Book Review

The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot, recounted byJeffrey Archer with the assistance of Prof. Francis J. Moloney. London:Macmillan, 2007, 96 pages. ISBN-13:978-0-230-52901-4Reviewed by Arnold T. Moner

Engaging with Wirkungsgeschichte: Romans 13:1-7 as a Case Study

An interesting and stimulating development in biblical studies is a method called Wirkungsgeschichte1 – a German compound term difficult to pronounce, difficult to spell and nearly impossible to translate. This term was originally coined by Hans-Georg Gadamer in his philosophical work Wahrheit und Methode (Truth and Method) published in 1960.2 This new discipline which has won gradual recognition aims at reading a text while being conscious of the different ways in which it has been interpreted in the course of time. It is a technique of analyzing the history of a text’s influences and effects. It examines the way the Bible had been interpreted in different historical eras under the influence of the concerns readers have brought to the text. In the English world, Wirkungsgeschichte has been rendered by at least three names: “Reception History”,“history of influence” or “history of effects.” All these names attempt to describe the sum total of varied interpretations and appropriations of a text which have been made through history. The Pontifical Biblical Commission’s document The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1993) translates Wirkungsgeschichte into English as “history of the influence of the text” and considers it as one of the approaches based on tradition, alongside Canonical approach and recourse to Jewish traditions of interpretation

Environmental factors modulating the stability and enzymatic activity of the Petrotoga mobilis Esterase (PmEst)

Enzymes isolated from thermophilic organisms found in oil reservoirs can find applications in many fields, including the oleochemical, pharmaceutical, bioenergy, and food/dairy industries. In this study, in silico identification and recombinant production of an esterase from the extremophile bacteria Petrotoga mobilis (designated PmEst) were performed. Then biochemical, bioinformatics and structural characterizations were undertaken using a combination of synchrotron radiation circular dichroism (SRCD) and fluorescence spectroscopies to correlate PmEst stability and hydrolytic activity on different substrates. The enzyme presented a high Michaelis-Menten constant (KM 0.16 mM) and optimum activity at ~55°C for p-nitrophenyl butyrate. The secondary structure of PmEst was preserved at acid pH, but not under alkaline conditions. PmEst was unfolded at high concentrations of urea or guanidine through apparently different mechanisms. The esterase activity of PmEst was preserved in the presence of ethanol or propanol and its melting temperature increased ~8°C in the presence of these organic solvents. PmEst is a mesophilic esterase with substrate preference towards short-to medium-length acyl chains. The SRCD data of PmEst is in agreement with the prediction of an α/β protein, which leads us to assume that it displays a typical fold of esterases from this family. The increased enzyme stability in organic solvents may enable novel applications for its use in synthetic biology. Taken together, our results demonstrate features of the PmEst enzyme that indicate it may be suitable for applications in industrial processes, particularly, when the use of polar organic solvents is required

Social times, reproduction and social inequality at work : contrasts and comparative perspectives between countries

Production of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004If the focus is placed specifically on the problem of work and family, the daily life of people and their use of time are a main problem. This time is expressed in both freely available time, which is related to activities, and time of the productive and reproductive sphere. This chapter considers work in a broad sense and takes into account the sexual division of labour. Specifically, this chapter will explore transformations in time use and social inequality in unpaid work. For this purpose, a comparative analysis of time-use surveys will be used, analysing the time spent, and the time dedicated to household chores in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Spain. From an analytical viewpoint, the analysis will place social reproduction at the centre of the socio-economic system, showing that the economic crisis has affected women and men differently, and that in both Europe and Latin America the family pattern is being replaced by a dominant family model of a male provider and a double presence of women. The large-scale incorporation of women into the labour market has emphasised the role that women assume in the domestic sphere perpetuating gender segregation in employment and in domestic and care work