Blessings In Disguise Research Articles

Blessings in disguise: biological benefits of prion-like mechanisms

Prions and amyloids are often associated with disease, but related mechanisms provide beneficial functions in nature. Prion-like mechanisms (PriLiMs) are found from bacteria to humans, where they alter the biological and physical properties of prion-like proteins. We have proposed that prions can serve as heritable bet-hedging devices for diversifying microbial phenotypes. Other, more dynamic proteinaceous complexes may be governed by similar self-templating conformational switches. Additional PriLiMs continue to be identified and many share features of self-templating protein structure (including amyloids) and dependence on chaperone proteins. Here, we discuss several PriLiMs and their functions, intending to spur discussion and collaboration on the subject of beneficial prion-like behaviors.

Clouds with silver lining: Defining conditions that serve as blessings in disguise

Diseases are often looked upon as manifestations of undesirable conditions within us that take physical form in order for them to be dealt with and eliminated. They are considered a reflection of the never-ending conflict between our endogenous state and exogenous existence. However, among these lie a group of conditions that, although offensive on their own accord, nevertheless serve to eradicate, or at least play a definitive role in curtailing the disability caused by some of the arguably more debilitating ailments. These conditions have been referred to as blessings in disguise in this manuscript.

Natural Disasters – Blessings in Disguise?

This study examines the impact of natural disasters on market returns and on several industries that are likely to be affected by the disasters. We find that different natural disasters have different impacts on the returns of the market and on those of industries. Our evidence suggests that while earthquake, hurricane and tornado could negatively affect market returns several weeks after the events, other disasters such as flood, tsunami and volcanic eruption may have limited impact on market returns. We also find that construction and materials industry is positively affected by natural disasters but nonlife and travel industries are likely to suffer when a natural disaster strikes.

Natural Disasters - Blessings in Disguise?

Natural Disasters - Blessings in Disguise?

Comment on “International and Regional Cooperation: Asia's Role and Responsibilities”

Comment on “International and Regional Cooperation: Asia's Role and Responsibilities”

Optimism: A Good Theme for Family Medicine

“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”—Oscar Wilde (Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, and critic, 1854–1900) Dr. Pugno's commentary[1][1] provides a good case for continuing to believe in the specialty of family medicine—optimism can spread optimism.

Blessings in disguise: public health emergency preparedness for World Youth Day 2008

Mass gatherings, such as World Youth Day (WYD) 2008 in Sydney, provide an opportunity for public health workers to gain emergency management experience. Communicable disease (mainly influenza) among pilgrims was the major public health issue during WYD. Public health workers also identified environmental health issues, resulting in hazard reduction measures being made to reduce falls. Other public health issues highlighted include training, communication, surge capacity, and health education. Lessons learned from planning WYD mass accommodation could be applied to emergency accommodation in the case of evacuation.

What Does American History Tell Us about Katrina and Vice Versa?

Natural disasters invariably provoke a range of reactions. Bereavement mingles with an ger. The need to commemorate competes with the urge to blame. Boosterism gets a boost. No matter how deep the ash or how high the rubble, you will always find a politician or business leader promising to bring back a just-ruined city bigger and better than before. Storms, fires, earthquakes, mudslides?these are mere blessings in disguise. What was broken, dysfunctional, and decrepit has been leveled or swept away. Now, long-overdue improvements can finally be launched. The optimistic narratives of resilience and resur rection, so necessary for marshaling the will and the capital to rebuild in the teeth of catastrophe, fill the pages of American urban history. They resounded after the great Chicago fire of 1871 and the Galveston hurricane of 1900. In San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of 1906, local boosters styled themselves regenerators, to let people know they were as interested in purification as in rebuilding.1 Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans's pledge to restore the waterlogged metropolis to all its former grandeur, and then some, echoed that language of rebirth and renewal. The businessmen and de velopers, civic leaders and college presidents, who dominated his Bring New Orleans Back Commission (bnobc) repeated it as well, even as many of them favored shrinking the city's footprint. President George W. Bush paid boosterism the ultimate compliment when he told a national television audience from a mostly darkened French Quarter sev enteen days after the storm: We will not just rebuild, we will build higher and better.2 Natural disasters also have political effects. Without fail they shift the ground of lo cal politics. The looting that inevitably follows catastrophe triggers repressive measures. To restore law and order, the militia comes to town. The police are told to shoot to kill. Vigilantes are given license. In a short time, the assault on civil liberties elicits a demo cratic backlash, if not challenges in the courts. Then there is the political opportunism of the business community, which tends to view crises as terrible things to waste. Good

Sister circle: black women and work

Although black women's labor was essential to the development of the United States, studies of these workers have lagged far behind those of working black men and white women. Adding insult to injury, a stream of images in film, television, magazines, and music continues to portray the work of black women in a negative light. Sister Circle offers an innovative approach to representing work in the lives of black women. Contributors from many fields explore an array of lives and activities, allowing us to see for the first time the importance of black women's labor in the aftermath of slavery. A brand new light is shed on black women's roles in the tourism industry, as nineteenth-century social activists, as labor leaders, as working single mothers, as visual artists, as authors and media figures, as church workers, and in many other fields. A unique feature of the book is that each contributor provides an autobiographical statement, connecting her own life history to the subject she surveys. The first group of essays, It Sista! identifies the sites of black women's paid and unpaid work. In Foremothers: The Shoulders on Which We Stand, contributors look to the past for the different kinds of work that black women have performed over the last two centuries. Essays in Women's Work through the Artist's Eyes highlight black women's work in literature, drama, and the visual arts. The collection concludes with Detours on the Road to Work: Blessings in Disguise, writings surveying connections between black women's personal and professional lives.

Blessings in Disguise, or, the Morality of Evil

Blessings in Disguise, or, the Morality of Evil

Creativity's Paradoxical Character: A Postscript to James Webb Young'sTechnique for Producing Ideas

Abstract This study reconsiders the classical work of James Webb Young, A Technique for Producing Ideas. The analysis shows that although Young's paradigm is instructive, it is not the whole story. Several paradoxical ramifications to the Youngian model are presented. For example, knowledge is shown to be something less than a creator's perfect ally. Creative insight is not always the final step in a progression of identifiable events. Sometimes genius is more a matter of serendipity than of intellectual brilliance. Finally, it is argued that deadlines are blessings in disguise. They are blessings because they quicken the flow of creative juices and the secretion of adrenalin. In contrast to Young's view that the creator remove himself or herself from the process after collecting and synthesizing information, the suggestion here is that the active pursuit of solutions bears sweet fruits. In short, a pervasive paradoxical dimension is superimposed on Young's conception of the creative process.

A Turning Point in the Soviet School: The Seventeenth Party Congress and the Teaching of History

economic crisis, disrupting industrial and agricultural production and destroying all national and international trade and financing. (i) The capitalists sought salvation in preparation for a new imperialistic war. Hostility among capitalist countries was sharpening. The SinoJapanese conflict and the occupation of Manchuria caused tensions in the Far East. In Europe the Nazi victory and rising revanchisme enhanced dangers. The Japanese and German departure from the League of Nations accelerated rearmament. (2) Convinced that a storm of world revolution was gathering, Stalin saw of the times on all sides. The world proletariat was growing recalcitrant because of serious unemployment. Disturbances in various countries, such as the revolt in Austria, the general strike in France, and the intensification of activities by the German Communist party soon provided what seemed to him a confirmation of his views and expectations. (3) Paradoxically Stalin viewed fascism and Nazism not as threats but as blessings in disguise. They were positive signs of the final stage of

Love Against Hate

Menninger's book,<i>Love Against Hate</i>, really is an extension and in parts a duplication of what he presented in his very searching analysis of<i>Man Against Himself</i>, reviewed some time ago in theArchives. Many of the same examples and case reports are used in this book, but the duplication only increases the message of hope, of creativity, and of the need for channeling and bridling destructive aggressions. Perhaps this really is the last best hope for mankind. A coldly practical view of the scene does not prevent Menninger from taking an optimistic view which he presents in a constructive way even though he makes no effort to see all his troubles as blessings in disguise. Menninger believes that there is more ultimate purpose in the existence of human beings than the mere surface facts of animal life. Thought about the selection and evaluation of experience will lead to further

Earth's Many Depressions Were Blessings in Disguise

Earth's Many Depressions Were Blessings in Disguise

British Food Journal Volume 4 Issue 12 1902

We publish elsewhere a report of the judgment delivered by Mr. LOVELAND‐LOVELAND, K.C., Chairman of the County of London Sessions, in the case of the Kensington Borough Council versus Bugg. The termination of this case has been called a “compromise” by some of the trade journals, and it is well to point out that it was nothing of the kind. When a conviction is confirmed in a higher court, and when proceedings are stayed upon an undertaking being given by the defendants that they will do what they were proceeded against for not doing, the description of such circumstances by the term “compromise” is ridiculous—particularly when a judgment is accompanied by remarks so decisive and uncompromising as those which were made by the learned Chairman in reference to this case. The suggestion that the case should bo brought to a conclusion in the manner indicated came from the Bench, who were evidently perfectly satisfied as to the meaning which attaches to the word “Cornflour,” and the course suggested was obviously intended merely to save the time of the Court; while the fact that the defendants submitted to the terms imposed without oven attempting to bring forward such evidence as they might have been able to get to support their position, is in itself amply sufficient to show that their advisers had appreciated the weakness of their case. There has been the usual outery in the trade journals about the sufferings of the innocent tradesman, and about “interference with the liberties of manufacturers.” In the whole history of the administration of the Food Acts in this country there are hardly any instances of prosecutions for the sale of an article under a name which is properly applicable to another, in which such outcries have not been raised. Such outcries may, however, be taken as blessings in disguise, since they mainly serve to emphasise the facts and to educate the public. The term “Cornflour” is well known to have originated from the expression “Indian Corn Flour,” and it unquestionably has a specific meaning which is not applicable to either of the two words of which the term is made up. Originally, perhaps, the term “Indian Corn Flour” may have meant the actual meal of Indian Corn or Maize, but, by the usage of more than forty years the term “ Cornflour” means the prepared starch of Maize. No doubt it has been honestly thought by some that in view of this fact any starch might bo described as “Cornflour,” but such a position is quite untenable There is no argument which can bo adduced in support of the contention that rice starch may bo described as Cornflour, which cannot also be brought forward in support of a statement that any starch whatever may be sold as Cornflour. The absurdity of this position is so obvious that it is needless to discuss it. The starches obtained from different sources are different in physical characters, in structure, and in other respects. For these reasons they are differently acted upon by the digestive juices. Moreover different starch preparations exhibit differences which are due to the presence of minute amounts of special flavouring substances derived from the raw material; and these differences it is most important to consider since they often give to an article certain characters which are required by the purchaser. A number of instances in point could be brought forward. It is no more permissible to substitute rice starch for maize starch than it is to substitute potato starch for arrowroot starch, and, for reasons which are perfectly well known and always acted upon in the medical profession, a medical man who orders a patient to be fed on a particular starch food, such as cornflour, would strongly and rightly object—particularly in certain cases —to the substitution of another starch preparation for that which he had ordered. The matter has been settled in such a way and with so strong an expression of opinion on the part of the tribunal which dealt with it, that we think it unnecessary to discuss it further.

On the Policy of Promoting and Encouraging the Growth of Flax in Great Britain and Ireland; and an Inquiry whether Flax can be Produced (lb for lb) as Cheaply as the Cost of Imported Cotton

It is maintained by many individuals that there is no such thing as positive evil in existence; that the indulging in a contrary opinion would, in fact, be a reflection upon the wisdom and beneficence of the Divine Being; and that those events which we call evils are, in reality, only blessings in disguise, or, as the poet expresses the sentiment,— “All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony, not understood; All partial evil, universal good.” It may, probably, be rather a difficult task fully and cordially on all occasions to subscribe to these doctrines; yet still, it must be acknowledged by all thinking men, that few events occur, however afflictive to individuals they may be, without their being the means of accomplishing some good end. And we may fully agree with the expression of the poet, in the last line of the quotation, if we qualify his meaning by presuming that he intends to convey the idea that partial evil results in universal good. That our common country has, within the last twelve months, experienced a grievous visitation in the failure of the potato crop, which produced a partial famine, with its attendant evils, particularly in Ireland, cannot be gainsaid; and we must all endeavour to make a right use of these afflictions. To the farmer this reads a lesson peculiarly applicable. It is undoubtedly his province to provide food for the country; and he is amenable to ...