Search Results (7)

Wedding rituals and ceremonies have been depicted in various forms of literature, art, and illuminated manuscripts in medieval times. These representations offer valuable insights into the cultural, religious, and social aspects of weddings during that period. This article considers the state of research on visual representations of the wedding ceremony in the Middle Ages and how these pictures reflect legal, religious, and cultural/social aspects of medieval life in Europe. Using examples from various religious, literary, and legal texts, several questions will be addressed: In which contexts were the pictures of wedding ceremonies created? What is depicted and what is not? Which legal, religious, and cultural aspects are reflected in the medieval visualizations of the wedding ritual and how do the visualizations correspond to the religious, legal, and cultural setting of the wedding ritual in the Middle Ages? Illuminated legal manuscripts, particularly the Liber Extra, the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, reveal much about the rituals that signified the essence of the medieval wedding ceremony: the exchange of consent, the joining of the right hands (dextrarum iunctio), and the blessing of the union by a priest. Since the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, marriage was considered a sacrament by the Church, making the ritual a fulcrum of religious life. However, only the consummation of a marriage was able to bring the property-related effects of marriage into effect, and some pictures from a secular context refer to this part of the wedding ceremony. The primary function of these visual representations of marriage was the illustration of the text, in both canon law manuscripts and medieval literature. Therefore, they are, besides the textual transmission, valuable sources and crucial interpretive keys for understanding the legal and socio-cultural dimensions that shaped the institution of marriage in medieval Europe. Full article

Tracing back political Islam to the French Campaign that invaded Egypt in 1798, the article argues that political Islam emerged and developed from within the folds of the modern nation state in Egypt. The article conceptualizes three historical phases: from 1805 to 1849, 1849 to 1879, and 1879 to the mid-1920s. Each of these phases is centered around a common theme that characterized the discourses, knowledge, and structures of politics, the economy and “Islam”, as they encountered the West, which are, in order, technology, civilization, and ideology. The works of Ḥasan al-ʿAṭṭār will be explored as an example of the first phase, and the works of Rifāʿah al-Ṭahṭāwī will be the example of the second phase, where Islam, as it encounters politics, becomes the foundation of state nationalism. The third phase will start with a transitional period of undifferentiated discourses, but will quickly, after the British occupation in 1882, differentiate into three political Islams: liberal, represented by Muḥammad ʿAbduh and al-Ummah Party; official, represented by ʿAlī Yūsuf and the Reform on the Constitutional Principles Party; and extra-state, radical Islamism, represented by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Jāwiš, and the Nationalist Party. The article will explain the national and international political and economic contexts that surrounded and participated in the formations of political Islam in all its varieties. Against the popular academic conviction of rooting Ḥasan al-Bannā’s thought in Muḥammad ʿAbduh’s work, and rooting ʿAbduh in Jamāl al-Afghānī’s movement, this article will explain the rupture and contradictions between Afghānī and ʿAbduh, on the one hand, and the rooting of al-Bannā’s ideology in ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Jāwīš’s thought, on the other hand. Full article

Protein therapeutics have recently gained high importance in general health care along with applied clinical research. Therefore, it is important to understand the structure–function relationship of these new generation drugs. Asparagine-bound carbohydrates represent an important critical quality attribute of therapeutic glycoproteins, reportedly impacting the efficacy, immunogenicity, clearance rate, stability, solubility, pharmacokinetics and mode of action of the product. In most instances, these linked N-glycans are analyzed in their unconjugated form after endoglycosidase-mediated release, e.g., PNGase F-mediated liberation. In this paper, first, N-glycan release kinetics were evaluated using our previously reported in-house produced 6His-PNGase F enzyme. The resulting deglycosylation products were quantified by sodium dodecyl sulfate capillary gel electrophoresis to determine the optimal digestion time. Next, the effect of sample glucose content was investigated as a potential endoglycosidase activity modifier. A comparative Michaelis-Menten kinetics study was performed between the 6His-PNGase F and a frequently employed commercial PNGase F product with and without the presence of glucose in the digestion reaction mixture. It was found that 1 mg/mL glucose in the sample activated the 6His-PNGase F enzyme, while did not affect the release efficiency of the commercial PNGase F. Capillary isoelectric focusing revealed subtle charge heterogeneity differences between the two endoglycosidases, manifested by the lack of extra acidic charge variants in the cIEF trace of the 6His-PNGase F enzyme, which might have possibly influenced the glucose-mediated enzyme activity differences. Full article

Immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and ensuing inflammation pose a huge challenge to the host’s nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺) metabolism. Humans depend on vitamin B3 for biosynthesis of NAD⁺, indispensable for many metabolic and NAD⁺-consuming signaling reactions. The balance between its utilization and resynthesis is vitally important. Many extra-pulmonary symptoms of COVID-19 strikingly resemble those of pellagra, vitamin B3 deficiency (e.g., diarrhoea, dermatitis, oral cavity and tongue manifestations, loss of smell and taste, mental confusion). In most developed countries, pellagra is successfully eradicated by vitamin B3 fortification programs. Thus, conceivably, it has not been suspected as a cause of COVID-19 symptoms. Here, the deregulation of the NAD⁺ metabolism in response to the SARS-CoV-2 infection is reviewed, with special emphasis on the differences in the NAD⁺ biosynthetic pathway’s efficiency in conditions predisposing for the development of serious COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced NAD⁺ depletion and the elevated levels of its metabolites contribute to the development of a systemic disease. Acute liberation of nicotinamide (NAM) in antiviral NAD⁺-consuming reactions potentiates “NAM drain”, cooperatively mediated by nicotinamide N-methyltransferase and aldehyde oxidase. “NAM drain” compromises the NAD⁺ salvage pathway’s fail-safe function. The robustness of the host’s NAD⁺ salvage pathway, prior to the SARS-CoV-2 infection, is an important determinant of COVID-19 severity and persistence of certain symptoms upon resolution of infection. Full article

Over the last decades, we have witnessed the gradual commercialization of the Earth orbit. The exponential development of private space activities makes this distant natural field, with the overcoming of technological difficulties, more and more hospitable to free initiative and entrepreneurship. However, the orbital space is considered global commons. Through the imaginary case method, we intend to ponder on possible ways to legally regulate the exploitation of the orbital space, namely the application of Pigouvian taxes, on the sustainability of the orbital environment, through ethical considerations originating from the application of the Lockean proviso. Although they are designed to cover the damage caused by that particular polluting activity, which is difficult to estimate and, in our case, almost impossible to quantify in the long run, the Pigouvian taxes are the result of a proactive logic. The tension between civilization and nature turns the world outside the Earth into a wilderness destined for humanization, another area of exercise of the liberal self. Non-legal reasons for the sustainability of the orbital environment may arise from observing the Lockean principle of fair ownership. Between the prohibition of an unreasonable destruction of nature’s goods and the equitable access to extra-terrestrial resources, the human desire for appropriation updates the proviso destined for the colonization of America in the twenty-first century. Given that there are currently no plans to clean the technological waste in orbit, adopting the conservation of the orbital environment as an ethical principle could help to formulate a more environmentally responsible liberalism, as part of a long-term agenda of exploitation in the vicinity of our planet. Full article

Evidence supports recommending the Mediterranean dietary pattern (MDP) in the management of cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and solid organ transplant (SOT). However, the evidence-practice gap is unclear within non-Mediterranean countries. We investigated integration of MDP in Australian dietetic practice, and barriers and enablers to MDP implementation for chronic disease management. Dietitians managing CVD, T2D, NAFLD and/or SOT patients (n = 182, 97% female) completed an online survey in November 2019. Fewer than 50% of participants counsel patients with CVD (48%), T2D (26%), NAFLD (31%) and SOT (0–33%) on MDP in majority of their practice. MDP principles always recommended by >50% of participants were promoting vegetables and fruit and limiting processed foods and sugary drinks. Principles recommended sometimes, rarely or never by >50% of participants included limiting red meat and including tomatoes, onion/garlic and liberal extra virgin olive oil. Barriers to counselling on MDP included consultation time and competing priorities. Access to evidence, professional development and education resources were identified enablers. An evidence-practice gap in Australian dietetic practice exists with <50% of participants routinely counselling relevant patient groups on MDP. Strategies to support dietitians to counsel complex patients on MDP within limited consultations are needed. Full article

Mechanical ventilation (MV) is a life-saving intervention for respiratory failure, including decompensated congestive heart failure. MV can reduce ventricular preload and afterload, decrease extra-vascular lung water, and decrease the work of breathing in heart failure. The advantages of positive pressure ventilation must be balanced with potential harm from MV: volutrauma, hyperoxia-induced injury, and difficulty assessing readiness for liberation. In this review, we will focus on cardiac, pulmonary, and broader effects of MV on patients with decompensated HF, focusing on practical considerations for management and supporting evidence. Full article