Design, Fabrication and Characterization of Nanoliposomes Containing Snake Venom of Pseudocereaster percius

Background: Development of antivenom or antidote requires the repetition of immunization of large animals, such as horses and goats, which ultimately releases the IgG immunoglobulin produced in the serum specimen. As snake venom involves a variety of proteins and enzymes getting administered into the animal, this process can inflict significant harm to the animal, therefore choosing carriers that can deliver the least amount of venom could be a safer option for animal immunization Objective: In this research, nanoliposomes were used to encapsulate venom as a protected cargo for immunization. We used two distinct liposomal formulations to entrap the venom: 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-(1′-rac-glycerol) associated with cholesterol in one formulation and dimethyldioctadecylamonium (Bromide salt) paired with cholesterol in the other. Method: Liposomal formulations prepared by solvent evaporation method and the venom was encapsulated in liposomes and evaluated for size and zeta potential. Meanwhile, encapsulation efficiency, venom release percentage, and phospholipase activity have all been analyzed. Results: The findings revealed that dimethyldioctadecylamonium (Bromide salt) combined with cholesterol had the highest encapsulation efficiency. In this formulation, the venom release rate had a steady-state profile. The lack of phospholipase activity in this formulation may be due to a bromide group in the liposomal structure that could be useful for immunization. Conclusion: Liposomal formulations, which do not have the active site of the snake venom enzymes, could be used for venom encapsulation.

Offsetting, Denialism, and Risk

In Climate Matters John Broome defends two claims. First, if you live a “normal life” in a rich country, you will probably cause significant harm by your emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG), violating a moral duty of harm-avoidance. Second, you can satisfy this duty by offsetting your emissions. Some would deny Broome’s first claim on the grounds that an individual’s emissions of GHG do no harm. Broome calls this position “IndividualDenialism” (ID) and in a recent paper he attempts to refute it. I explain how, if Broome’s refutation of ID were successful, it would undermine his claim that you can satisfy your duty of harm avoidance by offsetting. I suggest an alternative defence of the claim that you can satisfy your individual duty to reduce your carbon footprint by offsetting. This alternative defence assumes that your duty to reduce your carbon footprint derives from a duty of risk-avoidance.

Criminal liability for illegal transplantation: past, present, future

Transplantation of human anatomical materials is an important method of treatment aimed at restoring human health, so improving the criminal law regulation of combating illegal transplantation is certainly important. This article provides a comprehensive scientific and practical analysis of the formation, development and reform of legislation that provides transplantation of anatomical materials to humans. To do this, the author systematically studied the regulatory legislation in the field of transplantation and the changes that have taken place in it, identified all the changes made to Art. 143 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine during its validity, the impact of these changes on the practice of application of Art. 143 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The study of the legal support of transplantation was conducted through three main stages of transformation of legislation during the independence of Ukraine. This allowed us to draw the following conclusions: 1) the subject of the crimes under Art. 143 today is human anatomical materials. This means that, in addition to human organs or tissues, it covers anatomical formations, human cells and human fetal materials; 2) the systematic change of regulatory legislation in the field of transplantation complicates the establishment of the current procedure and conditions of transplantation of human anatomical materials, and, as a consequence, complicates the detection of signs of illegal transplantation; 3) the current corpus delicti provided in Part 1 of Art. 143 of the Criminal Code, is material, which requires the establishment, in addition to the act, socially dangerous consequences (significant harm to the victim) and the causal link between the act and the consequence; 4) the subjective side of the crime provided by part 1 of Art. 143 of the Criminal Code, from the moment of adoption of the Criminal Code of Ukraine until December 28, 2019, both intentional and negligent violation of the statutory procedure for transplantation of human anatomical materials was criminally punished, and from December 29, 2019, the act can only be intentional and the attitude to consequences only negligent; 5) since the adoption of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and until now, the legislator has twice increased the penalties for crimes under Art. 143 of the Criminal Code. In the final case, the penalty was increased for all sanctions under Art. 143 of the Criminal Code without exception.

Green on Green: Issues of Public Opposition to Proposed Renewable Energy Projects

Renewable energy is widely recognised as a significant tool to combat climate change, achieve carbon neutrality and realise sustainable development. However, even with widespread support, renewable projects may trigger conflicts and lead to green on green tension – a conflict between the environmental benefits of renewable energy projects (REP s) and public concerns over consequential environmental detriments. This article clarifies both the environmental impacts and the environmental-related impacts that can be caused by REP s and contribute to green on green tension; and examines how these can be weighed against the positives of such projects. The article argues that the stage of public participation in decision making on REP s provides the appropriate mechanism to identify and mitigate the impacts and weigh the competing interests; and that to guide this process national policies should establish a presumption in favour of REP s, rebuttable when significant harm is likely to result from the proposed project.

Legacies of Slavery and their Enduring Harms

This article provides a much needed inquiry into the legacy of slavery from an interdisciplinary perspective, including the historical, socioeconomic, political, and the epistemic. It makes an important distinction between the legacy of slavery and its persisting damages. By investigating this legacy’s effects on peoples, communities, and societies, it highlights the imperative of situating the pains and sufferings of historical traumas within contemporary structural oppression and institutional discrimination that have perpetuated these harms. The article consists of four sections: it first outlines the legacy of slavery, comprised in instrumentalizing black bodies for economic gains, employing political aggression to colonize both lands and minds, applying racialized discourse to demean and dehumanize, and oppressing people of African descent through structural violence. It then discusses the legacy’s injuries as transgenerational and cultural traumas, and how these wounds are experienced by the relevant communities. The third section focuses on racism as a significant harm, analyzing different forms of racism (internalized, interpersonal, and institutional) as interconnected and mutually reinforcing. To conclude, this article considers challenges in addressing the legacy of slavery and puts forward tentative ideas for collective healing.

Heterogeneity and Contribution of Microplastics From Industrial and Domestic Sources in a Wastewater Treatment Plant in Xiamen, China

Plastic-related industrial discharge is suspected as a significant source of microplastics (MPs) in the influent of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, little is known about the characteristics of MPs in industrial wastewater. Taking the Haicang WWTP in Xiamen, China, as an example, this study compared MPs in industrial wastewater with the domestic one in terms of abundance, particle size, polymer type, shape and color. Wentworth modulus, grain size parameters and principal component analysis (PCA) were performed to describe the MP difference between those two. It was found that the abundance of MPs in industrial wastewater was more than twice that in domestic wastewater, and the flux of MPs discharged into the aquatic environment through industrial wastewater was about 3.2 times that of domestic wastewater. The main shapes of MPs in industrial wastewater and domestic wastewater were fiber and granule, respectively. The proportion of polyester (PES) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in industrial wastewater was higher than that in domestic wastewater, related to the type of factories served by the WWTP. Compared with domestic wastewater, the rough surface of MPs in industrial wastewater was more complex and diverse, which might have a high capability of adsorbing other pollutants, thereby causing more significant harm to the environment. Our results supported that industrial sources of MPs are the priority areas in environmental management, and immediate action is taken to prevent industrial-sources MPs from entering the environment.

Conscience absolutism via legislative amendment

On 30 June 2021, Ohio state Governor, Mike DeWine, signed a Bill which would enact the state's budget for the next two years. In addition to its core funding imperatives, the Bill also contained an amendment significantly expanding entitlements of health care providers to conscientiously object to professional duties to provide controversial health care services. This amendment has been heavily criticised as providing the means to allow health care providers to discriminate against a wide range of persons by denying them access to often contested services such as abortion and contraception. In this paper, we examine the implications of this amendment and situate it in relation to other legislative actions intended to guarantee absolute rights to conscientious objection. In doing so, we argue that the entitlements extended to health care providers by these Bills are overly broad and ignore their potential to allow significant harm to be caused to clients. We then argue that if health care providers should have rights to conscientiously object (a question we do not try an answer here), then any legislation intended to protect such rights should be limited, specific, and parsimonious. Where it is not, the ideological liberty of HCPs treads dangerously on the physical freedom of their clients.

Strategic Submission to Rape is not Consent: Sexual Violence in the Colombian Armed Conflict

Academic literature is only beginning to understand victims’ rational calculations and agency related to sexual violence in war and conflict. This article deepens that analysis, emphasizing calculated action rather than passive victimization. This is a systematic study of victims’ strategic responses to sexual violence, and reports findings from an in-depth analysis of women who were raped in the context of Colombia's armed conflict (1964-present), revealing that this context triggers a strategic response by victims of rape. Specifically, some women calculate that submitting to unwanted sex is more likely to protect them and others, such as family members, from significant harm than resisting rape. However, while their strategic responses may protect them and allow them to keep their families safe from greater harm, the methods adopted by women in these situations may complicate their efforts at being recognized as victims, undercutting their access to legal and social rights in the aftermath of war and conflict.

Assessing Harm from Cyber Crime

This chapter discusses a harm concept that enables a more comprehensive assessment of the consequences of cyber crime. Even though harm resulting from cyber crime is not fundamentally different from harm that is caused by other forms of crime or crime in general, the reach, scope, and volume of crime facilitated by information and communications technology have transformed risks posed to individuals, organizations, and nations, and challenge conventional approaches of crime detection and prevention. Assessments of the impact of cyber crime have been focusing on estimating the cost in monetary value. However, most significant harm might not be experienced as a loss of money, but as a disruption or destabilization of systems that are built on trust. This article advocates for a human-centric approach to cyber security, which emphasizes harm mitigation strategies.

Issues of improving legislation about expert activity

The article deals with the problems of legal regulation of expert activity. It is noted that there are many regulatory legal acts that regulate the conduct of various examinations. The article analyzes the legislation regulating the conduct of both non-judicial and judicial examinations, including supranational ones. Although non-judicial examinations are diverse, the article notes that their legal regulation has much in common, but general issues are not regulated uniformly in the absence of grounds for this, since we are talking about issues that are not related to the specifics of a particular examination. And this, in the authors opinion, is a lack of legal regulation of expert activity. The article examines the novelties of the legislation on forensic examinations, in particular, conducted by non-state experts. Attention is drawn to all the main problems of legal regulation that have been discussed since 2012, when work began on a new law on judicial expert activity, but have not been resolved by the legislator. Attention is paid to the legal regulation of the activities of forensic experts. The article concludes that the courts are suspicious of the conclusions of expert examinations conducted by non-judicial experts when considering disputes between regulatory authorities and interested parties, as well as when considering criminal and administrative cases. Often, examinations conducted for the purpose of control are groundlessly rejected by the court, and the court appoints forensic examinations, which are entrusted to experts who do not have the necessary knowledge, experience, methods, equipment; they accept them on faith, without establishing the reasons for discrepancies between experts, without conducting the necessary procedural actions. That is, not being experts, the judges unreasonably decide which of the two expert opinions to accept. As a result, significant harm can be caused to the state interests, which is shown by the example of customs examinations. It is also noted that there are many similarities between forensic examinations and, for example, examinations conducted for control purposes. It is proposed to formulate a single law on the basis of expert activity, not limited only to judicial expert activity. The issues that require legal regulation are listed. The need to take into account the achievements of the legislation of the Eurasian Economic Union on expertise in the development of national legislation was noted.