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Expressão gênica diferencial de genótipos de citros em resposta à infecção do vírus da leprose (CiLV-C) / Differential gene expression of citrus genotypes in response to Citrus leprosis C (CiLV_C) infectionKubo, Karen Sumire, 1980- 19 August 2018 (has links)
Orientadores: Marcos Antonio Machado, Juliana de Freitas Astúa / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T08:50:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1
Kubo_KarenSumire_D.pdf: 11235043 bytes, checksum: fb3c7d7e7af4e5fc35ef4a27c3364fda (MD5)
Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: O Citrus leprosis virus C (CiLV-C) é o agente causal da leprose dos citros, uma doença incomum transmitida pelo ácaro Brevipalpus phoenicis. Uma vez que o CiLV-C permanece confinado em lesões localizadas nas folhas, ramos e frutos sem causar infecção sistêmica, o vetor precisa se alimentar nestas lesões para adquirir o vírus. O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar os perfis de expressão diferencial entre um genótipo resistente (tangor 'Murcott') e um suscetível (laranja 'Pera') em resposta à leprose dos citros e identificar os possíveis mecanismos de resistência envolvidos na resistência à doença. Por esse motivo, antes da instalação dos experimentos biológicos, nós aperfeiçoamos a detecção do CiLV-C em seu vetor, para certificação da aquisição viral. O experimento biológico incluiu quatro grupos: genótipo resistente ou suscetível infestados com ácaros virulíferos ou avirulíferos para CiLV-C. Com o intuito de se identificar genes diferencialmente expressos, nós utilizamos lâminas de microarranjo com sondas baseadas na base de dados do Citrus EST (CitEST). As análises estatísticas foram realizadas por two-way ANOVA considerando os fatores genótipo e a infecção pelo CiLV-C, de maneira a se encontrar respostas envolvidas na resistência ao CiLV-C. Os resultados foram interpretados por Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA). Os resultados sugerem que existem receptor-like proteins (RLP) e receptor-like kinase (RLK) que podem reconhecer o vírus ou o ácaro, ativando uma resposta de defesa baseada na assinatura de 'Ca POT.2+' e ativação da via do ácido salicílico. Estudos adicionais ainda são necessários para verificar se a resposta de defesa pode estar relacionada à resistência sistêmica adquirida (SAR) / Abstract: Citrus leprosis virus C (CiLV-C) is the causal agent of citrus leprosis, an unusual disease transmitted by the mite Brevipalpus phoenicis. Since CiLV-C remains confined in localized lesions in leaves, stems and fruits without causing systemic infection, the vector needs to feed in these lesions to acquire the virus. The aim of this work was to analyze the differential gene expression profiles between resistant ('Murcott' tangor) and susceptible ('Pera' sweet orange) citrus genotypes in response to CiLV-C, and to identify possible mechanisms involved in disease resistance. For this reason, before the biological experiments were set, we improved the detection of CiLV-C in the mite vector to ensure virus acquisition. The biological experiment consisted in four groups: susceptible or resistant genotype infested with CiLV-C viruliferous or nonviruliferous mites. In order to identify differentially expressed genes, we used microarray chips designed using the Citrus EST database (CitEST). The statistical analysis was performed by two-way ANOVA considering the genotype and the infection by CiLV-C, aiming to find defense responses against CiLV-C. The results were interpreted by Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) and led to the hypothesis that receptor-like proteins (RLP) and receptor-like kinase (RLK) may recognize the virus or the mite triggering a defense response based on 'Ca POT.2+' signature and activation of Salicylic acid pathway (SA). Further studies are necessary to evaluate if the defense response could be related to the development of systemic acquired resistance (SAR) / Doutorado / Bioquimica / Doutor em Biologia Funcional e Molecular
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The making of Imperial Defence policy in Britain, 1926-1934Babij, Orest January 2003 (has links)
Although the period between 1926 and 1934 was relatively peaceful, Imperial Defence policy-making in Britain focused on threats along the periphery of the Empire. This included a short-lived, but serious concern over Communist expansion in China and Afghanistan and a fear that American naval construction would undermine the Royal Navy's position in the world. The first threat receded by 1928 and the second was met by negotiating the highly successful London Naval Conference of 1930. Throughout these years, the need to reorient the Imperial Defence system to meet a perceived Japanese threat in the Far East, and the Treasury's opposition to the very idea, remained constants within policy-making circles. The world-wide depression led to serious defence cutbacks which the services met largely by cutting back even further on war reserves and mobilization potential. The Japanese assault on Manchuria in 1931, and then in Shanghai in 1932, exposed the inability of the Imperial Defence system to meet a Far Eastern threat. This led to pressure from the navy, in particular, for an increase in service estimates, but the economic situation and the World Disarmament Conference kept the government from agreeing to any significant change in policy. From 1931-193, Imperial Defence concerns were centred on the Far East, but Hitlerâs rise to power in March 1933 turned attention hack toward Europe. Nevertheless, the first large-scale review of Imperial defence deficiencies, the Defence Requirements Sub-Committee, presented a report which balanced the needs of European and Far Eastern defence. In the spring of l934. however, the Cabinet found itself unable to come to a consensus on the DRC's recommendations and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Neville Chamberlain, stepped forward with his own defence vision. He discounted the need for Far Eastern defence and re-oriented defence policy toward homeland defence. It was his intervention that set the tone for British rearmament in the 1930s.
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Optimisation de la lutte biologique contre l'acarien Tetranychus urticae en culture de tomate / Optimization of biological control of the spider mite Tetranychus urticae in tomato greenhousesGigon, Vincent 09 December 2016 (has links)
Afin de limiter l’impact négatif des ravageurs sur les plantes cultivées, des agents de lutte biologique sont souvent introduits sous abris. Or, des interactions peuvent apparaître entre eux, comme la prédation intraguilde, et modifier l’efficacité de la lutte biologique. De plus, les défenses directes des plantes hôtes peuvent perturber l’efficacité des ennemis naturels. La question se pose donc de savoir s’il est possible de limiter les interactions négatives entre ennemis naturels et l’impact de la plante hôte sur leur développement. Pour répondre à cet objectif, afin d’optimiser la lutte biologique contre l’acarien Tetranychus urticae, ravageur très problématique, nous avons considéré deux cultivars de tomates caractérisés par des densités en trichomes et des concentrations en composés secondaires contrastéesl’acarien prédateur Phytoseiulus macropilis et Macrolophus pygmaeus, punaise prédatrice souvent employée pour lutter contre les aleurodes. Au cours d’essais conduits en serre, P. macropilis a permis de réguler T. urticae sans différence entre les deux cultivars, alors qu’en microcosmes le taux d’oviposition de P. macropilis a été supérieur sur le cultivar ayant la densité en trichomes non glandulaires la plus élevée. La consommation d’œufs de P. macropilis par M. pygmaeus en microcosmes n’a pas été observée en serre. Les interactions entre arthropodes se sont également traduites par une agrégation supérieure des T. urticae en présence des deux prédateurs et de P. macropilis en présence de M. pygmaeus. Avant de proposer P. macropilis comme nouvel agent de lutte bio / To suppress pest populations to such levels that damage to thecrop is minimized, multiple biological control agents are oftenintroduced in greenhouses. However, negative interactionsamong them, such as intraguild predation, might appear thatcan decrease the effi ciency of the plant protection strategy.Furthermore, plant direct (physical or chemical) defenseshave a negative impact on the pests but might also have animpact on the natural enemies. Therefore, the question iswhether it is possible to limit the negative interactions amongbiological control agents and the infl uence of the crop on thebehavior and development of the natural enemies. To optimizebiological control of Tetranychus urticae, a very problematicpest in tomato greenhouses, the effi ciency of the predatorymite Phytoseiulus macropilis was tested on two cultivars withdifferent trichome densities and concentrations of secondarycompounds, in presence or absence of Macrolophus pygmaeus,a mirid often used to regulate whitefl y populations.During two years, under greenhouse conditions, P. macropiliswell-controlled the population of T. urticae. There was no evidenceof intraguild predation between the two predators, butin the presence of M. pygmaeus, P. macropilis tended to havea more clumped spatial distribution. However, in microcosms,M. pygmaeus fed on P. macropilis eggs. Moreover, P. macropilislaid signifi cantly more eggs on the tomato cultivar with thehighest density of non-glandular trichomes, but this resultwas only observed in microcosms. The different dynami
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Some aspects of external relations and foreign policy of the European Community: European political cooperation and defense / security issuesIfestos, Panayiotis J. January 1986 (has links)
Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
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Characterizing InternetWorm Spatial-Temporal Infection StructuresWang, Qian 15 October 2010 (has links)
Since the Morris worm was released in 1988, Internet worms continue to be one of top security threats. For example, the Conficker worm infected 9 to 15 million machines in early 2009 and shut down the service of some critical government and medical networks. Moreover, it constructed a massive peer-to-peer (P2P) botnet. Botnets are zombie networks controlled by attackers setting out coordinated attacks. In recent years, botnets have become the number one threat to the Internet. The objective of this research is to characterize spatial-temporal infection structures of Internet worms, and apply the observations to study P2P-based botnets formed by worm infection. First, we infer temporal characteristics of the Internet worm infection structure, i.e., the host infection time and the worm infection sequence, and thus pinpoint patient zero or initially infected hosts. Specifically, we apply statistical estimation techniques on Darknet observations. We show analytically and empirically that our proposed estimators can significantly improve the inference accuracy. Second, we reveal two key spatial characteristics of the Internet worm infection structure, i.e., the number of children and the generation of the underlying tree topology formed by worm infection. Specifically, we apply probabilistic modeling methods and a sequential growth model. We show analytically and empirically that the number of children has asymptotically a geometric distribution with parameter 0.5, and the generation follows closely a Poisson distribution. Finally, we evaluate bot detection strategies and effects of user defenses in P2P-based botnets formed by worm infection. Specifically, we apply the observations of the number of children and demonstrate analytically and empirically that targeted detection that focuses on the nodes with the largest number of children is an efficient way to expose bots. However, we also point out that future botnets may self-stop scanning to weaken targeted detection, without greatly slowing down the speed of worm infection. We then extend the worm spatial infection structure and show empirically that user defenses, e.g., patching or cleaning, can significantly mitigate the robustness and the effectiveness of P2P-based botnets. To counterattack, we evaluate a simple measure by future botnets that enhances topology robustness through worm re-infection.
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Pertubations de la fonction symbolique dans la maladie d'Alzheimer et leurs consequences cognitives et affectives / Disturbances of the symbolic function in Alzheimer's disease and their cognitive and affective consequencesGonzalez-Monge, Louis 20 February 2015 (has links)
Partant de l’observation et de l’étude expérimentale (réalisée en Master 2) de situations de maladie d’Alzheimer débutante avec association d’une amnésie hippocampique, d’une anomie et d’une apraxie constructive pour l’espace projectif (syndrome S3A), nous proposons que la cooccurrence des troubles cognitifs et psychopathologiques peut être liée à une rigidification de la fonction symbolique, à savoir la réduction de l’empan de substitution d’un signifié par des signifiants. Nous examinons cette hypothèse à propos des troubles cognitifs en partant de la définition de la fonction symbolique (ou sémiotique) par Piaget. Nous l’étendons aux aspects psychopathologiques en partant de la symbolisation et de ses transformations. La notion de distance symbolique est évoquée à titre de dénominateur commun à tous ces processus, cible de la rigidification de la fonction symbolique. Elle pourrait être liée aux perturbations de la mémoire de travail, entraînant :_ Proactivement, une déstructuration des éléments attributionnels dans le réseau sémantique élargi, contribuant à la genèse des troubles cognitifs._ Rétroactivement, du fait de l’érosion des mécanismes secondaires, l’activation de phénomènes archaïques - dont l’angoisse de non représentation – et des défenses attenantes. Quelques implications psychothérapiques sont envisagées. / Starting from the observation and experimental study of Alzheimer's disease early situations with association of hippocampal amnesia, anomia and constructive apraxia for projective space (S3A syndrome), we propose that the co-occurrence of cognitive and psychopathological disorders may be linked to a stiffening of the symbolic function, namely the reduction of the span of substitution of a signified item by signifiers. We examine this hypothesis about the cognitive impairment on the basis of the symbolic function as defined by Piaget. We extend it to psychopathological aspects starting with the symbolization and its transformations. The concept of symbolic distance is mentioned as a common denominator for all these processes, as a target for the stiffening of the symbolic function. It could be related to working memory impairment, causing:_ Proactively, a destructuration of atributional elements in the “broad semantic network”, contributing to the genesis of cognitive impairment._ Retroactively, because of the erosion of secondary mechanisms, an activation of archaic phenomena - including the anxiety of non-representation - and of the archaic defenses.Some psychotherapeutic implications are considered.
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Théorie de la niche : nouvelles perspectives sur l'adaptation des plantes et le fonctionnement des écosystèmes / New insights from niche theory on plant adaptation and ecosystem functioningKoffel, Thomas 19 October 2017 (has links)
Les plantes, comme tous les êtres vivants, entretiennent un rapport double à leur environnement. L’environnement sélectionne quelles stratégies peuvent s’établir, et les stratégies ainsi sélectionnées façonnent en retour cet environnement. Cette boucle de rétroaction environnementale, lorsqu’elle est alimentée par une variabilité de formes, est le moteur de l’évolution, de l’assemblage des communautés et du développement écosystémique, et détermine en fin de compte les propriétés émergentes des écosystèmes.Les approches issues de l’écologie théorique reconnaissent depuis longtemps cette dualité, comme en témoignent les concepts de "niche de besoin" et "niche d’impact" au cœur de la théorie contemporaine de la niche. Similairement, les approches type « théorie des jeux » comme la dynamique adaptative reconnaissent le rôle central joué par la boucle de rétroaction environnementale en tant que moteur des dynamiques éco-évolutives.Dans cette thèse, j'unifie ces deux perspectives théoriques et les applique à des problèmes écologiques variés, dans le but de comprendre comment les interactions réciproques entre les plantes et leur environnement déterminent les traits adaptatifs des plantes et les propriétés émergentes des écosystèmes.Dans un premier temps, je propose un cadre mathématique général et rigoureux à la théorie contemporaine de la niche et la méthode graphique qui lui est associée. Après avoir étendu ce cadre à la prise en compte d’un continuum de stratégies en interaction à l’aide d’enveloppes géométriques, je montre comment appliquer la théorie contemporaine de la niche à deux perspectives, à savoir les dynamiques éco-évolutives et l’assemblage de communautés par remplacements successifs de stratégies.Dans un second temps, j’applique cette approche à l’étude de l’évolution des défenses des plantes contre les herbivores le long de gradients de nutriments, en considérant l’évolution des traits d’acquisition de la ressource, de tolérance et de résistance aux herbivores. Je montre que la prise en compte des transferts trophiques conduit à la sélection de stratégies compétitives mais sans défense dans les environnements pauvres, alors que ce sont toujours des stratégies défendues (résistantes, tolérantes, ou la coexistence des deux) qui dominent dans les environnements riches en nutriments. Mes résultats mettent en évidence le rôle central joué par la rétroaction plante-herbivores dans la détermination des patrons de défense des plantes.Dans un troisième temps, je montre comment la théorie contemporaine de la niche peut être étendue pour prendre en compte la facilitation. J’utilise ensuite cette approche pour montrer comment la colonisation d’un substrat nu par une communauté de plantes fixatrices d’azote couplée au recyclage des nutriments peut donner naissance à de la succession par facilitation. Contrairement aux modèles habituels de succession, je montre que la succession par facilitation donne lieu à un développement autogène de l’écosystème ainsi qu’un régime de bistabilité entre la végétation et le substrat nu en fin de succession. Enfin, je propose une nouvelle théorie de la succession basée sur les ratios de ressources.Pris dans leur ensemble, ces nouveaux développements démontrent que la théorie de la niche peut être adaptée à l’étude d’un large champ de situations écologiques, de la facilitation aux dynamiques éco-évolutives et à l’assemblage des communautés. Dans ce cadre conceptuel, mon approche basée sur les enveloppes s’avère être un outil efficace pour passer de l’échelle individuelle à l’échelle de l’écosystème, en assimilant le remplacement adaptatif d’espèces à une plasticité des propriétés écosystémiques. Cette approche permet alors de décrire l’émergence des boucles de régulation qui contrôlent le fonctionnement des écosystèmes, comme l’illustrent mes résultats le long de gradients de nutriments sur la transition entre régimes de succession ou encore l’émergence de culs-de-sac trophiques. / As living organisms, plants present a dual relationship with their biotic and abiotic environment. The environment selects plant strategies that can establish, and selected strategies in turn impact and shape the environment as they spread. When fueled by variation ,this environmental feedback loop drives evolution, community assembly and ecosystem development, and eventually determines the emergent properties of ecosystems.Theoretical ecology approaches have long recognized this duality, as it is at the core of contemporary niche theory through the concepts of requirement and impact niche. Similarly, game-theoretical approaches such as adaptive dynamics have emphasized the role played by the environmental feedback loop in driving eco-evolutionary dynamics. However, niche theory could benefit from a more individualistic, selection based perspective, while adaptive dynamics could benefit from niche theory’s duality and graphical approach.In my dissertation, I unify these theoretical perspectives and apply them to various ecological situations in an attempt to understand how the reciprocal interaction between plants and their environment determines plant adaptive traits and emergent ecosystem functions.First, I introduce a general and rigorous mathematical framework to contemporary niche theory and the associated graphical approach. By extending these ideas to a continuum of interacting strategies using geometrical envelopes, I show how contemporary niche theory enables the study of both eco-evolutionary dynamics and community assembly through species sorting. I show how these two perspectives only differ by the range of invaders considered, from infinitesimally similar mutants to any strategy from the species pool. My results also emphasize the fact that selection only acts on the requirement niche, evolution of the impact niche being just an indirect consequence of the former.Second, I use this approach to study the evolution of plant defenses against herbivores along a nutrient gradient, by considering the joint evolution of resource acquisition, tolerance and resistance to herbivores. I show that trophic transfers lead to the selection of very competitive, undefended strategies in nutrient-poor environments, while defended strategies -- either resistant, tolerant or the coexistence of both -- always dominate in nutrient-rich environments. My results highlight the central, and often underestimated, role played by plant-environment feedbacks in shaping plant defense patterns.Third, I extend contemporary niche theory to facilitation originating from positive environmental feedback loops. I use these new tools to show how colonization of a bare substrate by a community of nitrogen-fixing plants coupled with nutrient recycling can lead to facilitative succession. Contrarily to previous competition-based succession models, I point out that facilitative succession leads to autogenic ecosystem development, relatively ordered trajectories and late succession bistability between the vegetated ecosystem and the bare substrate. By showing how facilitative succession can turn into competition-based succession along an increasing nitrogen gradient, I derive a new resource-ratio theory of succession.Overall, these new theoretical developments demonstrate that niche theory can be adapted to study a broad range of ecological situations, from facilitation to eco-evolutionary dynamics and community assembly. Within this framework, my envelope-based approach provides a powerful tool to scale from the individual level to the ecosystem level, lumping selection-driven species turnover into plastic ecosystem properties. This, is turn, helps describing the emergence at the ecosystem scale of regulation feedback loops that drive ecosystem dynamics and functioning, as exemplified by my results along increasing resource gradients showing a transition from facilitation- to competition-based succession or the emergence of trophic dead-ends.
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Bombing and Air Defense in China, 1932–1941: War, Politics, ArchitectureThompson III, John Buchman January 2022 (has links)
This dissertation traces the emergence of the air raid shelter as the paradigmatic architecture of air defense under the Nationalist Party government in China during the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945). More broadly, it explores how air defense in general became an integral technology for the Nationalists’ “war of resistance and reconstruction” (kangzhan jianguo), a fascist project derived from total war, the globally circulating military-political idea that modern wars would enlist the entire populations and economies of nations in warfare while subjecting national populations and infrastructures to equally comprehensive violence.
The Nationalists joined the world in confronting aerial bombing after the Empire of Japan bombed Shanghai in 1932. In response, the government and its military constructed air defense, a political and technological complex combining mass mobilization, through air raid drills and air defense organizations, with material technologies, like searchlights, anti-aircraft guns, and bomb shelters. The Nationalists found in air defense more than a military technology. To them, it also offered a set of tools and resources for fortifying their flailing attempts to unite China in a common national project, and even recasting the substance of that project. Air defense could forge a new society that invested all Chinese people in war as a necessary precondition for overcoming China’s colonial subjection. Where democratic institutions collapsed and appeals to common heritage and customs failed, the Nationalists used air defense to turn survival (shengcun) into the bedrock value of the national community.
Meanwhile, a group of young architects associated with the journal Xin jianzhu in Canton identified air defense as an organizing problem for the nascent professional field of architecture. Rather than the stale historicism endorsed in Nanjing, and against China’s craft building traditions, the group championed modernist architecture, especially the International Style, whose principles of simplicity, functionalism, and rationality they saw as necessary for building modern, industrial, and hygienic Chinese cities capable of enhancing human life. Moreover, they argued that the technological instrumentality informing modernism made it the only style capable of preserving Chinese cities and people from modern threats like bombing. After the fall of Canton in 1938, members of the group took their mission to Chongqing, where they joined the Nationalist government in building air defenses in the wartime capital.
In particular, this dissertation argues that the air raid shelter and air defense focused contradictions in the Nationalists’ fascist project for uniting and revolutionizing China as it traveled to Chongqing following the Nationalist escape from Japan’s invasion of the coast. Over the course of the War of Resistance, the principal technology of air defense shifted away from mass mobilization, as the Nationalists came to administer refugees and displaced people they had never governed before, and became located in infrastructure like city plans and air raid shelters. Air defense served to exclude surplus populations like women and the elderly, rendered redundant according to the state’s wartime needs for industrial production and conscripts, by dispersing them in satellite settlements outside the city, from which they constantly returned in search of work or material goods. Shoddy air raid shelters, in the meantime, revealed the fragile biology of real bodies beneath the fascist fantasy of the heroic political subject, as shelters failed to provide for basic needs like respiration. Over time, these two problems collided, as the state closed shelters in the city to dispersed people, exposing surplus populations to bombing, while civilians also languished in shelters that could still kill them. The goal of building national unity through survival collapsed into a confusion of inclusion and exclusion, life and death, with disastrous results, like the asphyxiation of around one thousand people in Chongqing’s largest public air raid shelter in June 1941. In these circumstances, professionals like the Cantonese architects and new state regulatory bodies produced proposals and standards for building better shelters, offering a technological resolution of air defense’s political contradictions and consolidating the transformation of air defense into a technical expertise.
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Nepříčetnost - srovnání české a americké právní úpravy / Insanity - Comparison of Czech and Americal legal conceptBřenková, Anna January 2019 (has links)
Insanity: Comparison of Czech and American legal concept Abstract The aim of this thesis is to capture the essence of the institute of insanity from the substantive point of view according to the Czech and American legislation and to deduce any differences from them. First, the continental legal system on which the Czech legal order is based is compared with the Anglo-American legal system from which the American legislation is derived. Subsequently, the basic pillars of the Czech legal order including the position of criminal law are defined. Attention is also paid to the political system of the United States, because, as a result of federalism, there are two levels of law that have a significant impact on national legislations. Hereupon, the structure of criminal liability according to Czech law is analyzed. Since the prerequisite of criminal liability is the commission of a criminal offense, this is also defined. For the purposes of comparison, circumstances excluding punishability as well as circumstances excluding liability are outlined. Due to the fact that US law is based on common law, criminal liability is defined both from the perspective of common law and the Model Penal Code, which are of the basic sources of US criminal law. Next part of the thesis is focused on the institute of insanity in the...
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Bombing and Air Defense in China, 1932–1941: War, Politics, ArchitectureThompson III, John B. January 2022 (has links)
This dissertation traces the emergence of the air raid shelter as the paradigmatic architecture of air defense under the Nationalist Party government in China during the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945). More broadly, it explores how air defense in general became an integral part of the Nationalists’ “war of resistance and reconstruction” (kangzhan jianguo), a fascist project derived from total war, the globally circulating military-political idea holding that modern warfare would enlist entire nations and their economies in war while also subjecting them to comprehensive enemy violence.
The Nationalists joined the world in confronting aerial bombing after the Empire of Japan bombed Shanghai in 1932. In response, the government and its military constructed air defense, a political and technological complex combining mass mobilization, through air raid drills and air defense organizations, with material technologies, like searchlights, anti-aircraft guns, and bomb shelters. The Nationalists found in air defense more than a military technology. To them, it also offered a set of tools and resources for fortifying their flailing attempts to unite China in a common national project, and even recasting the substance of that project. Air defense could forge a new society that invested all Chinese people in war as a necessary precondition for overcoming China’s colonial subjection. Where democratic institutions collapsed and appeals to common heritage and customs failed, the Nationalists used air defense to turn survival (shengcun) into the bedrock value of the national community.
Meanwhile, a group of young architects associated with the journal Xin jianzhu in Canton identified air defense as an organizing problem for the nascent professional field of architecture. Rather than the stale historicism endorsed in Nanjing, and against China’s craft building traditions, the group championed modernist architecture, especially the International Style, whose principles of simplicity, functionalism, and rationality they saw as necessary for building modern, industrial, and hygienic Chinese cities capable of enhancing human life. Moreover, they argued that the technological instrumentality informing modernism made it the only style capable of preserving Chinese cities and people from modern threats like bombing. After the fall of Canton in 1938, members of the group took their mission to Chongqing, where they joined the Nationalist government in building air defenses in the wartime capital.
In particular, this dissertation argues that the air raid shelter and air defense focused contradictions in the Nationalists’ fascist project for uniting and revolutionizing China as it traveled to Chongqing following the Nationalist escape from Japan’s invasion of the coast. Over the course of the war, the principal technology of air defense shifted away from mass mobilization, as the Nationalists came to administer refugees and displaced people they had never governed before, and became located in infrastructure like city plans and air raid shelters. Air defense served to exclude surplus populations like women and the elderly, rendered redundant according to the state’s wartime needs for industrial production and conscripts, by dispersing them in satellite settlements outside the city, from which they constantly returned in search of work or material goods. Shoddy air raid shelters, in the meantime, revealed the fragile biology of real bodies beneath the fascist fantasy of the heroic political subject, as shelters failed to provide for basic needs like respiration. Over time, these two problems collided, as the state closed shelters in the city to dispersed people, exposing surplus populations to bombing, while civilians also languished in shelters that could still kill them. The goal of building national unity through survival collapsed into a confusion of inclusion and exclusion, life and death, with disastrous results, like the asphyxiation of around one thousand people in Chongqing’s largest public air raid shelter in June 1941. In these circumstances, professionals like the Cantonese architects and new state regulatory bodies produced proposals and standards for building better shelters, attempting a technical resolution of air defense’s political contradictions and consolidating the transformation of air defense into a primarily technological discipline.
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