Plato on kinds of animals

Some biologists and philosophers of biology have seen in Plato an especially objectionable version of essentialism or topology. Although kinds of animals are mentioned in almost all of Plato's dialogues, in none of them is there an explicity stated doctrine of animal kinds. An examination of the dialogues has, moreover, failed to reveal some implicit but consistent and unambiguous view of kinds that Plato might have held.     

Likeness between respiratory responses on CO2 in conditions of natural breathing and voluntary-controlled mechanical ventilation

We did Read CO2 rebreathing tests in 8 adult males. Both at natural breathing, and at self-controlled mechanical ventilation, volunteers increased ventilation proportionally to growth end-tidal PCO2. Inside individual distinctions of responses to CO2 during controlled mechanical ventilation are result of the voluntary motor control.     

Norfloxacin Analogues: Drug Likeness,Synthesis, Biological,and Molecular Docking Assessment

Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry - Norfloxacin (I) and its 1,3,4-oxadiazole, thiazolidin-4-one, 1,3,4-oxadiazoline, 1,2,4-triazole, Schiff’s base, hydrazide and 1,3,4-thiadiazole...     

Likeness: a system for rapid retrieval of similar conformation of proteins and their spatial structures

We report a method for estimating the conformational likeness between any two proteins. Likeness is handled in terms of stochastic geometry, fuzzy logic and decision making theories. Using the method, a computer system LIKENESS was developed. The system does "real time" searching and spatial alignment of any PDB-available proteins. LIKENESS is accessible at URL: "http:@cl.sdsc.edu/".     

All Things in Mind: Panpsychist Elements in Spinoza, Deleuze, and Peirce

Benedict de Spinoza, C.S. Peirce, and Gilles Deleuze delineate a trajectory through the history of ideas in the dialogue about the potentials and limitations of panpsychism, the view that world is fundamentally made up of mind. As a parallel trajectory to the panpsychism debate in contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive psychology, this approach can inform and enrich the discussion of the role and scope of mind in the natural world. The philosophies of mind developed by Deleuze and Peirce are Spinozistic in their natural monism but move beyond Spinoza to explain mind as a part of the natural world in semiotic terms.     

Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas: plots must obey the laws they refer to and models shall describe biophysical reality!

In the companion paper, we discussed in details proper linearization, calculation of the inactive osmotic volume, and analysis of the results on the Boyle-vant’ Hoff plots. In this Letter, we briefly address some common errors and misconceptions in osmotic modeling and propose some approaches, namely: (1) inapplicability of the Kedem–Katchalsky formalism model in regards to the cryobiophysical reality, (2) calculation of the membrane hydraulic conductivity L_p in the presence of permeable solutes, (3) proper linearization of the Arrhenius plots for the solute membrane permeability, (4) erroneous use of the term “toxicity” for the cryoprotective agents, and (5) advantages of the relativistic permeability approach (RP) developed by us vs. traditional (“classic”) 2-parameter model.     

Isocostic Acid,a Promising Bioactive Agent from the Essential Oil of Inula viscosa (L.): Insights from Drug Likeness Properties,Molecular Docking and SAR Analysis

The chemical composition of the essential oil (LEO) and its volatile fractions (V₁–V₁₀) collected during the hydrodistillation process every 15 min from the fresh leaves of I. viscosa (L.), growing in Tunisia, were analyzed by GC‐FID and GC/MS. Eighty‐two compounds, representing 90.9–99.4 % of the total samples, were identified. The crude essential oil (LEO) and its fractions (V₁–V₁₀) were characterized by the presence of a high amount of oxygenated sesquiterpenes (82.7–95.8 %). Isocostic acid ( 1 ) was found to be the most abundant component (37.4–83.9 %) and was isolated from the same essential oil over silica gel column chromatography and identified by spectroscopic methods (¹H, ¹³C, DEPT 135 NMR and EI‐MS) and by comparison with literature data. Furthermore, the fresh leaves essential oil (LEO), its volatile fractions (V₁–V₁₀) as well as compound 1 were screened for their antibacterial, antityrosinase, anticholinesterase and anti‐5‐lipoxygenase activities. It was found that the isolated compound 1 exhibited an interesting antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 (MIC=32 μg/mL) and Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212 (MIC=32 μg/mL) and the highest antityrosinase activity (IC₅₀=13.82±0.87 μg/mL). Compound 1 was also found to be able to strongly inhibit 5‐lipoxygenase with an IC₅₀ value of 59.21±0.85 μg/mL. The bioactivity and drug likeness scores of compound 1 were calculated using Molinspiration software and interpreted, and the structure‐activity relationship (SAR) was discussed with the help of molecular docking analysis.     

ERRs and cancers: effects on metabolism and on proliferation and migration capacities

ERRs are orphan members of the nuclear receptor superfamily which, at least for ERRα and ERRγ display important roles in the control of various metabolic processes. On other hand, correlations have been found between the expression of ERRα and γ and diverse parameters of tumor progression in human cancers. Whereas it is tempting to speculate that ERR receptors act in tumors through the regulation of metabolism, recent data have suggested that they also may directly regulate tumor proliferation and progression independently of their effects on metabolism. The two aspects of tumoral functions of ERR receptors are the purpose of the present review.