bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Reduced Apo-Fumarate Nitrate Reductase Regulator (ApoFNR) as the Major Form of FNR in Aerobically Growing
Escherichia coli
Authors: Reinhart F. , Achebach S. , Koch T. , Unden G. 
Published: December 2007

ABSTRACT

Under anoxic conditions, the
Escherichia coli
oxygen sensor FNR (fumarate nitrate reductase regulator) is in the active state and contains a [4Fe-4S] cluster. Oxygen converts [4Fe-4S]FNR to inactive [2Fe-2S]FNR. After prolonged exposure to air in vitro, apoFNR lacking a Fe-S cluster is formed. ApoFNR can be differentiated from Fe-S-containing forms by the accessibility of the five Cys thiol residues, four of which serve as ligands for the Fe-S cluster. The presence of apoFNR in aerobically and anaerobically grown
E. coli
was analyzed in situ using thiol reagents. In anaerobically and aerobically grown cells, the membrane-permeable monobromobimane labeled one to two and four Cys residues, respectively; the same labeling pattern was found with impermeable thiol reagents after cell permeabilization. Alkylation of FNR in aerobic bacteria and counting the labeled residues by mass spectrometry showed a form of FNR with five accessible Cys residues, corresponding to apoFNR with all Cys residues in the thiol state. Therefore, aerobically growing cells contain apoFNR, whereas a significant amount of Fe-S-containing FNR was not detected under these conditions. Exposure of anaerobic bacteria to oxygen caused conversion of Fe-S-containing FNR to apoFNR within 6 min. ApoFNR from aerobic bacteria contained no disulfide, in contrast to apoFNR formed in vitro by air inactivation, and all Cys residues were in the thiol form.
Binding Site Determinants for the LysR-Type Transcriptional Regulator PcaQ in the Legume Endosymbiont
Sinorhizobium meliloti
Authors: MacLean Allyson M. , Anstey Michelle I. , Finan Turlough M. 
Published: December 2007

ABSTRACT

LysR-type transcriptional regulators represent one of the largest groups of prokaryotic regulators described to date. In the gram-negative legume endosymbiont
Sinorhizobium meliloti
, enzymes involved in the protocatechuate branch of the β-ketoadipate pathway are encoded within the
pcaDCHGB
operon, which is subject to regulation by the LysR-type protein PcaQ. In this work, purified PcaQ was shown to bind strongly (equilibrium dissociation constant, 0.54 nM) to a region at positions −78 to −45 upstream of the
pcaD
transcriptional start site. Within this region, we defined a PcaQ binding site with dyad symmetry that is required for regulation of
pcaD
expression in vivo and for binding of PcaQ in vitro. We also demonstrated that PcaQ participates in negative autoregulation by monitoring expression of
pcaQ
via a transcriptional fusion to
lacZ
. Although
pcaQ
homologues are present in many α-proteobacteria, this work describes the first reported purification of this regulator, as well as characterization of its binding site, which is conserved in
Agrobacterium tumefaciens
,
Rhizobium leguminosarum
,
Rhizobium etli
, and
Mesorhizobium loti
.
RpoS Expression and the General Stress Response in
Azotobacter vinelandii
during Carbon and Nitrogen Diauxic Shifts
Authors: Sandercock James R. , Page William J. 
Published: December 2007

ABSTRACT

The general stress response mediated by the sigma factor RpoS is important for survival of bacteria in adverse environments. A mutant unable to produce RpoS was constructed using the diazotrophic bacterium
Azotobacter vinelandii
strain UW. Under nondesiccating, solid-medium growth conditions the wild type was culturable for 16.5 years, while the
rpoS
mutant remained viable for only 10 months. The
rpoS
mutant exhibited reduced survival compared to the wild type following hydrogen peroxide stress, and stationary phase cells were killed rapidly by 15 mM H
2
O
2
. Three catalases (Kat1, Kat2, and Kat3) were expressed in the wild type under the conditions used. Kat2 was expressed in exponential phase during shake flask growth and could be induced under highly aerated conditions in all growth phases, suggesting that there was induction by reactive oxygen intermediates. Kat3 was possibly an isoform of Kat2. In contrast, Kat1 was expressed in an RpoS-dependent manner during the mid-exponential to late stationary phases. RpoS expression did not occur exclusively in stationary phase but was influenced by changes in carbon and nitrogen source availability. There was 26- to 28-fold induction of the RpoS protein during acetate-to-glucose and ammonium-to-N
2
diauxic shifts. Following recovery of growth on the alternative carbon or nitrogen source, RpoS protein concentrations declined rapidly to a basal level. However,
rpoS
mRNA levels did not correlate directly to RpoS levels, suggesting that there was posttranscriptional regulation. Evidence obtained using the RpoS-dependent reporter Kat1 suggested that there is regulation of the RNAP:RpoS holoenzyme at the level of complex formation or activity.
Judicial Settlement of Armed Conflicts in International Law: Reflecting the 2005 International Court of Justice Decision in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Authors: Mollel Andrew 
Published: December 2007

AbstractThe duty of states to settle their disputes peacefully and in accordance with international law is emphasized in a number of important provisions enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations (UN) and state practices. Adjudication is one among a range of existing means of pacific settlement of disputes. This article analyzes the role of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in pacific settlement of international disputes. It critically examines judicial settlement of armed conflicts, taking the ICJ decision in the Case Concerning Armed Activities in the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo v. Uganda) as a focal point. The main argument of the author is that while the adjudicatory role of the ICJ as the principal judicial organ of the UN is a crucial method in the pacific settlement of international disputes, it is unlikely to suit armed conflicts situations. Jurisdictional limitations of the ICJ in adjudication of armed conflicts situations is pointed out. The article points to the preclusion of the Court from adjudicating the other cases brought by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) against Rwanda and Burundi as an illustration of such limitations. It, however, stresses that the very outcome of the 2005 ICJ decision in the Democratic Republic of Congo v. Uganda case is another clear example of such shortcomings. Without getting into detailed discussions of theories of compliance with international law, the article further discusses the question of compliance with the current ICJ decision in the light of previous state practices. Since there are no established enforcement mechanisms in the international system akin to those in national legal systems, the question whether decisions of international judicial bodies (the ICJ in this case) are complied with remains at the mercy of condemned states. In the final analyses, the author points to the current weaknesses and limitations of the international legal system as a whole in the administration of justice.
The Nature of Social Human Rights Treaties and Standard-Setting WTO Treaties: A Question of Hierarchy?
Authors: Haugen Hans Morten 
Published: December 2007

AbstractSocial human rights are not held to belong to the category of jus cogens norms. At the same time these human rights protect vital matters, such as the right to adequate food, which obviously has a relationship to the right to life. On the other hand, the annexes to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement, which are binding on all WTO member States, has implied a shift from the old General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) to the WTO, from pure contractual treaties to more standard-setting treaties. The article seeks to analyse if the obligations erga omnes and the concept of 'multilateral obligations' are applicable to distinguish between human rights treaties on the one hand and WTO agreements on the other. The background of the analysis is also the work of the International Law Commission (ILC) Study Group on fragmentation of international law, finalised in 2006. The article finds that there is still uncertainty regarding the exact meaning of the term 'multilateral obligations'. Hence, other concepts such as 'absolute obligations' might be preferred in order to characterise human rights treaties, and hence implicitly acknowledge that treaties that protect vital matters may prevail over other treaties, based on the interests which are to be protected.
Die hellenistische Katalogdichtung des Phanokles über homosexuelle Liebesbeziehungen. Untersuchungen zur tendenziellen Gestaltung und zum literarischen Nachleben
Authors: Gärtner Thomas 
Published: December 2007

AbstractThis paper is concerned with the fragments of the early Hellenistic catalogue poem by Phanokles. It falls into three sections: The first enquires into the general tendency of Phanokles' work, as far as is permitted by the fragmentary transmission, especially in comparison with another similar catalogue-like poem contained in POxy. 3723. The following two sections concentrate on the literary reception of Phanokles, i.e. the Orpheus segment, first in Hellenistic epitaphs on Orpheus (section 2) and then in the Orpheus passage of Ovid's Metamorphoses (section 3). It concludes that the tendency of Phanokles' catalogue elegy is aetiological and scientific rather than personal and subjective (section 1) and that the intertextual allusions to Phanokles made by Damagetos (section 2) and Ovid (section 3) are polemical rather than affirmative. Especially Ovid seems to make light of the formal technique of catalogue adopted by Phanokles from his archaic model Hesiod.
Getting Ahead: Decapitation as Political Metaphor in Silius Italicus' Punica
Authors: Marks Raymond 
Published: December 2007

AbstractIn Silius Italicus' Punica the Second Punic War is cast as a conflict fought over and between heads, and the decapitations in the epic thereby become ways of measuring the different trajectories and ultimate outcomes for each side in the war: the symbolic decapitation of Rome on the occasion of Paulus' death at Cannae in book 10 marks the low-ebb in the city's fortunes while the many decapitations perpetrated by Romans after Cannae reflect Carthage's own slide toward final defeat, an event that entails her symbolic decapitation too. Read in relation to this epic-wide program, Hannibal's abiding enmity toward Jupiter, the god of Rome's head, the Capitolium, gains greater clarity and purpose, as do his identification with Lucan's Pompey and Carthage's with Virgil's Priam toward the end of the epic. This concluding development is also succinctly recapitulated in the epic's final two lines, where an allusion to the final two lines of Bellum Civile 8 invites us to contrast Rome and Jupiter with Lucan's decapitated Pompey and to compare Carthage and Hannibal with him.
Traces of the Hymn in the epinikion
Authors: Bremer Jan Maarten 
Published: December 2007

AbstractE.L. Bundy's (1962) approach to Pindar's victory odes might lead to the assumption that the poet's praise is always and exclusively addressed to the human laudandus and his polis. Readers of Currie's recent monograph (2005) might even be led one step further: does Pindar insinuate that the laudandus receives heroic status and becomes immortal? In this paper it is argued in the first place that in many, if not all, epinicians praise of the gods comes in first place, praise of the gods being the foundation and the echo-chamber of the praise directed at the victorious athlete. A second point is that in a significant number of passages the athlete is reminded by the epinician poet that he is just a mortal, and that his present and passing felicity, obtained by hard effort, is a far cry from the easy and everlasting happiness of the immortal gods.
The Magic Wand in Making Constitutions Endure in Africa: Anything (Lessons) to Learn from East Africa?
Authors: Maina Peter Chris , Maina Peter Chris 
Published: December 2007

AbstractMost African countries got their flag independence in the 1960s. Soon thereafter, one after the other, the new states began falling into the hands of new military strongmen. Those lucky fell under one-party dictatorships. Democracy and rule of law became alien to the continent. Using the case study of East Africa, this paper asks what should be done to improve the situation in the continent. Many in the continent thought that the introduction of a multiparty political system in the 1990s would improve the situation. It did not happen. The same military juntas had traded military fatigues with designer suits and got themselves “elected” into the same offices they got in by force in the first place. Constitutions in Africa are not worth the paper they are written on. They are amended just like any other inferior law. This paper attempts to propose what could be done to make constitutions in Africa endure time and become more stable. It is being proposed that Africa needs to respect the main tenets of constitutionalism. These are rule of law, independence of judiciary and clear separation of powers in the state. These principles should be complemented by development of a culture of peace, respect for fundamental rights and freedoms, equal access of all citizens to the natural wealth and resources of the country, and limited leadership. As a model for constitutionalism, the East African region has nothing to offer to the continent.
Wysiwyg
Authors: Ruard Ganzevoort R. 
Published: December 2007

AbstractWorking in a social constructionist framework, the author describes practical theology as a multi-conversational discipline. In each conversation (with systematic and biblical theology, with other academic disciplines, and with the church and society) specific demands are placed on discourse, governed by specific criteria for truth claims. In these conversations, two levels of discourse are distinguished. First order discourse consists of ordinary religious language (and action), second order discourse is the academic discussion of this language. In both discourses social constructions can be found, analyzed and critiqued, but the referential and performative criteria differ. Finally it is claimed that the theological and normative dimension of practical theology is not something added to empirical investigations, but present in the material researched.
Opus and sermo: The Relationship between Alchemy and Prophecy (12th-14th Centuries)
Authors: Crisciani Chiara 
Published: December 2007

AbstractThe subject of this paper is the relationship between alchemy and prophecy in the Latin culture of the period between the initial diffusion of alchemy in the West in the 12th century and the 14th century. This is a preliminary survey, which provides the necessary background for a better understanding of the so-called 'explosion' of the kind of prophetic and visionary alchemy that took place in the 15th century. Alchemy, which is knowledge of hidden things and an art of transformation toward perfection, is here tentatively interpreted and analysed as a form of 'concrete prophecy'.
"Paradoxes, Absurdities, and Madness": Conflict over Alchemy, Magic and Medicine in the Works of Andreas Libavius and Heinrich Khunrath
Authors: Forshaw Peter 
Published: December 2007

AbstractBoth Andreas Libavius and Heinrich Khunrath graduated from Basel Medical Academy in 1588, though the theses they defended reveal antithetical approaches to medicine, despite their shared interests in iatrochemistry and transmutational alchemy. Libavius argued in favour of Galenic allopathy while Khunrath promoted the contrasting homeopathic approach of Paracelsus and the utility of the occult doctrine of Signatures for medical purposes. This article considers these differences in the two graduates' theses, both as intimations of their subsequent divergent notions of the boundaries of alchemy and its relations with medicine and magic, and also as evidence of the surprisingly unstable academic status of Paracelsian philosophy in Basel, its main publishing centre, at the end of the sixteenth century.
Integrity of Mission in the Light of the Gospel: Bearing Witness of the Spirit Among Africa's Gospel Bearers
Authors: Mwaura Philomena Njeri 
Published: December 2007

AbstractThis paper addresses the theme "Integrity of Mission in the Light of the Gospel; Bearing Witness of the Spirit," focusing on what this integrity of Christian mission in Africa implies. It poses the questions: What is Mission? What is the Content and Context of Mission in Africa? What does Integrity mean? How does the Church in Africa embody Integrity of Mission?
Integrity of Mission in Light of the Gospel in Africa: A Perspective from an African in Diaspora
Authors: Tiénou Tite 
Published: December 2007

AbstractTite Tiénou, born in Côte 'Ivoire, but currently an émigré presently living and teaching in the United States, examines the integrity of mission in light of the Gospel by exploring the church as African and the implication of this for mission, the meaning of mission in Africa, the place of Africa in the world, the opportunities for the integrity of mission in Africa and the requirement of integrity for the agents of mission. Tiénou believes that mission will be fruitful at the personal and collective level in Africa to the extent that churches and missionaries make integrity a moral and ethical imperative in church and society.
Integrity of Mission in the Light of the Gospel: Listening to and Bearing the Witness of the Spirit in Western Europe: The Public Rumour of the Kingdom of God in and from Western Europe: Notes and Glimpses from France
Authors: Bernard Edith 
Published: December 2007

AbstractAware of post-modernity in all its various shapes and manifestations, Edith Bernard explores what it means to be missionary in the context of contemporary France where people have so many questions and where post-modernity's child, deconstruction is often the name of the game. Given the extraordinary diversity of solutions to the question raised in the post-modern world, careful discernment is required if one is to successfully navigate the shoals that await the unwary and unthinking. Bearing witness to the Spirit means growing in an awareness of the Spirit present in the joys, sorrows, dramas, and predicaments of the world, realities to which the missionary is called to respond.
Witness, Worship and Presence: On the Integrity of Mission in Contemporary Europe
Authors: Parushev Parush 
Published: December 2007

AbstractLike Bernard, Bulgarian academic and missionary Parush Parushev names some of the way forward for missionary engagement in contemporary Europe, particularly in those countries formerly dominated by the Soviet Union. Parushev argues that the integrity of Christian mission is ensured by a holistic approach which witnesses to God's transforming presence in one's life, in pastoral assistance for the down and out, and, in enduring social commitment to challenging, and redeeming those aspects of societal life not in harmony with gospel values.
The Jargon of Authenticity and the Study of Religion
Authors: Mccutcheon Russell T. 
Published: December 2007

AbstractThis article is an analysis and critique of the jargon of authenticity that operates in both theological and humanistic studies of religion. The article argues that a form of myth making is at work in claims to such things as the 'deep meaning' of a text or even the supposedly essential, human nature all people are said to share. The article deploys its critique in a variety of sites, arguing that the discourse on authenticity-whether found in ethnic, nationalist, or hermeneutic traditions-is an all too common, socio-rhetorical technique used to construct a facade of homogenous group identity in the face of unpredictable, competing, and inevitably changeable historical situations and social interests. Instead of uncritically reproducing such discourses on authenticity, meaning, and personal experience-discourses that happen to be aligned with the scholar's political sympathies-the article argues that scholars of religion can study the 'natural history' of such mechanisms and discourses, illuminating the means whereby contingent, competing systems of credibility and meaning are established, reproduced, and contested.
Creative Hope and Imagination in a Practical Theology of Aesthetic (Artistic) Reason
Authors: Louw Daniël J. 
Published: December 2007

AbstractIn order to take Kant's third question seriously, practical theology should respond methodologically to the question: What may we hope? The hypothesis is argued that practical reason needs to be supplemented by aesthetic reason in order to deal with 'the absurd logic of hope' (Ricoeur). The latter can prevent a practical theological hermeneutics falling prey to a positivistic stance and an empirical model which makes little room for the spiritual dimension of the sublime and personal experiences of transcendence. While the theoretical reason posits 'the other' as object (analysis and objectification), aesthetic reason establishes between God and human beings a personal relationship of identification (synthesis and interconnectedness) which is sensitive to awe and surprise. Furthermore, it is argued that aesthetics is a vital component in liturgy. Art describes a dynamic relation between form and content, celebration and faith, and belief, experience and transcendence. These dynamics are established through imagination and creative hope. Applied to the problem of God-images, aesthetic reason should deal with the 'beauty of God' in terms of vulnerability (deformation) as depicted in the notion of a suffering God. To instil hope, the metaphor 'God as Partner for Life' is proposed.
Inheriting Chinese and Christian Traditions in Global Context: a Confucian-Protestant Perspective
Authors: Lai Pan-Chiu 
Published: December 2007

AbstractThis article offers an analysis of the problems and tensions in the endeavour to inherit Chinese and Christian traditions in contemporary global and Chinese contexts. Through an investigation of the theological concept of tradition and the Chinese, mainly Confucian, understanding of the transmission of the Way, this article argues that it is possible to inherit the Protestant and Confucian traditions at the same time, without violating the basic principles of the two traditions. It also argues that an integration of the Protestant and Confucian traditions will be beneficial to the development of the two traditions.