Advances in Xmipp for Cryo–Electron Microscopy: From Xmipp to Scipion

Xmipp is an open-source software package consisting of multiple programs for processing data originating from electron microscopy and electron tomography, designed and managed by the Biocomputing Unit of the Spanish National Center for Biotechnology, although with contributions from many other developers over the world. During its 25 years of existence, Xmipp underwent multiple changes and updates. While there were many publications related to new programs and functionality added to Xmipp, there is no single publication on the Xmipp as a package since 2013. In this article, we give an overview of the changes and new work since 2013, describe technologies and techniques used during the development, and take a peek at the future of the package.

Lingwistyka à la inter. Status i perspektywy badań interdyscyplinarnych

The interest of linguists in research findings from various fields of humanities and natural sciences is not waning. It has increased in recent years, inter alia, as a result of new ministerial regulations providing opportunities for more flexible evaluation of researchers and academic units. However, this interest stems primarily from the subject of linguistics itself. Linguists, having as their subject the linguistic and communicative properties of humans, cannot do without systematically following the results and research methods applied by the representatives of even those disciplines that only marginally take into account human beings, their genesis, nature, goals, or social functions. The interdisciplinary research involved here is simply natural for contemporary linguists. It is not easy to comprehensively present the initiatives resulting from such research in a single publication. The content of this work deals primarily with research that enjoys full acceptance in contemporary linguistic discourse. It is also full of innovative reflections on a number of relationships conceivable between linguistics and other sciences. These relationships are dealt with by the authors in the subject areas they have outlined.

Introduction

This book explains that after long periods of prehistoric research in which the importance of the archaeological as well as the natural context of rock art has been constantly underestimated, research has now begun to take this context into focus for documentation, analysis, interpretation and understanding. Human footprints are prominent among the long-time under-researched features of the context in caves with rock art. In order to compensate for this neglect an innovative research program has been established several years ago that focuses on the merging of indigenous knowledge and western archaeological science for the benefit of both sides. The book composes first the methodological diversity in the analysis of human tracks. Here major representatives of anthropological, statistical and traditional approaches feature the multi-layered methods available for the analysis of human tracks. It second compiles case studies from around the globe of prehistoric human. For the first time the most important sites which have been found worldwide are published in a single publication. The third focus of this book is on first hand experiences of researchers with indigenous tracking experts from around the globe, expounding on how archaeological science can benefit from the ancestral knowledge.

Non-invasive determination of uric acid in human saliva in the diagnosis of serious disorders

This review summarizes and critically evaluates the published approaches and recent trends in sample pre-treatment, as well as both separation and non-separation techniques used for the determination of uric acid (UA) in saliva. UA is the final product of purine nucleotide catabolism in humans. UA concentrations in biological fluids such as serum, plasma, and urine represent an important biomarker of diseases including gout, hyperuricemia, or disorders associated with oxidative stress. Previous studies reported correlation between UA concentrations detected in saliva and in the blood. The interest in UA has been increasing during the past 20 years from a single publication in 2000 to 34 papers in 2019 according to MEDLINE search using term “uric acid in saliva”. The evaluation of salivary UA levels can contribute to non-invasive diagnosis of many serious diseases. Increased salivary UA concentration is associated with cancer, HIV, gout, and hypertension. In contrast, low UA levels are associated with Alzheimer disease, progression of multiple sclerosis, and mild cognitive impairment.

On the identity of Trochosa hispanica (Araneae, Lycosidae), with notes on the synonymy of West Palaearctic “Trochosa” species

Specimens belonging to Trochosa hispanica Simon, 1870 collected in different parts of the range were compared to determine whether they belong to the same species or represent a series of cryptic species. No significant differences were found between different populations. Most of the females examined have a kind of mating plug blocking the pathway of embolus, but not the copulatory openings like in other spiders. A character previously unknown in the Lycosidae, a row of glabrous cuticular spots on male tibia I, is documented. The holotype female of Trochosa adjacens O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1885 from SW Xinjiang is illustrated for the first time. Three species described in three different genera in the same paper are synonymized with Trochosa hispanica: Arctosa nava Roewer, 1955 syn. n., Geolycosa flavichelis Roewer, 1955 syn. n., and Loculla austrocaspia Roewer, 1955 syn. n. Two species treated in Trochosa C.L. Koch, 1847 and Trochosula Roewer, 1960 are synonymized with Arctosa tbilisiensis Mcheidze, 1946: Trochosa impercussa Roewer, 1955 syn. n. and Trochosula afghana Roewer, 1960 syn. n. Three species are synonymized with Hogna ferox (Lucas, 1838): Geolycosa altera Roewer, 1955 syn. n., Geolycosa atroscopulata Roewer, 1955 syn. n., and Lycorma nigrichelis Roewer, 1955 syn. n. Lycosa (Trochosa) ochracea L. Koch, 1856 syn. n. from Spain, a species known by two taxonomic entries, is synonymized with Trochosa ruricola (De Geer, 1778). Trochosa hungarica Herman, 1879, a species known from a single publication, seems to belong to Geolycosa Montgomery, 1904 and is potentially a junior synonym of G. vultuosa (C.L. Koch, 1838). Pardosa persica (Roewer, 1955) comb. n., originally described in Dingosa Roewer, 1955, is transferred from Trochosa to Pardosa and belongs to the nebulosa-group. A new secondary homonym, Pardosa persica Marusik, Ballarin & Omelko, 2012, hom. n. is replaced with Pardosa persiana nom. n. in the monticola-group. Four species of Trochosa from Northern Africa are transferred to Alopecosa and Arctosa: Alopecosa garamantica (Caporiacco, 1936) comb. n., Alopecosa werneri (Roewer, 1960) comb. n., Arctosa annulipes (L. Koch, 1875) comb. n., and Arctosa tangerana (Roewer, 1960) comb. n. Trochosomma Roewer, 1960 syn. n. (type species Trochosa annulipes L. Koch, 1875) is removed from synonymy with Trochosa and synonymized with Arctosa C.L. Koch, 1847. Male lectotypes are designated for Arctosa nava Roewer, 1955, Geolycosa atroscopulata Roewer, 1955, and Trochosa rustica Thorell, 1875; female lectotype is designated for Geolycosa flavichelis Roewer, 1955.

Instrumentation and Orchestration

Instrumentation and orchestration refer to the body of technical knowledge required to arrange musical content for instrumental forces as well as the creative act of applying that knowledge with compositional intent. The usage of the words instrumentation and orchestration has not been consistent over time or between the European languages. For the purposes of this article, instrumentation refers to the body of knowledge about instruments: the mechanics of sound production and the techniques of performers. Orchestration refers to the use of technical knowledge to assign musical content to instruments in an ensemble to achieve a sonorous effect. Early writing on instrumentation is commingled with the related topics of organology, composition, and the professional duties of a Kapellmeister. By the early 19th century, ensembles coalesced into the familiar combination of manufactured instruments. The contemporaneous proliferation of conservatories created a market for useful handbooks written by composer-practitioners for a musically literate readership. As the title suggests, Hector Berlioz’s Grand traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration modernes combined both instrumentation and orchestration in a single publication that has remained arguably the most influential text of its kind, especially following the later revision by Richard Strauss. Conversely, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s Principles of Orchestration with Musical Examples Drawn from his Own Works presumes prior study in instrumentation to focus entirely on orchestration. In the 20th century, textbooks authored by specialists and educators with a firm grounding in pedagogical methods supplanted treatises by independent composers. More recent titles include style-based studies of repertoires broadened with techniques from historiography and research in music cognition.

Phatic meanings of key words in popular science journalism

The purpose of the research is to demonstrate the functioning of key words in the texts of popular science journalism. Modern media text is created not only to inform, but to attract the reader. This enlarges the role of contact-building means, for example – the address to the epoch key words. We consider the peculiarities of phatic meanings in popular science journalism, dedicated to the historic themes. The research contains the analysis of phatic meanings in two randomly chosen issues of historic magazines. The result of the analysis is the selection of two groups of key words, which make the journalistic text contain additional phatic meanings. The first group of words is the current key words, allowing relating the publication, containing the address to a historical event or a historical person, to the actual reality. This lexical group allows the journalist to make the publication politically critical and topical and also to evaluate the current political situation through the historical parallel. Such word usage allows including ironic subtext in the historical journalism. The second group of words is the key words of a single publication; they allow completely characterizing an event or a person, being in the center of a journalist’s attention. These are the words, which relate to the acute for the Russian culture value meanings. They stay aside with the complete semantics and characterize the speech subject, the journalist’s relation to it, but they do not relate the theme to the current political situation.

Post-Truth as a Rhetorical Phenomenon in Modern Media Space

The article considers the impact of CH. Perelman’s new rhetorical theory on post-truth phenomenon. Although the term “post-truth” appeared in the 1990s the peak of its popularity is the 2016–2020s. In 2016 the Oxford dictionary ranked it as the most used word in the media. The reason for this popularity according the most researchers is related to the spread and functioning of social networks where objective facts are less important in comparison with emotions and personal beliefs. The last five years are characterized by an increasing number of works in which the phenomenon of post-truth is investigated in the aspects of political science, social sociology, psychology, ethics. However, over the years not a single publication has appeared that treats post-truth as rhetorical phenomenon. The author of the article tries to fill this gap and highlight the main characteristic of post-truth rhetoric. Such features include a biased selection of facts and the way they are placed in media text, rigid scheme which includes four elements: a media person, criminal plot, step by step development of narrative and non-finished final. In the first of the scheme the media person can act as an organizer of an actual or imaginary event or as on object of extremal influence (a victim). The criminal nature of the plot is associated with a violation of the normal course of things. Moreover, such a violation should not be a one-time act but should assume development through the accumulation of new details. Also, to become a post-truth the event must contain the development potential associated with collision of opposite version explaining its meaning. In a situation of post-truth the role of the speaker in relation to audience changes. The speaker seeks not so much to join those who disagree with his point of view as to strengthen the split of the recipients who oppose each other. Thus, the post-truth as a method of information warfare and / or mastering the mass consciousness has become possible thanks to radical change in the media space excluding control over it. At the same time, its hidden premises appeal to the new rhetorical theory of Ch. Perelman.

The developmental needs of coaches and coachees

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the key findings, themes and concepts in coaching from the inception of the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education in early 2012 to the end of 2018. The review examines how coaching is theorized and practised in an educational context, and how coaching has evolved across educational disciplines. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on an analysis of research trends published in the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education from Volume 1 Issue 1 (2012) to Volume 7 Issue 4 (2018). The criterion according to which the articles were selected for inclusion in the literature review is whether the word “coaching” is used in the title, abstract or keywords. Findings Across a wide range of geographical and institutional contexts, the studies surveyed in this literature review point to the different ways in which coaching interventions support success in teaching and leadership. This review identifies three principal themes across the literature on coaching: confidence, trust and identity. Research limitations/implications The literature review is confined to studies published in a single publication and is therefore not representative of the entire field of coaching research. Practical implications The focus of this review is coaching in education. The review comprises a survey of research concepts, innovation and creativity in the area of coaching and education. It highlights advances in the field of coaching and education and points to areas of development for future research. Originality/value By bringing together existing research in a number of areas across the field of coaching, this literature review provides a coherent overview of a rapidly evolving and diverse field.