Biodiversity Informatics
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Mushroom Polysaccharides as Natural Modulators of IL-17: Implications for Gut Microbiota, Autoimmune Diseases and Cancer Therapy
Get PDFInterleukin-17 (IL-17, also known as IL-17A) is a member of the pro-inflammatory cytokine family that plays a pivotal role in immune defense, inflammatory responses, and tissue homeostasis. It contributes to host protection, autoimmune diseases, and cancer progression. Recent studies have highlighted the critical role of gut microbiota in immune regulation and tumor progression. Alterations in its composition can disrupt protective mechanisms, increase infection risk, and elevate the likelihood of metabolic and immune-related diseases. Mushroom polysaccharides are biological macromolecules extracted from the fruiting bodies, mycelia, or fermentation broth of mushrooms. These compounds achieve anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, and immune-regulatory effects by modulating gut microbiota, increasing short-chain fatty acid production, enhancing intestinal mucosal barrier function, regulating lipid metabolism, and activating specific signaling pathways. Mushroom polysaccharides have been shown to regulate IL-17 both directly through key signaling pathways and indirectly by modulating gut microbiota, thereby influencing immune-related diseases and tumor progression. Therefore, mushroom polysaccharides, acting as natural regulators of IL-17, possess extensive application potentials in cancer therapy and immune disease management
letsRept: An R package to access the Global Reptile Database and facilitate taxonomic harmonization
No full textTaxonomy is a highly dynamic science upon which most biodiversity studies rely. Constant revisions of species delimitation hypotheses, using ever-growing amounts of data and tools cause species numbers and identities to continuously and rapidly change. Reptiles are the most species rich terrestrial vertebrate group and are amongst the most threatened and least known vertebrate taxa, representing nearly half of all data deficient terrestrial vertebrate species. Every year hundreds of new species are described and dozens are revised, resulting in synonymizations, splittings, generic reassignments, or elevation from synonymy or from subspecies into species status. The nomenclature of this group is therefore highly dynamic and consequently, to integrate available reptile datasets generally requires extensive nomenclature review, especially for broad scale analyses. letsRept is a new R package that integrates the Reptile Database – the best curated and reliable global taxonomic reference for reptiles – into the R programming environment. Its main functions allow users to retrieve the most up-to-date taxonomic information in real time, to compare lists of species names to current nomenclature, and to detect names that have been changed by either lumping or splitting, all through web scraping techniques. Additional functions allow to produce quick taxonomic summaries, access species accounts, retrieve full reference lists and more. By permitting to embed the Reptile Database directly into R workflows, the letsRept package improves the integration of datasets from different sources, with authoritative taxonomy, reducing data loss due to nomenclature mismatch and improving the consistency in biodiversity analyses
Reparative Birth Work: Black Midwifery and the Disruption of Black Inheritance
No full textFrom The Moynihan Report to The Washington Post’s “Coming White Underclass,” Black maternity has been consistently represented as counter to American progress. This logic is (re)produced via the myth of the “bio-underclass,” which places Black motherhood at the center of the supposed process by which intellectual deficiency leads to bad decisions leads to health problems leads to intellectual deficiency and so on. Christina Sharpe characterizes this process as well, arguing that “the womb” has been turned into “a factory producing blackness as abjection much like the slave ship’s hold and the prison.” While tackling contemporary concerns, this paper is written from a historical viewpoint, positing obstetrical harm as a particular point of this oppression and recognizing the Black women who were not only exploited and experimented on but whose knowledge of childbirth and healthcare was stolen and undermined in the name of a White masculinist medicalization.
Through my work interviewing birth workers in Los Angeles, I posit contemporary Black midwifery as a reparative blueprint. By working in a mode of preventative care, as opposed to care that takes place after trauma has occurred and poor health has taken its toll, Black midwifery takes an expansive view of health, locating harm both inside and outside the hospital. Via an epigenetic schema, this strategy resists American healthcare’s over emphasis on clear-cut “genetics” and an enduring racial science when approaching Black bodies, as we are neither cared for nor treated with the complicated inheritance of slavery in mind
Omarbekova, Gulnara and Erik Aasland. Contemporary Kazakh Proverb Research: Digital, Cognitive, Literary, and Ecological Approaches
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Treatise Online no. 191: Part R, Revised, Volume 1, Illustrated Glossary of the Decapoda
No full textCopyright Anxiety and Legal Chill in Higher Education: A Comparison of Canada and the United Kingdom (UK)
Get PDFThis study builds upon and extends previous research into the phenomenon of copyright anxiety, initially measured through the Copyright Anxiety Scale (CAS) developed by Wakaruk et al. (2021). The primary aims are to explore levels of copyright anxiety within the higher education sectors of the UK and Canada, and to examine whether copyright law and the way it is perceived in these sectors inhibits innovative research and teaching practices. Using an adapted version of the copyright anxiety scale survey, we collected responses from over 500 participants in the UK and Canada during the summer of 2023. Additionally, we conducted seven focus groups with 32 individuals to gain deeper insights into the phenomenon and explore potential interventions.
Our findings indicate that those working in higher education are more worried about copyright than those outside the sector. Copyright concerns can cause significant anxiety and emotional labor, which may lead to legal chill that hampers teaching, research, and the provision of library programs and services. For example, academics may use less appropriate materials due to copyright concerns, negatively affecting pedagogical impact. Librarians, often acting as copyright advisors, may experience heightened anxiety, leading them to provide more risk-averse guidance to users and decision-makers. Future publications from this research will further develop a coding frame and explore options for mitigating copyright anxiety and chill in this sector
