Identification of the prebiotic translation apparatus within the contemporary ribosome

A structural element that could have existed independently in the prebiotic era was identified at the active site of the contemporary ribosome. It is suggested to have functioned as a proto-ribosome catalyzing peptide bond formation and non-coded elongation in the same manner that contemporary ribosomes exert positional catalysis, namely by accommodating the reactants in stereochemistry favourable for inline nucleophilic attack. This simple apparatus is a dimer of self-folding RNA units that could have assembled spontaneously into a symmetrical pocket-like structure, sufficiently efficient to be preserved throughout evolution as the active site of modern ribosomes, thus presenting a conceivable starting point for translation.Here we discuss the proto-ribosome emergence hypothesis and show that the tendency for dimerization, a prerequisite for obtaining the catalytic centre, is linked to the fold of its two components, indicating functional selection at the molecular level in the prebiotic era and supporting the existence of dimeric proto-ribosome

Distributed opto-mechanical analysis of liquids outside standard fibers coated with polyimide

The analysis of surrounding media has been a long-standing challenge of optical fiber sensors. Measurements are difficult due to the confinement of light to the inner core of standard fibers. Over the last two years, new sensor concepts have enabled the analysis of liquids outside the cladding boundary, where light does not reach. Sensing is based on opto-mechanical, forward stimulated Brillouin scattering interactions between guided light and sound waves. In most previous works, however, the protective polymer coating of the fiber had to be removed first. In this work, we report the opto-mechanical analysis of liquids outside commercially available, standard single-mode fibers with polyimide coating. The polyimide layer provides mechanical protection but can also transmit acoustic waves from the fiber cladding towards outside media. Comprehensive analysis of opto-mechanical coupling in coated fibers that are immersed in liquid is provided. The model shows that forward stimulated Brillouin scattering spectra in coated fibers are more complex than those of bare fibers, and strongly depend on the exact coating diameter and the choice of acoustic mode. Nevertheless, sensing outside coated fibers is demonstrated experimentally. Integrated measurements over 100 meters of fiber clearly distinguish between air, ethanol and water outside polyimide coating. Measured spectra are in close quantitative agreement with the analytic predictions. Further, distributed opto-mechanical time-domain reflectometry mapping of water and ethanol outside coated fiber is reported, with a spatial resolution of 100 meters. The results represent a large step towards practical opto-mechanical fiber sensors

The examination of motivational climate and goal orientation in basketball players-who did and did not experience a sports injury

Aim: In this research it was aimed if there is a difference between mastery-performance climate and task-ego orientation variables of basketball players who did and did not experience a sports injury.Methods: This study group consists of 165 male basketball players who experienced mid-degree and serious sports injuries that are actively playing basketball in 18 years and older basketball teams and 142 male basketball players who did not experience any sports injury, or experienced a minor injury that are actively playing basketball in 18 years and older basketball teams, in total, 307 male basketball players. Participation to the study was done appropriately to the principles of voluntariness and privacy. As data collecting tools, “Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire” and Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire’’ were used. For data analysis, the Kolmogorov Smirnov test was used to determine if points show normal distribution or not. Also descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U-test from the nonparametric tests because the distribution was not normal and in order to determine the relation between measure lower dimension Spearman Correlation tests were used. In order to calculate the internal consistency of the scales, Cronbach Alpha test was considered.Findings: According to the research findings, as a result of Mann Whitney U-test no meaningful difference was found between basketball players’s mastery climate average points (U=8902, p>0.05), performance climate average points (U=9121, p>0.05) goal orientation average points (U=9432, p>0.05), ego orientation average points who did and did not experience a sports injury. There is positively meaningful relationship between Goal orientation and Mastery climate (r=0,341), Ego orientation and Performance climate (r=0,618).Conclusions: As a result by handling interactions of different dimensions of sports psychology together, it is thought that it is possible to open new horizons in treating or preventing sports injuries in the future