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Of Life (of + life)
Kinds of Of Life Selected AbstractsSocial Functioning, Psychological Functioning, and Quality of Life in EpilepsyEPILEPSIA, Issue 9 2001Theo P. B. M. Suurmeijer Summary: ,Purpose: Part of our research intended to explain "Quality of Life" (QoL) differences between people with epilepsy. To this end, a series of already existing generic and disease-specific health status measures were used. In this study, they were considered as determinants of people's QoL, whereas QoL itself was conceived as a general "value judgment" about one's life. Methods: From the records of four outpatient clinics, 210 persons with epilepsy were randomly selected. During their visit to the outpatient clinic, they completed a questionnaire assessing, among other things, health perceptions and social and psychological functioning. Additional information about their medical and psychosocial status was gathered from the patient files. Data were analysed by using a hierarchical regression analysis. Results: In decreasing order of importance, "psychological distress,""loneliness,""adjustment and coping," and "stigma perception" appeared to contribute most significantly to the outcome QoL as judged by the patients themselves, regardless of their physical status. In the final model, none of the clinical variables (onset, seizure frequency, side effects of antiepileptic drugs) contributed significantly anymore to the patients' "quality-of-life judgement." Apparently the effect of other variables such as seizure frequency and health perceptions, medication and side effects, life fulfilment, self-esteem, and mastery is mediated by these variables. Conclusions: Because all of the variance in QoL of the patients was explained by the psychosocial variables included in this study, health professionals should be aware of the significance of the psychosocial functioning of the patients and the role it plays in the achievement of a good QoL. Both informal and professional support may be an adjunct to conventional treatment. In future research, this issue should be given high priority. [source] Geochemical Cycles of Bio-essential Elements on the Early Earth and Their Relationships to Origin of LifeRESOURCE GEOLOGY, Issue 2 2002Takeshi KAKEGAWA Abstract: The bio-essential elements are demanded for the metabolic action of all living organisms. These elements are continuously supplied to biosphere through the elemental cycle on the surface Earth. The geochemical cycle of bio-essential elements was most likely different in the pre-biotic era (ca. 4.4 to 4.0 Ga) compared to the modern Earth. The difference was probably made by the absence of continents and biological mediation in the pre-biotic environments. Geochemical cycle models of bio-essential elements (P, B and Mo) on the pre-biotic Earth are proposed in this study, and these models are examined using available geochemical data. The input flux of phosphorous in pre-biotic oceans was probably dominated by submarine hydrothermal activities associated with carbonatized oceanic crusts. Such input flux by submarine hydrothermal activities is not known in the present-day oceans, and probably a unique flux in the pre-biotic oceans. Boron chemistry of pre-biotic oceans was also controlled by submarine hydrothermal input flux. The Mo exchange between the pre-biotic ocean and lithosphere may have restricted only at the submarine hydrothermal areas. These suggest that the submarine hydrothermal discharging areas were only locations to obtain bio-essential elements for the earliest life. This model is consistent with the previously proposed model for hydrothermal origin of life. [source] Microbial life in glacial ice and implications for a cold origin of lifeFEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2007P. Buford Price Abstract Application of physical and chemical concepts, complemented by studies of prokaryotes in ice cores and permafrost, has led to the present understanding of how microorganisms can metabolize at subfreezing temperatures on Earth and possibly on Mars and other cold planetary bodies. The habitats for life at subfreezing temperatures benefit from two unusual properties of ice. First, almost all ionic impurities are insoluble in the crystal structure of ice, which leads to a network of micron-diameter veins in which microorganisms may utilize ions for metabolism. Second, ice in contact with mineral surfaces develops a nanometre-thick film of unfrozen water that provides a second habitat that may allow microorganisms to extract energy from redox reactions with ions in the water film or ions in the mineral structure. On the early Earth and on icy planets, prebiotic molecules in veins in ice may have polymerized to RNA and polypeptides by virtue of the low water activity and high rate of encounter with each other in nearly one-dimensional trajectories in the veins. Prebiotic molecules may also have utilized grain surfaces to increase the rate of encounter and to exploit other physicochemical features of the surfaces. [source] Bacteria as computers making computersFEMS MICROBIOLOGY REVIEWS, Issue 1 2009Antoine Danchin Abstract Various efforts to integrate biological knowledge into networks of interactions have produced a lively microbial systems biology. Putting molecular biology and computer sciences in perspective, we review another trend in systems biology, in which recursivity and information replace the usual concepts of differential equations, feedback and feedforward loops and the like. Noting that the processes of gene expression separate the genome from the cell machinery, we analyse the role of the separation between machine and program in computers. However, computers do not make computers. For cells to make cells requires a specific organization of the genetic program, which we investigate using available knowledge. Microbial genomes are organized into a paleome (the name emphasizes the role of the corresponding functions from the time of the origin of life), comprising a constructor and a replicator, and a cenome (emphasizing community-relevant genes), made up of genes that permit life in a particular context. The cell duplication process supposes rejuvenation of the machine and replication of the program. The paleome also possesses genes that enable information to accumulate in a ratchet-like process down the generations. The systems biology must include the dynamics of information creation in its future developments. [source] The addition of mood and anxiety domains to the University of Washington quality of life scale,HEAD & NECK: JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENCES & SPECIALTIES OF THE HEAD AND NECK, Issue 6 2002Simon N. Rogers FDS Abstract Background There are numerous head and neck specific quality of life questionnaires, each having its own merits and disadvantages. The University of Washington questionnaire has been widely used and is notable by the inclusion of a shoulder dysfunction domain, domain importance ratings, and patient free text. It is short, simple to process, and provides clinically relevant information. However, it has lacked any psychological dimension of quality of life. The aim of this study was to report the inclusion of two psychological domains (mood, anxiety) to the most recent refinement of the questionnaire (version 3). Method A cross-sectional survey was performed in April 2000. Questionnaires were sent to 183 patients alive and disease free after surgery for oral and oro-pharyngeal malignancy. Replies were received from 145 patients (79% response rate). Results The new domains (mood and anxiety) correlated significantly with the emotional functioning domains from the EORTC C30 and with the pain and appearance domains of UW-QOL. There were also significant correlations between the "global quality of life" item and the two new domains. Mood (p = .005) and anxiety (p < .001) scores were associated with patient age but with no other clinicodemographic variable. Conclusion The addition of mood and anxiety domains makes the UW-QOL version 4 a single broad measure suitable for effective health-related quality of life evaluation in the routine clinical setting. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 24: 521,529, 2002 [source] The Irregular Migrant as Homo Sacer: Migration and Detention in Australia, Malaysia, and ThailandINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 1 2004Prem Kumar Rajaram The principle intention of the paper is to study detention of irregular migrants as a means of understanding politics and how notions of political participation and of sovereignty are affected by the detention of certain sorts of individual. What does the identification of certain "forms of life" to be detained say about the political norms of different societies? The conduit for this examination will be the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben's concept of homo sacer. Homo sacer is a term Agamben extrapolates from "ancient Roman law". It denotes a naked or bare life that is depoliticized. Homo sacer is the excess of processes of political constitution that create a governable form of life. Homo sacer is thus exempt or excluded from the normal limits of the state. At the same time, however, homo sacer is not simply cast out but is held in particular relation to the norm: it is through the exclusion of the depoliticized form of life that the politicized norm exists. This essay seeks to contextualize aspects of Agamben's argument by looking at detention as a form of exclusion in three different contexts. [source] Healing and Salvation in Late Modernity: the Use and Implication of Such Terms in the Ecumenical MovementINTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MISSION, Issue 380-381 2007Vebjørn Horsfjord This article explores developments over the last decades in the way ecumenical texts, primarily originating from world conferences organized by the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, speak about soteriology. Under the headlines, "Salvation Today" (1973) and "Your Kingdom Come" (1980), terminology inspired by liberation theology took centre stage, and a predominantly immanent understanding of salvation was promoted. In recent years a different terminology has taken over, and it is one that focuses on "healing" and "the fullness of life". At its best, the holistic healing approach manages to take up the important concerns from earlier times, such as economic justice, racism and environmental issues, while at the same time giving more room for existential issues and the experiences of the individual The new healing discourse appears to reflect two different modalities of the church's healing ministry, viz. that which is concerned with the causes of suffering, and that which addresses the experience of suffering. The latter was often ignored in the recent past. The healing discourse gives room for new explorations of practices that have been central in the church throughout its history, such as anointing the sick, and praying for and with them, and hearing individual confessions. Openness towards subjective experience also has implications for the contextualization of the Christian faith. There is a new awareness that not only do the causes of suffering vary from situation to situation but so does the understanding of (what constitutes) suffering itself. Changing or varying understandings of suffering give rise to different approaches to its alleviation, and can inspire a rethinking of how we understand salvation in different contexts. The new healing discourse can also be studied in its relationship to cultural trends known as post-modernity or late modernity. The texts under study display very ambivalent approaches to these developments. There might be a tendency for texts that have concrete experience as their starting point to take a more positive view of these cultural developments than do texts that begin with more general theological observations. [source] Idiopathic epilepsy in dogs: owners' perspectives on management with phenobarbitone and/or potassium bromideJOURNAL OF SMALL ANIMAL PRACTICE, Issue 10 2006Y. Chang Objectives: To explore seizure management from the perspective of the owners of dogs with idiopathic epilepsy. Methods: Questionnaires were mailed to owners of 29 dogs under management for suspected or diagnosed idiopathic epilepsy through the clinics of the Small Animal Hospital of the University of Glasgow Veterinary School, using either phenobarbitone or potassium bromide alone or in combination. Results: The postal survey had an 86 per cent response rate. Analysis of the responses demonstrated that "the dog's quality of life", "adequate seizure frequency" and "acceptable side effects of antiepileptic drugs" were the three greatest concerns for owners; 52 per cent of owners strongly agreed that the seizure management for their dog was adequate, though the seizure frequency reported varied within this group; the majority of owners did not consider the administration of medication a nuisance. However, approximately 60 per cent of owners reported that caring for an epileptic dog had an effect on the organisation of their free time, though this was not dependent on perception of seizure control. Opinions as to the value of further diagnostic procedures, in particular intracranial imaging, were significantly affected by having pet health insurance. Clinical Significance: From the owners' perspective, adequacy of seizure control is determined by the balance between "the dog's quality of life", "adequate seizure frequency" and "acceptable side effects of antiepileptic drugs". A frequency of less than one seizure every three months is associated with the perception by owners of adequate seizure control. [source] On Defending Controversial Viewpoints: Debates of Sixth Graders About the Desirability of Early 20th-Century American ImmigrationLEARNING DISABILITIES RESEARCH & PRACTICE, Issue 3 2002Charles A. MacArthur Sixth-grade students with and without mild disabilities participated in an eight-week project-based investigation about immigration to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Students' investigations were designed to promote their understanding of the perspectives of immigrants and Americans who opposed immigration, as well as the "ways of life" that gave impetus to immigration and often resulted in conflict between these groups. At the conclusion of these investigations, students were assigned the role of the immigrants or opponents of immigration and were asked to debate the desirability of immigration to the United States during this historical period. The primary focus of this article is on the opportunities afforded by, and the limitations of, these classroom debates. The debates promoted high levels of engagement and equal participation by students with and without disabilities as well as by boys and girls. Analyses of content and structure showed that students' discourse was influenced by the knowledge they gained during their investigations, but the use of this knowledge was shaped by the competitive rhetorical goal of defending a particular viewpoint. Later rounds of the debates were more balanced and drew more on the breadth of available knowledge than did earlier rounds. Overall, the debates were more typical of everyday arguments than academic arguments. The implications of our findings for the design of instructional opportunities in the social studies in inclusive classrooms are discussed. [source] The Circulatory System: Blood Procurement, AIDS, and the Social Body in ChinaMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2006Kathleen Erwin The market for blood thrived in China for more than a decade, preying on rural villagers desperate for cash. Profit motives and unhygienic collection created an AIDS epidemic, where now up to 80 percent of adults in some villages are HIV infected. Today, illegal blood banks continue to operate in some areas. Moreover, better screening and blood testing do little to address the underlying cultural reluctance to give blood. This article examines what is at stake for blood donors in the circulation of blood through both the physical and the social bodies in China today. I argue that public health and social policy solutions require consideration of the symbolic meanings of blood and the body, kin relations, and gift exchange. China's HIV-contaminated blood procurement crisis demands a critical reexamination of the hidden processes embedded in a "circulatory system" that has inseparably bound the "gift of life" and a "commodity of death." [source] A nuclear microprobe study of the distribution and concentration of carbon and nitrogen in Murchison and Tagish Lake meteorites, Antarctic micrometeorites, and IDPs: Implications for astrobiologyMETEORITICS & PLANETARY SCIENCE, Issue 11 2003G. Matrajt We observed that IDPs are richest in both elements. All the MMs studied contain carbon, and all but the coarse-grained and 1 melted MM contained nitrogen. We also observed a correlation in the distribution of carbon and nitrogen, suggesting that they may be held in an organic material. The implications for astrobiology of these results are discussed, as small extraterrestrial particles could have contributed to the origin of life on Earth by delivering important quantities of these 2 bio-elements to the Earth's surface and their gas counterparts, CO2 and N2, to the early atmosphere. [source] Clay mineral-organic matter relationships in the early solar systemMETEORITICS & PLANETARY SCIENCE, Issue 12 2002Victoria K. Pearson These organic-rich meteorites provide a valuable and tangible record of the chemical steps taken towards the origin of life in the early solar system. Chondritic organic matter is present in the inorganic meteorite matrix which, in the CM and CI chondrites, contains evidence of alteration by liquid water on the parent asteroid. An unanswered and fundamental question is to what extent did the organic matter and inorganic products of aqueous alteration interact or display interdependence? We have used an organic labelling technique to reveal that the meteoritic organic matter is strongly associated with clay minerals. This association suggests that clay minerals may have had an important trapping and possibly catalytic role in chemical evolution in the early solar system prior to the origin of life on the early Earth. [source] Humanitarian aid beyond "bare survival": Social movement responses to xenophobic violence in South AfricaAMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 4 2009STEVEN ROBINS ABSTRACT In this article, I investigate responses to the humanitarian crisis that emerged following the May 2008 xenophobic violence against South African nonnationals that resulted in 62 deaths and the displacement of well over 30,000 people. I focus specifically on how a South African AIDS activist movement, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and its partners, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF,Doctors Without Borders) and the AIDS Law Project (ALP), translated a particular style and strategy of AIDS activism into legal, medical, humanitarian, and political responses to the massive population displacement. The TAC provided relief to displaced people in the form of basic needs, such as food, clothes, and blankets, as well as legal aid, and it engaged in activism that promoted the rights of the refugees. I investigate how the ideas and practices of global agencies such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) were deployed and reinterpreted by TAC activists. I also examine how TAC activists involved in assisting the refugees drew on a global humanitarian assemblage of categories, legal definitions, norms and standards, and procedures and technologies that went beyond the simple management of "bare life." TAC's shift from fighting for antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to fighting for refugees' rights reveals a "politics of life" that spans multiple issues, networks, and constituencies. It is also a politics that, at times, strategically deploys standardized bureaucratic logics and biopolitical techniques of humanitarian aid. [source] Geochemical Cycles of Bio-essential Elements on the Early Earth and Their Relationships to Origin of LifeRESOURCE GEOLOGY, Issue 2 2002Takeshi KAKEGAWA Abstract: The bio-essential elements are demanded for the metabolic action of all living organisms. These elements are continuously supplied to biosphere through the elemental cycle on the surface Earth. The geochemical cycle of bio-essential elements was most likely different in the pre-biotic era (ca. 4.4 to 4.0 Ga) compared to the modern Earth. The difference was probably made by the absence of continents and biological mediation in the pre-biotic environments. Geochemical cycle models of bio-essential elements (P, B and Mo) on the pre-biotic Earth are proposed in this study, and these models are examined using available geochemical data. The input flux of phosphorous in pre-biotic oceans was probably dominated by submarine hydrothermal activities associated with carbonatized oceanic crusts. Such input flux by submarine hydrothermal activities is not known in the present-day oceans, and probably a unique flux in the pre-biotic oceans. Boron chemistry of pre-biotic oceans was also controlled by submarine hydrothermal input flux. The Mo exchange between the pre-biotic ocean and lithosphere may have restricted only at the submarine hydrothermal areas. These suggest that the submarine hydrothermal discharging areas were only locations to obtain bio-essential elements for the earliest life. This model is consistent with the previously proposed model for hydrothermal origin of life. [source] The Use of Gasoline: Value, Oil, and the "American way of life"ANTIPODE, Issue 3 2009Matthew T. Huber Abstract:, While the critical literature has focused on the geography of oil production, the politics of "outrageous" gasoline prices in the United States provide a fertile path toward understanding the wider geography of petro-capitalism. Despite the deepening contradictions of US oil consumption, "pain at the pump" discourse projects a political sense of entitlement to low priced gasoline. I use a value-theoretical perspective to examine this politics as not only about the quantitative spectrum of price, but also the historical sedimentation of qualitative use-values inscribed in the commodity gasoline. Gasoline is analyzed both as a use-value among many within the postwar value of labor power and as a singular use-value fueling broader imaginaries of a national "American way of life." While use-value still represents an open site of cultural and political struggle infused within value itself, the case of gasoline illustrates how use-values are not automatically mobilized toward politically savory ends. [source] Building artificial cells and protocell models: Experimental approaches with lipid vesiclesBIOESSAYS, Issue 4 2010Peter Walde Abstract Lipid vesicles are often used as compartment structures for preparing cell-like systems and models of protocells, the hypothetical precursor structures of the first cells at the origin of life. Although the various artificially made vesicle systems are already remarkably complex, they are still very different from and much simpler than any known living cell. Nevertheless, the preparation and study of the structure and the dynamics of functionalized vesicle systems may contribute to a better understanding of biological cells, in particular of the essential features of a living cell that are not found in the non-living form of matter. The study of protocell models may possibly lead to a better understanding of the origin of the first cells. To avoid misunderstanding in this field of research, it would be useful if generally accepted definitions of terms like "artificial cells," "synthetic cells," "minimal cells," "protocells," and "primitive cells" exist. , Editor's suggested further reading in BioEssays Synthetic cells and organelles: compartmentalization strategiesAbstract [source] Thermal Wet Decomposition of Prussian Blue: Implications for Prebiotic ChemistryCHEMISTRY & BIODIVERSITY, Issue 9 2009Marta Ruiz-Bermejo Abstract The complex salt named Prussian Blue, Fe4[Fe(CN)6]3,15,H2O, can release cyanide at pH>10. From the point of view of the origin of life, this fact is of interest, since the oligomers of HCN, formed in the presence of ammonium or amines, leads to a variety of biomolecules. In this work, for the first time, the thermal wet decomposition of Prussian Blue was studied. To establish the influence of temperature and reaction time on the ability of Prussian Blue to release cyanide and to subsequently generate other compounds, suspensions of Prussian Blue were heated at temperatures from room temperature to 150° at pH,12 in NH3 environment for several days. The NH3 wet decomposition of Prussian Blue generated hematite, , -Fe2O3, the soluble complex salt (NH4)4[Fe(CN6)],1.5,H2O, and several organic compounds, the nature and yield of which depend on the experimental conditions. Urea, lactic acid, 5,5-dimethylhydantoin, and several amino acids and carboxylic acids were identified by their trimethylsilyl (TMS) derivatives. HCN, cyanogen (C2N2), and formamide (HCONH2) were detected in the gas phase by GC/MS analysis. [source] The Possible Influence of L -Histidine on the Origin of the First Peptides on the Primordial EarthCHEMISTRY & BIODIVERSITY, Issue 6 2006Hannes Reiner Abstract One of the most unsettled problems of prebiotic evolution and the origin of life is the explanation why one enantiomeric form of biomolecules prevailed. In the experiments presented in this paper, the influence of L -histidine on the peptide formation in the Salt-Induced Peptide Formation (SIPF) reaction of the enantiomeric forms of valine, proline, serine, lysine, and tryptophan, and the catalytic effects in this first step toward the first building blocks of proteins on the primordial earth were investigated. In the majority of the produced dipeptides, a remarkable increase of yields was shown, and the preference of the L - amino acids in the peptide formation in most cases cannot be denied. In summary, our data provide further experimental evidence for the plausibility of the SIPF reaction and point at a possible important role of L -histidine in the chemical evolution on the primordial earth. [source] A new definition of lifeCHIRALITY, Issue 3 2009James D. Carroll Abstract Chirality is often glossed over in theoretical or experimental discussions concerning the origin of life, but the ubiquity of homochiral building blocks in known biological systems demands explanation. Information theory can provide a quantitative framework for understanding the role of chirality in biology. Here I show how conclusions derived from information theory, in particular the concept of equivocation, can explain not only why chiral building blocks are necessary in living systems but also why a homochiral set of building blocks is necessary. These results lead to a new definition of life, and to the conclusion that the simplest form of life exists in the form of self-amplifying, autocatalytic reactions such as the Soai reaction. Chirality, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||