Ubiquity

From its invention to the internet age, photography has been considered universal, pervasive, and omnipresent. This anthology of essays posits how the question of when photography came to be everywhere shapes our understanding of all manner of photographic media. Whether looking at a portrait image on the polished silver surface of the daguerreotype, or a viral image on the reflective glass of the smartphone, the experience of looking at photographs and thinking with photography is inseparable from the idea of ubiquity—that is, the apparent ability to be everywhere at once. While photography’s distribution across cultures today is undeniable, the insidious logics and pervasive myths that have governed its spread demand our critical attention, now more than ever.

Ubiquity

From its invention to the internet age, photography has been considered universal, pervasive, and omnipresent. This anthology of essays posits how the question of when photography came to be everywhere shapes our understanding of all manner of photographic media. Whether looking at a portrait image on the polished silver surface of the daguerreotype, or a viral image on the reflective glass of the smartphone, the experience of looking at photographs and thinking with photography is inseparable from the idea of ubiquity—that is, the apparent ability to be everywhere at once. While photography’s distribution across cultures today is undeniable, the insidious logics and pervasive myths that have governed its spread demand our critical attention, now more than ever.

Stringent Primer Termination by an Archaeo-Eukaryotic DNA Primase

Priming of single stranded templates is essential for DNA replication. In recent years, significant progress was made in understanding how DNA primase fulfils this fundamental function, particularly with regard to the initiation. Equally intriguing is the unique property of archeao-eukaryotic primases to terminate primer formation at a well-defined unit length. The apparent ability to “count” the number of bases incorporated prior to primer release is not well understood, different mechanisms having been proposed for different species. We report a mechanistic investigation of primer termination by the pRN1 primase from Sulfolobus islandicus. Using an HPLC-based assay we determined structural features of the primer 5′-end that are required for consistent termination. Mutations within the unstructured linker connecting the catalytic domain to the template binding domain allowed us to assess the effect of altered linker length and flexibility on primer termination.

What multiple Mendelian randomization approaches reveal about obesity and gout

Background/Objectives: Gout is a painful arthritic disease. A robust canon of observational literature suggests strong relationships between obesity, high urate levels, and gout. But findings from observational studies can be fraught with confounding and reverse causation. They can conflict with findings from Mendelian randomization (MR), designed to tackle these biases. We aimed to determine whether the relationships between obesity, higher urate levels, and gout were causal using multiple MR approaches, including an investigation of how other closely related traits, LDL, HDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels fit into the picture. Subjects/Methods: Summary results from genome-wide association studies of the five above-mentioned traits were extracted and used to perform two-sample (univariable, multivariable, and two-step) MR and MR mediation analysis. Results Obesity increased urate (beta=0.127; 95% CI=0.098, 0.157; P-value=1.2E-17) and triglyceride levels (beta=0.082; 95% CI=0.065, 0.099; P-value=1.2E-21) and decreased HDL cholesterol levels (beta=-0.083; 95% CI=-0.101, -0.065; P-value=2.5E-19). Higher triglyceride levels increased urate levels (beta=0.198; 95% CI=0.146, 0.251; P-value=8.9E-14) and higher HDL levels decreased them (beta=-0.109; 95% CI=-0.148, -0.071; P-value=2.7E-08). Higher urate levels (OR=1.030; 95% CI=1.028, 1.032; P-value=1.1E-130) and obesity caused gout (OR=1.003; 95% CI=1.001, 1.004; P-value=1.3E-04). The mediation MR of obesity on gout with urate levels as a mediator revealed, however, that essentially all of the effect of obesity on gout is mediated through urate. The impact of obesity on LDL cholesterol was null (beta=-0.011; 95% CI=-0.030, 0.008; P-value=2.6E-01), thus it was not included in the multivariable MR. The multivariable MR of obesity, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides on urate levels revealed that obesity has an effect on urate levels even when accounting for HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Conclusions: Obesity impacts gout indirectly by influencing urate levels and possibly other traits, such as triglycerides, that increase urate levels. Obesity's impact on urate is exacerbated by its apparent ability to decrease HDL cholesterol.

Deception, Lying, and Lust

Primatologists have identified the apparent ability to deceive others in more dominant positions in order to gain sexual or other privileges. Evidence for the deliberative quality of deception in primates is much harder to assess. This chapter explores the biological capacity to deceive and shows how common it is among social animals even though relationships involving honest signalling are usually dominant. The chapter investigates the potential evolutionary roles for deception and how it plays out in the human sphere at different societal levels. Lying, however, which relies on language, brings in aspects to deception which are unique to our species. The human capacity for complex symbolic thought in which language emerges also influences the biocultural evolution of language and associated capacity for lying. Theological ethical debates about whether Thomas Aquinas ever permitted lying in situations where greater harm would ensue are worth considering in the light of the biological advantages of deception. Lust (illicit sexual desire) is another of the seven deadly sins and has been given perhaps greater pride of place in the Christian tradition because of a common interpretation of Augustine linking sex with original sin.

The neural basis of multitasking

As humans, we show striking adaptability in our behavioural repertoires. Despite this apparent ability to adapt and assimilate a large variety of behaviours to suit our current contexts, we show some striking limitations in how many tasks we can perform at any given moment. Although some behaviours can appear to be performed concurrently with ease, such as talking while walking, we show a stark inability to combine other tasks and skills; imagine compiling a grocery list while recalling your partner’s phone number. The observation that attempting to perform multiple tasks concurrently results in at least one of those tasks being performed more slowly, and with less accuracy, was among the first to be made when cognitive psychology was emerging as a scientific discipline (Telford 1931; Welford 1959). Interestingly, among these early observations, it was also noted that such performance costs can to some extent be reduced with practice (Telford 1931), suggesting malleability in how tasks are performed that carries consequences for multitasking operations. Since then, efforts have been made into understanding the nature of the putative operations that give rise to multitasking costs, the neural computations and architectures that instantiate those operations, and the neural and functional changes that drive improvements in multitasking performance. The aim of this chapter is to synthesise the in-roads that have been made into understanding the neural basis of multitasking costs and their practice-induced remediation, and to use that knowledge to propose the next steps forward in our understanding.

Others

The subject of others draws out some of the most significant differences among existentialist thinkers. This chapter shows how consideration of others for some existentialists, including Sartre and Beauvoir, begins with separation and potential opposition between self and others, while for other existentialists, including Heidegger and Marcel, being with others is intrinsic to our very being. Marcel’s critique of Sartre’s hostile rendering of the self-other relation is considered, along with the apparent ability of Sartre and Beauvoir to account in existential terms for human oppression, and the merits of Camus’s notion of rebellion on behalf of the freedom of others.

Anti-Pathogenic Functions of Non-Digestible Oligosaccharides In Vitro

Non-digestible oligosaccharides (NDOs), complex carbohydrates that resist hydrolysis by salivary and intestinal digestive enzymes, fulfill a diversity of important biological roles. A lot of NDOs are known for their prebiotic properties by stimulating beneficial bacteria in the intestinal microbiota. Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) represent the first prebiotics that humans encounter in life. Inspired by these HMO structures, chemically-produced NDO structures (e.g., galacto-oligosaccharides and chito-oligosaccharides) have been recognized as valuable food additives and exert promising health effects. Besides their apparent ability to stimulate beneficial microbial species, oligosaccharides have shown to be important inhibitors of the development of pathogenic infections. Depending on the type and structural characteristics, oligosaccharides can exert a number of anti-pathogenic effects. The most described effect is their ability to act as a decoy receptor, thereby inhibiting adhesion of pathogens. Other ways of pathogenic inhibition, such as interference with pathogenic cell membrane and biofilm integrity and DNA transcription, are less investigated, but could be equally impactful. In this review, a comprehensive overview of In vitro anti-pathogenic properties of different NDOs and associated pathways are discussed. A framework is created categorizing all anti-pathogenic effects and providing insight into structural necessities for an oligosaccharide to exert one of these effects.

STATE MACHINE MODEL OF HYPOTHESIZED VOLUNTARY ACTION SELECTION MECHANISM OF SUBSTANTIA NIGRA PARS COMPACTA AND LOCUS COERULEUS

A hypothesized voluntary action selection mechanism for the SNc and LC has been proposed that is based on the apparent ability of ferritin and neuromelanin to support electron transport in those tissues. (Rourk 2018; Rourk 2019). A state machine model is presented in this paper that provides an explanation for neural correlates of that hypothesized voluntary action selection mechanism to the human experience of consciousness.

Let's go swimming: mermithid-infected earwigs exhibit positive hydrotaxis

Certain species of parasites have the apparent ability to alter the behaviour of their host in order to facilitate the completion of their own life cycle. While documented in hairworms (phylum Nematomorpha), the ability for mermithid parasites (from the sister phylum Nematoda) to force hosts to enter water remains more enigmatic. Here, we present the first experimental evidence in a laboratory setting that an insect which normally never enters open water (the European earwig Forficula auricularia) will readily enter the water when infected with a mermithid nematode (Mermis nigrescens). Only adult mermithids appear capable of inducing this polarising shift in behaviour, with mermithid length being a very strong predictor of whether their host enters water. However, mermithid length was only weakly associated with how long it took an earwig to enter water following the beginning of a trial. Considering the evidence presented here and its alignment with a proteomic investigation on the same host–parasite system, this study provides strong evidence for adaptive behavioural manipulation and a foundational system for further behavioural and mechanistic exploration.