The Body Politic in the Social and Political Thought of Christine de Pizan (Abridged Version). Part I: Reciprocity, Hierarchy and Political Authority

While some scholars have seen the political theory of Christine de Pizan as being very like that of her sources in its presentation of hierarchy as the basis of rightful order, others have stressed the originality of her thought and have judged her conception of society to be more inclusive and egalitarian than that found in traditional conceptions of the body politic. Here it is argued that while Christine stressed the importance of reciprocity and mutuality within the political community, she also emphasised the need for hierarchy and deference and that, even by medieval standards, she was profoundly suspicious of popular involvement in political life. Part II of this article argues that this political theory was simply one expression of a much broader social outlook, one which relied on the Aristotelian notion of “distributive justice” in order to reconcile the ideals of hierarchy and obedience with the achievement of justice and equity.Pour certains commentateurs de l’œuvre de Christine de Pizan, la pensée politique de cette dernière est presque identique à celle de ses prédécesseurs, dans la mesure où c’est la hiérarchie qui servirait de fondement essentiel du bon ordre. En revanche, d’autres érudits ont insisté sur l’originalité de la pensée christinienne en ce qui concerne sa conception de la société qu’ils estiment plus inclusive et égalitaire que celle préconisée d’habitude dans le discours médiéval sur le corps de policie. À notre avis, Christine, tout en soulignant l’importance de la réciprocité et de la solidarité dans la communauté politique, met néanmoins l’accent sur la nécessité de la hiérarchie et de la déférence dans celle-ci ; en effet, elle se distingue de ses contemporains par son degré de méfiance quant à toute participation du peuple dans la vie politique. Dans la deuxième partie de cet article, nous tenons à replacer cet aspect de la pensée politique de Christine dans le contexte de sa conception plus large de la société, conception basée sur l’idée aristotélicienne de la “justice distributive” afin de concilier les idéaux de la hiérarchie et de l’obéissance avec l’instauration de la justice et de l’équité

The Body Politic in the Social and Political Thought of Christine de Pizan (Abridged Version). Part I: Reciprocity, Hierarchy and Political Authority

While some scholars have seen the political theory of Christine de Pizan as being very like that of her sources in its presentation of hierarchy as the basis of rightful order, others have stressed the originality of her thought and have judged her conception of society to be more inclusive and egalitarian than that found in traditional conceptions of the body politic. Here it is argued that while Christine stressed the importance of reciprocity and mutuality within the political community, she also emphasised the need for hierarchy and deference and that, even by medieval standards, she was profoundly suspicious of popular involvement in political life. Part II of this article argues that this political theory was simply one expression of a much broader social outlook, one which relied on the Aristotelian notion of “distributive justice” in order to reconcile the ideals of hierarchy and obedience with the achievement of justice and equity.Pour certains commentateurs de l’œuvre de Christine de Pizan, la pensée politique de cette dernière est presque identique à celle de ses prédécesseurs, dans la mesure où c’est la hiérarchie qui servirait de fondement essentiel du bon ordre. En revanche, d’autres érudits ont insisté sur l’originalité de la pensée christinienne en ce qui concerne sa conception de la société qu’ils estiment plus inclusive et égalitaire que celle préconisée d’habitude dans le discours médiéval sur le corps de policie. À notre avis, Christine, tout en soulignant l’importance de la réciprocité et de la solidarité dans la communauté politique, met néanmoins l’accent sur la nécessité de la hiérarchie et de la déférence dans celle-ci ; en effet, elle se distingue de ses contemporains par son degré de méfiance quant à toute participation du peuple dans la vie politique. Dans la deuxième partie de cet article, nous tenons à replacer cet aspect de la pensée politique de Christine dans le contexte de sa conception plus large de la société, conception basée sur l’idée aristotélicienne de la “justice distributive” afin de concilier les idéaux de la hiérarchie et de l’obéissance avec l’instauration de la justice et de l’équité

Protein free microcapsules obtained from plant spores as a model for drug delivery: Ibuprofen encapsulation, release and taste masking

Sporopollenin exine capsules (SEC) extracted from Lycopodium clavatum spores were shown to encapsulate ibuprofen as a drug model, with 97 ± 1% efficiency as measured by recovery of the loaded drug and absence of the drug on the SEC surface by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The encapsulated ibuprofen was shown to be unchanged from its bulk crystalline form by solid state NMR, FTIR and XRD. Essential for drug delivery applications, SEC were shown to be non-toxic to human endothelial cells and free of allergenic protein epitopes by MALDI-TOF-MS and ESI-QqToF-MS. Potential application for targeted release into the intestinal region of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) was demonstrated by 88 ± 1% of the drug being retained in simulated gastric fluid (SGF) after 45 minutes and 85 ± 2% being released after 5 min in buffer (PBS; pH 7.4). The SEC were shown to provide significant taste masking of encapsulated ibuprofen in a double blind trial with 10 human volunteers. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013

A diverse Late Cretaceous vertebrate tracksite from the Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia

The Upper Cretaceous ‘upper’ Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia is world famous for hosting Dinosaur Stampede National Monument at Lark Quarry Conservation Park, a somewhat controversial tracksite that preserves thousands of tridactyl dinosaur tracks attributed to ornithopods and theropods. Herein, we describe the Snake Creek Tracksite, a new vertebrate ichnoassemblage from the ‘upper’ Winton Formation, originally situated on Karoola Station but now relocated to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History. This site preserves the first sauropod tracks reported from eastern Australia, a small number of theropod and ornithopod tracks, the first fossilised crocodyliform and ?turtle tracks reported from Australia, and possible lungfish and actinopterygian feeding traces. The sauropod trackways are wide-gauge, with manus tracks bearing an ungual impression on digit I, and anteriorly tapered pes tracks with straight or concave forward posterior margins. These tracks support the hypothesis that at least one sauropod taxon from the ‘upper’ Winton Formation retained a pollex claw (previously hypothesised for Diamantinasaurus matildae based on body fossils). Many of the crocodyliform trackways indicate underwater walking. The Snake Creek Tracksite reconciles the sauropod-, crocodyliform-, turtle-, and lungfish-dominated body fossil record of the ‘upper’ Winton Formation with its heretofore ornithopod- and theropod-dominated ichnofossil record

Analysis of Heme Iron Coordination in DGCR8: The Heme-Binding Component of the Microprocessor Complex

DGCR8 is the RNA-binding partner of the nuclease Drosha. Their complex (the “Microprocessor”) is essential for processing of long, primary microRNAs (pri-miRNAs) in the nucleus. Binding of heme to DGCR8 is essential for pri-miRNA processing. On the basis of the split Soret ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectrum of ferric DGCR8, bis-thiolate sulfur (cysteinate, Cys–) heme iron coordination of DGCR8 heme iron was proposed. We have characterized DGCR8 heme ligation using the Δ276 DGCR8 variant and combined electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), magnetic circular dichroism (MCD), electron nuclear double resonance, resonance Raman, and electronic absorption spectroscopy. These studies indicate DGCR8 bis-Cys heme iron ligation, with conversion from bis-thiolate (Cys–/Cys–) axial coordination in ferric DGCR8 to bis-thiol (CysH/CysH) coordination in ferrous DGCR8. Pri-miRNA binding does not perturb ferric DGCR8’s optical spectrum, consistent with the axial ligand environment being separated from the substrate-binding site. UV–vis absorption spectra of the FeII and FeII–CO forms indicate discrete species exhibiting peaks with absorption coefficients substantially larger than those for ferric DGCR8 and that previously reported for a ferrous form of DGCR8. Electron–nuclear double resonance spectroscopy data exclude histidine or water as axial ligands for ferric DGCR8 and favor bis-thiolate coordination in this form. UV–vis MCD and near-infrared MCD provide data consistent with this conclusion. UV–vis MCD data for ferrous DGCR8 reveal features consistent with bis-thiol heme iron coordination, and resonance Raman data for the ferrous–CO form are consistent with a thiol ligand trans to the CO. These studies support retention of DGCR8 cysteine coordination upon reduction, a conclusion distinct from those of previous studies of a different ferrous DGCR8 isoform

A NuSTAR Survey of Nearby Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies

We present a Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), Chandra, and XMM-Newton survey of nine of the nearest ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). The unprecedented sensitivity of NuSTAR at energies above 10 keV enables spectral modeling with far better precision than was previously possible. Six of the nine sources observed were detected sufficiently well by NuSTAR to model in detail their broadband X-ray spectra, and recover the levels of obscuration and intrinsic X-ray luminosities. Only one source (IRAS 13120–5453) has a spectrum consistent with a Compton-thick active galactic nucleus (AGN), but we cannot rule out that a second source (Arp 220) harbors an extremely highly obscured AGN as well. Variability in column density (reduction by a factor of a few compared to older observations) is seen in IRAS 05189–2524 and Mrk 273, altering the classification of these borderline sources from Compton-thick to Compton-thin. The ULIRGs in our sample have surprisingly low observed fluxes in high-energy (>10 keV) X-rays, especially compared to their bolometric luminosities. They have lower ratios of unabsorbed 2–10 keV to bolometric luminosity, and unabsorbed 2–10 keV to mid-IR [O iv] line luminosity than do Seyfert 1 galaxies. We identify IRAS 08572+3915 as another candidate intrinsically X-ray weak source, similar to Mrk 231. We speculate that the X-ray weakness of IRAS 08572+3915 is related to its powerful outflow observed at other wavelengths

Sodium alginate decreases the permeability of intestinal mucus

In the small intestine the nature of the environment leads to a highly heterogeneous mucus layer primarily composed of the MUC2 mucin. We set out to investigate whether the soluble dietary fibre sodium alginate could alter the permeability of the mucus layer. The alginate was shown to freely diffuse into the mucus and to have minimal effect on the bulk rheology when added at concentrations below 0.1%. Despite this lack of interaction between the mucin and alginate, the addition of alginate had a marked effect on the diffusion of 500 nm probe particles, which decreased as a function of increasing alginate concentration. Finally, we passed a protein stabilised emulsion through a simulation of oral, gastric and small intestinal digestion. We subsequently showed that the addition of 0.1% alginate to porcine intestinal mucus decreased the diffusion of fluorescently labelled lipid present in the emulsion digesta. This reduction may be sufficient to reduce problems associated with high rates of lipid absorption such as hyperlipidaemia

Elimination of T cell reactivity to pancreatic β cells and partial preservation of β cell activity by peptide blockade of LFA-1:ICAM-1 interaction in the NOD mouse model

In insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (T1D), self-reactive T cells infiltrate pancreatic islets and induce beta cell destruction and dysregulation of blood glucose. A goal is to control only the self-reactive T cells, leaving the remainder of the T cell population free to protect the host. One approach is blockade of the second signal for T cell activation while allowing the first (antigen-specific) signal to occur. This work proposes that small peptides that block interaction of second signals delivered through the counter receptors LFA-1:ICAM-1 will induce attacking T cells (receiving the antigen signal) to become anergic or undergo apoptosis. In NOD mice, the peptides eliminated T cell reactivity against pancreatic antigens and reduced cellular infiltration into islets, which retained stronger density of insulin staining at five weeks after cessation of therapy. In in vitro studies the peptides induced nonresponsiveness during activation of T cells from mice and from human peripheral blood

Herschel*-ATLAS: deep HST/WFC3 imaging of strongly lensed submillimetre galaxies

We report on deep near-infrared observations obtained with the Wide Field Camera-3 (WFC3) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) of the first five confirmed gravitational lensing events discovered by the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS). We succeed in disentangling the background galaxy from the lens to gain separate photometry of the two components. The HST data allow us to significantly improve on previous constraints of the mass in stars of the lensed galaxy and to perform accurate lens modelling of these systems, as described in the accompanying paper by Dye et al. We fit the spectral energy distributions of the background sources from near-IR to millimetre wavelengths and use the magnification factors estimated by Dye et al. to derive the intrinsic properties of the lensed galaxies. We find these galaxies to have star-formations rates (SFR) ∼ 400–2000 M⊙ yr−1, with ∼(6–25) × 1010 M⊙ of their baryonic mass already turned into stars. At these rates of star formation, all remaining molecular gas will be exhausted in less than ∼100 Myr, reaching a final mass in stars of a few 1011 M⊙. These galaxies are thus proto-ellipticals caught during their major episode of star formation, and observed at the peak epoch (z ∼ 1.5–3) of the cosmic star formation history of the Universe

Corrigendum to "Global and regional emission estimates for HCFC-22", Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 10033–10050, 2012

No abstract available