scholarly journals Melanin, from an Evolutionary Remnant to the Myeloid Lineage Cell’s Main Energy Source. The Unsuspected Intrinsic Property of Melanin to Dissociate the Molecule from Water. Possible Implications in the Context of Acute Leukemias

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arturo Solís Herrera ◽  
Ruth I. Solís Arias ◽  
Luis F. Torres Solís

Melanin is one of the most stable substances known. The study of the ink bags of fossilized squid that died 160 million years ago has found it in good condition. Its extraordinary stability is what had prevented, to date; assign a relevant role in biology. Sir Everard Holmes’ proposal in London; in the eighteenth century, about the role of melanin as a simple sunscreen, it has permeated to this day, especially among dermatologists. Despite the unique physical–chemical qualities of melanin, its biological role as a simple sunscreen that protects us from the dangerous UV rays remained immutable. Our circumstantial discovery during an observational study that lasted 12 years (1990–2002) and which included the ophthalmologic studies of 6000 patients, about the relationship between the vessels of the optic nerve and the three main causes of blindness (Macular degeneration, diabetes, and glaucoma) allowed us to discern the unexpected and surprising true role of melanin in Biology as an energy transducer. The unsuspected intrinsic property of melanin to transform light into chemical energy through water dissociation, like chlorophyll in plants; opens a new era in Biology and therefore in Medicine. And Acute Leukemias are no exception.

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pina Filippello ◽  
Rosalba Larcan ◽  
Luana Sorrenti ◽  
Caterina Buzzai ◽  
Susanna Orecchio ◽  
...  

Despite the extensive research on parental psychological control, no study has explored the relation between parental and teacher psychological control, maladaptive perfectionism and learned helplessness (LH). The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) whether perceived teacher psychological control predicts positively LH, (2) whether perceived parental psychological control predicts maladaptive perfectionism, and (3) whether the association between perceived parental and teacher psychological control and LH is mediated by maladaptive perfectionism. In a sample of 433 participants, 268 females (61.9%) and 165 males (38.1%), ranged in age from 13 to 19 years ( M = 15.38, standard deviation (SD) = 1.18), it was found that teacher psychological control has a more relevant role in the prediction of LH than parental control. Moreover, maladaptive perfectionism was a full mediator of the relationship between perceptions of teacher psychological control and LH. These results extend previous studies on teacher psychological control and, for the first time, provide evidence for the relation with LH, identifying maladaptive perfectionism as a variable that accounts for the relation between teacher psychological control and LH.


2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 583-613
Author(s):  
Niall J.L. Griffith

The relationship between cognition and culture is discussed in terms of technology and representation. The computational metaphor is discussed in relation to its providing an account of cognitive and technical development: the role of representation and self-modification through environmental manipulation and the development of open learning from stigmery. A rationalisation for the transformational effects of information and representation is sought in the physical and biological theories of Autokatakinetics and Autopoiesis. The conclusion drawn is that culture, rather than being an intrinsic property of our human phenotype was learned and that cultural cognition is an information transforming system that is inadequately characterised by notions of parameterised deep-structure and that it is an open and potentially unbounded informational system.


Biotecnia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Estefanía Garibay-Valdez ◽  
Marcel Martínez-Porchas ◽  
Kadiya Calderón ◽  
Teresa Gollas-Galván ◽  
Luis R. Martínez- Córdova ◽  
...  

La microbiota del tracto digestivo es diversa y provee grandes beneficios al hospedero; participando en múltiples funciones relacionadas con su estado de salud, nutrición y crecimiento. Recientemente ha cobrado relevancia el estudio del papel de la microbiota en organismos de importancia acuícola, incluyendo a camarones peneidos. Los estudios pioneros en conocer la relación de los microorganismos en el desarrollo de camarones peneidos utilizaron técnicas dependientes de cultivo. A pesar de los novedosos hallazgos, esto representó solo una pequeña fracción del total de la población; sin embargo, estas primeras aproximaciones permitieron vislumbrar el rol relevante de la microbiota en la biología de estos crustáceos. Más tarde, el desarrollo de métodos basados en técnicas moleculares extendió el panorama con nuevos registros de bacterias no cultivables en estos ambientes, elucidando el efecto de diversos factores incluyendo dieta, antibióticos, probióticos, prebióticos y enfermedades sobre la modulación de la microbiota del tracto digestivo. Sin embargo, el desarrollo de técnicas de secuenciación masiva de alto rendimiento, comenzó a proporcionar bases de datos más robustas, permitiendo conocer no solo qué microorganismos están presentes en un organismo dado, sino también conocer sus funciones y roles potenciales. Hasta el momento se cuenta con descripciones de la composición de la microbiota del tracto digestivo de camarones peneidos y del como el manejo de estos microorganimos tiene beneficios en la respuesta productiva y estado de salud; sin embargo, es necesario continuar comprendiendo la relación microbiotahospedero. La presente revisión analiza la situación actual y plantea las perspectivas futuras para el estudio de la microbiota de camarones peneidos.ABSTRACTThe digestive tract microbiota is diverse and can provide great benefits to the host, participating in multiple functions related to its health, nutrition and growth. Recently, the microbiota study of important aquaculture species including penaeid shrimp has gained relevance. The first research efforts in the knowledge of the relationship between microorganisms and penaeid shrimp development used culture-dependent techniques. In spite of the novel findings, this represented only a small fraction of the total population; however, these first approaches allowed knowing the relevant role of microbiota in the biology of these crustaceans. Later, the development of methods based on molecular techniques, increased the panorama with new records of nonculturable bacteria in these environments, elucidating the effect of diverse factors including diet, antibiotics, probiotics, prebiotics, and disease on the digestive tract microbiota modulation. However, the rise of high throughput sequencing, began providing robust datasets, allowing to know not only which microbes are present in a given organism, but reveal their functions and potential roles. So far, descriptions of the microbiota composition of the digestive tract of penaeid shrimp are available, as well as on how the management of these microorganisms benefits the productive response and health status; however, it is necessary to continue comprehending the microbiota-host relationship. The present review analyzes the current situation and future perspectives in the study of penaeid shrimp microbiota


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Junping Yang ◽  
Min Zhu ◽  
Mengjie Zhang ◽  
Kai Yao

Abstract Technology that develops rapidly has profoundly affected the business field and reshaped some behaviours of corporations, and the discussion on startup risk-taking behaviour in the new era is still insufficient. Based on social network theory and social capital theory, this article studies how social networks and entrepreneurial ecosystems support startup risk-taking behaviour. This article cuts into this issue through the perspective of coopetition. Based on 737 responses, this article employs regression and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to explore the relationships between networks, ecosystem coopetition, and risk-taking behaviour. Results indicate that networks and coopetition may stimulate startup risk-taking behaviour, and coopetition may weaken the impacts of networks. There are replacement effects between different characteristics of networks, and there are several configurations, which may lead to high-level risk-taking. This article may help us understand startup risk-taking behaviour in the digital era and the positive impacts of ecosystems.


2020 ◽  
pp. 163-192
Author(s):  
Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska

This chapter explores the role of a musical pattern, the Romanesca schema, as a signifier of spiritual meanings in opera. It addresses the relationship between the Romanesca and the hymn topic and argues that the schema, semantically empty in its origins, acquired in the late eighteenth century connotations of ceremony, solemnity, alterity, and even transcendence. Several vignettes from operas by Haydn and Mozart illustrate how composers deployed the pattern in scenes depicting worship, prayers, and ritual actions. Beethoven’s Fidelio occupies the final section, a case study that shows the Romanesca interacting with other elements of the musical structure for expressive purposes. The chapter provides a novel interpretation of certain moments of the opera, suggesting that Beethoven relied on the sacred implications of the Romanesca—arguably available to historical listeners—to intensify the spiritual dimension of the drama.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Anne Fuchs

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the role of technology in people's relationship with time. Since the invention of the World Wide Web in 1990, digital technologies have revolutionized the relationship between individuals, their worlds, and their temporal horizons. The ever-tighter enmeshing of human worlds with digital media alters the very notion of experience. Indeed, the ontological difference between lived and virtual experience is diminishing as technology transmutes dispositions, habits, and perceptions. Because the information age promotes instant access, it also erodes the expectation of temporal processing. The new era of the “digital now” challenges not only established notions of delayed gratification but also the very idea of time as a multidimensional concept that integrates past, present, and future into human experience. This book therefore investigates temporal anxieties from a broad cultural-historical perspective that illuminates alternative temporal trajectories and experiences. It does this by analyzing how contemporary German literature, film, and photography stage, perform, and bring forth other kinds of time.


2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-136
Author(s):  
Emma Bridges ◽  
Joanna Paul

With Killing Hercules, Richard Rowland has produced a wide-ranging trans-historical discussion of re-workings of the relationship between the mythical Hercules and Deinaira, from Sophocles’ fifth-century bceTrachiniae to Martin Crimp's 2004 play, Cruel and Tender, and a 2014 staging of Handel's operatic Hercules. Impressive for the breath-taking variety of receptions of the story of Deianira's killing of her husband, the volume devotes as much attention to medieval, post-Reformation, and eighteenth-century versions as to ancient texts (including, as well as Sophoclean tragedy, receptions in Latin – for example, the pseudo-Senecan Hercules Oetaeus and Ovid's Heroides – which lie behind many post-classical re-workings of the story) and contemporary retellings; the study touches on several Italian, French, and German versions as well as those in English. As a scholar who has direct experience of theatre practice, Rowland draws on his involvement in staged versions of both Trachiniae (his own verse translation, which he includes as an appendix) and Cruel and Tender in order to provide fresh insights on both of these texts. The resulting volume, which illustrates the complex and varied reflections on masculinity and sexual identity prompted by the characters of Hercules and Deianira, has at its heart questions relating to the gendered role of violence in retellings of the myth both on a domestic level and in relation to international politics. Hercules has been seen as everything from the epitome of masculine virtue and heroic self-sacrifice to abuser and serial adulterer, ‘sexual deviant and disastrous husband’ (115); in her turn, Deianira – in some versions denied a voice altogether – has been variously portrayed as duplicitous or insane, or as a victim whose killing of her abuser is deserving of sympathy. The chapter on the Middle Ages illustrates well the re-appropriation of the story to serve a range of political, religious, and social agendas – from condemnation of Hercules’ lack of self-control by Augustine to valorization of his sexual violence, as well as the misogynist and misogamist interpretations of Deianira which were marshalled in service of debates on the role of marriage. Elsewhere, Rowland shows how the tale could be used simultaneously on both sides of a single political conflict – during the Civil War period, both regicides and royalists used lines from Seneca's Hercules Furens to insist on the rectitude of their respective stances (153–4). Even those already familiar with the reception of the figure of Hercules will find something new in this rich exploration of the pliability of one mythical story.


Author(s):  
Alessio Gori ◽  
Eleonora Topino

The globalization processes typical of liquid modern society require organizations to have high levels of flexibility, dynamism, and rapidity of change, testing the adaptability of workers with possible repercussions on well-being and productivity. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the role of several psychological factors in favoring job satisfaction in a group of organizational workers (mean age = 46.24; SD = 9.99; 40.9% males and 59.1% females). Firstly, the impact of predisposition to change on job satisfaction through workplace relational civility (others with me) or insight orientation as independent mediating variables was analyzed. After that, this relationship was also studied by testing the effect that the simultaneous interaction of both mediators could have. Results show that workplace relational civility (others with me) significantly mediated the relationship between predisposition to change and job satisfaction, while no significance was found in the effect of insight when considered individually. However, the latter acquires greater relevance if placed in interaction with the other mediator, that is found to be the most proximal factor linking job satisfaction to the other more distal variables. Such findings might have a relevant role in strengthening preventive intervening, favoring positive results for greater well-being of both subjects and organizations.


2010 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Liam Mac Mathúna ◽  

Seán Ó Neachtain (c. 1640–1729) and his son Tadhg (c. 1671–c. 1752) were at the centre of an extensive circle of Gaelic scholars in the city of Dublin in the early part of the eighteenth century. Seán Ó Neachtain composed a broad range of creative literature. Although primarily written in Irish, his works include examples of Irish/English code-mixing as well as pieces composed entirely in English. His son, Tadhg Ó Neachtain, is credited with having written over 25 surviving manuscripts. He makes considerable use of English sources and of English itself in a number of these manuscripts, which are either pedagogical in nature, devoted to geography and history, or are characterised by frequent commonplace entries referring to contemporary events. This paper examines the interaction of the two languages in these manuscripts, exploring (1) the use of English language sources (textbooks and Dublin newspapers), (2) the content of the English portions of the manuscripts in question, and (3) the relationship of the English material to the Irish in the immediate compositional context. The paper seeks to assess whether the permeating bilingualism of these manuscripts is merely indicative of the contemporary socio-linguistic milieu in which the Ó Neachtains functioned, or can be regarded as harbinger of the subsequent community language change from Irish to English.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 161-182
Author(s):  
Merethe Roos

Defending Theology: Freedom of the Press and Theological Textual Cultures in Swedish and Danish Periodicals at the Turn of the Eighteenth CenturyThis article examines the relationship between theology and freedom of the press in the periodicals Läsning i blandade ämnen (Stockholm 1797–1801) and Minerva (Copenhagen, 1785–1801). Sweden and Denmark were subject to different press regulations in the last decades of the eighteenth century, not least concerning theological issues. The editors of the periodicals in question sought to contribute to general enlightenment, and each of them published texts thematizing theological and religious issues. Through close reading of theological texts from these periodicals, the present study aims to demonstrate how the different press regulations in the two countries entailed a need for different presentations of Christian ideas during a period when dogmatic Christian teaching was challenged. This will in turn shed light on the role of these periodicals as far as public opinion regarding theology and theological themes in general is concerned.


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