Memory, historical responsibility, truth and justice: the Balkan wars

In 1998, during a fieldtrip in the former Yugoslavia, I interviewed members of associations of internally displaced persons (IDPs). They were petitioning the authorities to recover their homes and properties because they wanted to “go home”. They also wanted the truth told about their families, communities and the war. They presented me with photos of houses or farms, anonymous letters threatening them if they would not leave, photos of missing family members and legal papers. And they wanted justice. They wanted that those responsible for killing their kin and neighbors and driving them from their homes should be punished. Based on these and other experiences I investigate four institutions designed to learn the truth about contested historical events and their interpretation: the international criminal tribunal, the truth and reconciliation commission, the outsider commission, and political agreement between adversaries

The 2014 Gaza war and the elusive peace in Palestine

Neither Hamas nor Israel pay the cost of their episodic Gaza wars. Israel gets weapons and funds from the U.S. government and from the American Jewish community. Hamas gets weapons, funds and reconstruction funds from Iran, Qatar, and the international humanitarian community; i.e. the U.S., UK, EU, and Nordic states via the UN agencies they fund. Israel’s Gaza blockade has since 2007 allowed more than a hundred truckloads of food and humanitarian aid a week into Gaza, even during times of fighting. Israel has curtailed dual-use goods like cement and pipes which Hamas diverted for war purposes. In 2014, as previously, both sides repeatedly violated the Geneva Convention. To stop repetition of the Gaza wars, outsider financing for the adversaries has to be reduced and weapons must be removed and banned from Gaza. Gaza should be demilitarized in a “weapons-to-end-the-blockade” cease-fire deal. Israel should pay rent to the Palestine Authority for West Bank settlements, access roads, military bases and other occupied real estate. Suggestions are made in this paper about how to accomplish this goal

Contours of an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement

Israelis and Palestinians have off-loaded the cost of their conflict to outsiders. The massive subsidies for Palestinians should be gradually withdrawn and Israel should pay rent for the settlements and lands it occupies. This rent will fund the Palestinian economy and act as compensation in lieu of the right of return. The Palestinian state will be demilitarized and neutral, and become viable through economic ties to Israel and international aid. Two states will coexist along the 1967 Green Line, and East Jerusalem will be made part of “Jerusalem: one city, two capitals.” Peace-making will be backed by the major international stakeholders and the agreement will be legitimized by voters in both countries. No one is under any illusions about the obstacles to an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Yet ideas that seem far fetched in time become actionable: for decades no one expected that majority rule in South Africa would be peacefully achieved, and few anticipated that Franco-German cooperation and alliance after two bloody World Wars would give birth to the European Union

Two States in Palestine?

Israelis and Palestinians have off loaded the costs of their conflict to outsiders and lack incentives for peace making. Massive subsidies for the Palestinians should be gradually withdrawn and Israel should pay rent for the settlements and other land it occupies. The rents will fund the Palestinian economy and compensation payments in lieu of the right of return. The Palestinian state will be demilitarized and neutral, and become viable with economic ties to Israel and with international aid. Two states will coexist along the 1967 green line and East Jerusalem will be part of “Jerusalem: one city, two capitals”. Peace making will be backed by the major international stakeholders and the agreement will be legitimized by the voters in both countries

A fehérjedegradáció szerepének vizsgálata cukor/stressz jelátviteli folyamatok során Arabidopsis thaliana modellnövényben = The role of protein degradation during sugar/stress signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana

Pályázatunk során kapcsolatot kerestünk az ubiquitin-függö fehérjedegradáció útvonala és a cukor/abiotikus stresszfolyamatok között Arabidopsis-ban a PRL1 (cukor szignálutat reguláló fehérje) és az UFD1 (ubiquitin fusion degradation 1) fehérjék tanulmányozásával. Génexpressziós vizsgálatokkal kimutattuk, hogy az Ufd1 a növény minden részében közel egyforma erősséggel kifejeződik, míg a Prl1 leginkább az apikális merisztémákban expresszálódik. Sem cukor, sem hormonkezelésre nem változott a két gén expressziója, azonban biotikus stresszválaszt indukáló syringolin, illetve hő és hidegstressz hatására az Ufd1 génexpressziója megnövekedett, amely összefüggésbe hozható az UFD1 chaperon-szerű funkciójával az ERAD folyamatában. Az UFD1-HA fehérjét immunlokalizációval mind a sejtmagban, mind a citoszólban detektáltuk, a HA-PRL1 viszont kizárólag a sejtmagban volt látható. Biokémiai vizsgálataink azt mutatták, hogy a PRL1 maga is proteoszóma-függő módon degradálódik és kölcsönhatásban van a spliceosome AtCdc5 komponensével, amely tovább asszociálódik a fehérjedegradációs rendszer különbözö elemeihez.. Az Arabidopsis UFD1 fehérjekomplex tisztításával kimutattuk, hogy in vivo kötődik a 26S proteoszómához és az AtCdc48 ATPázhoz, azonban a PRL1-el közvetlen kölcsönhatást nem sikerült kimutatnunk. Eredményeink alapján azt feltételezzük, hogy az UFD1 és a PRL1 különböző szubsztrátokon keresztül más-más sejtfolyamatban szabályozzák a fehérjedegradációs utakat. | The aim of the present work was to connect the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) and the sugar/abiotic stress signalling by characterization of Prl1 (novel regulator in sugar signalling) and Ufd1 (ubiquitin fusion degradation 1) in Arabidopsis. In plants the function of UFD1 protein is completly undisolved. Our gene expression data showed that Ufd1 was almost equally present in all tissues of Arabidopsis, while the Prl1 gene mostly was expressed in the meristematic tissues of root and shoot. Neither hormon nor sugar treatments affected the expression level of Ufd1 and Prl1, however Ufd1 was upregulated by heat and cold stress and by syringolin causing biotic stress, which coincides with the chaperon-like role of UFD1 in the ERAD pathway. The UFD1 protein was detected by immunolocalization studies in both cytoplasm and nucleus, while HA-PRL1 was exclusively present in the nucleus. We showed that the degradation of PRL1 was proteasome dependent. In addition PRL1 was associated with the spliceosome component AtCDC5 protein, which interacts with various elements of the protein degradation system, indicating a potential role for PRL1 in mRNA splicing and UPS. Biochemical purification of UFD1 complex prooved that UFD1 interacts with the proteasome and the AtCdc48 ATPase, but there is no direct interaction between UFD1 and PRL1. Our data suggest that in Arabidopsis PRL1 and UFD1 regulates protein degradation in different cellular processes

Arabidopsis SCF-SnRK ubiquitin-ligáz komplexek szerkezetének vizsgálata és az alegységek funkcionális analízise = Study of the subunit structure of Arabidopsis SCF-SnRK ubiquitin ligase complexes and functional analysis of the subunits

Az Arabidopsis SnRK heterotrimer kináz komplex epitópjelölt alegységeinek szuszpenziós sejtkultúrában és növényekben való expressziójával a komplexek alegységszerkezetét és kölcsönhatásait vizsgáltuk. Megállapítottuk, ha a katalitikus AKIN10/11 kináz alegység a PRL1 inhibítor fehérjével való asszociációnak köszönhetoen inaktív, nem foszforilált formában van, akkor kölcsönhat a 26S proteaszómával de ekkor az AKINb és g regulátor alegységek jelenléte nem detektálható. Az AKIN-PRL1 kapcsolat hiánya illetve disszociációja az AKIN10/11 alegység autofoszforilálását és aktiválását eredményezi, ekkor a 26S proteaszóma mellett az AKINb és g alegységek valamint a COP9 szignaloszóma is a komplex részét képezi. Ismert, hogy a COP9 szignaloszóma az SCF E3 ubiquitin ligáz komplexeket inaktiválja a kullin alegység deneddylálása révén. Az általunk javasolt modell feltételezi, hogy az SnRK-COP9 kölcsönhatás gátolja a deneddilációt, ezáltal aktiválja az SCF komplexeket, és elosegíti az aktivált SCF-szubsztrát komplexek 26S proteaszómához való dokkolását. | We investigated the subunit structure and interactions of the heterotrimeric SnRK kinase complex by expressing epitope-tagged subunits in Arabidopsis plants and cultured cells. When the catalytic AKIN10/11 kinase subunit is kept in an unphosphorylated inactive form through association with the inhibitor PRL1 protein, the catalytic subunit interacts with the 26S proteasome but the presence of AKINb and g regulatory subunits cannot be detected in the complex. Dissociation of the AKIN-PRL1 interaction, or the lack of it, results in phosphorylation and activation of the AKIN10/11 subunit which then binds to the 26S proteasome as well as to the AKINb and g subunits and recruits COP9 signalosome to the holoenzyme complex. It is known that due to its cullin deneddylase activity the COP9 signalosome inactivates SCF E3 ubiquitin ligase complexes. Our results suggest a model in which the SnRK-COP9 interaction abolishes the deneddylase activity of COP9 and results in the formation of active SCF-substrate complexes and might facilitate their docking to the 26S proteasome

A foszfoprotein foszfatáz (PPP) enzimcsalád funkciójának vizsgálata Arabidopsis thalianaban = Functional study of the PPP family of phosphoprotein phosphatases in Arabidopsis thaliana

A szerin/treonin-specifikus foszfoprotein foszfatázok (PPP-k) minden eukariótában megtalálhatók, szabályozó szerepük azonban növényekben alig ismert. Az Arabidopsis genom 26 PPP katalitikus alegységet kódol, PP1- és PP2A-típusú, újtípusú és ismétlődő kelch motívumot tartalmazó foszfatázokat. Az Arabidopsis PPP-k funkciójának tanulmányozása céljából azonosítottuk a PP6At1(AtFyPP1), PP7, BSL3 és TOPP1(PP1) foszfatáz génekben T-DNS inszerciót hordozó mutánsokat. A pp6at1 mutáns csírázási és növekedési tesztekben hiperszenzitív volt nagy koncentrációjú sóra, ozmotikumokra és abszcizinsavra (ABA). Gyengült prolinfelhalmozó képessége és csökkent benne a prolin bioszintézisét reguláló, stressz-és ABA-indukált P5CS1 gén expressziója. A fentiek alapján a PP6At1 a környezeti stresszekre adott metabolikus válaszokat szabályozza. A pp7 mutáns hipokotilmegnyúlása kék fényben fokozott volt, vörös vagy fehér fényben nem. Úgy tűnik, hogy a PP7 a kék fény jelátvitelének fontos eleme. A BSL3, TOPP1 génekben, valamint a PP2A enzim PP2A-2 katalitikus alegységének és egy B" regulátor alegységének génjében levő inszerciókra (GABI-Kat vonalak) homozigóta növényeknek nem volt észlelhető fenotípusa. A PP2A hőstabil inhibitor fehérjékkel asszociálódhat. Azonosítottuk a SET Arabidopsis homológját (AtSET), amely a PP2A hatékony inhibitora. A rekombináns AtSET gátolja a hiszton H3 Ser-10 oldalláncának defoszforilációját, így szerepe lehet a transzkripció szabályozásában. | Serine/threonine specific phosphoprotein phosphatases (PPPs) are ubiquitous enzymes in all eukaryotes, but their regulatory functions are largely unknown in plants. The Arabidopsis genome encodes 26 catalytic subunits of PPPs related to PP1, PP2A, novel PPPs, and phosphatases with kelch-repeats. To study the function of Arabidopsis PPPs, we have identified T-DNA insertion mutants in the genes encoding PP6At1(AtFyPP1), PP7, BSL3, and TOPP1(PP1) phosphatases. The pp6at1 mutant was hypersensitive to high salt, osmotics and abscizic acid (ABA) as defined by germination and plant growth assays. Moreover, its impaired proline accumulation and reduced expression of the stress and ABA-induced P5CS1 gene, which controls proline biosynthesis, suggest that PP6At1 controls metabolic responses to environmental stress. The pp7 mutant showed increased hypocotyl elongation upon blue light irradiation, but not under red, or white light. Thus, PP7 appears to be an important factor in blue light signalling. Homozygous plants for the insertions in BSL3, TOPP1 and in genes encoding the PP2A-2 catalytic and a B" regulatory subunit of PP2A (GABI-Kat lines) had no observable phenotype. PP2A can be associated with heat stable inhibitory proteins.We identified the Arabidopsis homolog of SET (AtSET), which is a potent inhibitor of PP2A. Recombinant AtSet inhibits the dephosphorylation of Ser-10 in histone H3 and might be involved in the regulation of transcription

Modelling the Dynamics of Securizitating National Identities

Using the example of conflict escalation in former Yugoslavia, a common framework of the mechanisms leading to conflict escalation is developed in this paper. Escalation of ethno-nationalist violence is described as an endogenous feature of the nation. The principle of the nation may succeed in being an organising principle for integrating large-scale social groups. However, it may also generate the extreme event of ethno-nationalist violence. The architecture of a simulation model is described to test the extreme event hypothesis