Karst Plateau

The Karst Plateau or the Karst region (Italian: Carso; Slovene: Kras), also simply known as the Karst, is a limestone plateau region extending across the border of southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy.

It lies between the Vipava Valley, the low hills surrounding the valley, the westernmost part of the Brkini Hills, northern Istria, and the Gulf of Trieste. The western edge of the plateau also marks the traditional ethnic border between Italians and Slovenes. The region gave its name to the karst topography. For this reason, it is also referred to as the Classical Karst.

Geographical position

The plateau rises quite steeply above the neighboring landscape, except for its northeastern side, where the steepness is less pronounced. The plateau gradually descends from the southeast to the southwest. On average it lies 334 m above sea level. Its western edge, known as the Karst Rim (Slovene: Kraški rob), is a continuation of the Učka mountain range in eastern Istria, and rises to the east and southeast of Trieste, ending in steep cliffs between Aurisina and Duino. Many interesting geological phenomena occur along the Karst Rim, including the picturesque Rosandra Valley (also known as Glinščica).

KRAS

GTPase KRas also known as V-Ki-ras2 Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog and KRAS, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the KRAS gene.

The protein product of the normal KRAS gene performs an essential function in normal tissue signaling, and the mutation of a KRAS gene is an essential step in the development of many cancers. Like other members of the ras subfamily, the KRAS protein is a GTPase and is an early player in many signal transduction pathways. KRAS is usually tethered to cell membranes because of the presence of an isoprene group on its C-terminus. There are two protein products of the KRAS gene in mammalian cells that result from the use of alternative exon 4 (exon 4A and 4B respectively): K-Ras4A and K-Ras4B, these proteins have different structure in their C-terminal region and utilise different mechanisms to localize to cellular membranes including plasma membrane.

Function

KRAS acts as a molecular on/off switch. Once it is turned on, it recruits and activates proteins necessary for the propagation of growth factor and other receptors' signal such as c-Raf and PI 3-kinase. KRAS upregulates the GLUT1 glucose transporter, thereby contributing to the Warburg effect in cancer cells. KRAS binds to GTP in the active state and possesses an intrinsic enzymatic activity which cleaves the terminal phosphate of the nucleotide converting it to GDP. Upon conversion of GTP to GDP, KRAS is turned off. The rate of conversion is usually slow but can be sped up dramatically by an accessory protein of the GTPase-activating protein (GAP) class, for example RasGAP. In turn KRAS can bind to proteins of the Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor (GEF) class, for example SOS1, which forces the release of bound nucleotide (GDP). Subsequently, KRAS binds GTP present in the cytosol and the GEF is released from ras-GTP.

Devendra Banhart

Devendra Obi Banhart (born May 30, 1981) is a Venezuelan American singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Houston, Texas and was raised by his mother in Venezuela, until he moved to California as a teenager. He began to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998, but dropped out to perform music in Europe, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Banhart released his debut album in 2002, continuing to record his material on the Young God and XL labels, as well as other work on compilations and collaborations.

Early life and career

Banhart was born May 30, 1981 in Houston, Texas, to a Venezuelan mother and an American father, Robert Gary Banhart. His given name is a synonym for Indra, the king of Gods (Hindu), which was suggested by Prem Rawat, an Indian religious leader whom Banhart's parents followed. Banhart's middle name Obi was modeled after Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Star Wars character. Banhart's parents divorced two years after his birth and he moved with his mother to Caracas, Venezuela. His mother later remarried and Banhart's stepfather moved the family to Los Angeles, when Banhart was 14 years old.

Avant-garde

The avant-garde (from French, "advance guard" or "vanguard", literally "fore-guard") are people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics.

The avant-garde pushes the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, as distinct from postmodernism. Many artists have aligned themselves with the avant-garde movement and still continue to do so, tracing a history from Dada through the Situationists to postmodern artists such as the Language poets around 1981.

The avant-garde also promotes radical social reforms. It was this meaning that was evoked by the Saint Simonian Olinde Rodrigues in his essay "L'artiste, le savant et l'industriel" ("The artist, the scientist and the industrialist", 1825), which contains the first recorded use of "avant-garde" in its now customary sense: there, Rodrigues calls on artists to "serve as [the people's] avant-garde", insisting that "the power of the arts is indeed the most immediate and fastest way" to social, political and economic reform.