Matter Of Life Research Articles

Death from the Nile: Empirical formula, molar mass, biosynthesis reaction and Gibbs energy of biosynthesis of the West Nile virus

From July to October, West Nile virus is the leading cause of mosquito born disease in Europe and North America. This paper reports for the first time a chemical and thermodynamic analysis of the West Nile virus particles, genome and proteins, as well as interactions with its host organism. The empirical formula of mature West Nile virus particles was found through the atom counting method. Based on the empirical formula, biosynthesis reactions were formulated, which describe the formation of new virus live matter. Based on the biosynthesis reactions, Gibbs energy of biosynthesis was determined, which represents the physical driving force for the production of viral and host cell components. Gibbs energy of biosynthesis of the West Nile virus was found to be several times more negative than that of its host tissues. Due to the more negative Gibbs energy of biosynthesis, the West Nile virus components are produced much faster than those of its host cells. This allows the virus to hijack the host cell metabolism. Therefore, the virus-host interactions of the West Nile virus were explained through chemical and thermodynamic analysis.

Subscribing school: digital platforms, affective attachments, and cruel optimism in a Danish public primary school

ABSTRACT This article explores the affective and situated aspects of enacting public schooling within a burgeoning economy of digital platforms. Drawing on a series of conversations with two teachers and two school leaders at a Danish primary school, the article examines how the increasing involvement of educational platforms in schools reshapes who and what matters in the everyday life of the school. The article highlights different ways in which platforms entangle with educational practices and relations beyond their functional promises to save time, promote efficiency, solve administrative issues, and other related tasks. As generative forces based on relocating educational phenomena within a proprietary digital architecture, the analysis illustrates how the involvement of platforms becomes co-constitutive of new forms of affective attachments and loyalty that challenge historical configurations of pluralism in public schools. Drawing on these constitutive effects, the article introduces Lauren Berlant’s notion of cruel optimism to discuss the implications of sustaining public schooling within a largely unregulated economy of platform subscriptions. The article’s discussions call for closer political and scholarly attention to the educational consequences of enacting school within the economic conditions of current platform capitalism.

Juridical Study of Article 43a in Amending Law Number 5 of 2018 Concerning Criminal Acts of Terrorism in Pre-Emptive Strike Policy

Finding out the effects of terrorist activities in Indonesia and the application of Law Number 5 of 2018 concerning Criminal activities of Terrorism Article 43A Against Strike Pre-Emptive Policies are the goals of the research. The research approach used is normative juridical, meaning that it is based on the primary legal literature and is carried out by looking at relevant laws, regulations, theories, and conceptions. Examining Law Number 5 of 2018 concerning Amendments to Law 15 of 2003 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Terrorism is the goal of the study. The amendment to Article 43A, which inserts and reads in the framework of dealing with Criminal Acts of Terrorism, contains dangerous articles. It is unclear what is meant by countermeasures, every certain person, allegedly brought or placed and a certain place. These are the results of the discussion in Law Number 5 of 2018 concerning Amendments to Law 15 of 2003 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Terrorism. None of these arrangements can be found in the current Indonesian criminal procedural law. The conclusion is that acts of terrorism have a significant impact on the community. They are not things, but rather frequent victims of Second Life. The preceding text makes it evident how many lives were lost in the blast. These fresh impacts originate from people's personal experiences. Acts of terrorism on a larger scale actually have an impact on many things, and that is a matter of life and death for people and the nation. This loss and threat can be explained from seven aspects/fields, namely defense and security, ideology, politics, economy, society, education, and religious relations. Related to article 43A regarding the prevention of Terrorism Crime, pre-emptive efforts are needed.

Black lives matter messaging across multiple congressional communication mediums

ABSTRACT After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement had a second, large attention surge. Media focus intensified and public opinion of the movement was the most supportive it had ever been. Legislators got involved too, taking to their e-newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, and press releases to publicize support or opposition to the movement. Using those four mediums we ask which sorts of legislators were more or less likely to make public their position, and how these trends vary by medium. Partisanship drives the biggest differences, but that within parties, legislators with more extreme roll-call voting histories, and those from districts expressing greater perceptions of racism tend to be more likely to discuss their positions in explicit and oblique ways. Black legislators and those with greater shares of Black constituents do not seem to have distinct patterns of signaling support or opposition.

Beyond the role of climate and soil conditions: Living and dead trees matter for soil biodiversity in mountain forests

While forests’ contributions to people are intimately linked to their soil biodiversity, little is known about how forest soil biodiversity is structured and influenced by forest characteristics. Living and dead trees influence the quantity and the diversity of resources (e.g. litter content) and habitats (e.g. microclimate) available for soil organisms. In this study, we explored the effects of forest characteristics and their relative importance to regional climate and local soil conditions in explaining forest soil biodiversity.We characterised forest quantity (abundance of living and dead trees, and dominant tree leaves C/N), and diversity characteristics (tree sizes, deadwood and tree species diversities). We assessed the response of the diversity of 34 soil trophic groups to climate, soil properties and forest characteristics using environmental DNA metabarcoding data along 16 elevational gradients in the French Alps.Overall, we showed that climate and soil characteristics explained most of the diversity of soil trophic groups. For the diversity of some groups, however, forest characteristics were important drivers (e.g. ectomycorrhizal fungi). In general, forest diversity characteristics had a positive effect on the diversity of soil trophic groups, in agreement with the resource-heterogeneity hypothesis. We also found that the effects of forest characteristics can percolate to high trophic level groups or to groups that do not have a direct link with living or dead trees (e.g. fungivore mites).Forest characteristics can have complex indirect effects that branch out throughout the whole soil food web. Even if mountain forests span large climatic gradients, forest structure and composition can be additional key drivers of soil biodiversity. Thus forest management, by driving forest structure and composition, can have important effects on soil biodiversity in managed forests.

The choice of pseudoscientific therapies as an alternative to scientific medicine

Abstract During the last decades, there has been an increasing interest in the analysis of a potentially dangerous phenomenon for the public health: pseudoscience. It can be defined as the set of false knowledge that attempts to resemble science even though it is not. Nowadays there are many who opt for these therapies not scientifically endorsed to solve their health problems. This situation is increased for risk patients or chronic diseases, who come to this type of therapies as a last resort. In these cases, the choice between science and pseudoscience can become a matter of life or death. Through qualitative and quantitative research techniques, we analyze the reasons why patients choose pseudoscience instead of conventional and scientific medicine. The data obtained from this research reveal that in extreme situations patients value most the human contact with the therapist that the validity of the therapy itself. This factor, coupled with the precariousness of the health system, generates a dynamic in which pseudosciences gain ground over scientific medicine. According to the experts interviewed, this phenomenon is increasing and may represent a danger to public health. This research reveals the possible causes and consequences of this phenomenon from the point of view of more than 60 professionals of the Spanish scientific community and 30 patients who have used both disciplines. The results obtained indicate that this situation is intensified due to the inaction of the competent institutions and the lack of regulation.

Jerzy Konstanty Czartoryski a „kwestia ruska” w Galicji

Jerzy Konstanty Czartoryski and the “Ruthenian question” in Galicia Jerzy K. Czartoryski was the first member of the Czartoryski family to devote himself to Galicia; he became involved in Galician politics and in the problems of this province of the Habsburg Monarchy. He stood out among the other Polish politicians in Galicia with his attitude to the Ruthenians; he stressed the importance of the Ruthenian question in Galicia, and even believed it to be a “matter of life or death” for the Poles living there. Czartoryski was in favour of Polish-Ruthenian co-operation, recognised the Ruthenians’ national identity, which not all Polish politicians regarded as an obvious thing, and declared his willingness to enter into an agreement with them. He also supported efforts to develop the Ruthenian school system and Ruthenian social and cultural institutions. While recognising and supporting Ruthenian postulates on education, he opposed the political postulates formulated by the Ruthenians at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. His fear of the growing radicalism of the Ruthenian politicians brought him closer to the conservatives, the so-called Podolaks, and later to the National Democrats.

Dementia as a material for co-creative art making: Towards feminist posthumanist caring

This article generates new understandings of dementia through feminist posthumanist and performative engagements with co-creative artmaking practices during a six-month study in a residential care home in Norway. Dementia emerges within multisensorial entanglements of more-than-human materials in three different artmaking sessions, which first materialized in the form of collective photographs and vignettes and culminated in a final exhibition, Gleaming Moments, in the care home. Drawing on these photographs, vignettes, and the author's engagement as a research artist in the sessions, this analysis examined how dementia was enacted as a spark of inspiration, felted warm seat pads, and a friendly more-than-human touch, that is, a touch of human and nonhuman art materials. These findings suggest new ontologies of dementia within multisensorial artmaking practices, in which dementia functions as a material for co-creative artmaking rather than a disease. These findings disrupt dominant biomedical ontologies of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, as well as humanist person-centered practices in dementia care, which have concretized an individual, rather than relational, focus on dementia. In contrast, this study explores dementia as a phenomenon within the entanglements of human and nonhuman intra-active agencies. By highlighting the significance of these agencies (i.e., sponge holder-painting, wool-felting, choir-singing, chick-making) for different worlds-making with dementia, this study provides an entry point for imagining feminist posthumanist caring. Thus, dementia becomes a matter in life that is not to be managed and defeated to achieve successful aging, but to be interrogated and embraced.

Intersemiotic Modernism: Matija Ferlin’s Sad Sam Lucky between Poetry and Its Embodiment

Sad Sam Lucky is a solo performance by the choreographer and performer Matija Ferlin, conceived as part of his ongoing non-dance-like and non-theatrelike conceptual project Sad Sam, which started in January 2004 in Amsterdam, where the first part of this pseudo-durational piece was premiered. Ferlin’s performance Sad Sam Lucky is somewhat specific in the author’s oeuvre, mainly because it assays to become a physical response to the work of the Slovenian avant-garde poet Srečko Kosovel (1904—1926), translating it and transposing it at the same time, in-between languages and dialects (Slovenian, Croatian, Istrian, and/or English), and in-between performative regimes (embodied response and a pseudo-recital). Kosovel’s confessional poetry, i.e. profound, contemporary, tense in its stylistic imagery, and, at the same time, almost revolutionary in its ideas, is therefore being performed as a live matter of language, driven by Ferlin’s main idea — not to do theatre, not to do dance, not to translate, but to trans-body Kosovel’s verses, and his melancholic prophecy, thus creating a form of a highly physical, turbulent and emotional homage to this very unique avant-garde author.

Munus triplex: A pedagogical application of a theological concept

The authors considered the identity of Christian teachers to be an urgent matter because of rapid changes in society, and assumed that such a consideration could help to envision education in an authentic way. They recognised that the current understanding of Christian identity emphasises unity with Christ and, therefore, set out to demonstrate that this unity is not only a matter of private spiritual life, but must also be carefully considered in professional practice. This article is not a research paper per se, but rather an exploratory, constructive essay. The authors examined and elaborated on unity with Christ with the help of the so-called three offices of Christ: prophet, priest, and king. After interpreting the Heidelberg Catechism and bringing it into critical dialogue with contemporary voices, they identified the implications of the three offices for educational practice. The office of prophet was reflected in both the implicit and explicit messages of the teacher. The office of priest was observable in a teacher’s compassionate behaviour, while the office of king was seen in the teacher’s humble citizenship and struggle against evil, as well as in the ethical views that a teacher promotes in class. Three offices were found helpful in rethinking Christian teachers’ role. The implications of this research included the potential for counterbalancing dualistic practices (role of the prophet), placing an emphasis on care instead of neoliberal pressures (role of the priest), and envisioning subject content within the coming of the kingdom (role of the king).Contribution: Through its consideration of the teaching profession in terms of the three offices of Christ, this article’s research seeks to enhance the professional identity of faithful Christian teachers. While the focus is primarily on those employed in Christian schools and also intends to influence the identity of those working in secular settings. The authors argue that teachers are prophets in the messages they impart, priests when they act compassionately, and kings when they encourage dedicated and exemplary citizenship.

Is there any Good Model for the Happy Life of the Husband and the Wife? Yes, there is a Model. - My Loving Husband! Give me (Your Wife) the Power on the Comfortable State! (Tcheonzamun 721st-736th)

French Missionary Dallet (1874) introduced about ‘The thousand character essay’ in his book. ‘The thousand character essay’ is called in Korea as ‘Tcheonzamun’ (Han, 1583). Is it possible to say about the marriage life? Is there a good model for the life of the husband and the wife? Here, the author of ‘The thousand character essay (Tcheonzamun)’ wants to say about this matter of marriage life. There are two methods for the translation of ‘The thousand character essay’. The first method is translation through Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters on the Tcheonzamun poem (Park et al., 2021b). And the second method is through the meaning of Chinese character on the Tcheonzamun poem (Park et al., 2021a). Additionally, the deleting method is carried out. This is the work of translation of Tcheonzamun poem (721st-736th). The title of this work is ‘Is there any good model for the happy life of the husband and the wife? Yes, there is a model. - My loving husband! Give me (your wife) the power on the comfortable state! - 索(Swi) 居(ge) 閑(han) 處(Tchae), 沈(Si) 默(meul) 寂(Zwo) 寥(yo) (Tcheonzamun 721st-736th)’.

A matter of life and death: networks regulating programmed cell death in Arabidopsis.

A matter of life and death: networks regulating programmed cell death in Arabidopsis.

A “Matter of Life and Death”? Patterns of Securitisation and Desecuritisation of Food Resilience in Indonesia

Food self-sufficiency had been a perennial quest for Indonesian administrations. The research explored two questions. First, how have political leaders securitised the self-sufficiency narrative? Second, is the securitisation of food justified? This research examined the “self-sufficiency” narrative across Indonesian governments and charts the patterns in its securitisation and de-securitisation through the lens of just securitisation theory. The research made two arguments. First, the securitisation of food in Indonesia has not always been for the benefit of the nation, but instead, the political elite. The second argument is the securitisation of food in Indonesia is not always justified, and therefore, necessitates further review of policies related to food security. The findings show that the securitisation of food in general to be unjustified. Therefore, the de-securitising food security and returning it to the realm of normal politics should be the immediate goal for Indonesian administrations, in addition to formulating alternative policies not grounded in the self-sufficiency narrative.

Autoethnography as a research method in happiness studies

The pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal that has been studied by philosophers, theologians, and scientists for centuries. Despite its universal importance, the definition and means of achieving happiness vary greatly across cultures and individual experiences (Uchida, Norasakkunkit and Kitayama, 2004). Cultures have different beliefs, values, and customs that shape their understanding of happiness. For example, some cultures may place a higher value on material wealth and success, while others may prioritize spiritual fulfilment or strong relationships (Joshanloo and Weijers, 2014). In this autoethnographic paper, I reflect on my own personal journey towards happiness during a one-year travel across 22 countries within southern Africa, southeast Asia, and south America, focusing on the first part of the trip – southern Africa. Autoethnography is a qualitative research method that involves the researcher reflecting on their personal experiences and cultural positionality in order to understand and analyse cultural phenomena (Bunyan, 2021). It combines elements of autobiography and ethnography, as the researcher uses their own experiences as a way to explore and understand the cultural context in which they participate (Hamilton, Smith and Worthington, 2008). Through the use of personal narrative and cultural analysis, I delve into the ways in which my own cultural background and societal expectations shaped my understanding of happiness. I also explore the ways in which immersing myself in a new culture and community impacted my pursuit of happiness and well-being. By reflecting on my own experiences and observations, I aim to shed light on the complexities of the pursuit of happiness and the potential for personal and cultural growth that can result from stepping outside of one's comfort zone. Through this autoethnographic lens, we hope to offer a unique and personal perspective on the pursuit of happiness, and to encourage readers to consider the cultural and individual factors that influence their own pursuit of this universal goal. We also reflect on how innovation and technology, essential to business, may not be as important to achieve happiness in certain contexts. This essay is a call for reflection on what truly matters in life.

The after-lives of no arrival: How Papuans make their lives matter

The essay considers heterogeneous Black temporalities in West Papua, Indonesia's largest urban region. Here, "Papuan time" is an extension beyond the dilemmas of being human or not. This is the possibility of being a human that has not experienced irremediable loss or a future foreclosed. But rather an entity that endures an after-life beyond what anyone might know it; a life situated in the middle of freedom and abjection. Such a life takes place in a city, Jayapura, that appears perpetually unsettled, something always “new.” But in the repetition of such newness, it is a city that does not seem to go anywhere specific, that does not promise any sense of redemption. A city that never arrives.

Book Review: Making Black lives matter: Confronting anti-Black racism by Cokely, K.

Book Review: <i>Making Black lives matter: Confronting anti-Black racism</i> by Cokely, K.

Orbital structure evolution in self-consistent N-body simulations

ABSTRACT The bar structure in disc galaxies models is formed by different families of orbits; however, it is not clear how these families of orbits support the bar throughout its secular evolution. Here, we analyse the orbital structure on three stellar disc N-body models embedded in a live dark matter halo. During the evolution of the models, discs naturally form a bar that buckles out of the galactic plane at different ages of the galaxy evolution generating boxy, X, peanut, and/or elongated shapes. To understand how the orbit families hold the bar structure, we evaluate the orbital evolution using the frequency analysis on phase space coordinates for all disc particles at different time intervals. We analyse the density maps morphology of the 2:1 family as the bar potential evolves. We showed that the families of orbits providing bar support exhibit variations during different stages of its evolutionary process, specifically prior to and subsequent to the buckling phase, likewise in the secular evolution of the bar. The disc-dominated model develops an internal boxy structure after the first Gyr. Afterwards, the outer part of the disc evolves into a peanut-shape, which lasts till the end of the simulation. The intermediary model develops the boxy structure only after 2 Gyr of evolution. The peanut shape appears 2 Gyr later and evolves slowly. The halo-dominated model develops the boxy structure much later, around 3 Gyr, and the peanut morphology is just incipient at the end of the simulation.

“It is a Matter of Life and Death”: Jewish Child Survivors and the Trials of Separation After the Holocaust

“It is a Matter of Life and Death”: Jewish Child Survivors and the Trials of Separation After the Holocaust

Stellar Bars in Isolated Gas-rich Spiral Galaxies Do Not Slow Down

Elongated bar-like features are ubiquitous in galaxies, occurring at the centers of approximately two-thirds of spiral disks in the nearby Universe. Due to gravitational interactions between the bar and the other components of galaxies, it is expected that angular momentum and matter will redistribute over long (Gyr) timescales in barred galaxies. Previous work ignoring the gas phase of galaxies has conclusively demonstrated that bars should slow their rotation over time due to their interaction with dark matter halos. We have performed a simulation of a Milky Way–like galactic disk hosting a strong bar, including a state-of-the-art model of the interstellar medium and a live dark matter halo. In this simulation, the bar pattern does not slow down over time, and instead it remains at a stable, constant rate of rotation. This behavior has been observed in previous simulations using more simplified models for the interstellar gas, but the apparent lack of secular evolution has remained unexplained. We find that the presence of the gas phase arrests the process by which the dark matter halo slows down a bar, a phenomenon we term bar locking. This locking is responsible for stabilizing the bar pattern speed. We find that, in a Milky Way–like disk, a gas fraction of only about 5% is necessary for this mechanism to operate. Our result naturally explains why nearly all observed bars rotate rapidly and is especially relevant for our understanding of how the Milky Way arrived at its present state.

REVISING FAIRY TALES FOR CHILDREN: PATRICK NESS’S A MONSTER CALLS AND TERRY PRATCHETT’S THE WEE FREE MEN

Manlove, and Andrew O’Malley, the first part of the paper historicizes the relatively recent cultural connection of children and fairy tales, specifically, the mobilization of fairy tales as vehicles for the lessons directed at the young. Against this background, in the second part of the paper, two contemporary children’s fantasy novels, Terry Pratchett’s The Wee Free Men (2003) and Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls (2011), are examined. The discussion of the two novels focuses on their critical attitudes towards classic fairy tales and the lessons aimed at children, which range from the promotion of unquestioning obedience and patriarchal gender stereotypes, to the normalization of social stratification and the assumption of a happy end. Pratchett and Ness, however, do not merely expose the problematic instructions of classic fairy tales; as twenty-first century fantasy and children’s books authors, they also write new ones. A Monster Calls and The Wee Free Men thus both subvert and appropriate the didactic aspects of the genre, in order to educate their (young) readers on the crucial matters of life, death, grief, justice, and duty.