throne, but evolved with bloody factional struggles. Replacing the secret knowledge of diviners and astrologers with the common cultural heritage—the classics—and transforming the mysterious otherworldly spirits into a moral agent,rusuccessfully defeated the technical specialists and became the primary operators of the omen interpretation enterprise. The theoretical innovation that contributed toru'ssuccess, however, undermined their chance of building a social closure both to close off competition and to secure their interpretative authority. As numerous historical cases show, neither theruclassics nor the moral competence of the speaker add to the social efficacy of omen explanation: without monopolised knowledge, standardised hermeneutic rules, or institutionalised positions, omen discourse, rather than contesting political power, became its servant.

Speaking Bitterness

This article explores the six-part television debate series No Man's Land, which was broadcast on ITV in Britain in 1973. It argues that the program is a historically significant example of the public orientation of the women's liberation movement and its engagement with, rather than straightforward hostility toward, the mass media. The program was produced by women who were active in the women's liberation movement; it was presented by the feminist Juliet Mitchell; and its studio audience was populated by, among others, many women who were aligned with the movement. The format of No Man's Land mixed short documentary films that were explicitly concerned with the structural oppression of women and discussion with a studio audience in response to the themes of these films. The article reflects on how television texts such as No Man's Land tend to be absent from existing popular and academic histories; it suggests that dominant understandings of the relationship between the mass media and the women's liberation movement as mutually antagonistic frequently function to close off the spaces where such texts might be considered. Through close analysis of the program and its reviews in print media, it considers the problems and possibilities of and constraints on early second-wave feminists who appropriated and operated within mass-media—and specifically televised—forms. It also points to the importance of socialist feminism as a discursive context for British television in the early 1970s.