Exchange

Author(s):  
Ellen Oxfeld

This chapter focuses on the exchange and circulation of food in Moonshadow Pond. Food is part of a gift economy. It is also part of a subsistence economy as well (to the extent that people self-provision), and it is part of commodified market economy. It is additionally part of a system of direct payment or barter, where foodstuffs themselves are exchanged for goods, services or property. In gift exchange, food circulates in a wide range of venues, from informal everyday give and take among close family members to more formal exchanges during life-cycle rituals and yearly festivals. Finally, food circulates not only amongst humans, but as offerings in a cosmic exchange with gods, ghosts and ancestors. As such, the exchange and circulation of food structures a myriad of social and even cosmological relations and identities.

Author(s):  
John Anthony McGuckin

Chapter 1 gives Biographical background and studies the historical context(s) of Gregory of Nyssa and his close family members, situating them as aristocratic and long-established Christian leaders of the Cappadocian area. It offers along with the course of Gregory’s Vita a general outline of the main philosophical and religious controversies of his era, particularly his ecclesiastical involvement in the Neo-Nicene apologetical movement associated with the leadership of his brother Basil (of Caesarea), which he himself inherited in Cappadocia, with imperial approval, after 380. It concludes with a review of Gregory’s significance as author: in terms of his style as a writer, his work as an exegete, his body of spiritual teaching, and lastly, the manner in which his reputation waxed and waned from antiquity to the present.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 2042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Máté A. Demény ◽  
László Virág

The 17-member poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase enzyme family, also known as the ADP-ribosyl transferase diphtheria toxin-like (ARTD) enzyme family, contains DNA damage-responsive and nonresponsive members. Only PARP1, 2, 5a, and 5b are capable of modifying their targets with poly ADP-ribose (PAR) polymers; the other PARP family members function as mono-ADP-ribosyl transferases. In the last decade, PARP1 has taken center stage in oncology treatments. New PARP inhibitors (PARPi) have been introduced for the targeted treatment of breast cancer 1 or 2 (BRCA1/2)-deficient ovarian and breast cancers, and this novel therapy represents the prototype of the synthetic lethality paradigm. Much less attention has been paid to other PARPs and their potential roles in cancer biology. In this review, we summarize the roles played by all PARP enzyme family members in six intrinsic hallmarks of cancer: uncontrolled proliferation, evasion of growth suppressors, cell death resistance, genome instability, reprogrammed energy metabolism, and escape from replicative senescence. In a companion paper, we will discuss the roles of PARP enzymes in cancer hallmarks related to cancer-host interactions, including angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis, evasion of the anticancer immune response, and tumor-promoting inflammation. While PARP1 is clearly involved in all ten cancer hallmarks, an increasing body of evidence supports the role of other PARPs in modifying these cancer hallmarks (e.g., PARP5a and 5b in replicative immortality and PARP2 in cancer metabolism). We also highlight controversies, open questions, and discuss prospects of recent developments related to the wide range of roles played by PARPs in cancer biology. Some of the summarized findings may explain resistance to PARPi therapy or highlight novel biological roles of PARPs that can be therapeutically exploited in novel anticancer treatment paradigms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4886
Author(s):  
Katia Perini ◽  
Fabio Magrassi ◽  
Andrea Giachetta ◽  
Luca Moreschi ◽  
Michela Gallo ◽  
...  

Urban greening provides a wide range of ecosystem services to address the main challenges of urban areas, e.g., carbon sequestration, evapotranspiration and shade, thermal insulation, and pollution control. This study evaluates the environmental sustainability of a vertical greening system (VGS) built in 2014 in Italy, for which extensive monitoring activities were implemented. The life-cycle assessment methodology was applied to quantify the water–energy–climate nexus of the VGS for 1 m2 of the building’s wall surface. Six different scenarios were modelled according to three different end-of-life scenarios and two different useful lifetime scenarios (10 and 25 years). The environmental impact of global-warming potential and generated energy consumption during the use phase in the VGS scenarios were reduced by 56% in relation to the baseline scenario (wall without VGS), and showed improved environmental performance throughout the complete life cycle. However, the water-scarcity index (WSI) of the VGS scenarios increased by 42%. This study confirms that the installation of VGSs offers a relevant environmental benefit in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions and energy consumption; however, increased water consumption in the use phase may limit the large-scale application of VGSs.


Author(s):  
Blaine A. Mathison ◽  
Ninad Mehta ◽  
Marc Roger Couturier

Acanthacephala is a phylum of parasitic pseudocoelamates that infect a wide range of vertebrate and invertebrate hosts and can cause zoonotic infections in humans. The zoologic literature is quite rich and diverse, however the human-centric literature is sparse and sporadically reported over the past 70 years. Causal agents of acanthacephaliasis in humans are reviewed as well as their biology and life cycle. This review provides the first consolidated and summarized report of human cases of acanthacephaliasis based on English language publications, including epidemiology, clinical presentation, treatment, and diagnosis and identification.


Author(s):  
Mirko Bagaric

The hardship stemming from prison goes well beyond the pain experienced by offenders. The family and dependants of prisoners often experience significant inconvenience and hardship. Family members of prisoners have not engaged in wrongdoing and hence arguably their suffering should be a mitigating consideration in sentencing. However, this approach potentially unfairly advantages offenders with close family connections and undermines the capacity of courts to satisfy a number of important sentencing objectives, including the imposition of proportionate penalties. The courts and legislatures have not been able to find a coherent manner in which to reconcile this tension. There is conflicting case law regarding the circumstances in which family hardship can mitigate the severity of criminal penalties. This article examines these competing positions and proposes that family hardship should mitigate penalty severity only when incarcerating the offender would cause severe financial hardship to his or her dependants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 2075-2089
Author(s):  
Tiago da Silva Arouche ◽  
Anderson Yuri Martins ◽  
Teodorico de Castro Ramalho ◽  
Raul Nunes Carvalho Júnior ◽  
Fabio Luiz Paranhos Costa ◽  
...  

In the current pandemic situation raised due to COVID-19, drug reuse is emerging as the first line of treatment. The viral agent that causes this highly contagious disease and the acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) share high nucleotide similarity. Therefore, it is structurally expected that many existing viral targets are similar to the first SARS-CoV, probably being inhibited by the same compounds. Here, we selected two viral proteins based on their vital role in the viral life cycle: Structure of the main protease SARS-CoV-2 and the structural base of the SARS-CoV-2 protease 3CL, both supporting the entry of the virus into the human host. The approved drugs used were azithromycin, ritonavir, lopinavir, oseltamivir, ivermectin and heparin, which are emerging as promising agents in the fight against COVID-19. Our hypothesis behind molecular coupling studies is to determine the binding affinities of these drugs and to identify the main amino acid residues that play a fundamental role in their mechanism of action. Additional studies on a wide range of FDA-approved drugs, including a few more protein targets, molecular dynamics studies, in vitro and biological in vivo evaluation are needed to identify combination therapy targeted at various stages of the viral life cycle. In our experiment in silico, based mainly on the molecular coupling approach, we investigated six different types of pharmacologically active drugs, aiming at their potential application alone or in combination with the reuse of drugs. The ligands showed stable conformations when analyzing the affinity energy in both proteases: ivermectin forming a stable complex with the two proteases with values −8.727 kcal/mol for Main Protease and −9.784 kcal/mol for protease 3CL, Heparin with values of −7.647 kcal/mol for the Main protease and −7.737 kcal/mol for the 3CL protease. Both conform to the catalytic site of the proteases. Our studies can provide an insight into the possible interactions between ligands and receptors, through better conformation. The ligands ivermectin, heparin and ritonavir showed stable conformations. Our in-silica docking data shows that the drugs we have identified can bind to the binding compartment of both proteases, this strongly supports our hypothesis that the development of a single antiviral agent targeting Main protease, or 3CL protease, or an agent used in combination with other potential therapies, it could provide an effective line of defense against diseases associated with coronaviruses.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-115
Author(s):  
Joshua S. Hanan

This essay (re)presents my own experiences living with attention deficit disorder (ADD) as a child and adult to provide a radically historical, contextual, and critical autoethnographic conceptualization of this “learning disability.” Specifically, by building upon Ragan Fox’s “auto-archeological” method, a critical perspective that “unite[s] autoethnography and Foucault’s theories of discourse,” I draw upon institutional artifacts, psychiatric diagnoses, and interviews with close family members to show that ADD is a “technology of the self” that economizes the body in accordance with a distinctly neoliberal temporality. This temporalizing process, I show, is reinforced by a range of other neoliberal technologies of selfhood and ultimately cultivates the very “deficit framework” that ADD diagnoses are aimed at healing. The conclusion questions the legitimacy of ADD outside of the various technological interfaces that make the disability visible as a public problem and considers the intimate connections between neoliberalism, ableism, and the contemporary university.


2018 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwangchol Mun ◽  
Tanel Punga

ABSTRACTHuman adenovirus (HAdV) encodes a multifunctional DNA-binding protein pVII, which is involved in virus DNA packaging and extracellular immune signaling regulation. Although the pVII is an essential viral protein, its exact role in the virus life cycle and interplay with cellular proteins have remained to a large extent unclear. We have recently identified the cellular zinc finger protein 622 (ZNF622) as a potential pVII-interacting protein. In this study, we describe the functional consequences of the ZNF622-pVII interplay and the role of ZNF622 in the HAdV life cycle. ZNF622 protein expression increased, and it accumulated similarly to the pVII protein in the nuclei of virus-infected cells. The lack of the ZNF622 protein specifically increased pVII binding to viral DNA in the infected cells and elevated the pVII protein levels in the purified virions. In addition, ZNF622 knockout cells showed an increased cell lysis and enhanced accumulation of the infectious virus particles. Protein interaction studies revealed that ZNF622 forms a trimeric complex with the pVII protein and the cellular histone chaperon protein nucleophosmin 1 (NPM1). The integrity of this complex is important since ZNF622 mutations and NPM1 deficiency changed pVII ability to bind viral DNA. Collectively, our results implicate that ZNF622 may act as a cellular antiviral protein hindering lytic HAdV growth and limiting pVII protein binding to viral DNA.IMPORTANCEHuman adenoviruses (HAdVs) are common human pathogens causing a wide range of acute infections. To counteract viral pathogenicity, cells encode a variety of antiviral proteins and noncoding RNAs to block virus growth. In this study, we show that the cellular zinc finger protein 622 (ZNF622) interacts with an essential HAdV protein known as pVII. This mutual interaction limits pVII binding to viral DNA. Further, ZNF622 has a role in HAdV life cycle since the lack of ZNF622 correlates with increased lysis of the infected cells and accumulation of the infectious virions. Together, our study reveals a novel cellular antiviral protein ZNF622, which may impede lytic HAdV growth.


Author(s):  
Giselle Balaguer-Da´tiz ◽  
Nikhil Krishnan

The management of municipal solid wastes (MSW) in Puerto Rico is becoming increasingly challenging. In recent years, several of the older landfills have closed due to lack of compliance with federal landfill requirements. Puerto Rico is an island community and there is limited space for construction of new landfills. Furthermore, Puerto Rico residents generate more waste per capita than people living on the continental US. Thermal treatment, or waste to energy (WTE) technologies are therefore a promising option for MSW management. It is critical to consider environmental impacts when making decisions related to MSW management. In this paper we quantify and compare the environmental implications of thermal treatment of MSW with modern landfilling for Puerto Rico from a life cycle perspective. The Caguas municipality is currently considering developing a thermal treatment plant. We compare this to an expansion of a landfill site in the Humacao municipality, which currently receives waste from Caguas. The scope of our analysis includes a broad suite of activities associated with management of MSW. We include: (i) the transportation of MSW; (ii) the impacts of managing waste (e.g., landfill gas emissions and potential aqueous run-off with landfills; air emissions of metals, dioxins and greenhouse gases) and (iii) the implications of energy and materials offsets from the waste management process (e.g., conversion of landfill gas to electricity, electricity produced in thermal treatment, and materials recovered from thermal treatment ash). We developed life cycle inventory models for different waste management processes, incorporating information from a wide range of sources — including peer reviewed life cycle inventory databases, the body of literature on environmental impact of waste management, and site-specific factors for Puerto Rico (e.g. waste composition, rainfall patterns, electricity mix). We managed uncertainty in data and models by constructing different scenarios for both technologies based on realistic ranges of emission factors. The results show that thermal treatment of the unrecyclable part of the waste stream is the preferred option for waste management when compared to modern landfilling. Furthermore, Eco-indicator 99 method is used to investigate the human health, ecosystem quality and resource use impact categories.


2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 193-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Brožová ◽  
I. Jankovská ◽  
V. Bejček ◽  
S. Nechybová ◽  
P. Peřinková ◽  
...  

Abstract Species of the genus Echinococcus (Cestoda; Taeniidae) are minute tapeworms of carnivores. Their larvae are known as hydatids (metacestode), which proliferate asexually in various mammals. Like the majority of cestodes, Echinococcus spp. require two different host species to complete their life cycle. Definitive hosts harbouring the adult cestodes in the small intestine are exclusively carnivores of the Canidae and Felidae families. A wide range of mammal species including humans is susceptible to infection by the metacestode of Echinococcus spp., which develops in their viscera. The disease, caused by species of the genus Echinococcus, is called echinococcosis, and it is one of the most dangerous zoonoses in the world. The traditional species Echinococcus granulosus and Echinococcus multilocularis are agents of significant diseases due to the high number of cases and the wide geographical species range. The taxonomy of the genus is controversial; in the current state of ongoing complex revisions, the agent of cystic echinococcosis E. granulosus sensu lato is divided into five species (E. granulosus sensu stricto, E. felidis, E. equinus, E. ortleppi, E. canadensis), in addition to the agents of alveolar echinococcosis (E. multilocularis, E. shiquicus) and polycystic/unicystic echinococcosis (E. vogeli, E. oligarthrus). Here we provide an overview of the current situation, which continues to develop.


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