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Alternative Views (alternative + views)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Alternative views of functional protein binding epitopes obtained by combinatorial shotgun scanning mutagenesis

PROTEIN SCIENCE, Issue 9 2005
Gábor Pál
Abstract Combinatorial shotgun scanning mutagenesis was used to analyze two large, related protein binding sites to assess the specificity and importance of individual side chain contributions to binding affinity. The strategy allowed for cost-effective generation of a plethora of functional data. The ease of the technology promoted comprehensive investigations, in which the classic alanine-scanning approach was expanded with two additional strategies, serine- and homolog-scanning. Binding of human growth hormone (hGH) to the hGH receptor served as the model system. The entire high affinity receptor-binding sites (site 1) of wild-type hGH (hGHwt) and of an affinity-improved variant (hGHv) were investigated and the results were compared. The contributions that 35 residue positions make to binding were assessed on each hormone molecule by both serine- and homolog-scanning. The hormone molecules were displayed on the surfaces of bacteriophage, and the 35 positions were randomized simultaneously to allow equal starting frequencies of the wild-type residue and either serine or a homologous mutation in separate libraries. Functional selections for binding to the hGH receptor shifted the relative wild-type/mutant frequencies at each position to an extent characteristic of the functional importance of the side chain. Functional epitope maps were created and compared to previous maps obtained by alanine-scanning. Comparisons between the different scans provide insights into the affinity maturation process that produced hGHv. The serine and homolog-scanning results expand upon and complement the alanine-scanning results and provide additional data on the robustness of the high affinity receptor-binding site of hGH. [source]

The politics of case management and social work

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 2 2000
Malcolm Payne
A case study analysing the introduction of case management into British social services supports the argument that social work is constructed through political processes. In such processes, the interaction among the interests of stakeholders within service innovations influences the construction of the role of social work. Case management was introduced to Britain, but developed in three different forms: social care entrepreneurship, brokerage and multiprofessional case management, including assertive outreach. The forms adopted were affected by the political interaction of stakeholders rather than the professional possibilities offered by case management itself. Evidence for the politics of case management is drawn from analysis of professional literature, the texts of official documents and empirical research outcomes. The introduction of case management led to a debate about how the nature of social work was affected by the innovation. Three alternative views were that social work was improved, or attacked by case management, or made a valid contribution to case management as a different form of practice. It is proposed that to understand the impact of a service innovation on social work, four factors must be considered: the character of the innovation itself; the economic, political and social contexts in which it is introduced; the political and social interests of the stakeholders themselves; and the political and social processes that take place during the introduction of the innovation. [source]

Comparative phylogeography of Ponto-Caspian mysid crustaceans: isolation and exchange among dynamic inland sea basins

MOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 10 2006
ASTA AUDZIJONYTE
Abstract The distributions of many endemic Ponto-Caspian brackish-water taxa are subdivided among the Black, Azov and Caspian Sea basins and further among river estuaries. Of the two alternative views to explain the distributions, the relict school has claimed Tertiary fragmentation of the once contiguous range by emerging geographical and salinity barriers, whereas the immigration view has suggested recolonization of the westerly populations from the Caspian Sea after extirpation during Late Pleistocene environmental perturbations. A study of mitochondrial (COI) phylogeography of seven mysid crustacean taxa from the genera Limnomysis and Paramysis showed that both scenarios can be valid for different species. Four taxa had distinct lineages related to the major basin subdivision, but the lineage distributions and depths of divergence were not concordant. The data do not support a hypothesis of Late Miocene (10,5 Myr) vicariance; rather, range subdivisions and dispersal from and to the Caspian Sea seem to have occurred at different times throughout the Pleistocene. For example, in Paramysis lacustris each basin had an endemic clade 2,5% diverged from the others, whereas Paramysis kessleri from the southern Caspian and the western Black Sea were nearly identical. Species-specific ecological characteristics such as vagility and salinity tolerance seem to have played important roles in shaping the phylogeographic patterns. The mitochondrial data also suggested recent, human-mediated cryptic invasions of P. lacustris and Limnomysis benedeni from the Caspian to the Sea of Azov basin via the Volga-Don canal. Cryptic species-level subdivisions were recorded in populations attributed to Paramysis baeri, and possibly in P. lacustris. [source]

Implications of Eurocentrism for Social Work Education: Trivialization vis-à-vis Skin Color

ASIAN SOCIAL WORK AND POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2009
Ronald E. Hall
The significance of skin color among people of color and its relative absence in social work literature is arguably attributed to Eurocentrism. Eurocentrism defines human reality via Eurocentric norms, ideas, values and perspectives. Evidence of Eurocentrism in social work is contained in its literature priorities, skin color litigation, brown racism and skin bleaching. Demonstration of the aforementioned social pathologies involving skin color pertaining to people of color is a critical, existential phenomenon. If social work is to remain viable and be sustained in the future, it must conform to the dictates of changes in the population. That will require a commensurate adjustment and a willingness of its intelligentsia to accommodate skin color and other alternative views relative to education and practice. [source]