scholarly journals Synthetic Mutualism and the Intervention Dilemma

Life ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jai Denton ◽  
Chaitanya Gokhale
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Extreme Environments ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
Specific Interactions ◽  
Cooperative Interactions ◽  
Experimental Systems ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Ecological Importance ◽  
Complex Relationships

Ecosystems are complex networks of interacting individuals co-evolving with their environment. As such, changes to an interaction can influence the whole ecosystem. However, to predict the outcome of these changes, considerable understanding of processes driving the system is required. Synthetic biology provides powerful tools to aid this understanding, but these developments also allow us to change specific interactions. Of particular interest is the ecological importance of mutualism, a subset of cooperative interactions. Mutualism occurs when individuals of different species provide a reciprocal fitness benefit. We review available experimental techniques of synthetic biology focused on engineered synthetic mutualistic systems. Components of these systems have defined interactions that can be altered to model naturally occurring relationships. Integrations between experimental systems and theoretical models, each informing the use or development of the other, allow predictions to be made about the nature of complex relationships. The predictions range from stability of microbial communities in extreme environments to the collapse of ecosystems due to dangerous levels of human intervention. With such caveats, we evaluate the promise of synthetic biology from the perspective of ethics and laws regarding biological alterations, whether on Earth or beyond. Just because we are able to change something, should we?

The Problem of the Typology of Rationality in Muslim Culture

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 88-99
Author(s):  
Andrey A. Lukashev
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
The Common ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The One ◽  
Muslim Culture

The typology of rationality is one of major issues of modern philosophy. In an attempt to provide a typology to Oriental materials, a researcher faces additional problems. The diversity of the Orient as such poses a major challenge. When we say “Oriental,” we mean several cultures for which we cannot find a common denominator. The concept of “Orient” involves Arabic, Indian, Chinese, Turkish and other cultures, and the only thing they share is that they are “non-Western.” Moreover, even if we focus just on Islamic culture and look into rationality in this context, we have to deal with a conglomerate of various trends, which does not let us define, with full confidence, a common theoretical basis and treat them as a unity. Nevertheless, we have to go on trying to find common directions in thought development, so as to draw conclusions about types of rationality possible in Islamic culture. A basis for such a typology of rationality in the context of the Islamic world was recently suggested in A.V. Smirnov’s logic of sense theory. However, actual empiric material cannot always fit theoretical models, and the cases that do not fit the common scheme are interesting per se. On the one hand, examination of such cases gives an opportunity to specify certain provisions of the theory and, on the other hand, to define the limits of its applicability.

scholarly journals Commentary to “Practicing Dialectics of Technoscience During the Anthropocene” by Hub Zwart

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Scientific Development ◽  
Current State

AbstractHub Zwart’s article is about the idea—and the practice—of an embedded philosophy of science, that is, a philosophy participating in and at the same time reflecting about the current state of the sciences facing the Anthropocene, to which I am very sympathetic. There are, however, two caveats. The first is that participation is always in danger to end up in a more or less uncritical eulogy, in the present case of synthetic biology. The second is that I have doubts about packing the historical path of scientific development into the Procrustes bed of Hegelian dialectics. This usually leads to one or the other form of teleology.

PROBING AWAY SIDE JET MODIFICATION WITH THREE PARTICLE CORRELATIONS

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (07n08) ◽  
pp. 1982-1987
Author(s):  
◽  
N. N. AJITANAND
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Correlation Functions ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Powerful Method ◽  
Particle Correlation ◽  
Low Viscosity ◽  
Jet Modification ◽  
Rhic Data

Recent experimental investigations have focussed on the abnormal spatial distribution of away side jet fragments as signals of significant medium induced effects. A variety of theoretical models including recent string-theory based efforts have supported the notion of Mach Cone like effects in the low viscosity QGP fluid. However, the presence of significant flow fields may deflect the fragmentation direction producing a significantly differing type of jet topology from that of the Mach cone. Three particle correlation functions constitute a powerful method whereby the predominance of one or the other type of mechanism can be differentiated. In this work the use of such an approach will be demonstrated via simulations and the results of its application to RHIC data will be presented.

scholarly journals Going Wild: Lessons from Naturally Occurring T-Lymphotropic Lentiviruses

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 728-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue VandeWoude ◽  
Cristian Apetrei
Keyword(s):  
Immune Responses ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Host Immune Responses ◽  
Experimental Systems ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Lentiviral Infections ◽  
Hiv Aids

SUMMARY Over 40 nonhuman primate (NHP) species harbor species-specific simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs). Similarly, more than 20 species of nondomestic felids and African hyenids demonstrate seroreactivity against feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) antigens. While it has been challenging to study the biological implications of nonfatal infections in natural populations, epidemiologic and clinical studies performed thus far have only rarely detected increased morbidity or impaired fecundity/survival of naturally infected SIV- or FIV-seropositive versus -seronegative animals. Cross-species transmissions of these agents are rare in nature but have been used to develop experimental systems to evaluate mechanisms of pathogenicity and to develop animal models of HIV/AIDS. Given that felids and primates are substantially evolutionarily removed yet demonstrate the same pattern of apparently nonpathogenic lentiviral infections, comparison of the biological behaviors of these viruses can yield important implications for host-lentiviral adaptation which are relevant to human HIV/AIDS infection. This review therefore evaluates similarities in epidemiology, lentiviral genotyping, pathogenicity, host immune responses, and cross-species transmission of FIVs and factors associated with the establishment of lentiviral infections in new species. This comparison of consistent patterns in lentivirus biology will expose new directions for scientific inquiry for understanding the basis for virulence versus avirulence.

scholarly journals Predicting the other in cooperative interactions

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 364-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan G. Sanfey ◽  
Claudia Civai ◽  
Peter Vavra
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Cooperative Interactions

Interactions between DNA-bound trimers of the yeast heat shock factor

1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 501-508
Author(s):  
J J Bonner ◽  
C Ballou ◽  
D L Fackenthal
Keyword(s):  
Heat Shock ◽  
Protein Complexes ◽  
Consensus Sequence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Inverted Repeats ◽  
Electrophoretic Mobilities ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Initial Identification ◽  
Dyad Symmetry ◽  
Chemical Cross Linking

The heat shock transcription factor (HSF) is a trimer that binds to DNA containing inverted repeats of the sequence nGAAn. HSF can bind DNA with the sequence nGAAnnTTCn or with the sequence nTTCnnGAAn, with little preference for either sequence over the other. However, (nGAAnnTTCn)2 is considerably less active as a heat shock response element (HSE) than is (nTTCnnGAAn)2. The electrophoretic mobilities of DNA-protein complexes and chemical cross-linking between protein monomers indicate that the sequence (nGAAnnTTCn)2 is capable of binding a single HSF trimer. In contrast, the sequence with higher biological activity, (nTTCnnGAAn)2, is capable of binding two trimers. Thus, the ability of four-nGAAn-element HSEs to bind one or two trimers depends on the permutation with which the elements are presented. A survey of naturally occurring HSEs shows the sequence (nTTCnnGAAn)2 to be the more prevalent. We suggest that the greater ability of one permutation over the other to bind two HSF trimers accounts for the initial identification of the naturally occurring heat shock consensus sequence as a region of dyad symmetry.

Experiment

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uljana Feest ◽  
Friedrich Steinle
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Causal Inference ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
Dynamic Processes ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Entity Realism ◽  
Experimental Systems ◽  
The World

The authors provide an overview of philosophical discussions about the roles of experiment in science. First, they cover two approaches that took shape under the heading of “new experimentalism” in the 1980s and 1990s. One approach was primarily concerned with questions about entity realism, robustness, and epistemological strategies. The other has focused on exploratory experiments and the dynamic processes of experimental research as such, highlighting its iterative nature and drawing out the ways in which such research is grounded in experimental systems, concepts and operational definitions. Second, the authors look at more recent philosophical work on the epistemology of causal inference, in particular highlighting discussions in the philosophy of the behavioral and social sciences, concerning the extrapolation from laboratory contexts to the world.

scholarly journals The Glucosamine Controversy; A Pharmacokinetic Issue

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Aghazadeh-Habashi ◽  
Fakhreddin Jamali
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trial ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Assessment Metrics ◽  
Disease Modifying ◽  
Clinical Trial Results ◽  
Higher Doses ◽  
Positive Results ◽  
Rule Out

Glucosamine (GlcN) is a naturally occurring aminosugar that is widely used to treat osteoarthritis despite controversial clinical trial results. Animal studies, on the other hand, unequivocally suggest anti-inflammatory and disease modifying effects for GlcN. Many explanations have been offered as to the root of the controversy. They include superiority of a crystalline sulphate salt over HCl, industry bias, insensitive assessment metrics and poor methodology. Herein, we rule out a difference in bioequivalence between GlcN salts and that of chemically equivalent doses and suggest additional factors; i.e., inconsistency in the chemical potency of some products used, under-dosing of patients as well as variable and erratic bioavailability indices for the lack of GlcN efficacy observed in some studies. Clinical trials using higher doses of pharmaceutical grade GlcN or formulations with greater bioavailability should yield positive results. This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW. Registered readers (see “For Readers”) may comment by clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue’s contents page.

scholarly journals Breach of Contact: An Intercultural Reading of China Miéville's 'The City and The City'

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Elizabeth Hanna ◽  
Peter Cowley
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
Intercultural Training ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Intercultural Encounters ◽  
Training Courses ◽  
City States ◽  
City Relations ◽  
The City ◽  
Two Populations

China Miéville’s 2009 'Weird' detective novel The City and The City is a tale of two city states, culturally distinct, between which unpoliced contact is forbidden. While residents of each city can learn about the other’s history, geography, politics, see photographs and watch news footage of the other city, relations between the two are tightly monitored and any direct contact requires a series of protocols, some of which might seem reasonable, or at least familiar: entry permits, international mail, international dialing codes, intercultural training courses. What complicates these apparently banal measures is the relative positioning of the two cities, each one around, within, amongst the other. The two populations live side by side, under a regime which requires ostentatious and systematic disregard or 'unnoticing' of the other in any context but a tightly regulated set of encounters. For all that interculturality is endemic to everyday life in the 21st century, what is striking is that critical and popular uptake of this novel so frequently decries the undesirability, the immorality even, of the cultural separation between the two populations, framing it as an allegory of unjust division within a single culture, and thus by implication endorsing the erasure of intercultural difference. We propose an alternative reading which sees this novel as exploring the management of intercultural encounters, and staging the irreducibility of intercultural difference. We examine how the intercultural is established in the novel, and ask how it compares to its representations in prevalent theoretical models, specifically that of the Third Place.

scholarly journals Municipal Representatives’ Accounts of Decision-Making Practices during Geriatric Case Conferences

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (45) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Søren Beck Nielsen
Keyword(s):  
Senior Citizens ◽  
General Characteristic ◽  
The Other ◽  
Residential Home ◽  
Residential Homes ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Case Conferences ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Elderly Citizen

This article addresses questions of elucidation in talk-in-interaction. How do social actors give accounts of what they are doing? To what degree do actors sustain a taken-for-granted level of reasoning? The analysis is based upon naturally occurring data consisting of a corpus of audio recorded case conferences at various geriatric wards in Danish hospitals. The article elaborates one of the important insights of Harold Garfinkel regarding the relationship between discourse and social interaction: as a general characteristic, people tend to treat their fellow interlocutors’ conversational contributions as adequate for-all-practical-purposes. Specifically, the article investigates how Danish municipal representatives account for their decisions about whether or not senior citizens are to be referred to residential homes. This practice, I demonstrate, is characterized by non-explicitness with regards to rules and regulations. Instead, municipal representatives make use of developmental discourse: a worsened condition is used to justify a referral to a residential home. On the other hand, an improved condition is used to justify that an elderly citizen is not referred to a residential home.

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