scholarly journals Bioluminescence and Photoreception in Unicellular Organisms: Light-Signalling in a Bio-Communication Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (21) ◽  
pp. 11311
Author(s):  
Youri Timsit ◽  
Magali Lescot ◽  
Martha Valiadi ◽  
Fabrice Not

Bioluminescence, the emission of light catalysed by luciferases, has evolved in many taxa from bacteria to vertebrates and is predominant in the marine environment. It is now well established that in animals possessing a nervous system capable of integrating light stimuli, bioluminescence triggers various behavioural responses and plays a role in intra- or interspecific visual communication. The function of light emission in unicellular organisms is less clear and it is currently thought that it has evolved in an ecological framework, to be perceived by visual animals. For example, while it is thought that bioluminescence allows bacteria to be ingested by zooplankton or fish, providing them with favourable conditions for growth and dispersal, the luminous flashes emitted by dinoflagellates may have evolved as an anti-predation system against copepods. In this short review, we re-examine this paradigm in light of recent findings in microorganism photoreception, signal integration and complex behaviours. Numerous studies show that on the one hand, bacteria and protists, whether autotrophs or heterotrophs, possess a variety of photoreceptors capable of perceiving and integrating light stimuli of different wavelengths. Single-cell light-perception produces responses ranging from phototaxis to more complex behaviours. On the other hand, there is growing evidence that unicellular prokaryotes and eukaryotes can perform complex tasks ranging from habituation and decision-making to associative learning, despite lacking a nervous system. Here, we focus our analysis on two taxa, bacteria and dinoflagellates, whose bioluminescence is well studied. We propose the hypothesis that similar to visual animals, the interplay between light-emission and reception could play multiple roles in intra- and interspecific communication and participate in complex behaviour in the unicellular world.

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-13
Author(s):  
James B. Talmage ◽  
Jay Blaisdell

Abstract Injuries that affect the central nervous system (CNS) can be catastrophic because they involve the brain or spinal cord, and determining the underlying clinical cause of impairment is essential in using the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides), in part because the AMA Guides addresses neurological impairment in several chapters. Unlike the musculoskeletal chapters, Chapter 13, The Central and Peripheral Nervous System, does not use grades, grade modifiers, and a net adjustment formula; rather the chapter uses an approach that is similar to that in prior editions of the AMA Guides. The following steps can be used to perform a CNS rating: 1) evaluate all four major categories of cerebral impairment, and choose the one that is most severe; 2) rate the single most severe cerebral impairment of the four major categories; 3) rate all other impairments that are due to neurogenic problems; and 4) combine the rating of the single most severe category of cerebral impairment with the ratings of all other impairments. Because some neurological dysfunctions are rated elsewhere in the AMA Guides, Sixth Edition, the evaluator may consult Table 13-1 to verify the appropriate chapter to use.


2008 ◽  
Vol 51 (spe) ◽  
pp. 83-89
Author(s):  
Anke Bergmann ◽  
Juliana Miranda Dutra de Resende ◽  
Sebastião David Santos-Filho ◽  
Marcelo Adeodato Bello ◽  
Juliana Flavia de Oliveira ◽  
...  

Breast cancer is still associated with high mortality rates and one of the most important factors governing long survival is accurate and early diagnosis. In underdeveloped countries, this disease frequently is only detected in advanced stages; however, through mammography, many women have been diagnosed at early stages. In this context, the sentinel lymph node (SLN) technique is associated with less postoperative morbidity compared to axillary lymphadenectomy. Lymphoscintigraphy has emerged as a method for the evaluation of lymphatic drainage chains in various tumours, being both accurate and non invasive. The aim of this work is to present the main aspects which cause controversy about SLN and lymphoscintigraphy and the impact that these procedures have had on lymphedema after surgical treatment for breast cancer. A short review including papers in English, Spanish and Portuguese, available on Lilacs and Medline database, published between January, 2000 and July, 2008 was performed. The key words breast cancer, lymphoscintigraphy, SLN biopsy, lymphedema were used. Various studies have aimed to compare the incidence and prevalence of lymphedema according to the technique used; however, the population subjected to SLN is different from the one with indication for axillary lymphadenectomy regarding staging. Moreover, little is known about long term morbidity since it is a relatively new technique. In conclusion, the development of surgical techniques has permitted to minimize deformities and the current trend is that these techniques be as conservative as possible. Thus, lymphoscintigraphy plays an important role in the identification of SLN, contributing to the prevention and minimization of postoperative complications.


1886 ◽  
Vol 31 (136) ◽  
pp. 504-507
Author(s):  
Geo. H. Savage

In so-called nervous disorders it is common to find changes occur in other of the bodily systems than the nervous. The pathology of nervous disease should be looked upon as a general pathology, and it is certain that we cannot look to the one system alone for causes of all the nervous disorders without greatly misunderstanding the whole subject. The more exact we become in limiting the causes, the more liable are we to error. We are all prepared to consider general paralysis of the insane as essentially a disease of the nervous system, a disease in which nearly every part of the nervous system may suffer sooner or later. But beside the essentially nervous symptoms which occur in the disease, we are constantly struck by the regular series of nutritional changes which occur in general paralysis, and this is so much the case that we are quite prepared to recognise as general paralysis a disorder in which any mental symptoms have been present, but have after a brief period of acuteness been followed by a state of fatness and weak-mindedness which again has been followed by a period of wasting and further mental weakness. We have here nervous symptoms related very directly with nutritional changes.


Author(s):  
Niccolo Traverso Ziani ◽  
Fabio Cavaliere ◽  
Karina Guerrero Becerra ◽  
Maura Sassetti

The simplest possible structural transition that an electronic system can undergo is Wigner crystallization. The aim of this short review is to discuss the main aspects of three recent experimets on the one dimensional Wigner molecule, starting from scratch. To achieve this task, the Luttinger liquid theory of weakly and strongly interacting fermions will be shortly addressed, together with the basic properties of carbon nanotubes that are require. Then, the most relevant properties of Wigner molecules will be addressed, and finally the experiments will be described.


2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-268
Author(s):  
Wiesław Dyk

The discussion about the rights of animals is always up-to-date. The dichotomy division into philoanimalists and philohominists, although reasonable, is not satisfactory to everyone. It is too strongly associated with the division into people and things in Roman law. To avoid this association in the context of biocentric trends in ecological ethics, accomplishments of evolutionary psychology and the concept of animal welfare, it is suggested that a third moral dimension dealing with creatures with highly developed nervous system be introduced between moral objectivity of creatures with high perception and moral subjectivity of people - creatures characterized by self-awareness and reflexive awareness. Human beings on the one hand are responsible for recognizing their rights given by nature and on the other hand, they are obliged to create a law to protect themselves.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 638-639
Author(s):  
William G. Crook

Can adverse or allergic reactions to what a person eats cause him to be pale, tired, and drowsy on the one hand, or irritable and hyperactive on the other? Can such reactions to food also cause headaches, abdominal pain, and limb pains? Can they make an individual depressed, and can they cause even more bizarre nervous system symptoms, or are such reactions a myth? As long ago as 1916, and on repeated occasions since that time, observers, including Hoobler,1 Shannon,2 Rowe,3 Rinkel et al,4 Randolph,5 Speer,6 Deamer and colleagues,7,8 Gerrard,9 Alvarez,10 and many others,11-18 have described patients with systemic and nervous system reactions caused by a specific hypersensitivity to foods.


Author(s):  
Joshua C. Gellers

Could robots have rights? On the one hand, robots are becoming increasingly human-like in appearance and behavior. On the other hand, legal systems around the world are increasingly recognizing the rights of nonhuman entities. Observing these macro-level trends, in this paper I present an ecological framework for evaluating the conditions under which some robots might be considered eligible for certain rights. I argue that a critical, materialist, and broadly ecological interpretation of the environment, along with decisions by jurists establishing or upholding the rights of nature, support extension of rights to nonhuman entities like robots.


2021 ◽  
pp. 69-84
Author(s):  
Shogo Tanaka

The aim of this chapter is to explicate the interrelated roles of body schema and body image in motor learning and to shed light on the phenomenology of body image from a fresh perspective. The chapter revisits how Merleau-Ponty conceptualized body schema in terms of the lived body. Second, the chapter will have a short review of the scientific research on motor learning. And then, comparing with Gallagher and Cole’s analysis of Ian Waterman, the chapter examines the symptom of Schneider, the case of whom Merleau-Ponty referred to in considering the function of body schema. The argument presented in the chapter will show that Merleau-Ponty’s idea crucially lacked the theoretical distinction of body schema and body image, though his idea of ‘intentional arc’ involved a certain aspect of the latter. And finally, the chapter comes back to the theme of motor learning in order to describe the roles of body schema and body image in the actual process of motor learning. On the one hand, this chapter aims to brush up the phenomenology of embodiment by refining Merleau-Ponty’s notion of body schema. But on the other hand, it also aims to push forward the sciences of motor learning from a theoretical perspective.


1868 ◽  
Vol 13 (64) ◽  
pp. 437-449
Author(s):  
Robert Dunn

Life and mind, in their abstract nature or essence alike inscrutable to us, are problems which belong to the same category; for, in this world, we know nothing of life apart from an organism, and we have no manifestations of mind independently of a brain and nervous system. Here living organisms are required for the display of the vital phenomena, and a brain and nervous system for the manifestations of mind. Life has accordingly been defined as “the collective expression for a series of phenomena which take place exclusively in bodies that are organized,” and “mind as the functional manifestations of the living brain.” But then, and at the outset, it is to be remembered that in affirming sensation, emotion, thought, and volition to be functions of the nervous system, what is really maintained is this, that the vesicular matter of the encephalic ganglia furnishes the material conditions—the medium through which these mental phenomena are made manifest in this life. It may indeed be asked, Are not the physical forces of external nature, which underlie all vital phenomena, and the changing states of consciousness which constitute our mental life, as inscrutable to us in their nature or essence as are life and mind ? and it must be conceded that they are. Matter and force are coexistent, and are correlative. Nor can we conceive of the one but in association with, by, and through the other, any more than we can conceive of life, in our present state of existence, apart from an organism, or of thought independently of a living brain.


1998 ◽  
Vol 275 (2) ◽  
pp. G183-G186 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Pachnis ◽  
P. Durbec ◽  
S. Taraviras ◽  
M. Grigoriou ◽  
D. Natarajan

The enteric nervous system (ENS) in vertebrates is derived from the neural crest and constitutes the most complex part of the peripheral nervous system. Natural and induced mutagenesis in mammals has shown that the tyrosine kinase receptor RET and its functional ligand glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) play key roles in the development of the ENS in humans and mice. We have developed and briefly describe here a number of assays that analyze the specific function of the RET receptor and its ligand. Our data suggest that the RET signal transduction pathway has multiple roles in the development of the mammalian ENS.


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