The cytoplasm and quantitative variation in Drosophila

1958 ◽  
Vol 148 (932) ◽  
pp. 352-355 ◽  

Our knowledge of the role of the cytoplasm in heredity is largely limited to examples in which notable differences have attracted the attention of workers who were not expecting them. Most of these involve cytoplasmic differences that are themselves under nuclear control though a few involve comparatively independent cytoplasmic entities. Even in so intensively studied an organism as Drosophila melanogaster , such examples of cytoplasmic inheritance are rare, and consequently we think of cytoplasmic variation in such organisms as more a matter of differentiation than of heredity. We are probably right but we would, nevertheless, be wise to be cautious. It is in the nature of genetical experiment that it can only study variation, and the greatest advances we have made in studying nuclear effects have been very much dependent on our ability to make differences for subsequent investigation, using X-rays for major genes, selection for polygenes. We have hardly begun the attempt to make cytoplasmic differences for study and until we have tried to do so we may underestimate the cytoplasm’s role in heredity.

mBio ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Lipsitch ◽  
George R. Siber

ABSTRACT There is a growing appreciation for the role of vaccines in confronting the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Vaccines can reduce the prevalence of resistance by reducing the need for antimicrobial use and can reduce its impact by reducing the total number of cases. By reducing the number of pathogens that may be responsible for a particular clinical syndrome, vaccines can permit the use of narrower-spectrum antibiotics for empirical therapy. These effects may be amplified by herd immunity, extending protection to unvaccinated persons in the population. Because much selection for resistance is due to selection on bystander members of the normal flora, vaccination can reduce pressure for resistance even in pathogens not included in the vaccine. Some vaccines have had disproportionate effects on drug-resistant lineages within the target species, a benefit that could be more deliberately exploited in vaccine design. We describe the effects of current vaccines in controlling AMR, survey some vaccines in development with the potential to do so further, and discuss strategies to amplify these benefits. We conclude with a discussion of research and policy priorities to more fully enlist vaccines in the battle against AMR.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 653-676
Author(s):  
Álvaro Paúl

Abstract The Inter-American Court of Human Rights performs a wide evidentiary analysis, which tends to be very flexible in its admission of evidence. This paper tries to decipher the extent, applicability, and content of the Court’s admissibility rules, both the norms established by the Court itself, and those that the Court is obliged to follow. In order to do so, this article will analyze the relevant case law of the Court and provide some examples. Within this analysis, this article refers in depth to some unclear rulings that the Court has made in relation to the exclusion of evidence obtained via coercion, some of which seem to clash with the central role of truth in the Inter-American system.


1997 ◽  
Vol 200 (3) ◽  
pp. 615-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
A E Williams ◽  
M R Rose ◽  
T J Bradley

We used laboratory natural selection on insects as a means of investigating the role of patterns of gas exchange in desiccation resistance. We used 15 populations of Drosophila melanogaster: five selected for desiccation resistance, five control populations and five ancestral populations. Using flow-through respirometry, we found that D. melanogaster from all populations produced irregular peaks of CO2 release. To quantify the height and frequency of these peaks, we used the standard error of a linear regression (SER) through the recordings of CO2 release. The values for the SER were significantly larger in the populations selected for desiccation resistance than in the control and ancestral populations. Occasionally, highly periodic peaks of CO2 release were observed in the desiccation-resistant populations only. Maximum SER was found to be strongly correlated with survival time in dry air among selection treatments, but not among individuals within a population. Access to dietary water resulted in lower SER values. These data demonstrate that gas exchange is physiologically controlled in Drosophila melanogaster and that the pattern of gas exchange can change under selection. The relationship between these CO2 release patterns and classic discontinuous ventilation is discussed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
MATTEO FUOLI ◽  
JEANNETTE LITTLEMORE ◽  
SARAH TURNER

It has been suggested that metaphor often performs some sort of evaluative function. However, there have been few empirical studies addressing this issue. Moreover, little is known about the extent to which a metaphor needs to be creative in order to perform an evaluative function, or whether there are differences according to the type of evaluation, such as its degree of explicitness and its polarity. In order to investigate these questions, 94 film reviews from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) were annotated for creative and conventional metaphor, and for positive and negative, inscribed and invoked evaluation. Approximately half of the metaphors in our corpus were found to perform an evaluative function. Creative metaphors were significantly more likely to perform an evaluative function than conventional metaphors. Metaphorical evaluation was found to be significantly more negative than non-metaphorical evaluation. Both creative and conventional metaphors were used more frequently to perform inscribed evaluation than invoked evaluation. However, the tendency towards inscribed evaluation was stronger for conventional metaphors than for creative metaphors. From a theoretical perspective, these findings call into question fundamental assumptions about the role of metaphor in performing evaluation, such as the claim, made in the Systemic Functional Linguistics literature, that metaphor invariably ‘provokes’ attitudinal meanings. We have shown that it can do so, but that it does not always do so. The study also offers methodological contributions, by introducing a new protocol for the annotation of creative metaphors as well as detailed guidelines for coding evaluation at different levels of explicitness.


Author(s):  
L. T. Germinario

Understanding the role of metal cluster composition in determining catalytic selectivity and activity is of major interest in heterogeneous catalysis. The electron microscope is well established as a powerful tool for ultrastructural and compositional characterization of support and catalyst. Because the spatial resolution of x-ray microanalysis is defined by the smallest beam diameter into which the required number of electrons can be focused, the dedicated STEM with FEG is the instrument of choice. The main sources of errors in energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDS) are: (1) beam-induced changes in specimen composition, (2) specimen drift, (3) instrumental factors which produce background radiation, and (4) basic statistical limitations which result in the detection of a finite number of x-ray photons. Digital beam techniques have been described for supported single-element metal clusters with spatial resolutions of about 10 nm. However, the detection of spurious characteristic x-rays away from catalyst particles produced images requiring several image processing steps.


1966 ◽  
Vol 15 (03/04) ◽  
pp. 519-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Levin ◽  
E Beck

SummaryThe role of intravascular coagulation in the production of the generalized Shwartzman phenomenon has been evaluated. The administration of endotoxin to animals prepared with Thorotrast results in activation of the coagulation mechanism with the resultant deposition of fibrinoid material in the renal glomeruli. Anticoagulation prevents alterations in the state of the coagulation system and inhibits development of the renal lesions. Platelets are not primarily involved. Platelet antiserum produces similar lesions in animals prepared with Thorotrast, but appears to do so in a manner which does not significantly involve intravascular coagulation.The production of adrenal cortical hemorrhage, comparable to that seen in the Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome, following the administration of endotoxin to animals that had previously received ACTH does not require intravascular coagulation and may not be a manifestation of the generalized Shwartzman phenomenon.


Author(s):  
Liliane Campos

By decentring our reading of Hamlet, Stoppard’s tragicomedy questions the legitimacy of centres and of stable frames of reference. So Liliane Campos examines how Stoppard plays with the physical and cosmological models he finds in Hamlet, particularly those of the wheel and the compass, and gives a new scientific depth to the fear that time is ‘out of joint’. In both his play and his own film adaptation, Stoppard’s rewriting gives a 20th-century twist to these metaphors, through references to relativity, indeterminacy, and the role of the observer. When they refer to the uncontrollable wheels of their fate, his characters no longer describe the destruction of order, but uncertainty about which order is at work, whether heliocentric or geocentric, random or tragic. When they express their loss of bearings, they do so through the thought experiments of modern physics, from Galilean relativity to quantum uncertainty, drawing our attention to shifting frames of reference. Much like Schrödinger’s cat, Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are both dead and alive. As we observe their predicament, Campos argues, we are placed in the paradoxical position of the observer in 20th-century physics, and constantly reminded that our time-specific relation to the canon inevitably determines our interpretation.


Author(s):  
Petar Halachev ◽  
Victoria Radeva ◽  
Albena Nikiforova ◽  
Miglena Veneva

This report is dedicated to the role of the web site as an important tool for presenting business on the Internet. Classification of site types has been made in terms of their application in the business and the types of structures in their construction. The Models of the Life Cycle for designing business websites are analyzed and are outlined their strengths and weaknesses. The stages in the design, construction, commissioning, and maintenance of a business website are distinguished and the activities and requirements of each stage are specified.


Author(s):  
Stephen Yablo

Aboutness has been studied from any number of angles. Brentano made it the defining feature of the mental. Phenomenologists try to pin down the aboutness features of particular mental states. Materialists sometimes claim to have grounded aboutness in natural regularities. Attempts have even been made, in library science and information theory, to operationalize the notion. However, it has played no real role in philosophical semantics, which is surprising. This is the first book to examine through a philosophical lens the role of subject matter in meaning. A long-standing tradition sees meaning as truth conditions, to be specified by listing the scenarios in which a sentence is true. Nothing is said about the principle of selection—about what in a scenario gets it onto the list. Subject matter is the missing link here. A sentence is true because of how matters stand where its subject matter is concerned. This book maintains that this is not just a feature of subject matter, but its essence. One indicates what a sentence is about by mapping out logical space according to its changing ways of being true or false. The notion of content that results—directed content—is brought to bear on a range of philosophical topics, including ontology, verisimilitude, knowledge, loose talk, assertive content, and philosophical methodology. The book represents a major advance in semantics and the philosophy of language.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document