This contribution focuses on aspects of feminism and gender in Marx’s theory. Marx’s methodology has given us the tools and the categories enabling us to think together gender and class, feminism and ...anti-capitalism. However, his contribution is an indirect one because Marx never developed a theory of gender. It is important to include the role of reproductive labour, slave labour, migrant labour, labour in the Global South and the unemployed in the critical analysis of capitalism and its division of labour. Reproductive labour is the largest activity on this planet and a major ground of divisions within the working class. A different Marx was discovered in the 1970s by feminists who turned to his work searching for a theory capable of explaining the roots of women’s oppression from a class viewpoint. The result has been a theoretical revolution that has changed both Marxism and Feminism. What was redefined by the realisation of the centrality of women’s unpaid labour in the home to the production of the work-force was not domestic work alone but the nature of capitalism itself and the struggle against it. This meant to turn Marx upside down to make his work important for feminism.
Tłumaczenie rozdziału książki Re-enchanting the World. Feminism and the Politics of the Commons (2019) Silvii Federici. Autorka polemizuje tu z opiniami, które przypisują rozwojowi technologii i ...komputeryzacji społecznie wyzwalającą funkcję. Wykazuje, że postęp technologiczny pokrywa się z rosnącą skalą wyzysku, ale także z „historią dezakumulacji” dóbr wspólnych i przedkapitalistycznych umiejętności, związanych z bezpośrednim i niesprywatyzowanym kontaktem ze światem przyrody. W drugiej części Federici pokazuje, w jaki sposób walki w obronie dóbr wspólnych, toczone najczęściej przez kobiety, zyskują dziś zasadnicze i globalne znaczenie. Opowiada się też po stronie pracy reprodukcyjnej jako odpowiedzialnej i paradoksalnie subwersywnej strategii przydatnej w obliczu politycznego i ekologicznego kryzysu.
Different diagnostic and classification criteria are available for hereditary recurrent fevers (HRF)-familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), tumour necrosis factor receptor-associated periodic fever ...syndrome (TRAPS), mevalonate kinase deficiency (MKD) and cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes (CAPS)-and for the non-hereditary, periodic fever, aphthosis, pharyngitis and adenitis (PFAPA). We aimed to develop and validate new evidence-based classification criteria for HRF/PFAPA.
Step 1: selection of clinical, laboratory and genetic candidate variables; step 2: classification of 360 random patients from the Eurofever Registry by a panel of 25 clinicians and 8 geneticists blinded to patients' diagnosis (consensus ≥80%); step 3: statistical analysis for the selection of the best candidate classification criteria; step 4: nominal group technique consensus conference with 33 panellists for the discussion and selection of the final classification criteria; step 5: cross-sectional validation of the novel criteria.
The panellists achieved consensus to classify 281 of 360 (78%) patients (32 CAPS, 36 FMF, 56 MKD, 37 PFAPA, 39 TRAPS, 81 undefined recurrent fever). Consensus was reached for two sets of criteria for each HRF, one including genetic and clinical variables, the other with clinical variables only, plus new criteria for PFAPA. The four HRF criteria demonstrated sensitivity of 0.94-1 and specificity of 0.95-1; for PFAPA, criteria sensitivity and specificity were 0.97 and 0.93, respectively. Validation of these criteria in an independent data set of 1018 patients shows a high accuracy (from 0.81 to 0.98).
Eurofever proposes a novel set of validated classification criteria for HRF and PFAPA with high sensitivity and specificity.
DNA barcoding as a new tool for food traceability Galimberti, Andrea; De Mattia, Fabrizio; Losa, Alessia ...
Food research international,
January 2013, 2013, 2013-01-00, 20130101, Letnik:
50, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Food safety and quality are nowadays a major concern. Any case of food alteration, especially when reported by the media, has a great impact on public opinion. There is an increasing demand for the ...improvement of quality controls, hence addressing scientific research towards the development of reliable molecular tools for food analysis. DNA barcoding is a widely used molecular-based system, which can identify biological specimens, and is used for the identification of both raw materials and processed food. In this review the results of several researches are critically analyzed, in order to exploit the effectiveness of DNA barcoding in food traceability, and to delineate some best practices in the application of DNA barcoding throughout the industrial pipeline. The use of DNA barcoding for food safety and in the identification of commercial fraud is also discussed.
► Food quality: from the field to the table. ► From molecular-based approaches to DNA barcoding. ► DNA barcoding to identify and certify food raw material. ► DNA barcoding as a traceability tool during food industrial processing. ► Food safety and commercial frauds.
In plants, small groups of pluripotent stem cells called axillary meristems are required for the formation of the branches and flowers that eventually establish shoot architecture and drive ...reproductive success. To ensure the proper formation of new axillary meristems, the specification of boundary regions is required for coordinating their development. We have identified two maize genes,BARREN INFLORESCENCE1andBARREN INFLORESCENCE4(BIF1andBIF4), that regulate the early steps required for inflorescence formation.BIF1andBIF4encode AUXIN/INDOLE-3-ACETIC ACID (Aux/IAA) proteins, which are key components of the auxin hormone signaling pathway that is essential for organogenesis. Here we show that BIF1 and BIF4 are integral to auxin signaling modules that dynamically regulate the expression of BARREN STALK1 (BA1), a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcriptional regulator necessary for axillary meristem formation that shows a striking boundary expression pattern. These findings suggest that auxin signaling directly controls boundary domains during axillary meristem formation and define a fundamental mechanism that regulates inflorescence architecture in one of the most widely grown crop species.
Federici talks about social reproduction. She mentions the history of the concept, to dispose of the assumption that to speak of social reproduction is by itself to take a radical stance. This may ...seem a minor point in the context of the present debates, but I think it is worth emphasizing that the idea of social reproduction originated in the context of bourgeois economics to indicate the processes by which a social system reproduces itself. This is how social reproduction was first conceptualized by the Francois Quesnay and other Enlightenment-era Physiocrats who, according to Marx, were the first economists of capitalist society, and also the first theorists to identify the nature of productive labor with agricultural work.
Background T helper 17 cells (TH-17) represent a lineage of effector T cells critical in host defence and autoimmunity. In both mouse and human IL-1β has been indicated as a key cytokine for the ...commitment to TH-17 cells. Cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes (CAPS) are a group of inflammatory diseases associated with mutations of the NLRP3 gene encoding the inflammasome component cryopyrin. In this work we asked whether the deregulated secretion of IL-1β secondary to mutations characterizing these patients could affect the IL-23/IL-17 axis. Methodology/Principal Findings A total of 11 CAPS, 26 systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SoJIA) patients and 20 healthy controls were analyzed. Serum levels of IL-17 and IL-6 serum were assessed by ELISA assay. Frequency of TH17 cells was quantified upon staphylococcus enterotoxin B (SEB) stimulation. Secretion of IL-1β, IL-23 and IL-6 by monocyte derived dendritic cells (MoDCs), were quantified by ELISA assay. A total of 8 CAPS and 11 SoJIA patients were also analysed before and after treatment with IL-1β blockade. Untreated CAPS patients showed significantly increased IL-17 serum levels as well as a higher frequency of TH17 compared to control subjects. On the contrary, SoJIA patients displayed a frequency of TH17 similar to normal donors, but were found to have significantly increased serum level of IL-6 when compared to CAPS patients or healthy donors. Remarkably, decreased IL-17 serum levels and TH17 frequency were observed in CAPS patients following in vivo IL-1β blockade. On the same line, MoDCs from CAPS patients exhibited enhanced secretion of IL-1β and IL-23 upon TLRs stimulation, with a reduction after anti-IL-1 treatment. Conclusion/Significance These findings further support the central role of IL-1β in the differentiation of TH17 in human inflammatory conditions.
The European Commission requested EFSA to provide an overview on the risk assessment of plants developed through new genomic techniques (NGTs), taking into account its previous scientific opinions, ...its ongoing work on the topic as well as opinions published by competent authorities and national institutions since 2012, where available. In this report, NGTs are defined as techniques capable to change the genetic material of an organism and have emerged or developed since the adoption of the 2001 genetically modified organism (GMO) legislation. EFSA considered 16 scientific opinions issued by European member states (‘MS opinions’) as well as three EFSA GMO Panel scientific opinions on NGTs. A procurement to evaluate and summarise the MS opinions was conducted. Relevant information on the description of each NGT and information on the risk assessment of plants developed through one or a combination of the defined NGTs was extracted and summarised. The baseline for the types and nature of NGTs to be included in this report was defined based on the JRC, 2011 report on new plant breeding techniques as well as on the Explanatory Note on New Techniques in Agricultural Biotechnology from the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety (EC‐SAM, 2017) for some more recently developed NGTs, taking into account the NGT definition provided by the European Commission for this mandate. EFSA was not requested to develop new opinions on plants developed through specific NGTs, and thus, no critical appraisal of the reviewed scientific opinions was carried out.
This publication is linked to the following EFSA Supporting Publications article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/sp.efsa.2021.EN-1973/full
Systemic auto-inflammatory disorders (SAIDs) are a heterogeneous group of monogenic diseases sharing a primary dysfunction of the innate immune system. More than 50% of patients with SAID does not ...show any mutation at gene(s) tested because of lack of precise clinical classification criteria and/or incomplete gene screening. To improve the molecular diagnosis and genotype interpretation of SAIDs, we undertook the development of a next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based protocol designed to simultaneous screening of 10 genes.
Fifty patients with SAID, already genotyped for the respective causative gene(s), were massively sequenced for the coding portions of MEFV, MVK, TNFRSF1A, NLRP3, NLRP12, NOD2, PSTPIP1, IL1RN, LPIN2 and PSMB8. Three different bioinformatic pipelines (Ion Reporter, CLC Bio Genomics Workbench, GATK-based in-house workflow) were compared.
Once resulting variants were compared with the expected mutation list, no workflow turned out to be able to detect all the 79 variants known in the 50 DNAs. Additional variants were also detected, validated by Sanger sequencing and compared to assess true and false positive detection rates of the three workflows. Finally, the overall clinical picture of 34 patients was re-evaluated in the light of the new mutations found.
The present gene panel has resulted suitable for molecular diagnosis of SAIDs. Moreover, genotype-phenotype correlation has confirmed that the interpretation of NGS data in patients with an undefined inflammatory phenotype is remarkably difficult, thus supporting the need of evidence-based and validated clinical criteria to be used concurrently with the genetic analysis for the final diagnosis and classification of patients with SAIDs.
Distinguishing between self limited delayed puberty (SLDP) and congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH) may be tricky as they share clinical and biochemical characteristics. and appear to lie ...within the same clinical spectrum. However, one is classically transient (SDLP) while the second is typically a lifetime condition (CHH). The natural history and long-term outcomes of these two conditions differ significantly and thus command distinctive approaches and management. Because the first presentation of SDLP and CHH is very similar (delayed puberty with low LH and FSH and low sex hormones), the scientific community is scrambling to identify diagnostic tests that can allow a correct differential diagnosis among these two conditions, without having to rely on the presence or absence of phenotypic red flags for CHH that clinicians anyway seem to find hard to process. Despite the heterogeneity of genetic defects so far reported in DP, genetic analysis through next-generation sequencing technology (NGS) had the potential to contribute to the differential diagnostic process between SLDP and CHH. In this review we will provide an up-to-date overview of the genetic architecture of these two conditions and debate the benefits and the bias of performing genetic analysis seeking to effectively differentiate between these two conditions.
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