Life Forms Research Articles

(Political) political liberalism and the constitutional project

Abstract This review essay follows Alessandro Ferrara and Frank Michelman’s dialogic journey into the legitimation-by-constitution idea, which they submit as the institutional expression of political liberalism in Legitimation by Constitution: A Dialogue on Political Liberalism, to illustrate the challenges for contemporary philosophy of political liberalism in its transposition to the constitutional project. It argues that Ferrara and Michelman’s liberal endeavor to answer the fundamental questions surrounding political liberalism rests on a normative conception of identity, which eventually leads them to a dilemma: the project of constitutional democracy they defend and justify is sustained by a liberal ethos, while it is tasked to accommodate those who do not value the liberal form of life. Instead of choosing between the project of constitutional democracy and their liberal soul, Ferrara and Michelman eventually offer a thin constitutional account of political liberalism resembling the international legal order amidst the retrenchment of the liberal ethos. It contends that what liberal democracies need from political liberalism in battling antiliberal forces is not more political philosophy but rather something akin to what Jeremy Waldron calls “political political theory.” It is suggested that political liberalism take a political turn to confront antiliberal forces with an enriched rather than diluted constitutional project.

Knowledge of Risk Associated with Exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Abuja, Nigeria

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are a group of chemical compounds that contain mostly carbon and fluorine in their structure. They do not occur freely in nature but are produced industrially. Recent Studies have shown that PFAS exposure to the environment is persistent, bioaccumulative and poisonous to all life forms. Also, reports indicate that some of these products are being phased out in America and Europe but some of them still find their way to African markets and other parts of the world. The challenge is that a great number of people in Abuja, the study area do not know what PFAS is and the risk associated with the use of products that contain PFAS. Therefore the study is to ascertain the knowledge of PFAS in Abuja and highlight some of the risks of exposure. A self-designed questionnaire was used to obtain data using a random sampling technique. A total of 365 questionnaires were used for the study. The result revealed that 91% of the sampled population knew nothing about PFAS and its associated health risk while 9% knew PFAS and its associated health risk. This may point to the fact that PFAS exposure in Abuja may not pose only a localized risk but may progress to be a global risk. Therefore this paper recommends massive study and awareness programmes on PFAS and also appeals for the support and collaboration of industrialized nations towards programmes that will ensure sustainability.

Thomas Aquinas and the Qualification of Monastic Labor

Early monastic communities in Egypt were veritable laboratories for the practice of Christian virtue; perhaps surprisingly, they were also large-scale coordinated communities of labor. That manual labor should have been part of anchoritic life is not obvious; given that hermits were leaving the cities and the usual occupations of life in the world, there might be a question as to why they would seemingly return to such occupations having sought the purity of living alone in the desert. Combining Platonic thought with radical Christianity, the monks found a way to make the maximally spiritual life also a worker’s life. The architects of this form of life saw manual labor as a means for achieving self-sustenance, an effective weapon against temptation, a resource for the support of the needy, and a vital component in the monks’ ascetic program. The argument of this paper is that this powerful cultural consensus on the centrality of work to monastic life endured for almost a thousand years before it came to be qualified, by Thomas Aquinas among others. When Thomas Aquinas writes on the purposes of manual labor he is entirely traditional. However, Aquinas ends up diminishing the extent to which the pursuit of the traditional goods gained by the practice of manual labor is obligatory for monastics. Aquinas’s discussion of manual labor as an element of monastic life is a definite departure from the tradition. In the typically polite fashion of a scholastic theologian, Aquinas shifts away from Augustine and re-interprets St. Paul in unprecedented fashion. His argument is influenced by his own commitment to a new form of monastic life, which was changing not just theologically but as a result of the evolving backdrop of the social and economic realities with which religious life necessarily interacted.

Protein domains of low sequence complexity-dark matter of the proteome.

This perspective begins with a speculative consideration of the properties of the earliest proteins to appear during evolution. What did these primitive proteins look like, and how were they of benefit to early forms of life? I proceed to hypothesize that primitive proteins have been preserved through evolution and now serve diverse functions important to the dynamics of cell morphology and biological regulation. The primitive nature of these modern proteins is easy to spot. They are composed of a limited subset of the 20 amino acids used by traditionally evolved proteins and thus are of low sequence complexity. This chemical simplicity limits protein domains of low sequence complexity to forming only a crude and labile type of protein structure currently hidden from the computational powers of machine learning. I conclude by hypothesizing that this structural weakness represents the underlying virtue of proteins that, at least for the moment, constitute the dark matter of the proteome.

Sugar signals pedal the cell cycle!

Cell cycle involves the sequential and reiterative progression of important events leading to cell division. Progression through a specific phase of the cell cycle is under the control of various factors. Since the cell cycle in multicellular eukaryotes responds to multiple extracellular mitogenic cues, its study in higher forms of life becomes all the more important. One such factor regulating cell cycle progression in plants is sugar signalling. Because the growth of organs depends on both cell growth and proliferation, sugars sensing and signalling are key control points linking sugar perception to regulation of downstream factors which facilitate these key developmental transitions. However, the basis of cell cycle control via sugars is intricate and demands exploration. This review deals with the information on sugar and TOR-SnRK1 signalling and how they manoeuvre various events of the cell cycle to ensure proper growth and development.

Psychedelic Therapy as Form of Life

In the historical context of a crisis in biological psychiatry, psychedelic drugs paired with psychotherapy are globally re-emerging in research clinics as a potential transdiagnostic therapy for treating mood disorders, addictions, and other forms of psychological distress. The treatments are poised to soon shift from clinical trials to widespread service delivery in places like Australia, North America, and Europe, which has prompted ethical questions by social scientists and bioethicists. Taking a broader view, we argue that the ethics of psychedelic therapy concerns not simply how psychotherapies are different when paired with psychedelic drugs, but how psychedelic therapies shape and are shaped by different values, norms, and metaphysical commitments. Drawing from the published literature and interviews with seven psychedelic therapists working in clinical trials in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, and Australia, this article opens the black box of the treatments to consider the values and informal debates currently animating the therapies. Considering questions of patient autonomy, mechanisms of therapeutic action, and which therapies are best suited to pair with psychedelic substances, we examine the ethics of psychedelic therapy as an emergent form of life. To bring this form of life out in fuller relief, we conclude by comparing and contrasting it with ayahuasca use in Amazonian shamanism.

Photocatalytic dye degradation and hydrogen peroxide sensing by a novel copper-Schiff base complex prepared via mechanochemical method

ABSTRACT Water pollution, primarily caused due to hazardous organic and inorganic substances, is a cause of concern for human health and development, for it manifests adverse repercussions across health, economic, and social dimensions. The footprints of its adverse effects are also left on aquatic/marine life forms. In the light of the negative impacts of such substances, the development of efficient remediation techniques becomes pertinent. In this article, we report a water-soluble glutamic acid Schiff base copper complex (Cu-GSb) that has been synthesised by taking recourse to a mechanochemical approach, relying upon solid-state reagent interactions in a benign environmental setting, eluding a rigorous refluxing condition and overuse of solvents. The experimental results revealed that the ligand coordinates to the metal centre in a bidentate fashion through the imine nitrogen and carboxylate oxygen, respectively, adopting a distorted square planar geometry. Further, the complex’s utility in mitigating chemical hazards has been demonstrated through the studies involving degradation of organic dyes like methylene blue and bromocresol green, and decomposition/sensing of H2O2. Notably, as a photocatalyst towards the degradation of above-mentioned dyes under visible light irradiation, our study showed the photocatalytic efficiency of Cu-GSb to be ~95% in 50–60 min. The rate of degradation reaction has been found to follow first-order kinetics with rate constant values of 6 × 10−2 and 5.66 × 10−2 min−1 for MB and BCG, respectively. Furthermore, the results of H2O2 sensing evaluation revealed that the complex is capable of potentially decomposing H2O2 in about 20–30 min. The compounds have been routinely characterised by UV–visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR).

Bioinformatic Analysis Strategy in Restriction Enzyme Selection for Indonesian Panulirus homarus Identification by PCR-RFLP

The spiny lobster (Panulirus homarus) is a valuable fishery commodity in Indonesia, particularly in its juvenile life form. However, identifying the early life forms of the spiny lobster can be challenging, as it exhibits similar morphological features compared to the juveniles of other Panilurid lobsters. Molecular-based identification, specifically DNA sequencing, is the best method for species identification, but it requires advanced instruments and is costly. An alternative method is proposed here, using the PCR-RFLP technique, which is low-cost, rapid, and has standard instrumentation requirements. The challenge with this method is selecting the appropriate restriction enzyme to determine the targeted species’ identity. This study proposes using the REfind (https://github.com/indriatmoko07/REfind), R package to select the best restriction enzyme for identifying P. homarus, applicable to other species. The bioinformatics workflow used in this study successfully identified BseSI or BmgI as the most suitable restriction enzymes among 739 restriction enzymes to differentiate P. homarus from other Panilurid species. This result was validated by employing a wet lab test using the BseSI enzyme and successfully validated the bioinformatics result. These findings may be useful for biologists in conducting various studies that require rapid, low-cost, and identification of specific species in the future.

Notes on an Ex White Man’s Form of Life Toward Social Death

This paper considers John Brown as a paradigmatic respondent to James Cone’s and FrankWilderson’s charges for Humanity to “become Black.” More precisely, this paper takes DuBois’s reading of John Brown as a meditation upon what Nahum Chandler describes as the “soulof an ex White man.” For Du Bois, Brown’s taking up of the “Negro question” proceeded toshape his entire existence. By drawing on Giorgio Agamben’s messianic conception of “formof life” and Afropessimism’s elaboration of the “Negro question” through the paradigm ofsocial death, this paper offers a reading of Du Bois’s Brown as a form of life toward socialdeath

Taking spontaneous plants as a natural strategy for vegetation restoration in construction and demolition waste landfills: a case study in Suzhou, China.

Construction and demolition waste (CDW) landfills around the city have caused serious damage to the ecological environment and menaced the public health. Restoration of closed CDW landfills is critical to compensate for the degraded ecosystem and ensure safety in further development and utilization. Vegetation restoration is an essential part of the restoration of CDW landfills, in which the use of spontaneous plants is the foundation of the nature-based strategy. In this study, Fenghuangshan CDW landfill in Suzhou, China, was selected as the research site, and the species composition and diversity of the spontaneous plants were analyzed. Moreover, the types of habitats and growth indexes of 8 species with high frequency and 18 species with medium frequency in the CDW landfill were investigated, and a comprehensive evaluation of growth rate and expansion capacity of the 26 species was conducted. The results showed that, herbs were the main type of the spontaneous plants in the CDW landfill. The species and quantities of the spontaneous plants in the CDW landfill were obviously fewer than those in the surrounding areas of the CDW landfill, and the Shannon-Wiener index and Pielou index of the spontaneous plants were lower compared with the surrounding areas of the CDW landfill. Meanwhile, the differences of dominant families and the distribution of origins, life forms and growth types between these two fields were insignificant. The heliophilous and drought tolerance species were widely distributed in the CDW landfill while the shade-tolerant or hygrophilous species were few. The relatively large comprehensive evaluation indexes of Elymus dahuricus, Daucus carota, Sonchus asper, Geranium carolinianum, Rumex acetosa, Metaplexis japonica, Carex breviculmis, Erigeron canadensis, Trigonotis peduncularis, Lamium amplexicaule reflected their high growth rates and strong expansion capacity, demonstrating their great potentiality in the vegetation restoration of CDW landfills as indispensable components of the nature-based solution.

How Mitochondrial Signaling Games May Shape and Stabilize the Nuclear-Mitochondrial Symbiosis.

The eukaryotic lineage has enjoyed a long-term "stable" mutualism between nucleus and mitochondrion, since mitochondrial endosymbiosis began about 2 billion years ago. This mostly cooperative interaction has provided the basis for eukaryotic expansion and diversification, which has profoundly altered the forms of life on Earth. While we ignore the exact biochemical details of how the alpha-proteobacterial ancestor of mitochondria entered into endosymbiosis with a proto-eukaryote, in more general terms, we present a signaling games perspective of how the cooperative relationship became established, and has been maintained. While games are used to understand organismal evolution, information-asymmetric games at the molecular level promise novel insights into endosymbiosis. Using a previously devised biomolecular signaling games approach, we model a sender-receiver information asymmetric game, in which the informed mitochondrial sender signals and the uninformed nuclear receiver may take actions (involving for example apoptosis, senescence, regeneration and autophagy/mitophagy). The simulation shows that cellularization is a stabilizing mechanism for Pareto efficient sender/receiver strategic interaction. In stark contrast, the extracellular environment struggles to maintain efficient outcomes, as senders are indifferent to the effects of their signals upon the receiver. Our hypothesis has translational implications, such as in cellular therapy, as mitochondrial medicine matures. It also inspires speculative conjectures about how an analogous human-AI endosymbiosis may be engineered.

Ghost Plants: The Possibilities of Botanical Ecobiography

ABSTRACT Sarah Brooks, an early botanical collector in the remote south-east of Western Australia, and entanglement with that region are the subject of my research. I came to Sarah’s story through a fascination not only with her as a person, but also with the place where she lived; the period of colonisation and dispossession of First Nations people in the late nineteenth century; and with the plant life she encountered in the global biodiversity hotspot of south-west Australia. In looking for ways to honour the deep entanglements between Sarah, the place she lived and the many hundreds of botanical specimens she collected, I found my way to ecobiography, a form of life writing that explores an ecosystem of the Self, comprised of all the interactions between the Self and the other-than-human world. In this essay, I explore the potential of botanical specimens as biographical source material—and as one piece of evidence of Sarah’s entanglement with place. This essay also touches on the possibility of Sarah’s specimens as historical archive, in order to approach her story with an awareness of the other-than-human, so that the agency of other living beings in shaping (human) histories can be centred.

Photosynthetically-powered phototactic active nematic liquid crystal fluids and gels

One of the most ancient forms of life dating to ~3.5 billion years ago, cyanobacteria are highly abundant organisms that convert light into energy and motion, often within conjoined filaments and larger colonies that attract a great deal of interest but their active nematic behavior remained unexplored. Here we demonstrate how light causes a spontaneous self-assembly of two- and three-dimensional active nematic states of cyanobacterial filaments, with a plethora of topological defects. We quantify light-controlled evolutions of orientational and velocity order parameters during the transition between disordered and orientationally ordered states of photosynthetic active matter, as well as the subsequent active nematic’s fluid-gel transformation. Patterned illumination and foreign inclusions with different shapes interact with cyanobacterial active nematics in nontrivial ways while inducing interfacial boundary conditions and fractional boojum defects. Our phototactic model system promises opportunities to systematically explore fundamental properties and technological utility of the liquid crystalline active matter.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of pyridylpiperazine hybrid derivatives as urease inhibitors.

Urease, a nickel-dependent enzyme found in various life forms, catalyzes urea breakdown, concluding nitrogen metabolism by generating ammonia and carbamate. This process causes a rise in pH, supports the survival of pathogens, and can lead to infections such as gastric disorders like ulcers and cancer in humans. Helicobacter pylori employs urease for survival in the acidic environment of the stomach and in protein synthesis. To treat such infections and inhibit the growth of pathogens, it is mandatory to obstruct urease activity; therefore, derivatives of 1-(3-nitropyridin-2-yl)piperazine were synthesized (5a-o; 7a-k). All these newly synthesized compounds were investigated for urease inhibition by in vitro inhibition assays. The results showed that 5b and 7e are the most active inhibitors, having IC50 values of 2.0 ± 0.73 and 2.24 ± 1.63µM, respectively. These IC50 values are lower than the IC50 value of the standard thiourea, which was 23.2 ± 11.0µM. The hemolysis potential of 5b, 5c, 5i, 7e, and 7h was also determined; 7e and 7h exhibited good biocompatibility in human blood cells. Through in silico analysis, it was shown that both these potent inhibitors develop favorable interactions with the active site of urease, having binding energies of -8.0 (5b) and -8.1 (7e) kcal/mol. The binding energy of thiourea was -2.8kcal/mol. Moreover, 5b and 7e have high gastrointestinal permeability as predicted via computational analysis. On the other hand, the IC50 value and binding energy of precursor compound 3 was 3.90 ± 1.91µM and -6.1kcal/mol, respectively. Consequently, 5b and 7e can serve as important inhibitors of urease.

Competition, cooperation, and parental effects in larval aggregations formed on carrion by communally breeding beetles Necrodes littoralis (Staphylinidae: Silphinae).

Aggregations of juveniles are dominant forms of social life in some insect groups. Larval societies are shaped by competitive and cooperative interactions of the larvae, in parallel with parental effects. Colonies of necrophagous larvae are excellent systems to study these relationships. Necrodes littoralis (Staphylinidae: Silphinae), a carrion beetle that colonizes cadavers of large vertebrates, forms massive juvenile aggregations. By spreading over carrion anal and oral exudates, the beetles form the feeding matrix, in which the heat is produced and by which adults presumably affect the fitness of the larvae. We predict that exploitative competition shapes the behavior of N. littoralis larvae in their aggregations. However, cooperative interactions may also operate in these systems due mainly to the benefits of collective exodigestion. Moreover, indirect parental effects (i.e., formation of the feeding matrix) probably modulate larval interactions within the aggregations. By manipulating parental effects (present/absent) and larval density (0.02-1.9 larvae/g of meat), we found a strong negative group-size effect on fitness components of N. littoralis, in colonies with parental effects over almost the entire density range, and in colonies without parental effects for densities larger than 0.5 larva/g. This was accompanied by positive group-size effects in terms of development time (it shortened with larval density) and thermogenesis (it increased with larval density). A pronounced positive group-size effect on juvenile fitness was found only in colonies without parental effects and only in the low-density range. These results support the hypothesis that larval societies of N. littoralis are shaped by exploitation competition.

List of Orchid Species along the Northern Trekking Route of Mount Binaiya, Seram Island, Maluku - Indonesia

Orchidaceae is widely distributed on Earth with major distribution in the tropical regions, including Indonesia. Seram Island located in Maluku Province Indonesia has a high potential to become a habitat for various species of Australasian orchids. Orchid diversity tends to be related to altitude variations in the area that indirectly contribute to creating microclimate variations. One area on Seram Island with various variations in altitude is Mount Binaiya within the Manusela National Park area. This study aims to identify orchid species found on Mount Binaiya. The exploration method was used on the northern trekking route of Mount Binaiya, divided into Waisamata, Kanikeh, Waiansela, and Waihuhu areas. Based on the result, 47 species of orchids were obtained, which belong to the subfamilies Epidendroideae (35 species), Orchidoideae (11 species), and Vanilloideae (1 species). Based on the life form, 25 species were epiphytes, while 22 species were terrestrial orchids. Waisamata had the highest number of species (23 species), followed by Waiansela (14 species), Waihuhu (14 species), and Kanikeh (8 species). Of all these species, some that need further research are Corybas spp., Cyrtosia nana, Pterostylis papuana, Glomera papuana, and Mediocalcar pygmaeum. Some species are new records in their distribution or rediscoveries of existing records.

Floristic composition, life forms and phytogeography of the mountains between Damghan and Shahrud, Eastern Alborz (Iran)

Floristic study of the southern parts of Eastern Alborz in Iranian country was conducted. Encompassing an area of approximately 700 km², this region is located about 50 km north of Damghan and Shahrud (Semnan province), with a high difference in elevations ranging from 1400 to 3813 meters above sea level. According to 2400 collected herbarium specimens, a total of 674 taxa belonging to 332 genera and 71 families were identified. The most abundant families were Asteraceae (46 genera, 97 species), Brassicaceae (35 genera, 59 species), and Poaceae (33 genera, 65 species), respectively. The genus Astragalus, with 34 species, stands as the largest genus in the study area, followed by Cousinia (14 species), Bromus (13 species), Silene, Acantholimon, and Allium (each with 9 species), as well as Alyssum, Gagea, and Poa (each with 8 species). The flora of the study area has a significant influence of Irano-Turanian elements (369 taxa), followed by combinations of Irano-Turanian/Europe-Siberian (127 taxa), Irano-Turanian/Europe-Siberian/Mediterranean (47 taxa), Pluriregional (24 taxa), and Irano-Turanian/Saharo-Arabian elements (22 taxa), among others. Hemicryptophytes (43.62%) emerged as the most prevalent life forms in this region, followed by the others. Overall, 78 species were identified as Irano-Turanian endemics, with many facing threats due to overgrazing and the ongoing effects of climate change.

Exploring the health-promoting potential: Dietary intervention with live or inactivated Lactobacillus gasseri HM1 probiotics in obese mice

BackgroundThis study explores the impact of dietary interventions with live or inactivated Lactobacillus gasseri HM1 probiotics on metabolic health in mice. MethodsAfter inducing obesity in 24 mice with a high-fat diet, they transitioned to a standard chow diet (SCD) while receiving a daily oral placebo, live HM1, heat-killed HM1 (HK-HM1), or sonication-killed HM1 (SK-HM1) for 6 weeks. ResultsResults indicate that SCD with live HM1 significantly improved triglyceride levels, glucose tolerance, and insulin sensitivity. SK-HM1 improved perirenal fat inflammation and reduced serum leptin concentration, while HK-HM1 showed improvements in inflammation in fat tissues and reduced serum IL-6, leptin, and catalase protein levels. Both HK-HM1 and SK-HM1 reduced colon IL-6, TGF-β1, and IL-1β cytokine levels, with HK-HM1 having the most significant effect. ConclusionsThese findings underscore the potential of dietary interventions with HM1 probiotics to enhance metabolic health, revealing distinct benefits between live and inactivated forms.

Modelling energy-harvesting processes in primitive cells: Proton transport across bilayers driven by the oxidation of sulfite

A frequently debated topic related to the origin of life centers around the question of how complex forms of life on today's Earth may have evolved over time from simpler predecessors. For example, the question of how proton concentration gradients across cellular membranes developed in ancestral protocells remains unanswered. This process, which is indispensable for the generation of chemical energy in modern organisms, is driven by energy derived from redox processes in the respiratory chain. Since it is highly unlikely that the complex machinery of the respiratory chain was available on early Earth, we provide an example of how proton gradients can be established in less complex systems. Utilizing liposomes as models of primitive cells, we were able to generate proton gradients of about two pH units across the liposome bilayers using redox reactions as the driving force. Electrons were transferred from sodium sulfite present on the outside of the liposomes to ferricyanide, which was trapped on the inside. A lipid-soluble phenazine derivative served as a shuttle that transferred both electrons and protons across the lipid bilayer. Because sulfite would have been an abundant reduced solute available to the earliest cells, we propose that it may have been a primary source of redox energy for primitive chemiosmotic energy transduction.

Faecalibacterium duncaniae as a novel next generation probiotic against influenza.

The gut-lung axis is critical during viral respiratory infections such as influenza. Gut dysbiosis during infection translates into a massive drop of microbially produced short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Among them, butyrate is important during influenza suggesting that microbiome-based therapeutics targeting butyrate might hold promises. The butyrate-producing bacterium Faecalibacterium duncaniae (formerly referred to as F. prausnitzii) is an emerging probiotic with several health-promoting characteristics. To investigate the potential effects of F. duncaniae on influenza outcomes, mice were gavaged with live F. duncaniae (A2-165 or I-4574 strains) five days before infection. Supplementation of F. duncaniae was associated with less severe disease, a lower pulmonary viral load, and lower levels of lung inflammation. F. duncaniae supplementation impacted on gut dysbiosis induced by infection, as assessed by 16S rRNA sequencing. Interestingly, F. duncaniae administration was associated with a recovery in levels of SCFAs (including butyrate) in infected animals. The live form of F. duncaniae was more potent that the pasteurized form in improving influenza outcomes. Lastly, F. duncaniae partially protected against secondary (systemic) bacterial infection. We conclude that F. duncaniae might serve as a novel next generation probiotic against acute viral respiratory diseases.