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Two fungal-secreted α-fucosidases and their genes were characterized. FoFCO1 was purified from culture filtrates of Fusarium oxysporum strain 0685 grown on l-fucose and its encoding gene identified in the sequenced genome of strain 4287. FoFCO1 was active on p-nitrophenyl-α-fucoside (pNP-Fuc), but did not defucosylate a nonasaccharide (XXFG) fragment of pea xyloglucan. A putative α-fucosidase gene ( FgFCO1) from Fusarium graminearum was expressed in Pichia pastoris. FgFCO1 was ∼1,800 times less active on pNP-Fuc than FoFCO1, but was able to defucosylate the XXFG nonasaccharide. Although FgFCO1 and FoFCO1 both belong to Glycosyl Hydrolase family 29, they share <25 % overall amino acid identity. Alignment of all available fungal orthologs of FoFCO1 and FgFCO1 indicated that these two proteins belong to two subfamilies of fungal GH29 α-fucosidases. Fungal orthologs of subfamily 1 (to which FoFCO1 belongs) are taxonomically more widely distributed than subfamily 2 (FgFCO1), but neither was universally present in the sequenced fungal genomes. Trichoderma reesei and most species of Aspergillus lack genes for either GH29 subfamily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of households globally rely on uncultivated ecosystems for their livelihoods. However, much of the understanding about the broader contribution of uncultivated ecosystems to human wellbeing is still based on a series of small-scale studies due to limited availability of large-scale datasets. We pooled together 11 comparable datasets comprising 232 settlements and 10,971 households in ten low-and middle-income countries, representing forest, savanna and coastal ecosystems to analyse how uncultivated nature contributes to multi-dimensional wellbeing and how benefits from nature are distributed between households. The resulting dataset integrates secondary data on rural livelihoods, multidimensional human wellbeing, household demographics, resource tenure and social-ecological context, primarily drawing on nine existing household surveys and their associated contextual information together with selected variables, such as travel time to cities, population density, local area GDP and land use and land cover from existing global datasets. This integrated dataset has been archived with ReShare (UK Data Service) and will be useful for further analyses on nature-wellbeing relationships on its own or in combination with similar datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her paper, Janet Landa argues that the key behind the success of the ethnically homogeneous Chinese middleman group (EHMG) is their highly developed in-group cooperation. She places the EHMG phenomenon within the framework of evolutionary biology by calling it 'a cultural transmission unit' subject to the influence of both genes and culture. Landa suggests that the individual members of the EHMG comprise the units of selection for EHMG groups much like the genes comprise the units of selection for individual organisms. However, evolution occurs through the differential survival and reproduction of individual organisms. In order to meet the criteria of biological group selection, it would have to be demonstrated that groups in competition with EHMGs had gone extinct. The fact that the EHMGs are simply faring better than their competitors is not evidence for group selection. The other reason biological group selection is not really applicable to EHMGs is that there are no physical/biological barriers to exogamous mating, and cultural barriers are intrinsically unstable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'The Pearl of Great Price' is a short story that explores the ways faith can go wrong. The central character, Janet, a single mom in a dead end job, is drawn into a multi-level marketing scheme, Benevite, by an unscrupulous salesman. She is encouraged to believe in herself and her dream and to give everything she has to it. She is fed the standard clichés to the effect that you can achieve whatever you want if you try hard enough. In the end her faith in her dream leads to the loss of her relationship with her child and other losses. Her pursuit exhibits many of the standard features of faith, belief, desire, resilience, tenacity, passion, and yet she does not save herself. The story is not meant as an indictment of faith in general, but as an acknowledgement of the fact that faith can be a vice and an exploration of when this might be so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psillos (, ), Kitcher (), and Leplin () have defended convergent scientific realism against the pessimistic meta-induction by arguing for the divide et impera (DEI) strategy. I argue that DEI faces a problem more serious than the pessimistic meta-induction: the problem of accretion. When empirically successful theories and principles are combined, they may no longer make successful predictions or allow for accurate calculations, or the combination otherwise may be an empirical failure. The shift from classical mechanics to the new quantum theory does not reflect the discarding of 'idle wheels.' Instead, scientists had to contend with new principles that made classical calculations difficult or impossible (the Maxwell-Boltzmann equipartition theorem), and new results (the anomalous Zeeman effect) that were inconsistent with classical theorems (the Larmor theorem), and that suggested a new way of conceiving of atomic dynamics. In this shift, reference to atoms and to electrons was preserved, but the underlying causal explanations and descriptions of atoms and electrons changed. I propose that the emphasis on accurate description of causal agents as a virtue of background theory be replaced with Ruetsche's () advocacy of pragmatic, modal resourcefulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the early history of magnetochemistry: the search for chemical effects of magnetism in the nineteenth century. Some early researchers, such as Johann Wilhelm Ritter, attempted to reproduce with magnets the effects that had been produced by electricity and Volta's battery. For several decades, researchers successively reported positive results and denied claims concerning the effect of magnetism in oxidation, electrolysis, reduction of metals from saline solutions, crystallisation, change of colour of vegetable tinctures and other chemical reactions. In the two last decades of the nineteenth century some effects were accepted as real, and a thermodynamic theory of the influence of magnetic fields upon chemical reactions was developed. Finally, Dragomir Hurmuzescu was able to create reproducible experiments and measured the electromotive force between two electrodes, with or without the presence of magnetic fields, confirming the existence of the phenomenon and obtaining results compatible with the theoretical predictions. Afterwards, this magnetochemical effect was accepted as real, but the effect was weak and its practical importance was negligible. The subject was gradually forgotten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Janet is known almost exclusively for his left-step periodic table (LSPT). A study of his writings shows him to have been a highly creative thinker and a brilliant draftsman. His approach was primarily arithmetic-geometric, but it led him to anticipate the discovery of deuterium, helium-3, transuranian elements, antimatter and energy from nuclear fusion. He recognized the (n + l) rule well before Madelung and correctly placed the actinides. His controversial treatment of helium at the head of the alkaline earth elements might be less provocative if his system were taken in one of its spiral representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the study conducted by Janet Landa which presents evidence that cultural group strategies are a major factor in the development and continuity of ethnically homogenous middleman trading groups (HMGs). He expresses appreciation to Landa's autobiographical approach but asserts that her analysis does not explore biological factors. He suggests the incorporation of behavioral biological factors on the analysis, and discusses its importance to the success of HMGs.

Normatively and intuitively, we conceive of political participation as an integral component of democratic policymaking. However, research on participation generally does not include policy considerations as part of individuals’ decisions to engage in activism. I offer an opportunity model of participation that begins to study how policy goals shape individual participation and how aggregate participation shapes policymaking. The central argument is that individuals’ policy goals allow them to recognize those moments when it is most efficient and/or effective to take action. Examining black participation from 1980 to 1994, I show that black Americans are more likely to participate when they face external threats, are embedded in social networks, and have greater access to policymakers. Most importantly, the recognition of these opportunities varies according to individuals’ resources. This research moves beyond the discussion of who participates to address the equally fundamental question: participation for what? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality by design is an essential part of the modern approach to pharmaceutical quality. There is much confusion among pharmaceutical scientists in generic drug industry about the appropriate element and terminology of quality by design. This paper discusses quality by design for generic drugs and presents a summary of the key terminology. The elements of quality by design are examined and a consistent nomenclature for quality by design, critical quality attribute, critical process parameter, critical material attribute, and control strategy is proposed. Agreement on these key concepts will allow discussion of the application of these concepts to abbreviated new drug applications to progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the study conducted by Jack Dunitz and Richard Ibberson that compared the sizes of hydrogen and deuterium. The researchers took careful measurements of the crystal structures of benzene and fully deuterated benzene at temperatures between five kelvin and 280 kelvin. They observed that the volume of a molecule of the fully deuterated benzene exceeds that of the crystal structures of benzene of about 170 kelvin. Based on the results, the researchers concluded that deuterium takes up less space than hydrogen due to its greater mass that gives it a smaller vibration amplitude in the lowest-energy quantum state.

The article provides information about the study conducted by a research team led by Paul Brennan that focused on the six alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) enzymes. The researchers analysed six ADH variants in 3,876 patients with head and neck cancers and 5,278 healthy people. They found out a variant of each of the two genes ADH1B and ADH7 seemed to lower the risk of developing cancers in alcohol drinkers. Based on the results, the group concluded that the variants are of genes that encode ADH enzymes, which catalyse the breakdown of alcohols.

The article provides information on a study, conducted by a research team led by Jonathan Prince of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, that examined the association of insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) and the lifespan of men. The researchers found that human males with one copy of a certain version of IDE and one copy of a different version make higher than usual amounts of IDE ribonucleic acid (RNA). In conclusion, they stated that these men also tended to die younger than those carrying two replicates of the IDE type.

The article provides information on the study, conducted by a research team led by Adrian Lenardic of Rice University in Houston, Texas, that examined the effect of climate on the interior of a planet. The researchers worked out that temperature increases at a terrestrial surface of the planet could penetrate deep into the planet and eventually shutting down the movement of tectonic plates. According to them, the carbon dioxide blanket in Venus' atmosphere might help to explain why it appears to have a single, static plate.

The article focuses on the characteristic of human malarial parasite called Plasmodium (P.) knowlesi. It mentions about the study conducted by Janet Cox-Singh and her colleagues which proved that humans can harbour a fifth malaria parasite or the P. knowlesi, which was once thought to infect only Asian monkeys. They detected that the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of the parasite in about one third of 1,014 malaria patients in Malaysia. Based on the case, the author notes that an unknown animal pathogen can cause widespread human disease since P. knowlesi is always misidentified as P. malariae.

The article provides information about a study that compared particular genetic sequences from gut microbes found in the faeces of 106 mammals. A research team led by Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri conducted the study and they found that among the 60 species represented in the sample, carnivores tend to have a less diverse internal flora than omnivores. In connection, they stated that modern human support similar gut microbes to those of other omnivores.