Endothelial-specific Gata3 expression is required for haematopoietic stem cell generation

To generate sufficient numbers of transplantable haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in vitro, a detailed understanding of how this process takes place in vivo is essential. The endothelial-to-haematopoietic transition (EHT), which culminates in the production of the first HSCs, is a highly complex process during which key regulators are switched on and off at precise moments and which is embedded into a myriad of microenvironmental signals from surrounding cells and tissues. We have previously demonstrated an HSC-supportive function for Gata3 within the sympathetic nervous system and the sub-aortic mesenchyme, but show here that it also plays a cell-intrinsic role during the EHT. It is expressed in haemogenic endothelial cells and early HSC precursors, where its expression correlates with a more quiescent state. Importantly, endothelial-specific deletion of Gata3 shows that it is functionally required for these cells to mature into HSCs, placing Gata3 at the core of the EHT regulatory network.

THE LOGIC AND POSSIBILITIES OF AN ICONIC ANALYSIS OF REASONING

Статья показывает, каким образом логические диаграммы способны вносить свой вклад в изучение природы рассуждений. Диаграммы многомерны, мультимодальны и жестко не связаны с вербальным языком. Они акцентируют внимание на структурных особенностях, а потому весьма продуктивны для изучения рассуждений. Такие схемы способны рассказать о рассуждениях то, что порой вызывает сложности у алгебраического подхода. Настоящая работа очерчивает основные исторические вехи в их развитии (от Дж. Вивеса до Ч. Пирса и современных исследований), а также акцентирует внимание на, пожалуй, самой важной составляющей подобных конструкций – их иконической природе. На протяжении многих столетий диаграммы использовались в логике как вспомогательный материал для обучения студентов логике, но относительно недавно возник интерес и к их устройству. В наши дни мы можем наблюдать как за развитием диаграмматических теорий, так и непосредственно за изучением внутреннего устройства логических схем, которые в семиотической классификации относятся к знакам-иконам, то есть к знакам, которые имеют определенное сходство со своим объектом. В отличие от знака-символа, икона репрезентирует информацию, делает ее наблюдаемой и извлекаемой: если символ коннотирует, то икона обозначает. Однако даже это развернутое определение требует немалых уточнений. Во втором и третьем разделах речь идет о разнообразии иконических знаков и об особенностях иконического анализа соответственно. Иконическая составляющая в разных диаграммах проявляет себя по-разному: схемы Л. Эйлера наделены семантической базой, у Дж. Венна они показывают процесс исключения ненужной информации, а подход Пирса демонстрирует процедуру трансформации посылок в заключение. Строго говоря, если в диаграммах Эйлера наблюдаемо заключение, то у Пирса мы видим последовательность переходов. Это объясняется различиями не только между типами икон (образ, диаграмма, метафора), но и между уровнями иконичности (оптимальная и операционная). На сегодняшний день в рамках семиотики исследователи предлагают делить логические языки на языки, ссылающиеся на тип знака, и языки, ссылающиеся на его явление. Эта дихотомия опять же проясняет природу диаграмм. Уточнения природы знака-иконы и видов иконичности дают надежду на использование диаграмм для разностороннего изучения рассуждений в недалеком будущем. В статье отстаивается позиция, что логические диаграммы способны на своем уровне предоставлять ответы на вопросы «Как протекает рассуждение?», «Какова природа логического следования?», «Как в рассуждениях появляются новые знания?» и так далее. The article contributes to the debates on logical diagrams and reasoning studies. Diagrams in logic are multidimensional, multimodal, and language free (reasoning does not need a certain language to be introduced). They emphasize structural peculiarities and, consequently, tell us about reasoning in a way that causes difficulties for the algebraic approach. The article lists historical landmarks in developing such schemes (from Juan Luis Vives to Charles S. Peirce, and other contemporary investigations) and pays attention to the essential aspect of diagrammatic constructions, namely, their iconic nature. For a long time, diagrams had a supportive function; they were used as a tool for “dull-witted students”, but later they became an object of research. Today both diagrammatic approaches are developed and the essence of diagrams is studied. From a semiotic point of view, diagrams are icons. It means they are signs that resemble their objects. In contrast to symbols, icons represent information; they make it observable. Briefly, if symbols connote, icons denote. However, this detailed definition has to be substantially clarified. That is why issues of the second and third sections introduce the variety of iconic signs and characteristics of an iconic analysis, respectively. Different diagrams have different specific iconic features: Leonhard Euler’s schemes possess meaning-carrying relationships, John Venn’s circles (or cells) demonstrate the elimination of “unnecessary information”, while Peirce’s approach introduces the procedure of transforming premises into conclusions. Strictly speaking, if the conclusion is observational in Euler’s diagrams, Peirce’s constructions shift this observational advantage to the process (transformation with the line of identity is observational). First of all, these differences can be explained with various types of icons (image, diagram, and metaphor), but also, which is even more important, with levels of iconicity (optimal and operational). In addition, contemporary scholars propose to distinguish two types of logical languages (“type-referential” and “occurrence-referential”). If we admit that different diagrams belong to different kinds of languages, we get another clarification of diagrammatic variety. The icon and iconicity specification provides possibilities for applying diagrams in investigations on the nature of reasoning in the near future. Indeed, these logical schemes can study reasoning from various perspectives and answer such questions as “How does reasoning flow?”, “What is the logical essence of reasoning validity?”, “How does reasoning provide new knowledge?”, etc.

Volunteer street patrols: responsibilised and motivated volunteering in community safety

Purpose This paper aims to contribute towards our knowledge and understanding of volunteer street patrols working within community safety and pluralised policing. Through the increased responsibilisation of communities and individuals, volunteers are taking to the streets to help others in need and support the community safety infrastructure. The example of volunteer street patrols is used to explore the motivations of individuals participating in the local delivery of community safety and policing. Design/methodology/approach This research is drawn from ethnographic research consisting of 170 hours of participant observation on the streets of a northern UK city, Manchester, supported by 24 semi-structured interviews with volunteers and stakeholders who participate in a street patrol and those working alongside them. Findings Using a three-paradigm perspective for volunteer motivations, the themes altruism, civil connection and volunteering for leisure are applied to explore volunteer motivations. Through their actions, volunteers in the street patrol are motivated volunteers who can offer an additional and important resource within the local community safety and pluralised policing infrastructure. Originality/value This paper highlights volunteer street patrols offer a caring and supportive function to people in need on the street, one in support of the police and other agencies. It contributes to the growing understanding of those who volunteer in policing and community safety landscapes. As responsibilised citizens, they have an increased awareness of social problems. They are motivated individuals who wish to create and maintain safety and play an important role in policing the night-time economy.

Communities as asset: Using positive communication to enhance the holistic well-being of South Africans

Young South Africans who live in contexts of poverty face many challenges and obstacles in their attempts to rise out of their circumstances. However, adding support in the form of well-being teams who take ownership of promoting well-being may facilitate resilience and serve an important supportive function. Four different well-being teams participated in a focus group interview. They consisted of teachers, learners, parents, and a mixed group. The theory of positive communication provided a framework to understand the themes that emerged. Therefore, in an effort to level the playing field for these young South Africans, the educational system should create more spaces that enable and facilitate learning and that promote positive communication.

Subject to Soul, Object to World: Jan Patočka’s Platonism of Care

Jan Patočka thought travels on the parallel rails of a-subjective phenomenology and the care of the soul. For the most part, their parallel supportive function remains unproblematic. However, in order to appreciate the significance of Patočka’s contribution to the history of philosophy and the stakes of its undertaking, the alignment of the rails must be tested: how can a phenomenology, which strives to dislocate the subject from its experiential privilege, attempt to bring the soul into both the onto-epistemic as well as the ethico-political epicentre? By revising Platonism, Patočka wagers an ambitious, fragile answer, which opens nothing less than the space of freedom.

Championing Physical Cultural Sciences

The term “physical culture” is, first of all, associated (referring to the etymology of the word “culture” from the Latin “colo,-ere”, meaning “to cultivate”, “to inhabit” or “to honor”) with cultivation and taking care of the human “physis” – obviously in the context of social and natural environment. What matters in physical cultural reflection is not movement as such – as a purely physical phenomenon – but only such a form of movement which has been cultivated and attributed with conventionalized social values of symbolic and autotelic character. Biological sciences connected with the human being are traditionally – after MacFadden, among others – counted among physical cultural sciences. Because of the bodily foundations of human physical activity, they perform a significant cognitive function: they describe natural foundations of special forms of movement, but they are not offering knowledge of cultural character. As there are no values in the human being’s nature, the biological sciences within the institutional field of physical culture can with their separate methodological and theoretical assumptions only offer an auxiliary, supportive function. Physical cultural sciences are primarily dealing with the significant relations between humans in physical cultural practices, with knowledge of an axiological (ethical and aesthetical) and social (philosophical, sociological, pedagogical, historical or political) character. The alleged superiority of biological sciences within physical cultural sciences and the connected marginalization of the humanities – which constitute, after all, a necessary and hence an unquestionable foundation for cultural studies – is, therefore, a clear challenge in the institutional field of physical culture.