The Geist of Modern Anthropology

Book reviewed in this article: John H. Zammito. Kant, Herder and the Birth of Anthropology. Andrew Zimmerman. Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial Germany.     

Prevalence of T790M mutation among TKI-therapy resistant Lebanese lung cancer patients based on liquid biopsy analysis: a first report from a major tertiary care center

Molecular Biology Reports - Lung adenocarcinoma patients have variable prognosis due to many factors. Detection of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activating mutations is one of the factors...     

Critical Role of Polymer Aggregation and Miscibility in Nonfullerene‐Based Organic Photovoltaics

Understanding the correlation between polymer aggregation, miscibility, and device performance is important to establish a set of chemistry design rules for donor polymers with nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs). Employing a donor polymer with strong temperature‐dependent aggregation, namely PffBT4T‐2OD [poly[(5,6‐difluoro‐2,1,3‐benzothiadiazol‐4,7‐diyl)‐alt‐(3,3″′‐di(2‐octyldodecyl)‐2,2′;5′,2″;5″,2″′‐quaterthiophen‐5,5‐diyl)], also known as PCE‐11 as a base polymer, five copolymer derivatives having a different thiophene linker composition are blended with the common NFA O‐IDTBR to investigate their photovoltaic performance. While the donor polymers have similar optoelectronic properties, it is found that the device power conversion efficiency changes drastically from 1.8% to 8.7% as a function of thiophene content in the donor polymer. Results of structural characterization show that polymer aggregation and miscibility with O‐IDTBR are a strong function of the chemical composition, leading to different donor–acceptor blend morphology. Polymers having a strong tendency to aggregate are found to undergo fast aggregation prior to liquid–liquid phase separation and have a higher miscibility with NFA. These properties result in smaller mixed donor–acceptor domains, stronger PL quenching, and more efficient exciton dissociation in the resulting cells. This work indicates the importance of both polymer aggregation and donor–acceptor interaction on the formation of bulk heterojunctions in polymer:NFA blends.     

Platelet Selenium Indices as Useful Diagnostic Surrogate for Assessment of Selenium Status in Lambs: an Experimental Comparative Study on the Efficacy of Sodium Selenite vs. Selenium Nanoparticles

Biological Trace Element Research - Unlike in human medicine, information on the platelet selenium (Se) concentration and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, as potential biomarkers of Se...     

Effects of physicochemically hydrolyzed human hairs on the soil microbial community and growth of the hot pepper plant

In this study, waste human hairs discarded from beauty shops and barber shops were collected and hydrolysed with a mixture of 0.5 N KOH and 0.05 N Ca(OH)₂ by heating treatment for 20 min at 120°C. The pH of the hydrolysate was adjusted to 8 using phosphoric acid. The final solid content of the hair hydrolysate was adjusted to 100 g/L based on hair weight. Nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen contents in the hydrolysate were 13.68, 48.58, 6.46, 3.02, and 28.26%, respectively. When 0.5% (w/v) of forest soil was inoculated into 1% (v/v) of hair hydrolysate solution, 3% (w/v) of compost soil slurry, or a mixture of 1% (v/v) hair hydrolysate and 3% (w/v) of compost soil and incubated for 5 days at 25°C, bacterial growth measured on the basis of the viable cell numbers was approximately 3 times higher in the hair hydrolysate and compost soil mixture than in the others. Based on these results, 100x diluted hair hydrolysate was used as an organic fertilizer for field tests. Hot pepper plants were planted in commercially purchased compost soil to produce identical field conditions before the field was fertilized with the hair hydrolysate. The community of the soil-intrinsic bacteria was increased based on the viable cell count, and more diversified based on the TGGE band number of DNA extracted from soil, in the fertilized field relative to the non-fertilized field. The growth of the hot pepper plant was increased more based on length and weight in the fertilized field than in the non-fertilized field. Fertilization with hair hydrolysates appears to protect the hot pepper plant against wilt disease in farm fields contaminated with Ralstonia solanacearum.     

Genome Sequence of Weissella cibaria KACC 11862

Weissella cibaria KACC 11862 is a Gram-positive, heterofermentative, Leuconostoc-like lactic acid bacterium that is widely distributed in Korean traditional foods such as kimchi. Here we report the draft genome sequence of the type strain, W. cibaria KACC 11862 (1,599 known genes, 80 RNA genes), which consists of 72 large contigs (>100 bp in size).     

Distribution and mechanism of α-amanitin tolerance in mycophagous Drosophila (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Many mycophagous species of Drosophila can tolerate the mushroom poison α-amanitin in wild mushrooms and in artificial diet. We conducted feeding assays with sixteen Drosophila species and α-amanitin in artificial diet to better determine the phylogenetic distribution of this tolerance. For eight tolerant and one related susceptible species, we sequenced the gene encoding the large subunit of RNA Polymerase II, which is the target site of α-amanitin. We found no differences in the gene that could account for differences in susceptibility to the toxin. We also conducted feeding assays in which α-amanitin was combined with chemical inhibitors of cytochrome P450s or glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) in artificial diet to determine if either of these enzyme families is involved in tolerance to α-amanitin. We found that an inhibitor of GSTs did not reduce tolerance to α-amanitin, but that an inhibitor of cytochrome P450s reduced tolerance in several species. It is possible that the same cytochrome P450 activity that produces tolerance of α-amanitin might produce tolerance of other mushroom toxins as well. If so, a general detoxification mechanism based on cytochrome P450s might answer the question of how tolerance to α-amanitin arose in mycophagous Drosophila when this toxin is found in relatively few mushrooms.     

Genome sequence of the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium arbusti SL206(T)

A new Clostridium species has been isolated from pear orchard soil in Daejeon, Republic of Korea. The isolate, Clostridium arbusti SL206(T) (KCTC 5449(T)), showed a nitrogenase activity as well as an organic acid production. Here we first report the draft genome sequence of a novel species in the genus Clostridium within the largest Gram-positive group.