Speciesistic Veganism: An Anthropocentric Argument

The paper proposes an anthropocentric argument for veganism based on a speciesistic premise that most carnists likely affirm: human flourishing should be promoted. I highlight four areas of human suffering promoted by a carnistic diet: (1) health dangers to workers (both physical and psychological), (2) economic dangers to workers, (3) physical dangers to communities around slaughterhouses, and (4) environmental dangers to communities-at-large. Consequently, one could ignore the well-being of non-human animals and nevertheless recognize significant moral failings in the current standard system of meat production

In Vitro Methane Production from Heifers Offered Four Bermudagrass Cultivars

Though bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon [L.] Pers.) is one of the predominant warm-season perennial forage supporting the southeastern United States livestock production systems, little is known about its influence on parameters of ruminal metabolism, including carbon loss as methane. With the multitude of cultivars of this grass that have been developed and released, one may question whether the physiological cultivar differences will manifest varying results in digestive efficiency and subsequent methane emissions. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate in vitro methane (CH4) production as influenced by four bermudagrass cultivars. Ruminally-fistulated heifers (n = 4) were assigned randomly to one of four bermudagrass cultivars (Coastal [COS], Russell [RUS], Tifton 44 [T44], or Tifton 85 [T85]) for four 30-d in vivo periods in a Latin square design. On d 28 of each period, rumen fluid was collected from each heifer for use in CH4 production evaluation. Samples of each bermudagrass, corresponding to the cultivar fed, were weighed into duplicate 10-mL serum bottles and incubated at 39°C for 0, 2, 4, and 24 h. Following incubation, headspace samples were assayed for CH4 concentrations by gas chromatography. There was an interaction of cultivar and time (P \u3c 0.01). There was no difference among cultivars (P \u3c 0.05) at 0, 2, or 4 h of incubation. After 24 h of incubation, however, CH4 concentrations were greater (P \u3c 0.05) from T44 and T85 (7.7 and 6.2 mmol/L, respectively) than from RUS and COS (3.4 and 3.0 mmol/L, respectively). Results are interpreted to mean that cultivar type has an influence on the potential CH4 production of bermudagrass

Geometric Mixing, Peristalsis, and the Geometric Phase of the Stomach

Mixing fluid in a container at low Reynolds number - in an inertialess environment - is not a trivial task. Reciprocating motions merely lead to cycles of mixing and unmixing, so continuous rotation, as used in many technological applications, would appear to be necessary. However, there is another solution: movement of the walls in a cyclical fashion to introduce a geometric phase. We show using journal-bearing flow as a model that such geometric mixing is a general tool for using deformable boundaries that return to the same position to mix fluid at low Reynolds number. We then simulate a biological example: we show that mixing in the stomach functions because of the "belly phase": peristaltic movement of the walls in a cyclical fashion introduces a geometric phase that avoids unmixing.Comment: Revised, published versio

Serotypes and Antimicrobial Resistance in Salmonella Isolates from Swine, NARMS-EB 1997-2000

The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) was developed in 1996 as a collaborative effort between the FDA, USDA, and CDC to monitor antimicrobial resistance development in enteric organisms in humans and animals. Salmonella was selected as the sentinel organism

Light Art, Perception, and Sensation

In this article, I focus on how four artists working with light can reveal the different capacities of illumination and darkness in shaping human apprehension of the world. These artists, I contend, foreground the very particular human ways in which the visual system operates in making sense of the world, for their work explores the different ways in which we sense space at various scales, from the body to the landscape. In Kielder Forest, Northumberland, a Skyspace, created by James Turrell isolates the qualities of daylight and focuses attention on the impact of the sky’s light on the landscape. Carlos Cruz-Diez’sChromosaturation highlights the ocular perception and emotional experience of colour, while Olafur Eliasson’s Model for a Timeless Garden highlights the temporality of visual perception as well as the persistence of notions about the sublime to appreciation of landscape. Both works underscore the partialities of specifically human ways of perception. Finally, Tino Seghal’s This Variation investigates the impact of darkness on the perception of space and its potential for fostering conviviality and sociality

The routinisation of management controls in software.

Author's post-print version. Final version published by Springer; available online at http://link.springer.com/Our paper aims to explore management control as complex and intertwining process over time, rather than the (mainstream) fixation on rational, optimising tools for ensuring business success. We set out to contribute towards our understanding of why and how particular management controls evolve over time as they do. We discuss how the management control routines of one organisation emerged and reproduced (through software), and moved towards a situation of becoming accepted and generally unquestioned across much of the industry. The creativity and championing of one particular person was found to be especially important in this unfolding change process. Our case study illuminates how management control (software) routines can be an important carrier of organisational knowledge, both as an engine for continuity but also potentially as a catalyst for change. We capture this process by means of exploring the ‘life-story’ of a piece of software that is adopted in the corrugated container industry

Structural and Functional Features of a Developmentally Regulated Lipopolysaccharide-Binding Protein

ABSTRACT Mammalian lipopolysaccharide (LPS) binding proteins (LBPs) occur mainly in extracellular fluids and promote LPS delivery to specific host cell receptors. The function of LBPs has been studied principally in the context of host defense; the possible role of LBPs in nonpathogenic host-microbe interactions has not been well characterized. Using the Euprymna scolopes-Vibrio fischeri model, we analyzed the structure and function of an LBP family protein, E. scolopes LBP1 (EsLBP1), and provide evidence for its role in triggering a symbiont-induced host developmental program. Previous studies showed that, during initial host colonization, the LPS of V. fischeri synergizes with peptidoglycan (PGN) monomer to induce morphogenesis of epithelial tissues of the host animal. Computationally modeled EsLBP1 shares some but not all structural features of mammalian LBPs that are thought important for LPS binding. Similar to human LBP, recombinant EsLBP1 expressed in insect cells bound V. fischeri LPS and Neisseria meningitidis lipooligosaccharide (LOS) with nanomolar or greater affinity but bound Francisella tularensis LPS only weakly and did not bind PGN monomer. Unlike human LBP, EsLBP1 did not bind N. meningitidis LOS:CD14 complexes. The eslbp1 transcript was upregulated ~22-fold by V. fischeri at 24 h postinoculation. Surprisingly, this upregulation was not induced by exposure to LPS but, rather, to the PGN monomer alone. Hybridization chain reaction-fluorescent in situ hybridization (HCR-FISH) and immunocytochemistry (ICC) localized eslbp1 transcript and protein in crypt epithelia, where V. fischeri induces morphogenesis. The data presented here provide a window into the evolution of LBPs and the scope of their roles in animal symbioses. IMPORTANCE Mammalian lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-binding protein (LBP) is implicated in conveying LPS to host cells and potentiating its signaling activity. In certain disease states, such as obesity, the overproduction of this protein has been a reliable biomarker of chronic inflammation. Here, we describe a symbiosis-induced invertebrate LBP whose tertiary structure and LPS-binding characteristics are similar to those of mammalian LBPs; however, the primary structure of this distantly related squid protein (EsLBP1) differs in key residues previously believed to be essential for LPS binding, suggesting that an alternative strategy exists. Surprisingly, symbiotic expression of eslbp1 is induced by peptidoglycan derivatives, not LPS, a pattern converse to that of RegIIIγ, an important mammalian immunity protein that binds peptidoglycan but whose gene expression is induced by LPS. Finally, EsLBP1 occurs along the apical surfaces of all the host’s epithelia, suggesting that it was recruited from a general defensive role to one that mediates specific interactions with its symbiont

What Happened to the Bondholding Class? Public Debt, Power and the Top One Per Cent

In 1887 Henry Carter Adams produced a study demonstrating that the ownership of government bonds was heavily concentrated in the hands of a ‘bondholding class’ that lent to and, in Adams's view, controlled the government like dominant shareholders control a corporation. The interests of this bondholding class clashed with the interests of the masses, whose burdensome taxes financed the interest payments on government bonds. Since the late nineteenth century there has been plenty of debate about the ownership of the public debt. But the empirical evidence offered to support the various arguments has been scant. As a result, political economists have few answers to questions first raised by Adams over century ago: how has the pattern of public debt ownership changed? Can we still speak of a powerful ‘bondholding class’? Does public debt redistribute income from taxpayers to public creditors? This article develops a new framework to address these questions. Anchored within a ‘capital as power’ approach, the research indicates a staggering pattern of concentration in the ownership of US public debt in the hands of the top one per cent of US households over the past three decades. Accordingly, the bondholding class is still alive and well in contemporary US capitalism

Characterization of the Single Stranded DNA Binding Protein SsbB Encoded in the Gonoccocal Genetic Island

Background: Most strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae carry a Gonococcal Genetic Island which encodes a type IV secretion system involved in the secretion of ssDNA. We characterize the GGI-encoded ssDNA binding protein, SsbB. Close homologs of SsbB are located within a conserved genetic cluster found in genetic islands of different proteobacteria. This cluster encodes DNA-processing enzymes such as the ParA and ParB partitioning proteins, the TopB topoisomerase, and four conserved hypothetical proteins. The SsbB homologs found in these clusters form a family separated from other ssDNA binding proteins. Methodology/Principal Findings: In contrast to most other SSBs, SsbB did not complement the Escherichia coli ssb deletion mutant. Purified SsbB forms a stable tetramer. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays and fluorescence titration assays, as well as atomic force microscopy demonstrate that SsbB binds ssDNA specifically with high affinity. SsbB binds single-stranded DNA with minimal binding frames for one or two SsbB tetramers of 15 and 70 nucleotides. The binding mode was independent of increasing Mg 2+ or NaCl concentrations. No role of SsbB in ssDNA secretion or DNA uptake could be identified, but SsbB strongly stimulated Topoisomerase I activity