Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Mail that Feeds the Family: Popular Correspondence and Official Literacy Campaigns

This paper contributes towards revealing the 'gap' that exists between what Peruvian literacy campaigns seek for 'illiterates' and what these 'illiterates' actually need. Although the discourse of recent governmental literacy programmes stresses the need to take into account the illiterates agency during the whole process, the neoliberal view of development and the idea of an autonomous model of literacy end up building an identity of the 'literate' based on hegemonic interests. The paper will compare this contradictory discourse with a case study of a bilingual Quechua and Spanish-speaking woman who only attended one year of schooling�-�and is probably conceived of as a 'functional illiterate' by the State�-�but has managed to position Spanish literacy practices within the core of her identity as a mother and a grandmother. The analysis of a literacy event within a context of migration will reveal how literacy appropriation may be related to cultural transmission and to affection.

Kreislaufstillstand in besonderen Situationen

Truhlář A, Deakin CD, Soar J, et al. Kreislaufstillstand in besonderen Situationen. Notfall + Rettungsmedizin. 2015;18(8):833-903