Convergence and divergence -- Histories -- A very short introduction to Buddhism -- Nineteenth century foundations -- From acculturation to the counterculture -- Diversity and pluralism at century's end -- Traditions -- Theravada traditions -- Mahayana traditions -- Vajrayana traditions -- Post-modern horizons? -- Frames -- Buddhist medias: art, practice, and representation -- Buddhist identities: race, gender, and sexuality -- Buddhist engagements: confronting environmental and social suffering -- Buddhist modernities: US Buddhism in its global context
This article explores the Public Library of Science as a site that produces and disseminates open access scientific information and knowledge for the public good. Through this case study, issues of property ownership, the nature and political economy of biological information, scientific expertise and accessibility of information and scientific knowledge as a public good are considered. Drawing on a cultural industries perspective, I examine the various intermediaries and institutional arrangements that continue to impact and shape the production and dissemination of this open access knowledge. I suggest that Public Library of Science embodies a new mode for the social production of scholarly knowledge and its dissemination, with important implications for how scientific knowledge and expertise are created, certified and circulated.
Sandfly fever group viruses in the genus Phlebovirus (family Bunyaviridae) are widely distributed across the globe and are a cause of disease in US military troops. We assessed the laboratory viability of the Sandfly Fever Virus Antigen Assay (VecTORTest Systems Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA), a rapid dipstick assay designed to detect Sandfly Fever Naples virus (SFNV) and Toscana virus (TOSV), against a panel of phleboviruses. The assay detected SFNV and TOSV, as well as New World phleboviruses Aguacate, Anahanga, Arumowot, Charges, and Punta Torro viruses. It did not detect Sandfly Fever Sicilian, Heartland, Rio Grande, or Rift Valley fever viruses. It did not produce false positive results in the presence of uninfected sandflies (Lutzomyia longipalpis) or Cache Valley virus, a distantly related Bunyavirus. Results from this laboratory evaluation suggest that this assay may be used as a rapid field-deployable assay to detect sandflies infected with TOSV and SFNV, as well as an assortment of phleboviruses found in the New World.
Observers have argued that firms overly emphasize short-term results at the expense of long-run value. Using a behavioral perspective, we analyze three hypotheses related to this general argument. First, we examine the association of investment time horizons with firm performance, contributing new theory that argues for a quadratic rather than linear association. Second, because the tendency toward immediate results could reflect stock market pressures, we consider how the interaction of investor patience and firm horizon relates to firm performance. Third, we examine the argument's implication that most firms have investment horizons at a level where marginal increases in horizon associate positively with firm performance. Measuring horizon as the expected useful lives of capital expenditures, we find empirical support for the hypothesized quadratic relation in a large-scale, multiyear sample of U.S. publicly held manufacturing firms and confirm that a majority of firms have horizons in the region where our models predict increases in horizon positively influence performance. We also find that the most positive returns occur when long horizon investments are aligned with investor patience.
This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Antibacterial Agents. ; The antibacterial activity of imidazole and imidazolium salts is highly dependent upon their lipophilicity, which can be tuned through the introduction of different hydrophobic substituents on the nitrogen atoms of the imidazole or imidazolium ring of the molecule. Taking this into consideration, we have synthesized and characterized a series of imidazole and imidazolium salts derived from L-valine and L-phenylalanine containing different hydrophobic groups and tested their antibacterial activity against two model bacterial strains, Gram-negative E. coli and Gram-positive B. subtilis. Importantly, the results demonstrate that the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of these derivatives can be tuned to fall close to the cytotoxicity values in eukaryotic cell lines. The MBC value of one of these compounds toward B. subtilis was found to be lower than the IC50 cytotoxicity value for the control cell line, HEK-293. Furthermore, the aggregation behavior of these compounds has been studied in pure water, in cell culture media, and in mixtures thereof, in order to determine if the compounds formed self-assembled aggregates at their bioactive concentrations with the aim of determining whether the monomeric species were in fact responsible for the observed antibacterial activity. Overall, these results indicate that imidazole and imidazolium compounds derived from L-valine and L-phenylalanine—with different alkyl lengths in the amide substitution—can serve as potent antibacterial agents with low cytotoxicity to human cell lines. ; E.A.B. and S.G.M acknowledge funding from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) (PID2019-109333RB-I00) and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 845427). S.V.L and B.A. acknowledge funding from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, RTI2018-098233-B-C22 and Pla de Promoció de la Investigació de la Universitat Jaume I, UJI-B2019-40. A.V. was funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación within the predoctoral fellowship program, grant FPU15/01191. ; Peer reviewed
The conversion of methane into higher molecular weight hydrocarbons of greater added value has emerged as one of the grand challenges of the 21st century. The non-oxidative methane dehydroaromatization (hereafter MDA) reaction is a promising methane valorisation reaction since it transforms methane into added-value aromatics and olefins, namely benzene, naphthalene and ethylene. Molybdenum-promoted ZSM-5 zeolite has proven to be one of the most effective catalysts for MDA providing a shape-selective environment for the conversion of methane into benzene. However, one of the principle disadvantages of using aluminosilicates in the presence of methane is that the catalyst suffers from rapid deactivation induced by coke formation, which ultimately leads to a decrease in activity and aromatics selectivity, making the process unsuitable for large-scale industrial applications. Better control of the metal dispersion on the surface of the aluminosilicate supports represents a crucial factor to partially suppress catalyst coking and improve stability. Here we show how different molecular polyoxomolybdate (POM) anions can be used as alternative Mo precursors to conventional Mo salts for the preparation of catalysts for the MDA reaction. Molecular dynamics simulations and experimental testing were conducted to characterize the interphase interactions between polyoxomolybdates and zeolite surfaces at the atomistic level and to evaluate the MDA performance of different POM-based catalysts supported on ZSM-5 and MCM-22, respectively. The catalysts prepared using hexamolybdate anions, [Mo6O19]2−, were found to be more active and selective towards benzene than those employing the commercial heptamolybdate, [Mo7O24]6−. The Mo loading and dispersion of MoOx species were found to be the key factors leading to enhanced catalytic stability on ZSM-5 and MCM-22-based supports for MDA where the 5% Mo6/MCM-22 catalyst provided a constant aromatics yield above 7% for more than 18 hours time-on stream operating at 700 °C with a diluted methane flow under atmospheric pressure. The zeolitic catalysts prepared with the Mo6 precursor were found to be amongst the most promising MDA catalysts in the literature and the results of this study pave the way for the selection and use of different POMs as innovative metal precursors to formulate new catalysts and further improve the MDA reaction process. ; Financial support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (ADREM project – Grant Agreement No. 680777) is gratefully acknowledged. The microscopy measurements were conducted at the Laboratorio de Microscopias Avanzadas, Instituto de Nanociencia de Aragon, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain. The synthesis of the materials has been performed at the Platform of Production of Biomaterials and Nanoparticles of the NANOBIOSIS ICTS, more specifically at the Nanoparticle Synthesis Unit of the CIBER in BioEngineering, Biomaterials & Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN). JMP thanks the Spanish Ministry of Science (CTQ2017-87269-P), the Generalitat de Catalunya (2017SGR629) and the URV for support. JMP also thanks the ICREA foundation for an ICREA ACADEMIA award. ; Peer reviewed
Polyoxometalate (POM)-mediated reduction and nucleation mechanisms in nanoparticle (NP) syntheses are still largely unknown. We carried out comprehensive theoretical analysis using density functional theory (DFT) to gain insight into the molecular and electronic changes that occur during the reduction of HAuCl with the Kabanos-type polyoxomolybdate, [Na{(MoV2O)(μ-O)(μ-SO)(μ-SO)}]. In the system presented herein the electrons are supplied by the POM, making the computational thermodynamic analysis more feasible. Our results reveal that this particular POM is a multi-electron source and the proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) greatly promotes the reduction process. Based on the energy and molecular orbital studies of the intermediate species the reduction of Au to Au is shown to be thermodynamically favourable, and a low HOMO-LUMO gap of the POM-Au superstructure is advantageous for electron transfer. By modelling the reduction of three couples of Au → Au by the same POM unit, it is proposed that the reduced polyoxomolybdate is finally fully oxidised. The subjacent idea of using the Kabanos POM was confirmed by comprehensive experimental characterisation of POM-stabilised gold nanoparticles (AuNPs@POM). Present theoretical analysis suggests that protons have a significant influence on the final Au to Au reduction step that ultimately leads to colloidal AuNPs@POM. ; The authors are grateful to COST Action CM1203 ''Polyoxometalate Chemistry for Molecular Nanoscience (PoCheMoN)'' for supporting this work, and also to the Spanish Government (Grant no. CTQ2011-29054), Generalitat de Catalunya (Grant no. 2014SGR199) and Xarxa de Referencia en Quimica Teorica i Computacional, XRQTC). This work has been funded by the Fundacion General CSIC (Programa ComFuturo) and ERC Starting Grant 239931-NANOPUZZLE. ; Peer Reviewed
