The Complicated Nature of Somatic mtDNA Mutations in Aging

Mitochondria are the main source of energy used to maintain cellular homeostasis. This aspect of mitochondrial biology underlies their putative role in age-associated tissue dysfunction. Proper functioning of the electron transport chain (ETC), which is partially encoded by the extra-nuclear mitochondrial genome (mtDNA), is key to maintaining this energy production. The acquisition of de novo somatic mutations that interrupt the function of the ETC have long been associated with aging and common diseases of the elderly. Yet, despite over 30 years of study, the exact role(s) mtDNA mutations play in driving aging and its associated pathologies remains under considerable debate. Furthermore, even fundamental aspects of age-related mtDNA mutagenesis, such as when mutations arise during aging, where and how often they occur across tissues, and the specific mechanisms that give rise to them, remain poorly understood. In this review, we address the current understanding of the somatic mtDNA mutations, with an emphasis of when, where, and how these mutations arise during aging. Additionally, we highlight current limitations in our knowledge and critically evaluate the controversies stemming from these limitations. Lastly, we highlight new and emerging technologies that offer potential ways forward in increasing our understanding of somatic mtDNA mutagenesis in the aging process.

English or Englishes?

The discipline of World Englishes has been one of the most thriving branches of English linguistics. This branch has become the focal focus of considerable debate. The chapter mainly aims to show the multilingual reality of English. It is an attempt to answer the question “Do we have English or Englishes?” The chapter tries to study the recent situation of English as a lingua franca. It first gives an overview of the spread of English and the emergence of new Englishes. Then, it presents the principals of traditional applied linguistics and second language acquisition. It also discusses the concepts of World Englishes, multilingualism, and pluralism. After that, the chapter presents the World Englishes debate to show the gap between monocentrists and pluralists. Finally, the study sheds light on the fact that Englishes reflect the multilingual reality of English.

‘A landmark in psychiatric progress’? The role of evidence in the rise and fall of insulin coma therapy

This paper examines the evidence behind the use and decline of insulin coma therapy as a treatment for schizophrenia and how this was viewed by the psychiatric profession. The paper demonstrates that, from the time of its introduction, there was considerable debate regarding the evidence for insulin treatment, and scepticism about its purported benefits. The randomized trials conducted in the 1950s were the result, rather than the origins, of this debate. Although insulin treatment was subsequently abandoned, it was still regarded as a historic moment in the modernization of psychiatry. Then, as now, evidence does not speak for itself, and insulin continued to be incorporated into the story of psychiatric progress even after it was shown to be ineffective.

Scientific ideologies on the move: Sino-British exchanges, scientific freedoms and the governance of science in Britain, 1961–1966

In the early 1960s, amidst a period of considerable debate surrounding how civil science in Britain should be governed, British scientists—especially those associated with the Royal Society—and their counterparts in the People's Republic of China (PRC) began tentative exchange programmes. Although such unusual interactions between Cold War adversaries were enabled by claims that science was a universal and apolitical phenomenon, the ways in which institutional and individual participants were embroiled in these domestic debates illuminate how their ideological outlooks shaped their views on exchange and on the science they encountered. By focusing on three interrelated exchanges during this period—an individual scientist's visit to the PRC, a Royal Society delegation to China, and a larger research programme bringing junior Chinese researchers to Britain—I argue that participating British scientists' conceptualizations of ‘scientific freedom’ framed how they judged science in China, and the value of these exchanges; their observations and actions during these interactions reflected their views on domestic British debates over the governance of science. This study thereby sheds light on how the ideological attitudes of participants of science diplomacy shape its practice.

The Twenty Item Prosopagnosia Index (PI20) provides meaningful evidence of face recognition impairment

The Twenty Item Prosopagnosia Index (PI20) is a self-report questionnaire used for quantifying prosopagnosic traits. This scale is intended to help researchers identify cases of developmental prosopagnosia by providing standardized self-report evidence to complement diagnostic evidence obtained from objective computer-based tasks. In order to respond appropriately to items, prosopagnosics must have some insight that their face recognition is well below average, while non-prosopagnosics need to understand that their relative face recognition ability falls within the typical range. There has been considerable debate about whether participants have the necessary insight into their face recognition abilities to respond appropriately. In the present study, we sought to determine whether the PI20 provides meaningful evidence of face recognition impairment. In keeping with the intended use of the instrument, we used PI20 scores to identify two groups: high-PI20 scorers (those with self-reported face recognition difficulties) and low-PI20 scorers (those with no self-reported face recognition difficulties). We found that participant groups distinguished on the basis of PI20 scores clearly differed in terms of their mean performance on objective measures of face recognition ability. We also found that high-PI20 scorers were more likely to achieve levels of face recognition accuracy associated with developmental prosopagnosia.

Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, resilience and social justice in the COVID era

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on how health outcomes are unequally distributed among different population groups, with disadvantaged communities and individuals being disproportionality affected in terms of infection, morbidity and mortality, as well as vaccine access. Recently, there has been considerable debate about how social disadvantage and inequality intersect with developmental processes to result in a heightened susceptibility to environmental stressors, economic shocks and large-scale health emergencies. We argue that DOHaD Society members can make important contributions to addressing issues of inequality and improving community resilience in response to COVID-19. In order to do so, it is beneficial to engage with and adopt a social justice framework. We detail how DOHaD can align its research and policy recommendations with a social justice perspective to ensure that we contribute to improving the health of present and future generations in an equitable and socially just way.

Two Historicisms: Unpacking the Rules of Reproduction Debate

Knafo and Teschke’s provocative essay ‘Political Marxism and the Rules of Reproduction of Capitalism’ has prompted considerable debate. From a position of critical support, the present article intervenes in this debate by making three interrelated points. First, the structuralist–historicist divide that Knafo and Teschke identify is misleading and should be reformulated. Though the duality is real, this divide is best understood as a continuum between two kinds of historicism: a structural and an institutional historicism. Second, the article contextualises Knafo and Teschke’s intervention against the backdrop of their own intellectual development. Rather than returning to the tradition’s historicist origins, they have in fact stretched Political Marxism’s institutional tendencies to new limits. Third, the article concludes with a revision of their critique of the concept of market dependence. It is argued that the concept can be salvaged for the purposes of institutional historicism provided that it is rearticulated.

Is Eliphaz a false prophet? The vision in Job 4.12-21

The night vision recounted by Job’s friend Eliphaz in Job 4.12-21 has received an extraordinary amount of scholarly attention. Among other difficulties, the core of the vision’s message (4.17) – typically interpreted as stating that humans cannot be just in God’s sight – appears to contradict Eliphaz’s statements elsewhere (e.g., 4.6-7). The relationship between 4.17 and the metaphors for death with which the vision ends has also occasioned considerable debate. In this paper, it is argued that Eliphaz’s words can be viewed as a response to Job’s speech in Chapter 3, particularly his description of the sleep of death in 3.11-19. The poet portrays Eliphaz as having perceived Job’s words as a challenge to God’s justice and has him—after implying divine inspiration for his message with the use of an extraordinary set of oracular tropes in vv. 12-16—offer in vv. 17-21 a rebuke and warning evocative of those used by biblical prophets to call sinners to repentance. As the prologue indicates, however, Job’s suffering is not due to sin but instead to his superlative goodness; Eliphaz’s words are therefore profoundly misguided and can have no salutary effect. In essence, I propose that the poet is presenting Eliphaz as an example of what Deut. 18.20 calls a ‘presumptuous prophet’, that is, one who wrongly claims that he is speaking on behalf of God. His remarks serve only to distance Job further from both the ‘friends’ and God, as Job’s sharper tone in Chapters 6-7 makes clear. This reading can help explain some of the more puzzling elements in these verses and also maintains the traditional attribution of the vision to Eliphaz (instead of to Job himself, as a growing number of scholars have proposed).

Evidence of an Inverted U–Shaped Relationship between Stakeholder Management Performance Variation and Firm Performance

Empirical research is largely supportive of the assertion of instrumental stakeholder theory that a positive relationship exists between “managing for stakeholders” and firm performance. However, despite considerable debate on the subject, the amount of variation across firm investments in stakeholders (stakeholder management performance) has not been adequately investigated. We address this gap using a sample of more than eighteen thousand firm-level observations over ten years. We find evidence to support an inverted U–shaped relationship between variation in stakeholder management performance and Tobin’s q, suggesting that firms that have some imbalance in their stakeholder management, but not too much, perform best. We discuss the implications of our study for instrumental stakeholder theory and managerial practice.

The Wolf-Pack Case and the Reform of Sex Crimes in Spain

The controversial trial of five men accused of gang-raping a young woman during the 2016 San Fermín festival and their conviction not for rape, but for a lesser crime of sexual abuse in 2018, known as La Manada (the Wolf-Pack) case, brought the Spanish law under intense public scrutiny. The case led to an outpouring of protests across the country and called for the urgent reform of rape laws, which then led to the drafting of new provisions to address the outcry. To set the analysis in the context of feminist activism, this Article is organized around the hashtags used during the protests. Accordingly, this Article examines three aspects of considerable debate: Namely the distinction between sexual abuse and rape (“it’s not abuse, it’s rape!”), the murky legal understanding of consent (“only yes is yes”), and the introduction of the gender perspective in the legal system (“sister, I believe you”). By addressing these issues, this Article demonstrates the pervasive influence of feminism over recent Spanish law-making, and the continued resistance which such efforts meet. This Article concludes by scrutinizing this effect and examining the conditions under which a civil society network may succeed in challenging socially outdated legal provisions.