Impaired ion homeostasis as a possible associate factor in mucopolysaccharidosis pathogenesis: transcriptomic, cellular and animal studies

Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) are a group of diseases caused by mutations resulting in deficiencies of lysosomal enzymes which lead to the accumulation of partially undegraded glycosaminoglycans (GAG). This phenomenon causes severe and chronic disturbances in the functioning of the organism, and leads to premature death. The metabolic defects affect also functions of the brain in most MPS types (except types IV, VI, and IX). The variety of symptoms, as well as the ineffectiveness of GAG-lowering therapies, question the early theory that GAG storage is the only cause of these diseases. As disorders of ion homeostasis increasingly turn out to be co-causes of the pathogenesis of various human diseases, the aim of this work was to determine the perturbations related to the maintenance of the ion balance at both the transcriptome and cellular levels in MPS. Transcriptomic studies, performed with fibroblasts derived from patients with all types/subtypes of MPS, showed extensive changes in the expression of genes involved in processes related to ion binding, transport and homeostasis. Detailed analysis of these data indicated specific changes in the expression of genes coding for proteins participating in the metabolism of Ca2+, Fe2+ and Zn2+. The results of tests carried out with the mouse MPS I model (Idua−/−) showed reductions in concentrations of these 3 ions in the liver and spleen. The results of these studies indicate for the first time ionic concentration disorders as possible factors influencing the course of MPS and show them as hypothetical, additional therapeutic targets for this rare disease.

Securitization Theory or a Well Overlooked Old: On the Philosophical and Theoretical Premises and Origins of the Theory

More than 20 years have passed since B. Buzan, O. Wver and J. de Wilde published their Security: A New Framework for Analysis, which has become a classic in the discipline of security studies. Although Russian scholars increasingly attempt to use the securitization theorys conceptual apparatus in their research, the knowledge of the theory itself remains rather fragmentary. The overwhelming majority of existing papers refer to the so-called Copenhagen Schools (CS) intellectual heritage, while more comprehensive approaches and recent studies remain almost unknown among Russian scholars. The author attempts to fill this gap. This article is first in line of a series of studies, entirely devoted to the phenomenon of securitization: from the earliest milestones to the modern stage of development of the theory. The paper examines the theoretical and philosophical premises, as well as the ideas and assumptions of the securitization theory, first formulated by O. Wver in the late 1980s. The author refers to the original texts of the main figures of the CS: O. Wver and B. Buzan, conceptualizing the history of the concept of securitization and immersing the reader into the atmosphere of security studies field at the end of the 20th century. As a result, it becomes possible to determine the key elements of the early theory of securitization: security as a speech act, national security as a main focus of study, post-structural realism as a research agenda of O. Wver, and the idea of security as a negative meaning. The article concludes that despite the shortcomings of the early theory of securitization noted by many critics, it was based on a valuable and fruitful idea - an attempt to go beyond the notion of security as an absolute good or a metaphysical entity, which was typical of traditional and many alternative approaches to the definition of security.

Literature in Layers: An Early Theory of Retelling the Sanskrit Epics

This essay reconstructs an early chapter in the history of theorizing the diverse Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata literature of South Asia. Drawing upon the tenth-century literary theorist Kuntaka’s discussions of the Udāttarāghava, Uttararāmacarita, Veṇīsaṃhāra, Kirātārjunīya, and Abhijñānaśākuntala—all Sanskrit poetic (kāvya) compositions that depict stories from the Rāmāyaṇa or the Mahābhārata—I show how, in Kuntaka’s understanding, these works repair certain narrative inconsistencies and ethical ambiguities in the epics themselves. Building on the foundation laid by his predecessor, Ānandavardhana, Kuntaka illuminates the various layers of meaning that a work of literature can encompass. He shows that the epics’ different narrative layers send conflicting messages about proper conduct. He suggests, moreover, that an audience experiences a kāvya retelling of an epic story as a layered entity—a layer of epic narrative beneath a layer of kāvya—and argues that an awareness of these layers can contribute to the audience’s ethical self-cultivation. Kuntaka’s theory of retelling (truly re-telling: telling again, purposefully, and differently from a previous accepted telling) represents an important theoretical account of the relationships between South Asia’s many Rāmāyaṇas and many Mahābhāratas.

The Logician of Madness: Fanon's Lacan

In recent years, commentators have begun to re-examine the proximity of Frantz Fanon's and Jacques Lacan's work — a proximity which has traditionally been underappreciated. This article adds to these voices, demonstrating the reciprocal intellectual relationship between these two figures. It develops five interrelated arguments to chart this proximity. First, it emphasizes Lacan's and Fanon's connections through their ontological perspectives on madness. Second, it arbitrates the two theorists’ criticisms of the limits of Western psychoanalysis. Third, it shows the importance placed by both on social structures in determining mental illnesses. Next, it demonstrates the centrality of their common understanding of psychosis. Finally, it argues that Lacan's argument in The Sinthome concerning the colonizer's power is inherited from Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks — itself influenced by Lacan's early theory of language. The article does not attempt to cast Fanon as an apprentice Lacanian but rather to argue that reciprocity helped shape both oeuvres.

On the End of the Conceptual Conflict in the Early Theory of Social Systems: P.A. Sorokin, T. Parsons, and L. von Wiese

The dispute over the construction of a social system theory, which took place in Harvard between P.A. Sorokin (1889–1968) and T. Parsons (1902–1979), is still drawing the attention of historians and theorists of sociology. Both scientists were greatly respected by the scientific community of those times, both had their unique vision on creating a social theory and, of course, each of them claimed priority in the development of their respective system-sociological theory. According to P.A. Sorokin, who in 1951 was promoting his work “Similarities and Dissimilarities Between Two Sociological Systems” among colleagues from his department and beyond it, T. Parsons’ essays on the topic of social system theory are suspiciously similar to P.A. Sorokin’s lectures and essays — an opinion which in turn was refuted by Parsons. In response to Sorokin’s claims, T. Parsons claimed that his theoretical concept had been influenced more by other authors than by P.A. Sorokin. He also pointed to the process of convergence in system theory and highlighted plenty of other differences between their system theories. All researchers noticed the severity of this conflict, but when we look to the circumstances of the end of this conceptual debate, we find that it is not entirely clear whether it was even resolved, and more importantly — how the conflict actually ended. Analysis of this historical case conducted through the lens of Luhmann’s communicative theory helps get a clearer understanding of the problem. It allows for separating the conceptual implications of the dispute from its other aspects – personal, career, psychological, institutional aspects — which ultimately allowed looking into the conceptual essence of the conflict. The use of new and previously little-known German archival documents, copies of sociologists’ personal letters, journal reviews on sociological theory, journal publications about the conflict allowed to establish the importance of the role played by respected German sociologist L. von Wiese (1876–1969), a personal friend of P.A. Sorokin and an expert in theoretical sociology, in deescalating the conflict and ending the dispute in 1952.

Institutionalising the Instituting Power? Castoriadis and the Councils

This chapter engages with the Greek French political thinker Cornelius Castoriadis and his interpretation of the workers’ councils’ movement. The chapter argues that Castoriadis developed two different theories of council democracy; an early theory developed while he was the figure head of the radical French group Socialisme ou Barberie, and a late theory developed in tandem with his overarching theory of autonomy, the imaginary, and the instituting power. While Castoriadis has often been criticised, for example by Jürgen Habermas, for not theorising the institutional preconditions for democratic autonomy and for deploying a groundless and normless account of political action as instituting ex nihilo, the chapter argues that Castoriadis’ late theory of council democracy provides a vantage point through which Castoriadis’ concepts of ‘instituting power’ and ‘autonomy’ can grounded in institutional structures, i.e., the council system.

Formation, propagation and detection of gravitational waves

Gravitational waves are a new form of energy that is too sensitive to measure. The study of gravitational waves paves a unique way to approach the new era of universal science. It is quite interesting to note that experimental proof of early theory of Einstein is successfully proven after many years. The manuscript depicts the concepts of gravitational waves, propagation of gravitational waves, its effect on objects on earth and various factors that affect the measurements along with their method of approach to detect gravitational waves. Detecting gravitational waves is a tedious process and it requires a very highly sensitive experimental setup to carry out the detection as well as on considering the current trend of technology it is observed that detection faceses massive limitations. Detection of gravitational waves opens up a new way for understanding supermassive binary systems such as neutron stars and black holes and also for studying on Early universe history.