Theoretical Insight into the Relationship between the Structures of Antimicrobial Peptides and Their Actions on Bacterial Membranes

2014 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 850-860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Licui Chen ◽  
Xiaoxu Li ◽  
Lianghui Gao ◽  
Weihai Fang
Keyword(s):  
Antimicrobial Peptides ◽  
Bacterial Membranes ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theoretical Insight ◽  
Insight Into

scholarly journals Against Empathy Bias: The Moral Value of Equitable Empathy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe Fowler ◽  
Kyle Fiore Law ◽  
Brendan Gaesser
Keyword(s):  
Moral Life ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Mechanical Turk ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Amazon's Mechanical Turk ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theoretical Insight ◽  
Insight Into

Empathy has long been considered central in living a moral life. However, mounting evidence has shown that empathy is often biased towards (i.e., felt more strongly for) close and similar others, igniting a debate over whether empathy is inherently morally flawed and should be abandoned in efforts to strive towards greater equity. This debate has focused on whether empathy limits the scope of our morality, with little consideration of whether it may be our moral beliefs limiting our empathy. Across two studies conducted on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (N= 604), we investigate moral judgments of biased and equitable feelings of empathy. We observed a moral preference for empathy towards socially close over distant others. However, feeling equal empathy for all is seen as the most morally and socially valuable. These findings provide new theoretical insight into the relationship between empathy and morality with implications for navigating towards a more egalitarian future.

scholarly journals Modified Bacterial Lipids Which Alter Membrane Surface Charge Reduce Binding of Antimicrobial Peptides

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick W. Simcock ◽  
Maike Bublitz ◽  
Flaviu Cipcigan ◽  
Maxim G. Ryadnov ◽  
Jason Crain ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antimicrobial Peptides ◽  
Surface Charge ◽  
Membrane Surface ◽  
Potential Of Mean Force ◽  
Model Membranes ◽  
Phosphatidyl Glycerol ◽  
Bacterial Membranes ◽  
Active Peptides ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Membrane Surface Charge

ABSTRACTAntimicrobial peptides (AMPs) initiate killing of bacteria by binding to and destabilizing their membranes. The multiple peptide resistance factor (MprF) provides a defence mechanism for bacteria against a broad range of AMPs. MprF reduces the negative charge of both Gram-positive and Gram--negative bacterial membranes through enzymatic conversion of the anionic lipid phosphatidyl glycerol (PG) to either zwitterionic alanyl-phosphatidyl glycerol (Ala-PG) or cationic lysylphosphatidyl glycerol (Lys-PG). The resulting change in membrane charge is suggested to reduce AMP-membrane binding and hinder downstream AMP activity. Using molecular dynamics to investigate the effects of these modified lipids on AMP-binding to model membranes, we show that AMPs have substantially reduced affinity for model membranes containing Ala-PG or Lys-PG. A total of ~7000 simulations are used to define the relationship between bilayer composition and binding for 5 different membrane active peptides. The reduction of degree of interaction of a peptide with the membrane is shown to correlate with the change in membrane surface charge density. Free energy profile (potential of mean force) calculations reveal that these lipid modifications alter the energy barrier to peptide helix penetration of the bilayer. These results will enable us to guide design of novel peptides which address the issue of resistance via MprF-mediated membrane modification.

Light Emission Spectral Analysis: The Connection Between the Electric Field and the Spectrum

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Barton ◽  
Paiboon Tangyunyong ◽  
Jerry M. Soden ◽  
Christopher L. Henderson ◽  
Edward I. Cole ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spectral Analysis ◽  
Electric Field ◽  
Light Emission ◽  
Emission Spectra ◽  
Oxide Breakdown ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Failure Conditions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theoretical Insight ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract The device physics necessary to gain theoretical insight into the relationship between the bias conditions and the associated electric field for semiconductor structures in various failure conditions such as forward and reverse biased junctions, MOSFET saturation, latchup, and gate oxide breakdown are examined. The relationships are verified by light emission spectra collected from test samples under various bias conditions. Several examples are included that demonstrate the utility and limitations of spectral analysis techniques for defect identification and the associated, non-electric field related information contained in the spectra.

scholarly journals CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING OF TEACHER TRAINEES

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 148-155
Author(s):  
Tomšik R. ◽  
Gatial V. ◽  
Verešová M. ◽  
Čičová A.
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Teacher Trainees ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theoretical Insight ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Critical And Creative Thinking

The paper offers an initial theoretical insight into critical and creative thinking constructs (tools), as well as it provides the theoretical and empirical evidence of the relationship between mentioned variables and their level in specific populations. The main objective is to verify differences in critical and creative thinking of teacher trainees within the region schools, considering their fields of study. Critical thinking has been mapped by W-GSTA questionnaire and for creative thinking has been applied Test for Creative Thinking - Drawing Production (TCT-DP). The sample consisted of 317 teacher trainees studying single-subject study programmes (humanities or natural sciences) or two-subject study in combination. Statistical analyses have revealed the significant difference in the rate of critical and creative thinking. Particularly, teacher trainees of two-subject study in combination have achieved significantly higher results in a critical thinking in comparison with teacher trainees studying humanities. On the other hand, teacher trainees of natural sciences have achieved higher results in a creative thinking in comparison with students of humanities.

scholarly journals Against Empathy Bias: The Moral Value of Equitable Empathy

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762097996
Author(s):  
Zoë Fowler ◽  
Kyle Fiore Law ◽  
Brendan Gaesser
Keyword(s):  
Moral Life ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Mechanical Turk ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Amazon's Mechanical Turk ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theoretical Insight ◽  
Insight Into

Empathy has long been considered central to living a moral life. However, mounting evidence has shown that people’s empathy is often biased toward (i.e., felt more strongly for) others that they are close or similar to, igniting a debate over whether empathy is inherently morally flawed and should be abandoned in efforts to strive toward greater equity. This debate has focused on whether empathy limits the scope of our morality, but little consideration has been given to whether our moral beliefs may be limiting our empathy. Across two studies conducted on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk ( N = 604), we investigated moral judgments of biased and equitable feelings of empathy. We observed a moral preference for empathy toward socially close over distant others. However, feeling equal empathy for all people is seen as the most morally and socially valuable approach. These findings provide new theoretical insight into the relationship between empathy and morality, and they have implications for navigating toward a more egalitarian future.

Skeletal elements of crinoid echinoderms: High-resolution structural and microanalytical results

1983 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 194-195
Author(s):  
D. F. Blake ◽  
L. F. Allard ◽  
D. R. Peacor
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Sea Urchins ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Sea Stars ◽  
High Resolution Tem ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

Echinodermata is a phylum of marine invertebrates which has been extant since Cambrian time (c.a. 500 m.y. before the present). Modern examples of echinoderms include sea urchins, sea stars, and sea lilies (crinoids). The endoskeletons of echinoderms are composed of plates or ossicles (Fig. 1) which are with few exceptions, porous, single crystals of high-magnesian calcite. Despite their single crystal nature, fracture surfaces do not exhibit the near-perfect {10.4} cleavage characteristic of inorganic calcite. This paradoxical mix of biogenic and inorganic features has prompted much recent work on echinoderm skeletal crystallography. Furthermore, fossil echinoderm hard parts comprise a volumetrically significant portion of some marine limestones sequences. The ultrastructural and microchemical characterization of modern skeletal material should lend insight into: 1). The nature of the biogenic processes involved, for example, the relationship of Mg heterogeneity to morphological and structural features in modern echinoderm material, and 2). The nature of the diagenetic changes undergone by their ancient, fossilized counterparts. In this study, high resolution TEM (HRTEM), high voltage TEM (HVTEM), and STEM microanalysis are used to characterize tha ultrastructural and microchemical composition of skeletal elements of the modern crinoid Neocrinus blakei.

On Metaphysics and the Political: A Polemics of Reading Baudelaire in the 1930s

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Joseph Acquisto
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern Poetry ◽  
Progressive Politics ◽  
The World ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

This essay examines a polemic between two Baudelaire critics of the 1930s, Jean Cassou and Benjamin Fondane, which centered on the relationship of poetry to progressive politics and metaphysics. I argue that a return to Baudelaire's poetry can yield insight into what seems like an impasse in Cassou and Fondane. Baudelaire provides the possibility of realigning metaphysics and politics so that poetry has the potential to become the space in which we can begin to think the two of them together, as opposed to seeing them in unresolvable tension. Or rather, the tension that Baudelaire animates between the two allows us a new way of thinking about the role of esthetics in moments of political crisis. We can in some ways see Baudelaire as responding, avant la lettre, to two of his early twentieth-century readers who correctly perceived his work as the space that breathes a new urgency into the questions of how modern poetry relates to the world from which it springs and in which it intervenes.

The Annual Reports of the Prison Commissioners for Scotland and Religion, 1903–1931

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-101
Author(s):  
Cameron McKay
Keyword(s):  
Annual Report ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Drinking Habits ◽  
Parental Neglect ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Causes Of Crime ◽  
Criminological Theories ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century penologists began to explore the possibility that environment and upbringing, as opposed to individual choice, were the causes criminality. The Prison Commissioners for Scotland, the devolved body who administered prisons north of the border, were not immune to this wider trend. Smith has argued that from the 1890s onwards the Commissioners began to accept that criminality was caused by social problems, namely alcoholism, but also parental neglect, poor education and poverty. In their efforts to test these new criminological theories, the Commissioners began to make more careful enquiries into the backgrounds of their charges. From 1896 to 1931 the Commissioners interviewed a sample of prisoners each year and included the findings in their annual report. Although the main focus of these interviews was on the upbringing and drinking habits of prisoners; by the 1900s the Commissioners seem to have added irreligion to the growing list of etiological causes of crime, and from 1903 onwards prisoners were asked to give details on their religious habits. Although it is debateable how much the Prison Commissioners revealed about the relationship between religion and crime, they did however provide a useful insight into the religiosity of the average prisoner.

The Relationship between Seeker and Spiritual Guide as portrayed in contemporary Western Sufi Autobiographies

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-332
Author(s):  
Kate Zebiri
Keyword(s):  
Life Writing ◽  
New Age ◽  
The Self ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Continuity And Discontinuity

This article aims to explore the Shaykh-mur?d (disciple) or teacher-pupil relationship as portrayed in Western Sufi life writing in recent decades, observing elements of continuity and discontinuity with classical Sufism. Additionally, it traces the influence on the texts of certain developments in religiosity in contemporary Western societies, especially New Age understandings of religious authority. Studying these works will provide an insight into the diversity of expressions of contemporary Sufism, while shedding light on a phenomenon which seems to fly in the face of contemporary social and religious trends which deemphasize external authority and promote the authority of the self or individual autonomy.

Empathy as moderator of gender differences in Chinese insurance agents' business ethical sensitivity

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 1029-1042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Zhang ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Jing Wang
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Ethical Sensitivity ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Insurance Agents ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Ethics Research ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

To expand the business ethics research field, and to increase society's understanding of Chinese insurance agents' business ethics, we investigated how gender differences are related to agents' business ethical sensitivity and whether or not these relationships are moderated by empathy. Through a regression analysis of the factors associated with the business ethical sensitivity of 417 Chinese insurance agents, we found that gender played an important role in affecting business ethical sensitivity, and empathy significantly affected business ethical sensitivity. Furthermore, empathy had a moderating effect on the relationship between gender and business ethical sensitivity. Both men and women with strong empathy scored high on business ethical sensitivity; however, men with strong empathy had higher levels of business ethical sensitivity than did women with little empathy. The findings add to the literature by providing insight into the mechanisms responsible for the benefits of empathy in increasing business ethical sensitivity.

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