Defensive Microbiomes: A Widespread Phenomenon in Nature

AbstractDifferent current ideas on the origin of life are critically examined. Comparison of the now fashionable FeS/H2S pyrite-based autotrophic theory of the origin of life with the heterotrophic viewpoint suggest that the later is still the most fertile explanation for the emergence of life. However, the theory of chemical evolution and heterotrophic origins of life requires major updating, which should include the abandonment of the idea that the appearance of life was a slow process involving billions of years. Stability of organic compounds and the genetics of bacteria suggest that the origin and early diversification of life took place in a time period of the order of 10 million years. Current evidence suggest that the abiotic synthesis of organic compounds may be a widespread phenomenon in the Galaxy and may have a deterministic nature. However, the history of the biosphere does not exhibits any obvious trend towards greater complexity or «higher» forms of life. Therefore, the role of contingency in biological evolution should not be understimated in the discussions of the possibilities of life in the Universe.

Download Full-text

Automation Surprise

Aviation Psychology and Applied Human Factors ◽

10.1027/2192-0923/a000113 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 28-41 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Robert J. de Boer ◽

Karel Hurts

Keyword(s):

Flight Control ◽

Representative Sample ◽

Aviation Safety ◽

Control Mode ◽

Cognitive Errors ◽

Laboratory Studies ◽

Airline Pilots ◽

Flight Operations ◽

Widespread Phenomenon ◽

Few Data

Abstract. Automation surprise (AS) has often been associated with aviation safety incidents. Although numerous laboratory studies have been conducted, few data are available from routine flight operations. A survey among a representative sample of 200 Dutch airline pilots was used to determine the prevalence of AS and the severity of its consequences, and to test some of the factors leading to AS. Results show that AS is a relatively widespread phenomenon that occurs three times per year per pilot on average but rarely has serious consequences. In less than 10% of the AS cases that were reviewed, an undesired aircraft state was induced. Reportable occurrences are estimated to occur only once every 1–3 years per pilot. Factors leading to a higher prevalence of AS include less flying experience, increasing complexity of the flight control mode, and flight duty periods of over 8 hr. It is concluded that AS is a manifestation of system and interface complexity rather than cognitive errors.

Download Full-text

From the “Judicialization of Politics” to the “Politicization of Justice” in the UK and Switzerland

BORDER CROSSING ◽

10.33182/bc.v6i2.487 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 118-135

Author(s):

Lucia Della Torre

Keyword(s):

General Rule ◽

The State ◽

The Other ◽

Specific Field ◽

Widespread Phenomenon ◽

Judicialization Of Politics ◽

The Uk ◽

Migration Law

Not very long ago, scholars saw it fit to name a new and quite widespread phenomenon they had observed developing over the years as the “judicialization” of politics, meaning by it the expanding control of the judiciary at the expenses of the other powers of the State. Things seem yet to have begun to change, especially in Migration Law. Generally quite a marginal branch of the State's corpus iuris, this latter has already lent itself to different forms of experimentations which then, spilling over into other legislative disciplines, end up by becoming the new general rule. The new interaction between the judiciary and the executive in this specific field as it is unfolding in such countries as the UK and Switzerland may prove to be yet another example of these dynamics.

Download Full-text

Assyria

10.1093/oso/9780198769941.003.0011 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

David M. Lewis

Keyword(s):

The Third ◽

Debt Bondage ◽

Large Numbers ◽

Widespread Phenomenon ◽

Economic Position ◽

Tenant Farmers ◽

Legal Understanding

This chapter explores the archival texts of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and attempts to gauge the legal and economic position of slavery in Assyrian society. It shows that the Assyrians held a similar legal understanding of slavery to the Greeks, and knew also of the phenomenon of debt bondage. The chapter then moves on to consider the location of slavery in Assyrian society, showing widespread and significant levels of slave ownership among the Assyrian elite; however, relatively high slave prices prevented slave ownership from becoming a more widespread phenomenon. The third part of the chapter looks at the Assyrian countryside more broadly, and shows that despite often owning large numbers of slaves, members of the Assyrian elite more probably drew the bulk of their income from the exploitation of bound tenant farmers.

Download Full-text

Telomere length varies substantially between blood cell types in a reptile

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.192136 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (6) ◽

pp. 192136 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Mats Olsson ◽

Nicholas J. Geraghty ◽

Erik Wapstra ◽

Mark Wilson

Keyword(s):

Blood Cell ◽

Telomere Length ◽

Whole Blood ◽

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Cell Types ◽

Tissue Type ◽

Telomeric Dna ◽

Blood Cell Type ◽

Widespread Phenomenon

Telomeres are repeat sequences of non-coding DNA-protein molecules that cap or intersperse metazoan chromosomes. Interest in telomeres has increased exponentially in recent years, to now include their ongoing dynamics and evolution within natural populations where individuals vary in telomere attributes. Phylogenetic analyses show profound differences in telomere length across non-model taxa. However, telomeres may also differ in length within individuals and between tissues. The latter becomes a potential source of error when researchers use different tissues for extracting DNA for telomere analysis and scientific inference. A commonly used tissue type for assessing telomere length is blood, a tissue that itself varies in terms of nuclear content among taxa, in particular to what degree their thrombocytes and red blood cells (RBCs) contain nuclei or not. Specifically, when RBCs lack nuclei, leucocytes become the main source of telomeric DNA. RBCs and leucocytes differ in lifespan and how long they have been exposed to ‘senescence' and erosion effects. We report on a study in which cells in whole blood from individual Australian painted dragon lizards ( Ctenophorus pictus ) were identified using flow cytometry and their telomere length simultaneously measured. Lymphocyte telomeres were on average 270% longer than RBC telomeres, and in azurophils (a reptilian monocyte), telomeres were more than 388% longer than those in RBCs. If this variation in telomere length among different blood cell types is a widespread phenomenon, and DNA for comparative telomere analyses are sourced from whole blood, evolutionary inference of telomere traits among taxa may be seriously complicated by the blood cell type comprising the main source of DNA.

Download Full-text

Cultural Tourism Routes as Incubators for Innovation and Economic Diversification: A Potential Analysis in the Framework of the New Silk Road Initiative in Azerbaijan

Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie ◽

10.1515/zfw-2019-0021 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 64 (4) ◽

pp. 211-232 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Arne Schuhbert ◽

Hannes Thees ◽

Valentin Herbold ◽

Johanna Weinreiter ◽

Markus Kantsperger

Keyword(s):

Quantitative Methods ◽

Methodological Approach ◽

Silk Road ◽

Industrialized Countries ◽

Economic Diversification ◽

Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽

Widespread Phenomenon ◽

Southern Caucasus ◽

Ancient Silk Road ◽

Cultural Routes

AbstractCultural routes are today a widespread phenomenon throughout the Industrialized Countries (IC) and have become more and more prominent as a tool for tourism development in recent years (Flognfeldt, 2005:37; Meyer, 2004:5). For countries in the Southern Caucasus, who profit from their bridging position between Europe and Asia, the planned revival of the Ancient Silk Road (ASR) in form of the New Silk Road (NSR) offers substantial potentials for economic diversification by means of tourism as a catalyzing industry. On the case of Azerbaijan, this study analyzes the potential to trigger regional economic diversification within the existing national destination-system in a framework of route development. To this end, the methodological approach builds upon a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to diagnose the current degree of cluster maturity in the system, following the question of how Azerbaijan as a system of regional destination can access the transnational route system of the NSR.

Download Full-text

Divalent ligand-monovalent molecule binding

Soft Matter ◽

10.1039/d1sm00070e ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mathijs A. Janssen ◽

Harald A. Stenmark ◽

Andreas Carlson

Keyword(s):

Widespread Phenomenon

Simultaneous binding of a divalent ligand to two identical monovalent molecules is a widespread phenomenon in biology and chemistry. Here, we describe how two such monovalent molecules B bind to...

Download Full-text

Do Microplastics Enter Our Food Chain Via Root Vegetables? A Raman Based Spectroscopic Study on Raphanus sativus

Materials ◽

10.3390/ma14092329 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (9) ◽

pp. 2329

Author(s):

Leda-Eleni Tympa ◽

Klytaimnistra Katsara ◽

Panagiotis N. Moschou ◽

George Kenanakis ◽

Vassilis M. Papadakis

Keyword(s):

Raphanus Sativus ◽

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Label Free ◽

Plastic Pollution ◽

Potential Threat ◽

Safety Studies ◽

Widespread Phenomenon ◽

Agriculture And Food ◽

The Impact

The outburst of plastic pollution in terrestrial ecosystems poses a potential threat to agriculture and food safety. Studies have already provided evidence for the uptake of plastic microparticles by several plant species, accompanied by numerous developmental effects, using fluorescence labelling techniques. Here, we introduce the implementation of confocal Raman spectroscopy, a label-free method, for the effective detection of microplastics (MPs) accumulation in the roots of a common edible root vegetable plant, Raphanus sativus, after treatment with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) powder. We also demonstrate the concomitant occurrence of phenotypic defects in the polymer-treated plants. We anticipate that this work can provide new insights not only into the extent of the impact this widespread phenomenon has on crop plants but also on the methodological requirements to address it.

Download Full-text

Physical Parameters and Chemical Composition of Components of the Am-Type Binary System RR Lyncis

International Astronomical Union Colloquium ◽

10.1017/s0252921100020509 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 138 ◽

pp. 192-196

Author(s):

L.S. Lyubimkov ◽

T.M. Rachkovskaya

Keyword(s):

Chemical Composition ◽

Binary System ◽

Binary Stars ◽

Spectroscopic Binaries ◽

Theoretical Modelling ◽

Physical Parameters ◽

Accurate Data ◽

Element Abundances ◽

Widespread Phenomenon ◽

Chemical Anomalies

Duplicity is a very widespread phenomenon among Am-stars. For instance, Abt (1961) investigating 25 such stars found out that 22 of them are spectroscopic binaries. However this important phenomenon is ignored usually in chemical composition investigations of Am-stars. Consequently some “mean” element abundances are determined, which can noticeably differ from real abundances in atmospheres of components. Moreover false chemical anomalies can appear, as shown by the theoretical modelling of spectra of binary stars (Lyubimkov, 1989, 1992). Meanwhile accurate data on chemical composition of Am-stars must be considered as observational test for any hypothesis suggested for explanation of these objects.

Download Full-text

Goods and States: The Political Logic of State-Socialist Material Culture

Comparative Studies in Society and History ◽

10.1017/s0010417509000188 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 51 (2) ◽

pp. 426-459 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Krisztina Fehérváry

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Democratic Governance ◽

Soviet Bloc ◽

The Political ◽

State Socialism ◽

Iron Curtain ◽

The Everyday ◽

Widespread Phenomenon ◽

The City ◽

State Socialist

In the two decades since the fall of state socialism, the widespread phenomenon ofnostalgiein the former Soviet satellites has made clear that the everyday life of state socialism, contrary to stereotype, was experienced and is remembered in color. Nonetheless, popular accounts continue to depict the Soviet bloc as gray and colorless. As Paul Manning (2007) has argued, color becomes a powerful tool for legitimating not only capitalism, but democratic governance as well. An American journalist, for example, recently reflected on her own experience in the region over a number of decades:It's hard to communicate how colorless and shockingly gray it was behind the Iron Curtain … the only color was the red of Communist banners. Stores had nothing to sell. There wasn't enough food… . Lines formed whenever something, anything, was for sale. The fatigue of daily life was all over their faces. Now… fur-clad women confidently stride across the winter ice in stiletto heels. Stores have sales… upscale cafés cater to cosmopolitan clients, and magazine stands, once so strictly controlled, rival those in the West. … Life before was so drab. Now the city seems loaded with possibilities (Freeman 2008).

Download Full-text