Shaping Vulnerable Bodies at the Thin Boundary between Environment and Organism: Skin, DNA Repair, and a Genealogy of DNA Care Strategies

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-464
Author(s):  
Alexander von Schwerin
Keyword(s):  
Dna Repair ◽  
Molecular Level ◽  
Uv Light ◽  
Research Field ◽  
The Body ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Radiation Research

ArgumentThis paper brings together the history of risk and the history of DNA repair, a biological phenomenon that emerged as a research field in between molecular biology, genetics, and radiation research in the 1960s. The case of xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), an inherited hypersensitivity to UV light and, hence, a disposition to skin cancer will be the starting point to argue that, in the 1970s and 1980s, DNA repair became entangled in the creation of new models of the human body at risk – what is here conceptually referred to as the vulnerability aspect of body history – and new attempts at cancer prevention and enhancement of the body associated with the new flourishing research areas of antimutagenesis and anticarcinogenesis. The aim will be to demonstrate that DNA repair created special attempts at disease prevention: molecular enhancement, seeking to identify means to increase the self-repair abilities of the body at the molecular level. Prevention in this sense meant enhancing the body's ability to cope with the environmental hazards of an already toxic world. This strategy has recently been adopted by the beauty industry, which introduced DNA care as a new target for skin care research and anti-aging formulas.

scholarly journals A Generational Approach to Somatic Cultures: Modes of Attention to the Young Body in Contemporary Portuguese Society

Societies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 102
Author(s):  
Vitor Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Research Data ◽  
The Body ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Generational Change ◽  
Youth Cultures ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Body Design ◽  
History Of ◽  
Portuguese Society ◽  
The 1960S

The aims of this article are to identify, describe, and sociologically understand the different somatic cultures in contemporary Portuguese society—i.e., the distinct ways in which different generations have thought about, used and lived the body from the time of the Estado Novo (the New State, which was the regime that governed Portugal from 1933 to 1974) until the present day. Beginning with the hypothesis that there are different, historically institutionalized, somatic modes of attention to the “young body”, the author uses the most relevant institutions of the socialization of the body as analytical dimensions and investigates their main incorporation strategies and models of corporality. This hypothesis is informed by different generational conditions that change people’s uses of their body, their experiences of living in it, and their thoughts on the matter. Using these analytical dimensions, the article presents a typology that identifies, describes, and comprehends the three somatic cultures in the recent history of Portuguese society: the culture of physical invigoration that forms part of the legacy of the New State; the culture of physical rejuvenation inherited from youth cultures of the 1960s and 70s, along with the growth of body design industries in the 1980s; and the culture of physical perfection inherited from the biotech culture in the 1990s, accompanied by the radicalization of the body design industry. This approach entails the discussion and reinterpretation of a corpus of historical literature, presenting research data on the body in a defined time period (1930 to date) and space (Portugal), analyzed from an embodied perspective of generational change.

Nanotechnology: A Big Revolution from the Small World

2013 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Bassi ◽  
Irene Santinello ◽  
Andrea Bevilacqua ◽  
Pierfrancesco Bassi
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Nanotubes ◽  
Molecular Level ◽  
Medical Science ◽  
Small World ◽  
The Body ◽  
Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles ◽  
New Materials ◽  
Disease Treatment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Engineering Physics

Nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary field originating from the interaction of several different disciplines, such as engineering, physics, biology and chemistry. New materials and devices effectively interact with the body at molecular level, yielding a brand new range of highly selective and targeted applications designed to maximize the therapeutic efficiency while reducing the side effects. Liposomes, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes and superparamagnetic nanoparticles are among the most assessed nanotechnologies. Meanwhile, other futuristic platforms are paving the way toward a new scientific paradigm, able to deeply change the research path in the medical science. The growth of nanotechnology, driven by the dramatic advances in science and technology, clearly creates new opportunities for the development of the medical science and disease treatment in human health care. Despite the concerns and the on-going studies about their safety, nanotechnology clearly emerges as holding the promise of delivering one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of medical science.

scholarly journals MRI Study on Tibial Nerve of the Ankle Canal and Its Branches:A method of multiplanar reconstruction with 3D-FIESTA-C sequences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Xucheng He ◽  
Juan Li ◽  
Ju Ye ◽  
Wenjuan Han ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibial Nerve ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
The Body ◽  
Medial Malleolus ◽  
Bifurcation Points ◽  
Lateral Plantar Nerve ◽  
Good Imaging ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mri Study

Abstract Background: The visualization of the tibial nerve and its branches in the ankle canal is helpful for the diagnosis of local lesions and compression, and it is also useful for clinical observation and surgical planning.The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of three-dimensional dual-excitation balanced steady-state free precession sequence (3D-FIESTA-C) multiplanar reformation (MPR) display of the tibial nerve and its branches in the ankle canal.Methods:The subjects were 20 healthy volunteers (40 ankles), aged 22-50 years, with no history of ankle joint desease. The 3D-FIESTA-C sequence was used in the 3.0T magnetic resonance equipment for imaging. Duringscanning, each foot was at an angle of 90 degrees to the tibia.The tibial nerve of the ankle canal and its branches were displayed and measured at the same level throughMPR.Results: Most of the tibial nerve bifurcation points were located in the ankle canal (57.5%), few bifurcation points (42.5%) were located at the proximal end of the ankle canal, and none of them were found away from the distal end. The bifurcation between the medial plantar nerve and the lateral plantar nerve was on the line between the tip of the medial malleolus and the calcaneus, and it’s angle ranged between 6° and 35°. In MPR images, the display rates of both the medial calcaneal nerve and the subcalcaneal nerve were 100%, and the starting point of the subcalcaneal nerve was always at the distal end of the starting point of the medial calcaneal nerve. In 55% of cases, there were more than two medial calcaneal nerve innervations.Conclusion: The 3D-FIESTA-C MPR can display the morphological features and positions of the tibial nerve and its branches and the bifurcation point’s projection position can be marked on the body surface. This method not only benefited the imaging diagnosis of the tibial nerve and branch-related lesions in the ankle canal, but it also provided a good imaging basis to plan a clinical operation of the ankle canal and avoid surgical injury.

New toxicology: Carcinogenesis I

1982 ◽  
Vol 71 (03) ◽  
pp. 126-137
Author(s):  
Peter Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Dna Repair ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Mode Of Action ◽  
Uv Light ◽  
Cytotoxic Drugs ◽  
Chemical Carcinogens ◽  
Therapeutic Advantage ◽  
Carcinogenic Action ◽  
History Of

“Aude Sapere” “Dare to Know—HoraceThe first part of this three-part series deals with the history of the recognition of the origins of cancer in specific, mainly chemical, environmental factors; and the rapid advances made this century in identifying carcinogens and elucidating their modes of action. I will then go on to review, briefly, the most important groups of carcinogenic chemicals, their in-vivo activation and common mode of action.The second article will start with the cytotoxic drugs and demonstrate that the distinction between them and chemical carcinogens is arbitrary. I will also consider co-carcinogens and the carcinogenic action of UV light and the importance of these phenomena in understanding the genesis of cancer.Finally, I will look at the linked processes of resistance to cytotoxic drugs, defences against carcinogens and DNA repair processes which it may be possible to turn to therapeutic advantage.

Edward W. Blyden, W. E. B. Du Bois, and the ‘Color Complex’

1992 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 669-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. C. Echeruo
Keyword(s):  
Black People ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
African Experience ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Color Complex ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Mind

This article is an attempt to present (and thereby to come to terms with) an important aspect of the meaning of race as it relates to the experience of black people, especially in America. It commences with Edward W. Blyden because his ‘color complex’ is of a kind that brings us back, not without much embarrassment, to the realisation that while colour may be a state of the mind, it is also and even primarily a matter of the body. Blyden is particularly appropriate as a starting point, for he is an epitome, in many ways, of the African experience in the later nineteenth century, linking (as he does) the multiple experiences of the Caribbean, the United States, and mainland Africa. He wrote at a time when the intellectual and other currents in ‘Negro’ America flowed easily to the new centres of influence in Liberia and colonial West Africa. He was thus the product of the history of Africanity in his period, and for a long time after.

scholarly journals PROPHETS AND PRIESTS OF THE NATION: NAGUIB MAHFOUZ'SKARNAK CAFÉAND THE 1967 CRISIS IN EGYPT

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 653-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Geer
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Cognitive Structure ◽  
Nobel Laureate ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
History Of ◽  
Good Starting Point ◽  
The 1960S

This quote from a character in the 1974 novelAl-Karnak(Karnak Café) by Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006) sums up the reaction of millions of people in Egypt and the Arab world to the June 1967 Arab–Israeli war. Why did this war shatter their worldviews? A military defeat may occur for purely military reasons, in this case the better preparation of Israeli troops. Why should it cast doubt on a whole way of life? The answer to this question lies in the social and cognitive structure of nationalism, which I examine in a moment of crisis, after the 1967 war, when it became necessary for nationalist intellectuals to debate issues that had previously been taken for granted.Al-Karnak, which was made into a highly profitable and controversial film, provides a good starting point for studying these debates. However, it is important to understand them as products of the nationalist project of which Mahfouz was a part. I first analyze the history of that project, explaining its raison d'être and its success by the 1960s.

scholarly journals Novyi Mishor – first country-style resort on the South Coast of Crimea (1898-1920): reconstruction of sociocultural history

2020 ◽  
pp. 103-127
Author(s):  
Andrey Vasil'evich Karagodin ◽  
Mariya Mikhailovna Petrova
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
South Coast ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
The South ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
First Time

The subject of this research is the history of the first of country-style resort appeared on the South Coast of Crimea at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries on the lands of country estates of New Mishor belonged to Shuvalov-Dolgorukov family. The phenomenon of country-style construction on the South Coast of Crimes, which starting point was the foundation of the Novyi Mishor, is viewed in the context of the processes of economic and sociocultural modernization of Russian society, formation of self-identification mechanisms of the emerging “middle class”, and new urban culture. Special attention is given to the period from 1917 to 1920, when the cultural figures left the capital and resided in the villages of Novyi Mishor. Based on examination the body of historical sources, many of which introduced to the scientific discourse for the first time, the author formed the database of villages and countryside residents of Novyi Mishor. A vast array of archival funds, reference literature, sources of personal provenance (memoirs, correspondence), and visual sources was attracted in the course of research. The novelty of consists in establishment of identities and social status of the residents of country resort of Novyi Mishor, determination of a range of sources for its further research, reconstruction of chronology of the development of this resort, details of everyday life and mentality traits of the residents, among which were the prominent figures of culture and art of Russia of that time – writers, actors, painters, scholars, and philanthropists.

scholarly journals THE RISKS OF CURRENT POLITICAL RISK MANAGEMENT

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 170-172
Author(s):  
Luca Bussotti
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Political Risk ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Rational Calculation ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cold War

Political risk is a concept traditionally related, on the one hand, to the rational calculation of risk in economic activities and, on the other, to a particular historical moment in which it has taken on the characteristics of an autonomous research field. Risk calculation and the management of lucrative activities have illustrious precedents. At the beginning of the 20th century, Max Weber pointed out the necessity to forecast all the possible risks that come from non-economic factors (such as bureaucracy, uncertainty of law and administrative procedures, and so on) before carrying out an economic investment leading to profit (Weber, 1968). However, the actual starting point of a science, related to the management of political risk, dates back to the 1960s (Sottilotta, 2013). The historical context in which this shift occurred can be found in the Cold War and the decolonization era.

A Final Formality: Three Modernist Pavilion Houses of the early 1960s

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 3-9
Author(s):  
Michael Dudding
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Architectural History ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Domestic Architecture ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
House Design ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
House Building

The Beard, Alington, and Mackay houses represent the endpoint of a direction in New Zealand domestic architecture that was both internationalist and based within the realities of local house building in the mid-twentieth century. Imi Porsolt, while reviewing Stephanie Bonny and Marilyn Reynolds'book Living with 50 Architects in 1980, specifically points to the Alington house as the final formalisation of this purist trend. Porsolt's review provides an historical subtext to Living with 50 Architects that opposes the "altogether austere style" of the pavilion with the vernacularism of what is best described as the "elegant shed" tradition of New Zealand house design. More elegant than the elegant shed, these pavilions reveal something of a "blind spot" in New Zealand's architectural history – aside from the inclusion of the Beard and Alington houses in Living with 50 Architects,they have not appeared in any of the canon-forming historical surveys such as Mitchell and Chaplin's The Elegant Shed or Shaw's A History of New Zealand Architecture. The Mackay house also has not featured until its recent appearance in Lloyd Jenkins' At Home: A Century of New Zealand Design. This paper uses Porsolt's view as a useful starting point from which to consider the relationship that exists between the Beard, Alington, and Mackay houses, and their place in the development of New Zealand's domestic architecture during the 1960s.

Leaky Bodies and the Stickiness of Testosterone in Women's Athletics

Somatechnics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-227
Author(s):  
Valerie Moyer
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Molecular Level ◽  
Women's Athletics ◽  
The Body ◽  
Feminist Science ◽  
Testing Procedures ◽  
Athletic Ability ◽  
History Of ◽  
World Anti Doping Agency ◽  
Testing Practices

This article argues for a critical re-evaluation of anti-doping testing practices in international athletics, performed by The International Olympic Committee and World Athletics, as overseen by the World Anti-Doping Agency. By carefully analysing anti-doping testing procedures and data taking, the conceptions of the body, with its multiplicity and sticky properties of testosterone become evident, revealing obscured connections between anti-doping and sex testing practices. Using a biopolitical framework, I trace the ways anxieties over gender, athletic ability, and race shape molecular level testing mechanisms, constructing and de-constructing the body in the process. This article draws on New Materialist theories and Feminist Science and Technology Studies scholarship, including: Anne Fausto-Sterling’s history of hormones; Sara Ahmed’s concept of ‘sticking’; Annemarie Mol’s ‘the body multiple’; Rebecca Jordan-Young and Katrina Karkazis’s work on testosterone; and Margrit Shildrick’s theory of ‘leaky bodies’ to argue that the racialised and gendered history of testosterone continue to linger on in the ways this hormone is tested and regulated in women’s athletics. This biopolitical system of surveillance in international sports is founded on an ideal of the body as autonomous, whole, and classifiable within a sexed binary. Yet, there is a distinct tension between this understanding of the body and the ways testing is executed, which relies on leaks, extractions, dissections, and manipulations of the athlete’s bodily substances to in order to discipline it into normalising categories of sex.

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