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Nanoplastics And The Role Of The Corona In The Biological Responses Of \u3cem\u3eDaphnia magna\u3c/em\u3e
No full textIn the aquatic environment, organisms predominantly interact with nanoplastics coated with environmental biomolecules rather than with bare plastics. This study investigates the biological response of Daphnia magna neonates to bare and biomolecule-coated nanoplastics over 24 and 48 h. The commercially available fetal bovine serum (FBS), biomolecules collected from D. magna secretions (DSB), and algae biomolecules (AB), were used to coat (hard corona) 20 nm fluorescent nanoplastics. The results show that neonate exposure to both bare and coated nanoplastics resulted in the production of biomolecules by the neonates, which interacted with the nanoplastic surface, uniquely altering their properties through binding and exchange of biomolecules, affecting their internalization and toxicity. Neonates exposed to bare nanoplastics exhibited the highest mortality rates, while nanoplastics coated with FBS, DSB, and AB resulted in lower mortality, suggesting that corona composition significantly influences nanoplastic toxicity. Confocal microscopy revealed the highest internalization for the bare, DSB, and AB coated nanoplastics compared to the FBS coated nanoplastics. Swimming behavior was mostly affected by the bare nanoplastics compared to the corona-coated nanoplastics. The antioxidant defense mechanisms, including glutathione S-transferase (GST), catalase (CAT), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were analyzed in D. magnahomogenates exposed to both bare and protein-coated nanoplastics, in order to better understand the overall oxidative stress responses in neonates. Results demonstrated higher enzyme activities at 24 h of exposure to all nanoplastics, particularly for SOD and GST. At 48 h, CAT activity increased for all nanoplastics, indicating sustained oxidative stress and activation of mechanisms to neutralize ROS and mitigate cellular damage. This study underscores the critical role of the coronas in modulating nanoplastic toxicity, advocating for their consideration in toxicological risk assessments
Review Of Engaging Raz: Themes In Normative Philosophy Edited By A. Marmor, K. Brownlee, And D. Enoch
No full textFrom the 1970s until his death in 2022, Joseph Raz shaped more than a generation of thinking regarding jurisprudence, political and moral philosophy, and practical reason. His originality, incisive argumentation, and openness to having his views challenged and developed by others mark him as a highly innovative thinker. In Engaging Raz, editors Marmor (Cornell Univ.), Brownlee (Univ. of British Columbia, Canada), and Enoch (Hebrew Univ., Israel) bring together essays on all these topics and more by 21 highly regarded contemporary philosophers. The essays, each roughly 20 pages or more, are divided into six categories where Raz’s contributions are most significant: Normativity and Values, Practical Reasoning, Agency and Autonomy, Rights and Obligations, The Public Domain, and Authority. Each contributor engages with Raz’s views by challenging them, modifying them, and/or developing them further. This short review cannot do justice to this magnificent collection except to say that it should be on the shelves of all major research institutions and law schools, and read avidly by anyone engaged in any of the subjects listed above. Collections of this sort tend to be uneven; happily, this volume is exceptional as each essay is first-rate. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals
Panthères Et Panthéisme: La Sympathie Animale Et La Biologie Mystique De Balzac
No full textThe present project places Balzac’s Une passion dans le désert alongside Séraphîta, highlighting the manner in which the two texts explore largely analogous interspecies relationships between creatures who occupy different rungs along a hierarchical échelle des êtres (human-to-panther in the former, angel-to-human in the latter). In comparing the two, the project points to Balzac’s sensitivity to questions surrounding alterity and continuism that continue to inform animal studies scholarship
On “Subconferencing” as a Mode of Study
No full textIn this roundtable discussion, four participants reflect on their experiences organizing “subconferences”—spaces for collective gathering, studying, and mutual aid within and beyond professionalized academic conferences. Intersecting recent and ongoing struggles over labor in higher education and in conversation with core ideas from Eli Meyerhoff’s (2019) book, Beyond Education, the discussion reflects on insights gained and connections made over the course of a decade organizing such spaces. In so doing, the discussion critically engages a range of issues including struggles over the conditions of academic labor and knowledge production; tensions between the pressures of professionalization, the necessity of radical praxis, and desires for well-roundedness and wellness; and possibilities for collective study and organizing against and despite these challenges
Virtual Bodies, Virtual Worlds (ENGL 093A) Final Project
Get PDFFor your final project you will use all of the readings and discussions we have had throughout this semester to inspire your own creation: a virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) experience intended to teach one of the fictional texts we’ve read. The goal is to educate your audience, particularly to explain or enhance the reading experience through immersive content. You should draw on your own personal experience, criticism of the novel, and other reliable, scholarly sources to write a pitch – and ultimately a formal proposal – for this short extended reality (XR) application. Again, your immersive experience must be both educational and engaging. You will design this simulation as an entry to the competition being held by the NEH
Exploitation on the High Seas: Transnational Capital and Workers Rights in the Global Cruise Industry
No full textA Different Debate Among Herodotus’ Persians: On Truth And Falsehood
No full textOn the subject of truth and lying, Herodotus ascribes widely different ideologies to Persians and Greeks. While both groups traffic in falsehood to an equal degree and often in similar ways, the Persians more frequently accuse each other of lying or discuss lying and truth-telling. Most notably they alone in the Histories generalize about this topic, just as they are the only ones who speak about forms of government in theoretical terms. Herodotus’ knowledge of Persian culture, including his probably indirect knowledge and ironical interpretation of the Behistun inscription, have led him to put his Persian sources and historical agents in charge of questioning the appropriateness of truth-telling and falsehood. This is a discussion which, unlike the Constitutional Debate in Book Three, is not confined to a single scene but spans the entire course of the Histories. There Herodotus shows how, unlike the Greeks and in spite of numerous transgressions, the Persians hold truth-telling as a moral value, as self-defining as the Greeks consider freedom. As a Greek and a storyteller, Herodotus participates in his culture’s casual and often admiring view of all sorts of (successful) trickery. As an historian, however, that position is one he can hardly afford