scholarly journals SB4ER: an ELIXIR Service Bundle for Epidemic Response

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
CASTRENSE SAVOJARDO ◽  
Pier Luigi Martelli ◽  
Giulia Babbi ◽  
Marco Anteghini ◽  
Matteo Manfredi ◽  
...  

Epidemic spread of new pathogens is quite a frequent event that affects not only humans but also animals and plants, and specifically livestock and crops. In the last few years, many novel pathogenic viruses have threatened human life. Some were mutations of the traditional influenza viruses, and some were viruses that crossed the animal-human divide.In both cases, when a novel virus or bacterial strain for which there is no pre-existing immunity or a vaccine released, there is the possibility of an epidemic or even a pandemic event, as the one we are experiencing today with COVID-19.In this context, we defined an ELIXIR Service Bundle for Epidemic Response: a set of tools and workflows to facilitate and speed up the study of new pathogens, viruses or bacteria. The final goal of the bundle is to provide tools and resources to collect and analyse data on new pathogens (bacteria and viruses) and their relation to hosts (humans, animals, plants).

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 449-452
Author(s):  
Alan MacLeod ◽  
Nicola Spence

COVID 19 has raised the profile of biosecurity. However, biosecurity is not only about protecting human life. This issue brings together mini-reviews examining recent developments and thinking around some of the tools, behaviours and concepts around biosecurity. They illustrate the multi-disciplinary nature of the subject, demonstrating the interface between research and policy. Biosecurity practices aim to prevent the spread of harmful organisms; recognising that 2020 is the International Year of Plant Health, several focus on plant biosecurity although invasive species and animal health concerns are also captured. The reviews show progress in developing early warning systems and that plant protection organisations are increasingly using tools that compare multiple pest threats to prioritise responses. The bespoke modelling of threats can inform risk management responses and synergies between meteorology and biosecurity provide opportunities for increased collaboration. There is scope to develop more generic models, increasing their accessibility to policy makers. Recent research can improve pest surveillance programs accounting for real-world constraints. Social science examining individual farmer behaviours has informed biosecurity policy; taking a broader socio-cultural approach to better understand farming networks has the potential to change behaviours in a new way. When encouraging public recreationists to adopt positive biosecurity behaviours communications must align with their values. Bringing together the human, animal, plant and environmental health sectors to address biosecurity risks in a common and systematic manner within the One Biosecurity concept can be achieved through multi-disciplinary working involving the life, physical and social sciences with the support of legislative bodies and the public.


Author(s):  
Andri Setyorini ◽  
Niken Setyaningrum

Background: Elderly is the final stage of the human life cycle, that is part of the inevitable life process and will be experienced by every individual. At this stage the individual undergoes many changes both physically and mentally, especially setbacks in various functions and abilities he once had. Preliminary study in Social House Tresna Wreda Yogyakarta Budhi Luhur Units there are 16 elderly who experience physical immobilization. In the social house has done various activities for the elderly are still active, but the elderly who experienced muscle weakness is not able to follow the exercise, so it needs to do ROM (Range Of Motion) exercise.   Objective: The general purpose of this research is to know the effect of Range Of Motion (ROM) Active Assitif training to increase the range of motion of joints in elderly who experience physical immobility at Social House of Tresna Werdha Yogyakarta unit Budhi Luhur.   Methode: This study was included in the type of pre-experiment, using the One Group Pretest Posttest design in which the range of motion of the joints before (pretest) and posttest (ROM) was performed  ROM. Subjects in this study were all elderly with impaired physical mobility in Social House Tresna Wreda Yogyakarta Unit Budhi Luhur a number of 14 elderly people. Data analysis in this research use paired sample t-test statistic  Result: The result of this research shows that there is influence of ROM (Range of Motion) Active training to increase of range of motion of joints in elderly who experience physical immobility at Social House Tresna Wredha Yogyakarta Unit Budhi Luhur.  Conclusion: There is influence of ROM (Range of Motion) Active training to increase of range of motion of joints in elderly who experience physical immobility at Social House Tresna Wredha Yogyakarta Unit Budhi Luhur.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Subin Kim ◽  
Jinhyo Chung ◽  
Sang Hyun Lee ◽  
Jeong Hyeon Yoon ◽  
Dae-Hyuk Kweon ◽  
...  

AbstractInfluenza, one of the most contagious and infectious diseases, is predominantly transmitted through aerosols, leading to the development of filter-based protective equipment. Though the currently available filters are effective at removing submicron-sized particulates, filter materials with enhanced virus-capture efficiency are still in demand. Coating or chemically modifying filters with molecules capable of binding influenza viruses has received attention as a promising approach for the production of virus-capturing filters. For this purpose, tannic acid (TA), a plant-derived polyphenol, is a promising molecule for filter functionalization because of its antiviral activities and ability to serve as a cost-efficient adhesive for various materials. This study demonstrates the facile preparation of TA-functionalized high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter materials and their efficiency in influenza virus capture. Polypropylene HEPA filter fabrics were coated with TA via a dipping/washing process. The TA-functionalized HEPA filter (TA-HF) exhibits a high in-solution virus capture efficiency of up to 2,723 pfu/mm2 within 10 min, which is almost two orders of magnitude higher than that of non-functionalized filters. This result suggests that the TA-HF is a potent anti-influenza filter that can be used in protective equipment to prevent the spread of pathogenic viruses.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ge Li ◽  
Xun Wang ◽  
Qingmei Li ◽  
Jifei Yang ◽  
Xiao Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background H7N9 avian influenza virus (AIV) including highly and low pathogenic viruses have been detected in China since 2013. H7N9 AIV has a high mortality rate after infection in humans, and most human cases have close contacted with poultry in the live poultry market. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a rapid point-of-care testing (POCT) technique for H7N9 AIV detection. Methods The H7N9 AIV was inactivated and purified, and was used as the antigen to immunize BALB/c. Twelve H7-HA specific monoclonal antibodies (McAbs) were produced through the hybridoma technique. The McAb 10A8 was conjugated with colloid gold as detecting antibody; McAb 9B6 was dispensed on the nitrocellulose membran as the capture test line and the Goat-anti mouse IgG antibody was dispensed as control line respectively. The immunochromatographic strip was prepared. Results The analysis of ELISA and virus neutralization test showed that the obtained McAbs specifically recognized H7 HA. Based on the prepared strip, the detection of H7 AIV was achieved within 10 min. No cross-reaction occurred between H7 AIVs and other tested viruses. The detection limit of the strip for H7 was 2.4 log10EID50/0.1 mL for chicken swab samples. Conclusion The McAbs were specific for H7 and the immunochromatographic strip developed in this study was convenient, rapid and reliable for the detection of H7 AIV. The strip could provide an effective method for the rapid and early detection of H7 AIV.


2012 ◽  
Vol 145 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Lewis ◽  
Belinda Lewis

The 2011 Japanese earthquake and subsequent malfunction at the Fukushima nuclear power plant occurred at the apex of a complex crisis of nature. While some commentators claim that the Fukushima malfunction was the result of a ‘natural disaster’, others situate the event within a broader context of human interventions in ecological and natural systems. Exercised through the global mediasphere, these environmental language wars are formed within crisis conditions and a crisis consciousness that have extensive genealogical roots. This article examines the crisis of nature in terms of contemporary and genealogical language wars that are embedded in a cultural politics of apocalysm. In particular, the article problematises the concept of ‘nature’ in terms of the disaggregation of human and non-human life systems. It argues that this disaggregation confounds the cultural politics of life (-death) systems, leading to excessive violence on the one hand, and Romantic idealisation on the other. The article recommends a reconceptualisation of nature that implicates all humans and human desires across the global mediasphere.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-278
Author(s):  
Christoph Demmerling

Abstract The following article argues that fictional texts can be distinguished from non-fictional texts in a prototypical way, even if the concept of the fictional cannot be defined in classical terms. In order to be able to characterize fictional texts, semantic, pragmatic, and reader-conditioned factors have to be taken into account. With reference to Frege, Searle, and Gabriel, the article recalls some proposals for how we might define fictional speech. Underscored in particular is the role of reception for the classification of a text as fictional. I make the case, from a philosophical perspective, for the view that fictional texts represent worlds that do not exist even though these worlds obviously can, and de facto do, contain many elements that are familiar to us from our world. I call these worlds reading worlds and explain the relationship between reading worlds and the life world of readers. This will help support the argument that the encounter with fictional literature can invoke real feelings and that such feelings are by no means irrational, as some defenders of the paradox of fiction would like us to believe. It is the exemplary character of fictional texts that enables us to make connections between the reading worlds and the life world. First and foremost, the article discusses the question of what it is that readers’ feelings are in fact related to. The widespread view that these feelings are primarily related to the characters or events represented in a text proves too simple and needs to be amended. Whoever is sad because of the fate of a fictive character imagines how he or she would fare if in a similar situation. He or she would feel sad as it relates to his or her own situation. And it is this feeling on behalf of one’s self that is the presupposition of sympathy for a fictive character. While reading, the feelings related to fictive characters and content are intertwined with the feelings related to one’s own personal concerns. The feelings one has on his or her own behalf belong to the feelings related to fictive characters; the former are the presupposition of the latter. If we look at the matter in this way, a new perspective opens up on the paradox of fiction. Generally speaking, the discussion surrounding the paradox of fiction is really about readers’ feelings as they relate to fictive persons or content. The question is then how it is possible to have them, since fictive persons and situations do not exist. If, however, the emotional relation to fictive characters and situations is conceived of as mediated by the feelings one has on one’s own behalf, the paradox loses its confusing effect since the imputation of existence no longer plays a central role. Instead, the conjecture that the events in a fictional story could have happened in one’s own life is important. The reader imagines that a story had or could have happened to him or herself. Readers are therefore often moved by a fictive event because they relate what happened in a story to themselves. They have understood the literary event as something that is humanly relevant in a general sense, and they see it as exemplary for human life as such. This is the decisive factor which gives rise to a connection between fiction and reality. The emotional relation to fictive characters happens on the basis of emotions that we would have for our own sake were we confronted with an occurrence like the one being narrated. What happens to the characters in a fictional text could also happen to readers. This is enough to stimulate corresponding feelings. We neither have to assume the existence of fictive characters nor do we have to suspend our knowledge about the fictive character of events or take part in a game of make-believe. But we do have to be able to regard the events in a fictional text as exemplary for human life. The representation of an occurrence in a novel exhibits a number of commonalities with the representation of something that could happen in the future. Consciousness of the future would seem to be a presupposition for developing feelings for something that is only represented. This requires the power of imagination. One has to be able to imagine what is happening to the characters involved in the occurrence being narrated in a fictional text, ›empathize‹ with them, and ultimately one has to be able to imagine that he or she could also be entangled in the same event and what it would be like. Without the use of these skills, it would remain a mystery how reading a fictional text can lead to feelings and how fictive occurrences can be related to reality. The fate of Anna Karenina can move us, we can sympathize with her, because reading the novel confronts us with possibilities that could affect our own lives. The imagination of such possibilities stimulates feelings that are related to us and to our lives. On that basis, we can participate in the fate of fictive characters without having to imagine that they really exist.


Lumen et Vita ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Michael Infantine

What does it look like to cooperate with God’s grace, and what does it look like to hide from it? In 1521, Ignatius of Loyola, an ambitious and promising young soldier in the Spanish army, is shot in the leg and suffers a career-ending injury that sparks his eventual conversion to Christianity. It would appear, looking back on this event, that grace came for Ignatius in a form that could only be recognized at the time as tragedy and senseless suffering. Four hundred thirty four years later, Flannery O’Connor, a young novelist from Georgia, writes the short story of a woman named Hulga who, after losing a leg in a shooting accident as a young girl, recedes into isolation and naked contempt for all those closest to her until one day a mysterious visitor knocks at the door of her family home. For Hulga too, grace may be out to find her in the place she might least expect. This paper will hold up the figures of St. Ignatius and Hulga as a comparative case study in which to examine the working out of God’s grace in the economy of a human life. Ignatius, through his humility and loyalty to Christ in the wake of his injury, is an icon of God’s grace and the conversion to which it calls him. Hulga, in her obstinate scorn and self-proclaimed superiority over all those who seek relationship with her, is the epitome of the one who resists the love of the Other. Even still, there may be hope for Hulga yet by the story’s end.


REFLEXE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (60) ◽  
pp. 29-63
Author(s):  
Martin Rabas

The present article has two objectives. One is to elucidate the philosophical approach presented in the so-called Strahov Systematic Manuscripts of Jan Patočka in terms of consciousness and nature. The other is to compare this philosophical approach with Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theses on nature, as elaborated in 1956–1961, and to point out some advantages and limitations of both approaches. In our opinion, Patočka’s philosophical approach consists, on the one hand, in a descriptive analysis of human experience, which he understands as a pre-reflective self-relationship pointing towards the consciousness of the world. On the other hand, on the basis of this descriptive analysis Patočka consequently explicates all non-human life, inorganic matter, and finally the whole of nature as life in its own right, the essence of which is also a certain self-relation with a tendency towards consciousness. The article then briefly presents Merleau-Ponty’s theses on nature, and finally compares them with Patočka’s overall theses on nature. The advantage of Patočka’s notion of nature as against Merleau-Ponty’s is that, in Patočka’s view, nature encompasses both the principle of unity and individuality. On the other hand, the advantage of Merleau-Ponty’s understanding of nature as against Patočka’s lies in the consistent interconnectedness of the infinite life of nature and the finite life of individual beings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Abdullah Aydın

“Go to temples of science and ideas of Europe. Imitate the Tugendbund, ‘the Union of Virtue’, of which thousands of German youth are the members. Always keep the rule of ‘Fit soul is in fit body’ in mind” (Petrov, 2013, p. 72). This study aimed to show the similarities, in terms of expression, emphasis, and implication, in the about/mission/vision/goals/objectives of various science centers from around the world and in the basic themes derived from Snellman’s statement above, namely, Science for all, Science Centers for all, and Human welfare that he made as a challenge to not only his people but to everyone. Document and content analyses were applied in the study. Within the scope of these analyses, this study investigated the about/mission/vision/goals/objectives sections of websites of science centers from around the world (Asia, Europe, Global, Latin America/The Caribbean, North America, Africa). From this investigation, similar basic themes, derived from Snellman’s statement challenging his people/everyone to adopt this devotion to science, were found in the areas of i) expression in ASTC, CIMUSET/CSTM, CASC and SAASTEC; ii) emphasis in ECSITE, ASDC, ASCN and NSCF; and iii) implication in ASPAC, ASTEN, NCSM, ABCMC and Red-POP. These basic themes, as found in the about/mission/vision/goals/objectives of science centers, can, in effect, be narrowed down to the one theme of “cultural institutions will be a big part of human life” (Madsen 2017, p. 68) science centers in the global village (Touraine, 2016, p. 121) of the future.


Author(s):  
Constance C. Meinwald

Plato's brainchild, the Philebus discusses the good human life and the claims of pleasure on the one hand and a cluster containing intelligence, wisdom, and right opinion on the other in connection with that life. The article talks about the notions of good human life and the pleasures surrounding it. Plato includes extended treatment of metaphysics and methodology: this is his typical supplement to the procedure of his own Socratic dialogues, which considered human questions in isolation from other issues. Despite several interpretations, the text remains largely elusive. After a long discourse, both Socrates and Philebus arrive at a conclusion that a mixed life, containing both reason and pleasure is what we all should desire and it is the best option for all.


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