Governing Uncertainty in a Secular Age: Rationalities of Violence, Theodicy and Torture

This article explores the problem of governing uncertainty in a secular age by focusing on the theological notion of ‘theodicy’ as the underlying rationale for the use of torture in the so-called ‘war on terror’. With God’s departure from the world, the problem of uncertainty acquires new salience as human beings can no longer explain tragic events as part of a transcendent order and must find immanent causes for the ‘evils’ that surround them. Taking a cue from Max Weber, I discuss how the problem of theodicy – how to reconcile the existence of God with the presence of evil in the world – does not disappear in the secular age but is mobilized through a Foucauldian biopolitical logic. Secular theodicy governs uncertainty through the production of economies of knowledge that rationalize processes of criminalization and securitization of entire groups and justify the use of violence. This process is particularly striking when analysing the use of torture in the so-called ‘war on terror’. Through a comparison with medieval practices and focusing on the cases of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, the article shows how secular torture is the product of a biopolitical theodicy aimed at governing uncertainty through the construction of the tortured as immanent evils who threaten our ‘good life’ and ‘deserve’ their treatment. Secular theodicy turns torture into an extreme form of governmentality of uncertainty in which the disciplining of conduct becomes the construction of subjectivities based on essentialist, stereotypical and racist – and for these very reasons, reassuring – economies of knowledge

Inside and out: the activities of senescence in cancer.

The core aspect of the senescent phenotype is a stable state of cell cycle arrest. However, this is a disguise that conceals a highly active metabolic cell state with diverse functionality. Both the cell-autonomous and the non-cell-autonomous activities of senescent cells create spatiotemporally dynamic and context-dependent tissue reactions. For example, the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) provokes not only tumour-suppressive but also tumour-promoting responses. Senescence is now increasingly considered to be an integrated and widespread component that is potentially important for tumour development, tumour suppression and the response to therapy.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from NPG via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrc377

Associations between Active Trachoma and Community Intervention with Antibiotics, Facial Cleanliness, and Environmental Improvement (A,F,E)

Trachoma is an infectious disease that is cased by a bacterium, Chlamydia trachomatis, and is the leading cause of preventable blindness estimated to be responsible for 3.6% of blindness globally. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a strategy for trachoma control known as SAFE—surgery, antibiotics, facial cleanliness, and environmental improvement. Regular evaluations of trachoma control activities are advocated for by the WHO for decision making, programme planning, and the rational use of programme resources. We undertook a survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the SAFE strategy following three years of interventions in four districts in Southern Sudan. In this paper, we aimed to find out the relationship between the antibiotics, facial cleanliness, and environmental improvement (A,F,E) and active trachoma signs. Our study revealed that prevalence of active trachoma was less in children who had received treatment with azithromycin, had clean faces, had faces washed more frequently, and used latrines compared to children who had not received these interventions. The study findings are important since they make the case for implementing the A,F,E interventions together

Relacao entre o nivel de atividade fisica estimado pelo Baltimore Activity Scale for Intermittent Claudication e a pedometria em pacientes com claudicacao intermitente

CONTEXTO: Os pacientes com claudicação intermitente apresentam níveis reduzidos de atividade física. A Baltimore Activity Scale for Intermittent Claudication (BASIC) foi validada para quantificar o nível de atividade física destes pacientes. No entanto, esta validação se baseou em apenas dois dias de monitoramento com acelerômetros, de modo que ainda permanece incerto se a BASIC fornece informações sobre os níveis de atividade física semanal. OBJETIVO: Analisar a correlação entre o nível de atividade física estimada pela BASIC e o nível obtido pelo pedômetro em uma semana, em pacientes com claudicação intermitente. MÉTODOS: Foram estudados 150 pacientes com claudicação intermitente, com idade entre 30 e 80 anos. Foram obtidos os dados sociodemográficos e verificada a presença de comorbidades e de fatores de risco cardiovascular, e a BASIC. O pedômetro foi utilizado por sete dias consecutivos, sendo a análise feita em três diferentes períodos de monitorização (todos os dias, dias da semana e do fim de semana). RESULTADOS: Foi observada correlação entre a BASIC e a média de passos de todos os dias (rho=0,343; p<0,001), dos dias de semana (rho=0,336; p<0,001) e dos dias do final de semana (rho=0,317; p<0,001). CONCLUSÃO: Em pacientes com claudicação intermitente, o nível de atividade física estimado pela BASIC se correlaciona com o nível de atividade física semanal

Meat and Nicotinamide:A Causal Role in Human Evolution, History, and Demographics

Hunting for meat was a critical step in all animal and human evolution. A key brain-trophic element in meat is vitamin B 3 /nicotinamide. The supply of meat and nicotinamide steadily increased from the Cambrian origin of animal predators ratcheting ever larger brains. This culminated in the 3-million-year evolution of Homo sapiens and our overall demographic success. We view human evolution, recent history, and agricultural and demographic transitions in the light of meat and nicotinamide intake. A biochemical and immunological switch is highlighted that affects fertility in the ‘de novo’ tryptophan-to-kynurenine-nicotinamide ‘immune tolerance’ pathway. Longevity relates to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide consumer pathways. High meat intake correlates with moderate fertility, high intelligence, good health, and longevity with consequent population stability, whereas low meat/high cereal intake (short of starvation) correlates with high fertility, disease, and population booms and busts. Too high a meat intake and fertility falls below replacement levels. Reducing variances in meat consumption might help stabilise population growth and improve human capital

Recent Advances in the Structure Analysis of Rhodopseudomonas viridis Reaction Center Mutants

The primary charge separation in photosynthesis is mediated by a membrane protein pigment complex, the photosynthetic reaction center (RC). The RC from the purple bacterium Rhodopseudomonas (Rps). viridis has been crystallized and the subsequent X-ray structure analysis provided a complete picture of protein structure and pigment arrangement (see 1). The RC consists of four protein subunits, the H (high), M (medium) and L (low) subunits, according to their apparent molecular weights from SDS-PAGE, and a tightly bound cytochrome subunit. Four heme groups are covalently bound to the cytochrome subunit, whereas the other pigments are embedded into the L and M subunits. There are four bacteriochlorophyll b molecules, two of them form the special pair (the primary electron donor P), two bacteriophaeophytin b molecules, two chemically different quinones, QA (primary quinone, a menaquinone-9) and QB (secondary quinone, a ubiquinone-9, see 2), one carotenoid molecule (a dihydroneurosporene) and a non-heme iron. These pigments are arranged in a highly symmetric manner in two branches extending from the special pair to the non-heme iron (3). However, only one branch is active in electron transfer

The Video Head Impulse Test

Book Summary: Dizziness comes in many forms in each age group – some specific to an age group (e.g. benign paroxysmal vertigo of childhood) while others span the age spectrum (e.g., migraine-associated vertigo). This content organizes evaluation and management of the dizzy patient by age to bring a fresh perspective to seeing these often difficult patients