Multiracial Identity and Racial Consciousness: The Problem of an Unencumbered Self

Persons with multiracial identity are now the fastest growing minority group in both the United States and Britain. As the push to acknowledge, express and celebrate multiracial identities intensifies, the ontological status, meaning of multiracial identities and their relationship to monoracial identities is of increasing importance to our understanding of race relations in both countries. The dilemma that philosophers of race are confronted with is how to identify those persons impacted by racisms without reifying the concept of race and/or falling foul of presenting essentialized group categories. Models that seek to grapple with these ethical problems are typically, if not surprisingly, undergirded by an unencumbered liberal framework that prioritises freedom and equality. The unencumbered conception of the self is historically, socially and morally disconnected such that one’s identity can be separated from one’s values. However, I argue that there is a racial consciousness that constitutes social reality in the United States and Britain and impacts the lived experience. This renders unencumbered models of moral reasoning untenable. Rejecting the unencumbered self, I consider multiracial identity from an encumbered ontological perspective, which posits the evaluation and articulation of identity as constitutive of the self and social reality. This model requires us to address the moral content of racial identities imbedded in the racial consciousness and allows us to consider racial identities, not as proxies for moral commitments but rather as part of a multi-layered process in which a person’s racial identity is both a reflection of and a significant factor in shaping a person’s moral commitments. In light of this, I explore a selection of models of collective responsibility. I claim that in a society with racial consciousness, collective responsibility is best described and understood within the framework of an encumbered conception of the self. Ultimately, I contend that if we are to tackle racial injustice, we must revisit our understanding of moral reasoning as rational, objective and fundamentally unencumbered

Novel 2-amino-isoflavones exhibit aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonist or antagonist activity in a species/cell-specific context

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) mediates the induction of a variety of xenobiotic metabolism genes. Activation of the AhR occurs through binding to a group of structurally diverse compounds, most notably dioxins, which are exogenous ligands. Isoflavones are part of a family which include some well characterised endogenous AhR ligands. This paper analysed a novel family of these compounds, based on the structure of 2-amino-isoflavone. Initially two luciferase-based cell models, mouse H1L6.1c2 and human HG2L6.1c3, were used to identify whether the compounds had AhR agonistic and/or antagonistic properties. This analysis showed that some of the compounds were weak agonists in mouse and antagonists in human. Further analysis of two of the compounds, Chr-13 and Chr-19, was conducted using quantitative real-time PCR in rat H4IIE and human MCF-7 cells. The results indicated that Chr-13 was an agonist in rat but an antagonist in human cells. Chr-19 was shown to be an agonist in rat but more interestingly, a partial agonist in human. Luciferase induction results not only revealed that subtle differences in the structure of the compound could produce species-specific differences in response but also dictated the ability of the compound to be an AhR agonist or antagonist. Substituted 2-amino-isoflavones represent a novel group of AhR ligands that must differentially interact with the AhR ligand binding domain to produce their species-specific agonist or antagonist activity and future ligand binding analysis and docking studies with these compounds may provide insights into the differential mechanisms of action of structurally similar compounds

Assessing Faculty Awareness of Library Services in Two Georgia Undergraduate Institutions

In order to ascertain faculty awareness of library resources and services, librarians at two Georgia intuitions, Georgia Perimeter College and Oglethorpe University, joined forces to conduct a survey in 2012. The results were surprising and challenging, yet productive in forming a benchmark for further collaboration between librarians and faculty in student use of library services and resources

Extent of Awareness on the Anti-VAWC Law Among the Criminology Students

This study embraced the quantitative type of research which involves the quantitative data that are numerical requiring statistical analysis methods. As to the profile of the respondents, around seventy-two percent among the respondents comprise the age bracket of nineteen to twenty-one years old; seventy-nine percent are second year level students; seventy-two percent are male respondents; forty-one percent has one to three children in the family; and fifty-four percent among the respondents have a monthly family income of ten thousand pesos and below. as noted in this research study, many of the respondents are not aware of the following as acts of violence: Hitting, kicking, punching, or causing harmful injury to the woman or child; Acts of grave threat that cause a woman or her child a traumatic experience or risk of imminent danger; Shouting, blaming, use of profane language to a woman or her child to feel low self – esteem; Depriving a woman and her child to provide the basic needs, and sustain the educational needs of their child; Preventing a woman to practice her profession or to work in any establishment to gain additional income; Forcing a woman and/or her children to watch a pornographic scene and engage in any sexual activity and/or acts of lasciviousness; Forcing a woman and/or her children to engage in copulation; Limiting a woman and her children to attend social gatherings with her family, relatives/close kin, or even to meet neighbor’s; and Staying of intimate partner or husband in the house of a woman with her child without any consent or against her will. Few of the respondents are not aware on the following provisions of law- The privilege of filing 10 days leave of absence with pay to cope up with suffering; Filing of complaint even uncommon relationship, such as lesbian/gay, or whom she has a sexual or dating relationship with LGBTQi+ that commits intimate partner violence; and Filing a VAW case against her intimate partner, husband, or any person who commit domestic violence in barangay or lawful authority. Indeed, seminars and orientation as well as strong implementation of the law are highly recommended.&nbsp

Contribution of polymorphic variation of inositol hexakisphosphate kinase 3 (IP6K3) gene promoter to the susceptibility to late onset Alzheimer's disease

Maintenance of electric potential and synaptic transmission are energetically demanding tasks that neuronal metabolism must continually satisfy. Inability to fulfil these energy requirements leads to the development of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. A prominent feature of Alzheimer's disease is in fact neuronal glucose hypometabolism. Thus understanding the fine control of energetic metabolism might help to understand neurodegenerative disorders. Recent research has indicated that a novel class of signalling molecules, the inositol pyrophosphates, act as energy sensors. They are able to alter the balance between mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and glycolytic flux, ultimately affecting the cellular level of ATP. The neuronal inositol pyrophosphate synthesis relies on the activity of the neuron enriched inositol hexakisphosphate kinase 3 (IP6K3) enzyme. To verify an involvement of inositol pyrophosphate signalling in neurodegenerative disorders, we performed tagging single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis of the IP6K3 gene in patients with familial and sporadic late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). Two SNPs in the 5'-flanking promoter region of the IP6K3 gene were found to be associated with sporadic LOAD. Characterizing the functionality of the two polymorphisms by luciferase assay revealed that one of them (rs28607030) affects IP6K3 promoter activity, with the G allele showing an increased activity. As the same allele has a beneficial effect on disease risk, this may be related to upregulation of IP6K3 expression, with a consequent increase in inositol pyrophosphate synthesis. In conclusion, we provide the first evidence for a contribution of genetic variability in the IP6K3 gene to LOAD pathogenesis

Addressing the Poor Mathematics Performance of Filipino Learners: Beyond Curricular and Instructional Interventions

This study aimed to determine predictive models that would identify the most important predictor variables for students in the lowest proficiency group in public schools and private schools. After experimenting with different machine learning approaches, the random forest classifier (SVM) models were found to perform most accurately (Lundberg & Lee, 2017). To identify the most important predictors of being a poor performer in mathematics, Shapley values were generated, which produces a ranked list of several features in descending order. To manage complexity in comparing the key variables for private and public student performance classification, the 10 most significant features for the public and private school groups are analyzed and illustrated in Figure 1. Red bars represent direct relationships, whereas blue bars represent inverse relationships with identifying the poor-performing students in mathematics. Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values represent the level of variable importance relative to other variables. The bar length of each variable corresponding to the x-axis values shows the strength of the variable’s influence in the prediction of the model. The meanings of each important variable are summarized in Table 1, which also highlights the similar and contrasting results for private and public schools

Gut thinking: the gut microbiome and mental health beyond the head

Background: In recent decades, dominant models of mental illness have become increasingly focused on the head, with mental disorders being figured as brain disorders. However, research into the active role that the microbiome-gut-brain axis plays in affecting mood and behaviour may lead to the conclusion that mental health is more than an internalised problem of individual brains. Objective: This article explores the implications of shifting understandings about mental health that have come about through research into links between the gut microbiome and mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. It aims to analyse the different ways that the lines between mind and body and mental and physical health are re-shaped by this research, which is starting to inform clinical and public understanding. Design: As mental health has become a pressing issue of political and public concern it has become increasingly constructed in socio-cultural and personal terms beyond clinical spaces, requiring a conceptual response that exceeds biomedical inquiry. This article argues that an interdisciplinary critical medical humanities approach is well positioned to analyse the impact of microbiome-gut-brain research on conceptions of mind. Results: The entanglement of mind and matter evinced by microbiome-gut-brain axis research potentially provides a different way to conceptualise the physical and social concomitants of mental distress. Conclusion: Mental health is not narrowly located in the head but is assimilated by the physical body and intermingled with the natural world, requiring different methods of research to unfold the meanings and implications of gut thinking for conceptions of human selfhood

Balancing Selection at the Tomato RCR3 Guardee Gene Family Maintains Variation in Strength of Pathogen Defense

Coevolution between hosts and pathogens is thought to occur between interacting molecules of both species. This results in the maintenance of genetic diversity at pathogen antigens (or so-called effectors) and host resistance genes such as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) in mammals or resistance (R) genes in plants. In plant-pathogen interactions, the current paradigm posits that a specific defense response is activated upon recognition of pathogen effectors via interaction with their corresponding R proteins. According to the''Guard-Hypothesis,'' R proteins (the ``guards'') can sense modification of target molecules in the host (the ``guardees'') by pathogen effectors and subsequently trigger the defense response. Multiple studies have reported high genetic diversity at R genes maintained by balancing selection. In contrast, little is known about the evolutionary mechanisms shaping the guardee, which may be subject to contrasting evolutionary forces. Here we show that the evolution of the guardee RCR3 is characterized by gene duplication, frequent gene conversion, and balancing selection in the wild tomato species Solanum peruvianum. Investigating the functional characteristics of 54 natural variants through in vitro and in planta assays, we detected differences in recognition of the pathogen effector through interaction with the guardee, as well as substantial variation in the strength of the defense response. This variation is maintained by balancing selection at each copy of the RCR3 gene. Our analyses pinpoint three amino acid polymorphisms with key functional consequences for the coevolution between the guardee (RCR3) and its guard (Cf-2). We conclude that, in addition to coevolution at the ``guardee-effector'' interface for pathogen recognition, natural selection acts on the ``guard-guardee'' interface. Guardee evolution may be governed by a counterbalance between improved activation in the presence and prevention of auto-immune responses in the absence of the corresponding pathogen