Fear: Introduction to special issue

Fear needs dealing with. Fear demands to be abated, countered or turned into something else, contributing and curtailing how we ‘do’ being human beings. This special issue of the European Journal of Cultural Studies addresses fear within media and popular culture, adopting a cultural studies approach to fear in a variety of socio-cultural and political contexts. A cultural studies approach allows us to enhance the horizon of understanding cultural practices, mediation and the subjective experience of fear as something we need to work through, in a process of recognition and shock, action and reaction, understanding and reflection. This focus on ‘working through fear’ offers new insights into the intensely subjective aspects of fear as it is creatively explored in representations within drama and documentary, photography and art, and in user-generated content, memes and political satire, and as it is embodied and experienced by people in the context of their realities. In addition, it shows how fear generates energy, anxiety and even desire. Rather than offering a generalizing account, this issue seeks to address fear in specific contexts, localities and from specific roles and perspectives.

Impact of membranetropic compounds on the sensitivity of mammalian erythrocytes to the posthypertonic shock action

The effect of cationic trifluoperazine (TFP) and nonionic decyl-β,D-glucopyranoside (DGP) on the sensitivity of human, rabbit and rat erythrocytes to the action of posthypertonic shock (PHS) at 0 °C was studied in this research. Trifluoperazine shows a high antihemolytic activity under conditions of PHS of human and animal erythrocytes at slight differences of values of effective concentrations. The value of antihemolytic activity of TFP for human and rabbit erythrocytes is ~ 60 %, and for rat cells the efficiency of this compound is approximately 1.4 times higher. The values of antihemolytic activity of DGP under PHS conditions of human and rat erythrocytes are comparable and amounts to 62 and 66 %, respectively. Significant differen­ces of this parameter (72 %) were found for rabbit cells compared with human erythrocytes. It was found that the size of plateau (the range of concentrations of amphiphilic compounds within the minimum level of erythrocyte hemolysis was observed) cationic TFP and nonionic DGP are significantly different. Thus, TFP has a narrow plateau (100–200 μmol/L), while DGP has a rather wide one (400–1600 μmol/L). In addition, a shift of the plateau concentrations of DGP to the region of higher values compared with TFP is observed, which is probably due to the fact that the value of the critical micelle concentration DGP is higher than TFP. Moreover, a shift of plateau concentrations of DGP to the region of higher values compared with TFP is observed, that is probably due to the fact that the value of the critical micelle concentration DGP is higher than TFP one. It was established that under PHS conditions of human erythrocyte, both compounds (TFP and DGP) show a commensurate antihemolytic activity. At the same time, for rabbit cells, DGP is more effective compared with TFP, and for rat erythrocytes, on the contrary, the efficiency of TFP is higher than DGP. This may be due to differences in the phospholipid composition of mammalian erythrocyte membranes. The results suggest that under PHS conditions the efficacy of membrane-tropic compounds is most likely due to their ability to incorporate into membrane to the defect formation areas, and thus significantly increase the critical hemolytic volume of cells, as a result, prevent their destruction.

Diagnostics of Fibre-Reinforced Concrete by the Nondestructive Method Based on Mechanoelectric Transformations Phenomenon

This article presents the results of a study of the effect of crack formation in concrete that occurs during uniaxial compression on the parameters of the electrical response under periodic impulse shock action. Researches were conducted on fibre-reinforced concrete samples and samples without reinforcement. It is shown that the method based on mechanoelectric transformations phenomenon can be equally applied to both unreinforced and fibre-reinforced concrete samples.

ANTI-SHOCK ACTION OF TEMPORARY TRANSPORT IMMOBILIZATION IN PATIENTS WITH PELVIS INJURIES

The analysis ofresults of 26 patients’ treatment with concomitant injury and pelvis injuries were conducted. Anti-shockaction of suggested by the authors immobilization belt were shown. Immobilizing beltat an early hospital stage contributes to the effect of intrapelvic biological tamponade, reducesthe rate ofinternal bleeding, stabilize the hemodynamics.