THE ISLAND ERYTHEIA: A CLASH OF DISCIPLINES

“Classical Studies”, or the study of Classical Antiquity, is an ample category covering several disciplines: philology, history, archaeology. They all have to work with written sources at some point, but they rarely do it in a coordinated way. More often than not, material remains or topographical studies don´t play a role in philological interpretations, while archaeologists and historians don´t see the need for a philological reading of texts written by ancient authors, considering them mere tools to confirm their own conclusions or even deceptions to be discredited. This lack of organization is, as we will argue here, at the root of continued misconceptions like those which surround the identity and location of the island of Erytheia, which can be solved by an interdisciplinary approach

THE ISLAND ERYTHEIA: A CLASH OF DISCIPLINES

“Classical Studies”, or the study of Classical Antiquity, is an ample category covering several disciplines: philology, history, archaeology. They all have to work with written sources at some point, but they rarely do it in a coordinated way. More often than not, material remains or topographical studies don´t play a role in philological interpretations, while archaeologists and historians don´t see the need for a philological reading of texts written by ancient authors, considering them mere tools to confirm their own conclusions or even deceptions to be discredited. This lack of organization is, as we will argue here, at the root of continued misconceptions like those which surround the identity and location of the island of Erytheia, which can be solved by an interdisciplinary approach

Refolding dynamics of stretched biopolymers upon force quench

Single molecule force spectroscopy methods can be used to generate folding trajectories of biopolymers from arbitrary regions of the folding landscape. We illustrate the complexity of the folding kinetics and generic aspects of the collapse of RNA and proteins upon force quench, using simulations of an RNA hairpin and theory based on the de Gennes model for homopolymer collapse. The folding time, $\tau_F$, depends asymmetrically on $\delta f_S = f_S - f_m$ and $\delta f_Q = f_m - f_Q$ where $f_S$ ($f_Q$) is the stretch (quench) force, and $f_m$ is the transition mid-force of the RNA hairpin. In accord with experiments, the relaxation kinetics of the molecular extension, $R(t)$, occurs in three stages: a rapid initial decrease in the extension is followed by a plateau, and finally an abrupt reduction in $R(t)$ that occurs as the native state is approached. The duration of the plateau increases as $\lambda =\tau_Q/\tau_F$ decreases (where $\tau_Q$ is the time in which the force is reduced from $f_S$ to $f_Q$). Variations in the mechanisms of force quench relaxation as $\lambda$ is altered are reflected in the experimentally measurable time-dependent entropy, which is computed directly from the folding trajectories. An analytical solution of the de Gennes model under tension reproduces the multistage stage kinetics in $R(t)$. The prediction that the initial stages of collapse should also be a generic feature of polymers is validated by simulation of the kinetics of toroid (globule) formation in semiflexible (flexible) homopolymers in poor solvents upon quenching the force from a fully stretched state. Our findings give a unified explanation for multiple disparate experimental observations of protein folding.Comment: 31 pages 11 figure

Servicio de consulta externa de odontología y satisfacción de los pacientes en un centro de salud, Maynas, 2022

Objetivo general: Establecer la relación del servicio de consulta externa de odontología y la satisfacción de los pacientes en un centro de salud, Maynas, 2022. Metodología: básica, no experimental, cuantitativo, correlacional, transversal, hipotético – deductivo. Muestra: 132 usuarios que asistieron a la consulta externa de odontología, obtenida por muestreo no probabilístico, respondieron dos encuestas de autoría propia validadas por juicio de expertos con un alpha de Cronbach ≥ 0.850; los resultados fueron analizados por el programa Excel y el software SPSS versión 25 para la obtención tablas de frecuencia, análisis inferencial (normalidad) y la contrastación de las hipótesis general y específicas, así como el Rho de Spearman y la significancia bilateral. El servicio de consulta externa junto a su dimensión proceso obtuvieron 87.1% y 91.7% respectivamente correspondiente al nivel “alta”; estructura 85.6% “media”; resultado 72.7% “media” La satisfacción general del paciente obtuvo 78% “satisfecho”, y la dimensión humana 90.9% “satisfecho”. Finalmente existe relación estadísticamente significativa entre el servicio de consulta externa de odontología y la satisfacción del paciente. Conclusión: el nivel de satisfacción general fue 78% y existe relación estadística entre el servicio de consulta externa de odontología y la satisfacción del paciente

Análisis medio de algoritmos de reducción sobre árboles

Tesis Univ. Compl. Madrid. Dpto. Informática y Automática. Dirigida por J. M. Steyaert, leída el 11 de enero de 1988.Sección Deptal. de Sistemas Informáticos y ComputaciónFac. de Ciencias MatemáticasTRUEProQuestpu

Análisis medio de algoritmos de reducción sobre árboles

Tesis Univ. Compl. Madrid. Dpto. Informática y Automática. Dirigida por J. M. Steyaert, leída el 11 de enero de 1988.Sección Deptal. de Sistemas Informáticos y ComputaciónFac. de Ciencias MatemáticasTRUEProQuestpu

Mechanical unfolding of RNA hairpins

Mechanical unfolding trajectories, generated by applying constant force in optical tweezer experiments, show that RNA hairpins and the P5abc subdomain of the group I intron unfold reversibly. We use coarse-grained Go-like models for RNA hairpins to explore forced-unfolding over a broad range of temperatures. A number of predictions that are amenable to experimental tests are made. At the critical force the hairpin jumps between folded and unfolded conformations without populating any discernible intermediates. The phase diagram in the force-temperature (f,T) plane shows that the hairpin unfolds by an all-or-none process. The cooperativity of the unfolding transition increases dramatically at low temperatures. Free energy of stability, obtained from time averages of mechanical unfolding trajectories, coincide with ensemble averages which establishes ergodicity. The hopping time between the the native basin of attraction (NBA) and the unfolded basin increases dramatically along the phase boundary. Thermal unfolding is stochastic whereas mechanical unfolding occurs in "quantized steps" with great variations in the step lengths. Refolding times, upon force quench, from stretched states to the NBA is "at least an order of magnitude" greater than folding times by temperature quench. Upon force quench from stretched states the NBA is reached in at least three stages. In the initial stages the mean end-to-end distance decreases nearly continuously and only in the last stage there is a sudden transition to the NBA. Because of the generality of the results we propose that similar behavior should be observed in force quench refolding of proteins.Comment: 23 pages, 6 Figures. in press (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.

Shotgun metagenomics to investigate unknown viral etiologies of pediatric meningoencephalitis

Introduction: Meningoencephalitis in children poses a diagnostic challenge, as etiology remains unknown for most of patients. Viral metagenomics by shotgun sequencing represents a powerful tool for investigating unknown viral infections related to these cases. Patients and methods: In a two-year, reference-centre, retrospective study, we investigated the usefulness of viral metagenomics of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for the diagnosis of viral infectious meningoencephalitis in forty seven pediatric patients, forty of them previously tested negative with a routine neurologic panel of viral targets that included herpesvirus 1-3 and enterovirus. We enhanced the detection by targeting viral sequences by hybrid capture. Raw sequence data was analysed using three bioinformatics pipelines. Results: Out of forty remaining children with meningoencephalitis of unknown viral etiology, a significant detection of viral nucleic acid by shotgun sequencing was found in twenty one, which was confirmed in ten of them by specific PCR: seven human endogenous retrovirus K113 (HER K113), one parechovirus 3, one human herpesvirus 5 (HHV5); one enterovirus B (Echovirus 9). The remaining eleven CSF were not confirmed by PCR: three rotavirus, one human herpesvirus 7 (HHV7), one influenza A, one mastadenovirus C, one sindbis virus, one torque teno virus, one human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1), one human alphaherpesvirus 3 (HHV3), one human alphaherpesvirus 2 (HHV2). Conclusions: Underutilization of currently available meningitis-encephalitis diagnostic techniques such as BioFire® FilmArray® is the main cause of undiagnosed cases of meningoencephalitis. However, in this study we detected uncommon viruses that should be considered, including virus, rotavirus, sindbis virus, influenza A virus and HHV7. No other viral sequences that could be readily linked to CNS inflammation were detected. Some findings may stem from reagent or sample contamination, as seen with papillomavirus; for others, the clinical relevance of the virus remains uncertain and should be substantiated by further studies, as is the case with endogenous retrovirus K113 virus. Online bioinformatics pipeline CZID represents a valuable tool for analysing shotgun sequencing data in cases of neurological conditions with unknown etiology. Altogether, this study highlights the potential of shotgun sequencing in identifying previously unknown viral neuropathogens and sheds light on the interpretation issues related to its application in clinical microbiology.This work was supported by a grant from Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Project code MPY434/2021. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.S

Refolding upon force quench and pathways of mechanical and thermal unfolding of ubiquitin

The refolding from stretched initial conformations of ubiquitin (PDB ID: 1ubq) under the quenched force is studied using the Go model and the Langevin dynamics. It is shown that the refolding decouples the collapse and folding kinetics. The force quench refolding times scale as tau_F ~ exp(f_q*x_F/k_B*T), where f_q is the quench force and x_F = 0.96 nm is the location of the average transition state along the reaction coordinate given by the end-to-end distance. This value is close to x_F = 0.8 nm obtained from the force-clamp experiments. The mechanical and thermal unfolding pathways are studied and compared with the experimental and all-atom simulation results in detail. The sequencing of thermal unfolding was found to be markedly different from the mechanical one. It is found that fixing the N-terminus of ubiquitin changes its mechanical unfolding pathways much more drastically compared to the case when the C-end is anchored. We obtained the distance between the native state and the transition state x_UF=0.24 nm which is in reasonable agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 35 pages, 15 figures, 1 tabl

The Chinese Orchestra Cultural Ecosystem in Malaysia: Hybridisation, Resilience and Prevalence

While the Chinese orchestra is a relatively modern formation, its Chinese folk music predecessors and their relationship with their host environment has a long, traceable history. Traditionally, Chinese music has nurtured a close identification with natural phenomena, from the use of natural resources in the construction of instruments, classified as the bayin, to the portrayal of imageries of the soundscapes of nature with extended performance techniques. Along with globalisation trends, Chinese folk music traditions have since undergone a series of hybridisation and transformation processes that transposed its focus from the natural/individual into the social/communal, mimicking the Western symphony orchestral model, a process that fostered the constant modification, repurposing, and commodification of its instruments and practices. Applying Titon’s concept of ecomusicology as the theoretical framework, the present study explores the resilience and adaptive management of the Chinese orchestra since the inception of its model 100 years ago, particularly in the context of the Chinese diaspora in Malaysia. How does Chinese music in a diasporic location retain and adapt its historical aesthetics, after undergoing politically induced transformations, pressures of modernisation and desires of assimilation into the local community? This study proposes a participant observation to reassess the current state of the Chinese orchestra in Malaysia, while providing an update on the limited existing literature on the topic through the perspective of cultural ecosystems. With tensions of modernising according to social trends and additional challenges posed by social configurations, repositioning the study of Malaysian Chinese Orchestras as ecosystem would help to devise new strategies to sustain the model in the future, while keeping its identity as a ‘tradition’ that is experiencing constant evolution