The Usefulness of Yoga Towards Interconnected Environmental Liberation

There are a great number of interpretations of the term Yoga today, often being an elusive term. Yet we must recognize the importance of questioning which interpretation can provide us with a clear lens into its meaning, given the legacy of colonialism which has warped our understanding of it. Yoga has a great deal to offer us, and some of its imperative offerings for us today are its ethical principles, particularly the dissolution between the opposition of self and other. This paper employs the principles of nonviolence, non-stealing, and moderation from the yamas (external ethics) of Patanjali’s eight-fold path, as well as loving-kindness from Buddhism. Using a decolonial framework, we see that some of the initial definitions of Yoga have come from a divisive perspective, dissonant with its most common Sanskrit translation to literally mean “union.” Even the lines drawn between the dharmic traditions skew them away from the multiplicity model that had existed before colonial involvement. With unconscious intentions to define these traditions from a Western perspective, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism were deemed religions independent of one another, similar to the way colonial powers kept practices divided based on religious definition for Western practitioners. By zeroing into Hinduism, for example, it is evident that this term was simply fabricated to define the indigenous practices of those living around the Indus River and land past it from the European perspective. Yet these dharmic practices were often responses to one another, as they intermingled and informed one another throughout their evolution upon the Indian subcontinent. As such, they can be understood to be interdependent with one another. The ethics contained within them as well have been that of non-division between the surrounding environment and animals, lacking the notion of the superiority of humans over non-humans, similar to the lack of superiority of one spiritual path over another. It is this perspective of union which has the potential to refashion our relationship with the other, as Yoga works to both demolish the ego and any false divisions it convinces us exist. The main illusory division which has contributed to violence and theft from the non-human world is that of our innate humanness, which is one of the ego’s last efforts while being deconstructed by yogic practices. This is how it may be useful for our modern-day struggle to achieve climate and animal justice. In particular, our survivalist fear-based power struggle with the non-human world has clouded us from seeing that we must surrender to the interdependent truth of compassion if we are to heal the wrongs we have committed to the supposed “other.” If we consider the outrageous breeding and cyclical murder of cows and bulls for dairy, a byproduct of their reproductive cycle which is wholly unnecessary for human consumption, we can see the dire necessity to inhabit greater compassion for non-humans. It is this very negligence which continues to plummet Earth’s potential to remain our habitable home, as animal agriculture accounts for unimaginable levels of resource depletion and produces all spectrums of illnesses within humans upon exposure or consumption. Only by receding from this violence can we understand that loving-kindness requires surrender of our survivalist nature and redirection towards ethical alternatives as often as possible. In this way, we can remain accountable to deconstruct our inherently divisive ego and achieve collective freedom

Plasma Proteomic Analysis Identified Proteins Associated with Faulty Neutrophils Functionality in Decompensated Cirrhosis Patients with Sepsis

Decompensated cirrhosis (DC) is susceptible to infections and sepsis. Neutrophils and monocytes provide the first line of defense to encounter infection. We aimed to evaluate proteins related to neutrophils functionality in sepsis. 70 (DC), 40 with sepsis, 30 without (w/o) sepsis and 15 healthy controls (HC) plasma was analyzed for proteomic analysis, cytokine bead array, endotoxin, cell free DNA and whole blood cells were analyzed for nCD64-mHLADR index, neutrophils-monocytes, functionality and QRT-PCR. nCD64-mHLADR index was significantly increased (p p = 0.045). Phagocytic activity of both neutrophils and monocytes were significantly decreased in sepsis (p = 0.002 and p = 0.0003). Sepsis plasma stimulated healthy neutrophils, showed significant increase in NETs (neutrophil extracellular traps) and cell free DNA (p = 0.049 and p = 0.04) compared to w/o sepsis and HC. Proteomic analysis revealed upregulated- DNAJC13, TMSB4X, GPI, GSTP1, PNP, ANPEP, COTL1, GCA, APOA1 and PGAM1 while downregulated- AHSG, DEFA1,SERPINA3, MPO, MMRN1and PROS1 proteins (FC > 1.5; p < 0.05) associated to neutrophil activation and autophagy in sepsis. Proteins such as DNAJC13, GPI, GSTP1, PNP, ANPEP, COTL1, PGAM1, PROS1, MPO, SERPINA3 and MMRN1 showed positive correlation with neutrophils activity and number, oxidative burst activity and clinical parameters such as MELD, MELD Na and Bilirubin. Proteomic analysis revealed that faulty functionality of neutrophils may be due to the autophagy proteins i.e., DNAJC13, AHSG, TMSB4X, PROS1 and SERPINA3, which can be used as therapeutic targets in decompensated cirrhosis patients with sepsis

Soluble factors and suppressive monocytes can predict early development of sepsis in acute‐on‐chronic liver failure

Abstract Patients with acute‐on‐chronic liver failure (ACLF) have a high probability of developing systemic inflammation and sepsis due to immune dysregulation. Fifty‐nine patients with ACLF (12 without and 19 with systemic inflammation, and 28 with sepsis) were serially monitored for clinical and immunological changes at baseline, 6 hours, 24 hours, day 3, and day 7 following hospitalization. Ten healthy controls were also included. At all time points, soluble plasma factors and monocyte functions were studied. Patients with ACLF and systemic inflammation showed higher interleukin (IL)–6, vascular endothelial growth factor‐a, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, and macrophage inflammatory protein 1β than patients with no systemic inflammation. Patients with ACLF with sepsis had raised (p < 0.001) levels of IL‐1Ra, IL‐18, and triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (TREM1) compared to patients with ACLF‐systemic inflammation. Five of the 19 (26.3%) patients with systemic inflammation developed sepsis within 48–72 hours with a rapid rise in plasma levels of IL‐1Ra (1203–35,000 pg/ml), IL‐18 (48–114 pg/ml), and TREM1 (1273–4865 pg/ml). Monocytes of patients with ACLF with systemic inflammation and sepsis showed reduced human leukocyte antigen–DR but increased programmed death ligand 1 (PD‐L1) and T‐cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain‐containing protein 3 (TIM3) (p < 0.04) expression with increased ETosis by monocytes at baseline and until day 7. Conclusion: High and rising levels of plasma IL‐1Ra, IL‐18, TREM1 soluble factors, and increased suppressive monocytes (PDL1+ve, TIM3+ve) at baseline can stratify patients with ACLF at high risk of developing sepsis within 48–72 hours of hospitalization