Silencing of tumor suppressor genes (TSGs), by DNA methylation, is well known in adult cancers. However, based on the “stem cell” theory of tumorigenesis, the early epigenetic events arising in malignant precursors remain unknown. A recent report1 demonstrates that, while pluripotent embryonic stem cells lack DNA methylation and possess a “bivalent” pattern of activating and repressive histone marks in numerous TSGs, analogous multipotent malignant cells derived from germ cell tumors (embryonic carcinoma cells) gain additional silencing modifications to those same genes. (...) These results suggest a possible mechanism by which aberrant differentiation, mediated by histone and DNA methylation, instigates tumor progression. BioEssays 29:842–845, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Graphical AbstractScience and technology consortia provide a viable solution for the recent unsustainable academic growth in biomedical research.

This study proposes a conceptual model to explain persistent, accepted-as-normal corporate wrongdoing (hereafter banality of wrongdoing), particularly for high performance organizations. The model describes five explanatory variables: the culture of competition, ends-biased leadership, missionary zeal, legitimizing myth, and the corporate cocoon. Our thesis is that the nature of competition drives both legitimate and illegitimate goal-seeking to adopt an iconoclastic (rule-breaking) orientation. High performance organizations are favorable hosts for wrongdoing because high performance requires aggressive behavior at the ethical margins of what (...) is acceptable. The way leadership reacts to competition sets the stage for ethical or unethical cultures to develop. Ends-biased leadership will project strong vision, using ideology and legitimizing myth as tools to inspire and motivate. The resulting missionary zeal justifies using questionable means because of the perceived value of the end. One critical method for building strong culture is creating a sense of being separate and apart from the ordinary. This cocoon effect may create a self-referential value system that is significantly at odds with mainstream culture and in which wrongdoing is banal. We intend an empirical study of the variables described in this model. (shrink)

Extinction deeply colors the way we think about conservation and the role of humans in nature. It is easy to overlook how recently, in fact, it has entered our consciousness. Only in the last two centuries has science sought to critically study life's origins, development, and diversification. Only in the last several generations have we identified and calibrated life's five major extinction events and speculated on their causes and effects. And only in recent decades have we come to appreciate the (...) still‐unfolding fate of life's diversity under the increasing influence of humanity. The story of extinction has continually changed as this monumental process of interdisciplinary synthesis and imagination has unfolded. Geology, paleontology, taxonomy, biogeography, and evolutionary biology have allowed us to comprehend the deep temporal and broad spatial dynamics of the extinction story. Archaeology, cultural anthropology, and environmental and economic history have illuminated the role of humans in altering the trajectory of species, landscapes, and ecosystems over the millennia. Ecology, genetics, population biology, and conservation biology have revealed the more recent patterns in life's vulnerability and resilience. As a phenomenon, extinction is as old as life itself. As a story shaping our consciousness, values, and intentions, it is still new. And it is uncomfortable. (shrink)

Originally published in 1969. This book examines the fundamental concepts of metaphysics and of theory of knowledge. Topics treated include the nature of substance and of causation; their relation to natural laws, dispositions, and attributes; the nature of consciousness and purposiveness; of symbols, signs, and signals, and their relation to interpretation and objective reference; and the nature and criteria of truth. The author holds that philosophy is by intent a science and that its becoming so requires precise and non-arbitrary semantical (...) analysis of basic philosophical terms. He argues that philosophy then, like the other sciences, has practical importance: in its case this consists in its capacity to give to difficult practical decisions not only the efficacy insured by its application of the findings of the other sciences, but in addition some of the wisdom which is philosophy’s distinctive ultimate aim. (shrink)

1. T. - Die metaphysischen Urgesetze der Melodik.

Die Autoren sind katholische Priester und stellen das christliche Menschenbild und die Ethik der Gesundheitssorge in den Mittelpunkt. Herausgearbeitet wird die ihrer Ansicht nach besondere ethische Verantwortung der Pflegekräfte in ihren Beziehungen zu Patienten, Angehörigen und Ärzten bei Fragen der Lebens- und Sterbehilfe.

The failure of conventional quantum theory to recognize time as an observable and to admit time operators is addressed. Instead of focusing on the existence of a time operator for a given Hamiltonian, we emphasize the role of the Hamiltonian as the generator of translations in time to construct time states. Taken together, these states constitute what we call a timeline. Such timelines are adequate for the representation of any physical state, and appear to exist even for the semi-bounded and (...) discrete Hamiltonian systems ruled out by Pauli’s theorem. However, the step from a timeline to a valid time operator requires additional assumptions that are not always met. Still, this approach illuminates the issues surrounding the construction of time operators, and establishes timelines as legitimate alternatives to the familiar coordinate and momentum bases of standard quantum theory. (shrink)

Compelling evidence is presented that Glauber worked as a laborator (laboratory assistant) for Landgrave Georg of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1632/33 till he was appointed apothecary in Giessen in 1635. During this time, he was also used as laborator by the landgrave’s personal physician, Helwig Dieterich. Glauber became a famous chemist, whose alchemical secrets were keenly solicited by King Frederik III of Denmark, Queen Christina of Sweden, and, according to the 1662 diary of Ole Borch, King Charles II of England. A 1689 (...) letter to Queen Christina contains detailed descriptions of Glauber’s alkahest, his decomposition and redintegration of saltpeter, and his ‘most secret sal armoniacum’, which is interpreted here for the first time. (shrink)

1929. Contents: Art and the Creation of Beauty; Art the Language of Feeling.