Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia@qoto.org

Wine & climate change (in Portuguese)

"A linha de vinha que percorremos é composta pela Touriga Franca. Esta foi uma das castas (ou variedades) de uvas mais adaptadas a cenários de alterações climáticas no terreno num estudo feito numa vinha-laboratório no Alentejo, o WineClimAdapt, que tem a coordenação do Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária (INIAV). Ao todo, foram analisadas 189 castas para produção de vinho quanto à eficácia do uso da água, da resistência ao escaldão ou ao vigor. As 50 que mostraram estar mais adaptadas ao terreno foram testadas quanto à qualidade do vinho."

https://www.publico.pt/2022/11/29/ciencia/reportagem/vinhalaboratorio-alentejo-desvenda-castas-adaptadas-alteracoes-climaticas-2028292

"The singular virtue of the fiasco over which Musk has presided is the possibility that the outcome will sever, at least temporarily, the American conflation of wealth with intellect."

Dream the impossible dream, @marcdionne

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-i-quit-elon-musks-twitter

'Hoy necesitamos reivindicar ideológicamente la salud porque, desde el neoliberalismo, se convierte en un asunto de desigualdad, asimetría e interés económico. Y porque eso que llamamos sentido común siempre implica un posicionamiento ideológico ante la realidad. La “ideologización”, usada como insulto por una ultraderecha aséptica de ideología —¡ja!—, es una estrategia para desactivar luchas'

https://elpais.com/opinion/2022-11-28/salud-e-ideologia.html

'Herein, we report that ZIKV encodes a unique DNA-binding protein to regulate host gene transcription in the nucleus. We found that ZIKV NS5, the viral RNA polymerase, associates tightly with host chromatin DNA through its methyltransferase domain and this interaction could be specifically blocked by GTP. Further study showed that expression of ZIKV NS5 in human NPCs markedly suppressed the transcription of its target genes, especially the genes involved in neurogenesis.'

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2205013119

#Zika #Virology #neurogenesis #PNAS

'Like other institutions, the Museum of Mankind has faced growing repatriation requests — from countries including Madagascar and Argentina, and from Indigenous people in Hawaii. But unlike many counterparts in Europe and the United States, the museum has not invested significantly in provenance research for its human remains collection, nor published guidelines for their handling and return.'

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/28/arts/design/france-human-remains-restitution-skulls.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Art%20and%20Design

'A growing recognition that criminalization and incarceration do little to curb illegal drug use or improve public health or safety has led to harm-reduction policies such as Good Samaritan laws—statutes that provide limited immunity for low-level drug violations and increase availability of naloxone, a drug that can reverse overdose. But racial disparities have emerged in the application and effectiveness of both measures. A study from RTI International found that Black and Latino intravenous drug users have inequitable access to the medication.'

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-opioid-epidemic-now-kills-more-black-people-than-white-ones-because-of-unequal-access-to-treatment/

'During the last decade, the stimulation of T-cell function by the blockage of immunosuppressive checkpoints has experienced an outstanding impact in the treatment of cancer. Development of the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell technology has also emerged as a powerful alternative for patients suffering from oncological processes, especially those affected by hematological neoplasms. Recent evidence suggest that the use of immunotherapy could be extended to non-oncological diseases and could be especially relevant for age-associated disorders, opening exciting therapeutic options for a wide range of diseases of the elderly.'

https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/emmm.202216301

#immunotherapy
#Immunology
#ageing

#EMBOMolecularMedicine

'A confidential memo said that the collection included the bones of Mamadou Lamine, a 19th-century West African Muslim leader who led a rebellion against French colonial troops; a family of Canadian Inuits exhibited in a Paris human zoo in 1881; and even five victims of the Armenian genocide in the mid-1910s.

“Sometimes, the supervisors would say, ‘We must hide,’” said Philippe Mennecier, a retired linguist and curator who worked for four decades at the Museum of Mankind. “The museum is afraid of scandal.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/28/arts/design/france-human-remains-restitution-skulls.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Art%20and%20Design