Abandonment and accumulation: embryonic futures in the United States and Ecuador

When frozen embryos are publically debated in the United States, they are most often positioned as having two possible future trajectories: (1) as individual humans and (2) as contributors to stem cell research. Long-term embryo accumulation threatens both of these futures. An accumulated embryo is stuck in a clinic, held back from having an individual future or from contributing to science. There are other kinds of futures, though. For some patients in the United States and Ecuador, where I conducted ethnographic research, future reckoning involves a vision of responsibility toward embryos embedded within a specific family. For these patients, frozen embryo donation to another family or to science constitutes abandonment. The future at stake is not that of an individual embryo's life, but a group's future who would abandon one of its own. These patients would rather destroy embryos than freeze them for a future away from their relations. [Ecuador, United States, in     

The Effect of Geography and Citizen Behavior on Motor Vehicle Deaths in the United States

Death due to motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) remains a leading cause of death in the US and alcohol plays a prominent role in a large proportion of these fatalities nationwide. Rates for these incidents vary widely among states and over time. Here, we explore the extent to which driving volume, alcohol consumption, legislation, political ideology, and geographical factors influence MVC deaths across states and time. We specify structural equation models for extracting associations between the factors and outcomes for MVC deaths and compute correlation functions of states’ relative geographic and political positions to elucidate the relative contribution of these factors. We find evidence that state-level variation in MVC deaths is associated with time-varying driving volume, alcohol consumption, and legislation. These relationships are modulated by state spatial proximity, whereby neighboring states are found to share similar MVC death rates over the thirty-year observation period. These results support the hypothesis that neighboring states exhibit similar risk and protective characteristics, despite differences in political ideology.     

The Last Sixty Years: Toward a Social History of Americanist Archeology in the United States

This paper provides an overview of the development of Americanist archeology in the United States.
Since the 1920s, there have been two, and sometimes more, interpretive communities among Americanist archeologists in the United States.
These reflect and are related to the development of U.S. society. One articulates the concerns of national capital and its allies; the other, the interests of
international capital and its allies. They are grounded in different theoretical traditions. The discourses produced by their proponents resonate with
particular world views that reflect different relations to power.     

The United States of the United Races: a rejoinder

I respond to a review by C. Matthew Snipp, revisiting how my book connects abolitionist leanings to acceptance of racial mixing in the Early Republic. I reiterate that, contrary to the reviewer's claims, the book does not suggest that the defence of interracial marriage has been a thriving social movement. I correct his reading of my chapter on the Civil War era, referring to both the variety of voices present, and the claims of reformers' opponents, who were the only ones who claimed racial mixing was an aim of the abolitionist movement. Lastly, I defend The United States of the United Races against Professor Snipp's characterization of it as a work anticipating a ‘post-racial’ ideal, embodied by racially mixed people, who would be the end point of the obsolescence of race as a relevant analytic tool.     

Vaccine-escape and fast-growing mutations in the United Kingdom,the United States,Singapore, Spain,India, and other COVID-19-devastated countries

Recently, the SARS-CoV-2 variants from the United Kingdom (UK), South Africa, and Brazil have received much attention for their increased infectivity, potentially high virulence, and possible threats to existing vaccines and antibody therapies. The question remains if there are other more infectious variants transmitted around the world. We carry out a large-scale study of 506,768 SARS-CoV-2 genome isolates from patients to identify many other rapidly growing mutations on the spike (S) protein receptor-binding domain (RBD). We reveal that essentially all 100 most observed mutations strengthen the binding between the RBD and the host angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), indicating the virus evolves toward more infectious variants. In particular, we discover new fast-growing RBD mutations N439K, S477N, S477R, and N501T that also enhance the RBD and ACE2 binding. We further unveil that mutation N501Y involved in United Kingdom (UK), South Africa, and Brazil variants may moderately weaken the binding between the RBD and many known antibodies, while mutations E484K and K417N found in South Africa and Brazilian variants, L452R and E484Q found in India variants, can potentially disrupt the binding between the RBD and many known antibodies. Among these RBD mutations, L452R is also now known as part of the California variant B.1.427. Finally, we hypothesize that RBD mutations that can simultaneously make SARS-CoV-2 more infectious and disrupt the existing antibodies, called vaccine escape mutations, will pose an imminent threat to the current crop of vaccines. A list of most likely vaccine escape mutations is given, including S494P, Q493L, K417N, F490S, F486L, R403K, E484K, L452R, K417T, F490L, E484Q, and A475S. Mutation T478K appears to make the Mexico variant B.1.1.222 the most infectious one. Our comprehensive genetic analysis and protein-protein binding study show that the genetic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 on the RBD, which may be regulated by host gene editing, viral proofreading, random genetic drift, and natural selection, gives rise to more infectious variants that will potentially compromise existing vaccines and antibody therapies.     

Subjects of Speculation: Emergent Life Sciences and Market Logics in the United States and India

This article traces systems of exchange concerning the life sciences and capital and how they configure subjectivity in the United States and India. This is done through case studies concerning the emergence of personalized medicine in the two locales. In the U.S. case, I argue for the configuration of the subjects of personalized medicine as sovereign consumers; in the Indian case, I argue for their configuration as experimental subjects. I situate these arguments in the context of epistemologies of genomics and the consolidation of systems of speculative capitalism.     

细石叶工艺产品废弃的文化过程研究

细石叶工艺产品是如何废弃的、受哪些因素影响、又如何在考古遗存中得到表现,这些都是我们面临的课题。本文从考古遗存废弃一般过程的理论研究着手,确定影响细石叶工艺产品的因素包括史前狩猎采集者的生计策略、废弃过程中人们的行为选择两个方面;与此同时结合细石叶工艺性质预测细石叶工艺产品可能的废弃方式;然后回到对经验材料点(籍箕滩遗址)与面(华北地区主要细石叶工艺遗址)相结合的分析。整体而言,华北含细石叶工艺产品诸遗址的废弃呈现出多样的形态,有迅速而预期返回的废弃方式(籍箕滩遗址),有计划且不准备返回的废弃方式(如泗涧遗址),有人类经常光顾但不留宿的遗址(如孟家泉遗址),还有废弃迅速的临时营地(如柿子滩遗址)和狩猎动物的望点(如大岗遗址)。     

The Works: The Industrial Architecture of the United States

The Works: The Industrial Architecture of the United States. Betsy Hunter Bradley. New York: Oxford University Press. 1999.348 pp.