The Long History of Feminist Legal Theory

The conventional idea is that feminist legal theory began in the 1970s, in the second-wave feminist movement. However, the foundations of feminist legal theory were first conceptualized much earlier, in 1848, and developed over the next century and a half through distinct periods of thought. That development began with the establishment of the core theoretical precepts of gender and equality grounded in the comprehensive philosophy of the nineteenth-century’s first women’s rights movement ignited at Seneca Falls. Feminist legal theory was popularized and advanced by the political activism of the women’s suffrage movement, even as suffragists limited the feminist consensus to one based on women’s maternalism. Progressive feminism then expanded the theoretical framework of feminist theory in the early twentieth century, encapsulating ideas of global peace, market work, and sex rights of birth control. In the modern era, legal feminists gravitated back to pragmatic and concrete ideas of formal equality and the associated legalisms of equal rights and equal protection. Yet through each of these periods, the two common imperatives were to place women at the center of analysis and to recognize law as a fundamental agent of change.

Jamaican postcolonial writing practices and metalinguistic discourses as a challenge to established norms and standards

There are moments when people imagine languages differently, sometimes even radically rethinking “language” beyond the conventional idea of “language” itself as a coherent entity. Such moments tend to coincide with, or be triggered by, other historically significant occasions such as the casting off of the yoke of cruel colonial ministries, or the search for a new collective sense of self, previously stigmatized. Often accompanying such reimaginings is a new embodied and euphoric sense of self, suddenly made possible through language, together with the realization that language has the power to form other subjectivities. This chapter considers a singular and brief moment of such reimagining. It is the reimagining of Portuguese in the dawning of a post-colonial, independent Mozambique.

Embracing imperfection: contemporary fashion communication and consumer well-being

PurposeFashion advertising as a contemporary ideological form has the power to deliver semiotic messages, which frames individuals' perception. Promoting perfection in consumer culture has resulted in the creation of unrealistic self-image and negative effects that led to psychological illnesses and pathological behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ideology behind the contemporary fashion advertising that embraces imperfection and is linked to consumer subjective well-being.Design/methodology/approachNine fashion ads were selected based on the WGSN consumer report Embracing Imperfection. A sample of images was analysed applying semiotic analysis combined with the criteria of content analysis.FindingsThe results supported the notion that some contemporary fashion communication brands are challenging the conventional idea of perfection. Five themes were identified as the characteristics that bridged the visual surface of advertising with its hidden ideologies of imperfection. By supporting “anonymity”, fashion brand communication is against excessive self-focus and helps reducing anxiety due to being imperfect. By promoting “rawness”, it encourages authenticity and uniqueness. “Banality” rejects materialism and promotes the beauty of the boring day. “Ugliness” advocates for removal of the single standards and celebrate individual differences, and “spontaneity” is interchangeable for humanity, freedom, openness and acceptance of self.Originality/valueThis study is among the few attempts to conduct semiotic analysis of fashion advertising images aiming to identify the visual components and ideologies that could potentially be linked to subjective well-being in fashion communication.

Architectural Technologies and the Origins of Greek Philosophy

In this essay on ancient architectural technologies, I propose to challenge the largely conventional idea of the transcendent origins of philosophy, that philosophy dawned only when the mind turned inside, away from the world grasped by the body and senses. By focusing on one premier episode in the history of western thinking – the emergence of Greek philosophical thought in the cosmic architecture of Anaximander of Miletus – I am arguing that the abstract, speculative, rationalising thinking characteristic of philosophy, is indeed rooted in practical activities, and emerges by means of them rather than in repudiation of them. The spirit of rational inquiry emerged from several factors but the contributing role of monumental architecture and building technologies has been vastly under-appreciated. In the process of figuring out how to build on an enormous scale that the eastern Greeks had never before tried, the architects discovered and revealed nature’s order in their thaumata, the very experience with which Aristotle claims that philosophy begins. Ancient architecture and building technologies were on display for decades with monumental temple building. In front of Anaximander and his community, a new vision of nature spawned that, surprisingly, humans could grasp and command. The building of these thaumata, these objects of wonder, offered proof of the human capacity to control nature, and opened a new vision of our human rational capacity to understand the world and our place in it.

LATERAL THINKING TECHNIQUES IN ENHANCING ESP SKILLS

The paper outlines the defining value of lateral thinking in the FL and ESP learning. The Framework for FL and ESP training, based on De Bono lateral thinking system and its Kotler’s & de Bes’s adaptations, has been developed by the authors in the context of Ukrainian University. The authors’ idea to boost FL skills through international project participation has led to shifting from conventional knowledge-reproduction to knowledgetransformation scheme in FL learning process. As a result, activating lateral techniques such as alternative focus, force-fit analogy, unexpected choice, manipulative information distortion, provocation, specially created conflict, challenging the conventional idea/vision, imaginative verbalization, unconventional metaphor, etc. turn ESP learning process into searching for an indirect and creative way to solve problems by means of using reasoning that is not immediately obvious. The research, presented in the article, relies on the experimental training of the first-year Education Majors of the Master’s program (n=33) who admitted a positive effect of lateral thinking techniques on general linguistic range of communicative competence. It is inferred from the study, that lateral thinking techniques have contributed to progress in both language skills and thinking abilities and led to improvement in students’ academic achievements and enhancement of creativity.

How Words Make Things Happen

Sooner or later, our words take on meanings other than we intended. How Words Make Things Happen suggests that the conventional idea of persuasive rhetoric (which assumes a speaker’s control of calculated effects) and the modern idea of literary autonomy (which assumes that “poetry makes nothing happen”) together have produced a misleading account of the relations between words and human action. Words do make things happen. But they cannot be counted on to produce the result they intend. The argument is enriched by examples from speakers and writers of various sorts, with close readings of the quoted passages. Chapter 1 considers the theory of speech acts propounded by J. L. Austin. “Speakers Who Convince Themselves” is the subject of Chapter 2, which interprets two soliloquies by Shakespeare’s characters, two by Milton’s Satan, and a character’s inward meditation in a novel by Henry James. The oratory of Burke and Lincoln comes in for extended treatment in Chapter 3, while Chapter 4 looks at the rival tendencies of moral suasion and aestheticism in the poetry of Yeats and Auden. The final chapter, a cause of controversy when first published in the London Review of Books, supports a policy of unrestricted free speech against contemporary proposals of censorship. Since we cannot know what our own words are going to do, we have no standing to justify the banishment of one set of words in favour of another.

Emergence of Selectivity in Inherently Nonselective Gold Nanoparticles Through Preferential Breaking of Interparticle Interactions

<p>We demonstrate a fundamentally unique identification strategy to impart selectivity to a traditionally and inherently nonselective carboxylate-functionalized gold-nanoparticles ([-] AuNPs), without the aid of any analyte specific ligands. The common practice is to use the ability of divalent ions to trigger the aggregation process in a kinetically trapped dispersed solution of [-] AuNPs. Aggregation of NPs being a thermodynamically favourable process will result in a uniform and nonselective turn-off response from most of the strongly binding divalent ions. Our approach is to use the abilities of various divalent ions to break a thermodynamically stable inter-nanoparticle precipitates containing [+] and [-] AuNPs (<i>nanoionic precipitates</i>), as the means of identification. Importantly both [+] and [-] AuNPs, independently, were ‘blind’ in terms of selectivity towards divalent ions. Remarkably, a hybrid-system composed of such nonselective nanoparticles was able to discriminate between the hard-to-distinguish pair of Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ ions. The rationale is that only the strongest of strongly binding ions will be able to break the interactions between the NP precipitates (thermodynamically stable state) and re-disperse them back in solution (kinetically trapped state). This is in stark contrast with the conventional idea of forming an interaction between NPs and divalent ions, with the help of analyte-specific ligands.</p>

Emergence of Selectivity in Inherently Nonselective Gold Nanoparticles Through Preferential Breaking of Interparticle Interactions

<p>We demonstrate a fundamentally unique identification strategy to impart selectivity to a traditionally and inherently nonselective carboxylate-functionalized gold-nanoparticles ([-] AuNPs), without the aid of any analyte specific ligands. The common practice is to use the ability of divalent ions to trigger the aggregation process in a kinetically trapped dispersed solution of [-] AuNPs. Aggregation of NPs being a thermodynamically favourable process will result in a uniform and nonselective turn-off response from most of the strongly binding divalent ions. Our approach is to use the abilities of various divalent ions to break a thermodynamically stable inter-nanoparticle precipitates containing [+] and [-] AuNPs (<i>nanoionic precipitates</i>), as the means of identification. Importantly both [+] and [-] AuNPs, independently, were ‘blind’ in terms of selectivity towards divalent ions. Remarkably, a hybrid-system composed of such nonselective nanoparticles was able to discriminate between the hard-to-distinguish pair of Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ ions. The rationale is that only the strongest of strongly binding ions will be able to break the interactions between the NP precipitates (thermodynamically stable state) and re-disperse them back in solution (kinetically trapped state). This is in stark contrast with the conventional idea of forming an interaction between NPs and divalent ions, with the help of analyte-specific ligands.</p>

Facets of Trade Facilitation

The theoretical underpinnings of trade facilitation (TF) would suggest a ‘balanced growth’ approach to expedite trade. However, taking the example of China and India, in this article, we explore how selective measures are capable of addressing issues related to TF. Both the economies offer very innovative interventions to address issues corresponding to TF, especially embedded in the way institutions are coordinated and integrated. As against the conventional idea that TF has to be initiated and carried forward only by the government, the ‘One Touch’ initiative in China provides a role for public–private partnership on issues pertaining to TF. This clearly demonstrates how, besides generating demand for trade-logistics services, the private sector itself can act as a source of supply to such services. The operation of Grapenet in India highlights the need to focus on sector-specific TF requirements along with meeting multilateral obligations. The One Touch initiative has to be appreciated as it was brought about in a context of the limited evolution of the information technology (IT) platform in China, and Grapenet has to be appreciated specifically because it brought a paperless integrated system in an agricultural context in India, where this sector’s preparedness for TF is less than that of the manufacturing sector.

Allosteric Effects between the Antibody Constant and Variable Regions: A Study of IgA Fc Mutations on Antigen Binding

Therapeutics antibodies have increasingly shifted the paradigm of disease treatments, from small molecules to biologics, especially in cancer therapy. Despite the increasing number of antibody candidates, much remains unknown about the antibody and how its various regions interact. In fact, the constant region can govern effects that might be useful in reducing the unwanted consequences resulted from systemic circulation. For this reason, apart from the commonly used IgG isotypes, IgA antibodies are promising therapeutics drugs, given its localized mucosal effects. While the antibody Fc effector cell activity has been well explored, recent research has shown evidences that the constant region of the antibody can also influence antigen binding, challenging the conventional idea of region-specific antibody functions. To further investigate this, we analyzed the IgA antibody constant and its allosteric effects onto the antigen binding regions, using recombinant Pertuzumab IgA1 and IgA2 variants. We found mutations in the C-region to reduce Her2 binding, and our computational structural analysis showed that such allosteric communications were highly dependent on the antibody hinge, providing the evidence to consider antibodies as a whole protein rather than a sum of functional regions.