The first true millipede—1306 legs long

The name “millipede” translates to a thousand feet (from mille “thousand” and pes “foot”). However, no millipede has ever been described with more than 750 legs. We discovered a new record-setting species of millipede with 1,306 legs, Eumillipes persephone, from Western Australia. This diminutive animal (0.95 mm wide, 95.7 mm long) has 330 segments, a cone-shaped head with enormous antennae, and a beak for feeding. A distant relative of the previous record holder, Illacme plenipes from California, it belongs to a different order, the Polyzoniida. Discovered 60 m below ground in a drill hole created for mineral exploration, E. persephone possesses troglomorphic features; it lacks eyes and pigmentation, and it has a greatly elongated body—features that stand in stark contrast to its closest surface-dwelling relatives in Australia and all other members of its order. Using phylogenomics, we found that super-elongation (> 180 segments) evolved repeatedly in the millipede class Diplopoda. The striking morphological similarity between E. persephone and I. plenipes is a result of convergent evolution, probably for locomotion in similar soil habitats. Discovered in the resource-rich Goldfields-Esperance region and threatened by encroaching surface mining, documentation of this species and conservation of its habitat are of critical importance.

Analysis of meiosis in Pristionchus pacificus reveals plasticity in homolog pairing and synapsis in the nematode lineage

Meiosis is conserved across eukaryotes yet varies in the details of its execution. Here we describe a new comparative model system for molecular analysis of meiosis, the nematode Pristionchus pacificus, a distant relative of the widely studied model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. P. pacificus shares many anatomical and other features that facilitate analysis of meiosis in C. elegans. However, while C. elegans has lost the meiosis-specific recombinase Dmc1 and evolved a recombination-independent mechanism to synapse its chromosomes, P. pacificus expresses both DMC-1 and RAD-51. We find that SPO-11 and DMC-1 are required for stable homolog pairing, synapsis, and crossover formation, while RAD-51 is dispensable for these key meiotic processes. RAD-51 and DMC-1 localize sequentially to chromosomes during meiotic prophase and show nonoverlapping functions. We also present a new genetic map for P. pacificus that reveals a crossover landscape very similar to that of C. elegans, despite marked divergence in the regulation of synapsis and crossing-over between these lineages.

Borrowing non-canonical inverse between Kabardian and Abaza

Abaza, a polysynthetic ergative Northwest Caucasian language, shares with its neighbour and distant relative Kabardian a typologically peculiar use of the deictic directional prefixes monitoring the relative ranking of the subject and indirect object on the person hierarchy. In both languages, the cislocative (‘hither’) prefixes are used if the indirect object outranks the subject on the person hierarchy, and the translocative (‘thither’) prefixes are used in combinations of first person subjects with second person singular indirect objects. This pattern, reminiscent of the more familiar inverse marking and hence called ‘quasi-inverse’, is observed with ditransitive and bivalent intransitive verbs and is almost fully redundant, since all participants are unequivocally indexed on verbs by pronominal prefixes. I argue that this isogloss, shared by West Circassian (a close relative to Kabardian) but not with Abkhaz, the sister-language of Abaza, is a result of pattern replication under intense language contact, which has led to an increase of both paradigmatic and syntagmatic complexity of Abaza verbal morphology.

Local Names of Wild Grapevine in Georgia and Its Ethnobotanical Use

Wild grapevine Vitis vinifera subsp. sylvestris (C.C.Gmel.) Hegi is a typical plant of Georgian flora, spread in our country. Consequently, a numerous number of local synonym names of this plant are available in different historical-ethnographic provinces of Georgia. Among these names ‘Krikina’, ‘Babilo’, ‘Mortskhula’, ‘Brdzghuamli’ and ‘Dzghvamli’ are more spread, having different spelling variations. The great contrubution of wild grape is that it, as an ancestor of cultivated grapevine, made the basis of grape breeding in Georgia and is a distant relative of our varieties. Besides, as it was demonstrated by the ethnobotanical research, due to long period present in the forests of Georgia the local people used this plant as a food (grape, pickles), a beverage (young fermented wine ‘Machari’, wine, grappa), a construction material (buildings, door for a church, breedge), a tool for washing Qvevri, a pollinator for grape cultivars, a honey plant, a rootstock, a planting material for vineyards.

Distant Relative Genetic Algorithm–Based Structural Reliability Optimization

In this study, safety margin explicit equation has been established using random variables (i.e., the engineering conditions, structure parameters, structural strength, and external load), and the genetic algorithm (GA)–based structural reliability optimization design has been addressed subsequently. Though the conventional adaptive GA can change automatically with fitness, it is still not unsatisfactory in sufficiently improving the algorithm convergence speed, especially for complex structures. This article presents an improved adaptive technology termed as the distant relative genetic algorithm (DRGA), in which the distant relative pointer and immunity operators can effectively improve the search performance of the GA. In early evolution, by means of cross controlling and avoiding pairing between individuals with the same genes, the methodology prevents the isogenic individuals expanding locally. Besides, the revised algorithm is able to jump out of the local optimal solution, thus ensuring the realization of a fast global convergence. An example based on wing box structure optimization has been demonstrated using the improved method, and the calculation results show that this strategy makes the GA more effective in dealing with the constraint optimization issues.

The Kaumoebavirus LCC10 Genome Reveals a Unique Gene Strand Bias among “Extended Asfarviridae”

Kaumoebavirus infects the amoeba Vermamoeba vermiformis and has recently been described as a distant relative of the African swine fever virus. To characterize the diversity and evolution of this novel viral genus, we report here on the isolation and genome sequencing of a second strain of Kaumoebavirus, namely LCC10. Detailed analysis of the sequencing data suggested that its 362-Kb genome is linear with covalently closed hairpin termini, so that DNA forms a single continuous polynucleotide chain. Comparative genomic analysis indicated that although the two sequenced Kaumoebavirus strains share extensive gene collinearity, 180 predicted genes were either gained or lost in only one genome. As already observed in another distant relative, i.e., Faustovirus, which infects the same host, the center and extremities of the Kaumoebavirus genome exhibited a higher rate of sequence divergence and the major capsid protein gene was colonized by type-I introns. A possible role of the Vermamoeba host in the genesis of these evolutionary traits is hypothesized. The Kaumoebavirus genome exhibited a significant gene strand bias over the two-third of genome length, a feature not seen in the other members of the “extended Asfarviridae” clade. We suggest that this gene strand bias was induced by a putative single origin of DNA replication located near the genome extremity that imparted a selective force favoring the genes positioned on the leading strand.

Moluccas Local Wisdom in the Role of Marriage Arbitrator for Preventing Domestic Violence

This research aims to reveal the Moluccas local wisdom through the existence of marriage arbitrators among Muslim community in Salahutu, Leihitu, and West Leihitu, Central Maluku. The data were collected through observation and interviews with community leaders, marriage arbitrators and their married sisters and then analyzed descriptively and qualitatively. The research results showed that the marriage arbitrators come from a male distant relative who was appointed by custom as a part of the marriage custom. The appointment aims to strengthen the family relationship between the bride (married sister) and the arbitrator in which they can help each other. Traditionally, an arbitrator serves to help the bride in both material and non-material aspects, particularly in preventing domestic violence. He can become a mediator, peacemaker, and helper of the economic hardship as well as preventing the married sister from psychological domestic violence. Furthermore, he can also provide protection for his married sister from the threat of her husband’s physical violence. This research found that the role of marriage arbitrators as peacemakers in preventing husband’s violence against their married sisters is relevant to hakamain concept in Islamic law as well as the provisions of "safe houses by the community," in Law No. 23/2004.(Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk mengungkapkan peran kearifan lokal saudara kawin pada masyarakat Muslim di Kecamatan Salahutu, Leihitu dan Leihitu Barat Kabupaten Maluku Tengah. Data dikumpulkan melalui observasi dan wawancara kepada tokoh masyarakat, saudara kawin dan saudari kawin kemudian dianalisis secara deskriptif kualitatif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa saudara kawin adalah laki-laki dari kerabat jauh yang diangkat secara adat sebagai bagian dari adat perkawinan. Hal itu bertujuan untuk mempererat hubungan kekeluargaan antara saudara kawin dengan saudari kawinnya di mana keduanya bias saling membantu. Secara adat, saudara kawin bertugas membantu mempelai perempuan (istri) dalam hal material maupun non-material, utamanya untuk mencegah tindak kekerasan dalam rumah tangga si saudari kawin. Saudara kawin bisa berperan sebagai penengah, juru damai, sekaligus membantu kesulitan ekonomi keluarga saudari kawinnya, termasuk mencegah terjadinya kekerasan psikis saudari kawinnya. Lebih jauh, saudara kawin juga bisa berperan melindungi saudari kawinnya dari ancaman kekerasan fisik suaminya. Temuan penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa peran saudara kawin sebagai juru damai yang mencegah kekerasan suami kepada istri relevan dengan konsep hakamain dalam hukum Islam serta ketentuan ”rumah aman oleh masyarakat,” dalam Undang-undang RI Nomor 23 Tahun 2004)

From Barber-Surgeon’s Son to Professor

Although the family’s movements within social hierarchy between 1526 and 1626 were multiple and complex, one turning point was particularly decisive, both for Matthieu and his future son François. It occurred in 1529, when Matthieu, aged perhaps about 6, left his birthplace of Saint-Denis and the barber-surgeon milieu in which he had always lived, going to study in Paris at the Collège du Cardinal Lemoine at the instigation of his distant relative François Vatable, who may earlier have undergone a similar social transformation himself. Matthieu became a Calvinist scholar, Professor of Philosophy, and chronologer. His representations, private or public, of his and his family’s social status attribute differing degrees of importance to it. The sharpness of the rupture with his early life seems to have enhanced his sense that his family, or part of it, stood out in a divine hierarchy, since it had been chosen by God for special scholarly purposes.

Chapter III: A Merry Evening with a Distant Relative

I was not so unreasonable as to be prejudiced against the duke’s keeper because he disliked my complexion; and if I had been, his most civil and obliging conduct (as it seemed to me to be) next morning would have disarmed me. Hearing that...