scholarly journals Morphological Stasis and Proteome Innovation in Cephalochordates

Genes ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 353 ◽  
Author(s):  
László Bányai ◽  
Krisztina Kerekes ◽  
Mária Trexler ◽  
László Patthy

Lancelets, extant representatives of basal chordates, are prototypic examples of evolutionary stasis; they preserved a morphology and body-plan most similar to the fossil chordates from the early Cambrian. Such a low level of morphological evolution is in harmony with a low rate of amino acid substitution; cephalochordate proteins were shown to evolve slower than those of the slowest evolving vertebrate, the elephant shark. Surprisingly, a study comparing the predicted proteomes of Chinese amphioxus, Branchiostoma belcheri and the Florida amphioxus, Branchiostoma floridae has led to the conclusion that the rate of creation of novel domain combinations is orders of magnitude greater in lancelets than in any other Metazoa, a finding that contradicts the notion that high rates of protein innovation are usually associated with major evolutionary innovations. Our earlier studies on a representative sample of proteins have provided evidence suggesting that the differences in the domain architectures of predicted proteins of these two lancelet species reflect annotation errors, rather than true innovations. In the present work, we have extended these studies to include a larger sample of genes and two additional lancelet species, Asymmetron lucayanum and Branchiostoma lanceolatum. These analyses have confirmed that the domain architecture differences of orthologous proteins of the four lancelet species are because of errors of gene prediction, the error rate in the given species being inversely related to the quality of the transcriptome dataset that was used to aid gene prediction.

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Basche

While calling for culturally sensitive healthcare services in migrant communities, the international nursing literature on intercultural care predominantly describes nursing staff as lacking cultural competences and immigrant customers as lacking cleverness to navigate the labyrinths of national healthcare systems. Congruences in language, culture and religion in the customer-caregiver relationship can decisively improve the quality of care. However, they do not automatically guarantee smooth working processes in monocultural in-home settings. On the contrary, new problems occur here for Turkish caregivers which are unknown to the legions of native professionals who feel challenged by migrants and which go beyond differences such as age, sex, income or education. While no cultural or religious brokering is necessary between customers and personnel in the given context in Germany, new challenges arise when caregivers are expected to legally broker between customers and insurance companies or doctors. Conflicting expectations of customers and management as well as their own colliding social and professional roles put the caregivers in a quandary and must be competently managed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 77-83
Author(s):  
S. L. Grabovska ◽  
L. O. Kolodochka

This article deals with the results of study of species content and basic peculiarities of beaked mites-Phytoseiidae in plant associations of one of the regional centers of Ukraine. The species composition and distribution of mites-Phytoseiidae (Parasitiformes, Phytoseiidae) in plantations of Brovary town of Kyiv region were determined. Fourteen species of 8 genera of phytoseiid mites were found. Index of their existing and relative biotope connection of each registered species to vegetation types and plant species were computed. The study was conducted according to the results of material treatment on the territory of the mentioned city from 25 species of plants (16 species of hardy-shrub and 9 of herbaceous vegetations). The studies of distribution of plant-living mites-Phytoseiidae were conducted separately for hardy-shrub and herbaceous plants). The collection of faunistic material was executed during the vegetation of periods of 2011 and 2013. Within the city the collection of the material was conducted with hardy-shrub plants and herbaceous type of vegetation along the streets, in parks and squares of Brovary city of Kyiv region, district center, one of the satellite-cities of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The study of species complexes characteristics of mites was conducted with usage of data calculated on the basis of frequency index (Is), degree of relative habitat confinedness (F) (Pesenko, 1982) and domination index Paliy-Kovnatski (Di) (Shitikov, 2003). Only on one species of plant (F=1) 6 species of mites-Phytoseiidae were found – T.сotoneastri on blue spruce, T. laurae – on common spruce, T. aceri – on ash-leaved maple, P. incognitus – on dog-rose, P. soleiger – on mulberry-tree, A. caudiglans – on sea-buckthorn. These species can be related to stenoecic. The mentioned species are stenotopic only in relation to the sample of plants from the plant associations of Brovary, as in other regions these species of mites can populate the other species of plants. The rest 8 species, being registered on two or more types of plants, are related to euryoecic. Among them there is a group of 6 species with “positive tendencies to population of plants”, owning the indicators of habitat confinedness 0<F<1: A. andersoni (0,92–0,96), A. rademacheri (0,85–0,96), N. herbarius (0,92–0,96), T. tiliarum (0,66–0,77), A. pirianykae (0,73–0,99), A. clavata (0,82–0,98). The rest species, E. finlandicus и K. aberrans, have the expanded range of indicators in relation to habitat confinedness (-0,71<F<0,55 и -0,16<F<0,88), that specifies on their ability to populate the big quality of species. E. finlandicus has the negative indicator of relative habitat confinedness in relation to the plants of herbaceous morphotype that serves confirmation of the ecological peculiarity of the species detected earlier. The data of relative habitat confinedness of mites to certain species of plants shows availability of stenoecic (T.сotoneastri, T. laurae, T. aceri, P. incognitus, P. soleiger, A. caudiglans) and euryoecic species (A. andersoni, A. rademacheri, N. herbarius, E. finlandicus, K. aberrans, T. tiliarum, A. pirianykae, A. clavata). 


Author(s):  
Lea Christy Restu Kinasih ◽  
Dewi Fatimah ◽  
Veranica Julianti

The selection and determination of appropriate learning strategies can improve the results to be obtained from the application of classroom learning models. This writing aims to discipline students to develop individual abilities of students to be more active in the learning process and improve the quality of learning. The learning process in Indonesia in general only uses conventional learning models that make students passive and undeveloped. In order for the quality of learning to increase, the Team Assisted Individualization learning model is combined with the task learning and forced strategies. The Team Assisted Individualization cooperative learning model is one of the cooperative learning models that combines learning individually and in groups. Meanwhile, task and forced learning strategies are strategies that focus on giving assignments that require students to complete them on time so that the learning process can run effectively. Students are required to do assignments according to the given deadline. This makes students become familiar with the tasks given by the teacher. Combining or modifying the learning model of the assisted individualization team with forced and forced learning strategies is expected to be able to make students more active, disciplined, independent, creative in learning and responsible for the tasks assigned. Therefore this method of incorporation is very necessary in the learning process and can be applied to improve the quality of learning in schools.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toni Wäfler ◽  
Rahel Gugerli ◽  
Giulio Nisoli

We all aim for safe processes. However, providing safety is a complex endeavour. What is it that makes a process safe? And what is the contribution of humans? It is very common to consider humans a risk factor prone to errors. Therefore, we implement sophisticated safety management systems (SMS) in order to prevent potential "human failure". These SMS provide an impressive increase of safety. In safety science this approach is labelled "Safety-I", and it starts to be questioned because humans do not show failures only. On the contrary, they often actively contribute to safety, sometimes even by deviating from a procedure. This "Safety-II" perspective considers humans to be a "safety factor" as well because of their ability to adjust behaviour to the given situation. However, adaptability requires scope of action and this is where Safety-I and Safety-II contradict each other. While the former restricts freedom of action, the latter requires room for manoeuvring. Thus, the task of integrating the Safety-II perspective into SMS, which are traditionally Safety-I based, is difficult. This challenge was the main objective of our project. We discovered two methods that contribute to the quality of SMS by integrating Safety-II into SMS without jeopardizing the Safety-I approach.


1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice Levy ◽  
J. Williamson Balfe ◽  
Dennis Geary ◽  
Sue Fryer-Keene ◽  
Robert Bannatyne

A 10-year retrospective review of pediatric patients on peritoneal dialysis showed that 50 of 83 had 132 episodes of exit-site infection (ESI). Thirty-nine episodes were purulent. The most prevalent organism was Staphylococcus aureus. Staphylococcus epidermidis was also common, usually occurring in purulent infections. Gramnegative organisms were responsible for 23 ESls, with Pseudomonas species being the most common. Age, sex, concomitant primary disease type, length of training, dressing techniques, quality of daily dialysis technique, use of diapers, and pyelostomies did not affect the incidence of ESI. However, 40% of children with a skin infection from other sites had associated peritoneal catheter ESI. Thirty-eight episodes of ESI in 28 patients resulted in peritonitis; the main organisms involved were Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas species. Catheters were replaced in 13 patients with peritonitis, but there was no difference in the incidence of ESI before and after catheter replacement.


Author(s):  
Pifu Zhang ◽  
Caiming Zhang ◽  
Fuhua (Frank) Cheng

Abstract A method to scale and deform a trimmed NURBS surface while holding the shape and size of specific features (trimming curves) unchanged is presented. The new surface is formed by scaling the given surface according to the scaling requirement first; and then attaching the (original) features to the scaled NURBS surface at appropriate locations. The attaching process requires several geometric operations and constrained free-form surface deformation. The resulting surface has the same features as the original surface and same boundary curves as the scaled surface while reflecting the shape and curvature distribution of the scaled surface. This is achieved by minimizing a shape-preserving objective function which covers all the factors in the deformation process such as bending, stretching and spring effects. The resulting surface maintains a NURBS representation and, hence, is compatible with most of the current data-exchange standards. Test results on several car parts with trimming curves are included. The, quality of the resulting surfaces is examined using the highlight line model.


2018 ◽  
Vol 157 ◽  
pp. 07010
Author(s):  
Beáta Pecušová ◽  
Mariana Pajtášová ◽  
Zuzana Mičicová ◽  
Darina Ondrušová ◽  
Andrea Feriancová ◽  
...  

The given paper deals with the study of the properties of clay minerals, namely montmorillonite and moreover, it is focused on effect of these clay minerals on the curing characteristics of the polymer blends and the physical-mechanical properties of prepared vulcanizates. Montmorillonite is a major clay mineral which has a wide application in many industrial branches. It belongs to the group of dioctahedral smectite minerals with structural type in the ratio of 2:1. Characteristics of prepared modified and organomodified clay minerals are based on sulphur vulcanisation accelerators which are used for the preparation of real polymer blend where they represent a partial replacement of the common carbon black filler and then, the effect on the curing characteristics of polymer blends as well as physical-mechanical properties of the prepared vulcanizates are investigated. The results exhibit that the clay-based filler (modified and organomodified clay minerals) can be used as a partial replacement while the quality of the prepared blends is preserved.


Author(s):  
Yutong Wang ◽  
Jiyuan Zheng ◽  
Qijiong Liu ◽  
Zhou Zhao ◽  
Jun Xiao ◽  
...  

Automatic question generation according to an answer within the given passage is useful for many applications, such as question answering system, dialogue system, etc. Current neural-based methods mostly take two steps which extract several important sentences based on the candidate answer through manual rules or supervised neural networks and then use an encoder-decoder framework to generate questions about these sentences. These approaches still acquire two steps and neglect the semantic relations between the answer and the context of the whole passage which is sometimes necessary for answering the question. To address this problem, we propose the Weakly Supervision Enhanced Generative Network (WeGen) which automatically discovers relevant features of the passage given the answer span in a weakly supervised manner to improve the quality of generated questions. More specifically, we devise a discriminator, Relation Guider, to capture the relations between the passage and the associated answer and then the Multi-Interaction mechanism is deployed to transfer the knowledge dynamically for our question generation system. Experiments show the effectiveness of our method in both automatic evaluations and human evaluations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 1029-1032
Author(s):  
Lubov V. Hryhorenko ◽  
Volodymyr M. Baibakov ◽  
Iryna A. Zayats ◽  
Mykhailo V. Solomenko ◽  
Oleksandr A. Romanenko

Introduction: Intestinal parasites are important enteric pathogens. Poverty, low quality of food and water supply and poor sanitation systems are the important factors associated with intestinal parasitic infections. These kinds of infections can be a good index for hygienic and sanitation status of the society. The aim: To study dynamics of infectious and parasitic diseases (for 2008-2013 years) among the children population in Dnipro region and to define influence of water factor on the disease and prevalence given class of illnesses. Materials and methods: Retrospective study of infectious and parasitogenic diseases (І class by ICD-10) among children population from rural districts of Dnipropetrovsk region for 2008-2013 years was carried out. Results: It was spent correlation analysis between some indicators of potable water quality of diseases of the given class in all districts. In the majority of rural districts, was shown increasing І class of diseases from (1.4 to 1.63) times in dynamics. In some districts was reveled an average correlation link between content in water of the dry residue, chlorides, sulphates, calcium, magnesium, except rigidity and iron and prevalence І class of diseases (r=0.50, p<0.001). Prevalence of the given class of diseases was correlated with рН, nitrates, oxidability in the three rural districts of Dnipropetrovsk region (r=0.74-0.89, p<0.001). Conclusions: It has been shown that the composition of drinking water consumed by the rural population remains one of the basic factors in the formation of public health in the conditions of small exposure of the influence individual indicators of salt and chemical composition. The children’s cohorts were the most sensitive to these indicators.


Author(s):  
Nuzha Abdulaziz Alrashed

This research aims to identify the difficulties of science learning among sixth grade students as determined and estimated by science teachers and students. To achieve the aims of this research, the researcher depends on the analysis descriptive approach. It identifies the percentages of the difficulty aspects included in questionnaires. For this purpose, the researcher designed two templates of questionnaires. First questionnaire consists of 20 items regarding the difficulties of science learning from students' perspective. Second questionnaire consists of 22 items regarding impediments of science learning from teachers' perspective. The validity and reliability of questionnaires were established. A random sample of 24 science teachers and 295 sixth grade students was used in Mubarak Al-kabeer area. The study was conducted in the second semester of the academic year 2018-2019.The findings reveal that there are no significant differences in the responses of students in different schools about the difficulties of science learning listed in the questionnaires such as the required topics quantity that forms a common difficulty for the student and the teacher in the same time , and some topics that needs longer time more than the given time in the lesson plans to explain and simplify them for the students. In light of the findings of the research were presented a number of recommendations and proposals, including: the need for attention to quantity and quality of academic content, where suitable for students in the sixth grade level and the specificity of the stage they are going through, the need to use teaching methods, activities and teaching aids, and to train in-service teachers on modern trends in science education.


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