Discovery of New Microneme Proteins in Cryptosporidium parvum and Implication of the Roles of a Rhomboid Membrane Protein (CpROM1) in Host–Parasite Interaction

Apicomplexan parasites possess several unique secretory organelles, including rhoptries, micronemes, and dense granules, which play critical roles in the invasion of host cells. The molecular content of these organelles and their biological roles have been well-studied in Toxoplasma and Plasmodium, but are underappreciated in Cryptosporidium, which contains many parasites of medical and veterinary importance. Only four proteins have previously been identified or proposed to be located in micronemes, one of which, GP900, was confirmed using immunogold electron microscopy (IEM) to be present in the micronemes of intracellular merozoites. Here, we report on the discovery of four new microneme proteins (MICs) in the sporozoites of the zoonotic species C. parvum, identified using immunofluorescence assay (IFA). These proteins are encoded by cgd3_980, cgd1_3550, cgd1_3680, and cgd2_1590. The presence of the protein encoded by cgd3_980 in sporozoite micronemes was further confirmed using IEM. Cgd3_980 encodes one of the three C. parvum rhomboid peptidases (ROMs) and is, thus, designated CpROM1. IEM also confirmed the presence of CpROM1 in the micronemes of intracellular merozoites, parasitophorous vacuole membranes (PVM), and feeder organelles (FO). CpROM1 was enriched in the pellicles and concentrated at the host cell–parasite interface during the invasion of sporozoites and its subsequent transformation into trophozoites. CpROM1 transcript levels were also higher in oocysts and excysted sporozoites than in the intracellular parasite stages. These observations indicate that CpROM1, an intramembrane peptidase with membrane proteolytic activity, is involved in host–parasite interactions, including invasion and proteostasis of PVM and FO.

Environmental Citizen Science Initiatives as a Springboard towards the Education for Environmental Citizenship: A Systematic Literature Review of Empirical Research

Environmental Citizen Science (CS) initiatives have been recognized over time as a promising way to engage citizens in the investigation and management of various socio-ecological issues. In this context, it has been often hypothesized that these CS initiatives may also contribute to the education and subsequent transformation of citizens into environmentally aware and active citizens. However, the potential of CS to serve as a springboard for supporting Education for Environmental Citizenship (EEC) has not been explored yet. A systematic review was conducted, seeking to examine how citizens’ participation in environmental CS initiatives contributes to the EEC, as a venue through which citizens can undertake actions in different scales (local, national, global) to achieve environmental citizenship. A content analysis procedure was implemented on thirty-one empirical studies (n = 31) retrieved from a systematic review of the literature covering the timespan of the last two decades (2000–2020), according to the PRISMA methodology. The findings indicated that the majority of the reviewed environmental CS initiatives primarily enhanced citizens’ skills and knowledge over the competences of attitudes, values, and behaviors. In addition, it was found that CS initiatives empowered primarily citizens’ personal and responsible environmental actions, which were situated in the private sphere and at the local scale. The derived environmental outcomes were mainly related to the solution and prevention of environmental problems. Finally, correlational statistical analysis indicated that there were strong correlations between the Environmental Citizenship (EC) competences, actions and EEC outcomes and unveiled a set of keystone components; namely, components of crucial significance in the field of EC. We reflect on these findings, and we discuss directions for future research.

Transformation of magnetic data to the pole and vertical dip and a related apparent susceptibility transform: exact and approximate approaches

The dipolar character of magnetic data means that there is a high and a low associated with each source. The relative positions and sizes of these highs and lows, varies depending on the magnetic latitude or the inclination of the Earth’s magnetic field. One method for dealing with this complexity is to transform the data to what would collected if the inclination were vertical (as at the magnetic pole); a process that is unstable at low magnetic latitudes. Unfortunately, remanent magnetization adversely impacts the success of this transformation. A second approach is to calculate the analytic-signal amplitude (ASA) of the data, which creates a single positive feature for each source or edge, with the shape being only weakly dependent on the inclination and the presence of remanent magnetization. The ASA anomalies can appear to be relatively broad, so features sometimes merge together on map views of the ASA. A subsequent transformation of the ASA using an appropriate transforming tilt angle can generate a magnetic field of a body that is at the pole and has a vertical dip. The transformation is exact for contacts when calculated from the first-order ASA, but the sign of the transformed data can be incorrect depending on whether you are over one edge or the other edge of a discrete source body. Another, approximate transformation of the zeroth-order ASA does not have this issue and gives good results on synthetic data provided that any noise is handled appropriately. The resulting maps outline the magnetic source bodies and have amplitudes proportional to an apparent magnetic susceptibility. On field data from Black Hill, South Australia, the approximate transformation generates an image that is simple to interpret and enhances some features less obvious on other enhancements of the data.

The Struggle for Sports Commons

S.Janaka Biyanwila’s essay captures the trajectory of sports cultures in the Global South from their emergence in the aftermath of decolonization struggles with their democratization, but subsequent transformation post-1990s wave of globalization into sports consumers cultures. How can these new markets in sports cultures dominated by male oligarchies celebrating ‘sports spectacles’ be transformed to sports commons that encourage participatory democratic sports cultures? Focusing on the sports markets in cricket, badminton, football and even kabaddi and using a labour perspective, the presence of the invisible underside of sports workers is highlighted to reclaim sports as a public good, for local communities, and an accessible common cultural property.

Satanological Myth in the Coptic literature and its development

The article deals with the satanic myth, its Biblical genesis and further development in Judaism and early Christianity as well as its variants in Coptic literature. The myth is based on the story about the fall of the Supreme Angel and his subsequent transformation into an evil spirit. Two versions of the myth are known conventionally called “The proud man” and the “Envious man”. The first is the “legend of Lucifer” when Satan wished to become higher than God or equal to Him and was cast down. This legend goes back to the Biblical prophets as well as the pre-Christian exegesis. The second version describes how Satan was cast down for refusing to worship Adam. This legend is partly rooted in the book of Job and could have developed as a result of two coexisting, however, separate motives were found in the Jewish and early Christian exegesis. Both variants occur in great detail in various Coptic texts, including magical ones. The Biblical basis of the myth enlarged by various additions. Besides, there is also a version, which comprises details from both legends. The Satanological myth, like other apocryphal legends about angels and demons based upon the Biblical narrative in Coptic literature is developed in two ways: 1) personification of abstract concepts and properties, 2) allegorical interpretation of stories regarding Biblical characters as legends about angels or demons.

On the Interpretation of Metaphors and Similes in the Psalms: subtilitas intelligendi – subtilitas explicandi – subtilitas applicandi

Based on the example of sacred Psalter explanations, the article examines numerous metaphorical descriptions with the intention to reconstruct the procedures and operations for extracting the spiritual meaning from the veil of the literal. According to the authoritative explanations in question, metaphors and figurative comparisons (similes) used by the psalm singer differ in their inherent meaning despite the coincidence in the semantic mechanism of transposition and the need for their subsequent transformation in interpretation. Some of them, in a poetic way, reflect David’s state of mind; others are filled with a deeper spiritual meaning. As a consequence, instructions for their interpretation become different. In the figurative-symbolic interpretation, explaining conditions for the choice of an auxiliary object, it is the nearest linguistic context that becomes an explanatory instruction; and when there is no such context it is the presumption of similarity by which X can be linked to Y in expressions like “God, the horn of my salvation” that serves this function. In the symbolic-allegorical interpretation, designed to explain metaphorical expressions at a different level of understanding, it is the presumption of spiritual meaning that becomes the instruction explaining metaphorical expressions in accordance with the rules of the Christian exegesis as a prefiguration of the New Testament history (in the typological reading), as a norm of moral behavior (in the tropological reading), and as the fulfillment of promises (in the anagogic reading). The basics for hermeneutics are implemented in the following way: subtilitas intelligendi, subtilitas explicanda, and subtilitas applicandi.

Variations in intramuscular fat content and profile in Angus x Nellore steers under different feeding strategies contribute to color and tenderness development in longissimus thoracis

Muscle from cattle reared under different finishing regime (grain vs. forage) and growth rate may have divergent metabolic signatures that are reflective of their inherent differences in biochemical processes that may impact its subsequent transformation into high quality beef. Differences in muscle lipid profiles were characterized in Angus x Nellore crossbred steers, using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)-profiling, to identify potential metabolic signatures correlated to beef color and tenderness in the longissimus thoracis muscle of cattle fed in either a feedlot- or pasture-based system programmed to achieve either a high or low growth rate. A total of 440 MRMs were significant, which were related mainly to triglycerides and phosphatidylcholine lipids. Distinct clusters between feeding strategies for the lipid dataset were revealed, which affected glycerolipid metabolism (P = 0.004), phospholipid metabolism (P = 0.009), sphingolipid metabolism (P = 0.050) and mitochondrial beta-oxidation of long chain saturated fatty acids (P = 0.073) pathways. Lipid content and profile differed to feeding strategies, which were related to L*, a*, and tenderness. These findings provide a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of lipidomic profiling of beef cattle finished under different feeding strategies and provides a basis for the relationship between lipid content and profiles and beef quality development.

Two Years of Covid-19 in Retailing: Issues and Changes

During the COVID-19 pandemic, scholars have studied effects caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus in different fields such as management, finance, business, and social science in general. The retailing sector was profoundly affected by several modifications during and after the first and second waves of COVID-19 worldwide. The spread of Covid-19, with the associated restrictions, the fear of social contact and the need to maintain physical distance, influenced both consumers and retailers. However, it was found that there is a lack of studies on key issues in the retail sector. For that reason, this paper aims to study how scholars in the business management research field have analysed this new retailing crisis and the retail field’s subsequent transformation. By adopting a qualitative research method based on a literature review, this paper identifies the main research topics – shopping, consumer behaviour, technology, and digitalization – related to COVID-19 and retailing in the business management research area. In particular, it was found that the above-mentioned topics need to be investigated in light of their connection and interrelation. The study shows the connection between the online shopping behaviours stimulated by the pandemic, the different retailer strategies to overcome the restrictions, and how digital technologies can serve as a bridge between the two.

Collisions in local lawmaking

The study is devoted to clarifying the problem of existing collisions in local lawmaking, which allowed to substantiate the common understanding of this problem, as well as to identify new theoretical and applied conclusions and positions related to the need to resolve collisions in local lawmaking, their specifics and special characteristics. It is established that the country has adopted and operates a large number of regulations, many of which contradict each other, have internal inconsistencies and inconsistencies. Legal science and practice face the task of in-depth analysis of the causes of municipal legal collisions, finding ways to prevent and resolve them. It is pointed out that the emergence and increasing severity of conflicts in local lawmaking in most cases due to incomplete legal regulation of public relations, violation of the rules of legal technique in the adoption of local acts, insufficiently effective ways to prevent and resolve the latter. In addition, it is established that the method of settling and resolving local conflicts through the prism of legislative establishment of the priority of application of the norm and act is the most clear and effective. In the course of the research the systematic analysis of views on the collisions in law in general is carried out, the basic signs of the conflict in local law-making, its place among the specified categories in the plane are defined; analysis of the process of evolution of the social contradiction into a legal one with the subsequent transformation into a collision and a gap; legal conflict is defined as a subjective-objective phenomenon of legal reality. Among the existing large number of classifications of legal conflicts are local-legal, which are legal contradictions that arise due to subjective and objective reasons and errors in the exercise of powers to resolve the population directly and (or) through local governments, local issues, which is manifested in the adoption of regulations of local governments and their officials. Based on the analysis, the characteristic features of local-legal conflict are determined, which are detailed by the specified provisions on the connection of partial and general, manifestation in various forms and types, depending on the specifics of causes and solutions, local self-government issues of local significance and the emergence of the implementation of powers and the adoption of relevant municipal legal acts of local governments and their officials, with its own specific set of elements of the resolution mechanism.

Colonial Revolution and Liberatory War: from Communist to Post-Colonial Theory (Georgy Safarov, Mao Zedong and Frantz Fanon)

The article investigates the intellectual roots of the concept of colonial revolution, which goes back to the 2nd congress of the Communist International, examines its importance in shaping the Communist political thought and outlines its subsequent transformation in the wake of post-colonial theory. The author starts with analyzing the political ideas of Georgi Safarov—Comintern [the Communist International] theorist. He was among the most original thinkers who elaborated the concept of colonial revolution. Safarov, drawing from his own experience in Central Asia, insisted that global capitalism is “retreating to the positions of feudalism” while operating in colonies, treating them as collective “serfs” and lacking any proper social basis save for its own enormous military force. Such analogy led Safarov to envisage the colonial revolution as a “plebeian” revolt and liberatory war against the inhumane and stagnant colonial order, opening the way for a non-capitalist development with certain assistance from the Soviet Union. Similar ideas were independently formulated by Mao Zedong in the 1930s. He saw colonial revolution in China as a “protracted war” of liberation and listed the conditions under which victory was possible. However, the subsequent development of a former colony was seen by Mao as a transitory period of “democratic dictatorship”. Similar ideas of colonial revolution as a liberatory peasant war and “plebeian” movement were developed by Franz Fanon in the context of his own war experience in Algeria. Developing the idea of “plebeian”, peasant revolt and justifying the violence as the sole means of ending the rule of colonial power, Fanon at the same time differed from the tradition of the 2nd Comintern Congress (represented by Safarov, Mao and the others) while describing the independent existence of former colonies. For Fanon, the worst consequence of colonial rule is not permanent backwardness but psychological trauma, an inevitable result of a brutal conquest which requires therapy. The author concludes that such conceptual transformation was stimulated not merely by the disappointment in Soviet and Chinese economic strategies, but also in the geographical and cultural factor which made the reintegration with the former colonial powers preferable to the direct “escape” into the socialist camp.