The Roles of Neutrophils in Cytokine Storms

A cytokine storm is an abnormal discharge of soluble mediators following an inappropriate inflammatory response that leads to immunopathological events. Cytokine storms can occur after severe infections as well as in non-infectious situations where inflammatory cytokine responses are initiated, then exaggerated, but fail to return to homeostasis. Neutrophils, macrophages, mast cells, and natural killer cells are among the innate leukocytes that contribute to the pathogenesis of cytokine storms. Neutrophils participate as mediators of inflammation and have roles in promoting homeostatic conditions following pathological inflammation. This review highlights the advances in understanding the mechanisms governing neutrophilic inflammation against viral and bacterial pathogens, in cancers, and in autoimmune diseases, and how neutrophils could influence the development of cytokine storm syndromes. Evidence for the destructive potential of neutrophils in their capacity to contribute to the onset of cytokine storm syndromes is presented across a multitude of clinical scenarios. Further, a variety of potential therapeutic strategies that target neutrophils are discussed in the context of suppressing multiple inflammatory conditions.

Inflammasome, the Constitutive Heterochromatin Machinery, and Replication of an Oncogenic Herpesvirus

The success of long-term host–virus partnerships is predicated on the ability of the host to limit the destructive potential of the virus and the virus’s skill in manipulating its host to persist undetected yet replicate efficiently when needed. By mastering such skills, herpesviruses persist silently in their hosts, though perturbations in this host–virus equilibrium can result in disease. The heterochromatin machinery that tightly regulates endogenous retroviral elements and pericentromeric repeats also silences invading genomes of alpha-, beta-, and gammaherpesviruses. That said, how these viruses disrupt this constitutive heterochromatin machinery to replicate and spread, particularly in response to disparate lytic triggers, is unclear. Here, we review how the cancer-causing gammaherpesvirus Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) uses the inflammasome as a security system to alert itself of threats to its cellular home as well as to flip the virus-encoded lytic switch, allowing it to replicate and escape in response to a variety of lytic triggers. EBV provides the first example of an infectious agent able to actively exploit the inflammasome to spark its replication. Revealing an unexpected link between the inflammasome and the epigenome, this further brings insights into how the heterochromatin machinery uses differential strategies to maintain the integrity of the cellular genome whilst guarding against invading pathogens. These recent insights into EBV biology and host–viral epigenetic regulation ultimately point to the NLRP3 inflammasome as an attractive target to thwart herpesvirus reactivation.

Prechaos as a Mid-Term State of Global Poliсy and Economics

The contemporary world is characterized with slowdown of key processes of global institutional development at the background of instrumental capabilities for geo-economic competition that could now include the methods of political and economic pressure upon competitors. Such a state of affairs could be called «a pre-chaos» that means the backpedaling major developments in the global geoeconomics (including the investment ones) as well as the political one while waiting for the massive turbulence that could include application of force. The USA are interested in maximum prolongation of the pre-chaos state in order to buy time to consolidate the elite and stabilize the society socially. But the prolonged existence of world economy within the frame of pre-chaos model that among other things results in avoiding the longer-term economic decisions including investment-related ones, only increases the destructive potential of future crisis with the destruction of the vital elements of the system of global economic interdependence.

Literary visions of post-apocalyptic worlds in the works of Mary Shelley, Margaret Atwood and Maggie Gee

Once hailed as the pinnacle of evolutionary progress, the human subject has more recently been under severe attack due to the destructive potential that has been unleashed by humans, especially in the last two hundred years. As a result, contemporary literature and art is replete with images of a utopia without humans. Many writers see humans, or rather human destructiveness, as the real plague on the planet and offer visions of utopia placed in the post-apocalyptic post-human era. Drawing on Patricia Vieira’s seminal article titled “Utopia and Dystopia in the Age of the Anthropocene”, I will first discuss how Mary Shelley portrayed ecological awareness in her The Last Man. I will then move on to examine how increasing ecological destruction leads to (post)-apocalyptic visions in the works of Margaret Atwood and Maggie Gee. My aim in juxtaposing two contemporary writers with Mary Shelley is to show that despite their different socio-historical contexts, these women writers have produced works that can not only be read as visionary and cautionary tales but that also promote heightened ecological awareness as an antidote to destructive and – ultimately – self-destructive tendencies of humankind.

Repression Reconsidered: Bystander Effects and Legitimation in Authoritarian Regimes

Research on repression has primarily focused on its destructive potential, namely how violence serves to eliminate threats. This article proposes an alternative role for repression: to build popular support. I argue that repression builds support for an autocratic regime when it targets groups perceived as dangerous. I refer to this phenomenon as a legitimation strategy of repression, which aims to gain the support of civilian bystanders beyond eliminating threats. To test the argument, I present a case study of state repression in Egypt after the 2013 coup. I explain how repression against the Muslim Brotherhood helped build popular support for the new regime. My findings contribute to scholarship on authoritarianism and repression by demonstrating the oft-overlooked role of civilian bystanders in shaping state violence.

Women With Regenerative Potential As Against Women With Destructive Potential (The Case Study Of Amma Darko’s “Faceless”)

The research looked at the woman with regenerative potentials and how reliable mentors they are to the benefit of society using Ama Darko’s Faceless. The purpose of the study was to use Ama Darko’s Faceless to showcase the position of the woman with regenerative potential irrespective education because though Education empowers women to have regenerative potentials other women who are uneducated also exhibit such traits in our societies. A qualitative approach was employed to look at views related to the African woman with regenerative potential and also adopted the traditional library research approach through the use of books, articles, journals and publications in as much as they contribute to the worth of the study. It was in-formed by the stiwanist theory. The main findings of the study indicate that the woes of irresponsible mothers who do not responsibly take care of the results of their pleasure with men are being disapproved. This disapproval is as a result of the pitiful portrayal of women with destructive potential as against positive up lifting portrayal of women with regenerative potential and making them reliable mentors of society. This change has come about as a result of women’s quest to assert themselves through education and contribute towards freeing their families from cultural and societal dogmas in which women were treated to subjugation and marginalization. A remarkable observation was the intentionality of ascribing to female characters more respectable roles in novels by various writers as the years go by. A conclusion drawn from the study is that education is still a major weapon of enhancing assertiveness in women but it is not the ultimate.

Logos and Prosthesis: Bernard Stiegler’s Theory of Tertiary Memory

This article discusses the relationship between the concepts of writing and tertiary memory in Bernard Stiegler’s philosophy of technology. It is demonstrated that tertiary memory, being a process of sensuality exteriorization (espacement) that defines the specifics of human existence, is almost identical to Derrida’s writing. Tertiary memory is expressed in everything that falls under the rubric “record”, from the most primitive tools to socio-political institutions and cybernetic technologies. Unlike Derrida, Stiegler believed that tertiary memory is most clearly expressed in material and technical objects. As an example the paper takes Stiegler’s critical analysis of Husserl’s phenomenology and Martin Heidegger’s existential ontology. Stiegler shows that in Husserl’s phenomenology, tertiary memory is represented by tertiary retention (determining a set of symbols, signs and images that implicitly constitute phenomenological experience), while in Heidegger’s philosophy, by the world-historical, determining the objective historical heritage of humankind, without which, as Stiegler demonstrates, there can be no existential experience. Further, the article discusses Stiegler’s thesis about historical and ontological duality of tertiary memory, containing both creative and destructive potential. Referring to Derrida, Stiegler shows that technics should be understood as what Plato called pharmakon, meaning a substance that can be both poison and remedy. This thesis defines the contemporary problem of lacking reflexion of the above-mentioned structural technical duality, which leads to excessive instrumentalization of the technics and its destructive effect on humans, similar to that during the time of Greek sophists.

Abenteurer und Entdecker vor dem „Theater-Auge“ in Nietzsches Morgenröthe

Adventurers and discoverers are recurring figures and themes in Nietzsche’s writings. This is especially the case in Morgenröthe and Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, where this conceptual constellation belongs to the context of the “free spirits”. For Nietzsche, it seems, adventurers and discoverers represent the productive as much as destructive potential of any desire for knowledge. In this article, I will thus focus on two connected questions: (1) what are the specific epistemic characteristics of the adventurer and the discoverer, and (2) how are these characteristics performed, and how do they become manifest, in a text like Morgenröthe. The analysis of the function of the “theatre eye” plays a key role here.

Human myiasis: Clinical case

Myiasis is considered a dermatozoonosis infestation caused by infestation of dipteran larvae in tissues or organs, which lay their eggs in humans or animals, which for a certain period feed on living or dead tissues of the host the occurrence of myiasis in the oral cavity can be considered a rare thing. This type of disease most often affects people of low socioeconomic status, immunocompromised, bedridden elderly and with psychiatric disorders. Due to its great destructive potential, a timely and important appropriate prevention and treatment, there is also little knowledge of the dental professional for the diagnosis and treatment of such pathology, For this reason, the present study reports a clinical case of oral myiasis in an elderly person bedridden with a history of malignant laryngeal/glottal neoplasia injury, presenting physical and mental weakness and inadequate body hygiene and lack of lip sealing that led to the infestation of larvae in the tongue. The diagnosis was clinically established based on observation of tongue bleeding, tissue detachment, and presence of larvae that were between the second and third stages of development. Treatment was initiated as hospitalization of the patient for debridement of necrotic tissues and removal of larvae and prescription of ivermectin. Bedridden patients with physical and metal weakness constitute a risk group for oral myiasis, and it is of great importance to guide caregivers and family members in relation to dental care in order to prevent this pathology. However, the lack of a consensus on the best therapeutic approach for cases of oral myiasis was taken as therapeutic conduct for the disease the mechanical removal of larvae and institution of oral use of ivermectin.

On the relation of boredom and sadistic aggression

What gives rise to sadism? While sadistic behavior (i.e., harming others for pleasure) is well-documented, past empirical research is nearly silent regarding the psychological factors behind it. We help close this gap by suggesting that boredom plays a crucial role in the emergence of sadistic tendencies. Across nine diverse studies, we provide correlational and experimental evidence for a link between boredom and sadism. We demonstrate that sadistic tendencies are more pronounced among people who report chronic proneness to boredom in everyday life (Studies 1A-1F, N = 1780). We then document that this relationship generalizes across a variety of important societal contexts, including online trolling; sadism in the military; sadistic behavior among parents; and sadistic fantasies (Studies 2-5, N = 1740). Finally, we manipulate boredom experimentally and show that inducing boredom increases sadistic behavior (i.e., killing worms; destroying other participants’ pay; Studies 6-9, N = 4097). However, alternatives matter: When several behavioral alternatives are available, boredom only motivates sadistic behavior among individuals with high dispositional sadism (Study 7). Conversely, when there is no alternative, boredom increases sadistic behavior across the board, even among individuals low in dispositional sadism (Studies 8 & 9). We further show that excitement and novelty seeking mediate the effects of boredom, and that boredom not only promotes sadistic (proactive) aggression, but reactive aggression as well (Study 9). Overall, the present work contributes to a better understanding of sadism and highlights the destructive potential of boredom. We discuss implications for basic research on sadism and boredom, as well as applied implications for society at large.