A recombination test to classify mutants of Bacillus subtilis of identical phenotype

SUMMARYWe have developed a recombination test inBacillus subtilisthat provides a tool for rapid genetic classification of mutants of identical phenotype. The test has been used to classify 25 ts mutants in nine recombination classes that have been proved by independent evidence to correspond to nine genetic loci

Alienación y Miseria: Tratamiento filosófico desde Marx y Feuerbach

 El objetivo de este trabajo es problematizar la cuestión de la alienación y exponer sus efectos perjudiciales para la vida del hombre. Para ello, partiremos del concepto de alienación en Feuerbach y nos serviremos de las obras: La esencia de la religión (2005) y La esencia del cristianismo (1995). En estas obras profundizaremos en la alienación del sujeto mediante la religión.En un segundo momento desarrollaremos los efectos nocivos de la alienación en el hombre según Marx. Las escritos elegidos para esto son: La Ideología alemana (I) (2010), Los manuscritos de 1844 (1972) y por último, El manifiesto del partido comunista (1991). Desde estas obras abordaremos la noción de alienación del sujeto mediante trabajo, su producción y reproducción en todos los ámbitos de la existencia del sujeto. Nuestro interrogante será ¿por qué la alienación es tan nociva para el hombre?Por último, explicaremos las similitudes y diferencias entre Marx y Feuerbach, exponiendo de qué manera Marx toma el concepto de alienación de su antiguo maestro para adaptarlo y mejorarlo. También nos serviremos de una carta inédita que data del año 1844 escrita por Karl Marx y dedicada a Ludwig Feuerbach, encontrada en la obra El humanismo premarxista de Ludwig Feuerbach (1975) de Cabada Castro.Para finalizar realizaremos una comparación entre discrepancias y similitudes, tanto del concepto de enajenación como de la propuesta de superación en ambos autores

Expert and Peer Pressure in Food and Wine Tasting: Evidence from a Pilot Experiment

We investigate experimentally the role of experts and peer pressure on food and wine tasting, in order to assess whether individual blind tasting might be affected and biased by the judgements expressed either by peer reviewers or by experts. We design and run a four-stages experiment in which 60 non-expert consumers are assigned to either a food or a wine treatment and, for either treatment, to a variant in which evaluation are announced either by peers or by experts. We find that, while peer pressure plays some role in food tasting, experts' opinions are significant in wine tasting

Overproduction and Characterization of the Bacillus subtilis Anti-sigma Factor FlgM

FlgM is an anti-sigma factor of the flagellar-specific sigma (sigma) subunit of RNA polymerase in Bacillus subtilis, and it is responsible of the coupling of late flagellar gene expression to the completion of the hook-basal body structure. We have overproduced the protein in soluble form and characterized it. FlgM forms dimers as shown by gel exclusion chromatography and native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and interacts in vitro with the cognate sigmaD factor. The FlgM.sigmaD complex is a stable heterodimer as demonstrated by gel exclusion chromatography, chemical cross-linking, native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and isoelectric focusing. sigmaD belongs to the group of sigma factors able to bind to the promoter sequence even in the absence of core RNA polymerase. The FlgM.sigmaD complex gave a shift in a DNA mobility shift assay with a probe containing a sigmaD-dependent promoter sequence. Limited proteolysis studies indicate the presence of two structural motifs, corresponding to the N- and C-terminal regions, respectively

Editorial: Gender budgeting—Insights from contemporary experiences

This theme is the second of two themed issues of Public Money & Management (PMM), and is the result of the enthusiastic response received to our initial call for papers on gender budgeting, as well as the responses to the first theme. We hope these two PMM themes will contribute to redressing the previous imbalance of attention, by offering new perspectives on gender budgeting and, more generally, on gender-responsive policies

Preventive Impact of Long-Term Ingestion of Chestnut Honey on Glucose Disorders and Neurodegeneration in Obese Mice

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the impact of long-term honey ingestion on metabolic disorders and neurodegeneration in mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). Three groups of mice were fed with a standard diet (STD), HFD or HFD supplemented with honey (HFD-H) for 16 weeks. Biochemical, histological, Western blotting, RT-PCR and Profiler PCR array were performed to assess metabolic parameters, peripheral and central insulin resistance and neurodegeneration. Daily honey intake prevented the HFD-induced glucose dysmetabolism. In fact, it reduced plasma fasting glucose, insulin and leptin concentrations and increased adiponectin levels. It improved glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity and HOMA index without affecting plasma lipid concentration. HFD mice showed a significantly higher number of apoptotic nuclei in the superficial and deep cerebral cortex, upregulation of Fas-L, Bim and P27 (neuronal pro-apoptotic markers) and downregulation of Bcl-2 and BDNF (anti-apoptotic factors) in comparison with STD- and HFD-H mice, providing evidence for honey neuroprotective effects. PCR-array analysis showed that long-term honey intake increased the expression of genes involved in insulin sensitivity and decreased genes involved in neuroinflammation or lipogenesis, suggesting improvement of central insulin resistance. The expressions of p-AKT and p-GSK3 in HFD-H mice, which were decreased and increased, respectively, in HFD mouse brain, index of central insulin resistance, were similar to STD animals supporting the ability of regular honey intake to protect brain neurons from insulin resistance. In conclusion, the present results provide evidence for the beneficial preventative impact of regular honey ingestion on neuronal damage caused by HFD

Weakened weekdays : lockdown disrupts the weekly cycle of risk tolerance

Risk tolerance decreases from Monday to Thursday and increases on Friday. Antecedents of this weekly risk cycle are difficult to investigate experimentally as manipulating the seven-day cycle is impractical. Here we used temporal disorientation during the UK COVID-19 lockdown to conduct a natural experiment. In two studies, we measured responses to risk in participants with either a strong or weak sense of weekday, after either a short or long period of disruption to their weekly routine by lockdown. In Study 1 (N = 864), the weekly risk cycle was consistent in risk attitude measures specifically to participants who reported a strong sense of weekday. In Study 2 (N = 829), the weekly risk cycle was abolished, even for participants who retained a strong sense of weekday. We propose that two factors sustain the weekly risk cycle. If the sense of weekday is lacking, then weekday will have little effect because the current day is not salient. If weekday associations decay, then weekday will have little effect because the current day is not meaningful. The weekly risk cycle is strong and consistent when (i) sense of weekday is robust and (ii) weekday associations are maintained

Knowledge and innovation: The strings between global and local dimensions of sustainable growth

The modern growth literature pays much attention to innovation and knowledge as drivers of endogenous developments in a competitive open economic system. This paper reviews concisely the literature in this field and addresses in particular micro- and macro-economic interactions at local or regional levels, based on clustering and networking principles, in which sustainability conditions also play a core role. The paper then develops a so-called knowledge circuit model comprising the relevant stakeholders, which aims to offer a novel framework for applied policy research at the meso-economic level