The Ethics of Intercultural Dialogue

Intercultural communication aims to educate people towards open positions of dialogue with others from different spaces within the supranational public sphere. This paper addresses three issues arising from this: the possibility of an emancipatory transformational consciousness; the existence of a transcendental moral signified against which ethical judgements can be measured; and in the absence of this, the consequent projection of intercultural dialogue towards cultural relativism. We argue (after Levinas and Derrida) it is through responsibility that ‘non-normative’ ethical judgements become possible. This entails determining whether putting a particular discourse or set of discourses into practice might lead to a silencing of open alternatives. These enable intercultural communication to locate itself in opposition to practices of closure and intolerance, while simultaneously exercising reflexive support for more open alternatives

Intercultural Ethics

Interest in intercultural ethics has arisen, not just because people from different cultures think and behave in different ways but also because the ways in which one orients oneself towards the attitudes, beliefs and values of a person from another culture also demand an ethically informed position. Two current approaches towards intercultural ethics are identified. One views ethics as a set of principles of conduct, and the other sees the relationship with a person from another culture as being in itself an ethical relationship. Four contexts for intercultural ethics are set out in relation to relevant principles of conduct for the intercultural speaker, the intercultural sojourner, the intercultural trainee and the transcultural refugee. However, intercultural communication can also be regarded as being underwritten by ethical relationship that exists between human beings, which has given rise to a focus on the precepts of tolerance, hospitality and responsibility

Paired opposing leukocyte receptors recognizing rapidly evolving ligands are subject to homogenization of their ligand binding domains

Some leukocyte receptors come in groups of two or more where the partners share ligand(s) but transmit opposite signals. Some of the ligands, such as MHC class I, are fast evolving, raising the problem of how paired opposing receptors manage to change in step with respect to ligand binding properties and at the same time conserve opposite signaling functions. An example is the KLRC (NKG2) family, where opposing variants have been conserved in both rodents and primates. Phylogenetic analyses of the KLRC receptors within and between the two orders show that the opposing partners have been subject to post-speciation gene homogenization restricted mainly to the parts of the genes that encode the ligand binding domains. Concerted evolution similarly restricted is demonstrated also for the KLRI, KLRB (NKR-P1), KLRA (Ly49), and PIR receptor families. We propose the term merohomogenization for this phenomenon and discuss its significance for the evolution of immune receptors

Antiangiogenic therapy for breast cancer

Angiogenesis is an important component of cancer growth, invasion and metastasis. Therefore, inhibition of angiogenesis is an attractive strategy for treatment of cancer. We describe existing clinical trials of antiangiogenic agents and the challenges facing the clinical development and optimal use of these agents for the treatment of breast cancer. Currently, the most promising approach has been the use of bevacizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody directed against the most potent pro-angiogenic factor, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Small molecular inhibitors of VEGF tyrosine kinase activity, such as sorafenib, appear promising. While, the role of sunitinib and inhibitors of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in breast cancer has to be defined. Several unanswered questions remain, such as choice of drug(s), optimal duration of therapy and patient selection criteria

Present and future evolution of advanced breast cancer therapy

Although the introduction of novel therapies and drug combinations has improved the prognosis of metastatic breast cancer, the disease remains incurable. Increased knowledge of the biology and the molecular alterations in breast cancer has facilitated the design of targeted therapies. These agents include receptor and nonreceptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (epidermal growth factor receptor family), intracellular signaling pathways (phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase, AKT, mammalian target of rapamycin) angiogenesis inhibitors and agents that interfere with DNA repair (poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors). In the present review, we present the most promising studies of these new targeted therapies and novel combinations of targeted therapies with cytotoxic agents

Seeing at a glance, smelling in a whiff: rapid forms of perceptual decision making

Intuitively, decisions should always improve with more time for the accumulation of evidence, yet psychophysical data show a limit of 200-300 ms for many perceptual tasks. Here, we consider mechanisms that favour such rapid information processing in vision and olfaction. We suggest that the brain limits some types of perceptual processing to short, discrete chunks (for example, eye fixations and sniffs) in order to facilitate the construction of global sensory images