How Will the Emerging Plurality of Lives Change How We Conceive of and Relate to Life?

The project “A Plurality of Lives” was funded and hosted by the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies at Lund University, Sweden. The aim of the project was to better understand how a second origin of life, either in the form of a discovery of extraterrestrial life, life developed in a laboratory, or machines equipped with abilities previously only ascribed to living beings, will change how we understand and relate to life. Because of the inherently interdisciplinary nature of the project aim, the project took an interdisciplinary approach with a research group made up of 12 senior researchers representing 12 different disciplines. The project resulted in a joint volume, an international symposium, several new projects, and a network of researchers in the field, all continuing to communicate about and advance the aim of the project

Molecular responses in Aspergillus nidulans to Streptomyces-produced inhibitors of V-ATPases

In nature filamentous fungi and bacteria compete for space and nutrients. Both kinds of organisms have evolved mechanisms such as synthesis of antibiotic secondary metabolites to defeat other microbes. Studies of synthesis of antibiotics and microbial ecology in general have important applications in both agriculture and medicine. This thesis deals with molecular responses in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans to inhibitors of V-ATPases, bafilomycin and concanamycin. These antibiotics are produced by various species within the bacterial genus Streptomyces. The main function of V-ATPases in fungi is to keep the vacuoles acidified. Inhibition of V-ATPases leads to fungal hyperbranching and extremely reduced radial growth. Changes at the molecular level were observed when the fungus was treated with the antibiotics. Using mRNA differential display, five genes with changed expression after treatment were identified. A proteomic approach was used to screen for affected proteins, and 20 proteins displayed changed abundance after antibiotic treatment. Five of these were successfully identified. Most of these gene products were previously unknown, but one could be directly linked to disrupted V-ATPases. The function of several others could not, at this point, be directly related to inhibited V-ATPases. In this thesis, two genes were further characterised. The first of them, vmaA, encodes a major subunit of the V-ATPase. Disruption of vmaA confirmed that the V-ATPase is the main target for bafilomycin and concanamycin in A. nidulans. This mutant strain promises to be a useful tool in further studies of the identified gene products. The most extensively studied gene in this work is phiA. This gene was identified by mRNA differential display, and was up-regulated by bafilomycin. Surprisingly, phiA was found to be essential for normal asexual development. This is intriguing, and several hypotheses can be formulated, of which the most likely is that the induced phiA expression after inhibited V-ATPases is due to secondary effects in the fungus, i.e. caused by triggering growth arrest. In this thesis, several molecular methods, e.g. differential display, proteomics, and immunohisto-chemistry, have been used successfully to study interactions between bacteria and filamentous fungi

Metoder för flerfärgsstickning : En undersökning av instruktioner i handböcker

Melin, O-P, 2017, Metoder för flerfärgsstickning - En undersökning av instruktioner i handböcker. (Fair-isle knitting methods – A survey of instructions in knitting manuals), Institutionen för Konstvetenskap, Department of Art History, Uppsala University.   The study researches the instructions for various methods of executing patterned knitting with two or more colours (often called Fair Isle knitting) in knitting-manuals from the Nordic countries, the UK and North America, in search of similarities, differences and traditions. Professor Edward Shils defines tradition as something created by humans which is transmitted between at least three generations. Are there similarities and differences between these areas in regard to how colour knitting is worked? The study identifies and differentiates between four main methods for colour-knitting. The researched ca 130 manuals, dated from the 1950´s until the present - were analyzed in regard to the relative frequency of the methods they advocate. The result is that two-thirds of the instructions for Fair Isle knitting, during the period and regardless of geographical/cultural area, propose the stranded method with parallel floats. The other stranded method - with rotated floats - is less often given, and seems to have become less popular within the researched period. The method with rotated floats is mentioned more often in manuals from the Anglo-Saxon countries. The bound methods of Fair Isle knitting are the least suggested in the researched manuals, despite the bound and woven method being referred to, especially in British manuals, as equally advantageous. This method also never seems to have had much popularity in the Nordic countries. Bound and twined knitting, although until recently only used in areas of Sweden and Norway, might, because of the recent publication of manuals, find a new lease of life. Professor Shils regards tradition as a transmitted pattern of thought connected to a thing or practice. Knitting to create textile from thread is therefore a tradition, as well as the methods that are handed down weather by oral or written instruction. As noted, some methods of colour-knitting are traditions more in some areas than in others. Also, some knitting methods may never have been lasting enough to establish themselves as traditions.   Keywords: Fair Isle knitting, instructions, methods, knitting-manuals

Skum för att täcka ensilage– metodens möjligheter och svagheter för effektiv och hållbar grovfoderhantering : Slutrapport

Syftet med projektet är visa på möjligheterna med att ersätta plastfilm i plansilotäckning med miljövänligt skum för att uppnå en tillfredställande ensileringsprocess för nordiska förhållanden. Målet med projektet är att se hur väl metoden fungerar samt för att belysa metodens möjligheter och svagheter. Detta innebär att förse lantbrukare med en objektiv bild av metodens potential under svenska förhållanden

Vakuumlagring av fuktig spannmål –möjligheter och svagheter för effektiv och hållbar kraftfoderhantering

Syftet med projektet var att visa på möjligheten att ersätta syrabaserade konserveringsmedel vid vakuumlagring med mikrobiella tillsatsmedel för att uppnå en acceptabel konserveringprocess av fuktigt spannmål relevant för nordiska förhållanden. Målet med projektet var att se hur kombinationen vakuum och mikroorganism fungerar i praktiken både genom att titta på fördelar samt att identifiera möjliga nackdelar

Topics in Quantum Geometry

We consider two distinct, analytic models of quantum geometry that are both inspired by a desire to understand the dynamical space-time of non-perturbative quantum gravity.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo