Dawn of a new day: The role of children in the assimilation of new technologies throughout the Lower Paleolithic

In this paper, I contend that children had a unique position in prehistoric social systems, functioning as primary assimilators of new technologies. Their role is especially crucial at significant turning points in history, due to a number of childhood-cognitive mechanisms that are activated in learning and playing while engaging in innovative activity. I suggest that these mechanisms developed as part of an evolutionary process that has enabled humans to better adapt to change and prosper. This line of thinking is demonstrated through a synthesis of evolutionary, cognitive-psychological models and a case study from the archaeological record of the Levantine late Lower Paleolithic. In this time, humans developed a set of creative innovations which had to be learned and assimilated, such as the innovative production of blades. I argue that these cultural changes were successfully assimilated by groups inhabiting the Levant due to the enhancement of well-established learning mechanisms, in which children played a significant role. This role might have given them a unique status in their group – as preserving old traditions practiced by their ancestors but also as active agents, part of a collective group effort of tackling present and future challenges.     

Sophisticated selectionism as a general theory of knowledge

Human knowledge is a phenomenon whose roots extend from the cultural, through the neural and the biological and finally all the way down into the Precambrian “primordial soup.” The present paper reports an attempt at understanding this Greater System of Knowledge (GSK) as a hierarchical nested set of selection processes acting concurrently on several different scales of time and space. To this end, a general selection theory extending mainly from the work of Hull and Campbell is introduced. The perhaps most drastic change from previous similar theories is that replication is revealed as a composite function consisting of what is referred to as memory and synthesis. This move is argued to drastically improve the fit between theory and human-related knowledge systems. The introduced theory is then used to interpret the subsystems of the GSK and their interrelations. This is done to the end of demonstrating some of the new perspectives offered by this view.

我国牧草种质资源创新研究进展

本文总结了几十年来我国牧草种质资源创新研究的方法和成果,详细阐述了种内杂交、远缘杂交、射线辐射、离子束注入、太空搭载、化学诱变及基因转化等不同技术方法在牧草种质资源创新中的应用,并对我国牧草种质资源创新的应用前景进行了讨论,以期为促进我国牧草种质资源创新和育种研究的进一步发展提供参考。     

Promoting RRI and active citizenship in an inquiry-based controversial socio-scientific issue: the case of cholesterol regulation with statins

ABSTRACT

Science education is an important dimension of the European Commission’s Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) objectives; however, RRI is not an explicit focus of biology teaching and few biology teachers have experience in integrating RRI in classroom practice. This study examines the impact of a three 80-minute RRI and active citizenship module on 11th grade biology students, based on the SSIBL pedagogical framework. A representative national sample of 11th grade biology students in Cyprus (n = 398) participated. A pre-post research design examined impact in relation to students’ conceptual understanding regarding cholesterol and its regulation, their understanding of the controversy about cholesterol regulation, awareness of RRI components, feeling of responsibility and willingness to act. Analyses indicated statistically significant gains in conceptual understanding and the understanding of the controversy about cholesterol regulation and awareness of RRI components, as well as in students’ socio-scientific accountability (feeling of responsibility and willingness to act). Conceptual understanding showed increased correlations with Controversy understanding and RRI understanding forming the three of them the cognitive elements of individuals understanding. All of the examined variables are deemed, as of great importance for the design, implementation and evaluation of innovative biology RRI and active citizenship modules.     

构建生物药物分析实验教学改革新模式

生物药物分析实验是生物药物分析理论课程的重要补充,是培养学生掌握和巩固理论知识以及实验操作技能的重要途径。为适应现代高等教育对本科生的培养要求,对生物药物分析原有单一的实验教学模式进行改革已势在必行。我学院生物药物分析实验教学改革从实验教学内容、实验教学方法、实验教学手段等方面进行实践探索,建立了"验证性-综合设计性实验教学"、"科研-实验教学相结合"、"开放式实验教学"等新型的实验教学模式,在近几年的本科实验教学活动中,对于培养学生的实际操作能力、独立分析问题和解决问题的能力,团队协作等方面的能力起到了明显的效果,受到学生好评。     

Social organization and the evolution of cumulative technology in apes and hominins

Culturally supported accumulation (or ratcheting) of technological complexity is widely seen as characterizing hominin technology relative to that of the extant great apes, and thus as representing a threshold in cultural evolution. To explain this divide, we modeled the process of cultural accumulation of technology, which we defined as adding new actions to existing ones to create new functional combinations, based on a model for great ape tool use. The model shows that intraspecific and interspecific variation in the presence of simple and cumulative technology among extant orangutans and chimpanzees is largely due to variation in sociability, and hence opportunities for social learning. The model also suggests that the adoption of extensive allomaternal care (cooperative breeding) in early Pleistocene Homo, which led to an increase in sociability and to teaching, and hence increased efficiency of social learning, was enough to facilitate technological ratcheting. Hence, socioecological changes, rather than advances in cognitive abilities, can account for the cumulative cultural changes seen until the origin of the Acheulean. The consequent increase in the reliance on technology could have served as the pacemaker for increased cognitive abilities. Our results also suggest that a more important watershed in cultural evolution was the rise of donated culture (technology or concepts), in which technology or concepts was transferred to naïve individuals, allowing them to skip many learning steps, and specialization arose, which allowed individuals to learn only a subset of the population's skills.     

发酵工程实验的改革与实践

传统的发酵工程实验在实验内容和组织形式等方面需要进行改革探索。参照工业酶制剂的生产流程, 集中2周时间开设综合性的大实验, 学生分组自行设计、准备实验, 实验过程中自我协调管理, 实验成绩自评与他评相结合。改革后的实验充分激发了学生的学习兴趣, 调动了学生的积极主动性, 训练了团队协作精神, 取得了良好的教学效果, 并对存在的问题提出了进一步完善的设想。     

基于专利分析的干细胞技术创新趋势研究

干细胞(Stem Cells)是当今世界科学研究的热门领域。本文对Derwent Innovation Index(DII)专利数据库收录的1975-2013年世界范围内申请的干细胞技术专利进行了数据计量分析,给出了干细胞专利的年度分布、地区分布、研发重点分布、机构分布等,揭示了已展现出明显优势的干细胞技术的创新现状和发展趋势,所得到的结果可为这种新技术的研发决策提供支持与依据。研究发现,干细胞技术近年来发展迅速,美国和中国对干细胞领域研究资助力度持续加大,美国和日本在干细胞研究领域占据主导地位,目前正处新一轮发展阶段。     

一类含分布时滞革新传播模型的稳定性

建立了一类含分布时滞的革新传播模型dU（t）/dt=-（α＋βA（t））U（t）-pU（t）＋p,dA（t）/dt=∫＋∞ 0 αE（τ）U（t-τ）dτ＋βU（t）A（t）-（p＋k）A（t）。研究了分布时滞对传播过程的影响,讨论了正平衡点的存在性和唯一性及其局部与全局的渐近稳定性,当分布时滞的核函数取δe^-δτ时,证明了正平衡点是绝对渐近稳定的。     

Epstein–Barr virus noncoding RNAs from the extracellular vesicles of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells promote angiogenesis via TLR3/RIG-I-mediated VCAM-1 expression

Viral noncoding RNAs (Epstein–Barr virus-encoded RNAs, EBERs) are believed to play a critical role in the progression of lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, the accurate mechanisms accounting for their oncogenic function have not been elucidated, especially in terms of interaction between tumor cells and mesenchymal cells. Here, we report that, in addition to NPC cells, EBERs are also found in endothelial cells in Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)-infected NPC parenchymal tissues, which implicates NPC-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) in transmitting EBERs to endothelial cells. In support of this hypothesis, we first ascertained if EBERs could be transferred to endothelial cells via EVs isolated from NPC culture supernatant. Then, we clarified that EVs-derived EBERs could promote angiogenesis through stimulation of VCAM-1 expression. Finally, we explored the involvement of EBER recognition by TLR3 and RIG-I in NPC angiogenesis. Our observations collectively illustrate the significance and mechanism of EVs-derived EBERs in angiogenesis and underlie the interaction mechanisms between EBV-infected NPC cells and the tumor microenvironment.