Ethical Analysis of Soma Mining Inc.’s Role in the Soma Coal Mine Fire, Turkey, 2014

This report presents an ethical analysis of the actions taken by Soma Mining Inc. regarding the Soma Mine Disaster as well as an evaluation of their existing safety infrastructure. Soma Mining Inc. is responsible for neglecting worker safety in order to prioritize company profits. Failure to provide functional safety equipment, construct emergency escape routes and safe rooms, establish a reliable system for communication, as well as implement a practiced emergency response plan led to the tragic deaths of 301 workers and the injury of an additional 80. The Turkish government perpetuates this negligence of worker safety as a result of their agenda to maximize profits from the mining industry. The Turkish government owns the majority of Turkish coal mines and exercises control over the safety regulation of these mines. The profitdriven interests of the Turkish government pose a conflict of interest when making decisions regarding the enforcement of safety standards in the mining industry. Enabled by such corruption, Soma Mining Inc. ignored the standards set forth by mining safety regulations. Soma Mining Inc. is directly responsible for the mass worker casualty of the Soma Mine Disaster as well as the devastating economic and social consequences that befell the surrounding communities. The actions of Soma Mining Inc. are evaluated against the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) Mining Principles.Randall, D'ArcyChemical Engineerin

OSR Presentation

https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cba-pres/1005/thumbnail.jp

Revenge and Responsibility in Contemporary War Crimes and Courts-Martial

This project seeks to address the recurring theme of revenge within war as exhibited in the recent upsurge of war crimes within the past ten years. To begin, I present an overview of Emile Durkheim’s perspective on punishment from The Division of Labor in Society. I argue that contemporary punishment is still primitive in nature and maintains a retributive form. This synopsis opens the discussion of two key factors within punishment: revenge and responsibility. To analyze these key elements, I conduct a content analysis utilizing courts-martial transcripts not readily available to the public for the recent cases of Operation Iron Triangle, the Baghdad Canal Killings and the Afghan Kill Team murders. As a historical comparative to the latest war crimes, I also analyze the My Lai case from Vietnam, using documentary transcripts with veterans involved in that operation. Throughout the analyses of all four cases, I employ the work of Paul Fauconnet’s Responsibility which further develops Durkheim’s ideology of revenge and augments our own understanding of collective and individual responsibility in society. I close this project with a discussion on Fauconnet’s “law of war” and its implications for soldiers enlisted in war time

Canagliflozin impairs T cell effector function via metabolic suppression in autoimmunity

Augmented T cell function leading to host damage in autoimmunity is supported by metabolic dysregulation, making targeting immunometabolism an attractive therapeutic avenue. Canagliflozin, a type 2 diabetes drug, is a sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor with known off-target effects on glutamate dehydrogenase and complex I. However, the effects of SGLT2 inhibitors on human T cell function have not been extensively explored. Here, we show that canagliflozin-treated T cells are compromised in their ability to activate, proliferate, and initiate effector functions. Canagliflozin inhibits T cell receptor signaling, impacting on ERK and mTORC1 activity, concomitantly associated with reduced c-Myc. Compromised c-Myc levels were encapsulated by a failure to engage translational machinery resulting in impaired metabolic protein and solute carrier production among others. Importantly, canagliflozin-treated T cells derived from patients with autoimmune disorders impaired their effector function. Taken together, our work highlights a potential therapeutic avenue for repurposing canagliflozin as an intervention for T cell-mediated autoimmunity

The Amphioxus Hox Cluster: Characterization, Comparative Genomics, and Evolution

The amphioxus Hox cluster is often viewed as “archetypal” for the chordate lineage. Here we present a descriptive account of the 448kb region spanning the Hox cluster of the amphioxus Branchiostoma floridae from Hox14 to Hox1.We provide complete coding sequences of all 14 previously described amphioxus sequences and describe a detailed analysis of the conserved non-coding regulatory sequence elements. We find that the posterior part of the Hox cluster is so highly derived that even the complete genomic sequence is insufficient to decide whether the posterior Hox genes arose by independent duplications or whether they are true orthologs of the corresponding gnathostome paralog groups. In contrast, the anterior region is much better conserved. The amphioxus Hox cluster strongly excludes repetitive elements with the exception of two repeat islands in the posterior region. Repeat exclusion is also observed in gnathostomes, but not protostome Hox clusters. We thus hypothesize that the much shorter vertebrate Hox clusters are the result of extensive resolution of the redundancy of regulatory DNA following the genome duplications rather than the consequence of a selection pressure to remove non-functional sequence from the cluster

Do Mothers and Fathers Hold Similar Views About Their Child's Arthritis?

Objective Evaluations of the well-being of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) typically rely on parents as proxy respondents. An assumption of several studies appears to be that mothers' and fathers' ratings are interchangeable, as reports do not always specify which parent completed the assessments nor, in repeated measures, whether they were completed by the same parent. The aim of this study was to examine the level of agreement between mothers' and fathers' ratings of their child's quality of life (QOL) and to identify possible predictors of disagreement. Methods Mothers and fathers (n = 82) of children with JIA completed ratings of their child's symptoms, QOL, and measures of their mood and beliefs about their child's illness and treatment. The number of active and limited joints and the physician's global assessment were also recorded. Results Intraclass correlation coefficients between mothers' and fathers' ratings of physical and psychosocial QOL were high (0.824 and 0.755, respectively). However, calculation of difference scores revealed that 70.6% and 65.9%, respectively, were classified as discordant. Where parents differed, the direction of difference was not systematic. Discordance in parents' mood states and in their illness and treatment beliefs explained a small amount of the variance in discordance in QOL. Conclusion It should not be assumed that proxy ratings of a child's well-being can be generalized from one parent to the other. Studies that take repeated assessments should ensure that the same parent completes assessments at all time points. Other factors that may explain discordance between parents' ratings need to be explored

Whole-Genome Gene Expression Profiling of Formalin-Fixed, Paraffin-Embedded Tissue Samples

We have developed a gene expression assay (Whole-Genome DASL®), capable of generating whole-genome gene expression profiles from degraded samples such as formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens.∼0.75 with standard FFPE inputs (200 ng).Taken together, these results show that WG-DASL assay provides a reliable platform for genome-wide expression profiling in archived materials. It also possesses utility within clinical settings where only limited quantities of samples may be available (e.g. microdissected material) or when minimally invasive procedures are performed (e.g. biopsied specimens)

Angiogenic mRNA and microRNA Gene Expression Signature Predicts a Novel Subtype of Serous Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death for women in the U.S. and the seventh most fatal worldwide. Although ovarian cancer is notable for its initial sensitivity to platinum-based therapies, the vast majority of patients eventually develop recurrent cancer and succumb to increasingly platinum-resistant disease. Modern, targeted cancer drugs intervene in cell signaling, and identifying key disease mechanisms and pathways would greatly advance our treatment abilities. In order to shed light on the molecular diversity of ovarian cancer, we performed comprehensive transcriptional profiling on 129 advanced stage, high grade serous ovarian cancers. We implemented a, re-sampling based version of the ISIS class discovery algorithm (rISIS: robust ISIS) and applied it to the entire set of ovarian cancer transcriptional profiles. rISIS identified a previously undescribed patient stratification, further supported by micro-RNA expression profiles, and gene set enrichment analysis found strong biological support for the stratification by extracellular matrix, cell adhesion, and angiogenesis genes. The corresponding “angiogenesis signature” was validated in ten published independent ovarian cancer gene expression datasets and is significantly associated with overall survival. The subtypes we have defined are of potential translational interest as they may be relevant for identifying patients who may benefit from the addition of anti-angiogenic therapies that are now being tested in clinical trials