The Amphibian, Melioristic Agenda for Dividuals: Tropological Oscillations versus Tropological Settlements

Some people often identify themselves too strongly with one particular belief system. Others, throughout their lives, travel from one belief system to another without necessarily weaving their experiences and gained bodies of knowledge in a complementary manner. This thesis discusses different frequencies and principles of this sort of settlements or oscillations. I argue that it is impossible to believe in perfectly purist ideologies that would not deviate from their putative, pre-established, holistic inner order. Through multiple literary, cinematic, and philosophical examples it is shown that people are of dividual (not individual) nature. That is to say, potentially we contain multiple dividual poles such as hedgehog versus fox, character versus author/agent, and different levels of authorship/agency, and a very large number of tropologies – a small, coherent system of different tropes that revolve around one axial trope – such as noise, silence, laughter, etc. Our level of authorship/agency depends on how often we oscillate between different dividual and tropological poles and how close is our relationship with them. These terms also allow us to look at the problem of determinism and free will from a slightly different conceptual angle. This may pose two traditional questions: (i) Why act at all, if we are tropologically conditioned? (ii) What could be constructive principles for action? This thesis argues that even though we are incapable of controlling and predicted the consequences of people’s actions (entropology), we may still follow the principle of melioristic, amphibian, tropological and dividual oscillations and hope for serendipitous outcomes. Examples and cases from the areas of literature, arts, philosophy, and cultural studies used in this thesis seek to provide a rich conceptual framework and gain new synthesized perspectives. Comparisons of old and new intellectual production helps us understand why tropological and dividual oscillations are inevitable and more desirable than tropological and dividual settlements

Molecular mechanisms of CRISPR-mediated microbial immunity

Bacteriophages (phages) infect bacteria in order to replicate and burst out of the host, killing the cell, when reproduction is completed. Thus, from a bacterial perspective, phages pose a persistent lethal threat to bacterial populations. Not surprisingly, bacteria evolved multiple defense barriers to interfere with nearly every step of phage life cycles. Phages respond to this selection pressure by counter-evolving their genomes to evade bacterial resistance. The antagonistic interaction between bacteria and rapidly diversifying viruses promotes the evolution and dissemination of bacteriophage-resistance mechanisms in bacteria. Recently, an adaptive microbial immune system, named clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and which provides acquired immunity against viruses and plasmids, has been identified. Unlike the restriction–modification anti-phage barrier that subjects to cleavage any foreign DNA lacking a protective methyl-tag in the target site, the CRISPR–Cas systems are invader-specific, adaptive, and heritable. In this review, we focus on the molecular mechanisms of interference/immunity provided by different CRISPR–Cas systems. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00018-013-1438-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

HIDDEN FOUNDATIONS OF DISGUST: REEVALUATING THE EXISTENTIAL NATURE OF DISGUST

In spite of the many important findings made within the theory of emotions, scholars still struggle to coherently account for the unique structure of disgust or determine its essence. In contrast to much of the contemporary literature on disgust, I aim to show that, through employing the phenomenological method in his 1929 essay “Disgust” (Der Ekel), Aurel Kolnai was able to grasp the real significance of the phenomenon of disgust. The current study aims to clarify and present Kolnai’s insight into the nature of disgust wherein the latter is first and foremost conceived as an ambivalent, multifaceted, but coherent phenomenon. Namely, as a defense mechanism that reacts against the proximity of a disturbing object charged with an ambiguous value of confusion that fluctuates between surplus of life and intention towards death. In order to achieve this goal, I present Kolnai’s notion of disgust by first focusing on the foreground of the phenomena of disgust: the essential features of the intentional content of disgust, the object of disgust in particular. I then present and analyze the life-death complex as the underlying structures of the visceral sense of disgust. Lastly, I show how the life-death complex relates to the visceral sense of disgust, thereby affirming the coherence of disgust

AVERAGE HEAT TRANSFER OF TUBES IN DOWNWARD FOAM FLOW

The model of heat exchanger was investigated experimentally. This model consists of three vertical lines of horizontal tubes with five tubes in each. Tubes were arranged in a staggered order. Heat transfer of staggered bundle of tubes to downward static stable foam flow was investigated experimentally. Heat transfer dependence on specific gas and liquid velocity was determined. Dependence of volumetric void fraction of foam on heat transfer was investigated also. Heat transfer rate dependence on tube position in the line of tube bundle was investigated experimentally. It was established that heat transfer rate highly depends on tube position in the line. Influence of tube position on heat transfer from tube bundle in upward foam flow was compared. Heat transfer dependence on tube position in the bundle was investigated experimentally also. Influence of wall of foam generator on heat transfer to sideline of tubes was established. Experimental results of heat transfer of bundle of tubes to downward static stable foam flow were generalized using dependence between Nusselt and Reynolds numbers

Heat transfer in the thermal entrance region of liquid film flow

The purpose of the present research is to obtain a comprehension for the heat transfer developments in the entrance region of high viscosity liquid film flow. This study is related with the experiments in laminar transformer oil film flowing down a vertical surface of small diameter tube. The paper presents the evaluation of surface cross curvature influence on the local heat transfer in the thermal entrance region of laminar and wavy-laminar film flow.Досліджено динаміку розвитку теплообміну на початковій термічній ділянці при переміщенні плівки рідини вздовж вертикальної поверхні сталевої трубки малого діаметра. Досліджено вплив поперечної кривизни поверхні зрошування на теплообмін на початковій термічній ділянці при ламінарному та ламінарнохвильовому русі плівки.Исследована динамика развития теплообмена на начальном термическом участке при движении пленки жидкости по вертикальной поверхности стальной трубы малого диаметра. Исследовано влияние поперечной кривизны поверхности орошения на теплообмен на начальном термическом участке при ламинарном и ламинарно-волновом движении пленки

Uma revisão da literatura sobre fatores que apoiam a mudança organizacional voltada para o Lean Thinking: A review of the literature on factors that support organization change focused on Lean Thinking

Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar uma revisão da literatura sobre os fatores e estados de mudança que precisam ser observados para que a mudança organizacional para o Lean Thinking (LT) seja duradoura e incorporada à cultura empresarial. A contribuição desta pesquisa é apresentar, num único material, uma visão estruturada sobre esses fatores, para que pesquisadores e profissionais possam minimizar as possibilidades de retorno ao sistema organizacional anterior à mudanças. Entende-se que não há prescrição universal de fatores, pois estes agem/interagem dentro de contextos organizacionais e culturais característicos de cada empresa, porém, os mecanismos de influência podem ser analisados e utilizados em processos de implementação ou estabilização de organizações em transição para o LT

In vitro reconstitution of Cascade-mediated CRISPR immunity in Streptococcus thermophilus

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-encoded immunity in Type I systems relies on the Cascade (CRISPR-associated complex for antiviral defence) ribonucleoprotein complex, which triggers foreign DNA degradation by an accessory Cas3 protein. To establish the mechanism for adaptive immunity provided by the Streptococcus thermophilus CRISPR4-Cas (CRISPR-associated) system (St-CRISPR4-Cas), we isolated an effector complex (St-Cascade) containing 61-nucleotide CRISPR RNA (crRNA). We show that St-Cascade, guided by crRNA, binds in vitro to a matching proto-spacer if a proto-spacer adjacent motif (PAM) is present. Surprisingly, the PAM sequence determined from binding analysis is promiscuous and limited to a single nucleotide (A or T) immediately upstream (-1 position) of the proto-spacer. In the presence of a correct PAM, St-Cascade binding to the target DNA generates an R-loop that serves as a landing site for the Cas3 ATPase/nuclease. We show that Cas3 binding to the displaced strand in the R-loop triggers DNA cleavage, and if ATP is present, Cas3 further degrades DNA in a unidirectional manner. These findings establish a molecular basis for CRISPR immunity in St-CRISPR4-Cas and other Type I systems