Paradigm shift in eukaryotic biocrystallization

Despite the widespread occurrence of crystalline inclusions in unicellular eukaryotes, scant attention has been paid to their composition, functions, and evolutionary origins, assuming just their inorganic contents. The advent of Raman microscopy, still scarcely used for biological samples, allowed chemical characterization of cellular inclusions in vivo. Using this method, herein we provide a substantial revision of the cellular crystalline inclusions across the broad diversity of eukaryotes examining all major supergroups. Surprisingly, here we show that 80 % of these crystalline inclusions contain purines, mostly anhydrous guanine (62 %), guanine monohydrate (2 %), uric acid (12 %) and xanthine (4 %). Hence, our findings indicate that purine biocrystallization is a very general and an ancestral eukaryotic process operating by an as-yet-unknown mechanism. Purine crystalline inclusions are high-capacity and rapid-turnover reserves of nitrogen of a great metabolic importance, as well as optically active elements, e.g., present in the light sensing eyespots of flagellates, possessing even more hypothetical functions. Thus, we anticipate our work to be a starting point for more in-depth studies of this phenomenon on the detailed level spanning from cell biology to global ecology, with further potential applications in biotechnologies, bio-optics or in human medicine.

Enhancing the stability of active pharmaceutical ingredients by cocrystal strategy

Cocrystallization has been recognized as one of the most successful approaches to address stability problems of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in the past few decades. However, scant attention has been...

Affective and Emotional Determinants of Entrepreneurial Orientation Within Family Firms

As a predominant form of business organization, family firms have attracted increasing attention by scholars, and especially by those researching entrepreneurial orientation with the aim of better understanding of entrepreneurial activities pursued by enterprises. However, the literature on the confluence of entrepreneurial orientation and family firms has paid scant attention to the influence of affective and emotional factors. To cover this research gap, the authors analyze the impact of affective commitment and concern for socioemotional wealth preservation on entrepreneurial orientation. To do so, they performed an empirical study using the data collected from 342 small and mid-sized family firms from Portugal, a country where family firms are under-researched even though they make up the backbone of the economy. Results show that both affective commitment and socioemotional wealth positively impact entrepreneurial orientation, pointing to the need to further research the relationships between such factors and strategic behaviors in the family business context.

Race and racism in the founding of the modern world order

While race existed as a cultural marker in earlier history, a mutually-reinforcing link between racism, slavery and empire is a distinct product of western Europe and the US-led world order. Yet, mainstream scholarship on International Relations has obscured the question of race or worse, legitimized its exclusion in discussions of world order-building. At the same time, demand for racial equality from anti-colonial forces presented an alternative and inclusive conception of world order. The first part of this article offers a brief discussion of concepts of race, racism and world order. The next part examines how racist ideas and norms created exclusionary frameworks and approaches of world order, such as the European ‘standard of civilization’ principle. The third part looks at the role of racism in the emergence of the American-led world order, including US President Woodrow Wilson's rejection of the ‘racial equality’ principle in the League of Nations Charter, the privileging of ‘sovereign equality’ over ‘racial equality’ in the UN Charter, and the scant attention given to the link between colonialism and denial of human rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet, anti-colonial leaders and conferences, especially the 1955 Bandung Conference, integrated ‘national sovereignty, racialism and colonialism’, and demanded racial equality as a fundamental human right. The final part cautions against the dangers of complacency and compartmentalizing the study of race and racism, and calls instead for viewing racism as an inter-linked global challenge, hence integral to the emerging research agenda of Global International Relations.

A Capability Approach to Real Estate Valuation and Value Enhancement

There are numerous financial metrics available in the academic and commercial world to estimate real estate value. Appraisers often use such metrics when advising on the purchase or sale of real estate at a point in time. The first part of this paper proposes a new metric, based on the capability approach, to make an ex-post single period valuation. Further, appraisers often give advice to their clients on actions to take in order to enhance the value of their real estate. This area of value enhancement has received scant attention in the academic literature. In practice, this advice is often based ad-hoc, anecdotal recommendations. The second part of the paper develops seven real estate strengths that can be targeted and provides an ex-ante approach to building real estate value. The valuation model presented in this paper is a pragmatic approach to enhancing both the values of tangible and intangible capabilities of a property by utilizing Expense Leveraged Value Indexes (ELVI).

Audiovisual Translation at the Service of the EU Public Communication 2.0

Communication is becoming more and more (audio)visual, social and mobile. This is true not only of the entertainment industry but also of commercial advertising and institutional public communication. Consequently, the audiovisual translation industry is flourishing. Although a growing array of products outside the field of entertainment are being localised and/or made accessible, they have received scant attention so far, whether in academic or professional circles. This is notably the case of the institutional video subgenre. This practice report will first address the importance of using increasingly multilingual and multimodal audiovisual products in EU external communication – a tool for reaching out to more citizens on social media and boosting their active participation at a time when populism and Euroscepticism are on the rise. The focus will then shift to the audiovisual communication of the Council of the EU. Through a case study which aims to investigate the internal localisation in all EU official languages of the “#Europeans” series of videos – produced for the 2019 EU elections – the rest of the paper will then outline the main features of the institutional audiovisual translation subgenre. It will also identify some opportunities for improvement: a more integrated and interdisciplinary approach which – together with reinforced collaboration with academia – could lead to a real multilingual creative process right from the initial steps of the audiovisual production process.

Dialetics and Structural Organization in the Ẹ̀bìbì Festival Performances of the Ẹ̀pẹ́ People in Lagos State, Nigeria

There is growing interest in the study of festivals by literary scholars in African orature. In Nigeria, the festival resources of the Ìjèbú in southwest ̣ - ern Nigeria, specifically the Èbìbì ̣ festival, has been given cursory multi-disciplinary attention in areas such as anthropology, sociology, religions and history. However, scant attention has been paid to the literariness of this corpus of festivals. Moreover, the variety of the festival celebrated by the Èpẹ́ ̣ people in the coastal area of the Ìjẹ̀bú people appears to have been neglected in previous studies of Ìjẹ̀bu festivals. Using salient aspects of literary semiot ́ - ics, this paper explores the Èbìbì ̣ festival of the Èpẹ́ ̣ people by undertaking a literary evaluation of the structural organization, dialetics and interconnectedness of the performances. Observations revealed that levels of structural organization are interconnected to various degrees. Narrative and textual structures are maintained in spite of translations into other languages. Èbìbì ̣ is structured beginning with formulaic exchanges, invocation by the Oluwo and the beating of the sacred Gbẹ̀du drums. Performers sometimes use the formula within a performance to develop oral text. Actions include flogging, as well as acrobatic and gymnastic displays by the performers. The costumes and masks have motifs of riverine animals and fishing accessories. Color codes are symbolically white for cleansing, green for fertility, brown for earth and red for positive energy. The Èbìbì ̣ festival celebrated in Èpẹ́ ̣ is indeed rich in oral 200 Babatunde Olanrewaju Adebua and Mobolanle Ebunoluwa Sotunsa aesthetic forms such as narration, wording, texture and dramatization which enhance its performance aesthetics to a large degree.

Politics of alliance in the farmers’ march to Parliament in India

On 30 November 2018 tens of thousands of Indian farmers marched to Parliament and demanded a special session to discuss the deepening agrarian crisis. The protest march to Parliament was only the latest in a series of protest marches which had been organized by an umbrella group of over 200 farmers’ organizations from all over India. Moreover, for the first time, an alliance of different activist groups, political parties, trade unions and students had cohered to support the farmers and their cause. Despite its political, empirical and theoretical significance, research on the formation of alliances has gained scant attention in sociological research. Based on original research, this article suggests alliance building should be understood with reference to political opportunities, processes of meaning attribution and framing, and as a strategy, which facilitates worthiness, unity, numbers and commitment (WUNC displays, as outlined by Charles Tilly).

Aiming at a moving target: methodological reflections on the study of politics of citizen-centric governance in post-earthquake Nepal

PurposeThe growing prominence of disaster research has also prompted vibrant discussions about the motivation and ethical conduct of disaster researchers. Yet, the individual researchers' aspirations and aims, together with the challenging and changing circumstances under which one undertakes disaster research have received relatively scant attention. Drawing on the author’s personal experience of becoming a disaster researcher under the unexpected humanitarian crisis following the 2015 Nepal earthquakes, this paper seeks to contribute to the debates surrounding the role of reflexivity and ethical sensitivity in doing disaster research under the climate of uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on the author’s reflections and vignettes to highlight the author’s experience of becoming a disaster researcher, and my trajectory of navigating the complex terrain of fieldwork.FindingsThe paper underscores how the process of becoming a disaster researcher was closely intertwined with and shaped by my concerns and care for the disaster-affected communities. The paper argues that doing contextually relevant and ethically sensitive research is not a static target. It demands constant reflexivity and improvisation, in response to the unpredictable real-world conditions of disasters. Instead of aiming to tame such uncertainty, disaster researchers may benefit from appreciating and embracing uncertainty as a major facet of its epistemological distinctiveness.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the ongoing efforts in advancing methodological reflection and innovation in disaster research. In so doing, the paper is expected to aid early-career researchers who are often faced with ethical and practical dilemmas of doing fieldwork.

旅行，為了轉瞬即逝的希望：試析錢鍾書《圍城》中的旅行書寫

<p>錢鍾書的《圍城》因其獨具一格的行文、諷刺和暗喻而聞名於世，該小說對中日戰爭初期的中國文人進行了辛辣且幽默的嘲諷及批評。然而，截至目前，學界鮮少討論錢鍾書在《圍城》中的旅行書寫。傳統上，旅行往往被視為是一個文化影響、發現他者及自我的過程；極端情形下，旅行甚至是征服的開始。本文認為，錢鍾書通過旅行的情節，揭露了人性的黑暗面，例如自大、虛偽、貪婪和算計，而這些陰暗面的存在無關種族、性別、階級、教育或地區。《圍城》的男主角方鴻漸本就是一個自卑且悲觀的人，經過數次旅行之後&mdash;&mdash;從歐洲到上海、從上海到湖南、從湖南回到上海，他的這些性格特徵愈發明顯。他的一生是由一個接一個的圍城所構成，而從此圍城到彼圍城的旅途給了他短暫的可以喘息的時間和空間，這些旅行也給了他轉瞬即逝的虛假希望，那便是，他在下一站將迎來更好的機遇。</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>Famous for its masterful diction, satire, and metaphor, Qian Zhongshu’s Fortress Besieged is a sharp, humorous, and sarcastic criticism of Chinese intellectuals at the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War. Until recently, scant attention was paid to Qian’s travel writing in this novel. Travel is traditionally considered a process of cultural influence, the discovery of the other and the self or, radically, the beginning of conquest. This essay argues that Qian adopts the plot of travel to display a bleak picture of humanity, filled with pretentiousness, hypocrisy, greed, and manipulation, the existence of which is not impacted by race, gender, class, education, or region. For the novel’s protagonist Fang Hongjian, his habitual low-esteem and pessimism become more explicit after his several trips from Europe to Shanghai, from Shanghai to Hunan, and from Hunan back to Shanghai. His life consists of besieged fortresses one after another. The journey from here to there gives him temporary space and time for breathing, as well as a false and fleeting hope that he will have better chances in the next stop.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>