Nixon’s Ghost and the Haunting of Violence at Cambodia’s Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Between 1975 and 1979, upwards of two million men, women, and children perished in the Cambodian genocide. Decades after the ending of mass violence, Cambodia struggles both with reconciliation and remembrance. These struggles figure prominently in the representation of mass violence at state-sanctioned sites of memorialization, specifically the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. In this paper, I draw inspiration from Derrida’s conceptualization of hauntology to provide a critical reading of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. A multivalent concept, haunting directs attention to the traces or remains – whether material or discursive – of violence that remain present in their absence. Consequently, the museum – a popular destination on the dark tourism circuit – reproduces a particular knowledge of Cambodia’s genocide, that is, a state-sanctioned interpretation of Khmer Rouge violence. At the same time, the historical and geopolitical context of the genocide, notably the extension of the United States-led war in Vietnam, haunts the museum’s display of violence by its conspicuous absence. In doing so, I provide a critique of epistemological practices at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and highlight the tension of absent-presences that haunt the display of genocidal violence in Cambodia.Between 1975 and 1979, upwards of two million men, women, and children perished in the Cambodian genocide. Decades after the ending of mass violence, Cambodia struggles both with reconciliation and remembrance. These struggles figure prominently in the representation of mass violence at state-sanctioned sites of memorialization, specifically the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. In this paper, I draw inspiration from Derrida’s conceptualization of hauntology to provide a critical reading of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. A multivalent concept, haunting directs attention to the traces or remains – whether material or discursive – of violence that remain present in their absence. Consequently, the museum – a popular destination on the dark tourism circuit – reproduces a particular knowledge of Cambodia’s genocide, that is, a state-sanctioned interpretation of Khmer Rouge violence. At the same time, the historical and geopolitical context of the genocide, notably the extension of the United States-led war in Vietnam, haunts the museum’s display of violence by its conspicuous absence. In doing so, I provide a critique of epistemological practices at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and highlight the tension of absent-presences that haunt the display of genocidal violence in Cambodia

A Study of the Bottle Configuration

It is the candidate\u27s intention to explore the elements inherent with the bottle configuration. Singled out as most important are Form, Balance and Tension, while the bottle or closed form has been chosen due to the vastness of form possibility and over-all technical difficulty of working in that format. The study is predominantly creative, and in that vein, the candidate seeks the experience that will be gained from defining his sincere attitudes and convictions embodied in the results of the study, original ceramic art forms

Evaluation of in vitro cross-reactivity to avian H5N1 and pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza following prime boost regimens of seasonal influenza vaccination in healthy human subjects: A randomised trial

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The Relevance of Gamma Theta Upsilon to Geography in the 1990s

The status of geography has long been a concern to its practitioners. Efforts have been proposed to increase both the visibility and vitality of geography at all educational levels. These efforts include the activities of social organizations such as Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU). This paper tests the hypothesis that geography departments with active chapters of Gamma Theta Upsilon, a geography honor society, will experience a greater increase in declared geography majors than will departments with inactive GTU chapters. Findings confirm our hypothesis, and suggest that Gamma Theta Upsilon, as a visible and active honor society on university campuses, does contribute significantly to the health of geography as a discipline

Metabolic reprogramming ensures cancer cell survival despite oncogenic signaling blockade

There is limited knowledge about the metabolic reprogramming induced by cancer therapies, and how this contributes to therapeutic resistance. Here we show that although inhibition of PI3K-AKT-mTOR signaling markedly decreased glycolysis and restrained tumor growth, these signaling and metabolic restrictions triggered autophagy, which supplied the metabolites required for the maintenance of mitochondrial respiration and redox homeostasis. Specifically, we found that survival of cancer cells was critically dependent on phospholipase A2 (PLA2) to mobilize lysophospholipids and free fatty acids to sustain fatty acid oxidation and oxidative phosphorylation. Consistent with this, we observed significantly increased lipid droplets, with subsequent mobilization to mitochondria. These changes were abrogated in cells deficient for the essential autophagy gene, ATG5. Accordingly, inhibition of PLA2 significantly decreased lipid droplets, decreased oxidative phosphorylation and increased apoptosis. Together, these results describe how treatment-induced autophagy provides nutrients for cancer cell survival and identifies novel co-treatment strategies to override this survival advantage

Inter-Country Child Adoptionand the World Wide Web

Communication technologies, and especially the advent of the World Wide Web, are changing the geographies of business activities. In this paper the usage of Web sites to facilitate intercountry child adoption are examined. Using a two-pronged strategy, the content of Web sites are qualitatively analyzed and, second, through a mail survey the impact of Internet technology on the conduct of business is examined. Findings suggest that exposure, competition, networking, and cost-considerations are dominant motives for agencies to go \u27on-line.\u27 Findings also suggest, however, that latent costs are associated with these factors and question whether increased exposure leads to increased demand. Most significantly, continued effects of geography on firm behavior remain significant. Despite the academic excitement of the Internet as a space-less medium, agencies are still significantly constrained by their physical location

Marketing a \u27Sense of Place\u27: Representations of Africa in Ecotour Web sites

Patterns and forms of international tourism have changed significantly over the past three decades. Specifically, ecotourism has emerged as an ostensibly environmentally and culturally sensitive option to more traditional forms of tourist activities. Taking advantage of the proliferation of modern communications technologies, ecotour agencies have utilized the World Wide Web to facilitate the marketing and promotion of their tours. This paper examines the implications of Webbased technology and tourism. Through a qualitative analysis of 30 ecotour Websites, we identify and examine dominant discourses which perpetuate the representation of Africa as a dark, empty, wild continent, still open for Western appropriation. We contend that the marketing of Africa-based ecotours, and the usage of these discourses, legitimizes and naturalizes neocolonial relations

Direct comparison of the histidine-rich protein-2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (HRP-2 ELISA) and malaria SYBR green I fluorescence (MSF) drug sensitivity tests in Plasmodium falciparum reference clones and fresh ex vivo field isolates from Cambodia

BACKGROUND: Performance of the histidine-rich protein-2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (HRP-2 ELISA) and malaria SYBR Green I fluorescence (MSF) drug sensitivity tests were directly compared using Plasmodium falciparum reference strains and fresh ex vivo isolates from Cambodia against a panel of standard anti-malarials. The objective was to determine which of these two common assays is more appropriate for studying drug susceptibility of “immediate ex vivo” (IEV) isolates, analysed without culture adaption, in a region of relatively low malaria transmission. METHODS: Using the HRP-2 and MSF methods, the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) values against a panel of malaria drugs were determined for P. falciparum reference clones (W2, D6, 3D7 and K1) and 41 IEV clinical isolates from an area of multidrug resistance in Cambodia. Comparison of the IC(50) values from the two methods was made using Wilcoxon matched pair tests and Pearson’s correlation. The lower limit of parasitaemia detection for both methods was determined for reference clones and IEV isolates. Since human white blood cell (WBC) DNA in clinical samples is known to reduce MSF assay sensitivity, SYBR Green I fluorescence linearity of P. falciparum samples spiked with WBCs was evaluated to assess the relative degree to which MSF sensitivity is reduced in clinical samples. RESULTS: IC(50) values correlated well between the HRP-2 and MSF methods when testing either P. falciparum reference clones or IEV isolates against 4-aminoquinolines (chloroquine, piperaquine and quinine) and the quinoline methanol mefloquine (Pearson r = 0.85-0.99 for reference clones and 0.56-0.84 for IEV isolates), whereas a weaker IC(50) value correlation between methods was noted when testing artemisinins against reference clones and lack of correlation when testing IEV isolates. The HRP-2 ELISA produced a higher overall success rate (90% for producing IC(50) best-fit sigmoidal curves), relative to only a 40% success rate for the MSF assay, when evaluating ex vivo Cambodian isolates. Reduced sensitivity of the MSF assay is likely due to an interference of WBCs in clinical samples. CONCLUSIONS: For clinical samples not depleted of WBCs, HRP-2 ELISA is superior to the MSF assay at evaluating fresh P. falciparum field isolates with low parasitaemia (<0.2%) generally observed in Southeast Asia

Multivariate Analysis of Voluntary Health and Welfare Organization Financial Performance Measures

This investigation seeks to ascertain if the three factor model used by Ritchie and Kolodinsky (2003) for hospital foundations applies similarly for a different nonprofit sector of Voluntary Health and Welfare Organizations (VHWO’s) regarding financial performance categories derived from the Internal Revenue Service Form 990, or if a four factor model is more appropriate. 301 data sets obtained from GuideStar were evaluated using principal component analysis, and ultimately with confirmatory factor analysis using IBM AMOS Version 23.0 software. The results demonstrated that the higher order CFA three factor Ritchie and Kolodinsky (2003) model did fit to evaluate VHWOs