Transcriptional upregulation of SOCS 1 and suppressors of cytokine signaling 3 mRNA in the absence of suppressors of cytokine signaling 2 mRNA after infection with West Nile virus or tick-borne encephalitis virus.

Suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) proteins are a family of proteins that are able to act in a classic negative feedback loop to regulate cytokine signal transduction. The regulation of the immune response by SOCS proteins may contribute to persistent infection or even a fatal outcome. In this study, we have investigated the induction of SOCS 1-3 after peripheral infection with West Nile virus (WNV) or tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in the murine model. We have shown that the cytokine response after infection of mice with WNV or TBEV induces an upregulation in the brain of mRNA transcripts for SOCS 1 and SOCS 3, but not SOCS 2. We hypothesize that SOCS proteins may play a role in limiting cytokine responses in the brain as a neuroprotective mechanism, which may actually enhance the ability of neuroinvasive viruses such as WNV and TBEV to spread and cause disease.

'Saig in Machai Fothúaid': On the Application and Extent of ‘the Macha’ in North-west Armagh

The seventh-century Patrician documents in the Book of Armagh, and other early sources such as Bethu Phátraic, contain references to the toponym Macha, which has been identified by the Dictionary of the Irish Language with either the ecclesiastical centre of Ard Macha or the ‘royal seat’ of Emain Macha. This article examines the evidence for the name in the sources and illustrates that Macha applies primarily to the plain in which both Ard Macha and Emain Macha are located. It is to be identified with Mag Macha ‘the plain of Macha’, familiar to us from the Dindshenchus, and further evidence of the organic potential of a given toponym is witnessed in later sources where the plain is referred to as Mag/Machaire na hE(a)mna ‘the plain of Emain’ and Machaire Aird/Arda Macha ‘the plain of Armagh’. The extent of Macha is difficult to establish with certainty, but it seems very likely that it stretched north to the River Blackwater as well as south towards Slíab Fúait.

China’s New Approach to CSR in Congo: Is the leverage turning to China?

China has been the world’s fastest growing economy in the past 30 years with its enterprises rapidly emerging and becoming leading players globally. In particular, the progressive integration into the international system has been spurred by China’s entry into the global trading regime of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. The 'go global' policy has been facilitating the rapidly growing engagement on the African continent of Chinese multinational companies (MNCs). As a promising tri-polar global economic entity, its growth of relations with Africa has been both unprecedented and impressive. As the Sino-Africa economic and business partnership surges forward, the matter of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly becoming an imperative ingredient for any successful business. It is noteworthy that responsible corporate citizens should take account of the impact of their investment on both economic and social arenas. However, it still remains uncertain what role Chinese MNCs have been playing in the continent’s sustainable development.
A Sino-Congo deal seems a positive way forward, accelerating the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (hereinafter referred to as Congo) regional economy, depressed due to years of war. Meanwhile, the escalating investment into Congo has raised controversies for its no-attachment policy, with increasing pressure imposed on China’s MNCs to take CSR more seriously. Particular concerns are focused on the multinationals’ inadequate environmental and human rights protection. The recent massive infrastructure investment is arguably perceived as a different interpretation of CSR, which has aroused a hot debate about whether China is heading for status as a responsible stakeholder in the international community. It is conducive to clarifying the paradoxical issue by addressing whether China’s recent approaches have the potential to facilitate CSR initiatives or hinder them in the long run.

“Authentic Reproductions”: Staging the “Wild West” in Modern Irish Drama

This article examines two metatheatrical plays written by playwrights from the north of Ireland that bookend the twentieth century. The first is Ulster Literary Theatre (ULT) playwright Gerald MacNamara’s parodic, “proto-Pirandellian”4 The Mist That Does Be on the Bog (1909), which satirizes the peasant aesthetic of the “Abbey play” of the Irish Revival.5 The second is Marie Jones’s international hit, Stones in His Pockets (1999), a “play-full,” postmodern deconstruction of the commodification of Irish culture in the era of the Celtic Tiger. Although separated by exactly ninety years, the two plays can be connected through their critiques of the cultural politics of nationalism and globalization during the periods of the Irish Revival and the Celtic Tiger, respectively. Moreover, both plays are distinguished by their dramaturgical form, as the political critique of each is corporeally embodied in metatheatrical performance.

The deep-sea chiton Nierstraszella (Mollusca: Polyplacophora: Lepidopleurida) in the Indo-West Pacific: taxonomy, morphology and a bizarre ectosymbiont

This study investigated the taxonomy and distribution of the deep-sea polyplacophoran mollusc Nierstraszella Sirenko, 1992 in the Indo-West Pacific, based on a collection of 516 specimens collected in the Philippines and Solomon Islands. Although seven species names have historically been proposed in this group of chitons, all have been considered as synonyms of the monotypic N. lineata (Nierstrasz, 1905). Morphological examination of this new material reveals the presence of two species. N. lineata is distinct from N. andamanica (Smith, 1906), based on morphological characters given in the original species description and very distinctly different morphology of aesthete pores in the shell surface. Furthermore, populations of N. andamanica in the Philippines and Solomon Islands are locally colonized with the epibiotic (ectoparasitic) bryozoan Pseudobathyalozoon profundum d'Hondt, 2006. These bryozoans attach ventrally to the girdle of the host chiton and the erect zooids feed within the pallial cavity, among the chiton's gills.

Protracted rainfall decreases temperature within leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) clutches in Grenada, West Indies: Ecological implications for a species displaying temperature dependent sex determination

Protracted or intense rainfall may affect the reproductive success of reptilian species on a number of levels ranging from the availability of prey, the integrity of the nesting site and the subsequent survivability of offspring. For sea turtles (a species displaying temperature sex determination) nesting throughout the tropics and subtropics, rainfall has previously been shown to influence the development environment of clutches; in its extreme resulting in high levels of egg or hatchling mortality. Yet when compared to other abiotic variables affecting clutch success, rainfall has received relatively little attention. We therefore examined how fluctuations in local rainfall at a tropical nesting site for leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) affected the nest environment. Temperature data loggers placed within clutches (n = 8) revealed that protracted rainfall had a marked cooling effect on nests, so that seasonally improbable male-producing temperatures (