1,882 research outputs found
Dimer-dimer stacking interactions are important for nucleic acid binding by the archaeal chromatin protein Alba
No full textArchaea use a variety of small basic proteins to package their DNA. One of the most widespread and highly conserved is the Alba (Sso10b) protein. Alba interacts with both DNA and RNA in vitro, and we show in the present study that it binds more tightly to dsDNA (double-stranded DNA) than to either ssDNA (single-stranded DNA) or RNA. The Alba protein is dimeric in solution, and forms distinct ordered complexes with DNA that have been visualized by electron microscopy studies; these studies suggest that, on binding dsDNA, the protein forms extended helical protein fibres. An end-to-end association of consecutive Alba dimers is suggested by the presence of a dimer-dimer interface in crystal structures of Alba from several species, and by the strong conservation of the interface residues, centred on Are and Phe(60). In the present study we map perturbation of the polypeptide backbone of Alba upon binding to DNA and RNA by NMR, and demonstrate the central role of Phe(60) in forming the dimer dimer interface. Site-directed spin labelling and pulsed ESR are used to confirm that an end-to-end, dimer dimer interaction forms in the presence of dsDNA.Peer reviewe
The Author/Translator Interactional Process. A Case Study
No full textSee Naples and Kill (1988) is a lively and colourful novel by the con-temporary English writer, Gregory Dowling, translated into Italian in 2015.
Following the tradition of translation studies (Venuti 2000, Bass-nett 2002, Cronin 2006), this paper analyses the rewriting process of literary translation, considering in particular the fruitful but sometimes tense and even conflictual relationship between writer and translator.
The translation of the novel See Naples and Kill was an ongoing rewriting process entailing a constant dialogue between the writer and the translator. Therefore, the study aims at answering two main ques-tions: what happens if the rewriting process of translation is constant-ly questioned by the author? What happens if the author has a good mastery of the target language and s/he is her/himself a translator?
By exploring the relationship between translation and re-creation, the research focuses on the differences and similarities between the primary creation (source text) and the secondary creation (target text), and aims to verify in which way the dialogic encounter of two different personalities and cultures does not make them merge but, by retaining their own uniqueness, leads eventually to their mutually en-riching each other. A comparative analysis of the source text and the different drafts of the translated version accompanied by the author’s comments will shed light on the tense author-translator relationship in the specific case under investigation and how both actors handle this tension in order to create a new work resulting from the (dis)agreement of the two parties
Modelling soil-water interaction with the Material Point Method. Evaluation of single-point and double-point formulations
No full textMany problems in geotechnical engineering involve large deformations and soil-water interactions, which pose challenging issues in computational geomechanics. In the last decade, the Material Point Method (MPM) has been successfully applied in a number of large-deformation geotechnical problems and multi-phase MPM formulations have been recently proposed. In particular, there exist two advanced coupled hy-dro-mechanical MPM approaches to model the interaction between solid grains and pore fluids: the single-point and the double-point formulation. The first discretizes the soil-water mixture with a single set of ma-terial points (MP) which moves according to the solid velocity field. The latter uses two sets of MP one for the fluid phase and the other for the solid phase and they move according to the respective velocity field. The aims of this work is to present and compare the two theories, to emphasize their limitations and poten-tialities, and to discuss their applicability in the geotechnical field. To this end, the results of two numerical examples carried out by using both formulations are presented: a 1D-consolidation problem and a saturated column collapse problem
Dany Laferrière, des saveurs d'Haïti aux saveurs du monde. Bref voyage aux frontières du goût.
No full textThe Médicis Prize that the Haitian-Canadian writer Dany Laferrière, was awarded with in 2009, enables him to enter, albeit rather belatedly, the literary panorama of the Hexagon large audiences, even though his work began in 1985, when he published his first novel, and consists today of approximately fifteen books. Since then, critics, mainly from North-America, have kept on analysing his texts, investigating themes such as migration, identity, space-time and childhood. These are topics which are clearly visible, although they hide other, perhaps less obvious, thematics, such as that of nourishment. A thorough reading of the Autobiographie américaine (the title the author himself assigns to his fictional work as a whole), leads us to unveil the importance of the culinary issue in terms of both its connection to the place of birth (thus as an emotive and sensorial experience) but also (because it relies on a mixture of smells, flavours and memories which the exiled narrator brings with him) to the host country. Nourishment also manifests itself as the alter-ego of literature, and the narrator-writer’s interest in the two fields aims at unveiling their secrets, the mechanisms of their creation/preparation, their shaping anf their materialisation. Nourishment is also seen as an absence, a plague which hits his country of birth but which also touches Montréal, the modernised and developed town the narrator chooses as his domicile. Finally, we cannot avoid looking into the omnipresent female figures in Laferrière’s work (grandmother, mother, aunts, lovers) who claim their place in the kitchen of his country of origin. Yet, women play a fundamental role also in northern Canada, as the nourishment they provide the narrator with, satisfies both his stomach and his senses
A ALBA e a luta pela hegemonia no continente americano: uma topologia do discurso bolivariano
No full textDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas. Programa de Pós-graduação em Sociologia PolíticaO objetivo da dissertação é analisar o movimento bolivariano, liderado pela Venezuela, enquanto projeto de construção de uma nova hegemonia na América Latina e o Caribe. Tal projeto se constrói discursivamente em oposição à histórica hegemonia pan-americana liderada pelos Estados Unidos (EUA). Para isso é estudada a ALBA (Aliança Bolivariana para os Povos de nossa América) como organização internacional que facilita a alineação de países e sociedades latino-americanos em relação ao movimento bolivariano, gerando novas modalidades de construção de sentido, assim como novas vias e regras de relacionamento internacional. A pesquisa analisa os discursos de mandatários nas reuniões de Cúpula da ALBA, e, apelando à teoria do discurso de Ernesto Laclau, identifica nesse conjunto os três passos previstos pelo autor na configuração de um desafio hegemônico: (1) o estabelecimento de um antagonismo face ao imperialismo dos EUA que é identificado como o poder hegemônico institucionalizado, e a dicotomização do espaço social americano através da construção de uma fronteira entre esse poder e o resto da comunidade (América Latina e o Caribe); (2) a articulação contingente entre diversas demandas sociais, características da América Latina e do Caribe, cuja insatisfação é atribuída ao imperialismo dos EUA; e (3) a formação de um campo popular, através da expressão positiva dessas demandas numa nova identidade, no caso a identidade bolivariana. A pesquisa conclui que o movimento bolivariano consegue gerar elementos para permitir uma nova lógica de construção de sentido, configurando assim estruturalmente um campo de luta pela hegemonia. Porém, também são destacados vários problemas nessa tarefa, especialmente ligados à identificação de diversas unidades com o bolivarianismo.The dissertation research the Bolivarian Movement, headed by Venezuela, as a new hegemonic project, still under construction, at Latin America and the Caribbean. This hegemonic project is discursively constructed in opposition to the historic Pan American hegemony, led by the U.S. In this way, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) is approached as an international organization that seeks to align the Latin American countries and societies behind the Bolivarian Movment. The ALBA generates new ways of sense-making, as well as new norms of international relations. The research analyzes the speeches at the ALBA's presidential summits, using the Ernesto Laclau's Discourse Theory, and identifying the three steps proposed by this author to the hegemonic construction: Firstly, the establishment of an antagonism against U.S. imperialism and the dicotomization of the hemispheric social space, through the definition of a boundary between the powerful country and the rest of continental community (Latina America and the Caribe). Secondly, the contingent articulation of a variety of social demands, which dissatisfaction are ascribed to the U.S. imperialism. Thirdly, the formation of a new popular field, through the positive expression on a new identity of this unified set of demands, in this case the Bolivarian identity. The dissertation concludes that the Bolivarian movement manages a new logic of sense-making, and therefore places the hegemonic struggle in a new structural field. However, it also identified some problems on this task, particularly in the difficulty to construct a Bolivarian identity shared by various social unities (countries, societies and social sectors)
Microplastic contamination in terrestrial ecosystems: A study using barn owl (Tyto alba) pellets
No full textMicroplastics (MPs) are recognised as an emerging environmental problem that needs to be carefully monitored. So far, MPs have been widely recorded in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Still, few studies have focused on MP occurrence in terrestrial ecosystems, although soils are suspected to be one of the main MP reservoirs. To test a non-invasive method for assessing MP contamination in terrestrial ecosystems, we analysed the pellets of a top terrestrial predator, the barn owl (Tyto alba). Sixty pellets were collected from three agricultural areas (20 pellets each) and analysed to assess both barn owl diet and MP content. Thirty four MPs were confirmed by micro-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (μ-FTIR) analysis in 33% of the pellets (min-max 1 – 5 MPs per pellet). Most of the detected items were microfibres (88.2%). Polyethylene terephthalate, polyacrylonitrile and polyamide were the most abundant polymers. One of the three sites was significantly less contaminated. In the two sites with the highest MP occurrences, barn owl diet was characterised by predation on synanthropic rodents, particularly brown rats (Rattus norvegicus), which may indicate habitat degradation and increased exposure to MPs. Analyses also suggest that Savi's pine vole (Microtus savii) is the prey least at risk of MP contamination, probably due to its strictly herbivorous diet. We argue that the analysis of barn owl pellets may represent a cost-effective method for monitoring MP contamination in terrestrial ecosystems
Author Correction: Differential epigenetic reprogramming in response to specific endocrine therapies promotes cholesterol biosynthesis and cellular invasion
No full textThis Article omits a declaration from the Competing Interests statement, which should have included the following: ‘One of the authors, Y.L., is an editor on the staff of Nature Communications, but was not in any way involved in the journal review process. The other authors declare no competing interests.’ Also, the Article contains an error in the name of the author Alba Rodriguez-Meira, which is incorrectly given as Alba Meira. These errors have not been corrected in either the PDF or HTML versions of the Article. © 2019, The Author(s)
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