פרסומים

The retina is one of the highest oxygen-consuming tissues because visual transduction and light signaling processes require large amounts of ATP. Thus, because of the high energy demand, oxygen-rich environment, and tissue transparency, the eye is susceptible to excess production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) resulting in oxidative stress. Oxidative stress in the eye is associated with the development and progression of ocular diseases including cataracts, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy. ROS can modify and damage cellular proteins, but can also be involved in redox signaling. In particular, the thiol groups of cysteines can undergo reversible or irreversible oxidative post-translational modifications (PTMs). Identifying the redox-sensitive cysteines on a proteome-wide scale provides insight into those proteins that act as redox sensors or become irreversibly damaged upon exposure to oxidative stress. In this study, we profiled the redox proteome of the Drosophila eye under prolonged, high intensity blue light exposure and age using iodoacetamide isobaric label sixplex reagents (iodo-TMT) to identify changes in cysteine availability. Although redox metabolite analysis of the major antioxidant, glutathione, revealed similar ratios of its oxidized and reduced form in aged or light-stressed eyes, we observed different changes in the redox proteome under these conditions. Both conditions resulted in significant oxidation of proteins involved in phototransduction and photoreceptor maintenance but affected distinct targets and cysteine residues. Moreover, redox changes induced by blue light exposure were accompanied by a large reduction in light sensitivity that did not arise from a reduction in the photopigment level, suggesting that the redox-sensitive cysteines we identified in the phototransduction machinery might contribute to light adaptation. Our data provide a comprehensive description of the redox proteome of Drosophila eye tissue under light stress and aging and suggest how redox signaling might contribute to light adaptation in response to acute light stress.

Research has shown that student participation in classroom dialogues is associated 
with learning gains, and initiatives to encourage more dialogic forms of learning and teaching 
are abundant. Yet, less is known about how different students may experience, participate in, and what they may gain from dialogic classroom activities. In the current work, we explore potential differences in participation of high and low-achieving students (from 6 different 
classrooms) in upper elementary Hebrew lessons of teachers who participated in a professional development program on academically productive dialogue. We used Epistemic Network Analysis to identify differences across twelve lessons. Findings reveal that the network model of low-achieving students is characterized by simpler talk moves, reduced connectivity, and 
repetitive loops. In contrast, high achieving students’ network model is more interconnected, and the strongest connections formed among codes there are indicative of a reasoned argumentation and critical stance. Analyses of selected excerpts further explored the dynamics that may have led to these different patterns.  

Combined infection of the host plant with pathogens involving different parasitic lifestyles may result in synergistic effects that intensify disease symptoms. Understanding the molecular dynamics during concurrent infection provides essential insight into the host response. The transcriptomic pattern of cucumber plants infected with a necrotrophic pathogen, , and a biotrophic pathogen, Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) was studied at different time points, under regimes of single and co-infection. Analysis of CGMMV infection alone revealed a mild influence on host gene expression at the stem base, while the infection by is associated with drastic changes in gene expression. Comparing as a single infecting pathogen with a later co-infection by CGMMV revealed a rapid host response as early as 24 hours post-CGMMV inoculation with a sharp downregulation of genes related to the host defense mechanism against the necrotrophic pathogen. Suppression of the defense mechanism of co-infected plants was followed by severe stress, including 30% plants mortality and an increase of the hyphae. The first evidence of defense recovery against the necrotrophic pathogen only occurred 13 days post-viral infection. These results support the hypothesis that the viral infection of the Pythium pre-infected plants subverted the host defense system and changed the equilibrium obtained with . It also implies a time window in which the plants are most susceptible to after CGMMV infection.

We investigate individual decisions that produce gains for oneself, while imposing losses on a group of others. We theorize, based on the notion of empathy, that decision-makers consider the magnitude of the pain or loss they inflict on an individual in the group, but are largely insensitive to the number of individuals in the group who suffer losses. Studies involving personal choices or judgments of others’ choices largely confirmed these predictions. They also revealed a dispersion effect, whereby participants made more selfish choices, and judged others’ selfish choices more lightly, when the social losses were dispersed more thinly across a group. It appears that decision-makers’ empathy for others who suffer losses is not readily adjusted to the number of people affected or to the aggregated losses. It also appears that empathy mediates judgments of selfish behavior. The findings are related to theories of empathy, and decisions under conflicts of interest.

In Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” most inhabitants of the imaginary town fare well, but only on the condition that an unidentified child imprisoned in a dark room suffers: the well-being of most is founded on depriving the child of the inherent right to equality. Such an allegorical image of the suffering child embodies the hierarchical oppositions between adults and children, employers and employees, rich and poor, privileged and underprivileged. This paper analyzes the art of Le Guin’s story and its functioning as a testing ground for ethical theories.

March 2023: Hawk Chang is Assistant Professor at the Department of Literature and Cultural Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong. His research has appeared in journals such as Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, English Studies, Children's Literature in Education, The Explicator, ANQ, Journal of English Studies, Neohelicon, Changing English, Tamkang Review, Wenshan Review, Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature, and CLCWeb, among others. His monograph Traditions and Difference in Contemporary Irish Short Fiction: Ireland Then and Now was published by Springer in February 2021.

An important task for scholars of cultural studies and the humanities, as well as for artistic creators, is to refigure the frames and concepts by which the world as we know it is kept in place. Without these acts of refiguration, the future could only ever be more of the (violent) same. In close dialogue with literary and cinematic works and practices, the essays of this volume help refigure and rethink such pressing contemporary issues as migration, inequality, racism, post-coloniality, political violence and human-animal relations. A range of fresh perspectives are introduced, amounting to a call for intellectuals to remain critically engaged with the social and planetary.

Among the contributors:

Mieke Bal, Dominick LaCapra, Sunayani Bhattacharya, and more.