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A study on the ameliorative effects of goldenseal, goat's rue extracts, and berberine on glucose uptake compared to metformin in a cellular model
Full text linkThis study examines the effects of goat's rue (Galega officinalis L.), goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis L.) leaves, root extracts, and berberine on glucose uptake in HepG2 cells. These plant compounds, traditionally used to alleviate diabetes symptoms, were compared to metformin. Glucose uptake was assessed using 2-NBDG, MTT assays for cytotoxicity, Bradford protein assays, and western blotting for GLUT-1 expression. Goldenseal and berberine significantly increased glucose uptake compared to metformin (p<0.05). Berberine, goldenseal, and metformin enhanced glucose uptake by 3.4, 2, and 1.8 times respectively (p<0.001). GLUT-1 expression increased by 1.7 times with goldenseal and 1.4 times with berberine (p<0.05). The results indicate that berberine is more effective than goldenseal in improving glucose uptake, suggesting both may lower blood glucose levels in insulin resistance, and present potential therapeutic alternatives for Type 2 Diabetes
Transphobia as a weapon of war: reporting on Russia’s trans community amidst heightened regulation, censorship and propaganda
No full textIn the wake of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, global attention has been focused on the atrocities committed there, overshadowing the repression of minoritised groups within Russia, including the LGBTQ community. Restrictions on the press have exacerbated the situation. This chapter explores the latest crackdown on the very existence of LGBTQ Russians, particularly those in the trans community, and the resultant impact of new legislation that curtails their rights. It also examines expanded laws that criminalise journalists and others reporting positively on LGBTQ issues, causing many to practice self-censorship by avoiding the topics entirely or framing them according to state-approved narratives. Using the Hierarchy of Influences framework and historical and comparative methodology, this chapter demonstrates how state policies towards Russia’s LGBTQ community, coupled with reporting restrictions, work together to strip it of previously held freedoms, and make it impossible for journalists to maintain autonomy when reporting on LGBTQ issues
Limerence, hidden obsession, fixation, and rumination: a scoping review of human behaviour
Full text linkThis systematic scoping review explores the behavioural state of limerence and the relationship it has with rumination as part of a precursory phase to stalking, for the purpose of identifying a trajectory in harmful human behaviour. The review also considers how limerence impacts those who experience it, as well as factors which serve as accelerants to this cognitive state. It examines cognitive disorders identifiable on the DSM-5, such as obsessive–compulsive disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and erotomania, and applies them to studies which conceptualise limerence as an obsessive behaviour. At present, there is extraordinarily limited literature focusing on this state of unrequited and intense human emotion towards another person—a phenomenon characterised by limited by self-awareness and restraint, yet also a state that involves obsession and fixation, sharing cognitive characteristics and behaviours intrinsically tied to stalking behaviours. This review argues that behaviours exhibited in a state of limerence can serve as the building blocks upon which more harmful, externally focused stalking behaviours could develop. This review identified that the emerging literature on limerence offers new and important insights into the psychology of obsessive desire as a precursor to other, more proximal forms of violence which warrant greater attention, as they do not fit into existing psychological classifications of obsession because these behaviours are motivated by a lack of reciprocation and rejection. The objective is not to label individuals experiencing limerence as deviant but, rather, to better understand how fixation and obsessive desire can be maintained in the absence of approach behaviours
Co-creation of connected and relational learning spaces: a digital and gamified approach in higher education
No full textThis paper explores the use of a gamified digital intervention to build connected and relational spaces for students in higher education which reach beyond the places and spaces of the traditional learning environment. These informal learning spaces can be seen to facilitate the development of students’ transferable skills. The project intervention that was the basis for this research was designed to develop an inclusive online experience, recognising the importance of the informal learning space where traditional subject and discipline boundaries are bridged. Particular attention was given to the ways in which the gamified digital space offers additional opportunities to students to build community and transferable skills which traditional learning environments do not always offer. The project was developed through a participatory design approach, in partnership with students who acted as co-creators and co-developers on the project, in both the UK and international settings and with students whose background was culturally diverse. The paper outlines the project, explains the development of the project intervention and offers insights into the challenges and opportunities offered through such connected space engagement with student
A graph-based method for identity resolution to assist police force investigative process
Full text linkThe ability to prove an individual identity has become crucial in social, economic, and legal aspects of life. Identity resolution is the process of semantic reconciliation that determines whether a single identity is the same when being described differently. This paper introduces a novel graph-based methodology for identity resolution, designed to reconcile identities by analysing the similarity of attribute values associated with different identities within a policing dataset. The proposed methodology employs graph analysis techniques, including centrality measurement and community detection, to enhance the identity resolution process. This paper also presents a new identity model for identity resolution. SPIRIT policing dataset was used for testing the proposed methodology. This dataset is an anonymised dataset used in the SPIRIT project funded by EU Horizon. It contains 892 identity records and among these, two ’known’ identities utilize different names but actually represent the same individual. The presented method successfully recognised these two identities. Additionally, another experimental evaluation was conducted on a refined and extended version of the dataset and the false identities were successfully detected. This method can assist police forces in identifying criminals and fraudsters using fake identities and has applications across finance, marketing, and customer service
Serendipity: the role of chance and accidents in creativity
No full textChance plays an acknowledged role in creativity, but taking it seriously challenges traditional notions of talent and expertise as well as the importance of agency and intentionality. Chance without skill is not enough on its own to support creativity. The phenomenon of serendipity requires both luck and the skill to make the most of it. This review argues that it can provide a lens through which to understand how individual, emotional and environmental factors interact in the creative process. However, serendipity is acknowledged to be a complex phenomenon that is not easily investigated from an empirical perspective. This review addresses some of the complexities, offers methodological recommendations and surveys some emerging findings
The unexpected politics of ILGA-Europe’s rainbow maps: (de)constructing queer utopias/dystopias
Full text linkRecently, we have seen a proliferation of maps visualising the global state of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, plus (LGBTQI+) rights. Whilst they represent a productive advocacy tool for activists, we critically examine the politics embedded and reinforced by the way indexes are constructed and represented. By exploring the discrepancies between the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Maps and the lived experiences of LGBTQI+ people within Europe, we argue that these maps reproduce hierarchies often mediated by Eurocentric understandings of linear progress, while discounting the importance that an interpenetration of legal and social aspects has in evaluating national contexts in which LGBTQI+ persons live. The emphasis on legislative frameworks, thus, in part displaces lived experiences of LGBTQI+ people in Europe – projecting both Queer Utopias and Dystopias onto different geographical localities feeding into existing homonationalist discourses. With such findings, we argue against the fetishization of legislation within LGBTQI+ activism and academia
Dialectic of digital enlightenment: reclaiming radical philosophy for our times
No full textFrom Kant and Hegel to Habermas and Marx, radical philosophical transformation has been marked by technological advancements at every stage of human life. The volume on the dialectic of digital enlightenment engages with AI-driven technological changes to explore the transformation of human nature, society, the state, and government through the philosophical perspectives of Kant, Hegel, Horkheimer, Adorno, Bloch, Benjamin, Fromm, Marcuse, Habermas and Marx. Digital transformation has also been witnessing the rise of authoritarianism, militarism, economic disruption, environmental crises, and the impoverishment of collective foundations of mass culture through consumerism, where the ideals of utility, pleasure, and satisfaction reign supreme in the atomised lives of individuals, both within and beyond the digital sphere. This trend continues to hinder the growth of collective consciousness necessary for social, political, economic, and cultural transformation. Multiple forms of inequality and exploitation based on class, gender, race, caste, sexuality, and other forms of marginalisation continue to define the inherent crises of digital civilisation, which is shaped by rent-seeking nature of capitalism with its techno-feudal characteristics. Therefore, the dialectic of digital enlightenment argues that capitalism has undermined the potential for a progressive digital civilisation grounded in peace and prosperity for all without any form of inequalities, exploitation and barriers.
Historically, the 19th century retrospective invention of the European Enlightenment not only consolidated capitalism but also undermined diverse knowledge traditions within and beyond Europe. Similarly, digital enlightenment follows in the footsteps of the European Enlightenment, eroding the creative potential of labour and its collective foundations in the name of digital revolution. Such trends create favorable conditions for capitalist consolidation, often at the expense of people and the planet. So, there is a pressing need for a radical reassessment and decolonisation of AI-driven Eurocentric technological transformations to ensure a digital civilisation free from alienation, grounded in the collective foundations of human life and consciousness.
The ten chapters in this volume explore various themes, including Kantian Idealism and AI, Hegelian Dialectics and Digital Society, Max Horkheimer in the Age of Digital Revolution, Theodor W. Adorno and Limits of Digital Positivism, Technological Society and Hopes of Ernst Simon Bloch, Walter Benjamin and Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Erich Fromm and Digital Human Nature, Herbert Marcuse and Eros of Digital Civilisation, Habermas, Reason and AI, Marx and Class Consciousness in the Age of Digital Work. The volume aims to free these eleven European philosophers from the prison of Eurocentric knowledge traditions and its universalistic tendencies, which dominate the world and undermine these European philosophers, whose philosophies appeal to all human beings across the globe
The spectacularization of NGOs accountability in disaster situations: evidence from the 2015 Nepal’s earthquakes
Full text linkDrawing on Guy Debord’s concept of the spectacle, this paper aims to extend our understanding of the way in which certain NGOs spectacularise their performance in the context of disaster situations, and the continued co-existence of a multiplicity of accountabilities, with reference to the 2015 Nepal earthquakes. Data for the paper were gathered through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The findings of the study demonstrate how the voices of many Nepalese NGOs involved in the relief, recovery and rehabilitation efforts following the 2015 earthquakes remained unheard and how they were forced to compromise their felt responsibilities by having to adhere to the control-oriented and accounting-based requirements imposed by the government and funders. Such requirements put certain NGOs, which were established to pursue political and personal goals, in a position to benefit from the situation, allowing them to obfuscate the ground level reality, for instance by manipulating the number of beneficiaries and geographical areas served, showcasing their performance on social media and facilitating pseudo-ceremonies and participation. The spectacle created by NGOs was oppressive, exacerbating inequalities in aid distribution and excluding certain groups of beneficiaries from the relief, recovery and rehabilitation efforts. The key contribution of the study lies in illustrating how both wider society and NGOs’ stakeholders have been relegated to the role of passive spectator—consumers, as they accepted and consumed the NGO-led representation
Contagion: the chaos of the digital ether
No full textThe utopian ideals of social media were perhaps always naively optimistic, but they have never looked more dead. Sharing, collaboration, user-generated content, folksonomies and digitally mediated communities were meant to drive a renaissance of liberal humanist values, providing a new socially-constructed foundation for truth and value to supplant the political grand narratives of the twentieth century (cf Lessig, 1999; O’Reilly, 2010). Instead our technologically mediated culture has fallen into a slough of digital despond where truth has been devalued and meaning diluted. Misinformation and disinformation proliferate at an alarming rate, with individual and state actors alike harnessing the power of social media to disrupt the public sphere (Tredinnick, 2023). Everyday social media services have become sites of largely unchallenged political extremism. Bots recirculate content and drive engagement at the expense of significance and meaning. What is emerging is a kind of chaos of the digital ether, where clashing and conflicting signals undermine social media as a useful medium, and threated the integrity of political and social institutions. Amid the chaos something fundamentally useful has been lost