The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) uses various mechanisms to ensure that only properly folded proteins enter the secretory pathway. For proteins that oligomerize in the ER, the proper tertiary and quaternary structures must be achieved before their release. Although some proteins fold before oligomerization, others initiate oligomerization cotranslationally. Here, we discuss these different strategies and some of the unique problems they present for the ER quality control system. One mechanism used by the ER is thiol retention. Thiol retention operates by monitoring (...) the redox state of specific cysteine residue(s) and was discovered in studies on the assembly of IgM, a complex oligomeric glycoprotein. This system is also involved in retaining other unassembled proteins in the ER. Mutations that result in uneven numbers of cysteine residues can subject yet other proteins to thiol retention, altering their oligomerization status and function. The implications of these results on the effects of thiol retention on protein function and cell fate are discussed. BioEssays 20:546–554, 1998. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons Inc. (shrink)

Buddhist Inscriptions of Andhradesa. B.S.L. Hanumantha Rao, N. S. Ramachandra Murthy, B. Subrahmanyam, E. Sivanagi Reddy. Ananda Buddha Vihara Trust, Secunderabad 1998. xi, 278 pp. Rs 500.

Монография предназначена студентам старших курсов высших учебных заведений факультета иностранных языков, аспирантам и преподавателям.

abstract In 2002 Diane Pretty went to the European Court of Human Rights to gain a ruling about assisted suicide. In the course of this she argued that the right to life implied a right to die. This paper will consider, from an ethical rather than a legal point of view, how the right to life might imply (or not) a right to die, and whether this includes either a right that others shall help us die, or a right against (...) non‐interference if others are willing to help us. It does this by comparing the right to life to conceptions of property rights. This is not because I think human life is property, but because some of our ways of talking and thinking about our control over our own lives seem to be similar to our thoughts about our control over our own property. The right to life has traditionally been taken as a negative right, that is a right that others not deprive us of life. Pretty's argument, however, seems to be moving towards a positive right, not just to remain alive, but to be enabled in doing what we want to with our lives, and thus disposing of them if we so choose. The comparison with property rights suggests that the right to die only applies if our lives are ours absolutely, and may itself be modified by the suggestion that suicide harms all of us by devaluing human life in general. (shrink)

The type of mood or tense marking that causes counterfactuality inferences—as figuring prominently, but far from exclusively, in counterfactual conditionals—has not yet received a comprehensive and compositional analysis. Focusing on four languages, the paper presents under-appreciated facts and a novel theory where the mood serves to activate alternatives to modal operators, particularly one: the identity operator, often giving rise to counterfactual implicatures.

Film can be a significant way of doing public philosophy. This chapter sketches some essential public features of philosophy by using popular films. Learning to watch popular films as philosophical expressions, on par with books and articles, brings film and philosophy to inform one another and illuminate important areas of overlap. Memento is an especially uncanny film because it begins with the story's ending. Daniel J. Clark's 2018 documentary film Behind the Curve charts the resurgence of flat‐Earth theory in the (...) United States. Its core thesis is that false, avowed belief in flat‐Earth is sustained partly by an irrational weighing of evidence reinforced by various social, psychological, and economic benefits that come from holding the belief. We gain insight into a classic mechanism of motivated reasoning from Tony Kaye's film American History X, a fictional exploration of the rise of white supremacist ideology in US white working‐class neighborhoods. (shrink)

Based on empirical evidence we discuss the nature of precognition, and address the questions whether retrocausation/ precognition violates causality, whether precognition implies determinism, the questions of actual or probable futures, from where does the information arise, and other observed properties of precognition. This is followed by a discussion on the primacy of precognition by examining the various categories of psi. In our analysis, precognition is most likely the only form of psi, subsuming within it clairvoyance, telepathy, micro-PK, and the survival (...) hypothesis. In this paper, we examine the various arguments for this assertion, the primary one being that it is impossible to close the precognition door. (shrink)

Some propositional attitude verbs require that the complement contain some “subjective predicate”. In terms of the theory proposed by Lasersohn, these verbs would seem to identify the “judge” of the embedded proposition with the matrix subject, and there have been suggestions in this direction. I show that it is possible to analyze these verbs as setting the judge and doing nothing more; then according to whether a judge index or a judge argument is assumed, unless the complement contains a subjective (...) predicate, the whole matrix is redundant or there is a type conflict. I further show that certain clear facts argue for assuming a judge argument which can be filled by a contextually salient entity–or by the subject of a subjective attitude verb. (shrink)

Some philosophers have recently argued that luck at the time of decision is a problem for compatibilists and libertarians alike. But conceptual ambiguity regarding deterministic luck at the time of decision – henceforth C-luck – has obscured recognition of the problem C-luck poses to compatibilism. This paper clarifies C-luck and distinguishes it from present luck, showing that the former arises from contingent factors at the time of decision instead of presupposed free will requirements. We then argue that empirical findings confirm (...) the existence of C-luck thereby raising a fundamental challenge to compatibilist accounts of moral responsibility. (shrink)

Questions of dialectical logic are currently of great importance in Marxist-Leninist philosophy. However, most of the logicians in our country are working on problems of mathematical logic, which is not a philosophical science. The axiomatic method is basic to mathematical logic, and its basic concept is the notion of functional dependence. Logic, as a philosophical discipline, has always studied and should study the relationship between antecedent and consequent, which is concerned not with functional dependence, not with an external connection, but (...) with an internal logical necessity. To reduce the logical relationship to functional dependence means to abolish the discipline of logic. No philosophical system, no philosophical work, has been, nor could be, constructed on the basis of mathematical logic. (shrink)

Together, Models and Computability and its sister volume Sets and Proofs will provide readers with a comprehensive guide to the current state of mathematical logic. All the authors are leaders in their fields and are drawn from the invited speakers at 'Logic Colloquium '97' (the major international meeting of the Association of Symbolic Logic). It is expected that the breadth and timeliness of these two volumes will prove an invaluable and unique resource for specialists, post-graduate researchers, and the informed and (...) interested nonspecialist. (shrink)

Two main methods for analysing de re readings of definite descriptions in intensional contexts coexist: that of evaluating the description in the actual world, whether by means of scope, actuality operators, or non-local world binding, and that of substituting another description, usually one expressing a salient or ‘vivid’ acquaintance relation to an attitude holder, prior to evaluation. Recent work on so-called descriptive indexicals suggests that contrary to common assumptions, both methods are needed, for different ends. This paper aims to show (...) that there is indeed a division of labour between the two methods of analysis and to identify criteria for choosing among alternative ways to model the second, substitutional method. (shrink)

International health-related research on human subjects entails unique ethical responsibilities and difficulties. Often, these difficulties are augmented by the lack of a local ethical review infrastructure. In a recent cross-national study conducted by us, three critical components of ethical regulation were identified—external oversight, local oversight and subject involvement—and integrated into the study design. These three concepts are outlined and established as an important aspect of ensuring ethical coherence in the local context, particularly when reviews by the local institutional review boards (...) cannot practically be obtained. The three levels of ethical oversight identified are suggested to be the framework within which future field studies on human subjects are developed and a standard for maintaining ethical rigorousness in research on humans. (shrink)