Science and Religion in Traditional Indian Medicine: the Laws of Nature and the Individual in Western Āyurvedic Practice

Traditional medicine (especially Āyurvedic medicine) was taken by Indian nationalism as a synecdoche for traditional culture. In the face of European claims for scientific and technological pre-eminence, Indian thinkers such as Aurobindo, Vivekananda, Radakrishnan, accepted European representations of Indian thinking as mystic and intuitive, to define it as distinctive of Indian identity, both as effective as Western scientific discourse and complementary to it. Āyurvedic medicine was regarded by some scholars as the leading field where the Indian ability to produce scientifically effective knowledge expressed itself. Reinterpretations of traditional medical concepts by means of biomedical theories helped to see them as grounded in natural prescriptions, instead of social rules, given by Āyurvedic texts. This accounts for the increasing interest that Āyurvedic medicine arouses in Western countries, especially among those who wish values to be reintroduced into biomedical theory. Keywords: traditional medicine; Āyurvedic practice; nature; individual; medical anthropology; India. Resumen La medicina tradicional (Āyurveda) ha sido considerada por el nacionalismo indio como una sinécdoque por la cultura local y tradicional. Frente a la pretensión europea de superioridad tecnológica y científica, los intelectuales indios como Aurobindo, Vivenkananda, Radakrishnan, aceptaron las representaciones europeas de un pensamiento indio caracterizado por el misticismo y la intuición, y lo convirtieron en un medio de definición de la realidad, distintivo de la identidad india, considerándolo tan eficaz como el discurso científico occidental, y aún complementario. La medicina Āyurveda ha sido considerada como la principal competencia india en la que es posible expresar un conocimiento científico eficaz. Re-interpretaciones de los conceptos tradicionales de la medicina según teorías biomédicas basaron las prescripciones de los textos ayurvédicos en leyes naturales, y no en artificiosas convenciones sociales. Eso explica el interés por la medicina Āyurveda en Occidente, sobre todo entre los que desean reintroducir los valores en la teoría biomédica. Palabras clave: medicina tradicional; pràctica ayurvédica; naturaleza; individuo; antropología médica; India

Science and religion in traditional Indian medicine: the laws of nature and the individual in Western AyurVedic practice

La medicina tradicional (Âyurveda) ha sido considerada por el nacionalismo indio como una sinécdoque por la cultura local y tradicional. Frente a la pretensión europea de superioridad tecnológica y científica, los intelectuales indios como Aurobindo, Vivenkananda, Radakrishnan, aceptaron las representaciones europeas de un pensamiento indio caracterizado por el misticismo y la intuición, y lo convirtieron en un medio de definición de la realidad, distintivo de la identidad india, considerándolo tan eficaz como el discurso científico occidental, y aún complementario. La medicina Âyurveda ha sido considerada como la principal competencia india en la que es posible expresar un conocimiento científico eficaz. Re-interpretaciones de los conceptos tradicionales de la medicina según teorías biomédicas basaron las prescripciones de los textos ayurvédicos en leyes naturales, y no en artificiosas convenciones sociales. Eso explica el interés por la medicina Âyurveda en Occidente, sobre todo entre los que desean reintroducir los valores en la teoría biomédica

New and old players in the hepcidin pathway

The identification of the liver peptide hepcidin at the beginning of the new millennium opened a new era in our understanding of iron metabolism.[1][1]–[3][2] Hepcidin is the main regulator of intestinal iron absorption and macrophage iron release, thus ultimately of the iron available fo

Investigation of the reactivity of Li- and Na- alanates as conversion anodes for lithium ion batteries

As for borohydrides, the alanate family promises very interesting capacities due to the light molar weight of aluminum and the high hydrogen content of these complex hydrides. In fact, in view of a full conversion reaction in LiH and metal elements, they can theoretically achieve more than 1000 mAhg-1 exchanging at least 3 electrons for redox center. Furthermore, their thermal stability makes these compounds feasible candidates for practical applications (details are in chapter 3). The interest in them has been supported from pioneering DFT calculation performed in our laboratory few years ago [25,26], with the task to theoretically demonstrate the feasibility of alanates conversion reaction and its exploitability for application in lithium ion batteries. Besides our investigations, also Trepovich et al. [24] recently reported the use of LiAlH4 and NaAlH4 as anodes in lithium cells, furnishing a reference for comparison of our results and conclusions. This PhD thesis provides the experimental evidences of the electrochemical activity of sodium and lithium alanates in lithium cells. The focus is on the properties and reaction mechanism of tetrahydro-alluminates (LiAlH4 and NaAlH4). Beside them, further three hexa-alanates phases (Li3AlH6, Na3AlH6 and Li Na2AlH6) have been investigated. In fact, the electrochemical reaction mechanism is expected to involve the formation of these compounds in the intermediate steps. Therefore, their behavior in electrochemical cells have been used to delineate a full picture of the conversion mechanism of the corresponding tetrahydro-alluminates compounds. The work has been structured in three sections. The first section is focused on lithium alanates (LiAlH4 and Li3AlH6). Chapter 4 reports the studies conducted on LiAlH4. After confirming the electrochemical activity of this compound, mechanochemical treatments have been used to improve its performance. It's well known that mechanical grinding causes the reduction of the particles and induces strains that could lead to a better diffusion of hydrogen and lithium by increasing the number of diffusion paths. Comparisons with pristine sample have been made to evaluate the effects of the performed treatments on the structure, morphology and electrochemical performance. The electrochemical reaction mechanism has been elucidated by ex-situ diffraction experiments on LiAlH4 based electrodes at different state of charge. The chapter ends with the study of the reactivity of LiAlH4 with the carbonate based electrolyte used for electrochemical tests. Chapter 5 provides the results for Li3AlH6. In this case, mechanochemistry has been used to synthesize the compound. Second section describes the sodium alanates compounds (NaAlH4, Na3AlH6 and LiNa2AlH6). As already did for lithium alanates, mechanochemical treatments have been used both to activate the bare NaAlH4 (chapter 6) and to synthesize hexa-alanates phases (chapter 7). Then, for the obtained samples the chemical-physical and the electrochemical properties have been studied. Finally, in the chapter 8, the conversion reactions of the three phases have been described by in situ diffraction experiments during discharge/charge cycling. Further investigations have been addressed on NaAlH4, in view of the encouraging results obtained. In conclusion, the last section is dedicated to the performance improvements of the alanates based electrodes. In fact, for all the samples poor cell efficiency and cyclability have been observed. This could be mainly ascribed to the big volumetric expansion observed with conversion reaction as well to the high reactivity of this materials with the common solvents used as electrolytes, due to the high reducing power of alanates. Two main strategies have been adopted to reduce these effects: the nanoconfinement in a nanoporous carbon matrix, as described in chapter 9 and the replacement of carbonates based electrolyte with an ionic liquid, as in chapter 10

De la valeur heuristique du malentendu

En m’inspirant d’un essai de Gerald Berreman, je reprends les métaphores dramaturgiques d’Erving Goffman pour analyser les interactions sur mon terrain ethnologique au Kerala (Inde). Comme le dit Goffman, le chercheur et ses interlocuteurs sur le terrain tendent à considérer les règles de bienséance comme allant de soi, jusqu’à ce qu’une perturbation révèle les implicites de l’interaction. Avant de me rendre au Kerala j’avais été prévenue de la réticence des maîtres d’arts martiaux à transmettre leur savoir et de l’importance de gagner leur confiance. Ainsi, les premiers mois de séjour dans une école d’arts martiaux (kaḷarippayaṟṟụ), j’ai évité de poser des questions sur les techniques et j’ai laissé le maître décider de la progression de mon apprentissage. Le maître et les autres personnels de l’école, en revanche, donnaient pour acquis que j’étais là pour apprendre rapidement l’art martial, revenir en Europe et donner des cours. Contrairement à mes attentes, ils voyaient cela comme souhaitable. Seules leurs réactions à un faux pas de ma part m’ont permis finalement de reconnaître les représentations réciproques qui avaient influencé nos interactions, et d’ouvrir ainsi les yeux sur une politique de la transmission que je n’avais pas prise en considération jusque là.Drawing inspiration from an essay by Gerald Berreman, I use Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical metaphors to analyze the interactions I experienced in my ethnological fieldwork in Kerala (India). As Goffman points out, the researcher and the people she meets on fieldwork tend to take interaction codes for granted, until a disruption reveals some implicit assumptions. Before going to Kerala, I was forewarned about the martial arts masters’reluctance on sharing their knowledge, and about the importance of gaining their trust. Hence, on the first months of my stay in the martial arts (kaḷarippayaṟṟụ) school I avoided asking questions, and let the master decide on my advancement. On the contrary, the master and the school’s staff took for granted the fact that I was there to quickly learn the martial art, come back to Europe, and teach it. Contrary to my assumptions, they regarded that as desirable. Just their reactions to a ’faux pas’ on my part allowed me to recognize the mutual representations that shaped our interactions, and opened my eyes on a politics of transmission that I had not considered before

La novela policíaca y el mito de la racionalidad

La novela policíaca y el mito de la racionalidadLa novela policíaca y el mito de la racionalida

Teoria e pratica della doppia morte

I personaggi di Borges, nel momento in cui sanno di dover morire, scelgono di morire una seconda volta. La doppia morte o morte eroica è sempre il punto di unione tra sogno e realtà; così facendo l’autore sintetizza la vita dei personaggi in un unico momento come Dante. Il romanzo moderno nasce quando si trasgredisce il rituale che regola la morte: da qui la preferenza di Borges per il romanzo poliziesco o d’avventura e la stesura del Menard, dove l’autore, temendo di dover morire, sceglie un tipo di scrittura che lo riporti a se stesso e gli permetta, nello stesso tempo, quel tradimento letterario che apre la vita ordinaria all’infinito del possibile

Hemojuvelin N-terminal mutants reach the plasma membrane but do not activate the hepcidin response

Background Hemojuvelin is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein, expressed in liver, skeletal muscle and heart. As a co-receptor of bone morphogenetic protein, membrane hemojuvelin positively modulates the iron regulator hepcidin. Mutations of the gene encoding for hemojuvelin cause juvenile hemochromatosis, characterized by hepcidin deficiency and severe iron overload. We have previously shown that several hemojuvelin variants do not efficiently reach the plasma membrane, whereas a few N-terminal mutants localize to the plasma membrane. Design and Methods We studied hemojuvelin mutants of N-terminus (C80R, S85P, G99V, ΔRGD) and GDPH-consensus site for autoproteolysis (A168D, F170S, D172E) transiently expressed in HeLa cells, using electron microscopy, morphometric analysis and binding assays at different time points. Hepcidin activation by wild-type and mutant forms of hemojuvelin was assessed in Hep3B cells transfected with a hepcidin-promoter luciferase-reporter construct. Results S85P, G99V and ΔRGD were localized to plasma membrane 36 hours after transfection, but less efficiently exported than the wild-type protein at earlier (24–30 hours) times. Morphometric analysis clearly documented delayed export and endoplasmic reticulum retention of G99V. C80R was exported without delay. GDPH variants were partially retained in the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus, but showed impaired plasma membrane localization. In the hepcidin promoter assay only wild type hemojuvelin was able to activate hepcidin. Conclusions The delayed export and retention in the endoplasmic reticulum of some N-terminal mutants could contribute to the pathogenesis of juvenile hemochromatosis, reducing a prompt response of bone morphogenetic protein. However, independently of their plasma membrane export, all hemojuvelin mutants tested showed no or minimal hepcidin activation