scholarly journals The vital importance of a web of prevention for effective biosafety and biosecurity in the twenty-first century

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatyana A. Novossiolova ◽  
Simon Whitby ◽  
Malcolm Dando ◽  
Graham S. Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Life Sciences ◽  
First Century ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Effective Prevention ◽  
Collaborative Action ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Complementary Role ◽  
Deliberate Release ◽  
Continuous Interaction

AbstractBiological threats are complex and multifaceted, as evidenced by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Their effective prevention and countering require multiple lines of collaborative action and sustained cross-sectorial coordination. This paper reviews the conclusions of Graham Pearson’s 1997 JAMA article titled ‘The Complementary Role of Environmental and Security Biological Control Regimes in the 21st Century’, taking into account the international policy developments that have occurred over the past two decades. The paper underscores the utility of the concept of a ‘web of prevention’ for elucidating the need for continuous interaction between the international biosafety and international biosecurity regimes, in order to ensure that the life sciences are used only for peaceful purposes. The terms ‘biosafety’ and ‘biosecurity’ are used to denote the primary purpose of the two regimes: the international biosafety regime seeks to prevent the unintentional (accidental) release of pathogens and toxins, including naturally occurring disease, whereas the biosecurity regime seeks to prevent the deliberate release and misuse of pathogens and toxins. The paper concludes by recommending practical steps for strengthening the implementation of all elements of the web of prevention and upholding the norms against the hostile misuse of life sciences.

Facts, Alternative Facts and Patent Literature

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
David Segal
Keyword(s):  
Life Sciences ◽  
First Century ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Kurt Gödel ◽  
Alternative Facts ◽  
Patent Literature ◽  
Patent Documents ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Source Of Information

The mathematician Kurt Gödel showed in his Incompleteness Theorem in the early 1930s that there are some statements in mathematics that are true but cannot be proven. Whether statements are true is important in the twenty-first century, an age of ‘fake news’ and alternative facts. Patent documents are true and accurate as they are examined and can be challenged for accuracy. This chapter outlines the patenting procedure. It also highlights the role of patents as a source of information alongside other sources. Accurate and true information is important for people with interests in engineering, physical sciences and life sciences. Patent infringement and patent trolls (non-practicing entities) are described. The following technical areas are grouped together to describe how they developed over time and how they may develop in the twenty-first century: communications, computing including quantum computing, life sciences including gene editing (CRISPR), transport and unexpected consequences of technological change.

Fine structure and properties of defects in naturally occurring silicates and oxides

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 460-461
Author(s):  
David R. Veblen
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Reactions ◽  
High Resolution Electron Microscopy ◽  
Extended Defects ◽  
Single Chain ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Resolution Electron ◽  
Fine Structures ◽  
Image Simulations ◽  
Similar Crystal Structure

Extended defects and interfaces control many processes in rock-forming minerals, from chemical reactions to rock deformation. In many cases, it is not the average structure of a defect or interface that is most important, but rather the structure of defect terminations or offsets in an interface. One of the major thrusts of high-resolution electron microscopy in the earth sciences has been to identify the role of defect fine structures in reactions and to determine the structures of such features. This paper will review studies using HREM and image simulations to determine the structures of defects in silicate and oxide minerals and present several examples of the role of defects in mineral chemical reactions. In some cases, the geological occurrence can be used to constrain the diffusional properties of defects.The simplest reactions in minerals involve exsolution (precipitation) of one mineral from another with a similar crystal structure, and pyroxenes (single-chain silicates) provide a good example. Although conventional TEM studies have led to a basic understanding of this sort of phase separation in pyroxenes via spinodal decomposition or nucleation and growth, HREM has provided a much more detailed appreciation of the processes involved.

Role of Flavonoids in Neurodegenerative Disorders with Special Emphasis on Tangeritin

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 581-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ambreen Fatima ◽  
Yasir Hasan Siddique
Keyword(s):  
Medicinal Plants ◽  
Mechanism Of Action ◽  
Neurodegenerative Disorders ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Dietary Supplementation ◽  
Plant Polyphenols ◽  
Promising Candidate ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
The Brain

Flavonoids are naturally occurring plant polyphenols found universally in all fruits, vegetables and medicinal plants. They have emerged as a promising candidate in the formulation of treatment strategies for various neurodegenerative disorders. The use of flavonoid rich plant extracts and food in dietary supplementation have shown favourable outcomes. The present review describes the types, properties and metabolism of flavonoids. Neuroprotective role of various flavonoids and the possible mechanism of action in the brain against the neurodegeneration have been described in detail with special emphasis on the tangeritin.

Monosodium Glutamate Toxicity and the Possible Protective Role of L–Carnitine

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-56
Author(s):  
Lalrinzuali Sailo ◽  
◽  
Meesala Krishna Murthy ◽  
Khandayataray Pratima ◽  
Vikas Kumar Roy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Subjects ◽  
Monosodium Glutamate ◽  
Essential Amino Acids ◽  
Protective Role ◽  
Glutamate Toxicity ◽  
Common Salt ◽  
Genotoxic Effects ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Flavour Enhancer

Monosodium glutamate is naturally available non-essential amino acids, which found in naturally occurring foods and used as flavour enhancer worldwide. Monosodium glutamate is believed to be linked with diverse health problems. The aim of the study was toxic effects of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and the protective role of L-carnitine, light on the available literature from last 25 years about diverse toxicity studies which had been carried out on animal and human models. Google scholar, NCBI, PUBMED, EMBASE, Wangfang databases, and Web of Science databases were used to retrieve the available studies. MSG was linked with deleterious effects particularly in animals including induction of obesity, diabetes, hepatotoxic, neurotoxic and genotoxic effects showed in Literature. Few reports revealed increased hunger, food intake, and obesity in human subjects due to MSG consumption. Hepatotoxic, neurotoxic, and genotoxic effects of monosodium glutamate on humans carried out very limitedly. High consumption of monosodium glutamate may be linked with harmful health effects showed in available literatures. So, it is recommended to use common salt instead of MSG. Furthermore, intensive research is required to explore monosodium glutamate–related molecular and metabolic mechanisms. L-carnitine can protect from Hepatotoxic, neurotoxic, renal impairment and genotoxic effects functionally, biochemically and histopathologically with a corresponding reduction of oxidative stress.

THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTING IN PUBLIC EXPENDITURE AND MONETARY POLICY IN THE FIRST CENTURY AD ROMAN EMPIRE

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Oldroyd
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Financial Planning ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
First Century ◽  
Financial Control ◽  
The Public ◽  
Monetary System ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence

Previous authors have argued that Roman coinage was used as an instrument of financial control rather than simply as a means for the state to make payments, without assessing the accounting implications. The article reviews the literary and epigraphic evidence of the public expenditure accounts surrounding the Roman monetary system in the first century AD. This area has been neglected by accounting historians. Although the scope of the accounts supports the proposition that they were used for financial control, the impetus for keeping those accounts originally came from the emperor's public expenditure commitments. This suggests that financial control may have been encouraged by the financial planning that arose out of the exigencies of funding public expenditure. In this way these two aspects of monetary policy can be reconciled.

The Baluch, Sunnism and the State in Iran

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane A. Dudoignon
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
First Century ◽  
Local Democracy ◽  
Oasis Area ◽  
Shed Light

Since 2002, Sunni jihadi groups have been active in Iranian Baluchistan without managing to plunge the region into chaos. This book suggests that a reason for this, besides Tehran’s military responses, has been the quality of Khomeini and Khamenei’s relationship with a network of South-Asia-educated Sunni ulama (mawlawis) originating from the Sarbaz oasis area, in the south of Baluchistan. Educated in the religiously reformist, socially conservative South Asian Deoband School, which puts the madrasa at the centre of social life, the Sarbazi ulama had taken advantage, in Iranian territory, of the eclipse of Baluch tribal might under the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79). They emerged then as a bulwark against Soviet influence and progressive ideologies, before rallying to Khomeini in 1979. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, they have been playing the role of a rampart against Salafi propaganda and Saudi intrigues. The book shows that, through their alliance with an Iranian Kurdish-born Muslim-Brother movement and through the promotion of a distinct ‘Sunni vote’, they have since the early 2000s contributed towards – and benefitted from – the defence by the Reformist presidents Khatami (1997-2005) and Ruhani (since 2013) of local democracy and of the minorities’ rights. They endeavoured to help, at the same time, preventing the propagation of jihadism and Sunni radicalisation to Iran – at least until the ISIS/Daesh-claimed attacks of June 2017, in Tehran, shed light on the limits of the Islamic Republic’s strategy of reliance on Deobandi ulama and Muslim-Brother preachers in the country’s Sunni-peopled peripheries.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document