Value and utility in a historical perspective

Since value and utility are the highest profile abstractions that underlie an epoch’s intellectual climate and ethical principles, their evolution reflects the transformation of socioeconomic conditions and institutions. The “Classical Phase” flourished during the first global system, laissez-faire/metal money/zero multilateralism (GS1); the second, “Subjective/Utilitarian” phase marked the long transition to the current epoch of “Modern Subjectivism/General Equilibrium,” tied to the second and extant global system, mixed economy/minimum reserve banking/weak multilateralism (GS2). History has witnessed the material de-essentialization of value and substantialization of utility. But now the two concepts face a thorough transvaluation as the world’s combined demographic and economic expansion encounters ecological/physical limitations. An extended macrohistoric implosion may lead to a third form of global self-organization: two-level economy/maximum bank reserve money/strong multilateralism (GS3). If history unfolds along the suggested path, not only economics, but also thinking about economics would change. It would be considered an evolving hermeneutic of the human condition expressed through global-system-specific texts. The implied critical alteration, with the recognition of the entropy law’s importance as its focal point, matches the prediction of Swiss thinker Jean Gebser (1905-1973) about the impending mutation of human consciousness into its integral/arational structure. Such extrapolations form the context in which the fourth historical phase of value and utility is hypothesized, leading to the material re-essentialization of value and de-substantialization of utility

Oxygen consumption in gamma irradiated mouse testes

An elevation in respiration accompanies the irradiation of mouse testes at 600 rad following a delay of two weeks. The high metabolic activity is maintained for several weeks after the initial exposure and is most probably associated with the recovery phase of the testes when spermatogonia A are repopulating the germinal epithelium. The correlation between these two events is indicative of the proliferation of cells which, while escaping death from irradiation, have sustained considerable and perhaps permanent injury which is subsequently expressed as the aberrant metabolism observed. Using the metabolic inhibitor DNP reveals little that is directly ascribable to the effects of gamma irradiation since the pattern of inhibition for each is essentially similar in control and irradiated samples. The use of ATP, on the other hand, suggests that metabolic control in regenerating testes may be highly modified. Alternative hypotheses are also discussed

Explicit forms for three integrals in Wand et al.

We derive explicit forms for the three integrals used in Kim and Wand [3] and Wand, Ormerody, Padoan and Fr¨uhwirth [7]. The explicit forms involve known special functions for which in-built routines are available

Integral Representations of Functional Series with Members Containing Jacobi Polynomials

MSC 2010: Primary 33C45, 40A30; Secondary 26D07, 40C10In this article we establish a double definite integral representation, and two other indefinite integral expressions for a functional series and its derivative with members containing Jacobi polynomials

Thermal analysis of submicron nanocrystalline diamond films

The thermal properties of sub-μm nanocrystalline diamond films in the range of 0.37–1.1 μm grown by hot filament CVD, initiated by bias enhanced nucleation on a nm-thin Si-nucleation layer on various substrates, have been characterized by scanning thermal microscopy. After coalescence, the films have been outgrown with a columnar grain structure. The results indicate that even in the sub-μm range, the average thermal conductivity of these NCD films approaches 400 W m− 1 K− 1. By patterning the films into membranes and step-like mesas, the lateral component and the vertical component of the thermal conductivity, k<sub>lateral</sub> and k<sub>vertical</sub>, have been isolated showing an anisotropy between vertical conduction along the columns, with k<sub>vertical</sub> ≈ 1000 W m− 1 K− 1, and a weaker lateral conduction across the columns, with k<sub>lateral</sub> ≈ 300 W m− 1 K− 1

Integral expressions for Hilbert-type infinite multilinear form and related multiple Hurwitz-Lerch Zeta functions

The article deals with different kinds integral expressions concerning multiple Hurwitz-Lerch Zeta function (introduced originally by Barnes ), Hilbert-type infinite multilinear form and its power series extension. Here Laplace integral forms and multiple Mellin-Barnes type integral representation are derived for these special functions. As a special cases of our investigations we deduce the integral expressions for the Matsumoto's multiple Mordell-Tornheim Zeta function, that is, for Tornheim's double sum i.e. Mordell-Witten Zeta, for the multiple Hurwitz Zeta and for the multiple Hurwitz-Euler Eta function, recently studied by Choi and Srivastava

Activation of \u3cem\u3eTomato Bushy Stunt Virus\u3c/em\u3e RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase by Cellular Heat Shock Protein 70 Is Enhanced by Phospholipids \u3cem\u3eIn Vitro\u3c/em\u3e

Similar to other positive-strand RNA viruses, tombusviruses are replicated by the membrane-bound viral replicase complex (VRC). The VRC consists of the p92 virus-coded RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), the viral p33 RNA chaperone, and several co-opted host proteins. In order to become a functional RdRp after its translation, the p92 replication protein should be incorporated into the VRC, followed by its activation. We have previously shown in a cell-free yeast extract-based assay that the activation of the Tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV) RdRp requires a soluble host factor(s). In this article, we identify the cellular heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) as the co-opted host factor required for the activation of an N-terminally truncated recombinant TBSV RdRp. In addition, small-molecule-based blocking of Hsp70 function inhibits RNA synthesis by the tombusvirus RdRp in vitro. Furthermore, we show that neutral phospholipids, namely, phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylcholine (PC), enhance RdRp activation in vitro. In contrast, phosphatidylglycerol (PG) shows a strong and dominant inhibitory effect on in vitro RdRp activation. We also demonstrate that PE and PC stimulate RdRp-viral plus-strand RNA [(+)RNA] interaction, while PG inhibits the binding of the viral RNA to the RdRp. Based on the stimulatory versus inhibitory roles of various phospholipids in tombusvirus RdRp activation, we propose that the lipid composition of targeted subcellular membranes might be utilized by tombusviruses to regulate new VRC assembly during the course of infection. IMPORTANCE: The virus-coded RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), which is responsible for synthesizing the viral RNA progeny in infected cells of several positive-strand RNA viruses, is initially inactive. This strategy is likely to avoid viral RNA synthesis in the cytosol that would rapidly lead to induction of RNA-triggered cellular antiviral responses. During the assembly of the membrane-bound replicase complex, the viral RdRp becomes activated through an incompletely understood process that makes the RdRp capable of RNA synthesis. By using TBSV RdRp, we show that the co-opted cellular Hsp70 chaperone and neutral phospholipids facilitate RdRp activation in vitro. In contrast, phosphatidylglycerol (PG) has a dominant inhibitory effect on in vitro RdRp activation and RdRp-viral RNA interaction, suggesting that the membranous microdomain surrounding the RdRp greatly affects its ability for RNA synthesis. Thus, the activation of the viral RdRp likely depends on multiple host components in infected cells

Enhancement of Cathepsin B activity in irradiated mouse testes

The irradiation of mouse testes at 600 rads is accompanied by extensive tissue destruction which ultimately results in a 70% loss of organ weight but displays appreciable recovery which is usually complete by week 18. The attrition phase of testicular weight is concurrent with a conspicuous elevation in cathepsin B activity. This is interpreted to reflect the extensive proteolysis that must form the basis for such tissue weight loss. The recovery period, in contrast, is characterized by an attenuation in the activity of the enzyme. Further analyses reveal that the rise in hydrolytic activity is not due to lysosomal membrane breakage. Nor does it seem to be related to an increase in the number of lysosomes. Instead, our data are more consistent with the contention that the rise in cathepsin B activity may be associated with an increase in protein synthesis. As a result, some lysosomes may contain a larger number of enzyme molecules. This hypothesis is supported by our demonstration that radiation induces a distinct shift in the density of lysosomes toward the heavier components. The significance of such radiation-induced enhancement of protein synthesis in terms of a general response of tissues to radiation damage is discussed

Cell-Free and Cell-Based Approaches to Explore the Roles of Host Membranes and Lipids in the Formation of Viral Replication Compartment Induced by Tombusviruses

Plant positive strand RNA viruses are intracellular infectious agents that take advantage of cellular lipids and membranes to support replication and protect viral RNA from degradation by host antiviral responses. In this review, we discuss how Tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV) co-opts lipid transfer proteins and modulates lipid metabolism and transport to facilitate the assembly of the membrane-bound viral replicase complexes within intricate replication compartments. Identification and characterization of the proviral roles of specific lipids and proteins involved in lipid metabolism based on results from yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) model host and cell-free approaches are discussed. The review also highlights the advantage of using liposomes with chemically defined composition to identify specific lipids required for TBSV replication. Remarkably, all the known steps in TBSV replication are dependent on cellular lipids and co-opted membranes

What’s wrong with the world? Rationality! A critique of economic anthropology in the spirit of Jean Gebser

Jean Gebser (1905-1973) was a multidisciplinary thinker whose ideas about human consciousness and the future inspire the following five vantage points for the heterodox critique of contemporary economic anthropology: (1) Characteristic attributes of consciousness and those of the environment surrounding the individual are equivalent, eliminating the possibility of single-minded, seamless, rational control, especially during macrohistoric phase transitions; (2) Diaphaneity as a mode of deep and comprehensive understanding (an approach that excludes latching on to any selectively focused explanation) will be needed to deal effectively with emerging global resource and environmental problems; (3) Costs in the form of irreversibly accumulating inaccessible energy shadow our evolving civilization, which our cultural conditioning portrays as pure progress; (4) Rationality, as the most laudable motivation for individuals, business firms and nations, has led to an unfounded techno-fetish; and, for various reasons, it fuels accelerated movement toward collective self-destruction; (5) Signs of chaos (not the harmless and controllable kind found in standard economic literature) corroborate the notion that we have entered a new period of macrohistoric phase transition as interpreted by the thermodynamic comprehension of universal history