Promotion of protocell self-assembly from mixed amphiphiles at the origin of life

Vesicles formed from single-chain amphiphiles (SCAs) such as fatty acids probably played an important role in the origin of life. A major criticism of the hypothesis that life arose in an early ocean hydrothermal environment is that hot temperatures, large pH gradients, high salinity and abundant divalent cations should preclude vesicle formation. However, these arguments are based on model vesicles using 1–3 SCAs, even though Fischer–Tropsch-type synthesis under hydrothermal conditions produces a wide array of fatty acids and 1-alkanols, including abundant C10–C15 compounds. Here, we show that mixtures of these C10–C15 SCAs form vesicles in aqueous solutions between pH ~6.5 and >12 at modern seawater concentrations of NaCl, Mg2+ and Ca2+. Adding C10 isoprenoids improves vesicle stability even further. Vesicles form most readily at temperatures of ~70 °C and require salinity and strongly alkaline conditions to self-assemble. Thus, alkaline hydrothermal conditions not only permit protocell formation at the origin of life but actively favour it

Transition Property For Cube-Free Words

We study cube-free words over arbitrary non-unary finite alphabets and prove the following structural property: for every pair $(u,v)$ of $d$-ary cube-free words, if $u$ can be infinitely extended to the right and $v$ can be infinitely extended to the left respecting the cube-freeness property, then there exists a "transition" word $w$ over the same alphabet such that $uwv$ is cube free. The crucial case is the case of the binary alphabet, analyzed in the central part of the paper. The obtained "transition property", together with the developed technique, allowed us to solve cube-free versions of three old open problems by Restivo and Salemi. Besides, it has some further implications for combinatorics on words; e.g., it implies the existence of infinite cube-free words of very big subword (factor) complexity.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

The importance of financial literacy among degree student : A case study in Academy of Contemporary Islamic Studies, UiTM Shah Alam / In Am Nabila Mohd Hashim

Financial literacy defined merely as a combination of awareness, knowledge, skills, attitude, and behaviour necessary to make an individual financially well-off. International research works show that among the third world countries like Malaysia, the rate of financial literacy is still relatively low. The primary purpose of conducting this study was to gauge if the Social Studies majors are financially literate since they have the background on economics-related courses and to find out who influences them in financial management. Using the quantitative-survey research, the researchers made use of purposive sampling among eighty (80) respondents Academy of Contemporary Islamic Studies students. Based on the findings of the study, for the influences, the respondents acknowledged their parents as their primary influencers. Therefore, the research shows that the respondent's demographic profile didn't affect his/her financial literacy. Students were influenced by parents regarding financial matters at an early age and exposure to economics-related subjects may have increased financial literacy