Darwin, the Sociality corollary, and critical animal studies

This paper aims to connect PCP and Critical Animal Studies through an exploration of some usually neglected implications of Darwin’s evolutionary theory on the one hand, and of a radical constructivist position and, more specifically, of the Sociality and Construction corollaries on the other

Invito all’analisi della conversazione

This paper presents an interpretation of the methodology and of some fundamental results of a branch of pragmatics, Conversation Analysis, and of a subdivision of ethnomethodology, Membership Categorization Analysis. The account is written for an audience of constructivists, and its main purpose is to arouse the interest of therapists for the application of Conversation Analysis to psychotherapy

Analyzing Categories: Harvey Sacks and Critical Animal Studies

This paper is a development of my argument for animal queer and aims to conduct an analysis of some critical animal studies issues in queer terms. In order to do so it pursues queer’s definitional concern with categories through Harvey Sacks’s concept of “category-bound activities.” Connecting CAS, queer and Sacks’s work has the theoretical effect of making queer theory more general, more abstract and more rigorous, and the political effect of extending the scope of queer theory and politics to animal rights issues. The example I explore in the essay— the statement “I could never give up meat”—is of urgent political and theoretical relevance in animal advocacy, and therefore of interest to critical animal studies

Parenthood, Climate Justice and the Ethics of Care: Notes Towards a Queer Analysis

This co-authored contribution takes the form of a dialogue between Carmen Dell’Aversano and Florian Mussgnug. The two discussants explore the concepts of parenthood, reproduction and care in the context of the unfolding global environmental crisis. Arguing from the perspectives of queer theory, literary studies and climate justice, they call for new strategies and attitudes towards procreation, beyond the strictures of colonizing frames of knowledge and hegemonic cultural practices. More specifically, Dell’Aversano and Mussgnug move the debate around assisted reproductive technologies in new, speculative directions that are centred on shared vulnerability and kinship, and which remain fully attentive to human and non-human relations and shared responsibilities on a warming planet

Toxin Variability Estimations of 68 Alexandrium ostenfeldii (Dinophyceae) Strains from The Netherlands Reveal a Novel Abundant Gymnodimine

Alexandrium ostenfeldii is a toxic dinoflagellate that has recently bloomed in Ouwerkerkse Kreek, The Netherlands, and which is able to cause a serious threat to shellfish consumers and aquacultures. We used a large set of 68 strains to the aim of fully characterizing the toxin profiles of the Dutch A. ostenfeldii in consideration of recent reports of novel toxins. Alexandrium ostenfeldii is known as a causative species of paralytic shellfish poisoning, and consistently in the Dutch population we determined the presence of several paralytic shellfish toxins (PST) including saxitoxin (STX), GTX2/3 (gonyautoxins), B1 and C1/C2. We also examined the production of spiroimine toxins by the Dutch A. ostenfeldii strains. An extensive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis revealed a high intraspecific variability of spirolides (SPX) and gymnodimines (GYM). Spirolides included 13-desMethyl-spirolide C generally as the major compound and several other mostly unknown SPX-like compounds that were detected and characterized. Besides spirolides, the presence of gymnodimine A and 12-Methyl-gymnodimine A was confirmed, together with two new gymnodimines. One of these was tentatively identified as an analogue of gymnodimine D and was the most abundant gymnodimine (calculated cell quota up to 274 pg/ cell, expressed as GYM A equivalents). Our multi-clonal approach adds new analogues to the increasing number of compounds in these toxin classes and revealed a high strain variability in cell quota and in toxin profile of toxic compounds within a single population

I piaceri del pluralismo: l’anticipazione intersoggettiva, il funzionamento delle spiegazioni e la conversazione come guerra di tutti contro tutti

Il presente lavoro si pone quattro diversi obiettivi. Il primo è teorico: illustrare come i corollari della comunanza e della socialità possano essere connessi da un nuovo costrutto teorico,“anticipazione intersoggettiva”. Il secondo è esplorare il potere applicativo di questo nuovo costrutto, e dimostrarne l’utilità, focalizzandosi su un unico fattore, nell’analisi del suo funzionamento. Il terzo è affrontare un importante problema teorico della PCP, ovvero come l’azione distintiva del soggetto Kellyano, l’anticipazione, venga messa in atto. Il quarto è illustrare come queste riflessioni teoriche siano rilevanti rispetto ad alcuni dei problemi più pressanti delle società multiculturali odierne. Queste finalità sono perseguite attraverso la dimostrazione sistematica del funzionamento del costrutto teorico “soggetto a spiegazione-non soggetto a spiegazione”, elaborato dal sociologo americano Harvey Sacks

Ermeneutica letteraria ed esercizi spirituali: Wolfgang Iser e Pierre Hadot

Il contributo si propone di evidenziare alcune interessanti convergenze fra la teoria del significato del testo letterario proposta da Iser nell’Atto della lettura e il lavoro di Pierre Hadot sull’ermeneutica del testo filosofico antico. Come è noto, Hadot interpreta varie peculiarità formali del testo filosofico antico come funzionali alla necessità di guidare la mente del lettore in un percorso che ha un fine non semplicemente cognitivo bensì spirituale. Il concetto di «esercizio spirituale», centrale nel lavoro di Hadot, presenta analogie potenzialmente molto produttive con diversi aspetti della modellizzazione della fruizione del testo letterario di Iser, e si presta a mostrare la straordinaria rilevanza teorica di una serie di dettagli apparentemente molto tecnici. In particolare, un dialogo tra le due posizioni di Iser e di Hadot permette di impostare in maniera nuova una questione che la teoria letteraria tende a marginalizzare sistematicamente: quella della pragmatica del testo letterario

Toxin Variability Estimations of 68 Alexandrium ostenfeldii (Dinophyceae) Strains from The Netherlands Reveal a Novel Abundant Gymnodimine

Alexandrium ostenfeldii is a toxic dinoflagellate that has recently bloomed in Ouwerkerkse Kreek, The Netherlands, and which is able to cause a serious threat to shellfish consumers and aquacultures. We used a large set of 68 strains to the aim of fully characterizing the toxin profiles of the Dutch A. ostenfeldii in consideration of recent reports of novel toxins. Alexandrium ostenfeldii is known as a causative species of paralytic shellfish poisoning, and consistently in the Dutch population we determined the presence of several paralytic shellfish toxins (PST) including saxitoxin (STX), GTX2/3 (gonyautoxins), B1 and C1/C2. We also examined the production of spiroimine toxins by the Dutch A. ostenfeldii strains. An extensive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis revealed a high intraspecific variability of spirolides (SPX) and gymnodimines (GYM). Spirolides included 13-desMethyl-spirolide C generally as the major compound and several other mostly unknown SPX-like compounds that were detected and characterized. Besides spirolides, the presence of gymnodimine A and 12-Methyl-gymnodimine A was confirmed, together with two new gymnodimines. One of these was tentatively identified as an analogue of gymnodimine D and was the most abundant gymnodimine (calculated cell quota up to 274 pg cell(-1), expressed as GYM A equivalents). Our multi-clonal approach adds new analogues to the increasing number of compounds in these toxin classes and revealed a high strain variability in cell quota and in toxin profile of toxic compounds within a single population.Peer reviewe

Improving in vitro ciguatoxin and brevetoxin detection: selecting neuroblastoma (Neuro-2a) cells with lower sensitivity to ouabain and veratridine (OV-LS).

Abstract Marine biotoxins accumulating in seafood products pose a risk to human health. These toxins are often potent in minute amounts and contained within complex matrices; requiring sensitive, reliable, and robust methods for their detection. The mouse neuroblastoma (Neuro-2a) cytotoxicity assay (N2a-assay) is a sensitive, high-throughput, in vitro method effective for detecting sodium channel-specific marine biotoxins. The N2a-assay can be conducted to distinguish between specific effects on voltage-gated sodium (NaV) channels, caused by toxins that activate (e.g., ciguatoxins (CTXs), brevetoxins (PbTxs)) or block (e.g., tetrodotoxins, saxitoxins) the target NaV. The sensitivity and specificity of the assay to compounds activating the NaV are achieved through the addition of the pharmaceuticals ouabain (O) and veratridine (V). However, these compounds can be toxic to Neuro-2a cells and their application at insufficient or excessive concentrations can reduce the effectiveness of this assay for marine toxin detection. Therefore, during growth incubation, Neuro-2a cells were exposed to O and V, and surviving cells exhibiting a lower sensitivity to O and V (OV-LS) were propagated. OV-LS Neuro-2a cells were selected for 60–80% survival when exposed to 0.22/0.022 mM O/V during the cytotoxicity assay. At these conditions, OV-LS N2a cells demonstrated a 3.5-fold higher survival rate 71% ± 7.9 SD (n = 232), and lower sensitivity to O/V, compared to the original Neuro-2a cells 20% ± 9.0 SD (n = 16). Additionally, OV-LS N2a cells were 1.3–2.6-fold more sensitive for detecting CTX3C 1.35 pg/ml, CTX1B 2.06 pg/ml, and PbTx-3 3.04 ng/ml compared to Neuro-2a cells using 0.1/0.01 mM O/V. Detection of CTX3C in a complex fish matrix using OV-LS cells was 0.0048 pg CTX3C/mg fish tissue equivalent. This work shows the potential for a significant improvement in sensitivity for CTX3C, CTX1B, and PbTx-3 using the OV-LS N2a-assay

Ovatoxin-a, a palytoxin analogue isolated from Ostreopsis cf. ovata Fukuyo: cytotoxic activity and ELISA detection

This study provides the first evaluation of the cytotoxic effects of the recently identified palytoxin (PLTX) analog, ovatoxin-a (OVTX-a), the major toxin produced by Ostreopsis cf. ovata in the Mediterranean Sea. Its increasing detection during Ostreopsis blooms and in seafood highlights the need to characterize its toxic effects and to set up appropriate detection methods. OVTX-a is about 100 fold less potent than PLTX in reducing HaCaT cells viability (EC50 = 1.1 7 10 129 M vs 1.8 7 10 1211 M, MTT test) in agreement with a reduced binding affinity (Kd = 1.2 7 10 129 vs 2.7 7 10 1211 M, saturation experiments on intact cells). Similarly, OVTX-a hemolytic effect is lower than that of the reference PLTX compound. Ost-D shows the lowest cytotoxicity toward HaCaT keratinocytes, suggesting the lack of a hydroxyl group at C44 as a critical feature for PLTXs cytotoxic effects. A sandwich ELISA developed for PLTX detects also OVTX-a in a sensitive (LOD = 4.2 and LOQ = 5.6 ng/mL) and accurate manner (Bias = 0.3%), also in O. cf. ovata extracts and contaminated mussels. Although in vitro OVTXa appears less toxic than PLTX, its cytotoxicity at nanomolar concentrations after short exposure time rises some concern for human health. The sandwich ELISA can be a viable screening method for OVTXs detection in monitoring program