Human Rights and Social Wrongs: Math Problems With Humans : A Personal Response to Phillip Allott

Professor Phillip Allott of Cambridge University delivered seven two-hour lectures on human rights and social wrongs at the first annual Bertha Wilson Visitorship at Dalhousie Law School in September of 1992. Allott described the aim of the lecture series as an effort to discover how one might set about changing the course of history through the application of ideas in the form of law, with a view to reducing the amount of social evils in the world and increasing the sum of human happiness. Allott began the lecture series by describing two recent events that exemplify the social evil present in our world. The first is the story of a woman whose child is killed by a member of a warring faction in her country and about how she expresses her grief from this tragedy by turning to kill other children in the name of her cause. Allott identified this as the eternal and universal event which represents all wrongs in our society. The second event he described is the creation of a machine for which there is no need or basis in our society – the Sony smell-making machine. The willful blindness to humanity\u27s pressing basic needs and the lack of concern for the consequences of such technological growth represent society\u27s woeful lack of control. Allott stated that all we do as humans is an attempt to integrate three worlds. The natural world is the physical basis of existence and that not within our control. The social world is that created by us in order to survive. Consciousness is that which is unseen and within us. My response to Professor Allott entails a brief presentation of some of the feminist ideas that were missing from his review. My purpose is to show that we can begin to achieve a greater sum of human happiness if we transcend those structures of ideas that currently exclude women, as well as challenge the structure of gender itself

Dying. Using a public event series as a research tool to open communication on death and dying

This paper will explore the use of public engagement as a strategy for encouraging and enhancing conversations about end of life through the variety of events that were part of the Dying., a public event series that ran in the 2019 DesignTO festival. Dying. invited practitioners, researchers, artists, and designers to collaborate with the wider community to explore the topic of death and dying. The Dying. series attracted over 4,000 attendees in 2019, 14 speakers, and 12 exhibiting artists. These events included public engagement through interactive exhibit, a public art/design show, public lectures, participatory art installations, participatory design workshops, and evidence-based game playing. Dying. encouraged dialogue among community members and practitioners, initiating non-medical portrayals and expression of experiences associated with dying and death. Part, research tool for knowledge mobilisation, the interactive exhibits served to engage the public in sharing experiences of end of life in light weight and playful interactions, as well as more heavy weight interactions. Data gathering for research on health topics using participatory public exhibit was part of the research intention behind the design of the exhibits. Dying. opened an interdisciplinary dialogue between designers, medical practitioners, and the public, addressing a need among practitioners for more opportunities to share their work and learn from colleagues, and a need among the public for opportunities to hear and experience a more varied discourse about death (knowledge mobilization). Dying. creatively offered the public multiple ways to engage with the topic of end of life also supplying supporting resources on advanced care planning and other aspects of end of life decision making

Application of Laser Mass Spectrometry to Art and Archaeology

REMPI laser mass spectrometry is a combination of resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization spectroscopy and time of flight mass spectrometry, This technique enables the collection of mass specific optical spectra as well as of optically selected mass spectra. Analytes are jet-cooled by entrainment in a molecular beam, and this low temperature gas phase analysis has the benefit of excellent vibronic resolution. Utilizing this method, mass spectrometric analysis of historically relevant samples can be simplified and improved; Optical selection of targets eliminates the need for chromatography while knowledge of a target's gas phase spectroscopy allows for facile differentiation of molecules that are in the aqueous phase considered spectroscopically indistinguishable. These two factors allow smaller sample sizes than commercial MS instruments, which in turn will require less damage to objects of antiquity. We have explored methods to optimize REMPI laser mass spectrometry as an analytical tool to archaeology using theobromine and caffeine as molecular markers in Mesoamerican pottery, and are expanding this approach to the field of art to examine laccaic acid in shellacs

Beginning of Viniculture in France

Chemical analyses of ancient organic compounds absorbed into the pottery fabrics of imported Etruscan amphoras (ca. 500-475 B.C.) and into a limestone pressing platform (ca. 425-400 B.C.) at the ancient coastal port site of Lattara in southern France provide the earliest biomolecular archaeological evidence for grape wine and viniculture from this country, which is crucial to the later history of wine in Europe and the rest of the world. The data support the hypothesis that export of wine by ship from Etruria in central Italy to southern Mediterranean France fueled an ever-growing market and interest in wine there, which, in turn, as evidenced by the winepress, led to transplantation of the Eurasian grapevine and the beginning of a Celtic industry in France. Herbal and pine resin additives to the Etruscan wine point to the medicinal role of wine in antiquity, as well as a means of preserving it during marine transport

Early Neolithic wine of Georgia in the South Caucasus

Chemical analyses of ancient organic compounds absorbed into the pottery fabrics from sites in Georgia in the South Caucasus region, dating to the early Neolithic period (ca. 6,000-5,000 BC), provide the earliest biomolecular archaeological evidence for grape wine and viniculture from the Near East, at ca. 6,000-5,800 BC. The chemical findings are corroborated by climatic and environmental reconstruction, together with archaeobotanical evidence, including grape pollen, starch, and epidermal remains associated with a jar of similar type and date. The very large-capacity jars, some of the earliest pottery made in the Near East, probably served as combination fermentation, aging, and serving vessels. They are the most numerous pottery type at many sites comprising the so-called "Shulaveri-Shomutepe Culture" of the Neolithic period, which extends into western Azerbaijan and northern Armenia. The discovery of early sixth millennium BC grape wine in this region is crucial to the later history of wine in Europe and the rest of the world

Are different groups of patients with stroke more likely to be excluded from the new UK general medical services contract? A cross-sectional retrospective analysis of a large primary care population

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Grizzly, November 5, 1997

Distinguished Alumni Return for Symposium • Ursinus Students and Faculty Attend Million Woman March • More Grants Received by Ursinus • Student\u27s Perseverance Rewarded • Test the Waters this Spring • Opinion: Faculty Responds to Curriculum Questions; Tired of Falling Asleep? • Stress Management • November Stress • Oedipus! Lives • There\u27s Something Brewing in The Java Trench • What\u27s with The Giant Green Gymnasium Anyway? • Ursinus: The Pseudo Liberal Arts College • Bears\u27 Swimmers Kick Back at Dickinson Relay Carnival • Men\u27s Soccer Continues to Struggle • Player Profiles: Jill Grau; Megan Larkinhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1409/thumbnail.jp

Alterations to chromatin in intestinal macrophages link IL-10 deficiency to inappropriate inflammatory responses

Intestinal macrophages are uniquely programmed to tolerate exposure to bacteria without mounting potent inflammatory responses. The cytokine IL-10 maintains the macrophage anti-inflammatory response such that loss of IL-10 results in chronic intestinal inflammation. To investigate how IL-10-deficiency alters intestinal macrophage programming and bacterial tolerance, we studied changes in chromatin accessibility in response to bacteria in macrophages from two distinct niches, the intestine and bone-marrow, from both wild-type and IL-10-deficient mice. In both bone-marrow-derived and intestinal macrophages, we identified chromatin accessibility changes associated with bacterial exposure and IL-10-deficiency. Surprisingly, IL-10-deficient intestinal macrophages adopted chromatin and gene expression patterns characteristic of an inflammatory response, even in the absence of bacteria. Further, if IL-10 protein was added to cells that had previously been IL-10-deficient, it could not revert the chromatin landscape to a normal state. Our results demonstrate that IL-10 deficiency results in stable chromatin alterations in macrophages, even in the absence of bacteria. This supports a model where IL-10-deficiency leads to chromatin alterations that contribute to a loss of intestinal macrophage tolerance to bacteria, which is a primary initiating event in chronic intestinal inflammation

PI3Kγ is a molecular switch that controls immune suppression

Macrophages play critical, but opposite, roles in acute and chronic inflammation and cancer1,2,3,4,5. In response to pathogens or injury, inflammatory macrophages express cytokines that stimulate cytotoxic T cells, whereas macrophages in neoplastic and parasitic diseases express anti-inflammatory cytokines that induce immune suppression and may promote resistance to T cell checkpoint inhibitors1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Here we show that macrophage PI 3-kinase γ controls a critical switch between immune stimulation and suppression during inflammation and cancer. PI3Kγ signalling through Akt and mTor inhibits NFκB activation while stimulating C/EBPβ activation, thereby inducing a transcriptional program that promotes immune suppression during inflammation and tumour growth. By contrast, selective inactivation of macrophage PI3Kγ stimulates and prolongs NFκB activation and inhibits C/EBPβ activation, thus promoting an immunostimulatory transcriptional program that restores CD8+ T cell activation and cytotoxicity. PI3Kγ synergizes with checkpoint inhibitor therapy to promote tumour regression and increased survival in mouse models of cancer. In addition, PI3Kγ-directed, anti-inflammatory gene expression can predict survival probability in cancer patients. Our work thus demonstrates that therapeutic targeting of intracellular signalling pathways that regulate the switch between macrophage polarization states can control immune suppression in cancer and other disorders