Exploring Magic Realism in Salman Rushdie's Fiction

Kluwick breaks new ground in this book, moving away from Rushdie studies that focus on his status as postcolonial or postmodern, and instead considering the significance of magic realism in his fiction. Rushdie’s magic realism, in fact, lies at the heart of his engagement with the post/colonial. In a departure from conventional descriptions of magic realism—based primarily on the Latin-American tradition—Kluwick here proposes an alternative definition, allowing for a more accurate description of the form. She argues that it is disharmony, rather than harmony, that is decisive: that the incompatibility of the realist and the supernatural needs to be recognized as a driving force in Rushdie’s fiction. In its rigorous analysis of this Rushdian magic realism, this book considers the entire corpus—Midnight’s Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses, The Moor’s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Shalimar the Clown, and The Enchantress of Florence. This study is the first of its kind to do so.

Intervertebral disc regeneration or repair with biomaterials and stem cell therapy--feasible or fiction?

The "gold standard" for treatment of intervertebral disc herniations and degenerated discs is still spinal fusion, corresponding to the saying "no disc - no pain". Mechanical prostheses, which are currently implanted, do only have medium outcome success and have relatively high re-operation rates. Here, we discuss some of the biological intervertebral disc replacement approaches, which can be subdivided into at least two classes in accordance to the two different tissue types, the nucleus pulposus (NP) and the annulus fibrosus (AF). On the side of NP replacement hydrogels have been extensively tested in vitro and in vivo. However, these gels are usually a trade-off between cell biocompatibility and load-bearing capacity, hydrogels which fulfill both are still lacking. On the side of AF repair much less is known and the question of the anchoring of implants is still to be addressed. New hope for cell therapy comes from developmental biology investigations on the existence of intervertebral disc progenitor cells, which would be an ideal cell source for cell therapy. Also notochordal cells (remnants of the embryonic notochord) have been recently pushed back into focus since these cells have regenerative potential and can activate disc cells. Growth factor treatment and molecular therapies could be less problematic. The biological solutions for NP and AF replacement are still more fiction than fact. However, tissue engineering just scratched the tip of the iceberg, more satisfying solutions are yet to be added to the biomedical pipeline.

Representations of the Human/ Nonhuman Primate Divide: the Influence of Science, Fiction, and Science-Fiction on the Concept of 'Being Human'

For as far back as human history can be traced, mankind has questioned what it means to be human. One of the most common approaches throughout Western culture's intellectual tradition in attempts to answering this question has been to compare humans with or against other animals. I argue that it was not until Charles Darwin's publication of The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) that Western culture was forced to seriously consider human identity in relation to the human/ nonhuman primate line. Since no thinker prior to Charles Darwin had caused such an identity crisis in Western thought, this interdisciplinary analysis of the history of how the human/ nonhuman primate line has been understood focuses on the reciprocal relationship of popular culture and scientific representations from 1871 to the Human Genome Consortium in 2000. Focusing on the concept coined as the "Darwin-Müller debate," representations of the human/ nonhuman primate line are traced through themes of language, intelligence, and claims of variation throughout the popular texts: Descent of Man, The Jungle Books (1894), Tarzan of the Apes (1914), and Planet of the Apes (1963). Additional themes such as the nature versus nurture debate and other comparative phenotypic attributes commonly used for comparison between man and apes are also analyzed. Such popular culture representations are compared with related or influential scientific research during the respective time period of each text to shed light on the reciprocal nature of Western intellectual tradition, popular notions of the human/ nonhuman primate line, and the development of the field of primatology. Ultimately this thesis shows that the Darwin-Müller debate is indeterminable, and such a lack of resolution makes man uncomfortable. Man's unsettled response and desire for self-knowledge further facilitates a continued search for answers to human identity. As the Human Genome Project has led to the rise of new debates, and primate research has become less anthropocentric over time, the mysteries of man's future have become more concerning than the questions of our past. The human/ nonhuman primate line is reduced to a 1% difference, and new debates have begun to overshadow the Darwin-Müller debate. In conclusion, I argue that human identity is best represented through the metaphor of evolution: both have an unknown beginning, both have an indeterminable future with no definite end, and like a species under the influence of evolution, what it means to be human is a constant, indeterminable process of change.

Asia Comes to Main Street and May Learn to Speak Spanish: Globalization in a Poor Neighborhood in Worcester

This paper considers how and why an Asian enclave of small businesses has appeared in a poor neighborhood characterized by Puerto Rican and other Latino immigration in the post-industrial city of Worcester, Massachusetts. We begin by examining the role of the US in the world system, and argue that the US hegemonic role and specific political economic aspects of global capitalism (ie. deindustrialization) account for some of the migration stream. Next, using socioeconomic and historical data, interviews, and observations, we outline the history of Worcester’s economy and immigration patterns. We demonstrate that the increasing economic inequality leaves few promising employment options for newcomers to Worcester. Drawing on existing literature on immigrant entrepreneurs and ethnic enclaves, we argue that some aspects of the literature appear to shed light on the Vietnamese enterprises which have so visibly appeared (e.g., ethnic niches), while others, (e.g., middle-man minority theory) are not now reflected in local conflict. We conclude by considering the prospects for immigrants to this neighborhood in light of its political economic context.

A Spanish founder mutation in the chloride channel gene, CLCNKB, as a cause of atypical Bartter syndrome in adult age

BACKGROUND: Mutations in the chloride channel gene, CLCNKB, usually cause classic Bartter syndrome (cBS) or a mixed Bartter-Gitelman phenotype in the first years of life. METHODS: We report an adult woman with atypical BS caused by a homozygous missense mutation, A204T, in the CLCNKB gene, which has previously been described as the apparently unique cause of cBS in Spain. RESULTS: The evaluation of this patient revealed an overlap of phenotypic features ranging from severe biochemical and systemic disturbances typical of cBS to scarce symptoms and diagnosis in the adult age typical of Gitelman syndrome. The tubular disease caused a dramatic effect on mental, growth and puberal development leading to low IQ, final short stature and abnormal ovarian function. Furthermore, low serum PTH concentrations with concomitant nephrocalcinosis and normocalcaemia were observed. Both ovarian function and serum PTH levels were normalized after treatment with cyclooxygenase inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS: The present report confirms a weak genotype-phenotype correlation in patients with CLCNKB mutations and supports the founder effect of the A204T mutation in Spain. In our country, the genetic diagnosis of adult patients with hereditary hypokalaemic tubulopathies should include a screening of A204T mutation in the CLCNKB gene.

Nordic Film Series: "To My Son in Spain: Finnish Canadians in the Spanish Civil War"

Finlandia University's Nordic Film Series, a free event open to the public, will feature two viewings of "To My Son in Spain: Finnish Canadians in the Spanish Civil War," with writer Dr. Saku Pinta available for questions. This documentary features the story of Jules Päiviö (1916-2013), who was the last surviving Canadian volunteer of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battallion of the “International Brigades”.

Nordic Film Series: "To My Son in Spain: Finnish Canadians in the Spanish Civil War"

Finlandia University's Nordic Film Series, a free event open to the public, will feature two viewings of "To My Son in Spain: Finnish Canadians in the Spanish Civil War," with writer Dr. Saku Pinta available for questions. This documentary features the story of Jules Päiviö (1916-2013), who was the last surviving Canadian volunteer of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battallion of the “International Brigades”.

The Spanish impersonal se-construction. Constructional variation and change

The aim of this paper is to analyze, synchronically and diachronically, aspects of the Spanish impersonal se-construction that have not yet been satisfactorily accounted for in Spanish linguistics

Passives without actives: evidence from verbless complement clauses in Spanish

This paper proposes a constructionist analysis à la Goldberg (1995, 2003, 2006) of passive verbless configurations in Spanish lacking a felicitous active counterpart.Under the paradigmatic – rather than syntagmatic – view of passives invoked in this paper, configurations of the type in (1) above, attested with a number of verba cogitandi et dicendi, are handled as instances of the Impersonal Subjective-Transitive construction, whose general skeletal meaning is X (NP1) attributed Y (XPCOMP) by Z (NP2) in a direct, categorical way. Moreover, the analysis proposed here also provides a satisfactory account of the distribution of grammatical subjects and the XPCOMPs, while also capturing the commonalities with “regular” passives (i.e. those with a felicitous active counterpart). In addition, Spanish passive verbless complement configurations with se dice (‘is said’) are shown to illustrate a three-point continuum consisting of (i) non-grammaticalized configurations with an active counterpart, (ii) non-grammaticalized configurations without an active counterpart, and (iii) grammaticalized configurations without an active counterpart. From a synchronic point of view, the structural and semantico-pragmatic properties exhibited by the lower-level lo que se dice XPFOCUS construction, involving a focusing/emphasizer subjunct function (e.g. verdaderamente ‘really’) as well as a reformulatory connective use (e.g. o sea ‘that is’, en otras palabras ‘in other words’) appear to point to an early process of grammaticalization, exhibiting decategorialization as well as generalization of meaning in conjunction with a prominent increase in pragmatic function and subjectification (cf. Traugott 1988, 1995a, 1995b, 2003).