Structural and Narrative Reconstruction of Rural Residents’ Representations of ‘Nature’, ‘Wildlife’, and ‘Landscape’

The objective of this paper is the structural and narrative reconstruction of representations of ‘nature’, ‘wildlife’ and ‘landscape’, held by rural residents of the Dadia Forest Reserve. Data collection involved in-depth interviews. Employing a social representations’ approach, we recovered representational elements that are expected in the case of rural belief systems, such as negative dispositions towards wolves and foxes, as well as elements of an urban adherence, such as nature’s independence. Representational elements refer to visual aspects of the countryside, which seem compatible with the figurative nucleus of the rural idyll. Concerning ‘wildlife’, residents focused on vultures, which comprise the main tourist attraction of the reserve. Scientific knowledge adds to the complexity of the narrative schema, which corresponds to the representation of ‘wildlife’. Interviewees perceived the rural landscape as an interface between the natural and the human-conditioned environment. Our study shows that interviewees make no reference to environmental conservation or quality of life issues, as it could be expected according to relatively wide definitions of the term ‘environmentalism’. Environmental messages reinforced by ecotourism development seem to be recalled primarily in terms of their compatibility with the perceived economic benefit of local people. Despite ecotourism development, representational elements that diverge from a tourist version of ‘nature’, ‘wildlife’ and ‘landscape’ were not pronounced within rural belief-systems. Further interventions within the study area are needed, in order to address a variety of topics under the environmental conservation discourse and raise the environmental awareness of rural residents.     

Non-Enzymatic Oligomerization of 3’, 5’ Cyclic AMP

Recent studies illustrate that short oligonucleotide sequences can be easily produced from nucleotide precursors in a template-free non-enzymatic way under dehydrating conditions, i.e. using essentially dry materials. Here we report that 3’,5’ cyclic AMP may also serve as a substrate of the reaction, which proceeds under moderate conditions yet with a lower efficiency than the previously reported oligomerization of 3’,5’ cyclic GMP. Optimally the oligomerization requires (i) a temperature of 80°C, (ii) a neutral to alkaline environment and (iii) a time on the order of weeks. Differences in the yield and required reaction conditions of the oligomerizations utilizing 3’,5’ cGMP and cAMP are discussed in terms of the crystal structures of the compounds. Polymerization of 3’,5’ cyclic nucleotides, whose paramount relevance in a prebiotic chemistry context has been widely accepted for decades, supports the possibility that the origin of extant genetic materials might have followed a direct uninterrupted path since its very beginning, starting from non-elaborately pre-activated monomer compounds and simple reactions.     

Antimicrobial efficacy of some N,N’-Dialkyl-N,N’-dimethyl-1, 6-hexanediamine dioxides

A total of 17 N,N'-dialkyl-N,N'-dimethyl-1,6-hexanediamine dioxides were tested for activity against three microorganisms. A relationship was found between the length of the alkyl substituent and antimicrobial activity.     

2’,3’-Cyclic Nucleotide 3’-Phosphodiesterases Inhibit Hepatitis B Virus Replication

2’,3’-cyclic nucleotide 3’-phosphodiesterase (CNP) is a member of the interferon-stimulated genes, which includes isoforms CNP1 and CNP2. CNP1 is locally expressed in the myelin sheath but CNP2 is additionally expressed at low levels outside the nervous system. CNPs regulate multiple cellular functions and suppress protein production by association with polyadenylation of mRNA. Polyadenylation of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) RNAs is crucial for HBV replication. Whether CNPs interact with polyadenylation signal of HBV RNAs and interfere HBV replication is unknown. In this study, we evaluated expressions of CNP isoforms in hepatoma cell lines and their effects on HBV replication. We found that CNP2 is moderately expressed and gently responded to interferon treatment in HepG2, but not in Huh7 cells. The CNP1 and CNP2 potently inhibited HBV production by blocking viral proteins synthesis and reducing viral RNAs, respectively. In chronic hepatitis B patients, CNP was expressed in most of HBV-infected hepatocytes of liver specimens. Knockdown of CNP expression moderately improved viral production in the HepG2.2.15 cells treated with IFN-α. In conclusion, CNP might be a mediator of interferon-induced response against HBV.     

Données nouvelles sur la stratigraphie du Miocènede St Florent (Corse)

Up to now the top of the marine miocenic sediments 0205 was thought to be white limestones, the so-called “molasses blanches, which stratigraphic position has been modified according to previous authors from the Langhian to Tortonian. We found, overlying the «molasses blanches, a thin marly-sandy formation very well dated of the top of the Langhian by microfauna and nannoplancton. This formation represents the most recent marine miocenic deposits known at this time in the St Florent basin.     

Fluctuation Scaling,Taylor’s Law,and Crime

Fluctuation scaling relationships have been observed in a wide range of processes ranging from internet router traffic to measles cases. Taylor’s law is one such scaling relationship and has been widely applied in ecology to understand communities including trees, birds, human populations, and insects. We show that monthly crime reports in the UK show complex fluctuation scaling which can be approximated by Taylor’s law relationships corresponding to local policing neighborhoods and larger regional and countrywide scales. Regression models applied to local scale data from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire found that different categories of crime exhibited different scaling exponents with no significant difference between the two regions. On this scale, violence reports were close to a Poisson distribution (α = 1.057±0.026) while burglary exhibited a greater exponent (α = 1.292±0.029) indicative of temporal clustering. These two regions exhibited significantly different pre-exponential factors for the categories of anti-social behavior and burglary indicating that local variations in crime reports can be assessed using fluctuation scaling methods. At regional and countrywide scales, all categories exhibited scaling behavior indicative of temporal clustering evidenced by Taylor’s law exponents from 1.43±0.12 (Drugs) to 2.094±0081 (Other Crimes). Investigating crime behavior via fluctuation scaling gives insight beyond that of raw numbers and is unique in reporting on all processes contributing to the observed variance and is either robust to or exhibits signs of many types of data manipulation.     

Neuroinflammation,Gut Microbiome,and Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that develops insidiously and causes dementia finally. There are also clinical complications in advanced dementia, such as eating problems, infections, which will lead to the decline of patients’ life quality, and the rising cost of care for AD to our society. AD will be important public health challenge. Early detection of AD may be a key issue to prevent, delay, and stop the disease. Gut microbiome and neuroinflammation are closely related with nervous system diseases, although the specific mechanism is not clear. This review introduces the relationship between neuroinflammation, gut microbiome, and AD.     

Magic,semantics, and Putnam’s vat brains

In this paper we offer an exegesis of Hilary Putnam’s classic argument against the brain-in-a-vat hypothesis offered in his Reason, truth and history (1981). In it, Putnam argues that we cannot be brains in a vat because the semantics of the situation make it incoherent for anyone to wonder whether they are a brain in a vat. Putnam’s argument is that in order for ‘I am a brain in a vat’ to be true, the person uttering it would have to be able to refer successfully to those things: the vat, and the envatted brain. Putnam thinks that reference can’t be secured without relevant kinds of causal relations, which, if envatted, the brain would lack, and so, it fails to be able to meaningfully utter ‘I am a brain in a vat’. We consider the implications of Putnam’s arguments for Cartesian scepticism and suggest that there may yet be some ways out of Putnam’s arguments for the traditional sceptic. In conclusion, we discuss the role of Putnam’s arguments against the brain in a vat hypothesis in his larger defense of his own internal realism against metaphysical realism.     

Assessment of Biology Majors’ Versus Nonmajors’ Views on Evolution, Creationism, and Intelligent Design

The controversy around evolution, creationism, and intelligent design resides in a historical struggle between scientific knowledge and popular belief. Four hundred seventy-six students (biology majors n = 237, nonmajors n = 239) at a secular liberal arts private university in Northeastern United States responded to a five-question survey to assess their views about: (1) evolution, creationism, and intelligent design in the science class; (2) students’ attitudes toward evolution; (3) students’ position about the teaching of human evolution; (4) evolution in science exams; and (5) students’ willingness to discuss evolution openly. There were 60.6% of biology majors and 42% of nonmajors supported the exclusive teaching of evolution in the science class, while 45.3% of nonmajors and 32% of majors were willing to learn equally about evolution, creationism, and intelligent design (question 1); 70.5% of biology majors and 55.6% of nonmajors valued the factual explanations evolution provides about the origin of life and its place in the universe (question 2); 78% of the combined responders (majors plus nonmajors) preferred science courses where evolution is discussed comprehensively and humans are part of it (question 3); 69% of the combined responders (majors plus nonmajors) had no problem answering questions concerning evolution in science exams (question 4); 48.1% of biology majors and 26.8% of nonmajors accepted evolution and expressed it openly, but 18.2% of the former and 14.2% of the latter accepted evolution privately; 46% of nonmajors and 29.1% of biology majors were reluctant to comment on this topic (question 5). Combined open plus private acceptance of evolution within biology majors increased with seniority, from freshman (60.7%) to seniors (81%), presumably due to gradual exposure to upper-division biology courses with evolutionary content. College curricular/pedagogical reform should fortify evolution literacy at all education levels, particularly among nonbiologists.     

A representative, highly informative ’genotyping set’ of barley SSRs

We have developed a ’genotyping set’ of 48 SSR-based genetic markers for application in genetical studies of barley. The SSRs are a subset of a collection of approximately 600 SSRs available to the barley research community. They have been specifically chosen according to the following criteria: (1) they are single locus; (2) their product quality is good under standard assay conditions; (3) they are distributed across the barley genome; and (4) they exhibit reasonably high polymorphic information content (PIC) values in the cultivated barley gene-pool. To maximise genotyping throughput, one of each SSR primer pair was 5′ end-labelled with either fam, hex or tet fluorochromes to allow automated data capture after running the samples on a DNA sequencer. SSR product sizes were assembled from a reference set of 24 barley genotypes which allowed the construction of ’graphical genotypes’ of each of the individual lines. The graphical genotypes provide a convenient tool for interrogating genetic similarity in the individuals surveyed. The product sizes were compared to those obtained from end-labelling one of the primers with ³³P and separating the products by denaturing PAGE followed by autoradiography. Although inconsistencies in size were common, they could generally be easily resolved. A reference manual for use of the ’genotyping set’ has been produced and is available as a PDF download file at http://www.scri.sari.ac.uk/ssr/pdf. These well-characterised barley SSRs, for the first time, provide a common set of robust PCR-based tools which can be used to integrate and compare information collected from fundamental and/or applied genetic studies on barley in different laboratories across the world. Received: 17 May 2000 / Accepted: 5 September 2000     

Autophagosomes,phagosomes, autolysosomes,phagolysosomes, autophagolysosomes… Wait,I’m confused

When an autophagosome or an amphisome fuse with a lysosome, the resulting compartment is referred to as an autolysosome. Some people writing papers on the topic of autophagy use the terms “autolysosome” and “autophagolysosome” interchangeably. We contend that these words should be used to denote 2 different compartments, and that it is worthwhile maintaining this distinction—the autophagolysosome has a particular origin in the process of xenophagy that makes it distinct from an autolysosome.