Re-searching and Re-storying the Complex and Complicated Relationship of Biophilia and Bibliophilia

All of us are serious bibliophiles and biophiles. What initially drew us together to carry a sustained conversation, which has resulted in writing this paper, is a discovery that in our respective lived experiences of parenting we tried to cultivate in our children biophilia through bibliophilia, imagining that there was a direct and straightforward connect, almost a causal connection, between the two. Our parenting experience “taught” us otherwise; and now, through this collaborative conversation and writing, we are unpacking, with theoretical aids from the literature, the complex and complicated, not to mention practically challenging, biophilia-bibliophilia connection. This paper captures a reflective exploration and collective sharing of our own life experiment, seeking to create ripples of provocation as well as resonation in the reader. Given this intent, it is fair to declare from the outset that our narrative inquiry work here does not aim to prove, disprove, or even recommend any generalizable pedagogic thesis, if indeed such research intent is possible today in a postmodernity burdened with the understanding that “[t]here can never be a final, accurate representation of what was meant or said—only different textual representations of different experiences” (Denzin, 1997, p. 5). The kind of research, such as ours, that re-searches lived experience to glean insights and further illuminate and animate personal experience is best offered, we believe, as an invitation to the reader to enter into a textual field of resonance and see how the text evokes, provokes, illuminates, and animate

TRANSMISIÓN DE PARTICIPACIONES SOCIALES INTERVIVOS (Estudio de los Estatutos de la sociedad “ARAGONESA DE LOS VIENTOS Y ELECTRICIDAD, SOCIEDAD LIMITADA”)

En el presente Trabajo fin de Máster se va a analizar el régimen de transmisión de participaciones sociales intervivos, que debe aplicarse en función de lo establecido en los estatutos de la sociedad “ARAGONESA DE LOS VIENTOS Y ELECTRICIDAD, SOCIEDAD LIMITADA" y de las disposiciones legales.<br /

El carácter abusivo de las cláusulas de vencimiento anticipado en los contratos bancarios con los consumidores, a la luz de la jurisprudencia reciente

En el presente Trabajo Fin de Grado lo que se pretende es abordar el tema de la cláusula de vencimiento anticipado en los contratos bancarios celebrados con los consumidores y usuarios. El enfoque del análisis de dicha cláusula será desde la perspectiva de la jurisprudencia reciente, ya que varias sentencias han considerado que esta cláusula es abusiva cuando no cumple una serie de requisitos.<br /

Nachhaltige Effekte aus der COVID-bedingten Online-Lehre?! Didaktik-Boost für die Digitalisierung der Lehre

Im Fokus der vorliegenden Arbeit steht die Frage, welche Elemente der pandemiebedingten Online-Lehre aus Sicht der Lehrenden nachhaltig im Hochschulalltag verankert werden sollen. Mittels einer Online-Umfrage wurden Lehrende der Fachhochschule Oberösterreich diesbezüglich befragt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich die Lehrenden weiterhin digital-gestützte Lehre vorstellen können, bevorzugt als Blended Learning. Für die nachhaltige Implementierung digitaler Lehrelemente bedarf es Voraussetzungen auf organisatorischer wie individueller Ebene. (DIPF/Orig.

Inhibition of Stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 reverts BRAF and MEK inhibition-induced selection of cancer stem cells in BRAF-mutated melanoma

Combination therapy with BRAF and MEK inhibitors significantly improves survival in BRAF mutated melanoma patients but is unable to prevent disease recurrence due to the emergence of drug resistance. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been involved in these long-term treatment failures. We previously reported in lung cancer that CSCs maintenance is due to altered lipid metabolism and dependent upon Stearoyl-CoA-desaturase (SCD1)-mediated upregulation of YAP and TAZ. On this ground, we investigated the role of SCD1 in melanoma CSCs

Methodology for measuring the seismic effects generated by quarry blasting works

Exploitation of useful mineral substances by surface works is an important branch of mining activity. For rocks of low strength or weak aggregation, the method of extraction by mechanical means (excavators of various types, draglines) is successfully applied, but for rocks of medium and high strength, aggregated with or without cracks, or other geological anomalies, the method of extraction generalized exploitation is that by drilling-blasting, using explosives appropriate to the field conditions and correlated according to the technical possibilities and the geometry of the work. One of the major disadvantages to the technologies where drillingblasting works are applied is the generation of seismic waves, which will propagate after the detonation of the charges. In the common situation, where in the area of operation are civilian or industrial targets, that need to be protected, it is important to monitor these effects by performing seismic measurements and then processing the data to adjust the blasting technique in order to reduce these seismic waves in intensity, but while maintaining adequate performance parameters. The paper presents the methodology based on technical-scientific principles for performing these measurements, applied to surface exploitation

Inhibition of NOX1 mitigates blood pressure increases in elastin insufficiency

Elastin (ELN) insufficiency leads to the cardiovascular hallmarks of the contiguous gene deletion disorder, Williams-Beuren syndrome, including hypertension and vascular stiffness. Previous studies showed that Williams-Beuren syndrome deletions, which extended to include th

Characterization of the defective interaction between a subset of natural killer cells and dendritic cells in HIV-1 infection

In this study, we demonstrate that the in vitro interactions between a CD56neg/CD16pos (CD56neg) subset of natural killer (NK) cells and autologous dendritic cells (DCs) from HIV-1–infected viremic but not aviremic individuals are markedly impaired and likely interfere with the development of an effective immune response. Among the defective interactions are abnormalities in the process of reciprocal NK–DC activation and maturation as well as a defect in the NK cell–mediated editing or elimination of immature DCs (iDCs). Notably, the lysis of mature DCs (mDCs) by autologous NK cells was highly impaired even after the complete masking of major histocompatibility complex I molecules, suggesting that the defective elimination of autologous iDCs is at the level of activating NK cell receptors. In this regard, the markedly impaired expression/secretion and function of NKp30 and TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand, particularly among the CD56neg NK cell subset, largely accounts for the highly defective NK cell–mediated lysis of autologous iDCs. Moreover, mDCs generated from HIV-1 viremic but not aviremic patients are substantially impaired in their ability to secrete interleukin (IL)-10 and -12 and to prime the proliferation of neighboring autologous NK cells, which, in turn, fail to secrete adequate amounts of interferon-γ

Klebsiella pneumoniae is able to trigger epithelial-mesenchymal transition process in cultured airway epithelial cells

The ability of some bacterial pathogens to activate Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition normally is a consequence of the persistence of a local chronic inflammatory response or depends on a direct interaction of the pathogens with the host epithelial cells. In this study we monitored the abilities of the K. pneumoniae to activate the expression of genes related to EMT-like processes and the occurrence of phenotypic changes in airway epithelial cells during the early steps of cell infection. We describe changes in the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species and increased HIF-1α mRNA expression in cells exposed to K. pneumoniae infection. We also describe the upregulation of a set of transcription factors implicated in the EMT processes, such as Twist, Snail and ZEB, indicating that the morphological changes of epithelial cells already appreciable after few hours from the K. pneumoniae infection are tightly regulated by the activation of transcriptional pathways, driving epithelial cells to EMT. These effects appear to be effectively counteracted by resveratrol, an antioxidant that is able to exert a sustained scavenging of the intracellular ROS. This is the first report indicating that strains of K. pneumoniae may promote EMT-like programs through direct interaction with epithelial cells without the involvement of inflammatory cells

Consensus classification of human prion disease histotypes allows reliable identification of molecular subtypes: an inter-rater study among surveillance centres in Europe and USA

The current classification of human sporadic prion diseases recognizes six major phenotypic subtypes with distinctive clinicopathological features, which largely correlate at the molecular level with the genotype at the polymorphic codon 129 (methionine, M, or valine, V) in the prion protein gene and with the size of the protease-resistant core of the abnormal prion protein, PrP(Sc) (i.e. type 1 migrating at 21 kDa and type 2 at 19 kDa). We previously demonstrated that PrP(Sc) typing by Western blotting is a reliable means of strain typing and disease classification. Limitations of this approach, however, particularly in the interlaboratory setting, are the association of PrP(Sc) types 1 or 2 with more than one clinicopathological phenotype, which precludes definitive case classification if not supported by further analysis, and the difficulty of fully recognizing cases with mixed phenotypic features. In this study, we tested the inter-rater reliability of disease classification based only on histopathological criteria. Slides from 21 cases covering the whole phenotypic spectrum of human sporadic prion diseases, and also including two cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), were distributed blindly to 13 assessors for classification according to given instructions. The results showed good-to-excellent agreement between assessors in the classification of cases. In particular, there was full agreement (100 %) for the two most common sporadic CJD subtypes and variant CJD, and very high concordance in general for all pure phenotypes and the most common subtype with mixed phenotypic features. The present data fully support the basis for the current classification of sporadic human prion diseases and indicate that, besides molecular PrP(Sc) typing, histopathological analysis permits reliable disease classification with high interlaboratory accuracy