scholarly journals Engineering Microbial Consortia towards Bioremediation

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 2928
Author(s):  
Xianglong Li ◽  
Shanghua Wu ◽  
Yuzhu Dong ◽  
Haonan Fan ◽  
Zhihui Bai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Metabolic Pathways ◽  
Commercial Production ◽  
Microbial Consortia ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ecological Mechanisms ◽  
Toxic Constituent ◽  
Constituent Elements ◽  
Hazardous Compounds

Bioremediation is a sustainable remediation technology as it utilizes microorganisms to convert hazardous compounds into their less toxic or non-toxic constituent elements. This technology has achieved some success in the past decades; however, factors involving microbial consortia, such as microbial assembly, functional interactions, and the role of member species, hinder its development. Microbial consortia may be engineered to reconfigure metabolic pathways and reprogram social interactions to get the desired function, thereby providing solutions to its inherent problems. The engineering of microbial consortia is commonly applied for the commercial production of biomolecules. However, in the field of bioremediation, the engineering of microbial consortia needs to be emphasized. In this review, we will discuss the molecular and ecological mechanisms of engineering microbial consortia with a particular focus on metabolic cross-feeding within species and the transfer of metabolites. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of top-down and bottom-up approaches of engineering microbial consortia and their applications in bioremediation.

scholarly journals Small but Smart: On the Diverse Role of Small Proteins in the Regulation of Cyanobacterial Metabolism

Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 322
Author(s):  
Fabian Brandenburg ◽  
Stephan Klähn
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Pathways ◽  
Chemical Compounds ◽  
Industrial Processes ◽  
Biotechnological Applications ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
The Past ◽  
Metabolic Fluxes ◽  
Reactor Technology ◽  
Small Proteins

Over the past few decades, bioengineered cyanobacteria have become a major focus of research for the production of energy carriers and high value chemical compounds. Besides improvements in cultivation routines and reactor technology, the integral understanding of the regulation of metabolic fluxes is the key to designing production strains that are able to compete with established industrial processes. In cyanobacteria, many enzymes and metabolic pathways are regulated differently compared to other bacteria. For instance, while glutamine synthetase in proteobacteria is mainly regulated by covalent enzyme modifications, the same enzyme in cyanobacteria is controlled by the interaction with unique small proteins. Other prominent examples, such as the small protein CP12 which controls the Calvin–Benson cycle, indicate that the regulation of enzymes and/or pathways via the attachment of small proteins might be a widespread mechanism in cyanobacteria. Accordingly, this review highlights the diverse role of small proteins in the control of cyanobacterial metabolism, focusing on well-studied examples as well as those most recently described. Moreover, it will discuss their potential to implement metabolic engineering strategies in order to make cyanobacteria more definable for biotechnological applications.

scholarly journals Shall I Show My Emotions? The Effects of Facial Expressions in the Ultimatum Game

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Sara Ferracci ◽  
Felice Giuliani ◽  
Alfredo Brancucci ◽  
Davide Pietroni
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Economic Agents ◽  
The Past ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Interpersonal Emotions ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Over the past fifteen years, research has demonstrated the central role of interpersonal emotions in communicating intentions, goals and desires. These emotions can be conveyed through facial expressions during specific social interactions, such as in the context of coordination between economic agents, where information inferred from them can influence certain decision-making processes. We investigated whether four facial expressions (happiness, neutral, angry and disgusted) can affect decision-making in the Ultimatum Game (UG). In this economic game, one player (proposer) plays the first move and proposes how to allocate a given amount of money in an anonymous one-shot interaction. If the other player (responder) accepts the proposal, each player receives the allocated amount of money; if he/she rejects the offer, both players receive nothing. During the task, participants acted as the responder (Experiment 1) or the proposer (Experiment 2) while seeing the opponent’s facial expression. For the responders, the results show that the decision was mainly driven by the fairness of the offer, with a small main effect of emotion. No interaction effect was found between emotion and offer. For the proposers, the results show that participants modulated their offers on the basis of the responders’ expressed emotions. The most generous/fair offers were proposed to happy responders. Less generous/fair offers were proposed to neutral responders. Finally, the least generous/fair offers were proposed to angry and disgusted responders.

scholarly journals On complex archaeologies: conceptualizing social complexity and its potential for archaeology

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 323-328
Author(s):  
Dries Daems
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Direct Observations ◽  
Complex Systems Thinking ◽  
Architectural Structures ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Constituent Elements

This article surveys a number of approaches in complex systems thinking and their relevance for applications in the field of archaeology. It focuses in particular on the fundamental role of social interactions and information transmission as constituent elements for the development of organizational complexity on a community level. Given the impossibility of direct observations of these constituent interactions and practices, it is then outlined how this theoretical model can be applied on the material remains found in the archaeological record. It is discussed how material surroundings – including architectural structures and material objects – are used to shape and structure social interactions and practices in various ways. It is shown how complex organizational structures develop through underlying mechanisms of change such as diversification, connectivity and standardization, and how these can be applied in archaeological case studies. The presented framework will thus show how structures of social organization and development of social complexity can be inferred from the archaeological record.

The Need to Refocus on the Group as the Site of Radicalization

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura G. E. Smith ◽  
Leda Blackwood ◽  
Emma F. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Group Processes ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Socialization Process ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Individual

The past decade has witnessed burgeoning efforts among governments to prevent people from developing a commitment to violent extremism (conceived of as a process of radicalization). These interventions acknowledge the importance of group processes yet in practice primarily focus on the idiosyncratic personal vulnerabilities that lead people to engage in violence. This conceptualization is problematic because it disconnects the individual from the group and fails to adequately address the role of group processes in radicalization. To address this shortcoming, we propose a genuinely social psychological account of radicalization as an alternative. We draw on recent developments in theory and research in psychological science to suggest that radicalization is fundamentally a group socialization process through which people develop identification with a set of norms—that may be violent or nonviolent—through situated social interactions that leverage their shared perceptions and experiences. Our alternative provides a way of understanding shifts toward violent extremism that are caused by both the content (focal topics) and process of social interactions. This means that people’s radicalization to violence is inseparable from the social context in which their social interactions take place.

scholarly journals A review of psychological studies on social interactions of students in inclusive classrooms

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.V. Konokotin
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Educational Needs ◽  
Inclusive Classrooms ◽  
Special Educational Needs ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Psychological Studies

The article presents a review of current foreign publications on the social interactions of children in inclusive classrooms. It analyzes the studies carried out during the period from 2008 to 2017, i.e. over the past decade. The results show that social interactions of students in inclusive classrooms are often studied in small groups where students with special educational needs and their normally developing peers are gathered together, but researchers ignore other factors that may have an impact on the quality of their interactions. Thus interactions of students are not equal in nature and are not purposefully organized so that researchers are not able to fully identify the role of each student

On Future Directions in Pathology

1982 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 274-277
Author(s):  
Benjamin F. Trump ◽  
Irene K. Berezesky ◽  
Raymond T. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
Clinical Pathology ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Diagnostic Pathology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Organ Systems ◽  
The Many

The role of electron microscopy and associated techniques is assured in diagnostic pathology. At the present time, most of the progress has been made on tissues examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and correlated with light microscopy (LM) and by cytochemistry using both plastic and paraffin-embedded materials. As mentioned elsewhere in this symposium, this has revolutionized many fields of pathology including diagnostic, anatomic and clinical pathology. It began with the kidney; however, it has now been extended to most other organ systems and to tumor diagnosis in general. The results of the past few years tend to indicate the future directions and needs of this expanding field. Now, in addition to routine EM, pathologists have access to the many newly developed methods and instruments mentioned below which should aid considerably not only in diagnostic pathology but in investigative pathology as well.

A literature review on firms' internationalisation through e-commerce

2019 ◽  
pp. 121-143
Author(s):  
Riccardo Resciniti ◽  
Federica De Vanna
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
International Business ◽  
Decision Process ◽  
Foreign Markets ◽  
New Markets ◽  
Integrative Framework ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Relationship

The rise of e-commerce has brought considerable changes to the relationship between firms and consumers, especially within international business. Hence, understanding the use of such means for entering foreign markets has become critical for companies. However, the research on this issue is new and so it is important to evaluate what has been studied in the past. In this study, we conduct a systematic review of e-commerce and internationalisation studies to explicate how firms use e-commerce to enter new markets and to export. The studies are classified by theories and methods used in the literature. Moreover, we draw upon the internationalisation decision process (antecedents-modalities-consequences) to propose an integrative framework for understanding the role of e-commerce in internationalisation

Concealment of Illegally Obtained Assets in Nigeria: Revisiting the Role of the Churches in Money Laundering

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-121
Author(s):  
Kato Gogo Kingston
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Money Laundering ◽  
Financial Crime ◽  
The Past ◽  
Key Drivers ◽  
Nigerian Government

Financial crime in Nigeria – including money laundering – is ravaging Nigeria's economic growth. In the past few years, the Nigerian government has made efforts to tackle money laundering by enacting laws and setting up several agencies to enforce the laws. However, there are substantial loopholes in the regulatory and enforcement regimes. This article seeks to unravel the involvement of the churches as key drivers in money laundering crimes in Nigeria. It concludes that the permissive secrecy which enables churches to conceal the names of their financiers and donors breeds criminality on an unimaginable scale.

Provision of Remedies for Violation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Comparative Study of the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-318
Author(s):  
Roman Girma Teshome
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Regional Monitoring ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
To Receive

The effectiveness of human rights adjudicative procedures partly, if not most importantly, hinges upon the adequacy of the remedies they grant and the implementation of those remedies. This assertion also holds water with regard to the international and regional monitoring bodies established to receive individual complaints related to economic, social and cultural rights (hereinafter ‘ESC rights’ or ‘socio-economic rights’). Remedies can serve two major functions: they are meant, first, to rectify the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage sustained by the particular victim, and second, to resolve systematic problems existing in the state machinery in order to ensure the non-repetition of the act. Hence, the role of remedies is not confined to correcting the past but also shaping the future by providing reforming measures a state has to undertake. The adequacy of remedies awarded by international and regional human rights bodies is also assessed based on these two benchmarks. The present article examines these issues in relation to individual complaint procedures that deal with the violation of ESC rights, with particular reference to the case laws of the three jurisdictions selected for this work, i.e. the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems.

Receptions of the Past: Commemoration, Racism, Desire

Somatechnics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-303
Author(s):  
Michael Connors Jackman
Keyword(s):  
Critical Point ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
White Privilege ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
The Body ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Lesbian And Gay ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

This article investigates the ways in which the work of The Body Politic (TBP), the first major lesbian and gay newspaper in Canada, comes to be commemorated in queer publics and how it figures in the memories of those who were involved in producing the paper. In revisiting a critical point in the history of TBP from 1985 when controversy erupted over race and racism within the editorial collective, this discussion considers the role of memory in the reproduction of whiteness and in the rupture of standard narratives about the past. As the controversy continues to haunt contemporary queer activism in Canada, the productive work of memory must be considered an essential aspect of how, when and for what reasons the work of TBP comes to be commemorated. By revisiting the events of 1985 and by sifting through interviews with individuals who contributed to the work of TBP, this article complicates the narrative of TBP as a bluntly racist endeavour whilst questioning the white privilege and racially-charged demands that undergird its commemoration. The work of producing and preserving queer history is a vital means of challenging the intentional and strategic erasure of queer existence, but those who engage in such efforts must remain attentive to the unequal terrain of social relations within which remembering forms its objects.

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