Role In Determining Shape Research Articles

Forest top canopy bacterial communities are influenced by elevation and host tree traits

BackgroundThe phyllosphere microbiome is crucial for plant health and ecosystem functioning. While host species play a determining role in shaping the phyllosphere microbiome, host trees of the same species that are subjected to different environmental conditions can still exhibit large degrees of variation in their microbiome diversity and composition. Whether these intra-specific variations in phyllosphere microbiome diversity and composition can be observed over the broader expanse of forest landscapes remains unclear. In this study, we aim to assess the variation in the top canopy phyllosphere bacterial communities between and within host tree species in the temperate European forests, focusing on Fagus sylvatica (European beech) and Picea abies (Norway spruce).ResultsWe profiled the bacterial diversity, composition, driving factors, and discriminant taxa in the top canopy phyllosphere of 211 trees in two temperate forests, Veluwe National Parks, the Netherlands and Bavarian Forest National Park, Germany. We found the bacterial communities were primarily shaped by host species, and large variation existed within beech and spruce. While we showed that there was a core microbiome in all tree species examined, community composition varied with elevation, tree diameter at breast height, and leaf-specific traits (e.g., chlorophyll and P content). These driving factors of bacterial community composition also correlated with the relative abundance of specific bacterial families.ConclusionsWhile our results underscored the importance of host species, we demonstrated a substantial range of variation in phyllosphere bacterial diversity and composition within a host species. Drivers of these variations have implications at both the individual host tree level, where the bacterial communities differed based on tree traits, and at the broader forest landscape level, where drivers like certain highly plastic leaf traits can potentially link forest canopy bacterial community variations to forest ecosystem processes. We eventually showed close associations between forest canopy phyllosphere bacterial communities and host trees exist, and the consistent patterns emerging from these associations are critical for host plant functioning.

Investigation of the shapes and sizes of soft molecular aggregates in solution via partial molar volume and dynamic light scattering measurements

Soft molecular aggregates are naturally dynamic and deformable nanoscale objects of various shapes and sizes. However, soft nanoparticle shape can be difficult to measure and often requires advanced instrumentation or methods. Yet, foreknowledge of soft aggregate overall shape is often critically important in many experiments that measure the aggregate’s internal structure and properties. Small-angle neutron and x-ray scattering are often used to measure soft nanoparticle shape. Molecular dynamics simulations can also give an indication of soft molecular shape but, like small-angle scattering methods, requires considerable expense and training. To complement these approaches a more straightforward experimental method of determining soft molecular aggregate shape using a combination of partial molar volume and dynamic light scattering measurements (PMV-DLS) is presented. PMV-DLS is inexpensive, requires modest instrumentation, and can be performed in any laboratory. In this article, the PMV-DLS technique is demonstrated on two separate soft molecular aggregates: AOT reverse micelles and Triton X-100 micelles. The shapes of these aggregates were investigated over a range of solution properties. In both cases, the penetration of continuous phase solvent molecules into the aggregate was found to play an important role in shape determination. AOT reverse micelles were observed to transition from ellipsoidal to spherical as the solution water content increased. Triton X-100 micelle shape was found to be critically dependent upon the amount of water that partitions into the surfactant polyethylene oxide head group region.

Macrophyte- and Macrozoobenthic-Based Assessment in Rivers: Specificity of the Response to Combined Physico-Chemical Stressors

The importance of adequate biological assessments of rivers based on aquatic assemblages is essential to establish recovery measures. Macrophyte and macroinvertebrate communities react differently in time and in response strength to diverse stressors. Our hypothesis was that each group response is a result of specific and combined abiotic factors and each stressor’s impact. To address the above, both biological quality elements (BQEs) and values of the ecological quality ratio (EQR) were studied in relation to four abiotic parameters and five physico-chemical stressors. Discrepancies of more than one degree between the ecological status assessments of Bulgarian river sites determined using macrophytes and macrozoobenthos were discussed. The RDA analysis showed that altitude had a determining role in shaping the abundance of macrophyte and macrozoobenthos communities. Aquatic flora richness positively correlated with nitrogen enrichment and macroinvertebrate fauna—with altitude and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). Nutrients and shading were most significant for the ecological status evaluation defined with both macrophytes and macrozoobenthos. Macrophyte-based EQR was related to oxygen concentration and shading, while macroinvertebrate-based EQR was better at sites with coarser substrates. Among tested stressors, mainly total nitrogen and BOD explained the lower macrophyte-based assessment at half of the studied sites. In conditions of increased nitrogen and BOD, but remaining in the range of good status, macrophytes as primary producers gave a faster and stronger response. Despite the differences in the assessment, both BQEs have higher values in conditions of lower BOD and total phosphorus.

Allometry in Late Devonian Podocopa ostracods (Crustacea) and its implications for ostracod ontogeny

AbstractPodocopa ostracods have abounded in various marine and non‐marine habitats since the early Palaeozoic and left a diverse fossil record in strata worldwide. This is particularly useful for stratigraphic correlation and palaeoenvironmental and palaeogeographical reconstructions. However, despite being the most numerous ostracods during the Palaeozoic, their origins, evolution, ontogeny and phylogeny remain poorly defined. This paper represents the first study of morphological variation in Devonian Platycopida ostracods (an order of Podocopa) using a geometric morphometric approach. Our results identify substantial shape variation in Cribroconcha honggulelengensis Song & Crasquin from the Upper Devonian Hongguleleng Formation of western Junggar, northwest China, demonstrating a remarkable change in juveniles between stages A‐3 and A‐2. Using linear regressions between principal component scores from right lateral view and carapace length, we demonstrate allometric growth patterns for this species. The body plan of C. honggulelengensis developed along an ontological variable: from an ovate outline with rare pores to an oblong outline with dense and large pores. Environmental factors should play an important role in shape determination during ontogeny of C. honggulelengensis.

Light-Mediated Growth of Noble Metal Nanostructures (Au, Ag, Cu, Pt, Pd, Ru, Ir, Rh) From Micro- and Nanoscale ZnO Tetrapodal Backbones.

Micro- and nanoscale ZnO tetrapods provide an attractive support for metallic nanostructures since they can be inexpensively produced using the flame transport method and nanoparticle synthesis schemes can take advantage of a coupled response facilitated by the formation of a semiconductor-metal interface. Here, we present a light-mediated solution-based growth mode capable of decorating the surface of ZnO tetrapods with nanostructures of gold, silver, copper, platinum, palladium, ruthenium, iridium, and rhodium. It involves two coupled reactions that are driven by the optical excitation of electron-hole pairs in the ZnO semiconductor by ultraviolet photons where the excited electrons are used to reduce aqueous metal ions onto the ZnO tetrapod as excited holes are scavenged from the surface. For the most part, the growth mode gives rise to nanoparticles with a roundish morphology that are uniformly distributed on the tetrapod surface. Larger structures with irregular shapes are, however, obtained for syntheses utilizing aqueous metal nitrates as opposed to chlorides, a result that suggests that the anion plays a role in shape determination. It is also demonstrated that changes to the molarity of the metal ion can influence the nanostructure nucleation rate. The catalytic activity of tetrapods decorated with each of the eight metals is assessed using the reduction of 4-nitrophenol by borohydride as a model reaction where it is shown that those decorated with Pd, Ag, and Rh are the most active.

Τhe Presence of Dance in Female Deities of the Greek Antiquity

Abstract According to philosophers and paedagogists, from antiquity until today, arts and dance in particular have played a determining role in shaping the human personality, as well as in helping people gain a positive perspective of their multi-aspect development in terms of knowledge, perception, creative ability, psychomotor actions, emotional and social elevation. This holistic and anthropocentric approach in antiquity set new ways for perceiving motion -particularly dance- through the dance education. The aim of this study is to provide a well-documented review of dance in religious events of the ancient Greek world, by collecting and processing data related to female deities connected to the most important dances and music in public feasts of Ancient Greece -feasts of both religious and war character. Dance, music and poetry; the three elements that managed to influence and configure the education of the Ancient Greeks, leading to one of the most fundamental elements of Greek aesthetics: “harmony”.

Continuing the deviating tradition of Hungarian experimental film art

This article places Joseph and His Brothers—Scenes from a Peasant Bible (József és testvérei—Jelenetek egy parasztbibliából, 2003) by Hungarian experimental filmmaker András Jeles within the social, institutional and cultural context of Hungarian film production. It surveys the sociopolitical conditions that gave rise to the formal and political radicalism of Hungarian experimental cinema; it provides an insight into the workshop of the Béla Balázs Studio, which played a determining role in shaping the various alternative discourses of Hungarian filmmaking, and suggests that András Jeles’s work is a particular manifestation of form-breaking radicalism. Two different narrative and stylistic modes of expression in the film are examined: shadow play and infrared camera use, as is the deployment of these two kinds of visuality in the parallel structure of the film. Cultural memory and the technical conditions of the filmic medium are considered from the perspective of aesthetic experience.

Introduction: Francophone Communities Past and Present

‘Francophone Postcolonial Theory’, the Special Issue of Paragraph edited in 2001 by Celia Britton and Michael Syrotinski, played a determining role in shaping the research field it sought to map. Much has changed in the decade since then, both in Francophone postcolonial criticism and in the specific context of Caribbean literature and thought. From at least the late 1980s, the greater part of Francophone Caribbean criticism tended to deal primarily with the French Departments of Martinique, Guadeloupe and, to a lesser extent, Guyane. The considerable intellectual energy that underpinned the great literary and cultural movements from those regions—Negritude, Antillanite and Creolite—drew the majority of critical attention from Francophone Caribbeanists. Haiti, by contrast, was relatively ignored and deemed to be somewhat on the margins of the intellectual movements that seemed to be arranged teleologically, or even dialectically, marking a specific point in a trajectory that appeared to lead irresistibly to a future, or futures, characterized by infinite reinventions of Francophone Caribbean identities, and a general openness to the ever-creolizing world— ‘le monde se creolise’ in Glissant’s well-known phrase.1 Remarkably, then, the last ten years or so have seen an almost complete reversal in this AntilleanHaitian dynamic. Since at least 2004, the year of the bicentenary of Haitian independence and of the controversial departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, there has been a decided ‘Haitian turn’ in Francophone Caribbean studies, a rush of scholars from multiple disciplines taking a new interest in Haiti, and a turn among many more established Caribbeanists towards Haiti. The earthquake of 2010

Real Reform Begins Within: An Organizational Approach to Health Care Reform

Health care systems are under pressure to control their increasing costs, to better adapt to evolving demands, to improve the quality and safety of care, and ultimately to ameliorate the health of their populations. This article looks at a battery of organizational options aimed at transforming health care systems and argues that more attention must be paid to reforming the delivery mechanisms that are so crucial for health care systems' overall performance. To support improvement, policies can rely on organizational assets in two ways. First, reforms can promote the creation of new organizational forms; second, they can employ organizational levers (e.g., capacity development, team-based organizations, evidence-informed practices) to achieve specific policy goals. In both cases organizational assets are mobilized with a view to creating complete health care organizations -- that is to say, organizations that have the capacity to function as high-performing systems. The challenges confronting the development of more complete health care organizations are significant. Real health care system reforms may likewise require implementing ecologies of complex innovation at the clinical, organizational, and policy levels. Policies play a determining role in shaping these new spaces for action so that day-to-day practices may change.

Thermal and dynamic behaviour of the actin monomer in case of different cations

Actin is one of the important elements of the striated muscle that transmits force from the myosin filaments and as a part of the cytoskeleton plays an important role in shape determination of cells. It is a known experience that removal of the divalent cation affects the dynamic behaviour of actin in both forms. Paramagnetic probes and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy provide direct technique by which the rotation and the orientation of specifically labelled proteins can be followed during biochemical manipulations. The spectroscopic measurements could be combined with DSC measurements that report domain stability and interactions and allow the calculation of the thermodynamic parameters during the melting process. Actin was spin-labelled with maleimide or fluoro-dinitro proxyl probe molecules which are bound to the Cys-374 or Lys-61 residues of the smaller domain. EPR spectroscopy spectra were recorded in monomer form in Ca- and EGTA-state as a function of temperature up to the melting point. Similarly, DSC measurements were performed and analyzed using the kinetic theory. The measurements showed that removal of the divalent cation from the globular actin induced significant local and global structural change both in the thermodynamic properties and the rotational mobility of actin detected by DSC and EPR. On the basis of the results derived by deconvolution of the DSC pattern we can suggest a non-interactive two-domain melting for the monomer actin after removing the divalent cations.

Role of Polyfunctional Organic Molecules in the Synthesis and Assembly of Metal Nanoparticles

The role of polyfunctional organic molecules in the synthesis of differently shaped metallic nanostructures and their assembly is investigated. These molecules could be used as spacer ligands and also for surface passivation of nanoparticles, especially with the objective of controlling their electronic and optical properties depending on their length scales. We investigate the role of several such molecules, such as 4-aminothiophenol, tridecylamine, Bismarck brown R and Y, mordant brown, fat brown, chrysoidin (basic orange), and 3-aminobenzoic acid in the synthesis and assembly of various nanoparticles of gold and silver. For example, the use of 4-ATP helps in the formation of rod shaped micelles in aqueous acetonitrile as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) suggesting their role as soft templates. In addition, 4-ATP has also been used for the formation of heteroassembly of spherical nanoparticles of gold and silver at controlled pH. Significantly, triangular and hexagonal gold nanoplates are formed at room temperature by similar polyfunctional dye molecule, Bismarck brown R (BBR), while other analogous dye molecules give only arbitrary shaped gold nanoparticles. Further confirmation of their role in shape determination comes from linear amine molecules such as tridecylamine, which give only spherical nanoparticles both for silver and gold. In essence, our study confirms the role of various such organic molecules in shape controlled synthesis of nanoparticles. We also report optical and electrochemical properties of few of these nanostructures as a function of their shape.

Economic development and structural setting: Hong Kong electronics industry

A structural analysis of the economic development in developing economies is proposed. A development model is constructed and examined against the experience of the Hong Kong electronics industry. The proposed model indicated that the local structural settings of developing economies did not foster a high profit incentive and investment environment for rapid economic development. However, the same settings when integrated into an international structural context can generate a structural profit that is based on the difference in the cost of production. This structural profit can act as an engine of growth for the whole economy. The application of the model has shown that the calculation of the structural profit is not simply based on certain factors of production but on the overall cost of production. In addition, the application also indicated that three main aspects of the structural settings have played the determining role in shaping the development of the industry, namely, the export network, risk and uncertainty in the local structural settings and peripheral industries.

Role of the Rous Sarcoma Virus p10 Domain in Shape Determination of Gag Virus-Like Particles Assembled In Vitro and within Escherichia coli

Purified retrovirus Gag proteins can assemble in vitro into virus-like particles (VLPs) in the presence of RNA. It was shown previously that a Rous sarcoma virus Gag protein missing only the protease domain forms spherical particles resembling immature virions lacking a membrane but that a similar protein missing the p10 domain forms tubular particles. Thus, p10 plays a role in spherical particle formation. To further study this shape-determining function, we dissected the p10 domain by mutagenesis and examined VLPs assembled within Escherichia coli or assembled in vitro from purified proteins. The results identified a minimal contiguous segment of 25 amino acid residues at the C terminus of p10 that is sufficient to restore efficient spherical assembly to a p10 deletion mutant. Random and site-directed mutations were introduced into this segment of polypeptide, and the shapes of particles formed in E. coli were examined in crude extracts by electron microscopy. Three phenotypes were observed: tubular morphology, spherical morphology, or no regular structure. While the particle morphology visualized in crude extracts generally was the same as that visualized for purified proteins, some tubular mutants scored as spherical when tested as purified proteins, suggesting that a cellular factor may also play a role in shape determination. We also examined the assembly properties of smaller Gag proteins consisting of the capsid protein-nucleocapsid protein (CA-NC) domains with short N-terminal extensions or deletions. Addition of one or three residues allowed CA-NC to form spheres instead of tubes in vitro, but the efficiency of assembly was extremely low. Deletion of the N-terminal residue(s) abrogated assembly. Taken together, these results imply that the N terminus of CA and the adjacent upstream 25 residues play an important role in the polymerization of the Gag protein.

English Title Not Available [Turkish Title:TURKIYE\DE SENDIKALARIN GLOBALLESMEYE KARSI TEPKILERI

The purpose of this study is to analyze the respanses of Turkish trade unions to the changes in labour market induced or revealed by globalization processes. The respanses of two fundemental trade unions, namely Birlesik Metal-Is and Petrol-Is, have been examined as to the changes especially in employment, in union membership structures and to the changes in labour-management relations, by using the results of interviews conducted by unionists and by the evaluation of unions\' data and documentation, such as members\' profile documents, official working reports of General Assembly, research popers, etc. As a conclusion, it may be argued that trade unions in Turkey have tried to survive in industrial relations system, but there exists an important difference that is shaped by their past experiences and their roles refore 1980 and this difference has been a determining role in shaping their current strategies.