90 research outputs found
Linting of filler in the offset printing process
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Image of “Fallen Woman” in Novels of G. Fallada’s “Wolf Among Wolves” and F. M. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”: Comparative Analysis
No full textThe image of the “fallen woman” in the novels of G. Fallada’s “Wolf Among Wolves” and F. M. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” is examined. Traces of the literary influence of the Russian classic on the poetics of the German writer’s novel at the thematic and character levels are identified. It is established that the key motif in both works is the theme of moral resurrection of the fallen individual. It is shown that, in addressing the problem of the “humiliated and insulted”, both authors incorporate the image of the “fallen woman” into the system of characters in their novels. It is noted that the writers pay special attention to the reasons for her social downfall. Through the use of comparative-historical analysis, parallels in the images of “fallen” women presented in these works — Petra Ledig and Sonya Marmeladova — are identified. The author of the article concludes that the heroines share a number of common features: Christian semantics of their names, moral purity despite physical vice, a tendency towards selfsacrifice, great inner strength despite outward timidity, a desire to show mercy, the ability to motivate their loved ones towards spiritual rebirth and thereby “rebirth” themselves. The results of the study allow to demonstrate the significance of F. M. Dostoevsky’s humanistic ideas for the aesthetic principles and worldview position of G. Fallada in the novel “Wolf Among Wolves”
Spatially regulated editing of genetic information within a neuron
No full text© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Vallecillo-Viejo, I. C., Liscovitch-Brauer, N., Diaz Quiroz, J. F., Montiel-Gonzalez, Maria F., Nemes, Sonya E., Rangan, K. J., Levinson, S. R., Eisenberg, E., & Rosenthal, J. J. C. Spatially regulated editing of genetic information within a neuron. Nucleic Acids Research, (2020): gkaa172, doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaa172.In eukaryotic cells, with the exception of the specialized genomes of mitochondria and plastids, all genetic information is sequestered within the nucleus. This arrangement imposes constraints on how the information can be tailored for different cellular regions, particularly in cells with complex morphologies like neurons. Although messenger RNAs (mRNAs), and the proteins that they encode, can be differentially sorted between cellular regions, the information itself does not change. RNA editing by adenosine deamination can alter the genome’s blueprint by recoding mRNAs; however, this process too is thought to be restricted to the nucleus. In this work, we show that ADAR2 (adenosine deaminase that acts on RNA), an RNA editing enzyme, is expressed outside of the nucleus in squid neurons. Furthermore, purified axoplasm exhibits adenosine-to-inosine activity and can specifically edit adenosines in a known substrate. Finally, a transcriptome-wide analysis of RNA editing reveals that tens of thousands of editing sites (>70% of all sites) are edited more extensively in the squid giant axon than in its cell bodies. These results indicate that within a neuron RNA editing can recode genetic information in a region-specific manner.National Science Foundation (NSF) [IOS1557748 to J.R.]; United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation [BSF2013094 to J.R. and E.E.]; The Grass Foundation grant in support of the Doryteuthis pealeii Genome Project, and a gift by Mr. Edward Owens. Funding for open access charge: United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation [BSF2013094]
Muddy Waters: Congressional Consent and the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact
No full textAfter nearly a century of negotiations among the Great Lakes states, tribes, and provinces, a promising new agreement was recently ratified by the parties and recognized by Congress, this is the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. Interstate compacts, may serve as a particularly useful tool for solving regional environmental problems, which the federal government lacks the interest to resolve. However, due to constitutional strictures, interstate compacts are not binding unless Congress grants consent to the compact. This Note focuses on the recent Great Lakes Compact as a means to examine the current state of the law surrounding the Compact Clause of the United States Constitution.
The author argues that while compacting states have a myriad of arguments at their disposal that Congress has impliedly consented to a compact, the most prudent path is to have Congress formally adopt the compact as federal law by explicitly consenting to it. In coming to this conclusion, the Note examines the history of the Compact Clause of the Constitution as well as prior attempt by the Great Lakes states to enter into agreements
Muddy Waters: Congressional Consent and the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact
No full textAfter nearly a century of negotiations among the Great Lakes states, tribes, and provinces, a promising new agreement was recently ratified by the parties and recognized by Congress, this is the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. Interstate compacts, may serve as a particularly useful tool for solving regional environmental problems, which the federal government lacks the interest to resolve. However, due to constitutional strictures, interstate compacts are not binding unless Congress grants consent to the compact. This Note focuses on the recent Great Lakes Compact as a means to examine the current state of the law surrounding the Compact Clause of the United States Constitution.
The author argues that while compacting states have a myriad of arguments at their disposal that Congress has impliedly consented to a compact, the most prudent path is to have Congress formally adopt the compact as federal law by explicitly consenting to it. In coming to this conclusion, the Note examines the history of the Compact Clause of the Constitution as well as prior attempt by the Great Lakes states to enter into agreements
The functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex as an endophenotype for bipolar disorder
No full textBackground Alterations in functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and frontal cortices have been previously associated with the presence of psychiatric syndromes, among them bipolar disorder. Whether these alterations are a consequence or a risk factor for mental disorders remains unresolved. Methods This study included 35 bipolar participants, 30 of their resilient siblings, and 23 healthy controls to probe functional connectivity at rest between NAcc and the rest of the brain in a cross-sectional design. BOLD time series at rest from NAcc were used as seed-region in a woxel-wise correlational analysis. The strength of the correlations found were compared across groups after Fisher’s Z transformation. Results Our results showed increased functional connectivity between NAcc and a ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) - comprising mainly the subgenual anterior cingulate - in patients compared to controls. Participants at increased genetic risk but yet resilient – i.e. unaffected siblings - showed functional connectivity values midway between the former two groups. Conclusions Our results are indicative of the potential for the connectivity between NAcc and the vmPFC to represent an endophenotype for bipolar disorder
Fractional anisotropy of the uncinate fasciculus and cingulum in bipolar disorder type I, type II, their unaffected siblings and healthy controls
No full textBackground:
Fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus and the cingulum may be biomarkers for bipolar disorder and may even be distinctly affected in different subtypes of bipolar disorder, an area in need of further research.
Aims:
This study aims to establish if fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus and cingulum shows differences between healthy controls, patients with bipolar disorder type I (BD-I) and type II (BD-II), and their unaffected siblings.
Method:
Fractional anisotropy measures from the uncinate fasciculus, cingulum body and parahippocampal cingulum were compared with tractography methods in 40 healthy controls, 32 patients with BD-I, 34 patients with BD-II, 17 siblings of patients with BD-I and 14 siblings of patients with BD-II.
Results:
The main effects were found in both the right and left uncinate fasciculus, with patients with BD-I showing significantly lower fractional anisotropy than both patients with BD-II and healthy controls. Participants with BD-II did not differ from healthy controls. Siblings showed similar effects in the left uncinate fasciculus. In a subsequent complementary analysis, we investigated the association between fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus and polygenic risk for bipolar disorder and psychosis in a large cohort (n = 570) of healthy participants. However, we found no significant association.
Conclusions:
Fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus differs significantly between patients with BD-I and patients with BD-II and healthy controls. This supports the hypothesis of differences in the physiological sub-tract between bipolar disorder subtypes. Similar results were found in unaffected siblings, suggesting the potential for this biomarker to represent an endophenotype for BD-I. However, fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus seems unrelated to polygenic risk for bipolar disorder or psychosis
Do Multinationals or Domestic Firms Face Higher Effective Tax Rates?
No full textTo our knowledge, this paper provides the most comprehensive analysis of firm-level corporate income tax expenses to date. We use publicly available financial statement information to estimate firm-level effective tax rates (ETRs) for 10,642 corporations from 85 countries from 1988 to 2007. We find that multinationals and domestic-only companies face similar ETRs. We also find that, on average, ETRs declined by seven percentage points or 20% over the period. German, Japanese, Australian and Canadian decreases were large. American, British, and French declines were more modest. Nonetheless, because ETRs were falling worldwide, the ordinal rank from high-tax countries to low-tax countries changed little. Japanese firms always faced the highest ETRs. ETRs for tax havens and countries from the Middle East and Asia (ignoring Japan) were always lower than those for the U.S. and European countries. These findings should provide some empirical underpinning for ongoing policy debates about the taxation of multinational profits.
Expression patterns of the chromosome 21 MicroRNA cluster (miR-99a, miR-125b and let-7c) in chorioamniotic membranes
No full textAbstractTrisomy 21 (T21) is the most common chromosome abnormality in humans and is associated with a spectrum of phenotypes, including cognitive impairment, congenital heart defects and immune system defects. In addition, T21 is also associated with abnormalities of fetal membranes including chorioamniotic separation, delayed fusion of the chorioamniotic membranes, defects in syncytiotrophoblast formation, as well as amniocyte senescence. There is evidence indicating miRNAs encoded by sequences on chromosome 21 (Chr-21) are involved in several of the cognitive and neurological phenotypes of T21, but the role of Chr-21 derived miRNAs in fetal membrane abnormalities associated with T21 has not been investigated. In the current study, we determined the expression patterns of three miRNAs derived from a cluster on Chr-21 – hsa-miR-99a, hsa-miR-125b and hsa-let-7c in chorioamniotic membranes obtained from term pregnancies with spontaneous rupture (n = 20). Tissue and location specific expression patterns within the chorioamniotic membranes were identified. The rupture zone in the choriodecidua had distinct expression patterns compared to other fetal membrane locations. Despite the increased gene dosage associated with T21, the expression of all three miRNAs was reduced in cultured T21 amniocytes as compared to cultured euploid amniocytes. In silico analysis of experimentally validated targets of the three miRNAs suggest these Chr-21 derived miRNAs play a potential role in fetal membrane rupture and the fetal membrane defects associated with T21
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