Considering Intra-individual Genetic Heterogeneity to Understand Biodiversity

In this chapter, I am concerned with the concept of Intra-individual Genetic Hetereogeneity (IGH) and its potential influence on biodiversity estimates. Definitions of biological individuality are often indirectly dependent on genetic sampling -and vice versa. Genetic sampling typically focuses on a particular locus or set of loci, found in the the mitochondrial, chloroplast or nuclear genome. If ecological function or evolutionary individuality can be defined on the level of multiple divergent genomes, as I shall argue is the case in IGH, our current genetic sampling strategies and analytic approaches may miss out on relevant biodiversity. Now that more and more examples of IGH are available, it is becoming possible to investigate the positive and negative effects of IGH on the functioning and evolution of multicellular individuals more systematically. I consider some examples and argue that studying diversity through the lens of IGH facilitates thinking not in terms of units, but in terms of interactions between biological entities. This, in turn, enables a fresh take on the ecological and evolutionary significance of biological diversity

Design and Development of a Web Extension to Help Facilitate the Learning of a Foreign Language

Learning a foreign language is a time consuming task that requires perseverance, commitment and hard work. The time required to learn a foreign language can range from hundreds to thousands of hours, depending on the language being learnt and the native language of the learner. Two major barriers to learning a language are lack of motivation and time. Spending increasing amounts of time online also has a detrimental effect on learning a language. The global digital language learning industry is growing and the market has more than doubled in size in the last decade due to the world becoming increasingly interconnected. There is a need to provide users with a web browser extension that is both interactive and continuous for learning a language. This paper presents the design and development of a web browser extension that will help facilitate the learning of foreign languages. The web extension overrides the default content when either a new tab or window is opened with interactive language learning material. The web extension is compatible with the desktop version of the Chrome web browser. Each time a new tab or window is opened, a range of language learning material are presented at random, which can be read, understood and completed in 30 seconds or less with immediate feedback. Overriding the web browser’s functionality ensures the user is exposed to language learning material

Myofibroblastic reaction is a common event in metastatic disease of breast carcinoma: a descriptive study

BACKGROUND: The modification of stromal components with the disappearance of CD34 positive fibrocytes and by contrast the acquisition of smooth-muscle actin positive myofibroblasts is a frequent event in breast carcinomas but has been little studied in its metastatic sites. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine the stromal expression of CD34 and SMA in lymph node and liver metastases which are two of the most frequent metastatic breast cancer sites.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The many faces of biological individuality

Biological individuality is a major topic of discussion in biology and philosophy of biology. Recently, several objections have been raised against traditional accounts of biological individuality, including the objections of monism (the tendency to focus on a single individuality criterion and/or a single biological field), theory-centrism (the tendency to discuss only theory-based individuation), ahistoricity (the tendency to neglect what biologists of the past and historians of biology have said about biological individuality), disciplinary isolationism (the tendency to isolate biological individuality from other scientific and philosophical domains that have investigated individuality), and the multiplication of conceptual uncertainties (the lack of a precise definition of “biological individual” and related terms). In this introduction, I will examine the current philosophical landscape about biological individuality, and show how the contributions gathered in this special issue address these five objections. Overall, the aim of this issue is to offer a more diverse, unifying, and scientifically informed conception of what a biological individual is