Although many aspects of the physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms remain unknown, recent advances in our knowledge suggest that the CREC proteins are promising disease biomarkers or targets for therapeutic intervention in a variety of diseases. The CREC family of low affinity, Ca2+‐binding, multiple EF‐hand proteins are encoded by five genes,RCN1,RCN2,RCN3,SDF4, andCALU, resulting in reticulocalbin, ER Ca2+‐binding protein of 55 kDa (ERC‐55), reticulocalbin‐3, Ca2+‐binding protein of 45 kDa (Cab45), and calumenin. Alternative splicing increases the number of gene products. The proteins are (...) localized in the cytosol, in various parts of the secretory pathway, secreted to the extracellular space or localized on the cell surface. The emerging functions appear to be highly diverse. The proteins interact with several different ligands. Rather well‐described functions are attached to calumenin with the inhibition of several proteins in the endoplasmic or sarcoplasmic reticulum membrane, the vitamin K12,3‐epoxide reductase, the γ‐carboxylase, the ryanodine receptor, and the Ca2+‐transporting ATPase. Other functions concern participation in the secretory process, chaperone activity, signal transduction as well as participation in a large variety of disease processes. (shrink)

In this article, I explore the response of the Ashʿarī theologian Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) to what can be called “the problem of the efficacy of petitionary prayers” (PEPP), namely the effectiveness of making supplications to God that involve a request for something. The key text I examine is al-Rāzī’s highly dense philosophical work al-Maṭālib al-ʿāliya min al-ʿilm al-ilāhī, in which he outlines his core objections to the efficacy of petitionary prayer and then addresses them directly. In section 1, (...) I include a short historiography of specific English books on the topic of supplications (duʿāʾ) and consider the relevance of al-Rāzī’s response to the issue of their efficacy. In section 2, I outline the preliminaries necessary and relevant for understanding the discussion that follows. In section 3, I survey al-Rāzī’s view on personal prayers. In section 4, I exam­ine in detail al-Rāzī’s formulations of the arguments (from the Maṭālib) that constitute PEPP, with parallel discussions in his huge exegetical work Mafātīḥ al-ghayb. In section 5, I lay out al-Rāzī’s responses to PEPP from the Mafātīḥ in more depth, and draw on theological views from his other works to help support his arguments in the Maṭālib. In the conclu­sion, I evaluate al-Rāzī’s responses and the wider implications they have on a Muslim’s relation to and understanding of God. (shrink)

These two books, both by distinguished authors, are excellent. Though they are written by and for physicists, they are an invaluable resource for philosophers interested in the grand theme of how classical physical phenomena emerge from the quantum realm. Both individually and taken together, they are fine representatives of the present state of knowledge about this theme, and about many more specific topics falling under it. They are also pedagogic, though aimed at an advanced level—graduate students and beyond, in physics (...) and mathematics. Thus, they are packed with sophisticated expositions of such topics as quantum Brownian motion, and decoherence in quantum field theory, the rigorous definition of macroscopic observables and of their evolution laws in quantum statistical physics, and the rigorous treatment of open quantum systems. So overall, they provide an invaluable overview of a large and lively research area of physics. But the books are also different in several ways. The first book, by Joos et al., has six authors, all theoretical physicists based in Germany and part of the ‘Heidelberg school’ of decoherence physics, which has grown up in the last twenty-five years under the tutelage of Heinz- Dieter Zeh. The second book is a monograph: Sewell is a British mathematical physicist, most of whose work has been in the algebraic approach to quantum statistical mechanics. Other, less obvious, differences follow on from these. By and large, the material in Decoherence is both more familiar and more accessible to philosophers of physics. And for reviewing the books for philosophers of physics, it will be a convenient strategy to spell out the three reasons for this contrast. But as we shall see, Quantum Mechanics being more difficult need not mean it is less valuable. First, decoherence processes of the kinds that Joos, et al., mostly discuss are now well-known to philosophers of quantum theory, not least through the work of the Heidelberg school itself and of the ‘Los Alamos school’ of Zurek and coauthors. Indeed, Joos’ own Chapter 3, “Decoherence through Interaction with the... (shrink)

Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is a volume of original articles on all aspects of ancient philosophy. The articles may be of substantial length, and include critical notices of major books. OSAP is now published twice yearly, in both hardback and paperback.

“It is the spirit of humanity, that which animates both so-called savages and civilized nations, working through a man, and not the man expressing himself, that interests us most,” writes Henry Dav...

La alegría adquiere una relevancia crucial en el mensaje y la estructura del Profeta de la Consolación. En este artículo mostramos la importancia de las exhortaciones a la alegría en la estructura del Segundo Isaías. Seguidamente, recorreremos el texto isaiano desde la estructura establecida mostrando la dinámica de su mensaje, con particular atención al tema de la alegría. Finalmente, señalamos la conexión de este vocabulario de la alegría con otros textos del resto del libro de Isaías, apuntando su valor para (...) la estructura global del libro. (shrink)

Esta nota, que resume una conferencia pronunciada en octubre de 2011 en las Jornadas Nacionales de Liturgia de Barcelona, analiza y estudia la aportación de Sacramentum Caritatis al importante tema de la participación activa de los fieles en la liturgia. El autor concluye, entre otras cosas, que la sutil distinción entre condiciones personales para la participación y la participación misma enriquece el concepto de actuosa participatio acentuando sus dimensiones más hondas desde el punto de vista de la antropología sacramental.

With this first part of the eleventh volume, Bruce Kirmmse et al.’s monumental task of translating Søren Kierkegaard’s journals and notebooks begins to draw to a close. The journals and notebooks t...

A non-epistemological history of historical epistemology Content Type Journal Article DOI 10.1007/s11016-010-9501-5 Authors W. R. Albury, School of Humanities, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia Journal Metascience Online ISSN 1467-9981 Print ISSN 0815-0796.