The Crisis of the European Union: A Response

A Crisis of the European Union contains the essay “The Crisis of the European Union in Light of a Constitutionalisation of International Law—An Essay on the Constitution for Europe,” the second essay “The Concept of Human Dignity and the Realistic Utopia of Human Rights,” and an appendix “The Europe of the Federal Republic.” The first essay is itself divided into three sections: “Why Europe is Now More than Ever a Constitutional Project”; “The European Union Must Decide between Transnational Democracy and Post-Democratic Executive Federalism,” and “From the International to the Cosmopolitan Community.” The second of these sections is itself divided between five subsections: “Against a Reification of Popular Sovereignty,” “The First Innovation: The Primacy of Supranational Law Over the National Law of the Monopolists on the Means for a Legitimate Use of Force,” “The Second Innovation: The Sharing of Constituting Power between EU Citizens and European Peoples,” “Shared Sovereignty as the Standard for the Legitimation Requirements of the Union,” and “The Hesitation of the Political Elites at the Threshold to Transnational Democracy.” The Appendix is divided between an interview from the newspaper Die Zeit “After the Bankruptcy,” an essay published in Die Zeit “The Euro Will Decide the Fate of the European Union,” and an essay published in the newspaper Süddeutschen Zeitung “A Pact for or against Europe.” An index is sadly lacking, which is surely a loss to the reader even for a short book of this kind

Stendhal and Rousseau Habit, Interiority and Exception

Le Rouge et le Noir is taken as an example of a novel in which the hero, and some other characters, experience strong tension between inner consciousness and social habits. Stendhal’s novel is a particularly significant example because it is shaped by the immediate afterlife of the French Revolution and the writings of Rousseau. The revolutionary rupture with habit intersects with the themes of a consciousness looking for inner existence and the role of inner passions. The Revolution was an exception, prolonged by the rise of Bonaparte which appeals to a hero frustrated by the habitual conformity of anti-revolutionary France after the fall of Bonaparte. He seeks a great career, and he seeks grandeur in love, always combining passions with strategy in an unstable mix. He moves from love with a comparative innocent to love with a woman who shares his obsessions though they have different objects. The final crisis of the novel leads to a breakdown of the hero’s habitual self, in an ending in which passions becomes both destructive violence and an idyllic solitary resignation. The journey into an interiority, through exceptional breaks with habit finds a culmination. This achievement rests on Stendhal writing in a world after Rousseau and understanding the full extent of this requires a rounded understanding of Rousseau, along with his context.Le Rouge et le Noir is taken as an example of a novel in which the hero, and some other characters, experience strong tension between inner consciousness and social habits. Stendhal’s novel is a particularly significant example because it is shaped by the immediate afterlife of the French Revolution and the writings of Rousseau. The revolutionary rupture with habit intersects with the themes of a consciousness looking for inner existence and the role of inner passions. The Revolution was an exception, prolonged by the rise of Bonaparte which appeals to a hero frustrated by the habitual conformity of anti-revolutionary France after the fall of Bonaparte. He seeks a great career, and he seeks grandeur in love, always combining passions with strategy in an unstable mix. He moves from love with a comparative innocent to love with a woman who shares his obsessions though they have different objects. The final crisis of the novel leads to a breakdown of the hero’s habitual self, in an ending in which passions becomes both destructive violence and an idyllic solitary resignation. The journey into an interiority, through exceptional breaks with habit finds a culmination. This achievement rests on Stendhal writing in a world after Rousseau and understanding the full extent of this requires a rounded understanding of Rousseau, along with his context

Failed Escape: Solid Surfaces Prevent Tumbling of Escherichia coli

Understanding how bacteria move close to surfaces is crucial for a broad range of microbial processes including biofilm formation, bacterial dispersion, and pathogenic infections. We used digital holographic microscopy to capture a large number (>10[superscript 3]) of three-dimensional Escherichia coli trajectories near and far from a surface. We found that within 20  μm from a surface tumbles are suppressed by 50% and reorientations are largely confined to surface-parallel directions, preventing escape of bacteria from the near-surface region. A hydrodynamic model indicates that the tumble suppression is likely due to a surface-induced reduction in the hydrodynamic force responsible for the flagellar unbundling that causes tumbling. These findings imply that tumbling does not provide an effective means to escape trapping near surfaces.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant 1-R21-EB008844-01)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OCE-0744641-CAREER)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CBET-1066566

Turbulent fluid acceleration generates clusters of gyrotactic microorganisms

The motility of microorganisms is often biased by gradients in physical and chemical properties of their environment, with myriad implications on their ecology. Here we show that fluid acceleration reorients gyrotactic plankton, triggering small-scale clustering. We experimentally demonstrate this phenomenon by studying the distribution of the phytoplankton Chlamydomonas augustae within a rotating tank and find it to be in good agreement with a new, generalized model of gyrotaxis. When this model is implemented in a direct numerical simulation of turbulent flow, we find that fluid acceleration generates multi-fractal plankton clustering, with faster and more stable cells producing stronger clustering. By producing accumulations in high-vorticity regions, this process is fundamen- tally different from clustering by gravitational acceleration, expanding the range of mechanisms by which turbulent flows can impact the spatial distribution of active suspensions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Segregation of Odor Identity and Intensity during Odor Discrimination in Drosophila Mushroom Body

Molecular and cellular studies have begun to unravel a neurobiological basis of olfactory processing, which appears conserved among vertebrate and invertebrate species. Studies have shown clearly that experience-dependent coding of odor identity occurs in “associative” olfactory centers (the piriform cortex in mammals and the mushroom body [MB] in insects). What remains unclear, however, is whether associative centers also mediate innate (spontaneous) odor discrimination and how ongoing experience modifies odor discrimination. Here we show in naïve flies that Gαq-mediated signaling in MB modulates spontaneous discrimination of odor identity but not odor intensity (concentration). In contrast, experience-dependent modification (conditioning) of both odor identity and intensity occurs in MB exclusively via Gαs-mediated signaling. Our data suggest that spontaneous responses to odor identity and odor intensity discrimination are segregated at the MB level, and neural activity from MB further modulates olfactory processing by experience-independent Gαq-dependent encoding of odor identity and by experience-induced Gαs-dependent encoding of odor intensity and identity

Disruption of Nrf2, a Key Inducer of Antioxidant Defenses, Attenuates ApoE-Mediated Atherosclerosis in Mice

Background: Oxidative stress and inflammation are two critical factors that drive the formation of plaques in atherosclerosis. Nrf2 is a redox-sensitive transcription factor that upregulates a battery of antioxidative genes and cytoprotective enzymes that constitute the cellular response to oxidative stress. Our previous studies have shown that disruption of Nrf2 in mice (Nrf2-/-) causes increased susceptibility to pulmonary emphysema, asthma and sepsis due to increased oxidative stress and inflammation. Here we have tested the hypothesis that disruption of Nrf2 in mice causes increased atherosclerosis. Principal Findings: To investigate the role of Nrf2 in the development of atherosclerosis, we crossed Nrf2-/- mice with apoliporotein E-deficient (ApoE-/- mice. ApoE-/- and ApoE-/- Nrf2-/- mice were fed an atherogenic diet for 20 weeks, and plaque area was assessed in the aortas. Surprisingly, ApoE-/- Nrf2-/- mice exhibited significantly smaller plaque area than ApoE-/- controls (11.5% vs 29.5%). This decrease in plaque area observed in ApoE-/- Nrf2-/- mice was associated with a significant decrease in uptake of modified low density lipoproteins (AcLDL) by isolated macrophages from ApoE-/- Nrf2-/- mice. Furthermore, atherosclerotic plaques and isolated macrophages from ApoE-/- Nrf2-/- mice exhibited decreased expression of the scavenger receptor CD36. Conclusions: Nrf2 is pro-atherogenic in mice, despite its antioxidative function. The net pro-atherogenic effect of Nrf2 may be mediated via positive regulation of CD36. Our data demonstrates that the potential effects of Nrf2-targeted therapies on cardiovascular disease need to be investigated.9 page(s

RTX proteins: a highly diverse family secreted by a common mechanism

Repeats-in-toxin (RTX) exoproteins of Gram-negative bacteria form a steadily growing family of proteins with diverse biological functions. Their common feature is the unique mode of export across the bacterial envelope via the type I secretion system and the characteristic, typically nonapeptide, glycine- and aspartate-rich repeats binding Ca2+ ions. In this review, we summarize the current state of knowledge on the organization of rtx loci and on the biological and biochemical activities of therein encoded proteins. Applying several types of bioinformatic screens on the steadily growing set of sequenced bacterial genomes, over 1000 RTX family members were detected, with the biological functions of most of them remaining to be characterized. Activities of the so far characterized RTX family members are then discussed and classified according to functional categories, ranging from the historically first characterized pore-forming RTX leukotoxins, through the large multifunctional enzymatic toxins, bacteriocins, nodulation proteins, surface layer proteins, up to secreted hydrolytic enzymes exhibiting metalloprotease or lipase activities of industrial interest