Search Results (44)

Cell motility is a process central to life and is undoubtedly influenced by mechanical and chemical signals. Even so, other stimuli are also involved in controlling cell migration in vivo and in vitro. Among these, electric fields have been shown to provide a powerful and programmable cue to manipulate cell migration. There is now a clear consensus that the electromigration of membrane components represents the first response to an external electric field, which subsequently activates downstream signals responsible for controlling cell migration. Here, we focus on a specific mode of electrotaxis: frictionless, amoeboid-like migration. We used the Finite Element Method to solve an active gel model coupled with a mathematical model of the electromigration of aquaporins and investigate the effect of electric fields on ameboid migration. We demonstrate that an electric field can polarize aquaporins in a cell and, consequently, that the electromigration of aquaporins can be exploited to regulate water flux across the cell membrane. Our findings indicate that controlling these fluxes allows modulation of cell migration velocity, thereby reducing the cell’s migratory capacity. Our work provides a mechanistic framework to further study the impact of electrotaxis and to add new insights into specific modes by which electric fields modify cell motility. Full article

The sustained growth of air traffic over the past decades has increased the aviation’s contribution to anthropogenic radiative forcing through both ${CO}_2$ and non-${CO}_2$ emissions. Although the industry has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, this goal appears unrealistic without curbing, or at least stopping, the continued rise in traffic. To assess the potential of alternative travel options and quantify their environmental benefits, simple and flexible emission models are needed. In this work, we present a set of analytical models for estimating fuel consumption and associated emissions, including ${CO}_2$, SO_x, water vapour, and other key non-${CO}_2$ emissions such as NO_x and carbon monoxide. We also examine the emissions of non-volatile particulate matter. These models require only flight distance and aircraft seat numbers, enabling broad applicability across traffic scenarios. The models are openly available via a GitHub repository, and their practical use is demonstrated through a case study of a representative day of Spanish air traffic. Full article

The account of the fetus learning the Torah in its mother’s womb, forgetting it and reacquiring it (b. Niddah 30b) has often been compared to Plato’s doctrine of recollection or anamnesis. This essay argues that such a comparison is misguided, as the Talmudic story does not include the recollection of the forgotten Torah, nor does it address the philosophical difficulties that inform Plato’s doctrine, which arise from a commitment to a two-world ontology. Indeed, the story may be seen as an example of the general absence of a transcendent realm in the Talmud. In Plato’s stead, I argue that Lacan’s formation of the subject offers a more fruitful comparison, and that the Torah-learning fetus may be interpreted as an attempt to overcome the Lacanian moments of alienation that result in humanity’s tragic fate. Full article

To address the issues of fragmented species information, low knowledge extraction efficiency, and insufficient utilization in the aquaculture domain, the main objective of this study is to construct the first knowledge graph for the Golden Pomfret aquaculture field and optimize the named entity recognition (NER) methods used in the construction process. The dataset contains challenges such as long text processing, strong local context dependencies, and entity sample imbalance, which result in low information extraction efficiency, recognition errors or omissions, and weak model generalization. This paper proposes a novel named entity recognition model, LA-CANER (Local Attention-Category Awareness NER), which combines local attention mechanisms with category awareness to improve both the accuracy and speed of NER. The constructed knowledge graph provides significant scientific knowledge support to Golden Pomfret aquaculture workers. First, by integrating and standardizing multi-source information, the knowledge graph offers comprehensive and accurate data, supporting decision-making for aquaculture management. The graph enables precise reasoning based on disease symptoms, environmental factors, and historical production data, helping workers identify potential risks early and take preventive actions. Furthermore, the knowledge graph can be integrated with large models like GPT-4 and DeepSeek-R1. By providing structured knowledge and rules, the graph enhances the reasoning and decision-making capabilities of these models. This promotes the application of smart aquaculture technologies and enables precision farming, ultimately increasing overall industry efficiency. Full article

There is a longstanding connection between “curiosity”, “desire”, and “sexuality”. This connection can be found in texts as diverse as works of scripture like the Hebrew Bible and the Quran as well as in contemporary works of critical theory. Miguel de Cervantes explored such a connection more than four centuries ago in El curioso impertinente, an exemplary novella embedded in the 1605 part one of Don Quixote. Through a comparative reading of Cervantes’s El curioso impertinent, Pedro Almodóvar’s 1997 film Carne trémula (itself a free adaptation of Ruth Rendell’s 1986 novel Live Flesh), and Luis Buñuel’s 1955 film Ensayo de un crimen, this essay analyzes the intersection of curiosity and desire—inflected through the lenses of both Girardian and Lacanian theory—in order to explore the fundamental role not just of curiosity in early modern Spain, but also in the representation of modern (and postmodern) sexuality. Full article

This study aims to contribute to the ongoing Pauline discourse by presenting Alain Badiou’s infusion of his own thinking of event theory into Pauline thinking of Jesus’ Resurrection and explores a constellation of Alain Badiou’s conceptualization and contemporization of Paul. Badiou’s reading of Paul constitutes a constellation of Paul’s position as a “universalist”, “anti-misogynist”, “anti-philosopher”, “anti-dialectician”, “revolutionist”, “politician”, “militant”, “activist”, “poet-thinker”, “militant artist”, “theoretician”, “analogist”, “inventor”, and “founder”, along with diverse figures pervading his writing in Paul’s context such as Lenin, Mao, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Spinoza, Marx, Mallarme, Dickinson, Picasso, Schoenberg, Lacan, and Cantor. As for the methodology, this study tracks the trajectory in Badiou’s thinking based on events, truth, fidelity, love, and subjectivation, together with relevant Badiouian connections, and traces Badiou’s theoretical framing of Paul. Tracing the cluster of Pauline representations within Badiou’s space of thought offers an alternative understanding of the scope of Paul’s role in Badiou’s criticism of progressive politics in search of a new militant figure and Paul’s enduring influence and relevance within contemporary socio-political discourse. Full article

The ritual of marriage serves as a nexus for various dimensions of social and personal life, including sexuality, gender, religiosity, family, and parenthood. This pivotal event is laden with a multitude of expectations, hopes, and fears for all involved parties. The psychological energies converge not only within the spouses or participants but extend to encompass the entire cultural community. Simultaneously, it represents a ritualistic identification, where individuals, through the ritual, become what they are, establishing an identity. This article aims to provide a Lacanian interpretation of the marriage ritual, informed by the interpretation popularized by the Ljubljana school of psychoanalysis. Lacan’s framework allows for the conceptualization of identification as a socially mediated process, revealing the psyche as extending beyond the individual into intersubjective structures. This approach might help to clarify the inner logic of the ritual, allowing for a better understanding of the role of medialization. It will be shown, that under these lenses wedding photography and other forms of medialization do not only preserve memories of the event afterward but are already playing an active and even constitutive role during the event. Full article

Earthquake environmental effects may significantly contribute to the damage caused by seismic events; similar to ground motion, the environmental effects are globally stronger in the vicinity and decrease moving away from the epicenter or seismogenic source. To date, a single intensity prediction equation (IPE) has been proposed in the Italian Apennines for intensity scale dealings with environmental effects: the Environmental Seismic Intensity (ESI-07). Here, we evaluate the sensitivity of the IPE with respect to input data and methodological choices and we propose IPEs with global validity for crustal normal faults. We show the strong influence of input data on the obtained attenuation investigating the 1980 Irpinia–Basilicata (Southern Italy) earthquake. We exploit a dataset of 26 earthquakes to build an IPE considering the epicentral distance. We also propose an IPE considering the distance from the fault rupture, which is derived from a dataset of 10 earthquakes. The proposed equations are valid for normal faults up to 40 km from the epicenter/fault and may flank other models predicting ground motion or damage to the built environment. Our work thus contributes to the use of the ESI-07 scale for hazard purposes. Full article

Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, is renowned for his unique cinematic style and profound insights into the complexity of human nature. Among the various female characters in his films, the mother figure holds a particularly significant place. This article proposes the concept of “maternal emptiness” to describe the predicament of the mother figures in Hitchcock’s films, where they are often depicted as distorted, dark, and somewhat lacking in maternal essence. Drawing on psychoanalytic and feminist film theories, especially the works of Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, and Laura Mulvey, this study aims to deconstruct Hitchcockian “maternal emptiness” and explore its deep-rooted causes. Through a systematic examination of the mother figures in Hitchcock’s filmography, this article identifies the following three main categories: the mother roles of blonde women, the mother roles of female protagonists, and the mother roles of male protagonists. Close textual analysis reveals that these mother figures, despite their apparent diversity, share a common plight—a deviation from the maternal essence of love, care, and nourishment. This “maternal emptiness” is further traced back to Hitchcock’s childhood traumas, the patriarchal ideology in the cultural context, and the changing status of motherhood in modern society. By engaging critically with existing Hitchcock scholarship, including the works of Tania Modleski, Paul Gordon, and Slavoj Žižek, this study situates the concept of “maternal emptiness” within the broader discussions of motherhood in cinema. It explores how Hitchcock’s representation of mothers both reflects and challenges contemporary understandings of maternity. Furthermore, this study examines the enduring influence of Hitchcock’s maternal representations on contemporary cinema, analyzing films such as Darren Aronofsky’s “Mother!” (2017) and Ari Aster’s “Hereditary” (2018) to demonstrate the ongoing relevance of “maternal emptiness” in modern film discourse. The study concludes by considering the legacy of Hitchcock’s maternal representations in contemporary cinema, demonstrating the ongoing relevance of the concept of “maternal emptiness” in film analysis and its potential for reimagining maternal subjectivity in cinematic representation. Full article

This essay uses Freudian–Lacanian psychoanalytic theory to interpret Hassan Blasim’s short story “The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes”. Blasim’s story depicts the psychological struggles of an Iraqi emigrant relating to his embattled sense of belonging in a Dutch society due to the recurrent nightmares of his “traumatic” past. It challenges his assimilationist fantasies. I develop Lacan’s idea of ontological lack as a structural susceptibility that is exacerbated by actual experiences of trauma to underline how racialized refugees from the war-torn global South are doubly vulnerable to experiencing subjective dehiscence between their efforts to forget past war traumas and the challenges of assimilating into (white) host nations. This essay uses Blasim’s story to illustrate a serious psychological issue experienced by racialized minority subjects in white/European host countries. Full article

Impostors, confidence artists, and artful deceivers seem to have achieved a strange kind of popularity and even prestige in our contemporary political landscape, for reasons that remain elusive, especially given how harmful and socially unwanted such behaviors ostensibly are. Herman Melville’s 1857 novel, The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade, helps us shift our perspective on this seemingly irrational phenomenon because it points out how being susceptible to dupery is linked to the enjoyment of fiction itself. This insight also highlights the importance of epistemological failure in the recent “return to aesthetics” in literary studies, where the positive dimension of unconsciously “willing one’s dupery” directly links aesthetic form to politics. The logic that connects aesthetics to unconscious enjoyment is then elaborated in the work of psychoanalytic thinkers such as Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Helene Deutsch and others to raise particular questions about how and why the enjoyment of being duped has been associated with feminine sexuality. Reading Melville’s novel while considering psychoanalytic concepts such as the “as if” personality, imposture, and interpassivity illuminates how confidence games play upon the ruses of sexuality, which have profound implications for why the public remains in thrall to the workings of known deceivers. Full article

We explored the intricate interplay of biological, social, and psychological factors contributing to substance use disorder (SUD) and co-occurring psychiatric symptoms. Drug misuse is a global concern, with increasing prevalence rates affecting mental well-being and safety. The spectrum of SUD includes polysubstance users, posing challenges for treatment and associated health outcomes. Various psychoactive substances like cannabis, hallucinogens, opioids, and stimulants impact addiction vulnerability, with marijuana being widely used globally. Gender differences in SUD prevalence have narrowed, with women escalating drug consumption rapidly once initiated. Age disparities in substance use highlight regional variations among adolescents. Comorbidities with psychiatric symptoms are common, with mood and anxiety disorders frequently observed. This study aimed to analyze factors influencing SUD development and maintenance to inform prevention strategies and treatment recommendations. By conducting a systematic search of databases, sixty articles were reviewed, revealing diverse methodologies and geographic locations. Biological factors, including neurotransmitter systems like endocannabinoid and dopaminergic systems, play a significant role in addiction. Genetic and neurobiological factors contribute to cannabis addiction susceptibility. Social factors such as childhood experiences and parenting styles influence substance use behaviors. Psychological factors like personality traits and mental health conditions interact with SUD development. Understanding these multifaceted interactions is crucial for designing effective interventions to address the complexities of SUD and co-occurring psychiatric symptoms. Full article

This essay takes the notion of “flesh” as the point of departure for exploring the viability and contemporary relevance of what Maurice Merleau-Ponty has called an “ontological psychoanalysis”. Primary interlocutors will be Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred and Hortense Spillers’s essay, “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book”. Full article

Starting from a recent book on Derrida and psychoanalysis, I return to the controversy between Lacan and Derrida in the 1970s. Its focus was the letter as interpreted by Lacan in a commentary of Poe’s “Purloined Letter”. While agreeing with some of Derrida’s objections, I conclude that Lacan makes stronger points about the destination of the letter. I give my own example, Kafka’s “Letter to the Father” in order to argue that one can state that “a letter always reaches its destination” even if it has not been delivered. Full article

The topic of the article is the status of translation and homophony in philosophy, psychoanalysis and philology. The article focuses on the question of how translation is carried out using the basic principle of equivalence of meaning by homophony and what effects this can produce. The analysis of two case studies by Freud and Lacan shows that homophonic transfer from one language to another can be extremely productive for the subjective traversal of a phantasm. It is then shown that this is not, however, of purely subjective interest. Werner Hamacher has sketched the future of philology starting from such homophonic translations; Lacan has tried to advance to another theory of language through homophonic formations. Full article