scholarly journals Reevaluating Scorpion Ecomorphs using a Naïve Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Coelho ◽  
Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou ◽  
Pedro Sousa ◽  
Mark Stockmann ◽  
Arie van der Meijden
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Adaptive Significance ◽  
Ecological Adaptation ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Major Trend ◽  
Ecological Morphology ◽  
Naive Approach

Abstract BackgroundEcomorphs create the opportunity to investigate ecological adaptation because they encompass organisms that evolved characteristic morphologies under similar ecological demands. For over 50 years, scorpions have been empirically assigned to ecomorphs based on the characteristic morphologies that rock, sand, vegetation, underground, and surface dwellers assume. This study aims to independently test the existence of scorpion ecomorphs by quantifying the association between their morphology and ecology across 61 species, representing 14 families of the Scorpiones order.ResultsWithout a priori categorization of species into ecomorphs, we identified four groups based on microhabitat descriptors, which reflect how scorpion ecospace is clustered. Moreover, these microhabitat groups, i.e. ecotypes, have significantly divergent morphologies; therefore, they represent ecomorphs. These ecomorphs largely correspond with the ones previously described in the literature. Therefore, we retained the names Lithophilous, Psammophilous, and Pelophilous, and proposed the name Phytophilous for vegetation dwellers. Finally, we sought to map the morphology-ecology association in scorpions. We provide evidence that the morphological regions most tightly associated with ecology are the walking legs and pedipalps. Moreover, the major trend in ecomorphological covariation is that longer walking legs and relatively slender pedipalps (pincers) are associated with sandy microhabitats, while the inverse morphological proportions are associated with rocky microhabitats. ConclusionsScorpion ecomorphs are validated in a naïve approach, from ecological descriptors and whole body anatomy. This places them on a more solid quantitative footing for future studies of ecological adaptation in scorpions. Our results verify some of the previously defined ecomorphotypes and can be used as a starting point to understand the adaptive significance of ecological morphology.

scholarly journals A publicly available repository of ROH islands reveals signatures of selection in different livestock and pet species

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wim Gorssen ◽  
Roel Meyermans ◽  
Steven Janssens ◽  
Nadine Buys
Keyword(s):  
Association Studies ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Single Nucleotide ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Snp Data ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Signatures Of Selection

Abstract Background Runs of homozygosity (ROH) have become the state-of-the-art method for analysis of inbreeding in animal populations. Moreover, ROH are suited to detect signatures of selection via ROH islands and are used in other applications, such as genomic prediction and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Currently, a vast amount of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data is available online, but most of these data have never been used for ROH analysis. Therefore, we performed a ROH analysis on large medium-density SNP datasets in eight animal species (cat, cattle, dog, goat, horse, pig, sheep and water buffalo; 442 different populations) and make these results publicly available. Results The results include an overview of ROH islands per population and a comparison of the incidence of these ROH islands among populations from the same species, which can assist researchers when studying other (livestock) populations or when looking for similar signatures of selection. We were able to confirm many known ROH islands, for example signatures of selection for the myostatin (MSTN) gene in sheep and horses. However, our results also included multiple other ROH islands, which are common to many populations and not identified to date (e.g. on chromosomes D4 and E2 in cats and on chromosome 6 in sheep). Conclusions We are confident that our repository of ROH islands is a valuable reference for future studies. The discovered ROH island regions represent a unique starting point for new studies or can be used as a reference for future studies. Furthermore, we encourage authors to add their population-specific ROH findings to our repository.

WHY SOME YARROWIA LIPOLYTICA STRAINS SECRET CITRIC ACID TO THE MEDIUM?

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Robak ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Citric Acid ◽  
Metabolic Regulation ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Strain Development ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Metabolism Regulation ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Check Points ◽  
Intracellular Ca ◽  
Strain Dependent

Despite many studies, the “check points” of metabolic regulation of citric acid (CA) secretion by the yeasts Y.lipolytica still remain unknown. In this manuscript, some possible aspects of strain dependent secretion as well as CA metabolism regulation were discussed. Keys enzymes’ activities, substrate concentration, affinity of the uptake systems, intracellular CA concentration and strains abilities were the main points taken into consideration. The direction for the future studies emerged from this review, mainly connected to cellular and mitochondrial citrate transport systems and cellular substrates transporters (glucose, fructose, glycerol, ethanol and acetate), give promising starting point for future efficient strain development.

scholarly journals An historical framework for psychiatric nosology

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (12) ◽  
pp. 1935-1941 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. Kendler
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Illness ◽  
Theoretical Orientation ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Early History ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Species Definition ◽  
Psychiatric Nosology ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of

This essay, which seeks to provide an historical framework for our efforts to develop a scientific psychiatric nosology, begins by reviewing the classificatory approaches that arose in the early history of biological taxonomy. Initial attempts at species definition used top-down approaches advocated by experts and based on a few essential features of the organism chosena priori. This approach was subsequently rejected on both conceptual and practical grounds and replaced by bottom-up approaches making use of a much wider array of features. Multiple parallels exist between the beginnings of biological taxonomy and psychiatric nosology. Like biological taxonomy, psychiatric nosology largely began with ‘expert’ classifications, typically influenced by a few essential features, articulated by one or more great 19th-century diagnosticians. Like biology, psychiatry is struggling toward more soundly based bottom-up approaches using diverse illness characteristics. The underemphasized historically contingent nature of our current psychiatric classification is illustrated by recounting the history of how ‘Schneiderian’ symptoms of schizophrenia entered into DSM-III. Given these historical contingencies, it is vital that our psychiatric nosologic enterprise be cumulative. This can be best achieved through a process of epistemic iteration. If we can develop a stable consensus in our theoretical orientation toward psychiatric illness, we can apply this approach, which has one crucial virtue. Regardless of the starting point, if each iteration (or revision) improves the performance of the nosology, the eventual success of the nosologic process, to optimally reflect the complex reality of psychiatric illness, is assured.

scholarly journals Ecocriticism as Subversive Aesthetics

2019 ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Jelka Kernev Štrajn
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Minority Literature ◽  
Contemporary Theory ◽  
Female Authors ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Literary Art ◽  
Level Of Consciousness

Art is subversive when it crosses the boundary of the generally acceptable, though over time such art can and does become mainstream. A much more complicated question is what is subversive in aesthetics? Ecocriticism has already become, along with ecofeminism and animal studies, an academic discipline. It can be defined as subversive if it is understood in terms of an attitude, which is not anthropocentric. And here is the catch: how can the human also encompass the alien? The question that emerges here is all but rhetorical: how can we decentre and amplify our human consciousness and perspective to include zoocentric, biocentric or geocentric positions? At this point the contemporary theory creates contrasting opinions, which cross the boundaries of aesthetics, poetics and ecocriticism since they reach out to the fields of metaphysics and antimetaphysics. Within the phenomenon of perception the other always appears, as Deleuze said in his Logic of Sense, as “a priori Other”. We have to deal, henceforth, with a kind of pre-reflexive level of consciousness and amplified sensory perception, which, as we know, is the basic condition of artistic creation. Thus, this paper – because it seeks to penetrate into the node of these questions – takes literary art as its starting point. In the spirit of the above-mentioned observations, I have attempted to investigate in ‘minority literature’ (female authors of contemporary Polish and Slovene literature) how this decentred attitude, which Jure Detela, a Slovene poet, poetically defined, corresponds to our thesis on a particular ecocritical stream, which can be defined as an ecofeminist aesthetics. The ‘minoritarian literature’ here is meant exclusively in the sense that was defined by Deleuze and Guattari’s books Kafka and A Thousand Plateaus. Article received: April 12, 2019; Article accepted: July 6, 2019; Published online: October 15, 2019; Original scholarly paperHow to cite this article: Kernev Štrajn, Jelka. "Ecocriticism as Subversive Aesthetics." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 20 (2019): 17-25. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i20.321

Effective Surveillance Management during Service Encounters

2017 ◽  
pp. 118-139
Author(s):  
Angelo Bonfanti
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Service Management ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Management Perspective ◽  
Service Oriented

This chapter aims to theoretically examine effective surveillance management (ESM) during service encounters within the servicescape and provide a conceptual framework for the study of this topic in a service management perspective. It analyses antecedents, dimensions and effects of ESM. This study especially proposes as antecedents both improving customer service experience along with meeting customers' need for security and implementing a surveillance service-oriented strategy that includes secure and safe servicescape design, deterrent communication, and trained and motivated security staff. This chapter suggests also that the dimensions of ESM (customer-physical service environment encounters, customer-technological surveillance systems encounters, and customer-security staff encounters) contribute to enhancing service quality, experience quality, and staff productivity. The integration of these dimensions, antecedents, and effects create a theoretically grounded framework that can serve as a starting point for future studies about this topic in the field of service management.

scholarly journals Applied Art: Innovative Thinking From a Material Perspective

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anneli Hoel Fjærli ◽  
Ida Haugland
Keyword(s):  
New Technology ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Applied Art ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Society ◽  
On The Road

The modern world is continuously engaged in a racing processes aimed towards building a favourable future society. In this development, the apparent tools seem to be related to theoretical thought, new technology, avant-garde approaches and innovation. The bodily focus and the societal micro level processes are often left behind in this race. Though, in our aspiration towards urban development and the future society, we should not forget that the bodily functions and the possibilities that these give, represent one of the most fundamental and basic tools we have. This article would like to form an argument carrying out the seeming advantage of bringing in not just technological and theoretic avant-garde to the term of innovation and development, but to invite the whole body into the forming of the future, thereby seeing the term innovation from a material perspective. As the art field today is more often approaching subject matters that are primarily societal, we would like to introduce the potential of a mutual approach from the other end, seeing the art field as a central part in the creation of engagement and progress that can instigate another form of efficiency and present an expanded understanding of what innovative activity can be, and how it can be perceived and comprehended. We would like to debate an art form that takes the bodily, active and relational focus and its social context as a base and starting point on the road towards societal consciousness and potential development. Looking at the example of the art project «The Collectivity Project», this article takes it’s starting point in the following question; How can applied art projects in connection to social contexts, like The Collectivity Project, show the art field and the bodily sensuousness as a tool in the forming of values pointing towards an alternative way of thinking societal consciousness and development?

Compartmental model of leucine kinetics in humans

1991 ◽  
Vol 261 (4) ◽  
pp. E539-E550 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Cobelli ◽  
M. P. Saccomani ◽  
P. Tessari ◽  
G. Biolo ◽  
L. Luzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Compartmental Model ◽  
Linear Time ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Normal Subjects ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Constant Infusion ◽  
Individual Subject ◽  
Domain Of Validity

The complexity of amino acid and protein metabolism has limited the development of comprehensive, accurate whole body kinetic models. For leucine, simplified approaches are in use to measure in vivo leucine fluxes, but their domain of validity is uncertain. We propose here a comprehensive compartmental model of the kinetics of leucine and alpha-ketoisocaproate (KIC) in humans. Data from a multiple-tracer administration were generated with a two-stage (I and II) experiment. Six normal subjects were studied. In experiment I, labeled leucine and KIC were simultaneously injected into plasma. Four plasma leucine and KIC tracer concentration curves and label in the expired CO2 were measured. In experiment II, labeled bicarbonate was injected into plasma, and labeled CO2 in the expired air was measured. Radioactive (L-[1-14C]leucine, [4,5-3H]KIC, [14C]bicarbonate) and stable isotope (L-[1-13C]leucine, [5,5,5-2H3]KIC, [13C]bicarbonate) tracers were employed. The input format was a bolus (impulse) dose in the radioactive case and a constant infusion in the stable isotope case. A number of physiologically based, linear time-invariant compartmental models were proposed and tested against the data. The model finally chosen for leucine-KIC kinetics has 10 compartments: 4 for leucine, 3 for KIC, and 3 for bicarbonate. The model is a priori uniquely identifiable, and its parameters were estimated with precision from the five curves of experiment I. The separate assessment of bicarbonate kinetics (experiment II) was shown to be unnecessary. The model defines masses and fluxes of leucine in the organism, in particular its intracellular appearance from protein breakdown, its oxidation, and its incorporation into proteins. An important feature of the model is its ability to estimate leucine oxidation by resolving the bicarbonate model in each individual subject. Finally, the model allows the assessment of the domain of validity of the simpler commonly used models.

scholarly journals Effects of a Wearable Carriage Aid on Whole-Body Physiological Measures and Balance

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (22) ◽  
pp. 8076
Author(s):  
Saad A. Alabdulkarim ◽  
Abdulsalam M. Farhan ◽  
Mohamed Z. Ramadan
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Oxygen Consumption ◽  
Minute Ventilation ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Physiological Measures ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Lower Back ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Load Mass

Carriage tasks are common and can lead to shoulder and lower back injuries. Wearable carriage aids have shown mixed effects on local physical demand measures. This study examined the impact of a wearable carriage aid on whole-body physiological measures (normalized oxygen consumption, minute ventilation, respiratory rate, and heart rate) to obtain a more comprehensive assessment regarding aid effectiveness. Additionally, this study investigated the effect of wearing the device on perceived balance. The potential moderating effect of carried load mass was considered. The examination was conducted while walking on a treadmill at a constant speed (2 km/h) for 5 min and was completed by 16 participants. Wearing the device reduced normalized oxygen consumption (~14%), minute ventilation (~7%), and heart rate (~3%), while substantially improving perceived balance (~61%). These effects were consistent across examined carried load levels. Although this study highlighted the potential for the developed aid, future studies are required for more diverse and realistic testing conditions.

A Proposal for a System of Classification for Anthroposophic Meditation

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-88
Author(s):  
Terje Sparby
Keyword(s):  
Classification System ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Rudolf Steiner ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Contemporary Science ◽  
Activity Sequence ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Close Textual Analysis ◽  
External Conditions

Background: The investigation of the specific connections between different techniques of meditation and their respective effects depends upon a classification of the meditative activity involved. Universal systems of classification need to be developed based both on traditional sources and contemporary science. In this article, a system of classification for anthroposophical meditation is proposed. Methods: The system was developed from a close textual analysis of meditation instructions given by Rudolf Steiner. The system of classification arising from the investigation was compared to three other classificatory systems that have recently been suggested. Results: The analysis resulted in a system of classification with two main branches: (1) the shared features of anthroposophical meditation and (2) the different aspects of specific anthroposophical meditations. The first branch contains the following sub-categories: understanding, internal conditions, external conditions, sequence, timeframe and dealing with hindrances. The second branch contains: source, aim, activity, sequence and timeframe. Other systems of classification tend to leave out the dimension of the meditative activity. Conclusion: The proposed classification system can be used as a starting point for further refinements of the classification of anthroposophic meditation, but it can also be used as a standard for future studies of the connections between different meditations and their effects.

Entrepreneurial academics: a taxonomy with Latent Profile Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (12) ◽  
pp. 3346-3363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Gouveia Rodrigues ◽  
João J.M. Ferreira ◽  
Teresa Felgueira
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Latent Profile Analysis ◽  
Profile Analysis ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
E Mail ◽  
Latent Profile

Purpose The need for dynamic and innovative skills and the importance of resources and individuals in pursuit of new opportunities prove to be extremely vital for the higher education institutions (HEI). The purpose of this paper is to develop a taxonomy of academics from HEI, based on their individual entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Design/methodology/approach The population in study was composed of teachers and researchers from worldwide HEI. The data collection was conducted through a questionnaire sent by an e-mail and the authors used the I-ENTRE-U scale to identify entrepreneurial-oriented teachers and researchers from HEI. A Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was conducted to identify profiles of researchers with similar values in four EO dimensions. Findings The study allowed the authors to identify five profiles of researchers: downers, achievers, followers, defenders and rebels. Research limitations/implications The results can be an important starting point for other researchers and practitioners hoping to evaluate academics’ EO in a higher education sector. The taxonomy also allows wider predictions about the behaviour of the profile members of profiles and relates it with other variables such as performance. Further contributions may be added by extending the data gathering from different geographical areas and/or different academic contexts, such that future studies could apply other LPA techniques and compare the results. Originality/value Only few studies have focussed on individual EO of scientists/academics, considering different national and regional contexts. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study that develops a taxonomy of academics from HEI, based on their individual EO.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document