In-betweenness and crumbled hopes in Palestine: the global in the local of the occupied territories

Critical discussions among some in Palestinian studies describe foreign involvement in NGO development in the Occupied Territories since the 1990s as having been detrimental to Palestinian collective aspirations, and even a tool of imperialism. In the 1970s and 1980s, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip mobilized their own civilian organizations to build an infrastructure of resistance to the Israeli Occupation that gave birth to the Intifada Uprising in December 1987. Foreign governments and organizations were drawn to their struggle and in the 1990s billions of dollars of foreign aid from more than 40 nations and over two dozen multilateral organizations flowed through hundreds of local and foreign NGOs. But this investment in the “peace process” did not stop a worsening occupation, and a second al Aqsa Intifada began in the fall 2000. Palestinian civil society suffered crippling blows and foreign actors were reduced to disaster relief and harm reduction. This article presents three ethnographic portraits from 1992, 1995 and 2002, that examine these changes in Palestinian civil society and the scholarly criticisms of foreign involvement. This article argues that such involvement could put Palestinian participants in a dangerous in-between social position, but that these positions of contradiction are often preferable to the destruction of militarism.     

Transit time dispersion in pulmonary and systemic circulation: effects of cardiac output and solute diffusivity

We present an in vivo method for analyzing the distribution kinetics of physiological markers into their respective distribution volumes utilizing information provided by the relative dispersion of transit times. Arterial concentration-time curves of markers of the vascular space [indocyanine green (ICG)], extracellular fluid (inulin), and total body water (antipyrine) measured in awake dogs under control conditions and during phenylephrine or isoproterenol infusion were analyzed by a recirculatory model to estimate the relative dispersions of transit times across the systemic and pulmonary circulation. The transit time dispersion in the systemic circulation was used to calculate the whole body distribution clearance, and an interpretation is given in terms of a lumped organ model of blood-tissue exchange. As predicted by theory, this relative dispersion increased linearly with cardiac output, with a slope that was inversely related to solute diffusivity. The relative dispersion of the flow-limited indicator antipyrine exceeded that of ICG (as a measure of intravascular mixing) only slightly and was consistent with a diffusional equilibration time in the extravascular space of approximately 10 min, except during phenylephrine infusion, which led to an anomalously high relative dispersion. A change in cardiac output did not alter the heterogeneity of capillary transit times of ICG. The results support the view that the relative dispersions of transit times in the systemic and pulmonary circulation estimated from solute disposition data in vivo are useful measures of whole body distribution kinetics of indicators and endogenous substances. This is the first model that explains the effect of flow and capillary permeability on whole body distribution of solutes without assuming well-mixed compartments.     

Cyclosporin A Impairs the Secretion and Activity of ADAMTS13 (A Disintegrin and Metalloprotease with Thrombospondin Type 1 Repeat)

The protease ADAMTS13 (a disintegrin and metalloprotease with thrombospondin type 1 repeat) cleaves multimers of von Willebrand factor, thus regulating platelet aggregation. ADAMTS13 deficiency leads to the fatal disorder thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). It has been observed that cyclosporin A (CsA) treatment, particularly in transplant patients, may sometimes be linked to the development of TTP. Until now, the reason for such a link was unclear. Here we provide evidence demonstrating that cyclophilin B (CypB) activity plays an important role in the secretion of active ADAMTS13. We found that CsA, an inhibitor of CypB, reduces the secretion of ADAMTS13 and leads to conformational changes in the protein resulting in diminished ADAMTS13 proteolytic activity. A direct, functional interaction between CypB (which possesses peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase (PPIase) and chaperone functions) and ADAMTS13 is demonstrated using immunoprecipitation and siRNA knockdown of CypB. Finally, CypB knock-out mice were found to have reduced ADAMTS13 levels. Taken together, our findings indicate that cyclophilin-mediated activity is an important factor affecting secretion and activity of ADAMTS13. The large number of proline residues in ADAMTS13 is consistent with the important role of cis-trans isomerization in the proper folding of this protein. These results altogether provide a novel mechanistic explanation for CsA-induced TTP in transplant patients.     

The phage‐driven microbial loop in petroleum bioremediation

During the drilling process and transport of crude oil, water mixes with the petroleum. At oil terminals, the water settles to the bottom of storage tanks. This drainage water is contaminated with emulsified oil and water-soluble hydrocarbons and must be treated before it can be released into the environment. In this study, we tested the efficiency of a continuous flow, two-stage bioreactor for treating drainage water from an Israeli oil terminal. The bioreactor removed all of the ammonia, 93% of the sulfide and converted 90% of the total organic carbon (TOC) into carbon dioxide. SYBR Gold staining indicated that reactor 1 contained 1.7 × 10⁸ bacteria and 3.7 × 10⁸ phages per millilitre, and reactor 2 contained 1.3 × 10⁸ bacteria and 1.7 × 10⁹ phages per millilitre. The unexpectedly high mineralization of TOC and high concentration of phage in reactor 2 support the concept of a phage-driven microbial loop in the bioremediation of the drainage water. In general, application of this concept in bioremediation of contaminated water has the potential to increase the efficiency of processes.     

Nano-Encapsulation of Arsenic Trioxide Enhances Efficacy against Murine Lymphoma Model while Minimizing Its Impact on Ovarian Reserve In Vitro and In Vivo

Advances in cancer therapy have increased the rate of survival of young cancer patients; however, female lymphoma patients frequently face a temporary or permanent loss of fertility when treated with traditional cytotoxic agents. The potential loss of fertility is an important concern that can influence treatment decisions for many premenopausal cancer patients. The negative effect of chemotherapeutic agents and treatment protocols to patients’ fertility–referred to as fertotoxicity–are thus an increasingly important cancer survivorship issue. We have developed a novel nanoscale formulation of arsenic trioxide, a potent drug for treatment of hematological malignancies, and demonstrate that it has significantly better activity in a murine lymphoma model than the free drug. In parallel, we have developed a novel in vitro assay of ovarian follicle function that predicts in vivo ovarian toxicity of therapeutic agents. Our results reveal that the nanotherapeutic agent is not only more active against lymphoma, but is fertoprotective, i.e., it is much less deleterious to ovarian function than the parent drug. Thus, our in vitro assay allows rapid evaluation of both established and experimental anticancer drugs on ovarian reserve and can inform the selection of efficacious and fertility-sparing treatment regimens for reproductive-age women diagnosed with cancer.     

Ethenoguanines Undergo Glycosylation by Nucleoside 2′-Deoxyribosyltransferases at Non-Natural Sites

Deoxyribosyl transferases and functionally related purine nucleoside phosphorylases are used extensively for synthesis of non-natural deoxynucleosides as pharmaceuticals or standards for characterizing and quantitating DNA adducts. Hence exploring the conformational tolerance of the active sites of these enzymes is of considerable practical interest. We have determined the crystal structure at 2.1 Å resolution of Lactobacillus helveticus purine deoxyribosyl transferase (PDT) with the tricyclic purine 8,9-dihydro-9-oxoimidazo[2,1-b]purine (N ²,3-ethenoguanine) at the active site. The active site electron density map was compatible with four orientations, two consistent with sites for deoxyribosylation and two appearing to be unproductive. In accord with the crystal structure, Lactobacillus helveticus PDT glycosylates the 8,9-dihydro-9-oxoimidazo[2,1-b]purine at N7 and N1, with a marked preference for N7. The activity of Lactobacillus helveticus PDT was compared with that of the nucleoside 2′-deoxyribosyltransferase enzymes (DRT Type II) from Lactobacillus leichmannii and Lactobacillus fermentum, which were somewhat more effective in the deoxyribosylation than Lactobacillus helveticus PDT, glycosylating the substrate with product profiles dependent on the pH of the incubation. The purine nucleoside phosphorylase of Escherichia coli, also commonly used in ribosylation of non-natural bases, was an order of magnitude less efficient than the transferase enzymes. Modeling based on published active-site structures as templates suggests that in all cases, an active site Phe is critical in orienting the molecular plane of the purine derivative. Adventitious hydrogen bonding with additional active site residues appears to result in presentation of multiple nucleophilic sites on the periphery of the acceptor base for ribosylation to give a distribution of nucleosides. Chemical glycosylation of O ⁹-benzylated 8,9-dihydro-9-oxoimidazo[2,1-b]purine also resulted in N7 and N1 ribosylation. Absent from the enzymatic and chemical glycosylations is the natural pattern of N3 ribosylation, verified by comparison of spectroscopic and chromatographic properties with an authentic standard synthesized by an unambiguous route.     

Étude Clinique Et Mycologique Concernant Le Premier Cas Européen De Mycétome Déterminé Par Cephalosporium Sp.

Résumé On entreprend une étude détaillée, clinique et mycologique, concernant le premier cas européen de mycétome, déterminé par leCephalosporium faciforme. Il s'agit d'un cas de mycétome du pied sec, nodulaire, avec des grains non-pigmentés, blancs, sans aucune tendance â la fistulisation cutanée et suppuration, avec affectation du tissu osseux sous-jacent et résistant à diverses tentatives thérapeutiques médicamenteux.L'auteur expose en détail les caractères morphologiques et physiologiques de la souche isolée. La souche roumaine a été confrontée avec 3 souches originales américaine et africaines, et on en tire une série de conclusions, concernant les critères majeurs qui permettent l'identification de l'espèce.

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Summary Clinical and mycological data concerning the first Europeen case of mycetoma caused byCephalosporium falciforme are here reported.The disease affected the foot, showing the type of dry, nodular, deep seated lesions (bone tissue also involved), with white granules but with no fistula, or draining abcess formation.All the medications the patient received failed to cure him.On describing the physiological and morphological features of Romanian isolate, which has been compared with 3 original American and African strains, the author pointed out the criteria peculiar to this species for easier identification.

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Hommage à l'occasion du 90-ème anniversaire du prof.S.G. Nicolau