Photophysical, photooxidation, and biomolecule-interaction of meso-tetra(thienyl)porphyrins containing peripheral Pt(II) and Pd(II) complexes. Insights for photodynamic therapy applications

We report the synthesis and characterization of two novel tetra-cationic porphyrins, containing Pt(II) or Pd(II) polypyridyl complexes attached at the peripheral position of N4-macrocycle. Compounds were characterized through elemental analysis,...

Histology of Muscle Development in Pigs, Epigenetics from Myotubes to Tapered Fibres

Pre-natal muscle development in pigs starts with myotubes (axial nuclei in a tube of myofibrils) and secondary fibres (peripheral nuclei on an axial strand of myofibrils). By the time of birth, the nuclei of myotubes move to a peripheral position like secondary fibres. As pre-natal secondary fibres grow in length, the number of fibres in a transverse section may appear to increase. This stereology may also occur in post-natal muscles that have tapered fibres anchored in endomysial connective tissue around adjacent fibres and with one or both ends not reaching the end of their fasciculus. Up to 100 days gestation, Peroneus longus (no tapered fibres) had larger (P < 0.001) diameter secondary fibres than Longissimus thoracis (with tapered fibres). Up to 100 days gestation, no radial growth of secondary fibres was detected, but myotubes decreased in diameter (P < 0.001). From a curve showing the relative numbers of myotubes and secondary fibres, it was deduced that approximately 80% of muscle fibres in pigs are derived from secondary fibres. In post-natal Sartorius muscle there was an increase (P < 0.005) in the apparent number of muscle fibres attributed to longitudinal growth of tapered fibres. Myotubes located centrally within their fasciculi had the same position as slow-contracting fibres with a high myoglobin content in adult muscle. Post-natal changes in muscle fibre histochemistry were achieved through transitional types, probably neurally regulated rather than by differential longitudinal growth of tapered endings. Secondary fibres are important – they give rise to both the majority of muscle fibres in adult pigs and affect subsurface optical pathways and pork colourimetry.

African Approaches to International Law

African approaches to international law encompass a variety of theoretical and processual elements that shape the way African countries, and Africa as a continent, continue to interact with the principles of international law. Over the years, certain rubrics have been employed to explain the existence of such approach. This includes the historical dimension (an exploration of the nature of precolonial Africa’s internationality), thematic focus (human rights, peace and security, environment, good governance, etc.), and the ideological discourse (Third World approaches to international law, feminist approaches to international law, postcolonial theory, critical race theory, neo-liberal approaches, Afrocentric approaches, etc.). While these elemental purviews point to the diversity of thoughts and opinions on what constitutes distinct African approaches to international law, it nevertheless highlights the need to rethink the Eurocentric foundations of international law. In other words, African approaches to international law reflect Africa’s peripheral position in global realpolitik, especially how historical and contemporary conditions continue to ensure such marginality, and thus seeks to advance alternatives for redressing this problem. In this respect, it is both emancipatory and instrumentalist. This article aims to distill the underlying issues that shape the content and substance of African approaches to international law from established and emerging scholarship. Firstly, it introduces the theories that underline African approaches to international law. Secondly, it highlights the texts that explore the trends and patterns of the practice of international law in Africa. Thirdly, it focuses on writings that show some of Africa’s contributions to international law. The article concludes with the scholarship that engages with African perspectives on a new vision of international law.

Agents in the sporting field: a law and economics perspective

While agents have been active in the sporting field since the late 1800s, sports agents and their activities have grown in prominence only in more recent times, particularly as a result of typically adverse headlines. Agents are generally considered to be necessary (or some might say a necessary evil) for the sporting industry, in the representation of sportsmen and women, the consultation of sports clubs and franchises, or the facilitation of employment contracts and transfer deals. In contrast to players and clubs (not to mention sports federations and governing bodies), however, sports agents are not engaged in sporting endeavour. Rather, the essence of their role is an economic one for the provision of services. This peripheral position of sports agents implies that their interests are likely to be quite different from those of other stakeholders in the sports industry – but it also gives rise to a significant regulatory conundrum. This conundrum has become especially apparent in the sport of football in recent years, where various attempts at regulation of access to and the performance of the profession of football agent have been made at national and international level. The field of sports and football in particular clearly has a great societal impact and a large economic value. Yet, sports law is remarkably absent so far from the economic approach to law. From a law and economics perspective and in the light of regulation theory, therefore, our main research questions are whether there is a need to regulate the profession of sports agent and, if so, what type of regulation is needed.

The replaceable master of sex determination: bottom-up hypothesis revisited

Different group of vertebrates and invertebrates demonstrate an amazing diversity of gene regulations not only at the top but also at the bottom of the sex determination genetic network. As early as 1995, based on emerging findings in Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans , Wilkins suggested that the evolution of the sex determination pathway evolved from the bottom to the top of the hierarchy. Based on our current knowledge, this review revisits the ‘bottom-up’ hypothesis and applies its logic to vertebrates. The basic operation of the determination network is through the dynamics of the opposing male and female pathways together with a persistent need to maintain the sexual identity of the cells of the gonad up to the reproductive stage in adults. The sex-determining trigger circumstantially acts from outside the genetic network, but the regulatory network is not built around it as a main node, thus maintaining the genetic structure of the network. New sex-promoting genes arise either through allelic diversification or gene duplication and act specially at the sex-determination period, without integration into the complete network. Due to this peripheral position the new regulator is not an indispensable component of the sex-determining network and can be easily replaced. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Challenging the paradigm in sex chromosome evolution: empirical and theoretical insights with a focus on vertebrates (Part I)’.

“My language has an immense potential”

This article sets out to chart the success of the Dutch novelist, poet and travel writer Cees Nooteboom, who has achieved literary fame in several countries of the world while recognition in his home country lagged behind. To analyse the reasons for the conflicting images attributed to this cosmopolitan author, I will look behind the curtains of the transnational production and reception of his writings, investigating his success in five central or semi-central languages (Heilbron 2010). The study of how this writer has succeeded in transcending the peripheral position of the Dutch language in the world literary system will be carried out by combining the sociology of translation with reception studies and imagological considerations. Nooteboom appears to be a peculiar case of image building: he is internationally represented as a Dutch and a European writer, but his lack of Dutchness appears to have hindered his recognition in the Netherlands.

Eco-translatology-based Analysis of Children’s Literature Translation—A Case Study: Peter Pan

Children&rsquo;s literature occupies a peripheral position in literature system according to the polysystem theory so that the translators of children&rsquo;s literature can manipulate the texts with great liberty. The translator of children&rsquo;s literature in the ternary relation of translation, namely the source texts, the translator and the target text, is in a relatively important position. Thus, it is a feasible way to analyze the translation of children&rsquo;s literature from the translator-centered perspective. Eco-translatology is a translator-centered translation theory, aiming to analyze how the translator selects and adapts during the translation process in the translational eco-environment. In this paper, the author will adopt Eco-translatology as the translation framework to analyze the translation of children&rsquo;s literature, and try to explore how &lsquo;children&rsquo;, an important factor in the translational eco-environment, influences the translator&rsquo;s selection and adaptation in the process of translating children&rsquo;s literature. Furthermore, the author will take Peter Pan as a case study, comparing two Chinese versions of this book to analyze how the two translators adapt and select differently from those three dimensions during the translation process, as one follows the target-reader-oriented strategy and the other one follows the source-text-oriented strategy.

University Education and the Value Projection of the Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility

The authors consider the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a component of the global capitalist ideology. The value disposition of universities in relation to the concept of CSR is analyzed relying on the fundamental motivational matrix (FMM). The fundamental types of motivation are defined according to the anthropological distinction between personality and human nature and the social distinction between reward and punishment. In accordance with the logic of the applicability of different types of motivation, the fundamental contradiction between the value basis of the capitalist economy and the main scientific and educational activities of universities is determined. The attitude of voluntary responsibility characteristic of CSR is defined as internally contradictory, but unavoidable within the system of declared values of the capitalist economy. It is shown that the peripheral position of labor in this system of values is not accidental, that labor and investment success are opposed, and that it is irrevocable.

Cluster settlement structure in Toropetsky Uyezd according to the cadastre of 1540

The article is dedicated to the peculiarities of settlement structure in Toropetsky Uyezd of the XVI century. In the XIV &ndash; XV centuries Toropets land was the eastern outskirts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in 1503 joined the Moscow state. The cadastre of 1540 describes the structure of Toropetsky Uyezd as the clusters of settlements, characterized by commonness of names and detected both in state (58 clusters) and local (79 clusters) lands. They differ in size, i.e. the number of settlements and court indicators. Mapping of the clusters of settlements reveals their location in the territory of uyezd, land area, and population density. Geographical reconstruction is carried out via geoinformation technologies. It is demonstrated that most developed part of the uyezd is Toropets Volost and the adjacent territories, such as eastern districts of the uyezd in the basin of the Western Dvina River, developed in the pre-Mongol period, and the basin of tributaries of the Kunya River. The model of settlement structure in Toropetsky Uyezd most likely corresponds to the type of land relations inherent to Syabry community, in which peasants jointly owned land, agricultural and fishery areas. Such settlement structure retained due to the peripheral position of Toropets and its relative autonomy. Common names served as a means for identification of the object of taxation. This settlement model gradually diminishes after Toropets has joined the Moscow State, first and foremost it pertains to the local lands. Common names are preserved as the geographical landmarks; while the individual names are widely used within such clusters, as the court indicators increase.

Misfitting in America: Paul Leni, Conrad Veidt, and The Man Who Laughs

“Misfitting in America” offers an analysis of The Man Who Laughs that suggests the film’s importance in four key areas: (1) as a transitional piece between silent cinema and the talkies, (2) as the last instalment of the Universal super productions, (3) as a thematic precursor to Universal’s famous horror cycle, and (4) as one of the most complete Hollywood attempts to adopt and co-opt German filmmaking practices and personnel. Moreover, this chapter focuses on the star of The Man Who Laughs, Conrad Veidt, as representative of an exilic body. Analysing Veidt’s physicality, performance, makeup, and costuming as Gwynplaine, this contribution looks at the corporeal inscription of the character’s permanent disfiguration, which underpins Gwynplaine’s understanding of himself and his peripheral position in society. With its intrinsic linking of disfigurement and dislocation in an endless cycle where one leads seamlessly into the other, the film becomes a way to understand how Hollywood studios situated their European émigré stars in the years following World War I.