Analysis of Taca Overexpression on Phenotypic Characteristics of Sinorhizobium meliloti

Sinorhizobium meliloti is a nitrogen-fixing bacterium that forms a symbiosis with legumes. These bacteria colonize plant roots within nodules and undergo a novel cell cycle as a symbiont. Free-living in soil, it undergoes asymmetrical cell division with one round of DNA replication per cell cycle. We are interested in identifying cell cycle regulators and understanding their function during free-living growth and symbiosis. We hypothesize that TacA is a cell cycle regulator since deletion of the TacA ortholog in Caulobacter crescentus shows morphology, motility, and cell membrane defects. To test this, we examined IPTG-induced overexpression of tacA for exopolysaccharide, membrane, and motility defects. Our results show low IPTG levels decrease motility of wild type and ?cbrA strains. Surprisingly, higher amounts of IPTG restore motility to each strain’s original level. Additionally, tacA overexpression causes a membrane defect in WT that is similar to ?cbrA, while tacA does not appear to regulate exopolysaccharide production. In conclusion, tacA overexpression has several cell cycle phenotypes, which makes it a good candidate for further investigation. S. meliloti is an important model organism, not only for its potential to replace synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, but also because it is related to bacteria that cause brucellosis and plant tumors

Identification, Expression and Target Gene Analyses of MicroRNAs in Spodoptera litura

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNAs widely present in animals and plants and involved in post-transcriptional regulation of gene transcripts. In this study we identified and validated 58 miRNAs from an EST dataset of Spodoptera litura based on the computational and experimental analysis of sequence conservation and secondary structure of miRNA by comparing the miRNA sequences in the miRbase. RT-PCR was conducted to examine the expression of these miRNAs and stem-loop RT-PCR assay was performed to examine expression of 11 mature miRNAs (out of the 58 putative miRNA) that showed significant changes in different tissues and stages of the insect development. One hundred twenty eight possible target genes against the 11 miRNAs were predicted by using computational methods. Binding of one miRNA (sli-miR-928b) with the three possible target mRNAs was confirmed by Southern blotting, implying its possible function in regulation of the target genes

The Attitude of Inhabitants of Cooperative Settlements toward the Disturbances of Cooperative Property

Le présent article montre les résultats des examens exercés dans quelques colonies de coopérative à Poznań, dans le cadre des recherches à l'échelle plus vaste, menées par l'Institut des Sciences Juridiques de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences sur la conscience juridique de la société polonaise. L'auteur examinait les attitudes des habitants des colonies de coopérative envers les infractions contre la propriété de coopérative. Ces recherches oint permis de formuler les coinclusiions suivantes: 1) Les attitudes des habitants de la colonie de coopérative envers les infractions de la propriété de coopérative sont diférentes des attitudes envers des infractions semblables de la propriété étatique ou privée; 2) Le rapport des habitants envers des infractions contre la propriété de coopérative dépend du degré du développement des liens sociaux entre des habitants de la colonie donnée; 3) La violation de la propriété de coopérative quant aux objets se trouvant dans la sphère de l'usage direct des habitants particuliers, est plus fortement condamnée par eux que la violation de la propriété étatique on privée; 4) Les résultats obtenus sont d'accord avec les résultats des recherches de l'Institut des Sciences Juridiques de l'Académie Polonaise des Science sur les transformations de la conscience juridique de la société polonaise. En particulier, il a été confirmé, que la différence dans T'attitude adoptée enveris des infractions contre la propriété étatique et privée diminue à mesure de racornissement de la valeur de l'objet du délit. Les attitudes envers les violations de la propriété de coopérative digressent de cette tendance, à l'égard de la composition particulière ides facteurs, plus largement discutés dans cet article; 5) L'opinion formulée dans les recherches plus récentes, que les violations de la propriété sociale sont toujours moins condamnées que les violations de la propriété privée, exige donc de plusieurs concrétisations plus précises.Digitalizacja i deponowanie archiwalnych zeszytów RPEiS sfinansowane przez MNiSW w ramach realizacji umowy nr 541/P-DUN/201

Australia: imigracja i wielokulturowość

Publikacja recenzowana / Peer-reviewed publicationThe paper is based on an address to “Immigration and Multiculturalism in XXI Century. The Case of Poland”, conference organised by the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan in April 2016. It reviews both the Australian immigration experience and Australian multiculturalism from an historical perspective and also reviews current practice in an attempt to evaluate its relevance to Europe. The paper starts with an examination of objectives and principles underlying the Australian immigration system over the last two centuries with particular focus on economic development, national security and identity issues. Then the paper outlines the settlement and multicultural policies and programs that have been put in place since 1975 to integrate migrant and refugee intake into broader Australian society. It also considers the linkages that exists between immigration and multiculturalism and evaluates the success or otherwise of these policies/programs in terms of social cohesion outcomes. Finally, the paper examines the Australian solutions and contemporary challenges and considers the applicability of the Australian model to guide the development of European responses to the 2015–16 migration/refugee crises. It concludes that at present the European Union has neither an eff ective immigration policy nor Australian style multiculturalism and settlement policies to deal with the current immigration crisis and/or its social cohesion consequences.Artykuł jest rozwinięciem wykładu wygłoszonego na konferencji „Imigracja i wielokulturowość w XXI wieku. Przypadek Polski”, zorganizowanej przez Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu w kwietniu 2016 r. Zawiera on historyczny i współczesny przegląd australijskich doświadczeń z imigracją oraz wielokulturowością i próbuje ocenić przydatność tego doświadczeń dla Europy. Pierwsza część artykułu omawia cele i zasady australijskiego systemu imigracyjnego stosowane przez ostatnie dwieście lat, ze szczególnym naciskiem na ekonomię, bezpieczeństwo i świadomość narodową. Następnie autor rozwija temat polityki osadnictwa i wielokulturowości od roku 1975, z punktu widzenia sukcesu w integracji migrantów i uchodźców w społeczeństwo australijskie. Szczególny dyskurs dotyczy powiązań pomiędzy polityką imigracyjną i wielokulturowością. Artykuł ocenia wpływ tych programów rządowych na zapewnienie społecznej jedności. W końcowej części artykuł ocenia użyteczność australijskich rozwiązań dla formowania odpowiedzi na europejski kryzys związany z masowym napływem uchodźców i migrantów w latach 2015–2016. W konkluzji autor stwierdza, iż Unia Europejska nie ma obecnie ani skutecznej polityki imigracyjnej ani programów osadnictwa, które pozwoliłyby na efektywną kontrolę granic i na zapewnienie spokoju społecznego

Racism, equality and civil liberties in a multicultural Australia

Modern Australia began as a European settlement in a land inhabited by Indigenous people. The history of settlement was not always peaceful. The clash at the frontier between the Indigenous population and European settlers was often cruel, hateful and has had long lasting consequences. Other areas of conflict developed along ethnic and religious lines including between the Protestant English and Catholic Irish. It should also be noted that the racist "White Australia" policy remained unchallenged wisdom, adhered to by the vast majority until the late 1950s. Although European settlement espoused reasonably egalitarian principles (which initially did not include Indigenous Australians), the Australian Constitution was drafted without the inclusion of a bill of rights. Following mass post-WWII migration, today's Australia is a well-functioning, multicultural society with well over 200 languages spoken at home. Chinese, Indian and Muslim settlers are amongst the largest communities. Governments are committed to multicultural policies which focus on equality and anti-racism measures, even if they are to the detriment of civil liberties such as a freedom of speech or expression. The purpose of this chapter is to look at the universality principle in the context of Australian historical development. The chapter will analyse if, and if so how, such local factors impacted on the human rights education system in Australia. This chapter will also examine the linkages between the historical background and modern culture of human rights in Australia and in particular the evolution of the egalitarian concept of a "fair go ". It will also critique the nature of contemporary human rights education in Australia and its contribution to advancing equality and civil liberties

The Attitude of Inhabitants of Cooperative Settlements toward the Disturbances of Cooperative Property

Le présent article montre les résultats des examens exercés dans quelques colonies de coopérative à Poznań, dans le cadre des recherches à l'échelle plus vaste, menées par l'Institut des Sciences Juridiques de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences sur la conscience juridique de la société polonaise. L'auteur examinait les attitudes des habitants des colonies de coopérative envers les infractions contre la propriété de coopérative. Ces recherches oint permis de formuler les coinclusiions suivantes: 1) Les attitudes des habitants de la colonie de coopérative envers les infractions de la propriété de coopérative sont diférentes des attitudes envers des infractions semblables de la propriété étatique ou privée; 2) Le rapport des habitants envers des infractions contre la propriété de coopérative dépend du degré du développement des liens sociaux entre des habitants de la colonie donnée; 3) La violation de la propriété de coopérative quant aux objets se trouvant dans la sphère de l'usage direct des habitants particuliers, est plus fortement condamnée par eux que la violation de la propriété étatique on privée; 4) Les résultats obtenus sont d'accord avec les résultats des recherches de l'Institut des Sciences Juridiques de l'Académie Polonaise des Science sur les transformations de la conscience juridique de la société polonaise. En particulier, il a été confirmé, que la différence dans T'attitude adoptée enveris des infractions contre la propriété étatique et privée diminue à mesure de racornissement de la valeur de l'objet du délit. Les attitudes envers les violations de la propriété de coopérative digressent de cette tendance, à l'égard de la composition particulière ides facteurs, plus largement discutés dans cet article; 5) L'opinion formulée dans les recherches plus récentes, que les violations de la propriété sociale sont toujours moins condamnées que les violations de la propriété privée, exige donc de plusieurs concrétisations plus précises.Digitalizacja i deponowanie archiwalnych zeszytów RPEiS sfinansowane przez MNiSW w ramach realizacji umowy nr 541/P-DUN/201

Depth-dependent Clustering of Hadronic Showers at the LHC

The hunt at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for new physics beyond the Stan dard Model pushes the collider’s current limits. Searching for new physics implies a need for high luminosity, which poses immense challenges for the collider detec tors that will have to record the information for approximately 200 proton-proton collisions in 25 nanosecond intervals. At the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), one of the four major experiments at the LHC, the hadron calorimeter (HCAL) is undergoing significant hardware upgrades in order to facilitate the search for new physics. The current method used to separate and measure the energy of hadronic showers (from pions, for example) degrades rapidly as the probability for the spa tial overlap of pion showers grows with increasing luminosity. Accessing segments of the detector in three-dimensions with depth-dependent clustering would allow us to leverage low occupancy region of the hadron calorimeter to improve the separation of hadronic showers. Reconstructing these showers more accurately will help us better identify the hadronic particles coming from elementary particle interactions produced in LHC collisions and ultimately to better understand ele mentary particle physics and perhaps address questions that are still unanswered by the Standard Model

The Standpoint of Rerum novarum and Other Encyclicals Towards Individualistic Liberalism

The author points out that the origins of individualism can be found as late as in ancient and medieval philosophy. Before it dominated the philosophical thought it had achieved success in the religious domain during the Reformation. There is a clear cut link between individualism and liberalism in Locke's works. Then it was taken over by classic economy. Individualistic liberalism, referring to the principle of free competition, led to the licence of the rich individuals who tended to gain a maximum income at the cost of those who had no property (Capitalism in the 19th c.). Individualistic liberalism embraced also social, political, cultural, religious and political life. In the 19th c. Catholic thinkers from the school of social reforms (Kettler, dela Tour du Pin, de Mun, Mermillod, Tonilo) strongly opposed individualistic liberalism. The school of social solidarism was also against this kind of liberalism (Pesch). The pope Gregory XVI took a critical standpoint towards individualistic liberalism (the enc. Mirari vos of 1832). The same stanpoint adopted Pius IX (the enc. Quanta cura of 1864). Leo XIII critical evaluated individualistic philosophy in the encyclicals: (Diuturnum illud, 1881), Immortale Dei (1885), Libertas (1888) and Rerum novarum (1891). The latter contains not only the criticism of individualistic liberalism but also points at the socio-economical consequences: pauperization of the society, unjust division of the social revenue, inability of the workers to possess a property, imposing low wages on the workers, unemployment, encroachement upon the rights of the working people, decline of morality, treating workers as a tool of profit. The reasons of the above consequences come from the atheistic and materialistic vision of man. It has a bearing on the misunderstanding of freedom, making it identical with self-will. According to Pius XI (Quadragesimo anno) the error of individualistic liberalism consist, among other things, in disregarding: the dignity of a worker, social character of a farm, social justice and the common good. The unlimited free competition has led to a treble struggle, ie a struggle for controlling economical life, for gaining power in the state and a struggle between states. It has led to imperialism. Pius XII pointed out that „capitalism based on liberalism brings about deletorious consequences in economical, social and moral life”. John XXIII emphasized that absolute liberalization of economy is morally harmful and economically ineffective. It causes irreparable chaos. Vatican Council II calls „those doctrines false which under the guise of false freedom oppose the introduction of reforms and disregard the basic rights of individuals”. According to Paul VI „free play does not safeguard human freedom”. Philosophical liberalism contains in its principes false statements about the autonomy of individuals, about the absolute right of property, about free competition as a principal norm, about profit as the main drive of progress. John Paul II says that liberalism has led to the forming of a consumptive civilization in which the abuse of the freedom of one group leads to the abuse of other people's freedom. Things have been given priority over the person. Human labour is taken only in the economical categories. He thinks that „strict capitalism inspired by individualistic liberalism must be revised in order to make reforms with a view to man's rights understood possibly broadely. These are rights connected with man's labour”