Food, Farms & Solidarity

The Confédération Paysanne, one of France's largest farmers' unions, has successfully fought against genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but unlike other allied movements, theirs has been led by producers rather than consumers. In Food, Farms, and Solidarity, Chaia Heller analyzes the group's complex strategies and campaigns, including a call for a Europe-wide ban on GM crops and hormone-treated beef, and a protest staged at a McDonald's. Her study of the Confédération Paysanne shows the challenges small farms face in a postindustrial agricultural world. Heller also reveals how the language the union uses to argue against GMOs encompasses more than the risks they pose; emphasizing solidarity has allowed farmers to focus on food as a cultural practice and align themselves with other workers. Heller's examination of the Confédération Paysanne's commitment to a vision of alter-globalization, the idea of substantive alternatives to neoliberal globalization, demonstrates how ecological and social justice can be restored in the world

The Neural Correlates of Stereotype Threat and the Stereotype Inoculation Model in Young Women

A promising intervention technique for stereotype threat effects is the stereotype inoculation model (SIM), which utilizes in-group role models to counteract stereotype-induced pressures. However, it remains unclear how the SIM may impact neural mechanisms during stereotype threat, including negative feedback bias (increased attention to undesirable feedback). The following three studies aim to examine the behavioral (Study 1) and neural (Study 2) markers of ST in women and how these markers are influenced by the SIM (Study 3). In each study, participants completed a non-traditional math task (the approximate number task). In the first two studies, one group was told the task was a measure of math intelligence (stereotype threat), while the other group was told it measured creative ability (non-threat). Study 1 focused on the behavioral impact of implicit ST including performance on the task, as well as motivation to continue with the task, and confidence within the task. Men and women were both included as participants. ST negatively impacted motivation to continue the task in women, but not men. In addition, higher math identification related to lower immediate task performance, but higher task confidence and motivation for women in the ST condition. Study 2 explored the neural mechanisms underlying implicit ST in women, particularly focusing on performance monitoring measured using event-related potentials (ERPs) to assess performance processing. Waveforms associated with internal response-monitoring were negatively impacted by ST as evidenced by inefficient response-monitoring and more conscious focus on errors. In Study 3, all participants were told the task measured math ability, and groups were given difference biographies to read prior to task completion. The biography conditions were 1) consistent with stereotype threat (male mathematicians), 2) the SIM (female mathematicians) and 3) a non-threat collection (mixed-gender artists). The SIM condition impacted the participants’ perception of the task, such that anxious women viewed it as more of a game, whereas participants in the ST condition perceived the task as a test. Women in the SIM condition also exhibited greater neural reactivity to correct responses prior to the onset of external feedback, and less overall neural reactivity to external feedback cues

Reverse Culture Shock: A Phenomenological Study Exploring How College Students Communicate about Their Cross-Cultural Transition

This study explores common themes and generalizations about how students communicate their difficulties with reverse culture shock and readjusting to their daily lives back in the United States. College students spend time studying abroad and bring home their memories of experiences, people, and practical knowledge that will stay with them throughout their lives. They come home with changed identities and world views, so they have a difficult time reentering back into the United States. This phenomenological study aimed to discover the meaning of the lived experience after college students retuned back to the United States after study abroad. Three students participated in a phenomenological interview, which allowed them to talk about their lived experience. An analysis of the extensive interviews with students revealed the nature of the embodied experiences of the participants. The three general themes that emerged were: 1) feeling confined upon reentry, 2) frustrations over perception gap, and 3) disclosure as a function of relational intimacy and expressed interest. The findings confirm and add depth to previous research that has been done on this topic because they offer first-hand accounts of those who recently experienced reentry. Implications are also discussed

Food, Farms & Solidarity

The Confédération Paysanne, one of France's largest farmers' unions, has successfully fought against genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but unlike other allied movements, theirs has been led by producers rather than consumers. In Food, Farms, and Solidarity, Chaia Heller analyzes the group's complex strategies and campaigns, including a call for a Europe-wide ban on GM crops and hormone-treated beef, and a protest staged at a McDonald's. Her study of the Confédération Paysanne shows the challenges small farms face in a postindustrial agricultural world. Heller also reveals how the language the union uses to argue against GMOs encompasses more than the risks they pose; emphasizing solidarity has allowed farmers to focus on food as a cultural practice and align themselves with other workers. Heller's examination of the Confédération Paysanne's commitment to a vision of alter-globalization, the idea of substantive alternatives to neoliberal globalization, demonstrates how ecological and social justice can be restored in the world

Synthesis, structure and magnetic properties of tetrakis-μ-carboxylato-bis(dodecylnicotinato)dicopper(II) complexes; crystal and molecular structure of the decyl carboxylate derivative

Dodecylnicotinate bis-adducts of binuclear copper carboxylates, of the general formula Cu2(O2CCn-1H2n-1)4(C 5H4NCOOC12H25)2, were synthesized for n = 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20, and their crystal structure, thermal behavior and magnetic properties studied. The molecular structure of the decyl derivative has been determined from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. The dimer is centrosymmetric with the CuII ions in a square-pyramidal coordination with four O-alkyl O atoms [average d(Cu - O) 1.960 (6) Å] in the basal plane and the nicotine N atom at apical positions [d(Cu - N) 2.183 (3) Å]. The copper ions, 2.615 (1) Å apart, are bridged by four O-alkyl carboxylate groups. Both the n = 20 and n = 18 homologues exhibit lamellar phases, which can be related to the supramolecular arrangement found in the n = 10 derivative. The magnetic behavior of the decyl and octadecyl dimers was studied in the 2-300 K temperature range. They exhibit a strong intramolecular antiferromagnetic interaction (Cu-Cu superexchange coupling constant J = -347 cm-1 for the decyl derivative), which can be attributed to a large overlap of the metal 3d orbitals and the oxygen lone pair orbitals of the linking carboxylate groups.Fil: Rusjan, Marcia. Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; ArgentinaFil: Chaia, Zulema. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; ArgentinaFil: Piro, Oscar Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Guillon, Daniel. Universite Paul Verlaine-Metz. Institut de Physique, Chimie et Materiaux; FranciaFil: Cukiernik, Fabio Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento; Argentin

THE CONCEPT OF PARADIGM IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: COUNTERPOINT TO THOMAS KUHN

Thomas Kuhn, in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, made a thorough study of the idea of paradigms, and how they serve as theoretical references for the construction of knowledge, presenting answers to inquiries often posed by the science. Such paradigms, according to the author, would be subjected to changes at certain moments, as new questions would arise with the development of science itself; such "breaks" are what Kuhn calls scientific revolution. In his work, however, the author fundamentally relies on the natural and exact sciences, rarely addressing the social and human sciences, since, according to Thomas Kuhn, these, for its unstable nature, would not be able to develop arrays of knowledge through paradigms capable of answering all questions. It draws to attention, however, that,  with due caution, it is indeed possible to establish the existence of social paradigms, being necessary to observe them from a broader, multidisciplinary approach in order that the answers provided by them can meet the needs of scientists and researchers

Lactic acid bacteria isolated from poultry protect the intestinal epithelial cells of chickens from in vitro wheat germ agglutinin-induced cytotoxicity

Poultry fed on wheat-based diets regularly ingest wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) that has toxic effects in vitro on intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) obtained from 14-d-old broilers. Cytotoxicity and the potential role of 14 intestinal bacterial strains in the removal of bound lectins in epithelial cell cultures were investigated. Cytotoxicity was dependent on time and lectin concentration; the lethal dose (LD50) was 8.36 µg/ml for IEC exposed for 2 h to WGA. Complementary sugars to WGA were detected on the surface of one Enterococcus and 9 Lactobacillus strains isolated from poultry. These strains were evaluated as a lectin removal tool for cytotoxicity prevention. Incubation of lactic acid bacteria with WGA before IEC–lectin interaction caused a substantial reduction in the percentage of cell deaths. The protection was attributed to the amount of lectin bound to the bacterial surfaces and was strain-dependent. L. salivarius LET 201 and L. reuteri LET 210 were more efficient than the other lactic acid bacteria assayed. These results provide a basis for the development of probiotic supplements or cell-wall preparations of selected lactic acid bacteria intended to avoid harmful effects of a natural constituent of the grain in wheat-based diets.Fil: Babot, Jaime Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucuman. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos; ArgentinaFil: Argañaraz Martínez, Fernando Eloy. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucuman. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos; ArgentinaFil: Lorenzo Pisarello, Maria Jose. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucuman. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos; ArgentinaFil: Apella, Maria Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucuman. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Perez Chaia, Adriana Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucuman. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán; Argentin

K-Ras Drug Discovery: Development of G12C Mutant-Specific Inhibitors

Ras proteins are small (~21kD) guanine nucleotide binding proteins (G-proteins) that are part of a large (>150) superfamily of GTPases. Three (K-, H- and N-) Ras isoforms encode 4 Ras proteins. They function as molecular switches, that cycle between inactive GDP- and active GTP-bound states to control cellular growth. About 30% of all cancers contain single point mutations in Ras that induce its chronic activation.1 Of the three isoforms, K-Ras is mutated at the highest frequency in human cancer. The K-RasG12C mutation, in particular, is found in about 33% of non-small cell lung carcinomas.2 Recent studies have targeted the K-RasG12C mutation for drug discovery utilizing cysteine-reactive small molecules, which will soon be the first Ras inhibitors to move to stage-1 clinical trials.3 This project investigated a new small molecule candidate, naringenin, that binds in the same pocket as the K-RasG12C inhibitors. The binding site and affinity of naringenin to K-RasG12C was evaluated using 2D Heteronuclear Single Quantum Coherence (HSQC) spectroscopy. Our findings indicate that naringenin binds weakly to an allosteric pocket near the switch-II region of K-RasG12C and induces changes in guanine nucleotide exchange. The addition of an acrylate group to naringenin allowed for an irreversible bond to form between naringenin and cysteine-12 to overcome low affinity. This “warhead” inhibitor candidate can be modified further to bind tighter within the allosteric pocket of Ras. Furthermore, we find that a subset of selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) which share similar characteristics to naringenin, bind in the same pocket, and may provide for an additional direction for Ras drug development.Bachelor of Scienc