פרסומים

Post-World War II Holocaust studies, followed by genocide, trauma, and postcolonial studies, set the triangulation of perpetrator, victim, and bystander at the heart of their discussion of both the ethical legacy of the Holocaust and the aftermath of other twentieth-century catastrophes. Aiming at the constitution of an appropriate instrument to deal with transitional justice issues, during the 1990s the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) interwove these subject positions, thereby attesting to a major transformation in post-genocide reconciliation processes, though not altering their basic foundation. Other theorizations, especially of the perpetrator, for example, expanded the scale of sociological characterization of the triangulation or confronted its call for interpellation and identification (most prominently in the fields of criminology and literature, respectively), but further reflected the same triadic foundation. The exploratory opposition between subject position and action provoked by Gudehus in his ‘Some Remarks on the Label, Field, and Heuristics of Perpetrator Research’ (in this issue) follows the twentieth century’s legacy as well. Undoubtedly, opposing epistemology (subject position) and ontology (the action-able), as his essay suggests, contributes to our renewed efforts to comprehend perpetratorhood, recently kindled by the initiation of the Journal of Perpetrator Research and its pioneering editorial. However, I suggest that while adhering to the twentieth-century legacies – from Hilberg’s triad to Primo Levi’s ‘Gray Zone’ – it is necessary to comprehend perpetratorhood in light of the shift from the victim era, defined as such by the seminal works of Felman and Laub and particularly Wieviorka, to the perpetrator era.

ABSTRACTA novel, stimuli-responsive composite, based on poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PVP) brushes, end-grafted to montmorillonite clay (GPC), was designed as a regenerable sorbent for efficient removal of pollutants from water. We characterized the novel composite sorbent and its response to pH, employing Fourier transform infrared, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry analysis and zeta potential measurements. In comparison with conventional, electrostatically adsorbed PVP composites (APC), the GPC presented superior characteristics: higher polymer loading without polymer release, higher zeta potential and lower pH/charge dependency. These superior characteristics explained the significantly higher removal of organic and inorganic anionic pollutants by this composite, in comparison with the removal by APC and by many reported sorbents. For example, the filtration (20 pore volumes) of selenate by GPC, APC and a commercial resin column was complete (100%), negligible (0%) and reached 90% removal, respectively. At low?moderate pH, the grafted polymer undergoes protonation, promoting pollutant adsorption, whereas at high pH, the polymer deprotonates, promoting pollutant desorption. Indeed, ?in-column? regeneration of the GPC sorbents was achieved by increasing pH, and upon a second filtration cycle, no reduction in filter capacity was observed. These findings suggest the possible applicability of this stimuli-responsive sorbent for water treatment.

Setting up a sustainable agricultural vegetative waste-management system is a challenging investment task, particularly when markets for output products of waste-treatment technologies are not well established. We conduct an economic analysis of possible investments in treatment technologies of agricultural vegetative waste, while accounting for fluctuating output prices. Under a risk-neutral approach, we find the range of output-product prices within which each considered technology becomes most profitable, using average final prices as the exclusive factor. Under a risk-averse perspective, we rank the treatment technologies based on their computed certainty-equivalent profits as functions of the coefficient of variation of the technologies’ output prices. We find the ranking of treatment technologies based on average prices to be robust to output-price fluctuations provided that the coefficient of variation of the output prices is below about 0.4, that is, approximately twice as high as that of well-established recycled-material markets such as glass, paper and plastic. We discuss some policy implications that arise from our analysis regarding vegetative waste management and its associated risks.

Abstract Tilapia lake virus disease (TiLVD) has emerged to be an important viral disease of farmed Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) having the potential to impede expansion of aquaculture production. There is a need for rapid diagnostic tools to identify infected fish to limit the spread in individual farms. We report the first detection of TiLV infection by PCR in farmed and wild Nile tilapia from Lake Victoria. There was no difference in prevalence between farmed and wild fish samples (p = .65), and of the 442 samples examined from 191 fish, 28 were positive for TiLV by PCR. In terms of tissue distribution, the head kidney (7.69%, N = 65) and spleen (10.99%, N = 191), samples had the highest prevalence (p < .0028) followed by heart samples (3.45%, N = 29). Conversely, the prevalence was low in the liver (0.71%, N = 140) and absent in brain samples (0.0%, N = 17), which have previously been shown to be target organs during acute infections. Phylogenetic analysis showed homology between our sequences and those from recent outbreaks in Israel and Thailand. Given that these findings were based on nucleic acid detection by PCR, future studies should seek to isolate the virus from fish in Lake Victoria and show its ability to cause disease and virulence in susceptible fish.

Amaranthus (Amaranthaceae) is a genus of tropical origin but widely distributed all over the world, including temperate regions. 1,2About 50 species are native to the Americas and another 15 can be found in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Most amaranth species are pioneer nitrophilous annuals of open habitats and produce many small dormant seeds. This extensive seed production is associated with prolonged seed-dormancy and with prompt germination after soil disturbance and seed exposure to light. This assemblage of reproductive traits enables amaranths to survive by continuous colonization of new disturbed sites with full sunlight and little competition from other plants. With such strategy of reproduction it is not surprising that several species of amaranth were preadapted for invasion of habitats drastically modified by human activities. Thus, today, amaranths are best known as opportunistic weeds, associated with soil cultivation (e.g., A. hybridus L., A. powellii S. Watt., A. retroflexus L., A. spinosus L., etc.). However, other amaranth species have been domesticated in tropical and subtropical regions and are cultivated for their grain (A. hypochondriacus L., A. cruentus L., A. caudatus L. = A. edulis Spegazzini) or for leaf consumption (A. tricolor L. = A. gangeticus L., A. viridis L. = A. gracilis Desf., A. blitum L. = A. lividus L.). © 1994 by CRC Press, Inc.

MyD88 is a cytoplasmic adaptor protein that plays a central role in signaling downstream of the TLRs and the IL1R superfamily. We previously demonstrated that MyD88 plays a critical role in EAE, the murine model of multiple sclerosis, and showed that the MyD88 BB-loop decoy peptide RDVLPGT ameliorates EAE. We now designed and screened a library of backbone cyclized peptides based on the linear BB loop peptide, to identify a metabolically stable inhibitor of MyD88 that retains the binding properties of the linear peptide. We identified a novel cyclic peptide protein mimetic that inhibits inflammatory responses to TLR ligands, and NF$ąppa$B activation in response to IL-1 activation. The inhibitor, c(MyD 4-4), is metabolically stable in comparison to the linear peptide, blocks MyD88 in a specific manner, and inhibits MyD88 function by preventing MyD88 dimerization. Finally, treatment of mice with c(MyD 4-4) reduced the severity of clinical disease in the murine EAE model of multiple sclerosis. Thus, modulation of MyD88-dependent signaling using c(MyD 4-4) is a potential therapeutic strategy to lower innate immune inflammation in autoimmune CNS disease.