The effect of natural preferences on serving biomechanics: a new approach to the motor skills of tennis players

Research has demonstrated the existence of two 'natural preference' profiles in running. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of the natural preferences of ground (with a "posterior and flexion" movement) and air (with an "anterior and extension" movement) on the ball speed and impact position during the service of 19 professional players. The results allow to propose a new reading grid of the service technique to consider the preferential motricity of each player while respecting the biomechanical principles

Honeybees adjust colour preferences in response to concurrent social information from conspecifics and heterospecifics

Bees efficiently learn asocial and social cues to optimise foraging from fluctuating floral resources. However, it remains unclear how bees respond to divergent sources of social information, and whether such social cues might modify bees’ natural preferences for non-social cues (e.g. flower colour), hence affecting foraging decisions. Here, we investigated honeybees’ (Apis mellifera) inspection and choices of unfamiliar flowers based on both natural colour preferences and simultaneous foraging information from conspecifics and heterospecifics. Individual honeybees’ preferences for flowers were recorded when the reward levels of a learned flower type had declined and novel-coloured flowers were available where they would find either no social information or one conspecific and one heterospecific (Bombus terrestris), each foraging from a different coloured flower (magenta or yellow). Honeybees showed a natural preference for magenta flowers. Honeybees modified their inspection of both types of flowers in response to conspecific and heterospecific social information. The presence of either demonstrator on the less-preferred yellow flower increased honeybees’ inspection of yellow flowers. Conspecific social information influenced observers’ foraging choices of yellow flowers, thus outweighing their original preference for magenta flowers. This effect was not elicited by heterospecific social information. Our results indicate that flower colour preferences of honeybees are rapidly adjusted in response to conspecific social information, which in turn is preferred over heterospecific information, possibly favouring the transmission of adaptive foraging information within species.

Potential of Genetically- Modified Measles Virus as A Treatment Modality For Carcinoma: A Review

Malignancy is a disease in which cell division is uncontrolled and prognosis is often poor. Despite recent advances in the felid of medicine the life expectancy after the diagnosis of advanced stages of cancers has high mortality rates . The traditional methods of treatment have low curative effects and high risk of side effects. Further the possibility of re-occurrence is not completely eliminated by any of the conventional methods of treatment. Thus, a technique that affects only the tumour cells without leaving behind any cancer initiator cells must be deviced. Recently genetically modified variants of measles virus were used to cure multiple myeloma .The idea to use of measles virus dates back to 1950’s.Constant research has lead the advent of a branch known as oncolytic virotheraphy . Precise targeting of cancer cells is one of the dominant advantages of cancer therapy through virus and it can be achieved in multiple manners. A few viruses such as exclusively replicating mumps virus, moloney leukemia virus, parvoviruses, reovirus, newcastle disease virus have a natural preference for malignant cells, whereas vesicular stomatitis adenovirus, virus, measles, vaccinia and herpes simplex virus can be adapted or engineered to make them cancer-specific.

Are monkeys intuitive Aristotelians? Associations between target size and vertical target position in long-tailed macaques

Different hypotheses have been put forward to explain the interaction between size perception and spatial position. To explore the evolutionary roots of these phenomena, we tested long-tailed macaques' performance in a two-choice discrimination task on a touchscreen and contrasted two hypotheses. First, a hierarchy association in which large objects are associated with top positions, due to a link between power, dominance and importance with top position. Second, a naive Aristotelian association in which large objects are associated with bottom positions, due to the experience that larger objects are heavier and thus more likely to be found at the bottom. Irrespective of training regime (positively reinforcing the small (Touch-Small) or large (Touch-Large) stimulus), the monkeys had a bias to touch the bottom compared to the top location. Individuals in the Touch-Small group took significantly longer to acquire the task, but subsequently made fewer mistakes. When presented with two stimuli of equal medium size, the Touch-Large group had a clear bias to touch the lower stimulus, while the Touch-Small group touched both locations at equal rates. Our findings point to an innate bias towards larger stimuli and a natural preference for the lower position, while the extent of interaction between size and position depends on executive control requirements of a task.

Retargeting of Viruses to Generate Oncolytic Agents

Oncolytic virus therapy is based on the ability of viruses to effectively infect and kill tumor cells without destroying the normal tissues. While some viruses seem to have a natural preference for tumor cells, most viruses require the modification of their tropism to specifically enter and replicate in such cells. This review aims to describe the transductional targeting strategies currently employed to specifically redirect viruses towards surface receptors on tumor cells. Three major strategies can be distinguished; they involve (i) the incorporation of new targeting specificity into a viral surface protein, (ii) the incorporation of a scaffold into a viral surface protein to allow the attachment of targeting moieties, and (iii) the use of bispecific adapters to mediate targeting of a virus to a specified moiety on a tumor cell. Of each strategy key features, advantages and limitations are discussed and examples are given. Because of their potential to cause sustained, multiround infection—a desirable characteristic for eradicating tumors—particular attention is given to viruses engineered to become self-targeted by the genomic expression of a bispecific adapter protein.

Biblische Passionen als Herausforderung. Verhandlung, emotionale Entschärfung und Rekonstruktion des Abrahamsopfers im Koran

Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, the “binding of Isaac”, already in early Church tradition was discovered as the prototype of the Christian passion story, Abraham figuring as the “type” of God Father, Isaac as the “type” of Christ. The Biblical story which is told in a strongly emotional tone, thus was to find its continuation in a passion story loaded with triggers of emotion. What is less well known is that the story has equally strongly affected the emergence of the third monotheist religion, Islam. Its formative impact on the Qur’anic concepts of sacrifice on the one hand and on the critique of genealogy as a source of authority on the other has until now not been exhaustingly studied. The paper attempts to locate the “passion story of Abraham’s sacrifice” within the Qur’anic development which finally came to rank Abraham as the most significant model of a monotheist believer, a precursor of the Prophet Muhammad. Here, the figure of Abraham at the same time features as a counter-model to the image of Abraham established in Christianity. To blur the image of the emotionally loaded prototype of God Father in the Christian passion story, the Qur’anic Abraham was required to defy any sacrificial pathos (generated by the “un-natural” preference of loyalty toward God over his paternal love) and to perform an act of mere faithfulness – being exculpated from the monstrosity of child sacrifice thanks to his son’s agreement to participate in the act.

The Role Of The Audit And Agency Theory

The audit function exists to monitor the activities of management and to attest to managements performance. The cost of the audit function is an example of an agency cost. This article discusses the role of the audit function within the context of agency relationships. Such relationships exist when one party is retained to act on behalf of and in the interest of another party. Given the natural preference to maximize ones own utility, conflicts are bound to arise. Knowledge of such potential conflicts can serve to reduce the cost of the resolution of these conflicts.