Social bonding and nurture kinship: compatibility between cultural and biological approaches

The current thesis aims to clarify some aspects of the relationship between biology and social bonds. The central task is to demonstrate that, despite clear problems of some past approaches claiming to represent biology, there is non-reductive compatibility between the perspective from cultural approaches documenting processes of social bonding in humans and the perspective from basic biological theory. In demonstrating this compatibility, the thesis also attempts to contribute to delineating the utility and limits of applying insights from biology to understanding aspects of human social behaviour, and to sociological study in general. The areas of social bonding and social relationships under focus are mainly at the level of individuals and primary social groups, rather than a structural-functional approach often employed in classical sociology of the family and comparative sociology. The thesis initially reviews recent cultural approaches to understanding social bonding, and notes the potential academic value of a clarification of the association between social kinship and physical ('related by blood') kinship. In reviewing biological theory on social bonding and social behaviour, it is argued that classic sociobiological interpretations of this biological theory are erroneous in some crucial respects, and a different interpretation is argued for. Evidence on processes mediating social bonding in social mammals and particularly in primates is reviewed. It is demonstrated that circumstantial, social and contextual 'cues' typically mediate the formation of primary social bonds in these species, not genealogical relationship per se, and that these findings are compatible with basic sociological theory. In the human case, it is demonstrated that the current interpretation of biological theory is also compatible with established disciplines closely associated with detailing mechanisms of social bonding (such as attachment theory). The consensus here is again that social bonds are mediated by various social and contextual cues rather than genealogical relationship per se. Contemporary cultural approaches to describing processes of social bonding are investigated and found to be also compatible with the present interpretation of biological theory. With this basic compatibility demonstrated, the possible implications for analyses of patterns of social bonding in human societies is discussed. Delineating the scope of the biological perspective underlines the importance of analysing sociological and cultural influences on patterns of social bonding, including historical, economic and political factors. This is illustrated with some examples

Management of Inherited, Acquired, and Iatrogenically Induced Coagulopathies in Oral Surgery

Hemostasis is the process of cessation of blood loss. Alterations of the hemostatic pathways can result in a hypercoagulable or hypocoagulable state resulting in thrombosis or hemorrhage. Common defects in hemostasis and their management, specifically the hypocoagulable state, are discussed as these defects often result in increased perioperative blood loss, which can result in compromised patient outcomes

Development ofLactococcus lactisBiosensors for Detection of Sulfur-Containing Amino Acids

The sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cysteine play an important role in food industry. These amino acids are used to confer a sulfur smell or meat-related aroma to food products. Besides their use as food additives, methionine and cysteine participate in flavor formation in dairy fermentations. For instance, the characteristic aroma of Cheddar cheeses is derived from methionine. Therefore, bacterial strains with the ability to overproduce and secrete these amino acids are relevant for the food industry. In addition, the quantification of these compounds in food matrices is a laborious task that involves sample preparation and specific analytical methods such as high-performance liquid chromatography. The ability of bacteria to naturally sense metabolites has successfully been exploited to develop biosensors. The presence of a specific metabolite is sensed by the biosensors, and it is subsequently translated into the expression of one or more reporter genes. In this study we aim to develop biosensors to detect methionine and cysteine, which are produced and secreted by wild-type Lactococcus lactis strains. We employed two strategies to create L. lactis biosensors, the first one is based on the methionine auxotrophy of this bacterium and the second strategy is based on a cysteine-responsive promoter. The characterization of the biosensors showed their specific response to the presence of these amino acids. Subsequently, we applied the methionine biosensor to quantify the presence of methionine in bacterial supernatants of wild-type L. lactis that naturally secretes methionine to benchmark the performance of our biosensors. The methionine biosensor responded linearly to the amounts of methionine present in the bacterial supernatants, i.e., the increases in the biosensor cell densities were proportional to the amounts of methionine present in the supernatants. The biosensors developed in this study tackle the limitations of amino acid quantification and the selection of strains with secretion of amino acids. These biosensors may eventually be used for screening of engineered strains to increase methionine and cysteine production, and may facilitate the detection of these amino acids in complex food matrices

Bespoke extensional elasticity through helical lattice systems

© 2019 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. Nonlinear structural behaviour offers a richness of response that cannot be replicated within a traditional linear design paradigm. However, designing robust and reliable nonlinearity remains a challenge, in part, due to the difficulty in describing the behaviour of nonlinear systems in an intuitive manner. Here, we present an approach that overcomes this difficulty by constructing an effectively one-dimensional system that can be tuned to produce bespoke nonlinear responses in a systematic and understandable manner. Specifically, given a continuous energy function E and a tolerance ℇ > 0, we construct a system whose energy is approximately E up to an additive constant, with L∞-error no more that ℇ. The system is composed of helical lattices that act as one-dimensional nonlinear springs in parallel. We demonstrate that the energy of the system can approximate any polynomial and, thus, by Weierstrass approximation theorem, any continuous function. We implement an algorithm to tune the geometry, stiffness and pre-strain of each lattice to obtain the desired system behaviour systematically. Examples are provided to show the richness of the design space and highlight how the system can exhibit increasingly complex behaviours including tailored deformation-dependent stiffness, snap-through buckling and multi-stability

An Automatic Medium to High Fidelity Low-Thrust Global Trajectory Toolchain; EMTG-GMAT

Solving the global optimization, low-thrust, multiple-flyby interplanetary trajectory problem with high-fidelity dynamical models requires an unreasonable amount of computational resources. A better approach, and one that is demonstrated in this paper, is a multi-step process whereby the solution of the aforementioned problem is solved at a lower-fidelity and this solution is used as an initial guess for a higher-fidelity solver. The framework presented in this work uses two tools developed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: the Evolutionary Mission Trajectory Generator (EMTG) and the General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT). EMTG is a medium to medium-high fidelity low-thrust interplanetary global optimization solver, which now has the capability to automatically generate GMAT script files for seeding a high-fidelity solution using GMAT's local optimization capabilities. A discussion of the dynamical models as well as thruster and power modeling for both EMTG and GMAT are given in this paper. Current capabilities are demonstrated with examples that highlight the toolchains ability to efficiently solve the difficult low-thrust global optimization problem with little human intervention

On the Classification of Quasihomogeneous Functions

We give a criterion for the existence of a non-degenerate quasihomogeneous polynomial in a configuration, i.e. in the space of polynomials with a fixed set of weights, and clarify the relation of this criterion to the necessary condition derived from the formula for the Poincar\'e polynomial. We further prove finiteness of the number of configurations for a given value of the singularity index. For the value 3 of this index, which is of particular interest in string theory, a constructive version of this proof implies an algorithm for the calculation of all non-degenerate configurations.Comment: 12 page

Assessment of health problems of sheep and goats based on ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection at Addis Ababa Abattoir, Ethiopia

Introduction: Ethiopia has a rapidly growing small ruminant sector, which faces low productivity due to husbandry practices and poor health condition of the animals. A study was conducted in Ethiopia’s largest municipal abattoir with the objective to assess the health problems of sheep and goats presented for slaughter using standard ante-mortem and post-mortem methodology. Methods: A cross-sectional study using systematic random sampling was conducted on 384 sheep and 384 goats from January to July 2014. Results: Soiled skin (69.1%), poor body condition (24.3%), and nostril discharge (19.5%) were common among both species at ante-mortem examination. Gross lesions were frequent in livers (39.7%) and lungs (37.2%), while pneumonia (18.1%) and adhesions (13.8%) were frequent in the lungs of sheep and goats, indicating stress-related illness. Parasitic lesions, especially fasciolosis (19.3%) and hydatid cysts (8.1%) were significantly more common in sheep livers (p 0.05). The direct financial loss from lesions in both species was 1,077,015 ETB or 53,851 USD per year, most of which was estimated to occur from carcass bruising. Discussion: The findings indicate that reducing parasite burden and preventing carcass bruising through improved handling could significantly increase the profitability of the small ruminant meat sector in Ethiopia.

Gender Differences in Academic Surgery, Work-Life Balance, and Satisfaction

Background An increasing number of women are pursuing a career in surgery. Concurrently, the percentage of surgeons in dual-profession partnerships is increasing. We sought to evaluate the gender differences in professional advancement, work-life balance, and satisfaction at a large academic center. Materials and methods All surgical trainees and faculty at a single academic medical center were surveyed. Collected variables included gender, academic rank, marital status, family size, division of household responsibilities, and career satisfaction. Student t-test, Fisher's exact test, and chi-square test were used to compare results. Results There were 127 faculty and 116 trainee respondents (>80% response rate). Respondents were mostly male (77% of faculty, 58% of trainees). Women were more likely than men to be married to a professional (90% versus 37%, for faculty; 82% versus 41% for trainees, P < 0.001 for both) who was working full time (P < 0.001) and were less likely to be on tenure track (P = 0.002). Women faculty were more likely to be primarily responsible for childcare planning (P < 0.001), meal planning (P < 0.001), grocery shopping (P < 0.001), and vacation planning (P = 0.003). Gender-neutral responsibilities included financial planning (P = 0.04) and monthly bill payment (P = 0.03). Gender differences in division of household responsibilities were similar in surgical trainees except for childcare planning, which was a shared responsibility. Conclusions Women surgeons are more likely to be partnered with a full-time working spouse and to be primarily responsible for managing their households. Additional consideration for improvement in recruitment and retention strategies for surgeons might address barriers to equalizing these gender disparities

Exogenous and endogenous angiotensin-II decrease renal cortical oxygen tension in conscious rats by limiting renal blood flow

Our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the role of hypoxia in the initiation and progression of renal disease remains rudimentary. We have developed a method that allows wireless measurement of renal tissue oxygen tension in unrestrained rats. This method provides stable and continuous measurements of cortical tissue oxygen tension (PO2) for more than 2 weeks and can reproducibly detect acute changes in cortical oxygenation. Exogenous angiotensin-II reduced renal cortical tissue PO2 more than equi-pressor doses of phenylephrine, probably because it reduced renal oxygen delivery more than did phenylephrine. Activation of the endogenous renin-angiotensin system in transgenic Cyp1a1Ren2 rats reduced cortical tissue PO2; in this model renal hypoxia precedes the development of structural pathology and can be reversed acutely by an angiotensin-II receptor type 1 antagonist. Angiotensin-II promotes renal hypoxia, which may in turn contribute to its pathological effects during development of chronic kidney disease. We hypothesised that both exogenous and endogenous angiotensin-II (AngII) can decrease the partial pressure of oxygen (PO2) in the renal cortex of unrestrained rats, which might in turn contribute to the progression of chronic kidney disease. Rats were instrumented with telemeters equipped with a carbon paste electrode for continuous measurement of renal cortical tissue PO2. The method reproducibly detected acute changes in cortical oxygenation induced by systemic hyperoxia and hypoxia. In conscious rats, renal cortical PO2 was dose-dependently reduced by intravenous AngII. Reductions in PO2 were significantly greater than those induced by equi-pressor doses of phenylephrine. In anaesthetised rats, renal oxygen consumption was not affected, and filtration fraction was increased only in the AngII infused animals. Oxygen delivery decreased by 50% after infusion of AngII and renal blood flow (RBF) fell by 3.3 ml min(-1) . Equi-pressor infusion of phenylephrine did not significantly reduce RBF or renal oxygen delivery. Activation of the endogenous renin-angiotensin system in Cyp1a1Ren2 transgenic rats reduced cortical tissue PO2. This could be reversed within minutes by pharmacological angiotensin-II receptor type 1 (AT1 R) blockade. Thus AngII is an important modulator of renal cortical oxygenation via AT1 receptors. AngII had a greater influence on cortical oxygenation than did phenylephrine. This phenomenon appears to be attributable to the profound impact of AngII on renal oxygen delivery. We conclude that the ability of AngII to promote renal cortical hypoxia may contribute to its influence on initiation and progression of chronic kidney diseas