Finding the Needles in the Metagenome Haystack

In the collective genomes (the metagenome) of the microorganisms inhabiting the Earth’s diverse environments is written the history of life on this planet. New molecular tools developed and used for the past 15 years by microbial ecologists are facilitating the extraction, cloning, screening, and sequencing of these genomes. This approach allows microbial ecologists to access and study the full range of microbial diversity, regardless of our ability to culture organisms, and provides an unprecedented access to the breadth of natural products that these genomes encode. However, there is no way that the mere collection of sequences, no matter how expansive, can provide full coverage of the complex world of microbial metagenomes within the foreseeable future. Furthermore, although it is possible to fish out highly informative and useful genes from the sea of gene diversity in the environment, this can be a highly tedious and inefficient procedure. Microbial ecologists must be clever in their pursuit of ecologically relevant, valuable, and niche-defining genomic information within the vast haystack of microbial diversity. In this report, we seek to describe advances and prospects that will help microbial ecologists glean more knowledge from investigations into metagenomes. These include technological advances in sequencing and cloning methodologies, as well as improvements in annotation and comparative sequence analysis. More significant, however, will be ways to focus in on various subsets of the metagenome that may be of particular relevance, either by limiting the target community under study or improving the focus or speed of screening procedures. Lastly, given the cost and infrastructure necessary for large metagenome projects, and the almost inexhaustible amount of data they can produce, trends toward broader use of metagenome data across the research community coupled with the needed investment in bioinformatics infrastructure devoted to metagenomics will no doubt further increase the value of metagenomic studies in various environments

Technology convergence, open innovation, and dynamic economy

The world economy has been confronting low economic growth for several years. Many experts agree that concepts such as openness, convergence, and creation of new market demand through new emerging technologies (e.g. Internet of Things, big data, and Artificial Intelligence) may solve the current economic crisis throughout the world. When these concepts are linked to a network, the law of increasing returns will come true. As the issue of the 4th industrial revolution mentioned in the 2016 World Economic Forum is similar, the enlargement of open innovation and convergence will lead to a new dynamic economy and sustainable development

Americanization in Lithuania as a driving force for globalization

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to analyze Americanization patterns in Lithuania by exploring socio-economic and cultural factors and to determine the impact of Americanization on the level of globalization of the country and its economy.Design/methodology: The research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods by using primary and secondary data. Further descriptive statistics, correlation regression, and factor analysis is applied. Carrying out the survey has collected primary data. Secondary data was drawn from the Statistics Lithuania, Premiercapital, and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.Findings/outcomes: The obtained and analyzed information on the spread of foreign capital, culture and their impact on social and cultural life in the host country which results in emigration and brain drain problems. On the other hand, the research allows us to examining the behavior of Lithuanians and their abilities to accept new culture and social life on the basis of own wealth. The results show that Americanization has much significant impact on economic growth rather than on globalization in Lithuania.Originality/value: It is an interdisciplinary research, which covers three scientific areas: sociology, economics and mathematics. It is unique as it extends to the theory of globalization and synthesizes both understandings of Americanization: cultural assimilation and Americanization as the form of internationalization