Protestant women in the late Soviet era: gender, authority, and dissent

At the peak of the anti-religious campaigns under Nikita Khrushchev, communist propaganda depicted women believers as either naïve dupes, tricked by the clergy, or as depraved fanatics; the Protestant “sektantka” (female sectarian) was a particularly prominent folk-devil. In fact, as this article shows, women’s position within Protestant communities was far more complex than either of these mythical figures would have one believe. The authors explore four important, but contested, female roles: women as leaders of worship, particularly in remote congregations where female believers vastly outnumbered their male counterparts; women as unofficial prophetesses, primarily within Pentecostal groups; women as mothers, replenishing congregations through high birth rates and commitment to their children’s religious upbringing; and women as political actors in the defence of religious rights. Using a wide range of sources, which include reports written by state officials, articles in the church journal, letters from church members to their ecclesiastical leaders in Moscow, samizdat texts, and oral history accounts, the authors probe women’s relationship with authority, in terms of both the authority of the (male) ministry within the church, and the authority of the Soviet state

Dimerisation induced formation of the active site and the identification of three metal sites in EAL-phosphodiesterases

The bacterial second messenger cyclic di-3′,5′-guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) is a key regulator of bacterial motility and virulence. As high levels of c-di-GMP are associated with the biofilm lifestyle, c-di-GMP hydrolysing phosphodiesterases (PDEs) have been identified as key targets to aid development of novel strategies to treat chronic infection by exploiting biofilm dispersal. We have studied the EAL signature motif-containing phosphodiesterase domains from the Pseudomonas aeruginosa proteins PA3825 (PA3825EAL) and PA1727 (MucREAL). Different dimerisation interfaces allow us to identify interface independent principles of enzyme regulation. Unlike previously characterised two-metal binding EAL-phosphodiesterases, PA3825EAL in complex with pGpG provides a model for a third metal site. The third metal is positioned to stabilise the negative charge of the 5′-phosphate, and thus three metals could be required for catalysis in analogy to other nucleases. This newly uncovered variation in metal coordination may provide a further level of bacterial PDE regulation

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Between Churchill and Stalin: the Cripps Mission and its aftermath

Sir Stafford Cripps was sent to Moscow in 194 to secure an Anglo-Soviet trade agreement, Cripps believed he, as a socialist, could induce the Soviets to cooperate with Britain. His persistent efforts remained fruitless. Frustrated, he argued that Britain should recognize Soviet territorial gains of 1939-4» thereby winning Stalin's trust. Stalin ignored British approaches, preferring partnership with Hitler until the latter attacked Russia. Even then, Anglo-Soviet relations remained poor. Gradually, Anthony Eden was persuaded by Cripps, and by Soviet chilliness, to recognize Soviet sovereignty over the Baltic States, and he in turn convinced a divided British Cabinet. But Stalin took no notice of unilateral British sacrifices; close friendship with the Soviet Union, as envisioned by the British, was impossible, and misguided efforts to win Stalin's trust were foredoomed. The episode needlessly strained Anglo-American relations and weakened the Western position in Eastern Europe

Permafrost carbon emissions in a changing Arctic

Arctic permafrost stores nearly 1.700 billion metric tons of frozen and thawing carbon. Anthropogenic warming threatens to release an unknown quantity of this carbon to the atmosphere, influencing the climate in processes collectively known as the permafrost carbon feedback. In this Review, we discuss advances in tracking permafrost carbon dynamics, including mechanisms of abrupt thaw, instrumental observations of carbon release and model predictions of the permafrost carbon feedback. Abrupt thaw and thermokarst could emit a substantial amount of carbon to the atmosphere rapidly (days to years), mobilizing the deep legacy carbon sequestered in Yedoma. Carbon dioxide emissions are proportionally larger than other greenhouse gas emissions in the Arctic, but expansion of anoxic conditions within thawed permafrost and soils stands to increase the proportion of future methane emissions. Increasingly frequent wildfires in the Arctic will also lead to a notable but unpredictable carbon flux. More detailed monitoring though in situ, airborne and satellite observations will provide a deeper understanding of the Arctic's future role as a carbon source or sink, and the subsequent impact on the Earth system