Sonic Technoecology: Voice and Non-anthropocentric Survival in The Algae Opera

ABSTRACT

Prompted largely by human-induced ecocrises, interspecies performance, which examines the enmeshment of human existence and responsibility with other species and the more-than-human world, is a proliferating trend in the performing arts and in their study. While there have been notable sound-based performances working with interspecies themes in recent years, there is a paucity of detailed, let alone feminist, research on these projects. This article addresses this by examining the potentialities of sound in interspecies performance, as exemplified by the musical and multisensory project, The Algae Opera, and by introducing the concept of sonic technoecology into studies of performance and feminist non-anthropocentric theories. Reconfiguring the quintessentially Eurocentric sphere of Western opera, The Algae Opera by Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta presents possibilities of multispecies survival and points to ontological and ethical stances beyond the human through an experimental, ecologically sustainable practice of food production. This practice interrelates an opera singer with purpose-built biotechnology and cultures of algae. With my concept of sonic technoecology, I demonstrate how this project uses the technicity and connective, ecological capacities of the singing voice and musical composition to enact horizontal relationality across traditionally separated terms, from human and other-than-human to corporeal and technical.     

‘My heart was already cooked’: girl soldiers and situated moral agencies

Abstract

The number of studies on children in war has steadily increased in the fields of international relations, international law and moral philosophy in recent years. Most of this research has evolved around the legal and moral status of children in war. The status of girl soldiers is particularly intriguing, as it conflates common assumptions about both women and children as innocent victims of war. In this paper we look at narratives of children’s victimhood in the context of war by concentrating on girls who participated, in various forms, in the two Liberian civil wars from 1989 to 1997 and 2000 to 2003. Drawing on interviews conducted with women war veterans, we make the case that the study of child soldiers in general—and girl soldiers in particular—would benefit from a more contextually sensitive and empirically informed study of girls’ experiences, specifically regarding the possibilities and limitations of their capacity to be agents of war. We demonstrate how the agential capacities of children are case sensitive and argue that scholarship must better take into account the complex contextuality of childhood and agency in the study of children in war.     

Feminism,Art, Deleuze,and Darwin: An Interview with Elizabeth Grosz

Abstract

This discussion stresses that looking at countries on the margins of European colonial rule can be useful when considering the wider dynamics of the present, reflecting the persistence of colonial discourses and how racism “endures”. Iceland’s colonial experience was characterized by duality, in which the country was an object of colonialism, while actively participating in the racist discourses predominant in Europe at that time. This paper demonstrates how Iceland’s long association with the exotic and its gendered manifestations is currently being perpetuated by the tourist and state industries, under the influence of neo-liberal ideas about nation branding. When contextualized within the larger geopolitical environment, Iceland as an “exotic” destination unravels the racist and colonized narratives still at play within a wider geopolitical context.     

Hair and urine testing to assess drugs of abuse consumption in couples undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART)

For the first time in Europe hair and urine testing have been applied to assess drugs of abuse consumption in couples undergoing assisted reproductive technology and the eventual association of toxic habits with other lifestyle, health status and sociodemographic factors was also investigated. Couples attending five assisted reproduction centers in Rome were invited to join the study. When they presented at the Centre for the visit, they were asked to answer a structured questionnaire concerning sociodemographic characteristics and lifestyle habits, and at the same time to provide hair and urine samples. Hair and urine testing for drugs of abuse, urinary profile of principal endogenous steroids involved in fertility process (testosterone, epitestosterone, androsterone, etiocholanolone and dehydroepiandrosterone) and of alcohol and tobacco smoke biomarkers were performed with validated methodologies. Of the 594 enrolled individuals (297 couples), 352 (164 couples and 24 single individuals from the couple) completed the questionnaire and gave both hair and urine samples, apart from 3 bald men, who only gave urine samples. Urine testing showed an overall 4.8% (17 individuals) positivity to drugs of abuse: 4.2% to cannabinoids, 1.4% to cocaine and 0.85% to both drugs. Results of 4cm segment hair samples testing matched those from urine samples. Thus, taking together, results of urine and hair testing confirmed repeated use of cannabis, cocaine and both drugs in 3.7, 0.85 and 0.57% examined individuals, respectively. Drug consumers were in a statistically higher percentage active smokers and alcohol drinkers, less prone to physical activity and with a trend towards higher weight than non consumers. Finally, repeated drug consumption was associated with significant lower concentration of urinary testosterone in males and of urinary dehydroepiandrosterone in females. The findings of the present study confirm the suitability of urine testing to disclose recent drugs of abuse consumption and of hair analysis to verify repeated consumption. Association between different toxic habits and sedentary lifestyle is also substantiated by the obtained results in our cohort of couples attending assisted reproduction centers.     

The Spanish Parliament and legislative delegation (1844–1849)1

A study of executive power and the legislative elaboration process during the reign of Isabel II leads to an understanding of one of the government's distinctive features. During the rule of the Moderate Party (1844–1854), and despite the fact that according to the Constitution of 1845 the legislative initiative lay with the king and the parliament, the ministerial initiatives prevailed over parliamentary proposals by means of legislative delegation. The lack of constitutional regulation brought about the existence of several types of delegation. Contemporaries noted their excessive use arising from the fact that it was very easy to govern with this system and, above all, because they were granted to all governments without political distinction. A paradigmatic illustration of the use of delegation is the Spanish Penal Code of 1848. This was because of the scope of its contents (the code put an end to the Ancien Regime in Spain) and because it had a structure and a scientific orientation which were going to exert a recognised influence, not only on Spain's subsequent Spanish Penal Codes until reaching the one in force from 1995, but also in Latin America. The Penal Code was equally important, because it clearly shows how the chambers themselves were not only unable to limit the government's capacity to introduce law, but even enlarged it by conferring upon the latter extraordinary powers for its future reform, limited by the only condition that the government had to inform the chambers once the reforms had been completed. An analysis of parliamentary debates allows us to understand the position of the moderate and progressive parties towards this practice.     

Development and validation of a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry assay for hair analysis of atomoxetine and its metabolites: Application in clinical practice

Atomoxetine (ATX) is a potent inhibitor of the noradrenaline reuptake transporter approved since 2002 for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, adolescents, and adults as alternative treatment to methylphenidate. A procedure based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has been developed for the determination of ATX and its main metabolites (4-hydroxyatomoxetine - 4 hydroxyATX - and N-desmethylatomoxetine - des-methylATX) in hair of one treated child and five treated adolescents. Since hair samples can be easily collected without the need for specials skills and exposing a patient to discomfort, hair testing of ATX and eventually of its metabolites should be useful, especially in case of pediatric patients, to check compliance in a wider time-window. After addition of duloxetine as internal standard, hair samples were overnight digested with 2ml 1M NaOH at 45°C. Then, analytes were extracted from alkaline solution with two different 2ml aliquots of tert-butyl methyl ether. Chromatographic separation was achieved at ambient temperature using a reverse-phase column and a mobile phase of 40% of water-60% 5mM ammonium acetate, 50mM formic acid, 4mM trifluoroacetic acid in acetonitrile-water (85:15, v/v). The mass spectrometer was operated in positive ion mode using multiple reaction monitoring. The method was linear over the concentration range 0.2-50ng/mg hair for the all analytes under investigation, with an intra- and inter-assay imprecision and inaccuracy always less than 20% and an analytical recovery between 33.1% and 76.1%, depending on the considered analyte. Only ATX and 4-hydroxyATX were detected in hair samples with concentrations varying from 0.2 to 2.0ng/mg hair and from 0.3 to 1.0ng/mg, respectively. Notwithstanding the absence of any dose-hair concentration relationship, hair monitoring of ATX and concomitant medications commonly administrated in ADHD children and adolescents can be crucial in verifying long-term compliance to prescribed medication in individuals displaying a non negligible tendency to refuse drugs and to lie on the adherence to therapy as a specific symptom of the disease.     

From privileged to thwarted stakeholders – Polish migrants’ perceptions of the Scottish Independence Referendum 2014 and the UK General Election in 2015

Scotland in 2014 and 2015 provides an ideal context for examining EU citizenship political rights as established in the Maastricht Treaty of 1993 from the perspective of Polish migrants resident in Scotland. We argue that the contrast between Polish migrants’ full enfranchisement in the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 to then being disenfranchised from the UK General Election in 2015 is a significant site for observing how EU laws interact with state-centric and also ‘post-national’ notions of citizenship. Our participants’ experiences of voting in the Referendum and subsequently not being able to vote in the General Election were articulated in the following terms: (a) the justification of their political rights in terms of their stake and contribution in the UK; (b) their frustrations with regards to anti-migration rhetoric and the limitations of European citizenship; and for some, (c) their plans of apply for British citizenship in the context of EU membership uncertainty.     

Stakeholder citizenship: the complexities of Polish migrants’ citizenship attachments in the context of the Scottish independence referendum

This article focuses on the experiences of Scotland’s largest foreign-born minority group, namely Poles, in the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. We draw on 20 in-depth interviews to explore our participants’ intentions and justifications for voting (or not) in the referendum. We found that our participants tended to emphasise the jus domicili principle when justifying their eligibility to vote in the referendum. However, our participants extended the jus domicili principle in their justifications to also include the intention to stay in Scotland as a central aspect of their continuing stake in (and right to vote in the referendum to determine) Scotland’s future. Through exploring our participants’ justifications for voting in the referendum, we were able to examine and better understand how migrants constitute their citizenship through articulating their substantive attachments (social, economic and relational or familial) in their adoptive country and in their country of origin.     

Reading aloud as performance and its representation on television programmes for children

ABSTRACT

The social practice of reading aloud picture books to children, or shared reading, has been represented on many televisions programmes broadcast across English-speaking countries. This article views shared reading as a performance, and explores its transformation on two television shows for children and the potential of such shows to promote reading engagement and literacy development. Taking a critical multimodal perspective, we analyse shared reading in real life and on television as a social practice, focusing on the ways the participants talk about the picture book, relate it to exterior texts or activities, and legitimise shared reading through the employment of multimodal and interactive strategies. The analysis reveals significant differences between actual adult–child shared reading and its representation on television. The comparison illustrates the potential benefits and limitations of television shows in which picture books are read to the viewer, in terms of promoting shared reading among families and supporting young children’s emergent literacy development.