Human rights and ethical reasoning : capabilities, conventions and spheres of public action

This interdisciplinary article argues that human rights must be understood in terms of opportunities for social participation and that social and economic rights are integral to any discussion of the subject. We offer both a social constructionist and a normative framework for a sociology of human rights which reaches beyond liberal individualism, combining insights from the work of Amartya Sen and from French convention theory. Following Sen, we argue that human rights are founded on the promotion of human capabilities as ethical demands shaped by public reasoning. Using French convention theory, we show how the terms of such deliberation are shaped by different constructions of collectively held values and the compromises reached between them. We conclude by demonstrating how our approach offers a new perspective on spheres of public action and the role these should play in promoting social cohesion, individual capabilities and human rights

Vitamin intake is associated with improved visuospatial and verbal semantic memory in middle-aged individuals

Objectives: Factors maintaining cognitive health are still largely unknown. In particular, the cognitive benefits associated with vitamin intake and vitamin supplementation are disputed. We investigated self-reported vitamin intake and serum vitamin levels with performance in cognitive factors sensitive to dementia progression in two large middle-aged general population cohorts. Methods: Survey data was used to assess regular vitamin intake in 4400 NCDS 1958 and 1177 TwinsUK cohort members, and serum homocysteine and B vitamin levels were measured in 675 individuals from the TwinsUK study. Principal component analysis was applied to cognitive test performance from both cohorts resulting in two dementia-sensitive cognitive factors reflecting visuospatial associative memory and verbal semantic memory. Results: In both cohorts, individuals who reported regular intake of vitamins, particularly B vitamins, showed significantly better performance in visuospatial associative memory and verbal semantic memory (p < 0.001). A significant association was also found between homocysteine levels, vitamin serum concentration and visuospatial associative memory performance which indicated that individuals with high B vitamin and homocysteine levels showed better visuospatial associative memory performance than individuals with low vitamin B levels (p < 0.05). Discussion: The findings demonstrate that early dementia-sensitive cognitive changes can be identified in middle-aged asymptomatic individuals and that regular vitamin intake is associated with improved cognitive performance. These findings reinforce the potential cognitive benefits of regular vitamin intake, which should be considered as an economically viable therapeutic strategy for maintaining cognitive health

Defining Rules for Kinematic Shapes with Variable Spatial Relations

Designing mechanisms can be a challenging problem, because the underlying kinematics involved are typically not intuitively incorporated into common techniques for design representation. Kinematic shapes and kinematic grammars build on the shape grammar and making grammar formalisms to enable a visually intuitive approach to model and explore mechanisms. With reference to the lower kinematic pairs this paper introduces kinematic shapes. These are connected shapes with parts which have variable spatial relations that account for the relative motion of the parts. The paper considers how such shapes can be defined, the role of elements shared by connected parts, and the motions that result. It also considers how kinematic shape rules can be employed to generate and explore the motion of mechanisms

Origin of symbol-using systems: speech, but not sign, without the semantic urge

Natural language—spoken and signed—is a multichannel phenomenon, involving facial and body expression, and voice and visual intonation that is often used in the service of a social urge to communicate meaning. Given that iconicity seems easier and less abstract than making arbitrary connections between sound and meaning, iconicity and gesture have often been invoked in the origin of language alongside the urge to convey meaning. To get a fresh perspective, we critically distinguish the origin of a system capable of evolution from the subsequent evolution that system becomes capable of. Human language arose on a substrate of a system already capable of Darwinian evolution; the genetically supported uniquely human ability to learn a language reflects a key contact point between Darwinian evolution and language. Though implemented in brains generated by DNA symbols coding for protein meaning, the second higher-level symbol-using system of language now operates in a world mostly decoupled from Darwinian evolutionary constraints. Examination of Darwinian evolution of vocal learning in other animals suggests that the initial fixation of a key prerequisite to language into the human genome may actually have required initially side-stepping not only iconicity, but the urge to mean itself. If sign languages came later, they would not have faced this constraint

Impact of foot-and-mouth disease on mastitis and culling on a large-scale dairy farm in Kenya

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a highly transmissible viral infection of cloven hooved animals associated with severe economic losses when introduced into FMD-free countries. Information on the impact of the disease in FMDV-endemic countries is poorly characterised yet essential for the prioritisation of scarce resources for disease control programmes. A FMD (virus serotype SAT2) outbreak on a large-scale dairy farm in Nakuru County, Kenya provided an opportunity to evaluate the impact of FMD on clinical mastitis and culling rate. A cohort approach followed animals over a 12-month period after the commencement of the outbreak. For culling, all animals were included; for mastitis, those over 18 months of age. FMD was recorded in 400/644 cattle over a 29-day period. During the follow-up period 76 animals were culled or died whilst in the over 18 month old cohort 63 developed clinical mastitis. Hazard ratios (HR) were generated using Cox regression accounting for non-proportional hazards by inclusion of time-varying effects. Univariable analysis showed FMD cases were culled sooner but there was no effect on clinical mastitis. After adjusting for possible confounders and inclusion of time-varying effects there was weak evidence to support an effect of FMD on culling (HR = 1.7, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.88-3.1, P = 0.12). For mastitis, there was stronger evidence of an increased rate in the first month after the onset of the outbreak (HR = 2.9, 95%CI 0.97-8.9, P = 0.057)

Amino-Modified Polymer Immobilized Ionic Liquid Stabilized Ruthenium Nanoparticles: Efficient and Selective Catalysts for the Partial and Complete Reduction of Quinolines

RuNPs stabilised by amino-decorated imidazolium-based polymer immobilized ionic liquids catalyse the dimethylamine borane mediated reduction of quinolines to 1,2-dihydroquinoline (DHQ) and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline (THQ). Partial reduction of 3-substituted quinolines to the corresponding 1,2-dihydroquinoline was achieved with 100 % selectivity in toluene under mild conditions. This is the first report of the selective partial reduction of 3-substituted quinolines to the corresponding 1,2-dihydroquinolines with a heterogeneous nanoparticle-based catalyst. A wide range of substituted quinolines have also been reduced to the corresponding 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline with high selectivity and good yields by adjusting the reaction time. The 1,2-dihydroquinolines readily release dihydrogen in toluene at 60 °C in the absence of catalyst with no evidence for disproportionation and as such are potential organo-hydride reagents. The initial TOF of 610 mol quinoline converted mol Ru−1 h−1 for the reduction of quinoline is among the highest to be reported for a metal nanoparticle-based catalyst and the conversion of 96 % obtained after 4 h at 65 °C is significantly higher than its platinum nanoparticle counterpart PtNP@NH2-PEGPIILS as well as 5 wt/% Ru/C, which only reached 9 % and 11 % conversion, respectively, at the same time. Hot filtration experiments showed that the active species was heterogeneous

Universality, limits and predictability of gold-medal performances at the Olympic Games

Inspired by the Games held in ancient Greece, modern Olympics represent the world's largest pageant of athletic skill and competitive spirit. Performances of athletes at the Olympic Games mirror, since 1896, human potentialities in sports, and thus provide an optimal source of information for studying the evolution of sport achievements and predicting the limits that athletes can reach. Unfortunately, the models introduced so far for the description of athlete performances at the Olympics are either sophisticated or unrealistic, and more importantly, do not provide a unified theory for sport performances. Here, we address this issue by showing that relative performance improvements of medal winners at the Olympics are normally distributed, implying that the evolution of performance values can be described in good approximation as an exponential approach to an a priori unknown limiting performance value. This law holds for all specialties in athletics-including running, jumping, and throwing-and swimming. We present a self-consistent method, based on normality hypothesis testing, able to predict limiting performance values in all specialties. We further quantify the most likely years in which athletes will breach challenging performance walls in running, jumping, throwing, and swimming events, as well as the probability that new world records will be established at the next edition of the Olympic Games.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Supporting information files and data are available at filrad.homelinux.or

Metabolic reprogramming during neuronal differentiation.

Newly generated neurons pass through a series of well-defined developmental stages, which allow them to integrate into existing neuronal circuits. After exit from the cell cycle, postmitotic neurons undergo neuronal migration, axonal elongation, axon pruning, dendrite morphogenesis and synaptic maturation and plasticity. Lack of a global metabolic analysis during early cortical neuronal development led us to explore the role of cellular metabolism and mitochondrial biology during ex vivo differentiation of primary cortical neurons. Unexpectedly, we observed a huge increase in mitochondrial biogenesis. Changes in mitochondrial mass, morphology and function were correlated with the upregulation of the master regulators of mitochondrial biogenesis, TFAM and PGC-1α. Concomitant with mitochondrial biogenesis, we observed an increase in glucose metabolism during neuronal differentiation, which was linked to an increase in glucose uptake and enhanced GLUT3 mRNA expression and platelet isoform of phosphofructokinase 1 (PFKp) protein expression. In addition, glutamate-glutamine metabolism was also increased during the differentiation of cortical neurons. We identified PI3K-Akt-mTOR signalling as a critical regulator role of energy metabolism in neurons. Selective pharmacological inhibition of these metabolic pathways indicate existence of metabolic checkpoint that need to be satisfied in order to allow neuronal differentiation

Update of variants identified in the pancreatic β-cell K ATP channel genes KCNJ11 and ABCC8 in individuals with congenital hyperinsulinism and diabetes

The most common genetic cause of neonatal diabetes and hyperinsulinism is pathogenic variants in ABCC8 and KCNJ11. These genes encode the subunits of the β-cell ATP-sensitive potassium channel, a key component of the glucose-stimulated insulin secretion pathway. Mutations in the two genes cause dysregulated insulin secretion; inactivating mutations cause an oversecretion of insulin, leading to congenital hyperinsulinism, whereas activating mutations cause the opposing phenotype, diabetes. This review focuses on variants identified in ABCC8 and KCNJ11, the phenotypic spectrum and the treatment implications for individuals with pathogenic variants.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the publisher URL to access it via the publisher's site.P30 DK020595/NH/NIH HHS/United States K23 DK094866/NH/NIH HHS/United States R03 DK103096/NH/NIH HHS/United States 1-11-CT-41/American Diabetes Association/International R01 DK104942/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom WT098395/Z/12/Z/WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom UL1 TR000430/NH/NIH HHS/United States P30 DK020595/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States UL1 TR000430/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/United States 1-17-JDF-008/American Diabetes Association/International 105636/Z/14/Z/WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom 110675/European Association for the Study of Diabetes-Novo Nordisk/International 16/0005407/DUK_/Diabetes UK/United Kingdom R01 DK104942/NH/NIH HHS/United States R03 DK103096/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States K23 DK094866/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United Statespublished version, accepted version (12 month embargo), submitted versio