First- and second-generation valorisation of wastes and residues occurring in the food supply chain

Despite the high potential to increase sustainability of food systems, wastes and by-products occurring in the food supply chain are currently only partially valorised at different value-added levels. First-generation valorisation strategies that aim at utilisation of complete material streams for production of animal feed, energy, compost and/or specific consumer applications are already widely implemented and experience further dissemination and/or development (e.g. biohydrogen/biohythane production) – either in the form of single processes or as part of cascade utilisations. Second-generation valorisation strategies comprise various forms of fractionised utilisation of material streams. They rely on integration of adapted recovery and conversion procedures for specific components in order to obtain sequentially different classes of products, e.g. fine chemicals, commodity products and biofuels. Such advanced strategies are particularly suitable for wastes and by-products occurring during industrial food processing. Valorisation of food by-products for functional food is an emerging trend

Parasitic castration by Xenos vesparum depends on host gender

Host castration represents a mechanism used by parasites to exploit energy resources from their hosts by interfering with their reproductive development or to extend host lifespan by removing risks associated with reproductive activity. One of the most intriguing groups of parasitic castrators is represented by the insects belonging to the order Strepsiptera. The macroparasite Xenos vesparum can produce dramatic phenotypic alterations in its host, the paper wasp Polistes dominula. Parasitized female wasps have undeveloped ovaries and desert the colony without performing any social task. However, very little attention has been given to the parasitic impact of X. vesparum on the male phenotype. Here, we investigated the effects of this parasite on the sexual behaviour and the morpho-physiology of P. dominula males. We found that, differently from female wasps, parasitized males are not heavily affected by Xenos: they maintain their sexual behaviour and ability to discriminate between female castes. Furthermore, the structure of their reproductive apparatus is not compromised by the parasite. We think that our results, demonstrating that the definition of X. vesparum as a parasitoid does not apply to infected males of P. dominula, provide a new perspective to discuss and maybe reconsider the traditional view of strepsipteran parasites

A Study Placing the Earliest Depictions of Lunfardo within the Discourse on Crime and Immigration in Argentina around the Turn of the 20th Century

Lunfardo was first described in Argentina at the end of the 19th century as the jargon of thieves of Buenos Aires, themselves called lunfardos. The current definition of the term, though, focuses on the immigratory milieu of Argentina in which this linguistic repertoire was formed, and considers the connection to criminality as but one of its features. This study analyzes six of the earliest sources depicting Lunfardo as criminal jargon and places them in the socio-historical and intellectual context of Buenos Aires and Argentina between the 1880s and the 1910s. The purpose of this study is to understand the discourse within which that original exclusive connection to criminality was made and came to dominate the understanding of Lunfardo until the 1950s. As those were the years of the consolidation of the national identity of Argentina, this paper aims to provide new insights on an important moment in the process of the Argentine national formation.departmental bulletin pape

Cross-regulation between Aurora B and Citron kinase controls midbody architecture in cytokinesis.

Cytokinesis culminates in the final separation, or abscission, of the two daughter cells at the end of cell division. Abscission relies on an organelle, the midbody, which forms at the intercellular bridge and is composed of various proteins arranged in a precise stereotypic pattern. The molecular mechanisms controlling midbody organization and function, however, are obscure. Here we show that proper midbody architecture requires cross-regulation between two cell division kinases, Citron kinase (CIT-K) and Aurora B, the kinase component of the chromosomal passenger complex (CPC). CIT-K interacts directly with three CPC components and is required for proper midbody architecture and the orderly arrangement of midbody proteins, including the CPC. In addition, we show that CIT-K promotes Aurora B activity through phosphorylation of the INCENP CPC subunit at the TSS motif. In turn, Aurora B controls CIT-K localization and association with its central spindle partners through phosphorylation of CIT-K's coiled coil domain. Our results identify, for the first time, a cross-regulatory mechanism between two kinases during cytokinesis, which is crucial for establishing the stereotyped organization of midbody proteins.C.M. holds a Cambridge Cancer Centre PhD studentship, which is supported by Cancer Research UK and the MRC. Z.I.B. was supported by a Gwynaeth Pretty PhD studentship and the BlueGnome Molecular Genetics Fund from the Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, and was also a recipient of a short-term EMBO fellowship and a fellowship from the Cambridge Philosophical Society. G.C. and M.G. are supported by a grant ‘Progetto di Ricerca di Interesse Nazionale’ (PRIN 2012) from the Ministero dell'Istruzione, Università e Ricerca. P.P.D. is the recipient of the Maplethorpe Fellowship from Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, UK.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Royal Society Publishing via https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.16001

Lunfardo, Popular Culture, and the Process of Creation of a National Cultural Identity in Argentina

As Argentina is born as a modern nation-state in the second half of the 19th century, the question of what its cultural identity is becomes prominent in Argentine society. At the elite and the popular levels of society, different discourses and cultural practices negotiate the formation of that new cultural identity. Lunfardo is a linguistic repertoire central both for these new forms of popular culture, and as a foil for a different model of national culture by the elites, and thus opposed by them in their initial analyses of it. This paper aims to elucidate some of the dynamics around the discourse on Lunfardo at both the elite and popular level in those decades, early within the process of creation of a national cultural identity in Argentina.departmental bulletin pape

Constructing a National Identity through Language: An Analysis of the Earliest Descriptions of Lunfardo in Argentina

The creation of Argentina as a modern nation in the 19th century required the construction of a national cultural identity, and language was a fundamental element in this formative process. Lunfardo is the linguistic repertoire of Buenos Aires rooted in its immigration history and was one of the linguistic examples directly operated upon by that process. Though now it is a renowned and celebrated component of tango and of porte?o speech, and thus of the entire Argentine culture, when it was first documented in Argentina it was merely depicted as a criminal jargon. This study analyzes some of the earliest descriptions of Lunfardo, and aims at identifying some of the ideological biases behind their interpretations. In this way, this paper hopes to shed more light on the role of this important linguistic phenomenon in the history of the creation of an Argentine national cultural identity

Pregnancy and infanticide in early-modern Japan: the role of the midwife as a medium

In early-modern Japan, pregnancy was understood, at the commoners’ level, as a phenomenon within the discourse of pollution (kegare). Pregnancy and particularly the moment of childbirth were strongly associated with three kinds of pollution: those of birth, of death, and of blood. This paper presents this popular understanding of pregnancy as a heavily polluted state, and thus aims to reevaluate the practices of abortion and infanticide, common in early-modern Japan, as special cases within the general discourse on pollution intrinsic in the view of pregnancy at the time. In this paper, the role of the midwife in this context of pollution is interpreted as that of a medium figure, both in her capacity of physically delivering the newborn, and as the person primarily in charge of dealing with the pollution of pregnancy and childbirth. As the discourse of pregnancy shifted from the religious one of pollution in the early-modern period to the medical one of hygiene by the beginning of the Meiji period, the role of the midwife too had to undergo profound changes. I argue that this paradigmatic shift from religion to science was the result of the modernization and centralization process which was central to the Meiji regime’s policies in the construction of a new nation.departmental bulletin pape

On the identity of Mt. Fuji’s deity: A study on the role of Benzai-ten in the development of the Fuji cult

As with many other popular religions, in the history of the cult of Mt. Fuji since the early Edo period many deities were gradually incorporated in a vast and ever-changing pantheon, the subject of multiple scholarly studies. This paper traces how one very popular Japanese female deity, Benzai-ten, may have come to be incorporated into the Fuji cult in the late-Edo period, a fact usually neglected in other studies on this popular cult. 　 The conclusion of this study is that it is important to trace the history of the worship of individual deities within a single cult. At the same time, however, we ought to recognize that searching for a single hierarchy of deities within one cult may not be a significant approach. In fact, different communities of believers within the same cult may find different specific subsets of deities meaningful for their needs, and thus worship them. This paper therefore argues that we should look at any one popular religion as a mosaic of communities of believers devoted to such subsets of deities associated to that religion, rather than as a single system of beliefs.departmental bulletin pape