scholarly journals Summarizing comments on the discussion and a prospectus for urgent future action

Author(s):  
John Meurig Thomas

Following my personal reactions to some of the key points made in this Discussion (Part I), I present, in Part II, what I perceive to be the most important, and, in some cases, urgent actions that now need to be taken in the following inter-related fields: (i) design of catalysts, especially for the production of materials using anthropogenic carbon dioxide, CO 2 , as feedstock; (ii) the continuing role of catalysis in the protection of the environment; (iii) the importance of catalysis in the generation of fuel and the release of energy; and (iv) the wisdom of conducting life cycle and techno-economic analyses continually during the development of new catalysts, as well as of those in regular use. A brief account is also given of the prospect of designing atom-efficient catalysts in which either atomically dispersed rare (and expensive) metals such as Ir or Pt or the use of single-site earth-abundant elements (Al, Si, O) can be employed to facilitate important industrial reactions.

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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Schulz-Nieswandt

This study analyses the work of Horst Wolfram Geißler and his poetics in the context of the post-1945 period. Its hermeneutical reconstruction focuses on questions relating to ontological reflections on freedom and destiny with regard to developmental challenges during the life cycle of individuals. Its central question relates to understanding the role of cheerfulness and merriment in confrontation with existential tasks of meaningfulness. The study’s autobiographical dimensions facilitate certain relevant intertextual mechanisms of hermeneutics. Understanding the compensatory role of the poetics of cheerfulness and merriment in relation to the melancholy and negativity of social reality’s critical theory is also one of its key points.


Life ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lancet ◽  
Segrè ◽  
Kahana

“The Lipid World” was published in 2001, stemming from a highly effective collaboration with David Deamer during a sabbatical year 20 years ago at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. The present review paper highlights the benefits of this scientific interaction and assesses the impact of the lipid world paper on the present understanding of the possible roles of amphiphiles and their assemblies in the origin of life. The lipid world is defined as a putative stage in the progression towards life’s origin, during which diverse amphiphiles or other spontaneously aggregating small molecules could have concurrently played multiple key roles, including compartment formation, the appearance of mutually catalytic networks, molecular information processing, and the rise of collective self-reproduction and compositional inheritance. This review brings back into a broader perspective some key points originally made in the lipid world paper, stressing the distinction between the widely accepted role of lipids in forming compartments and their expanded capacities as delineated above. In the light of recent advancements, we discussed the topical relevance of the lipid worldview as an alternative to broadly accepted scenarios, and the need for further experimental and computer-based validation of the feasibility and implications of the individual attributes of this point of view. Finally, we point to possible avenues for exploring transition paths from small molecule-based noncovalent structures to more complex biopolymer-containing proto-cellular systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Elizabeth C. Lopardo ◽  
Clare M. Ryan

Four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington State generate hydropower and allow for regional agriculture and barge shipping to Portland OR. However, the dams impede the migration of local salmon populations (Oncorhynchus spp.), which are in steep decline, and drastically impact the populations of salmon and orca whales, for whom salmon are a primary food source. For years, environmental groups have argued for breaching the dams; other interests counter that the dams are too critical to the economy of the region to lose; and federal agencies assert that the dams can remain and salmon populations will recover with mitigation techniques. Scientific and economic analyses, litigation, and elected officials’ efforts have not been able to move the issue towards a solution. Readers will examine the interests of primary actors in the issue, how they influence the policy process, the role of scientific and economic analyses, and possible approaches for resolving the issue.


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.


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