Slow Death Research Articles

ERABiLNet: enhanced residual attention with bidirectional long short-term memory

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) causes slow death in brain cells due to shrinkage of brain cells which is more prevalent in older people. In most cases, the symptoms of AD are mistaken as age-related stresses. The most widely utilized method to detect AD is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Along with Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, the efficacy of identifying diseases related to the brain has become easier. But, the identical phenotype makes it challenging to identify the disease from the neuro-images. Hence, a deep learning method to detect AD at the beginning stage is suggested in this work. The newly implemented “Enhanced Residual Attention with Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM) (ERABi-LNet)” is used in the detection phase to identify the AD from the MRI images. This model is used for enhancing the performance of the Alzheimer’s detection in scale of 2–5%, minimizing the error rates, increasing the balance of the model, so that the multi-class problems are supported. At first, MRI images are given to “Residual Attention Network (RAN)”, which is specially developed with three convolutional layers, namely atrous, dilated and Depth-Wise Separable (DWS), to obtain the relevant attributes. The most appropriate attributes are determined by these layers, and subjected to target-based fusion. Then the fused attributes are fed into the “Attention-based Bi-LSTM”. The final outcome is obtained from this unit. The detection efficiency based on median is 26.37% and accuracy is 97.367% obtained by tuning the parameters in the ERABi-LNet with the help of Modified Search and Rescue Operations (MCDMR-SRO). The obtained results are compared with ROA-ERABi-LNet, EOO-ERABi-LNet, GTBO-ERABi-LNet and SRO-ERABi-LNet respectively. The ERABi_LNet thus provides enhanced accuracy and other performance metrics compared to such deep learning models. The proposed method has the better sensitivity, specificity, F1-Score and False Positive Rate compared with all the above mentioned competing models with values such as 97.49%.97.84%,97.74% and 2.616 respective;y. This ensures that the model has better learning capabilities and provides lesser false positives with balanced prediction.

Negative features of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Motor neurons of Onuf's nucleus survive in ADAR2-conditional knockout mice

Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) do not develop oculomotor disturbances and vesicorectal dysfunction until end-stage disease owing to the survival of certain motor neurons (MNs), including oculomotor neurons and MNs within Onuf's nucleus. In sporadic ALS, adenosine deaminase acting on RNA 2 (ADAR2)-mediated editing of GluA2 mRNA at the Q/R site is compromised in lower MNs. We previously developed genetically modified mice with a conditional knockout of ADAR2 in cholinergic neurons (ADAR2flox/flox/VAChT-Cre, Fast; AR2). These mice displayed slow and progressive lower motor neuron death with TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) pathology, attributable to insufficient editing at the GluA2 Q/R site due to ADAR2 deficiency. MN death was more common in fast-fatigable MNs owing to differential vulnerability under conditions of ADAR2 deficiency. Although facial and hypoglossal nerves were impaired in AR2 mice, cell death did not occur within the oculomotor nerve nucleus, as observed in patients with sporadic ALS. Since the basis for avoiding cystorectal damage in ALS is unknown, we compared the features of Onuf's nucleus MNs in 12-month-old AR2 mice with those in age-matched wild-type mice. Although the number of MNs was not significantly lower in AR2 mice, the neurons exhibited a shrunken morphology and TDP-43 pathology. Onuf's nucleus MNs could survive in an ADAR2-deficient state and mainly included fast fatigue-resistant (FR) and slow (S) MNs. In summary, FR and S MNs show increased resilience to ADAR2 deficiency, potentially participating in an important neuronal death avoidance mechanism in ALS.

Sketches on the Affectivity of Sexual Violence Survivorhood

Before the revelations of #MeToo, rape existed. It still exists. It will exist for the foreseeable future. But what of those who have experienced sexual violence and come out the other side? What of these ‘survivors’ — how are their lives altered? In this piece of work, I use vignettes inspired by Kathleen Stewart’s (2007) method in Ordinary Affects to explicate on how it feels to be a survivor. Drawing primarily on the postphenomenological framework of Sara Ahmed (2014), I combine both longer academic screeds with shorter, creatively written yet autobiographic scraps to capture the various states of affectivity central to survivorhood, such as shame, anger, abjection, and anxiety. Flashbacks run as a theme throughout, both in the very text itself but also in their importance to the experiencing and re-experiencing of trauma, in their nature as catalysts for recollection and feeling. I also explain, using Berlant (2001), my understanding of trauma as a ‘slow death.’ These sketches, then, reveal the messy, entangled nature of the emotions of survivors, whilst leaving room for a conversation to develop within the fields of affect theory and trauma studies.

The colonial face of ‘housing’ refugees: the construction of the racialised subject within a necropolitical infrastructure

The incredible mobilisation to welcome Ukrainian refugees following the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022 demonstrated how housing is an affective sociomaterial infrastructure. In cruel contrast, such mobilisation also exposed the inherently racist and colonial face of accommodating refugees and migrants, and the structural inequalities that racial capitalism continues to reproduce. Drawing reflections across several geographies and temporalities through illustrative vignettes, this paper begs the questions under what conditions do we accept that some people are housed, others not? What kind of power structures allow certain bodies to be welcomed? This paper borrows from postcolonial, black and critical theory to examine refugee housing through the lens of necropolitical infrastructure. It connects Mbembe’s notion of necropower with Power and Mee’s notion of housing as infrastructure of care, and filters this through reflections across Calais, Brescia and Athens, to illustrate the bio- and necropolitical side of the refugee housing infrastructure in Europe. The paper ultimately argues that refugee housing, because it is an infrastructure and because it is part of the broader extractive and exploitative system of (humanitarian) care, is deeply imbricated in the production of racialised subjects. Specifically, it is complicit with the extraction, (re)incorporation, abandonment and slow death of Black and Brown refugee lives.

AABP Guidelines for the Humane Euthanasia of Cattle

For stockman, farmers, veterinarians and animal caretakers who choose to work with cattle there are many rewards, but there is also the responsibility to provide the animals in their care with a good a life, and when that is no longer possible, to alleviating the suffering of a slow and painful death. This is not just between farmers and their cattle it is also part of the social compact farmers have with consumers to produce the food that consumers purchase for their families in a way that is ethical. The requirements for humane euthanasia are also codified in industry animal welfare standards. But in reviewing recent studies on the number of cows and calves that die unassisted or were shipped to slaughter with serious ailments, the reali­ties on farm do not always live up to this expectation. To help to address this the AABP has developed and recently updated the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) Guidelines for the Humane Euthanasia of Cattle as a tool to help bovine prac­titioners and farmers provide timely and humane euthanasia for the cattle to prevent needless pain and suffering.

Ecofeminism and the Cultural Affinity to Genocidal Capitalism: Theorising Necropolitical Femicide in Contemporary Greece

Resilient necrocapitalism and the zombie genre of representations of current dystopias are persistent in their political purpose in producing changes in the social order to benefit plutocracies around the world. It is through a thanatopolitical lens that we should view the successive losses of life, and this zombie genre has come to represent a dystopia that, for political purposes, is intended to produce changes in societies which have tolerated the violent deaths of women. This article focuses on contemporary Greece and proposes a theoretical framework where femicide is understood as a social phenomenon that reflects a global gendered necropolitical logic which equals genocide. Such theoretical assemblages have to be situated within intersectional imperatives and tacitly as the result of the capitalist terror state performed in an expansive and direct immediate death, exacerbated by the lingering slow social death of the welfare state. The article contends that the scripted hetero-patriarchal social order of the necrocapitalist state poses a unique political threat to societies. With the silence of the complicity of the state, what is necessary is the creation and spread of new political knowledge and new social movements as resilient political tactics of resistance. This article foregrounds an ecofeminist perspective on these issues and considers ways through which new pedagogies of hope can counter the gendered necropolitics of contemporary capitalism in Greece.

Identification of the Coexisting Virus-Derived siRNA in Maize and Rice Infected by Rice Black-Streaked Dwarf Virus.

Rice black-streaked dwarf virus is transmitted by small brown planthoppers, which causes maize rough dwarf disease and rice black-streaked dwarf disease. This virus leads to slow growth or death of the host plants. During the coevolutionary arms race between viruses and plants, virus-derived small interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs) challenge the plant's defense response and inhibit host immunity through the RNA silencing system. However, it is currently unknown if rice black-streaked dwarf virus can produce the same siRNAs to mediate the RNA silencing in different infected species. In this study, four small RNA libraries and four degradome libraries were constructed by extracting total RNAs from the leaves of the maize (Zea mays) inbred line B73 and japonica rice (Oryza sativa) variety Nipponbare exposed to feeding by viruliferous and nonviruliferous small brown planthoppers. We analyzed the characteristics of small RNAs and explored virus-derived siRNAs in small RNA libraries through high-throughput sequencing. On analyzing the characteristics of small RNA, we noted that the size distributions of small RNAs were mainly 24 nt (19.74 to 62.00%), whereas those of vsiRNAs were mostly 21 nt (41.06 to 41.87%) and 22 nt (39.72 to 42.26%). The 5'-terminal nucleotides of vsiRNAs tended to be adenine or uracil. Exploring the distribution of vsiRNA hot spots on the viral genome segments revealed that the frequency of hotspots in B73 was higher than those in Nipponbare. Meanwhile, hotspots in the S9 and S10 virus genome segments were distributed similarly in both hosts. In addition, the target genes of small RNA were explored by degradome sequencing. Analyses of the regulatory pathway of these target genes unveiled that viral infection affected the ribosome-related target genes in maize and the target genes in the metabolism and biosynthesis pathways in rice. Here, 562 and 703 vsiRNAs were separately obtained in maize and rice and 73 vsiRNAs named as coexisting vsiRNAs (co-vsiRNAs) were detected in both hosts. Stem-loop PCR and real-time quantitative PCR confirmed that co-vsiRNA 3.1 and co-vsiRNA 3.5, derived from genome segment S3, simultaneously play a role in maize and rice and inhibited host gene expression. The study revealed that rice black-streaked dwarf virus can produce the same siRNAs in different species and provides a new direction for developing new antiviral strategies.

Dispatches from a body on fire: slow death at the intersections of race, gender, and disability

ABSTRACT While contemporary fascisms operate in ways both obvious and covert, this piece focuses on the gradual harms that remain unintelligible in everyday rhetorics. I join scholars such as E Cram, who have tracked how white supremacy erodes our energies and time. Considering inflammation as a record of such harm, I examine how many chronic diseases inscribe systemic abuse onto trans, disabled, and Black and brown bodyminds. Drawing from the narrative traditions of cultural rhetorics, critical race counterstory, and crip and trans of color critique, I story the injured body back into our profession, asking our disciplines to consider how our choices can enforce, expose, or resist the slow burn of colonial exploitation.

Detection of water content in tomato stems by electrical impedance spectroscopy: Preliminary study

Tomatoes lack drought-resistant genes, rendering seedlings susceptible to slow growth and death during drought stress. To gauge the water deficit in tomato plants, the electrical impedance spectra of tomato seedlings were measured at distinct water content levels (pristine, 92%, 91%, 90%, and 89%). These measurements tracked changes in water state, microstructure, and shear stress during water loss. The results revealed that impedance values and the real and imaginary parts decreased with increasing frequency, displaying a negative correlation with water content. Notably, the absolute mid-frequency slope (F2) exhibited an R2 of 0.9996, serving as an effective variable to characterize water content changes in tomato seedlings. Drought-induced alterations in stem cells shifted the seedling's equivalent circuit from the improved Hayden model to two parallel constant phase element (CPE) models. Concurrently, as water was lost, the proportion of free water diminished while water-binding capacity increased. This shift was accompanied by the wilting of cells, which reduced tissue rigidity, weakened ion conductivity, and altered the ratio of free water to bound water from 36.22 to 5.43. The pot experiment revealed that the F2 could be utilized to monitor the situation of short and sharp water shortages; however, additional research is required to explore its potential for long-term water monitoring. These findings establish a solid theoretical basis for monitoring water content in tomato plants in field settings.

The Slow Death of the Diorama: Tribal and Ethnographic Museums in India since Independence

During colonial times, dioramas were commonly used to portray the diverse peoples of India. They depicted essentialised human types through plaster models in rural settings, engaged in typical activities, and dated back to the exhibition of human beings in universal expositions held in Calcutta, Delhi and London. Since Independence, there have been determined efforts to move away from colonial stereotypes and to decolonise government-funded museums in India. Meanwhile, Adivasi artists are finding their own way out of the curatorial confines of the museum. This paper describes how Indian museology still struggles to exorcise the ghosts of the Victorian museum and India’s own internal colonialism.

Slowly progressive cell death induced by GPx4-deficiency occurs via MEK1/ERK2 activation as a downstream signal after iron-independent lipid peroxidation.

Glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPx4) is an antioxidant enzyme that reduces phospholipid hydroperoxide. Studies have reported that the loss of GPx4 activity through anticancer drugs leads to ferroptosis, an iron-dependent lipid peroxidation-induced cell death. In this study, we established Tamoxifen-inducible GPx4-deficient Mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cells (ETK1 cells) and found that Tamoxifen-inducible gene disruption of GPx4 induces slow cell death at ~72 h. In contrast, RSL3- or erastin-induced ferroptosis occurred quickly within 24 h. Therefore, we investigated the differences in these mechanisms between GPx4 gene disruption-induced cell death and RSL3- or erastin-induced ferroptosis. We found that GPx4-deficiency induced lipid peroxidation at 24 h in Tamoxifen-treated ETK1 cells, which was not suppressed by iron chelators, although lipid peroxidation in RSL3- or erastin-treated cells induced ferroptosis that was inhibited by iron chelators. We revealed that GPx4-deficient cell death was MEK1-dependent but RSL3- or erastin-induced ferroptosis was not, although MEK1/2 inhibitors suppressed both GPx4-deficient cell death and RSL3- or erastin-induced ferroptosis. In GPx4-deficient cell death, the phosphorylation of MEK1/2 and ERK2 was observed 39 h after lipid peroxidation, but ERK1 was not phosphorylated. Selective inhibitors of ERK2 inhibited GPx4-deficient cell death but not in RSL3- or erastin-induced cell death. These findings suggest that iron-independent lipid peroxidation due to GPx4 disruption induced cell death via the activation of MEK1/ERK2 as a downstream signal of lipid peroxidation in Tamoxifen-treated ETK1 cells. This indicates that GPx4 gene disruption induces slow cell death and involves a different pathway from RSL3- and erastin-induced ferroptosis in ETK1 cells.

Extraction and analysis of moxidectin in wombat plasma and faeces

Sarcoptic mange in wombats results from a skin infestation by Sarcoptes mites and if untreated, results in a slow and painful death. Moxidectin is a pesticide used to treat internal and external parasites in cattle, but has shown to effectively treat other animals, including wombats. Two methods were developed to analyse wombat plasma, and methods were also developed to analyse faeces and fur. Moxidectin-D3 was used as an internal standard and behaved almost identically to moxidectin, resulting in recoveries of 95–105 % across the three matrices, even when matrix interferences caused signal suppression as high 20 %, or when moxidectin loss was high. This was presumably due to the high binding efficiency of plasma for MOX and MOX-D3. Moxidectin limits of detection were 0.01 ng/mL in plasma, 0.3 ng/g dry weight equivalent for faeces and 0.5 ng/g for fur. This study also developed a method to isolate plasma macromolecules, allowing the extraction of bound moxidectin for quantitative purposes, with an LoQ of 0.05 ng/mL. This method was subsequently used to determine that moxidectin was 97–99.4 % bound to lipoproteins in wombat plasma and 98–99 % bound in sheep, cow and horse plasma. The method reported for plasma was quick, cheap, and conducive to large sample batches, while providing high sensitivity. While faecal samples required additional cleanup steps to reduce the matrix effect, co-extracted matrix components such as undigested chlorophyll continued to result in ionisation suppression in the MS/MS. The methods reported here were used to monitor moxidectin in wombats treated with a single pour-on treatment, and confirmed that the moxidectin concentration in wombat plasma had decreased by more than 90 % by 28 days after application, while providing protection against sarcoptic mites over the majority of their life cycle. Clearance of moxidectin occurred via faecal elimination over the four week period and while moxidectin accumulated on fur due to application as a pour-on, concentrations declined rapidly by the four week period as fur fell out and was replaced by fresh fur that did not contain moxidectin.

Oscillation of Contemporary Bodies between Biopolitics and Necropolitics

The article examines Tania Bruguera’s works 10,148,451 (2019, Tate Modern, UK) and the three versions of Tatlin’s Whisper #6 (2009 and 2014, Havana; 2015, Tate Modern). Thinking with Achille Mbembe’s work on necropolitics, Lauren Berlant’s on “slow death,” and Michel Foucault’s on biopolitics, Paramana suggests that 10,148,451 addresses the collective subject and critiques contemporary necropolitics, while the versions of Tatlin’s Whisper #6 address individuals as political subjects, and comment on the panoptic gaze and contemporary biopolitics. Through her analysis of these works, Paramana shows how Bruguera’s work is created to comment on the specific political economies in which it is presented, how the perception of the work’s politics differs when presented in different political economies, and the insights therefore the work might offer to them. Paramana argues that Bruguera’s work has often achieved more than local and national governments and that her “symbolic work with activist parameters” is surprisingly more efficacious than her activist work. The article concludes with the insights Bruguera’s work offers for the future of bodies in the 21st century.

Weak Feedback and Denial Are Killing Active Management: A Slow Death, Perhaps, but One That Is Avoidable

Weak Feedback and Denial Are Killing Active Management: A Slow Death, Perhaps, but One That Is Avoidable

Genetically encoded caspase sensor and RFP-LC3 for temporal analysis of apoptosis-autophagy

The balance between pro-death and pro-survival signaling determines the fate of cells under a variety of pathological and physiological conditions. The pro-cell death signaling, apoptosis, and survival singling, autophagy work in an integrated manner for maintaining cell integrity. Their altered balance drives pathological conditions such as cancer, inflammatory disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. Dissecting complex crosstalk between autophagy and apoptosis requires simultaneous detection of both events at a single cell level with good temporal resolution in real-time. Here, we have used two distinct fluorescent-based probes of caspase activation and autophagy for generating such sensor cells. Cells stably expressing RFP-LC3 as an autophagy marker were further stably expressed with a FRET-based probe for caspase activation with a nuclear localization signal. The functional validation and live-cell imaging of the sensor cells using selected treatments revealed that stress that induces rapid cell death often fails to induce autophagy signaling, and slow cell death induction triggers simultaneous autophagy signaling with caspase activation. The real-time imaging revealed the time-dependent shift of cells towards caspase activation while autophagy is inhibited confirming basal autophagy confers survival against apoptosis under stress conditions. Confocal imaging also revealed that cells under 3D culture condition maintain increased autophagy over monolayer cultures. High-throughput adaptability of the system extends its application for the screening of compounds that cause caspase activation, autophagy, or both demonstrating the potential utility of the sensor probe for diverse biological applications.

The discreet wearing out of bodies and souls at work: Simone Weil on speed, humiliation and slow affliction.

The goals of this paper are twofold. First, the paper seeks to show the relevance of French philosopher Simone Weil’s writings on work for contemporary political and social theory. More specifically, by drawing on Weil’s “factory writings”—i.e. the diary she kept during the many months she spent working in factories, and the essays and letters that followed shortly after—the article shows that Weil’s analysis of speed, humiliation and affliction is highly pertinent for reflecting upon the consequences of the increasingly ubiquitous recourse to digital tracking and monitoring tools by today’s employers. Secondly, the paper proposes to read Weil’s account of degradation and affliction in light of the contemporary scholarship on “slow violence”. Inspired by Rob Nixon’s work, this scholarship is interested in forms of harm that are slow-paced, attritional, ‘out of sight’ and intimately tied to our (distracted) attention regimes. As I argue, Weil very lucidly described the paradox at the heart of many types of modern work: namely, that its fast pace causes the slow death of workers’ souls and bodies. Demonstrating the important resonances of Weil’s account of factory life and contemporary suffering in the era of digital surveillance, the paper underlines the significance of Weil’s account of affliction for understanding the depths of the harms caused by these forms of domination.

“The Radio Said They Were Just Deportees”: From Border Necropolitics to Transformative Grief in Tim Z. Hernandez’s All They Will Call You (2017)

Just as necropower discriminates between those who can and those who cannot live, post-mortem circumstances are explicitly affected by an irrefutable gentrification of memory and grievability. Drawing on the political dimension of mourning and on the concept of slow death, this paper proposes a necropolitical reading of All They Will Call You (2017), where Tim Z. Hernandez revisits the 1948 plane crash that killed 28 Mexican deportees at Los Gatos (California) and the subsequent oblivion that prevented their memorialisation except for a mass grave containing their remains and a protest song (“Deportees”) composed by Woody Guthrie. My analysis focuses on Hernandez’s attempts at dismantling the tropes of criminality and expendability that Latino immigrants are associated with as a result of their racialised vulnerability, which are distinctively aggravated in border contexts. Excavating in the background stories of these deportees seems to me an ironic contestation to the failed forensic work that left them unnamed and unritualised for seven decades. And, at the same time, I contend that, in line with the work of many activists and artists in the US–Mexico border, Hernandez mobilises solidarity while transforming our perception of migrant bare lives into one of migrant agency.

Suicide as slow death: towards a haunted sociology of suicide.

Sociological research on suicide has tended to favour functionalist approaches, and quantitative methods. This paper argues for an alternative engagement - drawing on interpretive paradigms, and inspired by 'live' methodologies, we make an argument for a haunted sociology of suicide. This approach, informed by Avery Gordon's haunted sociological imagination and Lauren Berlant's concept of slow death, works between the structural realities of inequalities in suicide rates and the more (in)tangible affects of suicide as they are lived. These theoretical engagements are illustrated through an empirical study which used collaborative, arts-based discussion groups about suicide. The groups were held with 14 people, all affected in different ways by suicide, and attending a community-based mental health centre in a semi-rural location in Scotland, UK. A narrative-informed analysis of data generated through these groups shows the creative potential of both arts-based methodologies, and interpretive sociologies, in deepening understanding of how inequalities in rates of suicide may be experienced and made sense of. We illustrate this via two related metaphors ('the point' and 'the edge') which recurred in the data. Our analysis underlines the vital relevance of sociology to suicide studies - and the urgent need for diverse sociological engagement and action on this topic.

Buprofezin affects the molting process by regulating nuclear receptors SfHR3 and SfHR4 in Sogatella furcifera

Nuclear receptors play a crucial role in various signaling and metabolic pathways, such as insect molting and development. Buprofezin (2-tert-butylimino-3-isopropyl-5-phenyl-perhydro-1, 3, 5-thiadiazin-4-one), a chitin synthesis inhibitor, causes molting deformities and slow death in insects by inhibiting chitin synthesis and interfering with their metabolism. This study investigated whether buprofezin affects insect ecdysteroid signaling pathway. The treatment of buprofezin significantly suppressed the transcription levels of SfHR3 and SfHR4, two nuclear receptor genes, in third-instar nymphs of Sogatella furcifera. Meanwhile, the transcription levels of SfHR3 and SfHR4 in first-day fifth-instar nymphs were induced at 12 h after 20E treatment. In addition, the silencing of SfHR3 and SfHR4 genes in first-day fifth-instar nymphs caused severe developmental delay and molting failure, resulting in a significant reduction of survival rates at 7.36% and 2.99% on the eighth day, respectively. Further analysis showed that the silencing SfHR3 and SfHR4 significantly inhibited the transcription levels of chitin synthesis and degradation-related genes. These results indicate that buprofezin can inhibits chitin synthesis and degradation by suppressing the signal transduction of 20E through SfHR3 and SfHR4, leading to molting failure and death. This study not only expands our understanding of the molecular mechanism of buprofezin in pest control but also lays a foundation for developing new control strategies of RNAi by targeting SfHR3 and SfHR4.

Politics of rhythm and crisis in the slow death of higher education: implications for academic work and student support

ABSTRACT This paper explores the role that conflicting rhythms of academic life and crisis have on the ability of academics to meet their commitments, such as providing support to students. Drawing from our experience in UK higher education, we argue that contemporary academic life can be seen as a constant process of being taken over by different crises. These crises tend to follow a rhythm of brief periods as emergencies subsequently operationalised into forms of ongoing, unresolved crisis. In turn, these crisis rhythms intersect with contrasting rhythms of different actors in university life, specifically that of academics, the institution itself, and students. Drawing from Lefebvre’s vocabulary of rhythmanalysis, we argue that the arrhythmia between these different groups in the university is a key part in the failure of higher education to do more than proliferate crisis. Illustrated by our experiences in student-support focused roles during the height of COVID-19 lockdowns, we explore how this particular crisis imposed itself as emergency but was then absorbed into the group of ongoing crises which impact on academic life. The paper concludes with suggestions of alternative approaches to university workload for staff and students alike, which might render university life more eurhythmic and equitable.