For and against ownership: William Godwin's theory of property

© 2009 University of Notre Dame. 12 month embargo by the publisher. Article will be released in April 2010.This article offers an interpretation of British philosopher William Godwin's theory of property ownership, as outlined in his Enquiry Concerning Political Justice. Godwin's work can be read as presenting an incoherent account of property rights, which, on the one hand, justifies its existence on seemingly utilitarian grounds while, on the other, impugns its legitimacy on egalitarian grounds. But the contradiction apparent in Godwin's position is actually illusory and can in fact be plausibly interpreted as comprising a coherent two-level understanding of political morality, wherein the right to own private property is best comprehended as a “right to do wrong.

HCV IRES manipulates the ribosome to promote the switch from translation initiation to elongation.

The internal ribosome entry site (IRES) of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) drives noncanonical initiation of protein synthesis necessary for viral replication. Functional studies of the HCV IRES have focused on 80S ribosome formation but have not explored its role after the 80S ribosome is poised at the start codon. Here, we report that mutations of an IRES domain that docks in the 40S subunit's decoding groove cause only a local perturbation in IRES structure and result in conformational changes in the IRES-rabbit 40S subunit complex. Functionally, the mutations decrease IRES activity by inhibiting the first ribosomal translocation event, and modeling results suggest that this effect occurs through an interaction with a single ribosomal protein. The ability of the HCV IRES to manipulate the ribosome provides insight into how the ribosome's structure and function can be altered by bound RNAs, including those derived from cellular invaders

High fidelity fibre-based physiological sensing deep in tissue

Physiological sensing deep in tissue, remains a clinical challenge. Here a flexible miniaturised sensing optrode providing a platform to perform minimally invasive in vivo in situ measurements is reported. Silica microspheres covalently coupled with a high density of ratiometrically configured fluorophores were deposited into etched pits on the distal end of a 150 micron diameter multicore optical fibre. With this platform, multiplexed photonic measurements of pH and oxygen concentration with high precision in the distal alveolar space of the lung is reported. We demonstrated the phenomenon that high-density deposition of carboxyfluorescein covalently coupled to silica microspheres shows an inverse shift in fluorescence in response to varying pH. This platform delivered fast and accurate measurements, near instantaneous response time, no photobleaching, immunity to power fluctuations and a flexible architecture for addition of multiple sensors