bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Religion: The Final Frontier of the Rainbow Nation
Authors: Scharnick-Udemans Lee-Shae Salma
Published: December 2020

This article assesses the ways in which religious diversity and religious pluralism are asserted and negotiated within the context of contemporary South Africa through scrutinising the Christian Friendly Products campaign which advocates against the ubiquity of the halaal food symbol and halaal food in South Africa. Halaal is an Islamic term, which refers to food products that are ritually permissible for consumption by Muslims. The campaign claims that the visible presence of halaal food in public spaces undermines the rights of Christian consumers, is an affront to the beliefs of Christians, and is a presage to the impending Islamisation of South Africa. In claiming that religion is the final frontier of the rainbow nation, this article argues that the myth of rainbowism, once wielded as a peacemaking gesture and nation building tool, has projected inaccurate representations of religious coexistence and difference in South Africa that obscure and minimise growing religious conflict and tension.
“Illius sponsi thalamus fuit uterus virginis”
Authors: de Wet Chris L.
Published: December 2020

This article examines the image of Mary’s womb as the bridal chamber in which the Word and the flesh, the divine and the human natures of Christ, are united. The image presents the reader with a paradox – the Word and the flesh engage in a divine unification and comingling in the womb of the virgin. The study traces the development of the image in the earlier works of Augustine, and contextualises it within Augustine’s later thought, in which the body and sexuality are considered in a more positive light. The study aims to demonstrate that Augustine’s structuring of incarnational theology served as a framework for his views on sexuality – prelapsarian, postlapsarian, and eschatological sexuality – and the discourse of the incarnation, especially in his later thought, should be seen primarily as a discourse of sexuality.
Legitimacy, Hate Speech, and Viewpoint Discrimination
Authors: Elford Gideon
Published: December 2020

One of the most powerful arguments against state regulation of expression has, in recent years, been presented in a reinvigorated and developed form. The argument in question maintains that state regulation of expression undercuts the legitimacy of the law because it involves the suppression of a source of democratic contestation. The paper distinguishes between three importantly different versions of this legitimacy argument that existing work fails to clearly separate. Doing so is important because different forms of the legitimacy argument are supported by different considerations, vulnerable to different objections, and have different implications. Further, the paper levels two serious objections to legitimacy arguments against hate speech regulation. Firstly, it offers a consolidated defence of an extant rejoinder to the legitimacy argument, based on the claim that some person’s speech can ‘silence’ the expression of others. Secondly, the paper challenges the claim that the regulation of hate speech is necessarily viewpoint discriminatory.
The Right of Political Participation of Indigenous Peoples and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Authors: Arrese Daniela
Published: December 2020

This article explains the obligations the international legal framework on the rights of indigenous peoples imposes on States regarding the right to political participation, in particular, the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Because of the historical exclusion and marginalization of these groups, mere recognition of the right of participation in domestic legal systems is insufficient to ensure the full enjoyment of the right by indigenous communities. Instead, States are obliged to adopt active measures to overcome the systemic discrimination indigenous peoples have been subject to. This article focuses on one of the many aspects of political participation, i.e., electoral participation. It provides both a typology and a critical account of different mechanisms States use to increase and promote the participation of indigenous peoples in electoral processes, specifically in elections for legislative bodies and in constitution-making processes. These mechanisms include the provision for reserved seats in parliament, the creation of special indigenous electoral districts, and the establishment of special electoral quotas for candidacies presented by political parties. The article argues that the effectiveness of each approach cannot be evaluated in abstracto, but must be assessed against the particular context in which a specific approach is adopted. Most importantly, the success of any specific approach should be measured by the extent to which they allow indigenous communities to have an actual chance at influencing political decision-making, particularly in situations that affect them.
Engaging the UN Security Council in Low-Intensity Geo-Political Conflicts: Case Study of the Blockade Against Qatar
Authors: Bantekas Ilias
Published: December 2020

The UN Security Council (UNSC) has become the dominant forum for resolving peace and security disputes or disturbances since the early 1990s, and the Gulf region was not only the starting point but also one of the key areas of concern to the post-Cold War UNSC. By all accounts, Qatar’s strategy towards the embargo has been twofold: on the one hand, it has engaged in a global public relations campaign, while on the other it has made meticulous and concerted use of all available UN mechanisms, both judicial and political. In this manner, Qatar has shown an entrenched commitment to the rule of law and sound governance. This paper suggests that this strategy could go a step further by directly engaging the UNSC. Given that the UNSC views the embargo as a low-intensity political skirmish with no discernible victims in the near future, it is unlikely to alienate Egypt and Saudi Arabia by putting the issue on its agenda. The paper argues that given this state of affairs, Qatar might well pursue other indirect ways of engaging the UNSC. This may be achieved by linking the embargo to existing thematic issues on the Council’s agenda, such as the wars in Syria and Yemen, where Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have some degree of involvement; the situation with Iran, which is a thorny issue for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC); the UNSC’s ongoing involvement with international terrorism, and potentially several others.
The International Criminal Court: Between International Ius Puniendi and State Delegation
Authors: Mégret Frédéric
Published: December 2020

A series of controversies that have structured the life of the International Criminal Court and which are often discussed separately can be traced to fundamental disagreements about the foundations of its authority. For some, the Court further crystalizes a sort of ius puniendi of the international community that is a direct continuation of the commitment to repress certain fundamental international crimes; for others, the key to the Court’s authority is, if anything, better understood as a function of sovereign delegation and agreement. The article explores the merits of these theories of both international criminal law and jurisdiction, both as theories and in light of the actual practices of international criminal justice. It may well be that an international ius puniendi can be said to exist in the abstract, and when it comes to core international crimes and the need to repress them. Even if the origin of some cardinal international criminal prohibitions is conventional, these prohibitions may have become so ingrained in the international legal order as to become inherent to it. But the public order and universal character of international crimes does not necessarily or easily translate to whatever particular institutions are devised to punish them. The article suggests, in this context, that on balance the practices of the Court are still better understood as a direct function of State consent. This is true when examining both the practice of the ICC towards non-States Parties and, crucially, towards States Parties. To see the Court as ‘merely’ the Court of its States Parties, however, is not to give up on the idea of universal repression, but to see it as mediated in practice by the complex agency of those States that pursue that aim.
Taking Embodiment Seriously: Constitutional Law, the Economy and the Forms of Underdeterminacy
Authors: Ollick Stephan F.H.
Published: December 2020

Economic policy does not require a constitutional grounding. However, many constitutions expressly dedicate articles and chapters to the national economy while others produce comparable effects by indirectly privileging particular economic arrangements. The constitutions of the US, the People’s Republic of China and the Philippines and the Basic Law of Hong Kong can plausibly be invoked to justify State approaches to economic ordering. However, each of them essentially underdetermines the economic fundamentals of the polity, not merely by deferring their concretization to governments and judiciaries, but by eschewing to commit the State to an identifiable level of involvement. Underdeterminacy can result from a variety of structural features, such as omissions, the use of contested concepts, the dilution of overarching economic alignments through countervailing constitutional provisions or limitations by ordinary legislation and the assortment of amorphous constitutional repertoires that give free rein to policy. The fact that even constitutions that were in their drafting informed not least by economic considerations fail to set the basic parameters of the economic arena queries the extent to which they can be said to embody any such underpinnings. It further questions the significance of constitutions and formal institutions in the formation of liberal market economies in particular and emphasizes the role of experience.
‘Guardian of the Solemn Pact’ – The Role of the Constitutional Court in South Africa’s Constitutional Transition
Authors: Guthrie Brynne
Published: December 2020

The Constitutional Court of South Africa has played a unique role in the country’s constitutional transition. This paper starts by detailing the historical and political context of the Interim Constitution which created the Constitutional Court and the constitutional principles. The article describes the approach of the Court in the First Certification Judgment (1996), analysing the impact of the Constitutional Court’s decision on the drafting of the final Constitution and the public more generally, before briefly outlining the role that the Court continues to play in protecting constitutional democracy as a ‘Guardian of the Solemn Pact’.
Brexit and Britain’s Changing Constitution
Authors: Grote Rainer
Published: December 2020

The Brexit saga which culminated in the sweeping victory of the Conservative Party in the parliamentary elections of December 2019 and the British withdrawal from the European Union the following months caused a major upheaval in the relationship between Britain’s main constitutional actors, especially between the government and the judiciary. In the course of the long-winded and acrimonious Brexit debate, the courts were repeatedly asked to intervene at critical junctures of the withdrawal process, first to secure a central role for Parliament in discussing and approving the terms of withdrawal and then to protect Parliament against attempts by the government to curtail and render ineffective this role through the questionable use of its prerogative powers.

This development reached its climax with the UK Supreme Court’s judgment of 24 September 2019 on the unlawfulness of the prorogation of Parliament decided by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister in the run-up to Brexit, an unprecedented interference by the courts with the exercise of prerogative powers in the name of a functioning parliamentary democracy. While the reasoning of the Court does not appear entirely convincing, there can be no doubt that the ruling was crucial in upholding the central role of Parliament in the Brexit negotiations and, by implication, of the authority of the courts which had defined that role at the beginning of the negotiations. That the Supreme Court felt it necessary to take the unprecedented step of confronting the executive over the use of its prerogative powers in a highly polarized political debate also demonstrates the extent to which the political consensus which in former times had underpinned the functioning of Britain’s flexible constitutional democracy has broken down as a result of the Brexit debate, and the divisions it has engendered within Britain’s political class and in the public at large. This gives rise to the concern that the reforms announced by the Conservative government following its sweeping victory in the parliamentary elections of December 2019 will destroy any progress which had been made in the UK prior to the Brexit referendum towards a modern practice of parliamentary majority government based on incomplete but genuine checks and balances.
Reassessment and systematic position of the sinistral snails of genus Hemiplecta from Thailand (Eupulmonata: Ariophantidae), with description of two new species
Authors: Sutcharit Chirasak , Jeratthitikul Ekgachai , Tongkerd Piyoros , Panha Somsak
Published: December 2020

Indochina land snails of the family Ariophantidae are in need of thorough systematic revision. Here we comprehensively revise the systematics of the large-shelled, sinistral (counterclockwise) coiling snails from Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia. Molecular phylogeny based on mitochondrial (coi and 16S) and nuclear (28S) gene sequences demonstrates that these sinistral snails are not members of Dyakiidae as previously thought, but instead are more closely related to the genus Hemiplecta in the family Ariophantidae. Comparative morphology also reveals similarity of reproductive organ features (globular gametolytic organ, well-developed dart apparatus, and lack of amatorial organ complex). Based on this evidence, we propose to transfer these sinistral snails to the genus Hemiplecta. Molecular phylogenetic analyses further strongly support the monophyly of this sinistral lineage with respect to other members of Hemiplecta. This monophyletic clade consists of five members including three species that were previously classified as “Dyakia”, H. lahatensis, H. retrorsa and H. salangana, and two new species described herein, H. ligorica n. sp. and H. thailandica n. sp. This study also suggests that the anatomy of the gametolytic organ in the genus Hemiplecta corresponds well with the phylogenetic relationships and appears to be a taxonomically informative character, while the penial verge has little utility for generic recognition.
Definition of “Waste” in Cross-Border Context: Un-Typical Story of TPS-NOLO (Geobal)
Authors: Hadrousek David
Published: December 2020

The boundaries of EU waste legislation are drawn by the definition of “waste”. This is also true of the Waste Shipments Regulation. What if the authorities of dispatch and destination disagree on the classification of a particular substance? A recent judgment of the EU Court of Justice shows that the rule according to which, in case of such a disagreement, the substance “shall be treated as if it were waste” is in the end of limited value. There is no way the European Commission or the Member State of (typically) destination can win their case on this basis.
Semi-Presidential Reform and Referendums in France and Romania
Authors: Murphy Anthony
Published: December 2020

This paper seeks to examine how direct democracy was used as a means to achieve or to strengthen semi-presidentialism in France and Romania. Whereas the Fifth Republic is widely seen as the archetypal semi-presidential regime, Romania relied heavily on this particular model for its post-communist constitution but opted to drastically reduce the powers of an otherwise directly-elected head of state. Nevertheless, the Gaullist reforms of postwar France echoed through the turn of the century. Traian Băsescu used referendums in an uncanny resemblance to Charles de Gaulle’s own pursuit of constitutional reform. Both aimed to increase the president’s role and decrease parliamentary involvement in the dual executive. However, only de Gaulle achieved partial success in shaping the political system.
Development of cambial variant and parenchyma proliferation in Hewittia malabarica (Convolvulaceae) from India and South Africa
Authors: Rajput Kishore S. , Gondaliya Amit D. , Baijnath Himansu
Published: December 2020

Members of the Convolvulaceae are characterized by the climbing habit and occurrence of variant secondary growth. From a histological perspective, the genus Ipomoea L. is the most extensively studied, while other genera have been less studied. Here, stem anatomy of the least studied genus in the family, Hewittia Wight & Arn., represented by Hewittia malabarica (L.) Suresh was investigated using classical histological techniques. In both the samples collected from India and South Africa, stem thickness increased by developing different types of cambial variants such as: neo-formed vascular cylinders, parenchyma proliferation at the phloem wedges, ray-derived cambia from dilating phloem rays, internal cambium, intra- and interxylary phloem. Neo-formed vascular cylinders develop from the parenchyma cells external to the phloem as a meristemoid in thick stems and later in dilating ray cells. With the increase in stem diameter, cells of the phloem wedges showed proliferation by meristematic activity, which form a connection with the cortex by rupturing the primary tissue ring of eustele. Subsequently, development of cambium in phloem wedges and deposition of its derivatives increased the tangential width of rays. Mature thick stems (25–30 mm) give rise to a fissured stem. Intraxylary (internal) phloem development on the pith margin was observed from primary growth onwards and in thick stems secondary intraxylary phloem developed from the internal cambium. Internal cambium is functionally bidirectional and produces secondary xylem internally and secondary phloem externally. In all the samples, patches of unlignified parenchyma embedded within the secondary xylem dedifferentiate and mature into interxylary phloem with the increasing age. Development of cambial variant and structure of the secondary xylem is correlated with the functional significance of the climbing habit.
Religion and the Arts in The Hunger Games
Authors: Ni Zhange
Published: December 2020

In this selective overview of scholarship generated by The Hunger Games—the young adult dystopian fiction and film series which has won popular and critical acclaim—Zhange Ni showcases various investigations into the entanglement of religion and the arts in the new millennium. Ni introduces theories, methods, and the latest developments in the study of religion in relation to state politics, audio/visual art, material culture, reality TV, and transmedia projects, whilst also reading The Hunger Games as a story that explores the variety, complexity, and ambiguity of enchantment. In popular texts such as The Hunger Games, religion and art—both broadly construed, that is, beyond conventional boundaries—converge in creating an enchantment that makes life more bearable and effects change in the world.
Arjunopākhyāna: An Idealist Non-dualistic Translation of the Bhagavadgītā
Authors: Cohen Tamara
Published: December 2020

This paper suggests that the narrative retelling of the Bhagavadgītā (BhG) dialogue that occurs in the sixth book of the Mokṣopāya (MU) (ca. 950 CE) known as the Arjunopākhyāna (AU) functions as a polemic style semantic translation that shifts the meaning of the original story with which it shares content, characters, elements and verses, illustrating a different doctrine in the process. Just over thirty quoted verses from the BhG are recontextualized and merged seamlessly with verses that are original to the MU, translating them into the non-dualistic, idealist conceptual language of the MU. The nonduality at the heart of Vasiṣṭha’s teaching in the MU is different from the theistic Sāṃkhya-influenced duality of Kṛṣṇa’s discourse in the BhG. Puruṣa and prakṛti are consistently replaced in the AU by an all-encompassing singular consciousness whose cosmic mind imagines everything, including Kṛṣṇa, all subjective agency, worship and liberation.
Taming Pandemics in International Relations
Authors: de Graaf Beatrice
Published: December 2020

This article introduces three historical situations where governments, or more accurately, specific leaders in office, shaped the international context in dealing with a transboundary crisis—and were in turn crucially affected in their reign by this crisis. The question at stake is: under what conditions did leaders (and their governments) engage in international cooperation to deal with the transboundary crisis at hand, and how did this cooperation impact the development of the crisis? An informed argument is made for combining crisis management research—in particular a model operationalizing conditions for transboundary cooperation—with an applied history perspective to shed light on the current obstacles to international cooperation in Covid-19 times.
Eight new species of Regasilus Curran, 1931 (Diptera: Asilidae: Asilinae) from Peru
Authors: SÁNCHEZ PÁVEL
Published: December 2020

Eight new species in the currently monotypic genus Regasilus Curran, 1931 are described from Peru: Regasilus aiapaec sp. nov. from Piura, R. apu sp. nov. from Cuzco, R. chicamac sp. nov. from Apurímac, Cajamarca, Cuzco, and La Libertad, R. huiracocha sp. nov. from Cuzco, R. illapa sp. nov. from Huancavelica, R. inti sp. nov. from Cuzco, R. supay sp. nov. from Piura, and R. uscovilca sp. nov. from Apurimac and Cuzco. A diagnosis for the genus is given, as well as an identification key to the known species.
First Description of Adult Males of Four Species of the Treehopper genus Tricentrus Stål from China (Hemiptera, Membracidae, Centrotinae, Tricentrini)
Authors: LI FENG-E , YANG LIN , LONG JIAN-KUN , CHANG ZHI-MIN , CHEN XIANG-SHENG
Published: December 2020

Adult males are described and illustrated for the first time for four Chinese species of the treehopper genus Tricentrus previously known only from females: T. albipennis Kato, 1930, T. floripinnae Yuan & Cui, 1987, T. foliocornatus, Yuan & Fan, 2002 and T. oedothorectoidis Yuan & Fan, 2002.
Extreme Lake-Effect Snow from a GPM Microwave Imager Perspective: Observational Analysis and Precipitation Retrieval Evaluation
Authors: Milani Lisa , Kulie Mark S. , Casella Daniele , Kirstetter Pierre E. , Panegrossi Giulia , Petkovic Veljko , Ringerud Sarah E. , Rysman Jean-François , Sanò Paolo , Wang Nai-Yu , You Yalei , Skofronick-Jackson Gail
Published: December 2020

This study focuses on the ability of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) passive microwave sensors to detect and provide quantitative precipitation estimates (QPE) for extreme lake-effect snowfall events over the U.S. lower Great Lakes region. GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) high-frequency channels can clearly detect intense shallow convective snowfall events. However, GMI Goddard Profiling (GPROF) QPE retrievals produce inconsistent results when compared with the Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) ground-based radar reference dataset. While GPROF retrievals adequately capture intense snowfall rates and spatial patterns of one event, GPROF systematically underestimates intense snowfall rates in another event. Furthermore, GPROF produces abundant light snowfall rates that do not accord with MRMS observations. Ad hoc precipitation-rate thresholds are suggested to partially mitigate GPROF’s overproduction of light snowfall rates. The sensitivity and retrieval efficiency of GPROF to key parameters (2-m temperature, total precipitable water, and background surface type) used to constrain the GPROF a priori retrieval database are investigated. Results demonstrate that typical lake-effect snow environmental and surface conditions, especially coastal surfaces, are underpopulated in the database and adversely affect GPROF retrievals. For the two presented case studies, using a snow-cover a priori database in the locations originally deemed as coastline improves retrieval. This study suggests that it is particularly important to have more accurate GPROF surface classifications and better representativeness of the a priori databases to improve intense lake-effect snow detection and retrieval performance.
Highly conductive multi-walled carbon nanotube/polydimethylsiloxane (MWCNT/PDMS) nanocomposite for microfluidic applications
Authors: Dashtaki Nasim Jan Mohammadi , Nassajpour-Esfahani Amir Hossein , Bayareh Morteza , Rezai Pouya , Doostmohammadi Ali
Published: December 2020

Conductive materials are required for sensing and actuation purposes in microfluidic devices. Electrical and mechanical properties of aligned CNTs/PDMS nanocomposites fabricated in AC and quasi-AC electric fields were measured. Field emission scanning electron microscope and elemental mapping were used to evaluate the microstructural properties of fabricated specimens. Results showed that nanocomposite properties were dependent on CNT concentration. A homogenized and nonagglomerated composite was obtained using a quasi-AC electric field with the voltage of 1075 V zero to peak at a frequency of 100 Hz and current of 35 milliamps when applied to suspension for 2 hours at 80 °C. The aligned nanocomposite with 1 wt% of CNT exhibited an electrical conductivity, Young’s modulus, and tensile strength of 10-6 S/cm, 7.23 MPa, and 1.02 MPa, respectively.
Investigation of the high temperature dry sliding wear behavior of graphene nanoplatelets reinforced aluminum matrix composites
Authors: Martin Seçkin , Kandemir Sinan , Antonov Maksim
Published: December 2020

In this study, graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) with a thickness of 50-100 nm have been utilized to improve the mechanical and tribological properties of A360 alloy due to their extraordinary mechanical properties and solid lubricant nature. For the investigation of tribological properties, ball-on disc tests were carried out at various temperatures including room temperature (RT), 150 °C, and 300 °C. According to the hardness and ball-on-disc test results, the nanocomposite samples reinforced with GNPs exhibited improved hardness and wear resistance. The improvement in the wear behavior of nanocomposites was referred to the temporarily formed solid lubricant film of harder GNPs during the wear, and hence coefficient of friction (COF) and volume loss were considerably reduced. Abrasive-adhesive, oxidative, and mild-to-severe were found to be main wear mechanisms at RT, 150 °C, and 300 °C, respectively. Overall, the results show that the nanocomposites fabricated by casting method combined with mechanical stirring and ultrasonication have promising wear performance, especially at elevated temperatures. This may suggest that these developed materials could be potential candidates to be used in the engineering applications requiring high temperature wear performance.
Numerical modelling of the flow in a swelling preform during LCM mould filling
Authors: Salokhe Shivam , Rahmati Mohammad , Masoodi Ryan
Published: December 2020

Composite industry increasingly uses natural fibres because of their environment-friendly advantages. These natural fibres may swell during the mould filling process when they absorb resin, and this swelling reduces the porosity and permeability of the preform. Hence, computational modelling of the flow in swelling porous media would be useful to model the different mould filling processes with the swelling effect. This paper demonstrates the possibility of using computational fluid dynamics to study the effect of swelling on liquid composite moulding mould filling in isotropic and orthotropic porous media. An empirical relation for local permeability changes is used to model the flow of resin under constant volume flow rate and constant injection pressure conditions. The flow front locations and inlet pressure predicted by the computational fluid dynamics simulations are in good agreement with the experimental data for 1D rectilinear flow case. Further, to capture the flow patterns, two different arrangements employing point injection are considered. It was observed that the volume fraction of resin in swelling porous medium is 6% less than rigid porous medium at any given time. It was also observed that the location of the inlet and outlet has a considerable effect on the flow front advancement.
Intercalation of curcumin into liposomal chemotherapeutic agent augments apoptosis in breast cancer cells
Authors: Mahmoudi Reza , Hassandokht Fatemeh , Ardakani Maryam Tajali , Karimi Bahman , Roustazadeh Abazar , Tarvirdipour Shabnam , Barmak Mehzad Jafari , Nikseresht Mohsen , Baneshi Marzieh , Mousavizadeh Ali , Shirazi Mohsen Saghebray , Alipour Mohsen , Bardania Hassan
Published: December 2020

Resistance to common chemotherapeutic agents is a frequent phenomenon in late-stage breast cancers. An ideal system capable of the co-delivery of hydrophobic and hydrophilic chemotherapeutic agents can regulate the dosage and co-localization of pharmaceutical compounds and thereby improve the anticancer efficacy. Here, for the first time, we have intercalated curcumin (Cur) into a double-layered membrane of cisplatin (Cis) liposomes to obtain a dosage controlled co-delivery formulation, capable of inducing apoptosis in breast cancer cells. The concentrations of Cur and Cis in nanoliposome (Cur-Cis@NLP) were optimized by response surface methodology (RSM); RSM optimization showed 99.81 and 23.86% entrapment efficiency for Cur and Cis, respectively. TEM analysis demonstrated the fabrication of nanoparticles with average diameter of 100 nm. The anticancer and apoptotic effects of Cur-Cis@NLPs were also evaluated using MTT assay, fluorescent staining and flow cytometry assays. Cytotoxicity assessments of various Cur-Cis@NLPs concentrations demonstrated a concentration-dependent manner. In comparison to free and liposomal Cis, Cur-Cis@NLP reduced breast cancer cells’ viability (82.5%) in a significant manner at a final concentration of 32 μg.mL−1 and 20 μg.mL−1 of Cur and Cis, respectively. Combination index values calculation of Cur-Cis@NLP showed an overall CI value <1, indicating synergetic effect of the designed co-delivery system. Additionally, flow cytometry assay demonstrated Cur-Cis@NLPs triggered apoptosis about 10-folds higher than liposomal Cis. This co-drug delivery system has a potential for the encapsulation and release of both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs, while taking the advantages of the reduced cytotoxic effect along with achieving high potency.
“I LEAVE YOU LOVE”: African American Women as Collectors in, of, and through, the Arts
Authors: Brevard Lisa Pertillar
Published: December 2020

In her last will and testament, educator-activist Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955) declared, “I LEAVE YOU LOVE. Love builds.” A direct descendant of former chattel slaves, Bethune believed in building from the bottom up: beginning with love, or positive thoughts, and manifesting those thoughts. By accretion of goods and goodwill, she built not only a physical school which fostered the arts as a bridge toward world citizenship for disenfranchised black people but also a school of thought, extending to encompass purposeful government service at local and federal levels, toward achieving a just society. Bethune’s determined example of building by accretion informs and helps us to better understand and articulate a wide variety of African American women’s collecting in, of, and through, the arts. This article explores and defines—according to philosophy, purpose, practice, type, scope, and audience—various examples of collecting and collections among selected African American women in the arts, many of whom became contributors to, and subjects of, various collections.
When (In)Consistency Matters: Racial Identification and Specification
Authors: Shiao Jiannbin Lee
Published: December 2020

Sociologists who rely on survey research have begun exploring the implications of racial inconsistency for not only multiracial identification but also for other social outcomes. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, the author explores the consequences of different specifications of race for modeling three outcomes: educational attainment, self-rated health, and interracial relationship history. The author uses the model-fit criteria of Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion to compare five methods of classifying multiple, changed, and other-race respondents and of operationalizing heterogeneity among them. The results show substantial variation across outcomes in the specifications preferred and indications of a qualitative difference in the meaning of race for social contact versus for social stratification. The article concludes with recommendations for how quantitative researchers should measure race even when the categories primarily serve as covariates.
Natural IgM antibodies inhibit microvesicle-driven coagulation and thrombosis
Authors: Obermayer Georg , Afonyushkin Taras , Göderle Laura , Puhm Florian , Schrottmaier Waltraud , Taqi Soreen , Schwameis Michael , Ay Cihan , Pabinger Ingrid , Jilma Bernd , Assinger Alice , Mackman Nigel , Binder Christoph J.
Published: December 2020

Thrombosis and its associated complications are a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Microvesicles (MVs), a class of extracellular vesicles, are increasingly recognized as mediators of coagulation and biomarkers of thrombotic risk. Thus, identifying factors targeting MV-driven coagulation may help in the development of novel antithrombotic treatments. We have previously identified a subset of circulating MVs that is characterized by the presence of oxidation-specific epitopes and bound by natural immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies targeting these structures. This study investigated whether natural IgM antibodies, which are known to have important anti-inflammatory housekeeping functions, inhibit the procoagulatory properties of MVs. We found that the extent of plasma coagulation is inversely associated with the levels of both free and MV-bound endogenous IgM. Moreover, the oxidation epitope-specific natural IgM antibody LR04, which recognizes malondialdehyde adducts, reduced MV-dependent plasmatic coagulation and whole blood clotting without affecting thrombocyte aggregation. Intravenous injection of LR04 protected mice from MV-induced pulmonary thrombosis. Of note, LR04 competed the binding of coagulation factor X/Xa to MVs, providing a mechanistic explanation for its anticoagulatory effect. Thus, our data identify natural IgM antibodies as hitherto unknown modulators of MV-induced coagulation in vitro and in vivo and their prognostic and therapeutic potential in the management of thrombosis.
Safety and efficacy of CAR T cells in a patient with lymphoma and a coexisting autoimmune neuropathy
Authors: Jhaveri Khushali S. , Schlam Ilana , Holtzman Noa G. , Peravali Monica , Richardson Perry K. , Dahiya Saurabh , Malkovska Vera , Rapoport Aaron P.
Published: December 2020

Key Points

CAR T-cell therapy was safe and effective in a DLBCL patient with coexisting autoimmune neuropathy. CD19 CAR T-cell therapy may control refractory autoantibodies and monoclonal gammopathies.
The involvement of neuroimmune cells in adipose innervation
Authors: Blaszkiewicz Magdalena , Wood Elizabeth , Koizar Sigi , Willows Jake , Anderson Ryan , Tseng Yu-Hua , Godwin James , Townsend Kristy L.
Published: December 2020

Background

Innervation of adipose tissue is essential for the proper function of this critical metabolic organ. Numerous surgical and chemical denervation studies have demonstrated how maintenance of brain-adipose communication through both sympathetic efferent and sensory afferent nerves helps regulate adipocyte size, cell number, lipolysis, and ‘browning’ of white adipose tissue. Neurotrophic factors are growth factors that promote neuron survival, regeneration, and plasticity, including neurite outgrowth and synapse formation. Peripheral immune cells have been shown to be a source of neurotrophic factors in humans and mice. Although a number of immune cells reside in the adipose stromal vascular fraction (SVF), it has remained unclear what roles they play in adipose innervation. We previously demonstrated that adipose SVF secretes brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

Methods

We now show that deletion of this neurotrophic factor from the myeloid lineage of immune cells led to a ‘genetic denervation’ of inguinal subcutaneous white adipose tissue (scWAT), thereby causing decreased energy expenditure, increased adipose mass, and a blunted UCP1 response to cold stimulation.

Results

We and others have previously shown that noradrenergic stimulation via cold exposure increases adipose innervation in the inguinal depot. Here we have identified a subset of myeloid cells that home to scWAT upon cold exposure and are Ly6C+ CCR2+ Cx3CR1+ monocytes/macrophages that express noradrenergic receptors and BDNF. This subset of myeloid lineage cells also clearly interacted with peripheral nerves in the scWAT and were therefore considered neuroimmune cells.

Conclusions

We propose that these myeloid lineage, cold induced neuroimmune cells (CINCs) are key players in maintaining adipose innervation as well as promoting adipose nerve remodeling under noradrenergic stimulation, such as cold exposure.
Recent Advances in Two-Dimensional Spintronics
Authors: Hu Guojing , Xiang Bin
Published: December 2020

Spintronics is the most promising technology to develop alternative multi-functional, high-speed, low-energy electronic devices. Due to their unusual physical characteristics, emerging two-dimensional (2D) materials provide a new platform for exploring novel spintronic devices. Recently, 2D spintronics has made great progress in both theoretical and experimental researches. Here, the progress of 2D spintronics has been reviewed. In the last, the current challenges and future opportunities have been pointed out in this field.
Idiopathic central precocious puberty in a Klinefelter patient: highlights on gonadotropin levels and pathophysiology
Authors: Maqdasy Salwan , Barres Bertrand , Salaun Gaelle , Batisse-Lignier Marie , Pebrel-Richard Celine , Kwok Kelvin H. M. , Labbé André , Touraine Philippe , Brugnon Florence , Tauveron Igor
Published: December 2020

Background

Idiopathic central precocious puberty (ICPP) is supposed to be non-existent in a context of testicular destruction that is typically present in Klinefelter syndrome (KS). Herein, we describe a rare case of ICPP in a Klinefelter patient (47,XXY) with 2 maternal X chromosomes. Moreover, we highlight the differences in gonadotropin levels in comparison to males with ICPP and a normal karyotype.

Case presentation

An 8 years old boy with a history of cryptorchidism was evaluated for precocious puberty (Tanner staging: P2/G3). Both testes measured 25x35mm. His hormonal profile confirmed a central origin of precocious puberty with high serum testosterone (4.3 ng/ml), luteinizing hormone [LH (3.5 UI/l)] and follicle stimulating hormone [FSH (7.7 UI/l)] levels. Luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) test amplified LH and FSH secretion to 24 and 14 UI/l respectively. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was normal. No MKRN3 mutation was detected. He was treated for ICPP for two years. During puberty, he suffered from hypergonadotropic hypogonadism leading to the diagnosis of KS (47,XXY karyotype). Chromosomal analysis by fluorescent multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using X chromosome microsatellite markers identified 2 maternal X chromosomes.

Analysing 8 cases of KS developing ICPP (our reported case and 7 other published cases) revealed that these KS patients with ICPP have higher LH and FSH levels during ICPP episode than in ICPP patients with a normal karyotype (ICPP with KS vs ICPP with a normal karyotype: LH levels 9.4 ± 12 vs 1.1 ± 0.6 UI/l; FSH levels 23.1 ± 38.5 vs 2.7 ± 1.5 UI/l). Furthermore, their response to gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) stimulation is characterized by excessive LH and FSH secretion (LH levels post-GnRH: 58 ± 48 vs 15.5 ± 0.8 UI/l; FSH levels post-GnRH: 49.1 ± 62.1 vs 5.7 ± 3.9 UI/l).

Conclusions

ICPP in boys is extremely rare. The pathophysiology of ICPP in KS is unknown. However, maternal X supplementary chromosome and early testicular destruction may play a significant role in the initiation of ICPP, in part explaining the relative “overrepresentation of ICPP in KS. Thus, karyotype analysis could be considered for boys suffering from ICPP, especially if testicular size is smaller or gonadotropins are significantly elevated.
ideal: an R/Bioconductor package for interactive differential expression analysis
Authors: Marini Federico , Linke Jan , Binder Harald
Published: December 2020

Background

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is an ever increasingly popular tool for transcriptome profiling. A key point to make the best use of the available data is to provide software tools that are easy to use but still provide flexibility and transparency in the adopted methods. Despite the availability of many packages focused on detecting differential expression, a method to streamline this type of bioinformatics analysis in a comprehensive, accessible, and reproducible way is lacking.

Results

We developed the software package, which serves as a web application for interactive and reproducible RNA-seq analysis, while producing a wealth of visualizations to facilitate data interpretation. is implemented in R using the Shiny framework, and is fully integrated with the existing core structures of the Bioconductor project. Users can perform the essential steps of the differential expression analysis workflow in an assisted way, and generate a broad spectrum of publication-ready outputs, including diagnostic and summary visualizations in each module, all the way down to functional analysis. also offers the possibility to seamlessly generate a full HTML report for storing and sharing results together with code for reproducibility.

Conclusion

is distributed as an R package in the Bioconductor project (http://bioconductor.org/packages/ideal/), and provides a solution for performing interactive and reproducible analyses of summarized RNA-seq expression data, empowering researchers with many different profiles (life scientists, clinicians, but also experienced bioinformaticians) to make the ideal use of the data at hand.
Hybrid attentional memory network for computational drug repositioning
Authors: He Jieyue , Yang Xinxing , Gong Zhuo , Zamit lbrahim
Published: December 2020

Background

Drug repositioning has been an important and efficient method for discovering new uses of known drugs. Researchers have been limited to one certain type of collaborative filtering (CF) models for drug repositioning, like the neighborhood based approaches which are good at mining the local information contained in few strong drug–disease associations, or the latent factor based models which are effectively capture the global information shared by a majority of drug–disease associations. Few researchers have combined these two types of CF models to derive a hybrid model which can offer the advantages of both. Besides, the cold start problem has always been a major challenge in the field of computational drug repositioning, which restricts the inference ability of relevant models.

Results

Inspired by the memory network, we propose the hybrid attentional memory network (HAMN) model, a deep architecture combining two classes of CF models in a nonlinear manner. First, the memory unit and the attention mechanism are combined to generate a neighborhood contribution representation to capture the local structure of few strong drug–disease associations. Then a variant version of the autoencoder is used to extract the latent factor of drugs and diseases to capture the overall information shared by a majority of drug–disease associations. During this process, ancillary information of drugs and diseases can help alleviate the cold start problem. Finally, in the prediction stage, the neighborhood contribution representation is coupled with the drug latent factor and disease latent factor to produce predicted values. Comprehensive experimental results on two data sets demonstrate that our proposed HAMN model outperforms other comparison models based on the AUC, AUPR and HR indicators.

Conclusions

Through the performance on two drug repositioning data sets, we believe that the HAMN model proposes a new solution to improve the prediction accuracy of drug–disease associations and give pharmaceutical personnel a new perspective to develop new drugs.
ped_draw: pedigree drawing with ease
Authors: Velinder Matt , Lee Dillon , Marth Gabor
Published: December 2020

Background

Pedigree files are ubiquitously used within bioinformatics and genetics studies to convey critical information about relatedness, sex and affected status of study samples. While the text based format of ped files is efficient for computational methods, it is not immediately intuitive to a bioinformatician or geneticist trying to understand family structures, many of which encode the affected status of individuals across multiple generations. The visualization of pedigrees into connected nodes with descriptive shapes and shading provides a far more interpretable format to recognize visual patterns and intuit family structures. Despite these advantages of a visual pedigree, it remains difficult to quickly and accurately visualize a pedigree given a pedigree text file.

Results

Here we describe ped_draw a command line and web tool as a simple and easy solution to pedigree visualization. Ped_draw is capable of drawing complex multi-generational pedigrees and conforms to the accepted standards for depicting pedigrees visually. The command line tool can be used as a simple one liner command, utilizing graphviz to generate an image file. The web tool, https://peddraw.github.io, allows the user to either: paste a pedigree file, type to construct a pedigree file in the text box or upload a pedigree file. Users can save the generated image file in various formats.

Conclusions

We believe ped_draw is a useful pedigree drawing tool that improves on current methods due to its ease of use and approachability. Ped_draw allows users with various levels of expertise to quickly and easily visualize pedigrees.
Decoy selection for protein structure prediction via extreme gradient boosting and ranking
Authors: Akhter Nasrin , Chennupati Gopinath , Djidjev Hristo , Shehu Amarda
Published: December 2020

Background

Identifying one or more biologically-active/native decoys from millions of non-native decoys is one of the major challenges in computational structural biology. The extreme lack of balance in positive and negative samples (native and non-native decoys) in a decoy set makes the problem even more complicated. Consensus methods show varied success in handling the challenge of decoy selection despite some issues associated with clustering large decoy sets and decoy sets that do not show much structural similarity. Recent investigations into energy landscape-based decoy selection approaches show promises. However, lack of generalization over varied test cases remains a bottleneck for these methods.

Results

We propose a novel decoy selection method, ML-Select, a machine learning framework that exploits the energy landscape associated with the structure space probed through a template-free decoy generation. The proposed method outperforms both clustering and energy ranking-based methods, all the while consistently offering better performance on varied test-cases. Moreover, ML-Select shows promising results even for the decoy sets consisting of mostly low-quality decoys.

Conclusions

ML-Select is a useful method for decoy selection. This work suggests further research in finding more effective ways to adopt machine learning frameworks in achieving robust performance for decoy selection in template-free protein structure prediction.