Academic literature on the topic 'Genetic originality'

The topic of this paper is the concept of originality as it relates to the concept of genesis developed by Deleuze in his early essay ‘The Idea of Genesis in Kant's Esthetics’. Using the exhibition of Tim Bennett's as a starting point, it brings together two accounts of originality, the first postmodern one represented by Rosalind Krauss's ‘The Originality of the Avant-garde’ and the second genetic kind found in Deleuze's aforementioned essay, to show how originality and genesis might correspond, paying close attention to the transcendental innovations of Kant's aesthetic tradition to which both concepts belong.

DNA polymorphism has been studied, indicators of genetic diversity and genetic originality have been de-termined for three natural populations and three replacement broodstocks of sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus Linnaeus, Acipenseridae) from the Volga Federal District. In the group of A. ruthenus replacement broodstock, 106 ISSR-PСR markers were identified, and in the group of natural populations, 103 ISSR-PСR markers. The indicators of genetic diversity and the coefficient of genetic originality (CGO) were slightly higher in the group of natural populations. Analysis of genetic structure of natural populations and groups of broodstock herds A. ruthenus showed that the coefficient of genetic differentiation are also slightly higher in the group of natural populations and equal 0,377. As a result of molecular genetic iden-tification, generic and species identification fragments of sterlet DNA were revealed, as well as combina-tions of polymorphic fragments for identification of the studied natural populations and stocks. The data obtained can be used to preserve the gene pool of populations, which is characteristic for a particular re-gion.

In order to carry out activities aimed at conservation and rational use of forest resources; it is necessary to study the main forest-forming plant species in detail. Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L., Pinaceae) is mainly found in the boreal forests of Eurasia and is not so often encountered in the east of the East European Plain. The aim of the study was to study the genetic diversity, structure and differentiation of Scots pine populations in the east of the East European Plain. We studied ten populations of P. sylvestris using the Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR)-based DNA polymorphism detection method. Natural populations are demonstrated by relatively high rates of genetic diversity (He = 0.167; ne = 1.279; I = 0.253). At the same time, there is a tendency for a decrease in the genetic diversity of the studied populations of P. sylvestris from west to east. Analysis of the genetic structure shows that the studied populations are highly differentiated (GST = 0.439), the intrapopulation component accounts for about 56% of the genetic diversity. Using various algorithms for determining the spatial genetic structure, it is found that the studied populations form two groups of populations in accordance with geographic location. With the help of a genetic originality coefficient, populations with specific and typical gene pools are identified. They are recommended as sources of genetic diversity and reserves for the conservation of genetic resources of the species.

Purpose – The aim of this research is to predict the total stock market index of the Tehran Stock Exchange, using the compound method of fuzzy genetics and neural network, in order for the active participants of the finance market as well as macro decision makers to be able to predict the market trend. Design/methodology/approach – First, the prediction was done by neural network, then the output weight of optimum neural network was taken as standard to repeat this prediction using the genetic algorithm, and then the extracted pattern from the neural network was stated through discernible rules using fuzzy theory. Findings – The main attention of this paper is investors and traders to achieve a method for predicting the stock market. Concerning the results of previous research, which confirms the relative superiority of non-linear models in price index prediction, an appropriate model has been offered in this research by compounding the non-linear method such as fuzzy genetics and neural network. The results indicate superiority of the designed system in predicting price index of the Tehran Stock Exchange. Originality/value – This paper states its originality and value by compounding the non-linear method issues pattern to predict stock market, to encourage further investigation by academics and practitioners in the field.

Purpose. Scientific research of the model life cycle optimization of the road bridges. Methodology. Theoretical study. Findings. Developed genetic optimization model of the life cycle. Originality. For the first time proposes a new genetic model of optimization in the management of the life cycle of the bridge. Practical value. The model is implemented in AESUM for strategic planning operationof concrete elements of road bridges.

A molecular genetic analysis of horologically related populations of Pinus sylvestris L. was carried out. In the east and northeast of the East European Plain using intermicrosatellite analysis of DNA polymor-phism. Data on the genetic diversity of populations were obtained and the state of their gene pools was assessed. The studied populations of Scots pine have a high genetic diversity (P95= 0.938, HЕ= 0.170, ne= 1.540). Of the 144 DNA fragments, only 3 (0.021%) are rare. The analysis of the share of rare alleles showed that the genetic structure is less balanced in the populations of Verkhnevetluzhskaya (h= 0.254) and Vetluzhsko-Vyatka (h= 0.273). The most balanced genetic structure was observed in the Moloma population (h=0.112) and in the North Vyatka-Uvala population (h=0.127). When assessing the state of gene pools, it was found that the highest values of the coefficient of genetic originality (CSR) were found in the populations of Sysolo-Vychegodskaya (1,164) and Volga-Vetluzhskaya (1.140). This indicates the high specificity of the gene pools of these populations. The lowest values of CLO were determined in the Vetluzhsko-Vyatskaya (0.857) and Volzhsko-Surinskaya (0.875) populations. Analysis of all three groups of indicators of the state of gene pools of populations showed that, taking into account the genetic structure and genetic originality, 6 populations of P. sylvestris have a satisfactory state of gene pools, and two populations (Verkhnevetluzhskaya and Vetluzhsko-Vyatka) have depleted gene pools. When selecting trees for conservation and reforestation, it is necessary to preserve populations with both typical and specific gene pools.

Ijodkorlar, so'z sohirlari zamonaviy nasrga yangi tasvir, ifoda olib kirdilar, hayotni turli rakurslardan turib tasvirlay boshladilar. Ular mavzularni to'ldirib, boyitib boradilar. Ijtimoiy hayotdagi dolzarb muammolarni ijodiy yondashuv asosida kitobxonga yetkazishga harakat qiladilar. Adiblarning badiiy sohadagi izlanishlari, mumtoz an’analar va folklordan unumli foydalanishi, dunyo adabiyotidan o'rganishlari o'z samarasini bermoqda. Dunyo adabiyotshunosligining ilmiy-nazariy talablariga javob beradigan nasr namunalari o'zbek va qirg'iz adabiyotining yaqin tarixidagi mulkiga aylandi. Bu asarlar poetikasida turli yosh, kasb, dunyoqarashga mansub xarakterlar yaratildi. Ular orasida bolalaru kattalar, ishchi-yu xizmatchilar, tentag-u darveshlar, ismsiz qahramon-u g'ayritabiiy go'daklar ham muayyan funksiyani bajarishga yo'naltirildi. Muhimi, asarda insonning mohiyatini teran anglatish, tiynatidagi fazi-lat-u illatlarni har tomonlama kashf etish tamoyili chuqurlashdi. Roman kompozitsiyasida qahramon ongosti jarayonini isyon-u kufr kontrastida aniq badiiy talqin etishga e'tibor ortdi, tashqi faoliyatdan botindagi dard-u iztirobni his ettirishga rag'bat kuchaydi.

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to investigate the location problem of supermarkets, feeding by material the mixed model assembly lines using tow trains. It determines the number and the locations of these supermarkets to minimize transportation and inventory fixed costs of the system. Design/methodology/approach – This is done using integer programming model and real genetic algorithm (RGA) in which custom chromosomes representation, two custom mating and two custom mutation operators were proposed. Findings – The performance of RGA is very good since it gives results that are very close or identical to the optimal ones in reasonable CPU time. Research limitations/implications – The study is applicable only if a group of supermarkets feed the same assembly line. Originality/value – For the first time in supermarket location problem, limitation on availability of some areas for possible supermarkets ' locations and capacity of the supermarkets were taken into consideration.

Purpose – Stock selection has long been identified as a challenging task. This line of research is highly contingent upon reliable stock ranking for successful portfolio construction. The purpose of this paper is to employ the methods from computational intelligence (CI) to solve this problem more effectively. Design/methodology/approach – The authors develop a risk-adjusted strategy to improve upon the previous stock selection models by two main risk measures – downside risk and variation in returns. Moreover, the authors employ the genetic algorithm for optimization of model parameters and selection for input variables simultaneously. Findings – It is found that the proposed risk-adjusted methodology via maximum drawdown significantly outperforms the benchmark and improves the previous model in the performance of stock selection. Research limitations/implications – Future work considers an extensive study for the risk-adjusted model using other risk measures such as Value at Risk, Block Maxima, etc. The authors also intend to use financial data from other countries, if available, in order to assess if the method is generally applicable and robust across different environments. Practical implications – The authors expect this risk-adjusted model to advance the CI research for financial engineering and provide an promising solutions to stock selection in practice. Originality/value – The originality of this work is that maximum drawdown is being successfully incorporated into the CI-based stock selection model in which the model's effectiveness is validated with strong statistical evidence.

Cette thèse explore des méthodes basées sur la généalogie pour partitionner le gain génétique et le fardeau génétique (FG) dans les races ovines laitières françaises : Lacaune (LAC), Basco-Béarnaise (BB), Manech Tête Noire (MTN) et Manech Tête Rousse (MTR). Le Chapitre 2 a utilisé une analyse rétrospective pour affiner la partition de la tendance génétique dans les échantillonnages mendéliens par catégorie d'animaux définies par le sexe et par la voie de sélection, ainsi que pour caractériser les contributions génétiques à long terme. Nous avons analysé le gain génétique pour la production laitière dans quatre races : LAC, BB, MTN et MTR. Les mères à béliers (MAB) et les mâles d’insémination artificielle (IA) ont été les sources les plus importantes de progrès génétique, comme l'a montré la décomposition des tendances de l'échantillonnage mendélien. Les contributions annuelles étaient plus variables pour les mâles d'IA que pour les MAB, étant donné que ces contributions ont été calculées en moyenne sur un plus petit nombre d'individus. En termes d'échantillonnage mendélien, les femelles ont contribué davantage que les mâles au gain génétique total, et nous interprétons cela comme étant dû au fait les femelles constituent un plus grand réservoir de diversité génétique. En outre, nous avons calculé les contributions à long terme de chaque individu aux pseudo-générations suivantes. L'échantillonnage mendélien était plus important que la moyenne des parents pour déterminer la sélection des individus et leurs contributions à long terme. Ces contributions étaient plus significatives pour les mâles d'IA (dont la descendance est plus importante que celle des femelles) et en BB qu’en LAC (étant une race de taille plus importante).Au Chapitre 3, la théorie qui montre la nature additive du FG est présentée. L'effet du FG et l'effet génétique additif (dans une population non consanguine) ont une corrélation négative dépendant de la fréquence des allèles, de la consanguinité et de la dominance. Nous avons calculé et décrit les coefficients de consanguinité partielle dans trois races : BB, MTN et MTR. Ensuite, nous avons inclus ces coefficients dans un modèle mixte en tant que covariables de régression aléatoire pour estimer la variance et les valeurs génétiques du FG pour la production laitière. Il existe une variance génétique pour le FG dans les races MTN et MTR, mais elle n'était pas différente de zéro pour BB. Comme attendu, nous avons estimé des corrélations génétiques négatives entre le FG et les valeurs génétiques estimées ; cependant, elles étaient proches de zéro dans les trois races. La faible magnitude du FG ne justifie pas une sélection fondée sur ce critère.Dans le Chapitre 4, nous avons évalué l'efficacité de l'intégration du FG dans les stratégies de sélection chez les ovins laitiers. Nous avons simulé 10 générations de sélection. Six scénarios qui diffèrent par les critères de sélection (uniquement les valeurs génétiques additive estimées du caractère, uniquement les valeurs génétiques estimées du FG, ou à la fois les deux) et les stratégies d’accouplement (minimiser le FG ou la consanguinité attendue dans la descendance) ont été évalués. Les scénarios ont été comparés en termes de gain génétique, coefficients et taux de consanguinité, taille efficace et précision de la sélection. Il est possible d'utiliser les prédictions des effets du FG pour sélectionner les animaux directement ou dans le cadre de stratégies d'accouplement. Cependant, la sélection basée sur le FG (en raison de sa variation et de sa magnitude) ne présente pas d'intérêt pratique. À la lumière de nos résultats, l'inclusion d'animaux génotypés pourrait améliorer la précision de la prédiction des FG individuelles. D'autres recherches sont nécessaires
This thesis explores pedigree-based methods to partition genetic gain and inbreeding load in French dairy sheep breeds: Lacaune (LAC), Basco-Béarnaise (BB), Manech Tête Noire (MTN) and Manech Tête Rousse (MTR).The Chapter 2 used a retrospective analysis to fine partitioning genetic trend in Mendelian samplings by categories of animals defined by sex and by selection pathways, and to similarly characterize long-term genetic contributions. We analysed genetic gain for milk yield in four dairy sheep breeds: LAC, BB, MTN and MTR. Dams of males and Artificial Insemination (AI) males were the most important sources of genetic progress as observed in the decomposition in Mendelian sampling trends. The yearly contributions were more erratic for AI males than for dams of males as they are averaged across a smaller number of individuals. Overall, in terms of Mendelian sampling, females contributed more than males to the total genetic gain, and we interpret that this is because females constitute a larger pool of genetic diversity. In addition, we computed long-term contributions from each individual to the following pseudo-generations. Mendelian sampling was more important than Parent Average to determine the selection of individuals and their long-term contributions. Long-term contributions were larger for AI males (with larger progeny sizes than females) and in BB than in LAC (with the latter being a larger population).In Chapter 3, we presented theory that show the additive nature of the inbreeding load. The inbreeding load effect and the regular (in non-inbred population) additive genetic effect have a negative correlation depending on allele frequencies, inbreeding and dominance. We calculated and described the partial inbreeding coefficients in three French dairy sheep populations: BB, MTN and MTR. Then, we included these coefficients in a mixed model as random regression covariates, to predict genetic variance and breeding values of the inbreeding load for milk yield in the same breeds. There is genetic variance for inbreeding load in MTN and MTR breeds, but it was not different from zero for BB. As expected, we estimated negative genetic correlations between inbreeding load and breeding values; however, estimates were close to zero in the three sheep breeds. The small magnitude of inbreeding load does not warrant selection based on this criterion.In Chapter 4, we evaluated the effectiveness of involving inbreeding load in selection strategies in a dairy sheep breeding scheme. We did this by simulation of 10 generations of evaluations and selection. Six scenarios that differ in the criteria of selection (only breeding values, only breeding values of inbreeding load, or both genetic and inbreeding load breeding values) and mate allocation strategies (minimising inbreeding load or minimising expected future inbreeding) were evaluated. Scenarios were compared in terms of genetic gain, inbreeding coefficients, rate of inbreeding, effective population size, and accuracy of selection. The use of predictions of inbreeding load effects to select animals directly or in mating strategies is feasible. However, selection based on inbreeding load (due to its variation and magnitude) is not of practical interest. In light of our results, the inclusion of genotype animals could improve the accuracy of predicting individual inbreeding loads. Further research is needed

This thesis is the first extensive study devoted to the generic originality of Iurii Tynianov’s representation of Pushkin in his two historical novels, Pushkin (1935-1943) and the abandoned The Gannibals (1932). Chapter 1 contextualises Tynianov’s contribution to the current debates on the novel’s demise, ‘large’ form and the worthy protagonist. The conditions giving rise to contemporary interest in the genres of biography and the historical novel are delineated and the critical issues surrounding these are examined; Tynianov’s concern to secularise the rigid monolith of an all but sanctified ‘state-sponsored Pushkin’ and the difficulties of the task are also reviewed. Chapter 2 shifts the examination of Pushkin as a historical novel to its study within the generic framework of the Bildungs, Erziehungs and Künstlerromane with their particular problematics which allowed Tynianov to grapple with a cluster of moral, philosophical and educational issues, and to explore the formative influences on the protagonist’s identity as a poet. Chapter 3 explores the concept of history underlying Tynianov’s interpretation of the characters and events and the historiographical practices he employed in his analyses of the factors that shaped Pushkin’s own historical thinking. Chapter 4 investigates Tynianov’s scepticism about Abram Gannibal’s and A. Pushkin’s mythopoeia which reveals itself in Tynianov’s subversively ironical and playful use of myth in both novels. The Conclusion assesses Tynianov’s contribution to the 20th century fictional Pushkiniana and reflects on his innovative transgeneric historical novel which broke the normative restrictions of the genre, elevated it to the level of ‘serious’ literature and made it conducive to stylistic experimentation.

This thesis explores the composition, revision and prose structure of Malcolm Lowry’s first novel Ultramarine (1933), examining Lowry’s shifting techniques of paraphrase, metaphrase and direct quotation across a variety of drafts and published versions of the novel. Lowry’s early and deliberate assumption of specific—if objectively misleading—personae in early letters to his desired interlocutors portray the fraught process of presenting oneself in a desired light; Ultramarine, I suggest, enacts the same process not just on the prosaic level of its plot, but more crucially for Lowry, as evidence that he had emerged as an author in his own right. Complicating this process, however, my analysis of Ultramarine demonstrates that the novel contains a profoundly greater accretion of voices than has previously been assumed. Among the dozens of newly identified source texts addressed in the thesis, I have discovered in the novel Lowry’s unacknowledged literal prose translations of no fewer than eleven poems by the Norwegian poet and writer Nordahl Grieg. In light of these discoveries, the thesis proposes a reconceptualised approach to Ultramarine criticism and Lowry studies in general, based first on accounting for the influence of the perceivable signifying factors within a work (the ‘phenotext’), though with a view towards a fuller and more balanced explanation of the work’s generative factors (the ‘genotext’). Lowry wrote much of Ultramarine under the tutelage of Conrad Aiken, whose appreciation for polyphony and structured prose I see as demonstrably influential on the younger writer. Aiken’s early literary criticism and the novel Blue Voyage (1927) bear down strongly upon the short stories and drafts that form the nascent text of Ultramarine, though I suggest Lowry shook off Aiken’s influence as he began to exert his desire for true individuation: for authorial ontogenesis. So too did Lowry write against the work of his second literary father figure, Nordahl Grieg, whose poems Lowry had adopted in Ultramarine as lyrical and seemingly authentic expressions of his protagonist’s struggle. Lowry’s second novel In Ballast to the White Sea (1934–6) presents as a particularly reflective attempt to write himself out of Grieg’s shadow. A congenitally modernist writer, Lowry draws heavily upon the works, words and voices of other writers and poets in the process of composing and revising his own texts. Lowry’s prose has an aesthetic appeal greater than the sum of its textual parts: though a text such as Ultramarine is not created from ‘whole cloth’, understanding the warp and weft of Lowry’s textual weaving is of no lesser value than the annotative work of recognising the disparate threads that make up the text itself. I argue in my final chapter that Lowry’s idiosyncratic brand of late modernist composition is best termed a ‘consequential modernism’. Lowry writes as a consequence of his high modernist predecessors, and the interwoven text that results—cited, recited and enciphered—is of particular consequence as much for his dexterity and originality as for the breadth and depth of his source material.

There is general agreement that study of the formation of the Pentateuch is currently in disarray. This book turns to the Genesis Primeval History, Genesis 1–11, to offer models for the formation of Pentateuchal texts that might have traction within this fractious context. Building on two centuries of historical study of Genesis 1–11, this book provides new support for the older theory that the bulk of Genesis 1–11 was created out of a combination of two originally separate source strata: a Priestly source and an earlier non-Priestly source that was used to supplement the Priestly framework. Though this overall approach contradicts some recent attempts to replace such source models with theories of post-Priestly scribal expansion, the author of this volume does find evidence of multiple layers of scribal revision in the non-P and P sources: from the expansion of an early independent non-Priestly primeval history with a flood narrative and related materials through to a limited set of identifiable layers of Priestly material that culminate in the P-like redaction of the whole. Finally, the book synthesizes prior scholarship to show how both the P and non-Priestly strata of Genesis also emerged out of a complex interaction by Judean scribes with nonbiblical literary traditions, particularly with Mesopotamian textual traditions about primeval origins.

Key points• Frailty in older people is characterized by deteriorating health and increasing need for support.• Frailty has the features of a ‘geriatric giant’ as originally defined by Isaacs.• The identification of frail older people is important for medical intervention and for strategic planning.• The clinical definition of frailty is still being debated but may include the following aspects:o a distinct phenotypical profileo a frailty index defined by the accumulation of deficitso genetic and biochemical predisposition.• There is no specific treatment for frailty but there are treatments for the diseases that contribute to it.

Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a severe mood disorder that often has psychotic features. Its most severe forms are more common and significantly more likely to cause disability than originally thought. Studies of high-risk children have found them to be at increased risk for a variety of symptoms and neurobiological abnormalities. In contrast to schizophrenia, there is no formal prodromal syndrome that has been identified, and cognitive abnormalities do not precede the onset of the disorder. Abnormal sleep and circadian rhythms are prominent and have led to intriguing biological models. Neurobiological experiments have primarily focused on candidate pathways and include circadian abnormalities, epigenetic processes including histone modification, WNT/GSK3 signaling, other modulators of neuroplasticity, and mitochondrial dysfunction. Recent data suggest that BPD is a highly polygenic disease and that integration of prior modeling and data with the wide variety of new genetic risk loci will be productive in the future.

‘Literary compositions of the scrolls collections’ shows that the literary nature of the scroll collections would suggest that they originally belonged to one or more libraries rather than to archives for storing documents. The term ‘library’ is unsuitable, however, as a descriptor of a collection made up of texts from different sources. The corpus of scrolls comprises a heterogeneous collection of writings: from the sectarian to those belonging to Second Temple Judaism. Certain texts, such as the Genesis Apocryphon that gives more information on Abram and Sarai’s journey through Egypt, provide new interpretations of scriptural accounts. The targum of Job was an Aramaic translation of the Book of Job.

Phosphatase and Tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) is a gene encoding an intracellular signaling molecule. PTEN was originally discovered as the gene responsible for a subset of familial hamartoma (tumor) syndromes associated with increased risk for certain cancers (Nelen et al., 1997) and as a gene often mutated in human cancers and tumor cell lines (Li et al., 1997; Steck et al., 1997). More recently, mutations in PTEN have been linked genetically to the clinical phenotype of autism or developmental delay with macrocephaly (Boccone et al., 2006; Butler et al., 2005; Buxbaum et al., 2007; Goffin, Hoefsloot, Bosgoed, Swillen, & Fryns, 2001; Herman, Butter, et al., 2007; McBride et al., 2010; Orrico et al., 2009; Stein, Elias, Saenz, Pickler, & Reynolds, 2010; Varga, Pastore, Prior, Herman, & McBride, 2009; Zori, Marsh, Graham, Marliss, & Eng, 1998). This chapter examines the role of PTEN in intracellular signaling, the link between PTEN signaling pathways and other autism-related genes and signaling pathways, the genetic relationship between PTEN and autism, model systems in which effects of Pten deletion on the brain have been studied, and promising preclinical data identifying therapeutic targets for patients with autism/macrocephaly associated with PTEN mutations.

The Introduction claims that the ancient romance Joseph and Aseneth moves a minor character in Genesis from obscurity to renown, weaving a new story whose main purpose was to intervene in ancient Jewish debates surrounding gentile access to Israel’s God. Aseneth’s story is a tale of the heroine’s transformation from exclusion to inclusion. It is simultaneously a transformative tale. For Second Temple-period thinkers, the epic of the Jewish people recounted in scriptural texts was a story that invited interpretation, interruption, and even intervention. Joseph and Aseneth participates in a broader literary phenomenon in Jewish antiquity wherein authors took up figures from Israel’s mythic past and crafted new stories as a means of explaining their own present and of envisioning collective futures. By incorporating a gentile woman and magnifying Aseneth’s role in Jewish history, Joseph and Aseneth changes the story. Aseneth’s ultimate inclusion makes possible the inclusion of others originally excluded.

Abstract European Romanticism gave rise to a powerful discourse equating genres to constrictive rules and forms that great art should transcend; and yet without the categories and intertextual references we hold in our minds, “music” would be meaningless noise. This book teases out that paradox, charting the workings and legacies of Romantic artistic values such as originality and anti-commercialism in relation to musical genre. Genre’s persistent power was amplified by music’s inevitably practical social, spatial, and institutional frames. Furthermore, starting in the nineteenth century, all music, even the most anti-commercial, was stamped by its relationship to the marketplace, entrenching associations between genres and target publics (whether based on ideas of nation, gender, class, or subtler aspects of identity). These newly strengthened correlations made genre, if anything, more potent rather than less, despite Romantic claims. In case studies from across nineteenth-century Europe engaging with canonical music by Bizet, Chopin, Verdi, Wagner, and Brahms, alongside representative genres such as opéra-comique and the piano ballade, Gelbart explores the processes through which composers, performers, critics, and listeners gave sounds, and themselves, a sense of belonging. He examines genre vocabulary and discourse, the force of generic titles, how avant-garde music is absorbed through and into familiar categories, and how interpretation can be bolstered or undercut by genre agreements. Even in a modern world where transcription and sound recording can take any music into an infinite array of new spatial and social situations, we are still locked in the Romantics’ ambivalent tussle with genre.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

Understood in its broadest sense, as the amelioration or improvement of an earlier textual state, revision is a universal compositional practice. At the same time, authors’ ideas about revision, their capacity for making changes, and the changes themselves are strongly influenced by both the material circumstances of writing and by broader cultural ideas about originality and the ontology of artworks. In addition, the study of revision informs very different intellectual disciplines and methodologies: creative writing pedagogy; editorial practice; traditional biographical criticism; and genetic criticism. This chapter provides a basic typology of different types of revision and comments on the complex types of evidence with which critics have to contend.

Understood in its broadest sense, as the amelioration or improvement of an earlier textual state, revision is a universal compositional practice. At the same time, authors’ ideas about revision, their capacity for making changes, and the changes themselves are strongly influenced by both the material circumstances of writing and by broader cultural ideas about originality and the ontology of artworks. In addition, the study of revision informs very different intellectual disciplines and methodologies: creative writing pedagogy; editorial practice; traditional biographical criticism; and genetic criticism. This chapter provides a basic typology of different types of revision and comments on the complex types of evidence with which critics have to contend.

While the shape of a tree could capture important theoretical and methodological elements of some of the approaches treated in Part II and III, it is harder to account for the diagram’s success in human population genetics, a field that works with very different concepts and theories, such as statistical and genetic populations. However, around 2000, a certain shift in focus took place from the genetic differentiation of populations towards studies of admixture. New theoretical, statistical, and computational approaches could be applied to an unprecedented amount of human genomic data. Global genome-wide data was visualized as colored bar plots that showed individual genomes and clusters of such genomes to be mosaics made up of different contributions from several ‘ancestral populations’. While I argue that also these relating diagrams still carry notions like originally pure populations, with the advent of ancient DNA studies, the phylogenetic trees of human populations have acquired more and more connecting arrows. Since these have even come to connect living humans with archaic lines such as the Neanderthals, the human family tree is more than ever in jeopardy.

AbstractThis chapter discusses the process of fostering coherence in teacher education in Finland through a teacher competence model: the Multidimensional Adapted Process Model of Teaching (Metsäpelto et al., 2022). Originally developed to facilitate nationally unified student selection for initial teacher education, the MAP model represents a collective interpretation of teaching quality made by an expert panel from seven Finnish universities organizing teacher education. It encompasses the current evidence base and prevailing discourses on what teachers ought to know and be able to do. In this chapter, we examine recent trends in the Finnish educational landscape and present the argument that the MAP model holds promise for enhancing aspects of coherence within teacher education in both respect to its goals, emphases and shared guidelines as well as its implemented curricula across different units. Additionally, we present findings from an analysis comparing the curricula of primary school teacher education programs (grades 1 to 6) in two universities, which provides evidence of systemic coherence. The chapter concludes by offering a critical reflection on the implications of adopting a generic teacher competence model for fostering coherence in teacher education.

Eros is one of the main themes of world literature. The theory of love, dialectically expounded by Plato in The Banquet, had a great influence on all European cultures, especially on morality, fiction, and fine arts. The experience of world literature confirms Plato’s theory, including the poetry of Virgil, his works «Bucolic», «Georgica» and «Aeneid». The purpose of the paper is to identify the characteristic features of the mythology of Eros in the works of Virgil, to clarify the nature of the eternal relevance of Plato’s philosophical discovery of earthly love and heavenly love, his vitality in literary works. Methodology. The choice of methods is determined by the peculiarities of the scientific problems of the topic, the solution of which is based on the selection, systematization, comparison, and textual analysis of the relevant material. The main method of research is comparative-historical with genetic and contact approaches, which are in the direct or indirect dialogue of Virgil with other authors. The psychological method was used to know the inner world of the artist, and his author’s interpretation of the mythology of Eros. Results of the survey. Objectively substantiated results are obtained, structural, thematic, and ideological characteristics of Eros mythology are systematized in their interrelation as a complex phenomenon during a certain period in Virgil’s poetry, and established ideas about the mythopoetic paradigm in ancient literature are developed. Plato’s teachings on Eros, its two stages – lower (Earthly love) and higher (Heavenly love) actualize the works of Virgil: «Bucolics», «Georgics», «Aeneid». Рractical implications and value. The practical significance of the work and its value are determined by the possibility of using it in the course of lectures at higher educational institutions. The same results can be taken into account when writing monographs, textbooks, and manuals, in the development of lectures, courses, and special courses on the history of foreign literature. In the Bucolics, Virgil raises the issue of the harmony of man and nature associated with the beauty of Eros. Virgil’s «Bucolics» testify to the complex inner world of man, to the dissonances of his soul, tired of the big city. Rural themes, full of beauty and love of life with all the colors of the Italian land, with the poet’s favorite evening – the constant motifs of the idyllic world of Virgil, which encourages love. In the Georgics, Virgil considers four themes: love, renunciation, death, and rebirth, developing Plato’s theory of the lower and higher levels of Eros – earthly and heavenly love. Virgil denies earthly love. He focuses on libido sexual – sexual desire as the lower stage of Eros. Virgil condemns not only carnal love but also all passion. The vanity of horses rushing to the finish line is no different from human vanity. An example of renunciation of love and all passion is the bee kingdom in Book IV «Georgik». Dido’s tragic love for Aeneas began with libido. Virgil equates the queen’s love affair with illness, a terrible element, a catastrophe. The spirit of great tragedy hovers throughout the fourth book of the Aeneid. Sympathizing with Dido, Virgil condemns her love for Aeneas as a destructive, destructive force, a mad shawl of love passion. However, the poet does not deny purified, that is, ideal love in the Platonic sense. It begins with love for the native land, for beauty, and reigns in all his works. It is love for nature, which permeates the artistic world of the poet, for native lares and penates, love for parents and paternal and maternal love, a mutual friendship between kindred spirits, and finally – love for all things: trees, celestial bodies, space life. Universal love dominates all the works of Virgil.

Abstract 1. I noted earlier that, in both the Philosophical Fragments and its Postscript, Johannes Climacus emphasizes that the pivotal difference between belief in God and belief in the Christian God (between religiousness A and religiousness B) is the conviction that human beings exist in the condition of original sin. He is, however, unforthcoming about the detailed content of, and the justification for, this seemingly paradoxical conviction (which, as its alternative title of ‘hereditary sin’ underlines, apparently conceives of guilt as a biological inheritance beyond any exercise of individual responsibility), and thus leaves undeveloped what he presents as the critical manifestation of faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Does Climacus intend this striking lacuna to tempt us to supplement his words by turning to what is often taken to be the immediate source of this Christian doctrine—the Genesis narrative of Adam and Eve, and their transgression of God’s command concerning the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? If so, that tale’s talk of forbidden apples and aprons of shame is very likely to suggest that a belief in original sin amounts to an opening of one’s eyes to the inherent evil of human sexuality and sensuality, and hence to the taintedness of human existence as such. Nietzsche would call it a libel against the body.

Abstract Over the last five years, it has become apparent that the genetic factors underlying rheumatoid arthritis are more various and more complex than many in the field had originally thought. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) remains the most important contributor to genetic risk for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), although HLA-DRB1 is clearly not the only locus involved in these MHC associations. The entire field of human genetics, particularly the genetics of complex disease, is currently under-going dramatic change, driven in part by astounding advances in genotyping technology, accompanied by substantial decreases in costs.

The inception of Open Science ideology originated with a vision towards advancing the scientific knowledge with the value of availability, accessibility, reusability, and transparency to democratise complete research cycle across all sectors of society irrespective of any class or community has successively coalesced with various vistas of “Open movement” and also outreached its realm from STEM subjects to the universe of disciplines. The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with machine learning (ML) and its specific specialisations like deep learning (DL), reinforcement learning (RL) and genetic algorithms (GA) enunciate an intelligent, expert, and decision support system revolutionises the contemporary technologies to a newfangled one, providing the most powerful discovery engine for analysis, retrieval, transfer of data, hypothesis/metrics generation, and determining research originality open up new opportunities in the domain of Open Science as well as eroding the commercial interests of the enterprises. The chapter, therefore, portrays the symbiosis of Open Science and AI in the canvases of historical antecedents how it evolving progressively, instigates the AI drivers (ML, DL, RL, and GA) and enablers (natural language processing, computer vision, ontology and knowledge graph) practicable in Open Science, evaluate recent Open Science and AI amends of global confederations.

Abstract The molecular genetics of Wilma tumour (WT) has turned out to be far more complex and interesting than originally envisaged (Knudson and Strong 1972). It is now clear that at least six separate genetic loci and loss of genomic imprinting are involved in the predisposition, development, and progression of this fascinating tumour. Wilma tumour is the most common primary renal tumour of childhood affecting approximately 1 in 10,000 children (Birch and Breslow 1995).

A binary encoding method for bond graphs that can be used for genetic algorithms (GAs) applications is presented. The originality of the proposed coding is that it encompasses causal information. This ensures that causal analysis is taken into account in assessing the fitness of topologies generated in GA operations and the suitability of design candidates to meet performance specifications can be tested directly from the binary code as the model equations can be derived from it. The code is suitable for GAs applications on bond graphs (BG) for topology and parameter optimisation in automated synthesis of dynamic systems. The coding method and its possible applications are illustrated through worked examples.

The paper describes the application of an optimization method to the redesign of a turbocharger compressor wheel. The starting design presents quite high performance. Previous attempts to improve this design have shown it difficult to increase aerodynamic performance without compromising mechanical stress levels. The optimization methodology relies on the combination of a genetic algorithm, a neural network, a database, and user generated objective functions. The originality of the paper is that the optimization is not only coupled to a CFD solver, but also to a CSM solver, so that mechanical stresses can be included in the optimization objectives. A parametric model of the solid sector of the blade, back plate and bore zone is built and included in the optimization. The challenging turbocharger test case has allowed gaining experience with design objectives of different nature. The results show that the optimization has been able to improve the aero performance, while also decreasing the peak mechanical stress levels significantly.

The genetic relationship of hypervelocity (HVS) and central (S) stars in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) is considered. Being at distances of the order of the Galaxy radius, in the past they could have been a binary star that experienced the tidal impact of the SMBH. It is proposed to test a two-stage algorithm for searching for genetically related in past HVS-S-pairs using catalogs [1, 2]: 1) reconstruction by the method of reverse integration of “returned” trajectory of the HVS; 2) Analysis of the coplanarity of the orbits of HVS, “returned” in SMBH-neighborhood, and the observed S-star. This task provides an independent test of our knowledge of baryonic and dark matter distribution, as well as the gravitational potential of the Galaxy based on them, which has important cosmological and evolutionary significance.

Research in comparative genomics supports the investigation of important questions in molecular biology, genetics and biomedicine. A central question in this field is the elucidation of similarities and differences between genomes by means of different measures. This summary, submitted to CTD 2020, briefly describes the main contributions, originality and impact possibilities of the thesis entitled "Distance and Similarity Measures in Comparative Genomics", by Diego P. Rubert.

In the present paper, fundamental frequency optimization of symmetrically angle-ply laminated composite plates is studied using the combination of Elitist-Genetic algorithm (EGA) and finite strip method (FSM). The design variables are the number of layers, the fiber orientation angles, edge conditions and plate length/width ratios. The classical laminated plate theory (CLPT) is used to calculate the natural frequencies of laminated rectangular plates. To improve the speed of the optimization process, the elitist strategy is used in the Genetic algorithm. In the E-GA, the fittest individuals in the generation survive and are automatically reinserted in the next generation, right before the next selection process takes place and the fitness function is computed with a semi-analytical finite strip model developed originally on the basis of full energy method. In addition, from the computational economy point of view, combination of E-GA and FSM provides a much higher convergence and reduced the CPU time. To check the validity, the obtained results are also compared with some other stacking sequences.

Symphony No. 2, a recent creation of composer Viorel Munteanu (first performance in 2021), is a fascinating, modern and provocative work. It is part of the “Shadows and Genesis” cycle, accumulating the effort of over thirty years of experience: “My shadows and genesis are quasi-permanent sources of inspiration; they are themes always born and reborn from my own evolution”1 . Symphony No. 2 stands out through the massiveness of its structure, the originality of the orchestration and its character deeply anchored in Romanian folklore motifs. The sources of inspiration, “shadows and genesis”, can be recognized, through references to previous creations and to Enescu’s music, as well through its use of the “George Enescu” melogram. The symphonic work is made up of five parts, entitled suggestively: - I. Imprints, II. Contrasts, III. Heterophonies, IV. Byzantine Sources, V. Dance of colors. This paper presents the compositional techniques, Viorel Munteanu’s fascination for the melograms - melodic “codes” transformed into the main thematic profile - and proposes an interpretation of the sound images generated by the expressive orchestration and thematic richness.

Abstract The eigenvalues of Williams’ series expansion for generalized wedge problems, which include cracks, re-entrant corners, free edges, and cracks meeting with material interface, etc. are examined from the viewpoint of conservation laws like J-integral and M-integral. By use of the so-called two-state conservation laws or interaction energy, originally proposed by Eshelby and later treated by Chen and Shield, discussed is that the complementary pairs of eigenvalues exist in the J-integral sense and/or in the M-integral sense when these integrals are conserved. Similar results are shown to hold for the eigenvalues of three dimensional wedges.

The extended GDQ proposed by the author is used to develop solution algorithms for solving the discrete transient equation system of continuum mechanics problems. It is a direct integration approach. Two integration methods are developed. They are time-element by time-element method and stages by stages method. These two time integration algorithms can be used to solve generic discrete transient equation system of an originally discrete system or a discrete system resulting from the discretization of a transient system of continuum mechanics problems by using a certain discretization technique such as the DQEM, FEM, FDM,…, etc.

The extended GDQ proposed by the author is used to develop solution algorithms for solving the discrete transient equation system of an offshore mechanics or arctic engineering problem. It is a direct integration approach. Two integration methods are developed. They are time-element by time-element method and stages by stages method. These two time integration algorithms can be used to solve generic discrete transient equation system of an originally discrete system or a discrete system resulting from the discretization of a transient system of offshore mechanics and arctic problems by using a certain discretization technique such as the DQEM, FEM, FDM,…, etc.

Nymphoides peltata (yellow floatingheart), native to Eurasia, is an invasive plant in the USA, where it grows in relatively isolated but widespread populations. The species is capable of sexual reproduction by seed and asexual reproduction through fragmentation. Although N. peltata is recognized as a noxious weed, little is known about its geographic region of origin or its dispersal mechanisms and relative amount of genetic variation in its adventive range. We conducted a genetic analysis of N. peltata by studying 68 localities across the native range and 47 localities in the adventive range, using microsatellite markers to determine genetic variability within and among populations, and to infer regions in the native range from which invasive plants originated. A large number of sites in the USA were genetically identical to one another, and there were two predominant multilocus allele phenotypes that were distributed in the northern and southern latitudes, respectively. Additional USA sites were similar to one of the predominant genetic profiles, with greater genetic diversity in southern populations. The genetically identical sites are consistent with asexual spread, potentially via anthropogenic mechanisms. Plants across the USA range were observed to produce viable seeds, and some genetic variation could be explained by sexual reproduction. All USA plants were more similar to plants in Europe than they were to plants in Asia, indicating that the plants likely were introduced originally from Europe. The existence of two genetic clusters and their similarity to plants in different parts of Europe constitute evidence for at least two N. peltata introductions into the USA.

Chickpea is the third most important pulse crop in the world and ranks first in the Middle East; however, it has been subjected to only limited research in modern genomics. In the first period of this project (US-3034-98R) we constructed two large-insert BAC and BIBAC libraries, developed 325 SSR markers and mapped QTLs controlling ascochyta blight resistance (ABR) and days to first flower (DTF). Nevertheless, the utilities of these tools and results in gene discovery and marker-assisted breeding are limited due to the absence of an essential platform. The goals of this period of the project were to use the resources and tools developed in the first period of the project to develop a BAC/BIBAC physical map for chickpea and using it to identify BAC/BIBACcontigs containing agronomic genes of interest, with an emphasis on ABR and DTF, and develop DNA markers suitable for marker-assisted breeding. Toward these goals, we proposed: 1) Fingerprint ~50,000 (10x) BACs from the BAC and BIBAC libraries, assemble the clones into a genome-wide BAC/BIBAC physical map, and integrate the BAC/BIBAC map with the existing chickpea genetic maps (Zhang, USA); 2) fine-map ABR and DTFQTLs and enhance molecular tools for chickpea genetics and breeding (Shahal, Sherman and DaniShtienberg, Israel; Chen and Muehlbauer; USA); and 3) integrate the BAC/BIBAC map with the existing chickpea genetic maps (Sherman, Israel; Zhang and Chen, USA). For these objectives, a total of $460,000 was requested originally, but a total of $300,000 was awarded to the project. We first developed two new BAC and BIBAC libraries, Chickpea-CME and Chickpea- CHV. The chickpea-CMEBAC library contains 22,272 clones, with an average insert size of 130 kb and equivalent to 4.0 fold of the chickpea genome. The chickpea-CHVBIBAC library contains 38,400 clones, with an average insert size of 140 kb and equivalent to 7.5 fold of the chickpea genome. The two new libraries (11.5 x), along with the two BAC (Chickpea-CHI) and BIBAC (Chickpea-CBV) libraries (7.1 x) constructed in the first period of the project, provide libraries essential for chickpea genome physical mapping and many other genomics researches. Using these four libraries we then developed the proposed BAC/BIBAC physical map of chickpea. A total of 67,584 clones were fingerprinted, and 64,211 (~11.6 x) of the fingerprints validated and used in the physical map assembly. The physical map consists of 1,945 BAC/BIBACcontigs, with each containing an average of 39.2 clones and having an average physical length of 559 kb. The contigs collectively span ~1,088 Mb, being 1.49 fold of the 740- Mb chickpea genome. Third, we integrated the physical map with the two existing chickpea genetic maps using a total of 172 (124 + 48) SSR markers. Fourth, we identified tightly linked markers for ABR-QTL1, increased marker density at ABR-QTL2 and studied the genetic basis of resistance to pod abortion, a major problem in the east Mediterranean, caused by heat stress. Finally, we, using the integrated map, isolated the BAC/BIBACcontigs containing or closely linked to QTL4.1, QTL4.2 and QTL8 for ABR and QTL8 for DTF. The integrated BAC/BIBAC map resulted from the project will provide a powerful platform and tools essential for many aspects of advanced genomics and genetics research of this crop and related species. These includes, but are not limited to, targeted development of SNP, InDel and SSR markers, high-resolution mapping of the chickpea genome and its agronomic genes and QTLs, sequencing and decoding of all genes of the genome using the next-generation sequencing technology, and comparative genome analysis of chickpea versus other legumes. The DNA markers and BAC/BIBACcontigs containing or closely linked to ABR and DTF provide essential tools to develop SSR and SNP markers well-suited for marker-assisted breeding of the traits and clone their corresponding genes. The development of the tools and knowledge will thus promote enhanced and substantial genetic improvement of the crop and related legumes.

Objectives. The major aim of the proposed research was to establish an efficient and reproducible genetic transformation system for Easter lily and gladiolus using either biolistics or Agrobacterium. Transgenic plants containing pathogen-derived genes for virus resistance were to be developed and then tested for virus resistance. The proposal was originally aimed at studying cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) resistance in plants, but studies later included bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV). Monoclonal antibodies were to be tested to determine their effectiveness in interning with virus infection and vector (aphid) transmission. Those antibodies that effectively interfered with virus infection and transmission were to be cloned as single chain fragments and used for developing transgenic plants with the potential to resist virus infection. Background to the topic. Many flower crops, as lily and gladiolus are propagated vegetatively through bulbs and corms, resulting in virus transmission to the next planting generation. Molecular genetics offers the opportunity of conferring transgene-mediated disease resistance to flower crops that cannot be achieved through classical breeding. CMV infects numerous plant species worldwide including both lilies and gladioli. Major conclusions, solutions and achievements. Results from these for future development of collaborative studies have demonstrated the potential transgenic floral bulb crops for virus resistance. In Israel, an efficient and reproducible genetic transformation system for Easter lily using biolistics was developed. Transient as well as solid expression of GUS reporter gene was demonstrated. Putative transgenic lily plantlets containing the disabled CMV replicase transgene have been developed. The in vitro ability of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against CMV to neutralize virus infectivity and block virus transmission by M. persicae were demonstrated. In the US, transgenic Gladiolus plants containing either the BYMV coat protein or antisense coat protein genes have been developed and some lines were found to be virus resistant. Long-term expression of the GUS reporter gene demonstrated that transgene silencing did not occur after three seasons of dormancy in the 28 transgenic Gladiolus plants tested. Selected monoclonal antibody lines have been isolated, cloned as single chain fragments and are being used in developing transgenic plants with CMV resistance. Ornamental crops are multi-million dollar industries in both Israel and the US. The increasing economic value of these floral crops and the increasing ban numerous pesticides makes it more important than ever that alternatives to chemical control of pathogens be studied to determine their possible role in the future. The cooperation resulted in the objectives being promoted at national and international meetings. The cooperation also enabled the technology transfer between the two labs, as well as access to instrumentation and specialization particular to the two labs.

Wilt and crown rot are two important diseases of tomato caused by different strains ("formae speciales") of the fungus, Fusarium oxysporum. While both pathogens are members of the same fungal species, each differs genetically and resistance to the diseases is controlled by different genes in the plant. Additionally, the formae speciales differ in their ecology (e.g. optimal temperature of disease development) and epidemiology. Nevertheless, the distinction between these diseases based on symptoms alone may be unclear due to overlapping symptomatology. We have found in our research that the ambiguity of the pathogens is further confounded because strains causing tomato wilt or crown rot each may belong to several genetically and phylogenetically distinct lineages of F. oxysporum. Furthermore, individual lineages of the pathogen causing wilt or crown rot may themselves be very closely related. The diseases share the characteristic that the pathogen's inoculum may be aerially dispersed. This work has revealed a complex evolutionary relationship among lineages of the pathogens that makes development of molecular diagnostic methods more difficult than originally anticipated. However, the degree of diversity found in these soil-borne pathogens has allowed study of their population genetics and patterns of dispersal in agricultural settings.

Heterosis, the enigmatic phenomenon in which whole genome heterozygous hybrids demonstrate superior fitness compared to their homozygous parents, is the main cornerstone of modern crop plant breeding. One explanation for this non-additive inheritance of hybrids is interaction of alleles within the same locus. This proposal aims at screening, identifying and investigating heterosis trait loci (HTL) for different yield traits by implementing a novel integrated mapping approach in Sorghum bicolor as a model for other crop plants. Originally, the general goal of this research was to perform a genetic dissection of heterosis in a diallel built from a set of Sorghum bicolor inbred lines. This was conducted by implementing a novel computational algorithm which aims at associating between specific heterozygosity found among hybrids with heterotic variation for different agronomic traits. The initial goals of the research are: (i) Perform genotype by sequencing (GBS) of the founder lines (ii) To evaluate the heterotic variation found in the diallel by performing field trails and measurements in the field (iii) To perform QTL analysis for identifying heterotic trait loci (HTL) (iv) to validate candidate HTL by testing the quantitative mode of inheritance in F2 populations, and (v) To identify candidate HTL in NAM founder lines and fine map these loci by test-cross selected RIL derived from these founders. The genetic mapping was initially achieved with app. 100 SSR markers, and later the founder lines were genotyped by sequencing. In addition to the original proposed research we have added two additional populations that were utilized to further develop the HTL mapping approach; (1) A diallel of budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) that was tested for heterosis of doubling time, and (2) a recombinant inbred line population of Sorghum bicolor that allowed testing in the field and in more depth the contribution of heterosis to plant height, as well as to achieve novel simulation for predicting dominant and additive effects in tightly linked loci on pseudooverdominance. There are several conclusions relevant to crop plants in general and to sorghum breeding and biology in particular: (i) heterosis for reproductive (1), vegetative (2) and metabolic phenotypes is predominantly achieved via dominance complementation. (ii) most loci that seems to be inherited as overdominant are in fact achieving superior phenotype of the heterozygous due to linkage in repulsion, namely by pseudooverdominant mechanism. Our computer simulations show that such repulsion linkage could influence QTL detection and estimation of effect in segregating populations. (iii) A new height QTL (qHT7.1) was identified near the genomic region harboring the known auxin transporter Dw3 in sorghum, and its genetic dissection in RIL population demonstrated that it affects both the upper and lower parts of the plant, whereas Dw3 affects only the part below the flag leaf. (iv) HTL mapping for grain nitrogen content in sorghum grains has identified several candidate genes that regulate this trait, including several putative nitrate transporters and a transcription factor belonging to the no-apical meristem (NAC)-like large gene family. This activity was combined with another BARD-funded project in which several de-novo mutants in this gene were identified for functional analysis.

Fruit quality is determined by numerous genetic factors that affect taste, aroma, ‎color, texture, nutritional value and shelf life. To unravel the genetic components ‎involved in the metabolic pathways behind these traits, the major goal of the project was to identify novel genes that are involved in, or that regulate, these pathways using correlation analysis between genotype, metabolite and gene expression data. The original and specific research objectives were: (1) Collection of replicated fruit from a population of 96 RI lines derived from parents distinguished by great diversity in fruit development and quality phenotypes, (2) Phenotypic and metabolic profiling of mature fruit from all 96 RI lines and their parents, (3) 454 pyrosequencing of cDNA representing mRNA of mature fruit from each line to facilitate gene expression analysis based on relative EST abundance, (4) Development of a database modeled after an existing database developed for tomato introgression lines (ILs) to facilitate online data analysis by members of this project and by researchers around the world. The main functions of the database will be to store and present metabolite and gene expression data so that correlations can be drawn between variation in target traits or metabolites across the RI population members and variation in gene expression to identify candidate genes which may impact phenotypic and chemical traits of interest, (5) Selection of RI lines for segregation and/or hybridization (crosses) analysis to ascertain whether or not genes associated with traits through gene expression/metabolite correlation analysis are indeed contributors to said traits. The overall research strategy was to utilize an available recombinant inbred population of melon (Cucumis melo L.) derived from phenotypically diverse parents and for which over 800 molecular markers have been mapped for the association of metabolic trait and gene expression QTLs. Transcriptomic data were obtained by high throughput sequencing using the Illumina platform instead of the originally planned 454 platform. The change was due to the fast advancement and proven advantages of the Illumina platform, as explained in the first annual scientific report. Metabolic data were collected using both targeted (sugars, organic acids, carotenoids) and non-targeted metabolomics analysis methodologies. Genes whose expression patterns were associated with variation of particular metabolites or fruit quality traits represent candidates for the molecular mechanisms that underlie them. Candidate genes that may encode enzymes catalyzingbiosynthetic steps in the production of volatile compounds of interest, downstream catabolic processes of aromatic amino acids and regulatory genes were selected and are in the process of functional analyses. Several of these are genes represent unanticipated effectors of compound accumulation that could not be identified using traditional approaches. According to the original plan, the Cucurbit Genomics Network (http://www.icugi.org/), developed through an earlier BARD project (IS-3333-02), was expanded to serve as a public portal for the extensive metabolomics and transcriptomic data resulting from the current project. Importantly, this database was also expanded to include genomic and metabolomic resources of all the cucurbit crops, including genomes of cucumber and watermelon, EST collections, genetic maps, metabolite data and additional information. In addition, the database provides tools enabling researchers to identify genes, the expression patterns of which correlate with traits of interest. The project has significantly expanded the existing EST resource for melon and provides new molecular tools for marker-assisted selection. This information will be opened to the public by the end of 2013, upon the first publication describing the transcriptomic and metabolomics resources developed through the project. In addition, well-characterized RI lines are available to enable targeted breeding for genes of interest. Segregation of the RI lines for specific metabolites of interest has been shown, demonstrating the utility in these lines and our new molecular and metabolic data as a basis for selection targeting specific flavor, quality, nutritional and/or defensive compounds. To summarize, all the specific goals of the project have been achieved and in many cases exceeded. Large scale trascriptomic and metabolomic resources have been developed for melon and will soon become available to the community. The usefulness of these has been validated. A number of novel genes involved in fruit ripening have been selected and are currently being functionally analyzed. We thus fully addressed our obligations to the project. In our view, however, the potential value of the project outcomes as ultimately manifested may be far greater than originally anticipated. The resources developed and expanded under this project, and the tools created for using them will enable us, and others, to continue to employ resulting data and discoveries in future studies with benefits both in basic and applied agricultural - scientific research.

Review question / Objective: The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies is to find out the association of IL-1 RN intron 2 (VNTR) rs2234663 Gene Polymorphism and the occurrence and progression of periodontitis(including chronic periodontitis, aggressive periodontitis and early-onset periodontitis). Condition being studied: Periodontitis is one of the most common ailments affecting the teeth, leading to the destruction of the supporting and surrounding tooth structure. Periodontitis is originally a disease originating from the gingival tissue which if left untreated results in penetration of inflammation to the deeper tissues, altering the bone homeostasis causing tooth loss. Periodontal disease has a multifactorial origin. The main culprit identified in periodontitis is the bacterial biofilm growing on the tooth surfaces. The deleterious effects of periodontopathogens are not limited to the periodontium, but they also exude their ill effects on the systemic health of the patients. While the host response determines the progression of the disease, genetics, environmental factors, systemic health of the patient, lifestyle habits and various social determinants also play a role. Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist encoded by this gene IL-1RN is a member of the interleukin 1 cytokine family. This protein inhibits the activities of interleukin 1, alpha (IL1A) and interleukin 1, beta (IL1B), and modulates a variety of interleukin 1 related immune and inflammatory responses, particularly in the acute phase of infection and inflammation. We aim to study their association by conducting a meta-analysis.

The COP9 signalosome (CSN) is an eight-subunit protein complex that is highly conserved among eukaryotes. Genetic analysis of the signalosome in the plant model species Arabidopsis thaliana has shown that the signalosome is a repressor of light dependent seedling development as mutant Arabidopsis seedlings that lack this complex develop in complete darkness as if exposed to light. These mutant plants die following the seedling stage, even when exposed to light, indicating that the COP9 signalosome also has a central role in the regulation of normal photomorphogenic development. The biochemical mode of action of the signalosome and its position in eukaryotic cell signaling pathways is a matter of controversy and ongoing investigation, and recent results place the CSN at the juncture of kinase signaling pathways and ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation. We have shown that one of the many CSN functions may relate to the regulation of translation through the interaction of the CSN with its related complex, eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF3). While we have established a physical connection between eIF3 subunits and CSN subunits, the physiological and developmental significance of this interaction is still unknown. In an effort to understand the biochemical activity of the signalosome, and its role in regulating translation, we originally proposed to dissect the contribution of "h" subunit of eIF3 (eIF3h) along the following specific aims: (i) Isolation and phenotypic characterization of an Arabidopsis loss-of-function allele for eIF3h from insertional mutagenesis libraries; (ii) Creation of designed gain and loss of function alleles for eIF3h on the basis of its nucleocytoplasmic distribution and its yeast-two-hybrid interactions with other eIF3 and signalosome partner proteins; (iii) Determining the contribution of eIF3h and its interaction with the signalosome by expressing specific mutants of eIF3h in the eIF3h- loss-of function background. During the course of the research, these goals were modified to include examining the genetic interaction between csn and eif3h mutations. More importantly, we extended our effort toward the genetic analysis of mutations in the eIF3e subunit, which also interacts with the CSN. Through the course of this research program we have made several critical scientific discoveries, all concerned with the apparent diametrically opposed roles of eIF3h and eIF3e. We showed that: 1) While eIF3e is essential for growth and development, eIF3h is not essential for growth or basal translation; 2) While eIF3e has a negative role in translational regulation, eIF3h is positively required for efficient translation of transcripts with complex 5' UTR sequences; 3) Over-accumulation of eIF3e and loss-of-function of eIF3h both lead to cop phenotypes in dark-grown seedlings. These results were published in one publication (Kim et al., Plant Cell 2004) and in a second manuscript currently in revision for Embo J. Are results have led to a paradigm shift in translation research – eIF3 is now viewed in all systems as a dynamic entity that contains regulatory subuits that affect translational efficiency. In the long-term agronomic outlook, the proposed research has implications that may be far reaching. Many important plant processes, including developmental and physiological responses to light, abiotic stress, photosynthate, and hormones operate in part by modulating protein translation [23, 24, 40, 75]. Translational regulation is slowly coming of age as a mechanism for regulating foreign gene expression in plants, beginning with translational enhancers [84, 85] and more recently, coordinating the expression of multiple transgenes using internal ribosome entry sites. Our contribution to understanding the molecular mode of action of a protein complex as fundamental as eIF3 is likely to lead to advances that will be applicable in the foreseeable future.

Background to the topic: In previous works we have shown that Arabidopsis and tomato over-expressing H+-pyrophosphatase show increased tolerance to drought imposed by withholding irrigation of young plants in pots (Park et al. 2005). In addition, young tobacco plants over-expressing fatty acid desaturase 3 (OEX-FAD3) also showed increasing tolerance to drought stress (Zhang et al 2005), and similarly OEX-FAD3 young tomato plants (unpublished data from ARO), hence raising the possibility that pyramiding the two could further improve drought tolerance in tomato. Based on these findings the specific objects originally set were: 1. To analyze the impact of pyramiding transgenes for enhanced fatty acid desaturation and for elevated H+-PPase activity on tomato yielding under water deficit stress conditions. 2. To elucidate the biochemical relationship between elevated desaturation of the membrane lipids and the activities of selected vacuolar transporters in the context of drought responses. 3. To explore the S. pennellii introgression lines as alternative genetic sources for drought tolerance related to enhanced fatty acid desaturation and/or H+-PPase activity. 4. Since OEX-FAD3 increases the levels of linolenic acid which is the precursor of various oxylipins including the stress hormone Jasmonate. (JA), study of the effect of this transgene on tolerance to herbivore pests was added as additional goal. The Major conclusions, solutions, and achievements are: (1) The facts that ectopic over-expression of vacuolarH+-PPases (in line OEX-AVP1) does not change the fatty acid profile compared to the parental MoneyMaker (MM) line and that elevated level of FA desaturation (by OEX-FAD3) does not change the activity of either H+-PPase, H+-ATPaseor Ca2+ /H+ antiport, indicate that the observed increased drought tolerance reported before for increase FA desaturation in tobacco plants and increased H+PPase in tomato plants involves different mechanisms. (2) After generating hybrid lines bringing to a common genetic background (i.e. F1 hybrids between line MP-1 and MM) each of the two transgenes separately and the two transgenes together the effect of various drought stress regimes including recovery from a short and longer duration of complete water withhold as well as performance under chronic stresses imposed by reducing water supply to 75-25% of the control irrigation regime could be studied. Under all the tested conditions in Israel, for well established plants grown in 3L pots or larger, none of the transgenic lines exhibited a reproducible significantly better drought tolerance compare to the parental lines. Still, examining the performance of these hybrids under the growth practices followed in the USA is called for. (3) Young seedlings of none of the identified introgression lines including the S. pennellii homologs of two of the H+-PPase genes and one of the FAD7 genes performed better than line M82 upon irrigation withhold. However, differences in the general canopy structures between the IL lines and M82 might mask such differences if existing. (4). Over-expression of FAD3 in the background of line MP-1 was found to confer significant tolerance to three important pest insects in tomato: Bordered Straw (Heliothis peltigera), Egyptian cotton leafworm (Spodoptera littoralis) and Western Flower Thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis). Implications: Although the original hypothesis that pyramiding these two trasgenes could improve drought tolerance was not supported, the unexpected positive impact on herbivore deterring, as well as the changes in dynamics of JA biosynthesis in response to wounding and the profound changes in expression of wound response genes calls for deciphering the exact linolenic acid derived signaling molecule mediating this response. This will further facilitate breeding for herbivore pest and mechanical stress tolerance based on this pathway.

Brucella Mutagenesis (TAMU) The working hypothesis for this study was that survival of Brucella vaccines was directly related to their persistence in the host. This premise is based on previously published work detailing the survival of the currently employed vaccine strains S19 and Rev 1. The approach employed signature-tagged mutagenesis to construct mutants interrupted in individual genes, and the mouse model to identify mutants with attenuated virulence/survival. Intracellular survival in macrophages is the key to both reproductive disease in ruminants and reticuloendothelial disease observed in most other species. Therefore, the mouse model permitted selection of mutants of reduced intracellular survival that would limit their ability to cause reproductive disease in ruminants. Several classes of mutants were expected. Colonization/invasion requires gene products that enhance host-agent interaction or increase resistance to antibacterial activity in macrophages. The establishment of chronic infection requires gene products necessary for intracellular bacterial growth. Maintenance of chronic infection requires gene products that sustain a low-level metabolism during periods characterized little or no growth (1, 2). Of these mutants, the latter group was of greatest interest with regard to our originally stated premise. However, the results obtained do not necessarily support a simplistic model of vaccine efficacy, i.e., long-survival of vaccine strains provides better immunity. Our conclusion can only be that optimal vaccines will only be developed with a thorough understanding of host agent interaction, and will be preferable to the use of fortuitous isolates of unknown genetic background. Each mutant could be distinguished from among a group of mutants by PCR amplification of the signature tag (5). This approach permitted infection of mice with pools of different mutants (including the parental wild-type as a control) and identified 40 mutants with apparently defective survival characteristics that were tentatively assigned to three distinct classes or groups. Group I (n=13) contained organisms that exhibited reduced survival at two weeks post-infection. Organisms in this group were recovered at normal levels by eight weeks and were not studied further, since they may persist in the host. Group II (n=11) contained organisms that were reduced by 2 weeks post infection and remained at reduced levels at eight weeks post-infection. Group III (n=16) contained mutants that were normal at two weeks, but recovered at reduced levels at eight weeks. A subset of these mutants (n= 15) was confirmed to be attenuated in mixed infections (1:1) with the parental wild-type. One of these mutants was eliminated from consideration due to a reduced growth rate in vitro that may account for its apparent growth defect in the mouse model. Although the original plan involved construction of the mutant bank in B. melitensis Rev 1 the low transformability of this strain, prevented accumulation of the necessary number of mutants. In addition, the probability that Rev 1 already carries one genetic defect increases the likelihood that a second defect will severely compromise the survival of this organism. Once key genes have been identified, it is relatively easy to prepare the appropriate genetic constructs (knockouts) lacking these genes in B. melitensis Rev 1 or any other genetic background. The construction of "designer" vaccines is expected to improve immune protection resulting from minor sequence variation corresponding to geographically distinct isolates or to design vaccines for use in specific hosts. A.2 Mouse Model of Brucella Infection (UWISC) Interferon regulatory factor-1-deficient (IRF-1-/- mice have diverse immunodeficient phenotypes that are necessary for conferring proper immune protection to intracellular bacterial infection, such as a 90% reduction of CD8+ T cells, functionally impaired NK cells, as well as a deficiency in iNOS and IL-12p40 induction. Interestingly, IRF-1-/- mice infected with diverse Brucella abortus strains reacted differently in a death and survival manner depending on the dose of injection and the level of virulence. Notably, 50% of IRF-1-/- mice intraperitoneally infected with a sublethal dose in C57BL/6 mice, i.e., 5 x 105 CFU of virulent S2308 or the attenuated vaccine S19, died at 10 and 20 days post-infection, respectively. Interestingly, the same dose of RB51, an attenuated new vaccine strain, did not induce the death of IRF-1-/- mice for the 4 weeks of infection. IRF-1-/- mice infected with four more other genetically manipulated S2308 mutants at 5 x 105 CFU also reacted in a death or survival manner depending on the level of virulence. Splenic CFU from C57BL/6 mice infected with 5 x 105 CFU of S2308, S19, or RB51, as well as four different S2308 mutants supports the finding that reduced virulence correlates with survival Of IRF-1-/- mice. Therefore, these results suggest that IRF-1 regulation of multi-gene transcription plays a crucial role in controlling B. abortus infection, and IRF-1 mice could be used as an animal model to determine the degree of B. abortus virulence by examining death or survival. A3 Diagnostic Tests for Detection of B. melitensis Rev 1 (Kimron) In this project we developed an effective PCR tool that can distinguish between Rev1 field isolates and B. melitensis virulent field strains. This has allowed, for the first time, to monitor epidemiological outbreaks of Rev1 infection in vaccinated flocks and to clearly demonstrate horizontal transfer of the strain from vaccinated ewes to unvaccinated ones. Moreover, two human isolates were characterized as Rev1 isolates implying the risk of use of improperly controlled lots of the vaccine in the national campaign. Since atypical B. melitensis biotype 1 strains have been characterized in Israel, the PCR technique has unequivocally demonstrated that strain Rev1 has not diverted into a virulent mutant. In addition, we could demonstrate that very likely a new prototype biotype 1 strain has evolved in the Middle East compared to the classical strain 16M. All the Israeli field strains have been shown to differ from strain 16M in the PstI digestion profile of the omp2a gene sequence suggesting that the local strains were possibly developed as a separate branch of B. melitensis. Should this be confirmed these data suggest that the Rev1 vaccine may not be an optimal vaccine strain for the Israeli flocks as it shares the same omp2 PstI digestion profile as strain 16M.