1,135 research outputs found
New World Limnichinae IV. \u3ci\u3eEulimnichus\u3c/i\u3e Casey. B. Descriptions of New Species (Coleoptera: Limnichidae)
Thirteen new species of Eulimnichus are described: Eulimnichus visendus, corrinae, langleyae, coheni, improcerus, pellucidus, sharpi, incultus, rugulosus, nrsticus, acutus, subitus, and spangleri. A key to the 27 known species is included
New World Limnichinae III. A Revision of \u3ci\u3eLimnichites\u3c/i\u3e Casey (Coleoptera: Limnichidae)
A diagnosis is given for the genus Limnichites. Descriptions and a key to separate the 12 known species, including five new species, are presented. The new species are Limnichites imparatus, L. porrectus. rudis, L. browni, L. simplex
New World Limnichinae IV. \u3ci\u3eEulimnichus\u3c/i\u3e Casey. A. Synonymies, Lectotype Designations, and Redescriptions (Coleoptera: Limnichidae)
A recharacterization of Eulimnichus and redescriptions for all previously described species are presented. In most cases, illustrations of the aedeagus are also presented. Seven names are placed in synonymy, and a new name E. impostus, is proposed for E. elongatus (Pic) which is preoccupied. Lectotype designations are made for 10 of the 14 species and one synonymous species
Incentive Engineering for Concurrent Games
We consider the problem of incentivising desirable behaviours in multi-agent
systems by way of taxation schemes. Our study employs the concurrent games
model: in this model, each agent is primarily motivated to seek the
satisfaction of a goal, expressed as a Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) formula;
secondarily, agents seek to minimise costs, where costs are imposed based on
the actions taken by agents in different states of the game. In this setting,
we consider an external principal who can influence agents' preferences by
imposing taxes (additional costs) on the actions chosen by agents in different
states. The principal imposes taxation schemes to motivate agents to choose a
course of action that will lead to the satisfaction of their goal, also
expressed as an LTL formula. However, taxation schemes are limited in their
ability to influence agents' preferences: an agent will always prefer to
satisfy its goal rather than otherwise, no matter what the costs. The
fundamental question that we study is whether the principal can impose a
taxation scheme such that, in the resulting game, the principal's goal is
satisfied in at least one or all runs of the game that could arise by agents
choosing to follow game-theoretic equilibrium strategies. We consider two
different types of taxation schemes: in a static scheme, the same tax is
imposed on a state-action profile pair in all circumstances, while in a dynamic
scheme, the principal can choose to vary taxes depending on the circumstances.
We investigate the main game-theoretic properties of this model as well as the
computational complexity of the relevant decision problems.Comment: In Proceedings TARK 2023, arXiv:2307.0400
Mutational analysis of fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B
Fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase (FBA) is a classical cytoplasmic glycolytic enzyme which, despite lacking a predicted signal peptide, has been demonstrated to be expressed and transported to the surface of numerous Gram-positive bacteria and shown to interact with host molecules and perform non-glycolytic biological functions. Genome-based studies have also demonstrated that the glycolytic pathway appears to be non-functional in the meningococcus due to absence of phosphofructokinase, one of the important enzymes in this pathway. This study aimed to investigate whether the FBA, a so-called housekeeping enzyme, is required for maximal in vitro growth of N. meningitidis. An FBA knock-out mutant was created in N. meningitidis using an inverse polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and allelic exchange methodology. Phenotypic analysis of FBA-deficient mutant strains such as growth profiling experiments showed that the FBA-deficient mutant grew at the same rate (in broth culture and on solid media) as the wild-type strain, suggesting that FBA is not required for optimal growth of N. meningitidis under the in vitro conditions tested. No differences in either colony or bacterial cell morphology (using light microscopy) were observed. In summary, despite being a central enzyme in the glycolytic cycle, FBA is not required for in vitro growth of N. meningitidis.Key words: Neisseria meningitidis, aldolase, mutagenesis, growth kinetics, glycolytic cycle
Effect of large mountain ranges on atmospheric flow patterns as seen from TIROS satellites
Includes bibliographical references
Introduction to Ethics: An Open Educational Resource, collected and edited by Noah Levin
Collected and edited by Noah Levin
Table of Contents:
UNIT ONE: INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY ETHICS: TECHNOLOGY, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, AND IMMIGRATION
1 The “Trolley Problem” and Self-Driving Cars: Your Car’s Moral Settings (Noah Levin)
2 What is Ethics and What Makes Something a Problem for Morality? (David Svolba)
3 Letter from the Birmingham City Jail (Martin Luther King, Jr)
4 A Defense of Affirmative Action (Noah Levin)
5 The Moral Issues of Immigration (B.M. Wooldridge)
6 The Ethics of our Digital Selves (Noah Levin)
UNIT TWO: TORTURE, DEATH, AND THE “GREATER GOOD”
7 The Ethics of Torture (Martine Berenpas)
8 What Moral Obligations do we have (or not have) to Impoverished Peoples? (B.M. Wooldridge)
9 Euthanasia, or Mercy Killing (Nathan Nobis)
10 An Argument Against Capital Punishment (Noah Levin)
11 Common Arguments about Abortion (Nathan Nobis & Kristina Grob)
12 Better (Philosophical) Arguments about Abortion (Nathan Nobis & Kristina Grob)
UNIT THREE: PERSONS, AUTONOMY, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND RIGHTS
13 Animal Rights (Eduardo Salazar)
14 John Rawls and the “Veil of Ignorance” (Ben Davies)
15 Environmental Ethics: Climate Change (Jonathan Spelman)
16 Rape, Date Rape, and the “Affirmative Consent” Law in California (Noah Levin)
17 The Ethics of Pornography: Deliberating on a Modern Harm (Eduardo Salazar)
18 The Social Contract (Thomas Hobbes)
UNIT FOUR: HAPPINESS
19 Is Pleasure all that Matters? Thoughts on the “Experience Machine” (Prabhpal Singh)
20 Utilitarianism (J.S. Mill)
21 Utilitarianism: Pros and Cons (B.M. Wooldridge)
22 Existentialism, Genetic Engineering, and the Meaning of Life: The Fifths (Noah Levin)
23 The Solitude of the Self (Elizabeth Cady Stanton)
24 Game Theory, the Nash Equilibrium, and the Prisoner’s Dilemma (Douglas E. Hill)
UNIT FIVE: RELIGION, LAW, AND ABSOLUTE MORALITY
25 The Myth of Gyges and The Crito (Plato)
26 God, Morality, and Religion (Kristin Seemuth Whaley)
27 The Categorical Imperative (Immanuel Kant)
28 The Virtues (Aristotle)
29 Beyond Good and Evil (Friedrich Nietzsche)
30 Other Moral Theories: Subjectivism, Relativism, Emotivism, Intuitionism, etc. (Jan F. Jacko
Climate change promotes parasitism in a coral symbiosis.
Coastal oceans are increasingly eutrophic, warm and acidic through the addition of anthropogenic nitrogen and carbon, respectively. Among the most sensitive taxa to these changes are scleractinian corals, which engineer the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth. Corals' sensitivity is a consequence of their evolutionary investment in symbiosis with the dinoflagellate alga, Symbiodinium. Together, the coral holobiont has dominated oligotrophic tropical marine habitats. However, warming destabilizes this association and reduces coral fitness. It has been theorized that, when reefs become warm and eutrophic, mutualistic Symbiodinium sequester more resources for their own growth, thus parasitizing their hosts of nutrition. Here, we tested the hypothesis that sub-bleaching temperature and excess nitrogen promotes symbiont parasitism by measuring respiration (costs) and the assimilation and translocation of both carbon (energy) and nitrogen (growth; both benefits) within Orbicella faveolata hosting one of two Symbiodinium phylotypes using a dual stable isotope tracer incubation at ambient (26 °C) and sub-bleaching (31 °C) temperatures under elevated nitrate. Warming to 31 °C reduced holobiont net primary productivity (NPP) by 60% due to increased respiration which decreased host %carbon by 15% with no apparent cost to the symbiont. Concurrently, Symbiodinium carbon and nitrogen assimilation increased by 14 and 32%, respectively while increasing their mitotic index by 15%, whereas hosts did not gain a proportional increase in translocated photosynthates. We conclude that the disparity in benefits and costs to both partners is evidence of symbiont parasitism in the coral symbiosis and has major implications for the resilience of coral reefs under threat of global change
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