Ubiquitous overexpression of the DNA repair factor dPrp19 reduces DNA damage and extends Drosophila life span.

Mechanisms that ensure and maintain the stability of genetic information are fundamentally important for organismal function and can have a large impact on disease, aging, and life span. While a multi-layered cellular apparatus exists to detect and respond to DNA damage, various insults from environmental and endogenous sources continuously affect DNA integrity. Over time this can lead to the accumulation of somatic mutations, which is thought to be one of the major causes of aging. We have previously found that overexpression of the essential human DNA repair and splicing factor SNEV, also called PRP19 or hPso4, extends replicative life span of cultured human endothelial cells and impedes accumulation of DNA damage. Here, we show that adult-specific overexpression of dPrp19, the D. melanogaster ortholog of human SNEV/PRP19/hPso4, robustly extends life span in female fruit flies. This increase in life span is accompanied by reduced levels of DNA damage and improved resistance to oxidative and genotoxic stress. Our findings suggest that dPrp19 plays an evolutionarily conserved role in aging, life span modulation and stress resistance, and support the notion that superior DNA maintenance is key to longevity

Spastic paraplegia-linked phospholipase PAPLA1 is necessary for development, reproduction, and energy metabolism in Drosophila.

The human PAPLA1 phospholipase family is associated with hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), a neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by progressive spasticity and weakness of the lower limbs. Taking advantage of a new Drosophila PAPLA1 mutant, we describe here novel functions of this phospholipase family in fly development, reproduction, and energy metabolism. Loss of Drosophila PAPLA1 reduces egg hatchability, pre-adult viability, developmental speed, and impairs reproductive functions of both males and females. In addition, our work describes novel metabolic roles of PAPLA1, manifested as decreased food intake, lower energy expenditure, and reduced ATP levels of the mutants. Moreover, PAPLA1 has an important role in the glycogen metabolism, being required for expression of several regulators of carbohydrate metabolism and for glycogen storage. In contrast, global loss of PAPLA1 does not affect fat reserves in adult flies. Interestingly, several of the PAPLA1 phenotypes in fly are reminiscent of symptoms described in some HSP patients, suggesting evolutionary conserved functions of PAPLA1 family in the affected processes. Altogether, this work reveals novel physiological functions of PAPLA1, which are likely evolutionary conserved from flies to humans

LAPLACE-RUNGE-LENZ VECTOR IN QUANTUM MECHANICS IN NONCOMMUTATIVE SPACE

The object under scrutiny is the dynamical symmetry connected with conservation of the Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector (LRL) in the hydrogen atom problem solved by means of noncommutative quantum mechanics (NCQM). The considered noncommutative configuration space has such a “fuzzy”<br />structure that the rotational invariance is not spoilt. An analogy with the LRL vector in the NCQM is brought to provide our results and also a comparison with the standard QM predictions

SLOVAKIA. Critical junctures in the media transformation process.

In Slovakia, we record several critical junctures in the years 2000 – 2020, which had a significant impact on the media development, as well as on the opportunities and risks for deliberative communication and democracy. These included the advent of online media after 2000, the rise of social media since 2004, the worldwide economic crisis in 2008, the corruption case ‘Gorilla’ in 2011, the murder of the investigative journalist Ján Kuciak in 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020. These events also affected the individual domains studied in Slovakia. Within the legal and ethical regulation, there are laws and standards that guarantee freedom of the press and the conduct of journalists is governed by multiple ethical codes. However, the most significant risks for the media in the journalistic domain are political influences and the pressures from media owners. These issues were also reflected in the decline in media credibility, as confirmed by research in the domain of media usage patterns. A rather positive phenomenon is, despite the persistent absence of empirical data that would support the claim, a sufficient number of academics who deal with the media competencies of media users. In summary, solid conditions (legislative, ethical, educational) for the media have been created in Slovakia, but the influences of politicians and media owners, job instability and poor financial evaluation of journalists remain a risk

SLOVAKIA. Risks and Opportunities Related to Media and Journalism Studies (2000–2020). Case Study on the National Research and Monitoring Capabilities.

Slovakia with a population of 5.3 million is one of the smaller countries in the Mediadelcom project, so the authors were able to identify and describe almost all relevant publications that contributed to the scholarly reflection on the four media domains in 2000 – 2020. The researchers mapped 865 publications, which included 707 academic and 159 non-academic outputs. Within the academic outputs, the project participants found that the most represented are academic articles, then academic books and finally academic book chapters. Most publications are written in Slovak and then in English. A smaller part of the body of literature is indexed in WoS or Scopus databases. Within the non-academic outputs, the project participants found that nonacademic articles, books and research reports have the largest representation. Most outputs are published in Slovak and without indexing in WoS or Scopus databases. Based on these findings, the authors claim that the media studies field has a well-established tradition in Slovakia, which is constantly evolving