Different Domains Of Life Research Articles

Association between gender inequality and climate adaptation across the global

Abstract Introduction Climate change has a disproportionate impact on women in comparison to men and women have a key role to play in climate adaptation. However, evidence is lacking on how gender inequalities may be associated with climate vulnerability and ability to respond at country level. Methods This ecological study investigated the association between climate adaptation, measured by the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative Country Index (ND-GAIN), and gender inequality, measured by the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) developed by the World Economic Forum and the Gender Inequality Index (GII) developed by the United Nations. Simple linear regression was used to estimate the associations between the indices and their subdomains for 146 countries. Results There was an approximately linear association between the GGGI and climate adaptation. Each 1% increase in gender equality was associated with a 0.6% increase in the ND-GAIN score (slope 0.59, 95% confidence interval [0.33 to 0.84]). This was driven by a negative association between gender equality and vulnerability (-0.41 [-0.62 to -0.20]), and a positive association between gender equality and readiness (0.77 [0.44 to 1.10]). Gender equality in the education domain of the GGGI had the strongest association with climate adaptation. There was a strong negative linear association between the GII and climate adaptation, which explained most (87%) of the between-country variation in climate adaptation. Each 1% increase in gender inequality was associated with a 0.5% decrease in the ND-GAIN score (-0.53 [-0.57 to -0.50]). The association between gender inequality and readiness was stronger than the association with vulnerability (0.40 [0.37 to 0.44] for vulnerability versus -0.67 [-0.72 to -0.61] for readiness). Conclusions Gender inequality measured broadly across different domains of life is associated with climate adaptation at country level, both in terms of vulnerability to impact and readiness to respond. Key messages • Gender inequality, considered broadly across multiple domains of life, is associated with increased vulnerability to climate change and poor readiness to respond. • Addressing gender inequality needs to be a priority for governments and inter-governmental organisations if populations worldwide are to adapt to climate change.

Enter the matrix: Examining the psychosocial determinants of support for a technocracy of artificial intelligence

AbstractArtificial Intelligence (AI) stands as the most transformative technology since the Industrial Revolution. As AI is integrated into different domains of life, it is likely to also permeate politics. In fact, some voices already advocate for AI to make political decisions. This paper emphasizes the necessity to delve into the psychosocial determinants shaping support for supporting a technocracy of AI (TecAI). The research aims to ascertain whether anomie, moderated by NCC and SDO, predicts support for TecAI across three studies involving Spanish participants (Ntotal = 754). The findings confirm anomie's predictive power on support of TecAI, albeit without establishing causality consistently, as anomie's condition failed to alter support for TecAI in experiments 2 and 3. However, an exploratory analysis showed a small effect of the subdimension of “breakdown of leadership” on support for TecAI in a directional test, informing future research. Moreover, NCC and SDO did not significantly moderate the anomie‐support‐for‐TecAI link. Ideology also emerged as a consistent predictor, with conservatives consistently showing more support, a finding that ought to be re‐examined and clarified. This study marks an initial empirical exploration into AI's political perceptions, hinting at the need for further investigation into this critical domain.

X-ray crystal structure of proliferating cell nuclear antigen 1 from Aeropyrum pernix.

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) plays a critical role in DNA replication by enhancing the activity of various proteins involved in replication. Inthis study, the crystal structure of ApePCNA1, one of three PCNAs from thethermophilic archaeon Aeropyrum pernix, was elucidated. ApePCNA1 was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli and the protein was purified and crystallized. The resulting crystal structure determined at 2.00 Å resolution revealed that ApePCNA1 does not form a trimeric ring, unlike PCNAs from other domains of life. It has unique structural features, including a long interdomain-connecting loop and a PIP-box-like sequence at the N-terminus, indicating potential interactions with other proteins. These findings provide insights into the functional mechanisms of PCNAs in archaea and their evolutionary conservation across different domains of life. A modified medium and protocol were used to express recombinant protein containing the lac operon. The expression of the target protein increased and the total incubation time decreased when using this system compared with those of previous expression protocols.

Vulnerability and Critical Human Security in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond in the UK and South Korea

The COVID-19 pandemic destabilised the political, social, and economic life of countries as it spread around the world. It posed multiple threats to individuals, societies, and across different domains of life, highlighting their intersectionality and uneven impacts. The paper focuses on the UK and South Korea, countries which took very different paths in framing and addressing the crisis. It draws on secondary data and an integrated critical human security and state capacity approach to compare how state responses, institutional capacity, and the mobilisation of policy instruments themselves construct constellations of insecurity which intersect with human security and vulnerability. It will demonstrate the structural constraints that have continued to shape vulnerability and the dynamics of human security and insecurity in turbulent times.

The Archaeal Cell Cycle.

Since first identified as a separate domain of life in the 1970s, it has become clear that archaea differ profoundly from both eukaryotes and bacteria. In this review, we look across the archaeal domain and discuss the diverse mechanisms by which archaea control cell cycle progression, DNA replication, and cell division. While the molecular and cellular processes archaea use to govern these critical cell biological processes often differ markedly from those described in bacteria and eukaryotes, there are also striking similarities that highlight both unique and common principles of cell cycle control across the different domains of life. Since much of the eukaryotic cell cycle machinery has its origins in archaea, exploration of the mechanisms of archaeal cell division also promises to illuminate the evolution of the eukaryotic cell cycle.

A cell-free system for functional studies of small membrane proteins

Numerous small proteins have been discovered across all domains of life, among which many are hydrophobic and predicted to localize to the cell membrane. Based on a few that are well-studied, small membrane proteins are regulators involved in various biological processes, such as cell signaling, nutrient transport, drug resistance, and stress response. However, the function of most identified small membrane proteins remains elusive. Their small size and hydrophobicity make protein production challenging, hindering function discovery. Here, we combined a cell-free system with lipid sponge droplets and synthesized small membrane proteins in vitro. Lipid sponge droplets contain a dense network of lipid bilayers, which accommodates and extracts newly synthesized small membrane proteins from the aqueous surroundings. Using small bacterial membrane proteins MgrB, SafA, and AcrZ as proof of principle, we showed that the in vitro produced membrane proteins were functionally active, for example, modulating the activity of their target kinase as expected. The cell-free system produced small membrane proteins, including one from human, up to micromolar concentrations, indicating its high level of versatility and productivity. Furthermore, AcrZ produced in this system was used successfully for in vitro co-immunoprecipitations to identify interaction partners. This work presents a robust alternative approach for producing small membrane proteins, which opens a door to their function discovery in different domains of life.

The Effects of Satisfaction With Different Domains of Life on General Life Satisfaction Vary Between Individuals (but We Cannot Tell You Why)

People care about different domains of life (e.g., their health, social life, work) to varying degrees. It thus seems plausible that how satisfied they are with those domains matters for their general life satisfaction to varying degrees. This idea has been investigated in the importance-weighting literature with at best mixed results, but variations of it can be found across different fields of psychology and include claims that values, personality, and age moderate the extent to which different life domains affect life satisfaction. In this study, we investigated the effects of satisfaction with 14 different life domains on general life satisfaction in a study of 439 individuals who provided up to 15 diary entries, resulting in a total of 6,071 observations. All domains had positive effects on average, with the largest effects for satisfaction with leisure time usage (b = 0.19, bstd = 0.25 relative to the within-person variability) and relationship satisfaction (b = 0.16, bstd = 0.17). Beyond these averages, there was robust interindividual variability; the standard deviation of the individual-level effects was of a similar magnitude as the average effect (and sometimes even larger). But when exploring correlations between these individual-level effects with third variables (e.g., self-reported importance of the respective domain, gender and age, Big Five personality traits), no convincing overall patterns arose. This may at least in part result from the high uncertainty with which individual-level effects were estimated, with reliabilities of ~.30, and the resulting low statistical power.

ADATs: roles in tRNA editing and relevance to disease.

Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) play central roles in protein biosynthesis. Post-transcriptional RNA modifications affect tRNA function and stability. Among these modifications, RNA editing is a widespread RNA modification in three domains of life. Proteins of the adenosine deaminase acting on tRNA (ADAT) family were discovered more than 20 years ago. They catalyze the deamination of adenosine to inosine (A-to-I) or cytidine to uridine (C-to-U) during tRNA maturation. The most studied example is the TadA- or ADAT2/3-mediated A-to-I conversion of the tRNA wobble position in the anticodon of prokaryotic or eukaryotic tRNAs, respectively. This review provides detailed information on A-to-I and C-to-U editing of tRNAs in different domains of life, presents recent new findings on ADATs for DNA editing, and finally comments on the association of mutations in the ADAT3 gene with intellectual disability.

The association between gender equality and climate adaptation across the globe

IntroductionClimate change has a disproportionate impact on women in comparison to men, and women have a key role to play in climate adaptation. However, evidence is lacking on how gender inequalities may be associated with climate vulnerability and ability to respond at country level.MethodsThis ecological study investigated the association between climate adaptation, measured by the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative Country Index (ND-GAIN), and gender equality, measured by the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) developed by the World Economic Forum and the Gender Inequality Index (GII) developed by the United Nations. Simple linear regression was used to estimate the associations between the indices and their subdomains for 146 countries.ResultsThere was an approximately linear association between the GGGI and climate adaptation. Each 1% increase in gender equality was associated with a 0.6% increase in the ND-GAIN score (the slope was 0.59, with a 95% confidence interval [0.33 to 0.84]). This was driven by a negative association between gender equality and vulnerability (-0.41 [-0.62 to -0.20]), and a positive association between gender equality and readiness (0.77 [0.44 to 1.10]). The strongest associations between gender equality and climate adaptation were observed for the education domain of the GGGI. There was a strong negative linear association between the GII and climate adaptation, which explained most (86%) of the between-country variation in climate adaptation. Each 1% increase in gender inequality was associated with a 0.5% decrease in the ND-GAIN score (-0.54 [-0.57 to -0.50]). The association between gender inequality and readiness was stronger than the association with vulnerability (0.41 [0.37 to 0.44] for vulnerability versus − 0.67 [-0.72 to -0.61] for readiness).ConclusionsGender inequality, measured broadly across different domains of life, is associated with climate adaptation at country level, both in terms of vulnerability to impact and readiness to respond.

Sensemaking Process of Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Identification of Specific Clusters of “Sense of Grip”

AbstractAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) represents a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent atypicalities in social communication and social interactions across different domains of life, often with restricted, repetitive, stereotyped patterns of behaviors, interests, and activities. A large corpus of previous research shows that parental involvement in caregiving is perceived as stressful and challenging, in many cases resulting in poorer parental quality of life. The authors present a quali-quantitative mixed method research on sensemaking process of 34 parents (16 mothers and 18 fathers) of children with ASD. The interviews were collected and analyzed according to the “Sense of Grip” (SoG) methodology. SoG indeed refers to the sensemaking processes that a person realizes to manage the relationship with diseases or disorders by organizing several degrees of flexibility, differentiation, and adaptation to the variability of experiences and contexts of life. This construct of health psychology—semiotically and clinically oriented—is based on specific narrative functions (i.e., temporal, integrative, emotional, sharing, and agentive functions). The cluster analysis procedure allowed to identify three different SoG profiles: (a) enterprising (parents who are able to construct flexible and dynamic familiar routines), (b) opposing (parents who experience the ASD disorder as a deep unacceptable crisis, hindering the rest of familiar and professional activities), and (c) condescending (parents who organize family life completely on adherence to medical prescriptions and care protocols). These profiles show interesting implications for clinical practice and support as showing specific aspects of treating, managing, and sharing children conditions within family and relational contexts of life.

‘Mind the Gap’: Extending Outcome Measurement for Accountability and Meaningful Innovation

Abstract We examine the outcome measurement landscape in care leaver innovation, where many innovations to support transitions of young people leaving care fail to sustain beyond a fixed-term pilot, and fewer impact wider transition policies. Our empirical qualitative study comprises interviews with 31 senior UK children’s social care policy and practice professionals, 103 interviews across five innovation-focused case studies within England with a range of public and private providers. We consider these data in relation to evaluations from a nationally diffused social care innovation. We identified three measurement landscape challenges. First, we highlight the limits of the economically oriented measurement and identify an overlooked outcome measurement demand. Second, we emphasise a need to stratify care leaver population outcomes to better reflect individuals transition through different domains of life and trajectory. Third, we identify areas of precarity around the intended use of care leaver experience. We conclude that tensions exist between the pull towards a unified approach to outcome measurement and the reality of decoupled outcome requirements and legitimacy-seeking priorities which differ according to stakeholder. These tensions entrench stagnant innovation. Recognition of roles and legitimacies that exist across the process of care leaver innovation is warranted. Opportunities for action are discussed.

Inter-kingdom communication and the sympoietic way of life.

Organisms are now seen as holobionts, consortia of several species that interact metabolically such that they sustain and scaffold each other's existence and propagation. Sympoiesis, the development of the symbiotic relationships that form holobionts, is critical for our understanding the origins and maintenance of biodiversity. Rather than being the read-out of a single genome, development has been found to be sympoietic, based on multigenomic interactions between zygote-derived cells and symbiotic microbes. These symbiotic and sympoietic interactions are predicated on the ability of cells from different kingdoms of life (e.g., bacteria and animals) to communicate with one another and to have their chemical signals interpreted in a manner that facilitates development. Sympoiesis, the creation of an entity by the interactions of other entities, is commonly seen in embryogenesis (e.g., the creation of lenses and retinas through the interaction of brain and epidermal compartments). In holobiont sympoiesis, interactions between partners of different domains of life interact to form organs and biofilms, wherein each of these domains acts as the environment for the other. If evolution is forged by changes in development, and if symbionts are routinely involved in our development, then changes in sympoiesis can constitute an important factor in evolution.

Toxicity spectrum and detrimental effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles as an emerging pollutant: A review

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles have wide industrial –applications, due to their enhanced mechanical, physical, optical and electrical properties. TiO2-based nanomaterials are extensively used in different industries for example paper, semiconductors, paint, food, cosmetics, water purification and textile. Besides its multiple applications in different domains of life, TiO2 has been reported for its hazardous effect on ecosystems, specifically on humans and mammals. The human body may be exposed to TiO2 NPs by three pathways i.e., oral, dermal and intra-gastric pathways and get accumulated in different parts of the body like the spleen, alimentary tract, central nervous system, liver, kidney, reproductive system, cardiac muscles and may form agglomerates with other mammalian cells. Additionally, these NPs may cross blood brain barrier and induce apoptosis in human hippocampal neurons. These NPs also show genotoxic effects that might leads towards the apoptosis and chromosomal instability. It has been observed experimentally that the cytotoxic effects of TiO2 depend on their size, shape, type and rate of consumption. This paper provides comprehensive information regarding hazardous effects reported for TiO2 NPs on living organisms (animals and humans). This information will be supportive for understanding the spectrum of toxicity associated with the NPs that will be helpful in deciding the fate of TiO2 NPs.

“You look like my 14-year-old daughter”

Abstract The main purpose of this corpus-based study is to examine the different types of sexist language women are subjected to in their daily interactions with men, together with their hidden ideologies. To this end, we analysed a total of 1,118 English tweets posted on the hashtag #everydaysexism on Twitter over a year. Results indicate that women experience both overt and indirect verbal aggression in different domains of life, expressed through a range of sexist linguistic markers, and that such aggression often reflect the users’ beliefs and values about men and women. By using a category-based model to examine a feminist narrative hashtag where women’s experiences of sexism are shared, our study offers a robust and principled approach to conducting a corpus-based, cross-domain discourse analysis of sexism in daily communication.

Conceptualizing the Integration of Business and Private Components in Individual Information Systems

AbstractIndividuals build their individual information system (IIS) with which they manage the boundary between different domains of life. In this age of permanent mobile accessibility, however, the boundary between the private and business domains can become blurred. While some users try to maintain a degree of separation between the two IIS sub-systems (the private and the business information system), others integrate them. Understanding such integration is essential as it affects well-being and performance in both domains. To further this understanding, we introduce a conceptualization of IIS that distinguishes between four layers of IIS: devices, digital identities, relationships, and information. To measure IIS integration, we develop a method based on the IIS components’ usage frequencies in each domain. We evaluate our conceptualization as well as our measurement method by empirically testing a theoretical model of IIS integration on multiple layers. Our data provides empirical support for the importance of relationship integration as one of the four layers. This leads us to the conclusion that even though IIS are composed of four layers, only the relationship layer is of interest regarding IIS integration. Our results are of interest and service to individuals, organizations, and IT designers who aim to manage IIS integration for individual and organizational benefits.

Distinct RPA functions promote eukaryotic DNA replication initiation and elongation.

Replication protein A (RPA) binds single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and serves critical functions ineukaryoticDNA replication, the DNA damage response,and DNA repair. During DNA replication, RPA is required for extended origin DNA unwinding and DNA synthesis. To determine the requirements for RPA during these processes, we tested ssDNA-binding proteins (SSBs) from different domains of life in reconstituted Saccharomyces cerevisiae origin unwinding and DNA replication reactions. Interestingly, Escherichia coli SSB, but not T4 bacteriophage Gp32, fully substitutes for RPA in promoting origin DNA unwinding. Using RPA mutants, we demonstrated that specific ssDNA-binding properties of RPA are required for origin unwinding but that its protein-interaction domains are dispensable. In contrast, we found that each of these auxiliary RPA domains have distinct functions at the eukaryotic replication fork. The Rfa1 OB-F domain negatively regulates lagging-strand synthesis, while the Rfa2 winged-helix domain stimulates nascent strand initiation. Together, our findings reveal a requirement for specific modes of ssDNA binding in the transition to extensive origin DNA unwinding and identify RPA domains that differentially impact replication fork function.

A comparison of schema modes and self-beliefs related to social anxiety in individuals with subclinical social anxiety disorder and without social anxiety disorder: a preliminary finding

ABSTRACT Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is the most common anxiety disorder and has serious negative effects on multiple areas of life. The possibility of comorbidity with other disorders and malfunction in different domains of life exists in both full-blown and subclinical social anxiety. This study aimed to compare the schema modes and self-beliefs related to social anxiety in individuals with subclinical social anxiety disorder and without social anxiety disorder. Multistage cluster random and purposive sampling methods were used to select 100 students, 50 with and 50 without symptoms of social anxiety disorder. Participants were evaluated in regard to schema modes, self-beliefs related to social anxiety, social anxiety, depression, and generalized anxiety disorder. They were then evaluated clinically through Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5). Data analysis was performed by Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) which showed that there was a significant difference between the groups of individuals with and without symptoms of social anxiety in schema modes and self-beliefs related to social anxiety (p < 0.001). The obtained results can contribute to a deeper understanding of the dimensions of vulnerability underlying subclinical social anxiety disorder in the relationship between symptoms of subclinical social anxiety disorder and schema modes.

The emerging concept of transportome: state of the art.

The array of ion channels and transporters expressed in cell membranes-collectively referred to as the transportome-is a complex and multifunctional molecular machinery; in particular, at the plasma membrane level it finely tunes the exchange of biomolecules and ions acting as a functionally adaptive interface that accounts for dynamic plasticity in the response to environmental fluctuations and stressors. The transportome is responsible for the definition of membrane potential and its variations, participates in the transduction of extracellular signals, and acts as a filter for most of the substances entering and leaving the cell, thus enabling the homeostasis of many cellular parameters. For all these reasons, physiologists have long been interested in the expression and functionality of ion channels and transporters, both in physiological and pathological settings, and across the different domains of life. Today, thanks to the high-throughput technologies of the post-genomic era, the omics approach to the study of the transportome is becoming increasingly popular in different areas of biomedical research, allowing for a more comprehensive, integrated, and functional perspective of this complex cellular apparatus. This paper represents a first effort for a systematic review of the scientific literature on this topic. Here we report a brief overview of all those studies-both primary and meta-analyses-that looked at the transportome as a whole, regardless of the biological problem or the models they used. A later section is devoted to the methodological aspect by reviewing the most important public databases with transporter annotations. Before conclusions, limitations and future perspectives are also discussed.

Origin, Diversity, and Multiple Roles of Enzymes with Metallo-β-Lactamase Fold from Different Organisms.

β-lactamase enzymes have generated significant interest due to their ability to confer resistance to the most commonly used family of antibiotics in human medicine. Among these enzymes, the class B β-lactamases are members of a superfamily of metallo-β-lactamase (MβL) fold proteins which are characterised by conserved motifs (i.e., HxHxDH) and are not only limited to bacteria. Indeed, as the result of several barriers, including low sequence similarity, default protein annotation, or untested enzymatic activity, MβL fold proteins have long been unexplored in other organisms. However, thanks to search approaches which are more sensitive compared to classical Blast analysis, such as the use of common ancestors to identify distant homologous sequences, we are now able to highlight their presence in different organisms including Bacteria, Archaea, Nanoarchaeota, Asgard, Humans, Giant viruses, and Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR). These MβL fold proteins are multifunctional enzymes with diverse enzymatic or non-enzymatic activities of which, at least thirteen activities have been reported such as β-lactamase, ribonuclease, nuclease, glyoxalase, lactonase, phytase, ascorbic acid degradation, anti-cancer drug degradation, or membrane transport. In this review, we (i) discuss the existence of MβL fold enzymes in the different domains of life, (ii) present more suitable approaches to better investigating their homologous sequences in unsuspected sources, and (iii) report described MβL fold enzymes with demonstrated enzymatic or non-enzymatic activities.

Computational analysis on the dissemination of non-B DNA structural motifs in promoter regions of 1180 cellular genomes

The promoter regions of gene regulation are under evolutionary constraints and earlier studies uncovered that they are characterized by enrichment of functional non-B DNA structural signatures like curved DNA, cruciform DNA, G-quadruplex, triple-helical DNA, slipped DNA structures, and Z-DNA. However, these studies are restricted to a few model organisms, single non-B DNA motif types, or whole genomic sequences, and their comparative accumulation in promoter regions of different domains of life has not been reported comprehensively. In this study, for the first time, we investigated the preponderance of non-B DNA-prone motifs in promoter regions in 1180 genomes belonging to 28 taxonomic groups using the non-B DNA Motif Search Tool (nBMST). The trends suggest that they are predominant in promoters compared to the upstream and downstream regions of all three domains of life and variably linked to taxonomic groups. Cruciform DNA motif is the most abundant form of non-B DNA, spanning from archaea to lower eukaryotes. Curved DNA motifs are prominent in host-associated bacteria, and suppressed in mammals. Triplex-DNA and slipped DNA structure repeats are discretely dispersed in all lineages. G-quadruplex motifs are significantly enriched in mammals. We also observed that the unique enrichment of non-B DNA in promoters is strongly linked to genome GC, size, evolutionary time divergence, and ecological adaptations. Overall, our work systematically reports the unique non-B DNA structural landscape of cellular organisms from the perspective of the cis-regulatory code of genomes.