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Papers by Milena D. Bister

Human Tissue Research, 2011

Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 2009

ABSTRACT

In this chapter, we use empirical material from an ethnographic project on community psychiatry ... more In this chapter, we use empirical material from an ethnographic project on community psychiatry to think through the manifold pathways along which everyday practices shape urban existence. We develop the notion of ‘niching’ to account for the on-going material-semiotic processes through which people render cities habitable for themselves. Niching – understood in a cosmopolitical rather than systemic-ecological sense – problematizes how this rendering is partially connected to positive medical knowledge, infrastructures of care, administrative routines, and urban governance, but also unfolds in the interstices of urban assemblages. In this way, niching articulates both protection and closure, thereby asking questions about the impositions raised by cosmopolitics. We begin this chapter with briefly sketching our understanding of cosmopolitics and ‘niching’ in the context of urban atmospheres, before setting out the field of social psychiatric care in a German metropolis. We unfold three cases of post-clinical everyday life before discussing this material in ecological terms, critically assessing the theoretical alternatives that arise from cosmopolitics vis-à-vis established Foucaultian critique.

Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2003

Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rio2p, encoded by ORF Ynl207w, is an essential protein of unknown functi... more Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rio2p, encoded by ORF Ynl207w, is an essential protein of unknown function that displays significant sequence similarity to Rio1p/Rrp10p. The latter was recently shown to be an evolutionarily conserved, predominantly cytoplasmic serine/threonine kinase whose presence is required for the final cleavage at site D that converts 20S pre-rRNA into mature 18S rRNA. A database search identified homologs of Rio2p in a wide variety of eukaryotes and Archae. Detailed sequence comparison as well as in vitro kinase assays using recombinant protein demonstrated that Rio2p defines a subfamily of protein kinases related to, but both structurally and functionally distinct from, the one defined by Rio1p. Failure to deplete Rio2p in cells containing a GAL-rio2 gene, as well as direct analysis of Rio2p levels by Western blotting indicated the protein to be low-abundant. Using a GAL-rio2p gene carrying a point mutation that reduces the kinase activity we found that depletion of this mutant protein blocked production of 18S rRNA due to inhibition of the cleavage of cytoplasmic 20S pre-rRNA at site D. Production of the large-subunit rRNAs was not affected. Thus, Rio2p is the second protein kinase that is essential for cleavage at site D and the first in which the processing defect can be linked to its enzymatic activity. Contrary to Rio1p/Rrp10p, however, Rio2p appeared to be localized predominantly in the nucleus. by guest on August 26, 2016 http://www.jbc.org/ Downloaded from Like their counterparts in other eukaryotes, Saccharomyces cerevisiae ribosomes contain 4 species of ribosomal RNA (rRNA): 5S, 5.8S, 18S and 25S rRNA. The genes encoding these rRNAs are organized on the yeast genome in 150-200 tandem repeats, each of which comprises two transcriptional units separated by non-transcribed spacers (NTS). One of these units consists of a 5S rRNA gene, transcribed by RNA polymerase III. The other unit contains single genes for each of the mature 18S, 5.8S and 25S rRNAs that are separated by the internal transcribed spacers ITS1 and ITS2, while external transcribed spacer regions (ETS) are present at either end of the unit . After transcription of this polycistronic unit by RNA polymerase I the spacers are removed from the primary transcript via an ordered series of endo-and exonucleolytic cleavages (Fig. 1B; reviewed in refs. 1,2). The first detectable precursor species is 35S pre-rRNA which results from a cleavage at site B0 in the 3' ETS by the yeast RNase III homolog Rnt1p (3,. Subsequent cleavage at sites A0 and A1 in the 5'-ETS first gives rise to 33S and then 32S pre-rRNA. The latter is cleaved at site A2 to produce separate 20S and 27SA 2 precursors for the small and large ribosomal subunit, respectively.

Health:, 2009

This article challenges the assumption that patient autonomy can best be assured by providing pro... more This article challenges the assumption that patient autonomy can best be assured by providing proper information through formalized procedures such as informed consent. We suggest that to understand and consider laypeople's ways of knowing and decision making, one has to move beyond the information paradigm and take into account a much broader context. Concretely, we investigate informed consent in connection with donating skin tissue remaining from medically indicated surgery. We use interviews with patients and observation protocols to analyse patients' perceptions and ways of making sense of informed consent beyond its bioethical ideal. Patients situate themselves in a larger system of solidarity, enrol in an overall positive image of science as a linear process of innovation oriented towards output, and simultaneously take a pragmatic stance towards hospital routines as a necessary passage point towards receiving good treatment. Because informed consent is one of the central articulations between the biomedical system and society, we conclude by reflecting on the consequences of our findings on a socio-political level.

https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/handle/18452/19240 Dieser Beitrag verfolgt zwei Ziele: Erstens macht e... more https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/handle/18452/19240
Dieser Beitrag verfolgt zwei Ziele: Erstens macht er methodisch eine ethnografische Forschungsweise deutlich, die wir als ko-laborativ bezeichnen und mit Hilfe derer sich neue Formen von Reflexivität in der Europäischen Ethnologie produzieren und analytisch produktiv machen lassen. Zweitens argumentieren wir inhaltlich auf der Basis einer solchen ko-laborativen Forschung mit der Sozialpsychiatrie, dass die dominanten analytischen Dichotomien der Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften – normal vs. krank bzw. Behandlung vs. Kontrolle – den heutigen Prozessen psychiatrischer Behandlung nur noch bedingt gerecht werden. Wir zeigen an ethnografischem Material, wie zu therapeutischen Zwecken in Kliniken ‚normaler Alltag‘ choreografiert wird und wie dieses Choreografieren in post-stationären Alltagen ‚in the wild‘ problematisch wird. Wir diskutieren anhand dieser Befunde, inwieweit ein praxistheoretischer Zugriff die etablierte Subjektivierungskritik erweitern kann, indem er die Verteilung und Prozesshaftigkeit von psychiatrischer Behandlung thematisiert und damit die vielfache Einbettung von Alltagsproduktion in klinische wie städtische Umwelten problematisiert.
erschienen (2015) in: Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, 111. Jahrgang, Heft 2, S. 214-235.

Human Tissue Research, 2011

Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 2009

ABSTRACT

In this chapter, we use empirical material from an ethnographic project on community psychiatry ... more In this chapter, we use empirical material from an ethnographic project on community psychiatry to think through the manifold pathways along which everyday practices shape urban existence. We develop the notion of ‘niching’ to account for the on-going material-semiotic processes through which people render cities habitable for themselves. Niching – understood in a cosmopolitical rather than systemic-ecological sense – problematizes how this rendering is partially connected to positive medical knowledge, infrastructures of care, administrative routines, and urban governance, but also unfolds in the interstices of urban assemblages. In this way, niching articulates both protection and closure, thereby asking questions about the impositions raised by cosmopolitics. We begin this chapter with briefly sketching our understanding of cosmopolitics and ‘niching’ in the context of urban atmospheres, before setting out the field of social psychiatric care in a German metropolis. We unfold three cases of post-clinical everyday life before discussing this material in ecological terms, critically assessing the theoretical alternatives that arise from cosmopolitics vis-à-vis established Foucaultian critique.

Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2003

Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rio2p, encoded by ORF Ynl207w, is an essential protein of unknown functi... more Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rio2p, encoded by ORF Ynl207w, is an essential protein of unknown function that displays significant sequence similarity to Rio1p/Rrp10p. The latter was recently shown to be an evolutionarily conserved, predominantly cytoplasmic serine/threonine kinase whose presence is required for the final cleavage at site D that converts 20S pre-rRNA into mature 18S rRNA. A database search identified homologs of Rio2p in a wide variety of eukaryotes and Archae. Detailed sequence comparison as well as in vitro kinase assays using recombinant protein demonstrated that Rio2p defines a subfamily of protein kinases related to, but both structurally and functionally distinct from, the one defined by Rio1p. Failure to deplete Rio2p in cells containing a GAL-rio2 gene, as well as direct analysis of Rio2p levels by Western blotting indicated the protein to be low-abundant. Using a GAL-rio2p gene carrying a point mutation that reduces the kinase activity we found that depletion of this mutant protein blocked production of 18S rRNA due to inhibition of the cleavage of cytoplasmic 20S pre-rRNA at site D. Production of the large-subunit rRNAs was not affected. Thus, Rio2p is the second protein kinase that is essential for cleavage at site D and the first in which the processing defect can be linked to its enzymatic activity. Contrary to Rio1p/Rrp10p, however, Rio2p appeared to be localized predominantly in the nucleus. by guest on August 26, 2016 http://www.jbc.org/ Downloaded from Like their counterparts in other eukaryotes, Saccharomyces cerevisiae ribosomes contain 4 species of ribosomal RNA (rRNA): 5S, 5.8S, 18S and 25S rRNA. The genes encoding these rRNAs are organized on the yeast genome in 150-200 tandem repeats, each of which comprises two transcriptional units separated by non-transcribed spacers (NTS). One of these units consists of a 5S rRNA gene, transcribed by RNA polymerase III. The other unit contains single genes for each of the mature 18S, 5.8S and 25S rRNAs that are separated by the internal transcribed spacers ITS1 and ITS2, while external transcribed spacer regions (ETS) are present at either end of the unit . After transcription of this polycistronic unit by RNA polymerase I the spacers are removed from the primary transcript via an ordered series of endo-and exonucleolytic cleavages (Fig. 1B; reviewed in refs. 1,2). The first detectable precursor species is 35S pre-rRNA which results from a cleavage at site B0 in the 3' ETS by the yeast RNase III homolog Rnt1p (3,. Subsequent cleavage at sites A0 and A1 in the 5'-ETS first gives rise to 33S and then 32S pre-rRNA. The latter is cleaved at site A2 to produce separate 20S and 27SA 2 precursors for the small and large ribosomal subunit, respectively.

Health:, 2009

This article challenges the assumption that patient autonomy can best be assured by providing pro... more This article challenges the assumption that patient autonomy can best be assured by providing proper information through formalized procedures such as informed consent. We suggest that to understand and consider laypeople's ways of knowing and decision making, one has to move beyond the information paradigm and take into account a much broader context. Concretely, we investigate informed consent in connection with donating skin tissue remaining from medically indicated surgery. We use interviews with patients and observation protocols to analyse patients' perceptions and ways of making sense of informed consent beyond its bioethical ideal. Patients situate themselves in a larger system of solidarity, enrol in an overall positive image of science as a linear process of innovation oriented towards output, and simultaneously take a pragmatic stance towards hospital routines as a necessary passage point towards receiving good treatment. Because informed consent is one of the central articulations between the biomedical system and society, we conclude by reflecting on the consequences of our findings on a socio-political level.

https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/handle/18452/19240 Dieser Beitrag verfolgt zwei Ziele: Erstens macht e... more https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/handle/18452/19240
Dieser Beitrag verfolgt zwei Ziele: Erstens macht er methodisch eine ethnografische Forschungsweise deutlich, die wir als ko-laborativ bezeichnen und mit Hilfe derer sich neue Formen von Reflexivität in der Europäischen Ethnologie produzieren und analytisch produktiv machen lassen. Zweitens argumentieren wir inhaltlich auf der Basis einer solchen ko-laborativen Forschung mit der Sozialpsychiatrie, dass die dominanten analytischen Dichotomien der Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften – normal vs. krank bzw. Behandlung vs. Kontrolle – den heutigen Prozessen psychiatrischer Behandlung nur noch bedingt gerecht werden. Wir zeigen an ethnografischem Material, wie zu therapeutischen Zwecken in Kliniken ‚normaler Alltag‘ choreografiert wird und wie dieses Choreografieren in post-stationären Alltagen ‚in the wild‘ problematisch wird. Wir diskutieren anhand dieser Befunde, inwieweit ein praxistheoretischer Zugriff die etablierte Subjektivierungskritik erweitern kann, indem er die Verteilung und Prozesshaftigkeit von psychiatrischer Behandlung thematisiert und damit die vielfache Einbettung von Alltagsproduktion in klinische wie städtische Umwelten problematisiert.
erschienen (2015) in: Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, 111. Jahrgang, Heft 2, S. 214-235.