Production of a newly discovered PHA family member with an isobutyrate-fed enrichment culture

Using microbial enrichment cultures for the production of waste-derived polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) is a promising technology to recover secondary resources. Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) form the preferred substrate for PHA production. Isobutyrate is a VFA appearing in multiple waste valorization routes, such as anaerobic fermentation, chain elongation, and microbial electrosynthesis, but has never been assessed individually on its PHA production potential. This research investigates isobutyrate as sole carbon source for a microbial enrichment culture in comparison to its structural isomer butyrate. The results reveal that the enrichment of isobutyrate has a very distinct character regarding microbial community development, PHA productivity, and even PHA composition. Although butyrate is a superior substrate in almost every aspect, this research shows that isobutyrate-rich waste streams have a noteworthy PHA-producing potential. The main finding is that the dominant microorganism, a Comamonas sp., is linked to the production of a unique PHA family member, poly(3-hydroxyisobutyrate) (PHiB), up to 37% of the cell dry weight. This is the first scientific report identifying microbial PHiB production, demonstrating that mixed microbial communities can be a powerful tool for discovery of new metabolic pathways and new types of polymers. Key points • PHiB production is a successful storage strategy in an isobutyrate-fed SBR • Isomers isobutyrate and butyrate reveal a very distinct PHA production behavior • Enrichments can be a tool for discovery of new metabolic pathways and polymers Graphical abstract

The Fungal Communities and Flavor Profiles in Different Types of High-Temperature Daqu as Revealed by High-Throughput Sequencing and Electronic Senses

Polymicrobial co-fermentation is among the distinct character of high-temperature Daqu. However, fungal communities in the three types of high-temperature Daqu, namely, white high-temperature Daqu, black high-temperature Daqu, and yellow high-temperature Daqu, are yet to be characterized. In this study, the fungal diversity, taste, and aroma profiles in the three types of high-temperature Daqu were investigated by Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing, electronic tongue, and electronic nose, respectively. Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were detected as the absolute dominant fungal phylum in all types of high-temperature Daqu samples, whereas Thermomyces, Thermoascus, Aspergillus, Rasamsonia, Byssochlamys, and Trichomonascus were identified as the dominant fungal genera. The fungal communities of the three types of high-temperature Daqu differed significantly (p < 0.05), and Thermomyces, Thermoascus, and Monascus could serve as the biomarkers in white high-temperature Daqu, black high-temperature Daqu, and yellow high-temperature Daqu, respectively. The three types of high-temperature Daqu had an extremely significant difference (p < 0.01) in flavor: white high-temperature Daqu was characterized by sourness, bitterness, astringency, richness, methane, alcohols, ketones, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur organic compounds; black high-temperature Daqu was characterized by aftertaste-A, aftertaste-B, methane-aliph, hydrogen, and aromatic compounds; and yellow high-temperature Daqu was characterized by saltiness, umami, methane, alcohols, ketones, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur organic compounds. The fungal communities in the three types of high-temperature Daqu were significantly correlated with taste but not with aroma, and the aroma of high-temperature Daqu was mainly influenced by the dominant fungal genera including Trichomonascus, Aspergillus, Thermoascus, and Thermomyces. The result of the present study enriched and refined our knowledge of high-temperature Daqu, which had positive implications for the development of traditional brewing technique.

Enabling quality of urban spaces in Cairo’s new suburban settlements: a community character approach for New Cairo, Egypt

A global concern claims that activities and functions that once filled traditional public spaces are privatized being less and less oriented to the public. In Cairo’s new settlements, public spaces don’t seem to contribute to its public life. Each community’s most valuable assets are the ones they already have; thus, urbanisms advocate the role of retaining traditional street patterns, vistas, and landscape of a community’s distinct character. The research aim is to identify design attributes to be added to the literature in terms of designing public spaces for the specific cultural context of Cairo, Egypt, and its new suburban settlements. The methodology then follows a comparative analysis study to reach the desired objectives of buildings a community character approach. In an exploratory method, two case studies of public spaces in Cairo are chosen following a purposive selection most relevant to the study. The target is to choose two cases in proximity for users to be familiar with the two of them and enable a reliable comparison. It then conducts a survey that involves the user’s evaluation of their public spaces in correlation to their needs. Jan Gehl’s twelve criteria are adopted by this paper’s field investigation for the assessment of public spaces’ quality. Findings of the study include an elaboration on Jan Gehl’s twelve criteria either by highlighting the importance of existing aspects or the addition of further criteria that showed value to public space quality and their users. The findings provide guidelines that help in designing quality public spaces in Cairo’s new settlements. The added value from this study is in identifying a set of factors or attributes that consider users’ needs for a given cultural context.

Sustainable Urban Development for Costal City Case Study: Bourg El-Bourols City

Comprehensive urban development varies from place to place according to the different natural environment, unplanned urban development on coastal cities led to an urban disruption and random possession of lands, Burj Al-Burullus is a coastal city with high environmental sensitivity and has many environmental, social, and cultural systems that qualify it to be a development area with a distinct character. The challenges of urban development represent the biggest challenge to development in the region. Despite the presence of many development plans in the region, there is no clear methodology that considers the resources and the distinct potentials of these areas to make use of them in solving the problems that hinder development. The research presents an attempt to reach a mechanism through which sustainable urban development can be achieved in all economic, social, and demographic aspects. In addition, it contributes to formulating a vision and developing a strategy to achieve sustainable urban development, with the participation of economic institutions in a way that stimulates these institutions to invest. The research studies and evaluates the current reality of Burj Al-Burullus city using GIS in terms of the characteristics and activities of the city and explores its developmental reality. The research attempts to find appropriate urban solutions to overcome these urban challenges and develop plans to be used as a link between the challenges and development results and to be followed in the development of the region and similar areas.

Eliminating Human Agency: Why Does Japan Abandon Predictive Simulations?

Prediction plays a vital role in every branch of our contemporary lives. While the credibility of quantitative simulations through mathematical modeling may seem to be universal, how they are perceived and embedded in policy processes may vary by society. Investigating the ecology of quantitative prediction tools, this article articulates the cultural specificity of Japanese society through the concept of Jasanoff’s “civic epistemology.” Taking COVID-19 and nuclear disasters as examples, this article examines how predictive simulations are mobilized, contested, and abandoned. In both cases, current empirical observation eventually replaces predictive future simulations, and mechanical application of preset criteria substitutes political judgment. These analyses suggest that the preferred register of objectivity in Japan—one of the constitutive dimensions of civic epistemology—consists not in producing numerical results, but in precluding human judgment. Such public calls to eliminate human agency both in knowledge and in policy-making can be a distinct character of Japanese civic epistemology, which may explain why Japan repeatedly withdraws from predictive simulations. It implies the possibility that Western societies’ faith in human judgment should not be taken for granted, but explained.

История и поэтика карачаево-балкарской загадки

Introduction. The riddle which reflects the world outlook of the people is a popular genre in the Karachay-Balkar folklore. However, the richest materials collected over decades have not been studied so far. The present study aims at examining the history and poetics of the Karachay-Balkar riddle drawing on the works of leading foreign and Russian theorists. This has involved i) the discussion of the socio-cultural factors that were conducive to the emergence of the genre, ii) the description of the five principal thematic circles, iii) the analysis of the key structural formulas of the Karachay-Balkar riddle, and iv) the description of the expressive language of the puzzle. Data and research methods. Academic collections, including pre-revolutionary sources, were used as the database for the research, which involved comparative-historical, system-structural, semiotic, textological, and analytical methods. Results. The Karachay-Balkar puzzle may be seen as a bilateral artistic subculture, with one side facing the archetypal invariant, and the other characterized by variability, granted the historical and geographical contexts, the landscape of the North Caucasus, the life, and the culture of the highlanders. The conceptualization of the world in riddles involves five main ontological conceptual spheres: anthropocentric, ethnocultural, natural, cosmogonic, mental, and ethical. The riddle images are most often associated with ethnically marked objects. The distinct character of the Karachay-Balkar riddle is due to frequent use of rhymed poetic forms, verse formulas, proper names, as well as to a wealth of their expressive devices (metaphor, comparison, alliteration, antithesis, sarcasm, and humor). Also, the riddles have a great pedagogical potentiality. Conclusions. The analysis of the Karachay-Balkar riddles resulted in identifying the distinct features in the conceptualizations of the world by the North Caucasian highlanders, as well as in drawing a picture of their values in the material and spiritual spheres.

A histological investigation of dental crown characters used in mosasaur phylogenetic analyses

Mosasaur researchers have used varieties of tooth crown ornamentation as diagnostic and phylogenetic characters for decades. Such tooth crown features include facets, flutes, striations, serrated carinae, and coarse anastomosing texture. This study investigates the relative contribution of dentine and enamel to the development of these dental characters and assesses possible homologies between these structures. Histological analysis of isolated mosasaur teeth revealed that flutes and facets develop initially from the dentine, and the external enamel morphology we observe macroscopically mirrors the shape the underlying dentine. Striations combine underlying contributions from the dentine with additional and irregular enamel deposition that results strictly from amelogenesis. In both serrated carinae and anastomosing texture the border between the dentine and the enamel is smooth, and these external ornamentations form through variations in enamel development. Based on these observations, we infer that flutes and facets are part of a morphological spectrum and should not be treated as separate phylogenetic characters. Conversely, striations develop differently than flutes and facets, and should therefore be treated as a distinct character. We recommend referring to the “serrations” on mosasaur carinae as crenulations to differentiate these enamel-only structures from true denticles possessing a dentine core. Anastomosing texture can also coincide with significant apical thickening, both of which could be adaptations for processing hard-shelled prey. Care must be taken when using tooth crown features as diagnostic or phylogenetic characters because seemingly different morphologies can have similar developmental origins, and tooth morphology can be more closely tied to diet than to common ancestry.

The Characterization of Stratigraphic Play in Middle Baong Sand for Hydrocarbon Prospecting in Offshore North Sumatera Basin

Pertamina EP is operating a small block in Offshore North Sumatera Basin where a couple of the fields are producing gas and condensate from the Belumai Carbonate. However, the wells production is depleting and several delineation wells are unable to find additional reserves, it is important to find a new play within the block. Few discoveries in the Middle Baong Sand (MBS) reservoir suggested a promising stratigraphic play to be explored, but it requires more detailed characterization of the reservoir extent. The Malacca strait-sourced MBS consists of several deposited sand packages during a mega sequence. The term MBS might represent a deltaic environment from a transgressive system tract of some marine shore bar or a basin floor fan. Each system has a distinct character (thickness, net to gross ratio, distribution) that must be evaluated before proposing an exploration well. The depositional environment and reservoir distribution are interpreted and modeled using regional 2D seismic and high-quality 3D seismic. Paleo-bathymetric interpretation from well samples shows a good correlation with the palinspastic reconstruction. The result shows that the Pertamia EP working area is located in the shore bar depositional environment. Seismic attributes are used to delineate reservoir distribution within the working block and well logs are used to constrain prospective sand bodies and water zones identification. Furthermore, source rock maturation and migration path and hydrocarbon occurrence from the discovery wells have been evaluated for hydrocarbon prospecting and risking. This study suggests a promising lead for hydrocarbon exploration in the study area and opens up a new opportunity for an underexplored play.

Generating Facial Character: A Systematic Method Accumulating Expressive Histories

I present a method to simulate facial character development by accumulating an expressive history onto a face. The model analytically combines facial features from Paul Ekman's seven universal facial expressions using a simple Markov chain algorithm. The output is a series of 3d digital faces created in Blender with Python. The results of this work show that systematically imprinting features from emotional expressions onto a neutral face transforms it into one with distinct character. This method could be applied to creative works that depend on character creation, ranging from figurative sculpture to game design, and allows the creator to incorporate chance into the creative process. I demonstrate the sculpture application in this paper with ceramic casts of the generated faces.

The Role of the Marketplace in the Post-Covid-19 City of Tomorrow

The role of the marketplace in a city changes from decade to decade. They lose their significance or followings clients’ demands they expand their range of services, creating a unique character and brand. These are places of culture-creating potential, not only of fulfilling basic shopping needs. Six marketplaces of distinct character and impact on the community have been analyzed in order to present their development potential as well as occurring problems. The challenge for many marketplaces, especially smaller ones and those in small towns is the effective development strategy, taking into account current social expectations and consumer trends. When left without a clear vision of the future they often succumb to the competition. On the other hand, when properly developed and transformed they influence the identity of a district or city increasing its multi-functionality. Marketplaces may play a significant role in social integration processes and revitalization of the urban environment in the post-Covid-19 city of tomorrow.