scholarly journals “The desert’s no home for a rose”: Filipinx childhood and music as aesthetic experience

2021 ◽  
pp. 204361062110227
Author(s):  
Casey Mecija
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Country Music ◽  
Migration Policies ◽  
A Site ◽  
Aesthetic Expression

This article examines Diane Paragas’ film Yellow Rose (2019) for its capacity to offer important insights into the reparative utility of music for a child separated from a parent due to deportation. While the film depicts the brutality of contemporary U.S. migration policies, Yellow Rose is also a story about the role of aesthetic expression in childhood’s diasporic imaginaries. The film teaches us about the agentic potential of music as a mode of dealing with the trauma of forced separation. In particular, the genre of American country music is affectively instrumentalized by the film’s young, Filipinx protagonist. In deepening my argument, I work with the film to explain that the kinship between Rose and a genre of music that is hegemonically associated with whiteness produces a “queer sonic” that serves as conduit for the emergence of contingent networks of care and methods of survival. I propose that queer sonic expression, or the unassimilable qualities of sound and genre, is a site where we can broaden racialized imaginings of Filipinx childhood, as it offers an opportunity for reparation.

Rescripting What It Means to Be Southern: Musical Performance as Border Narrative

2018 ◽  
pp. 132-155
Author(s):  
Mary Weaks-Baxter
Keyword(s):  
Country Music ◽  
Border Crossings ◽  
Southern Border ◽  
Bessie Smith ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Border Narratives ◽  
Migratory Experience ◽  
A Site ◽  
Hillbilly Music

This chapter looks at the role of music and performance in border crossings. Focusing on Southern Border Narratives in blues and country music, the chapter examines how those narratives re-defined what it means to be Southern by offering a platform that validated Southern migratory experience and a site for negotiating the borderlands. Migrants leaving the South found border narratives set within music could help them break from the places they came from, navigate transitional spaces, and identify with others making similar passage. Examining the evolutions of rural to urban blues and “hillbilly” music to country that came about because of the mass movements of Southerners, this chapter looks at a broad range of musicians from Memphis Minnie Douglas, Big Bill Broonzy, and the Maddox Brothers and Rose, to Bessie Smith and Woody Guthrie, aiming to look at ways communal voices shaped and gave meaning to the migrant experience.

The Return of Alsace to France, 1918-1939

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Carrol
Keyword(s):  
National Policy ◽  
Third Republic ◽  
French Society ◽  
German Empire ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The First World War ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
A Site ◽  
First World

In 1918 the end of the First World War triggered the return of Alsace to France after almost fifty years of annexation into the German Empire. Enthusiastic crowds in Paris and Alsace celebrated the homecoming of the so-called lost province, but return proved far less straightforward than anticipated. The region’s German-speaking population demonstrated strong commitment to local cultures and institutions, as well as their own visions of return to France. As a result, the following two decades saw politicians, administrators, industrialists, cultural elites, and others grapple with the question of how to make Alsace French again. The answer did not prove straightforward; differences of opinion emerged both inside and outside the region, and reintegration became a fiercely contested process that remained incomplete when war broke out in 1939. The Return of Alsace to France examines this story. Drawing upon national, regional, and local archives, it follows the difficult process of Alsace’s reintegration into French society, culture, political and economic systems, and legislative and administrative institutions. It connects the microhistory of the region with the macro levels of national policy, international relations, and transnational networks, and with the cross-border flows of ideas, goods, people, and cultural products that shaped daily life in Alsace. Revealing Alsace to be a site of exchange between a range of interest groups with different visions of the region’s future, this book underlines the role of regional populations and cross-border interactions in forging the French Third Republic.

Schopenhauer and the Paradox of the Sublime

2020 ◽  
pp. 237-255
Author(s):  
Bart Vandenabeele
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Aesthetic Object ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
The World ◽  
The Aesthetic

Schopenhauer explores the paradoxical nature of the aesthetic experience of the sublime in a richer way than his predecessors did by rightfully emphasizing the prominent role of the aesthetic object and the ultimately affirmative character of the pleasurable experience it offers. Unlike Kant, Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the sublime does not appeal to the superiority of human reason over nature but affirms the ultimately “superhuman” unity of the world, of which the human being is merely a puny fragment. The author focuses on Schopenhauer’s treatment of the experience of the sublime in nature and argues that Schopenhauer makes two distinct attempts to resolve the paradox of the sublime and that Schopenhauer’s second attempt, which has been neglected in the literature, establishes the sublime as a viable aesthetic concept with profound significance.

RNA secondary structure dependence in METTL3–METTL14 mRNA methylation is modulated by the N-terminal domain of METTL3

2020 ◽  
Vol 402 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-98
Author(s):  
Nathalie Meiser ◽  
Nicole Mench ◽  
Martin Hengesbach
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Structure ◽  
Rna Binding ◽  
Specific Protein ◽  
Structure Dependence ◽  
Terminal Domain ◽  
Methylation Assay ◽  
A Site ◽  
Methylation Activity

AbstractN6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant modification in mRNA. The core of the human N6-methyltransferase complex (MTC) is formed by a heterodimer consisting of METTL3 and METTL14, which specifically catalyzes m6A formation within an RRACH sequence context. Using recombinant proteins in a site-specific methylation assay that allows determination of quantitative methylation yields, our results show that this complex methylates its target RNAs not only sequence but also secondary structure dependent. Furthermore, we demonstrate the role of specific protein domains on both RNA binding and substrate turnover, focusing on postulated RNA binding elements. Our results show that one zinc finger motif within the complex is sufficient to bind RNA, however, both zinc fingers are required for methylation activity. We show that the N-terminal domain of METTL3 alters the secondary structure dependence of methylation yields. Our results demonstrate that a cooperative effect of all RNA-binding elements in the METTL3–METTL14 complex is required for efficient catalysis, and that binding of further proteins affecting the NTD of METTL3 may regulate substrate specificity.

scholarly journals The RelA hydrolase domain acts as a molecular switch for (p)ppGpp synthesis

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anurag Kumar Sinha ◽  
Kristoffer Skovbo Winther
Keyword(s):  
Active Sites ◽  
Molecular Switch ◽  
Cell Physiology ◽  
Synthetase Activity ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Functional Studies ◽  
Loop Region ◽  
A Site ◽  
Trna Binding

AbstractBacteria synthesize guanosine tetra- and penta phosphate (commonly referred to as (p)ppGpp) in response to environmental stresses. (p)ppGpp reprograms cell physiology and is essential for stress survival, virulence and antibiotic tolerance. Proteins of the RSH superfamily (RelA/SpoT Homologues) are ubiquitously distributed and hydrolyze or synthesize (p)ppGpp. Structural studies have suggested that the shift between hydrolysis and synthesis is governed by conformational antagonism between the two active sites in RSHs. RelA proteins of γ-proteobacteria exclusively synthesize (p)ppGpp and encode an inactive pseudo-hydrolase domain. Escherichia coli RelA synthesizes (p)ppGpp in response to amino acid starvation with cognate uncharged tRNA at the ribosomal A-site, however, mechanistic details to the regulation of the enzymatic activity remain elusive. Here, we show a role of the enzymatically inactive hydrolase domain in modulating the activity of the synthetase domain of RelA. Using mutagenesis screening and functional studies, we identify a loop region (residues 114–130) in the hydrolase domain, which controls the synthetase activity. We show that a synthetase-inactive loop mutant of RelA is not affected for tRNA binding, but binds the ribosome less efficiently than wild type RelA. Our data support the model that the hydrolase domain acts as a molecular switch to regulate the synthetase activity.

scholarly journals A MODEL OF CREATIVE HERITAGE FOR INDUSTRY: DESIGNING NEW RULES WHILE PRESERVING THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF RULES

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 141-150
Author(s):  
Honorine Harlé ◽  
Pascal Le Masson ◽  
Benoit Weil
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Industry 4.0 ◽  
Innovation Management ◽  
Present System ◽  
Innovative Capability ◽  
Current Change ◽  
A Site ◽  
Do So

AbstractIn industry, there is at once a strong need for innovation and a need to preserve the existing system of production. Thus, although the literature insists on the necessity of the current change toward Industry 4.0, how to implement it remains problematic because the preservation of the factory is at stake. Moreover, the question of the evolution of the system depends on its innovative capability, but it is difficult to understand how a new rule can be designed and implemented in a factory. This tension between preservation and innovation is often explained in the literature as a process of creative destruction. Looking at the problem from another perspective, this article models the factory as a site of creative heritage, enabling creation within tradition, i.e., creating new rules while preserving the system of rules. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the model. The paper shows that design in the factory relies on the ability to validate solutions. To do so, the design process can explore and give new meaning to the existing rules. The role of innovation management is to choose the degree of revision of the rules and to make it possible.

The Role of Understanding on Architectural Beauty: Evidence From the Impact of Semantic Description on the Aesthetic Evaluation of Architecture

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110021
Author(s):  
Sizhe Liu ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Xianyou He ◽  
Xiaoxiang Tang ◽  
Shuxian Lai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Supplementary Information ◽  
Aesthetic Evaluation ◽  
Abstract Description ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Appearance Design ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Impact

There is evidence that greater aesthetic experience can be linked to artworks when their corresponding meanings can be successfully inferred and understood. Modern cultural-expo architecture can be considered a form of artistic creation and design, and the corresponding design philosophy may be derived from representational objects or abstract social meanings. The present study investigates whether cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design is perceived as more beautiful and how architectural photographs and different types of descriptions of architectural appearance designs interact and produce higher aesthetic evaluations. The results showed an obvious aesthetic preference for cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design (Experiment 1). Moreover, we found that the aesthetic rating score of architectural photographs accompanied by an abstract description was significantly higher than that of those accompanied by a representational description only under the difficult-to-understand design condition (Experiment 2). The results indicated that people preferred cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design due to a greater understanding of the design, providing further evidence that abstract descriptions can provide supplementary information and explanation to enhance the sense of beauty of abstract cultural-expo architecture.

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