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In a well-known paper, Jeremy England derived a bound on the free energy dissipated by a self-replicating system [J. L. England, "Statistical physics of self-replication," J. Chem. Phys. 139, 121923 (2013)]. This bound is usually interpreted as a universal relationship that connects thermodynamic dissipation to replicator per-capita decay and growth rates. We argue from basic thermodynamic principles against this interpretation. In fact, we suggest that such a relationship cannot exist in principle, because it is impossible for a thermodynamically consistent replicator to undergo both per-capita growth and per-capita decay back into reactants. Instead, replicator may decay into separate waste products, but in that case, replication and decay are two independent physical processes, and there is no universal relationship that connects their thermodynamic and dynamical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opportunities for the shared consumption of publicly available products that once might have been considered personal-use only, such as hand sanitizers and shampoos, are proliferating in the consumer environment. This work explores shared product consumption in these underresearched, but now ubiquitous, contexts. The authors suggest and find, over a series of five studies and across a variety of product domains, that sharing a product with strangers (i.e., sharing-out) engenders a lower sense of identification with the product, which leads to lower perceived product efficacy. They further show that the dampening effect of sharing-out on efficacy perceptions is limited to consumers high in self–brand connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sylvia Wynter calls for a rethinking of the aesthetics since our current system of knowledge, which is rooted in a positivist, biocentric framework, fails to recognize storytelling as an essential aspect of humanness. Similarly, bell hooks reminds us to see, not only through sight, but in a metaphysical way that heightens our awareness and understanding – expanding our ability to engage with reality through all of our senses. Thus, this paper explores the ways in which Black aesthetics serve as method-making practices in order to reclaim the imagination from modern thinking, particularly given that the narrative of modernity has been partially constructed on the myth that Black peoples lack culture, or, alternatively, that their cultural practices are primitive and monolithic. By asserting Blackness as a situating force, Black cultural practices underscore the agentic capacity of Black peoples to create and define their own realities, rather than being merely subjects of observation. What methods do we use, then, that can faithfully portray the subtleties of Black life? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the handover of sovereignty from Britain to China in 1997, Hong Kong embarked on a renewed exploration of its cultural identity. This quest for identity found a powerful resonance in the late-1997 musical adaptation of Pygmalion, titled Yao Tiao Shu Nv (Lovely is This Noble Lady). This article argues that the musical's success stemmed from the underlying themes of colonialism and postcolonialism present in George Bernard Shaw's original work. By recreating the setting, the characterization, and the soundscape of a Hong Kong in its early colonial years, the adaptation negotiates cultural identity within the specific context of postcolonial Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autonomous generation of energy, specifically adenosine triphosphate (ATP), is critical for sustaining the engineered functionalities of synthetic cells constructed from the bottom‐up. In this mini‐review, we categorize studies on ATP‐producing synthetic cells into three different approaches: photosynthetic mechanisms, mitochondrial respiration mimicry, and utilization of non‐conventional approaches such as exploiting synthetic metabolic pathways. Within this framework, we evaluate the strengths and limitations of each approach and provide directions for future research endeavors. We also introduce a concept of building ATP‐generating synthetic organelle that will enable us to mimic cellular respiration in a simpler way than current strategies. This review aims to highlight the importance of energy self‐production in synthetic cells, providing suggestions and ideas that may help overcome some longstanding challenges in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies / Sodobna Pedagogika is the property of Association of Slovenian Educationalists and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Distributed photovoltaic generation has been raised as a dependable electricity substitute for implementing a decarbonised energy transition. The dynamics of PV systems with battery storage have led to new electricity end-user classifications that select their electricity systems and resources wisely, i.e. Prosumers and Prosumagers. This work presents a technical and economic assessment to analyse the effect of decision-making independent end-users and electricity management strategies through a novel time-discrete deterministic simulation model. The end-user's choice of battery storage technology and their approach to electricity management emerge as pivotal factors influencing their strategic decisions. Adopting a prosumer strategy, such as storing and selling surplus self-production, reduces the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), benefiting the end-user economically. Notably, the most effective battery storage technology may only sometimes be the one that is most readily available in the market. These findings enhance our understanding of novel end-user types and underscore the practical implications of their evolutionary shift towards independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life on Earth uses DNA as the central template for self‐replication, genetic encoding, and information transfer. However, there are no physical laws precluding life's existence elsewhere in space, and alternative life forms may not need DNA. In the search for exobiology, knowing what to look for as a biosignature remains a challenge – especially if it is not from the obvious list of biologic building blocks. Clues from chemicals recently discovered on Mars and in the Taurus Molecular Cloud 1 (TMC‐1), show that intriguing organic compounds exist beyond Earth, which could provide a starting point for unconventional exobiotic designs. Here we present a new potential self‐replicating system with structural similarities to recently discovered compounds on Mars and TMC‐1. Rather than using DNA's hydrogen‐bonding motif for reliable base‐paring, our design employs sulfur‐nitrogen interactions to selectively template unique benzothiadiazole units in sequence. We synthesized and studied two versions of this system, one reversible and the other irreversible, and found experimental evidence of self‐replication in d‐chloroform solvent. These results are part of a larger pursuit in our lab for developing a basis for a potential exobiological system using starting blocks closely related to these cosmic compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a model containing modifications to the Signal-passing Tile Assembly Model (STAM), a tile-based self-assembly model whose tiles are capable of activating and deactivating glues based on the binding of other glues. These modifications consist of an extension to 3D, the ability of tiles to form "flexible" bonds that allow bound tiles to rotate relative to each other, and allowing tiles of multiple shapes within the same system. We call this new model the STAM*, and we present a series of constructions within it that are capable of self-replicating behavior. Namely, the input seed assemblies to our STAM* systems can encode either "genomes" specifying the instructions for building a target shape, or can be copies of the target shape with instructions built in. A universal tile set exists for any target shape (at scale factor 2), and from a genome assembly creates infinite copies of the genome as well as the target shape. An input target structure, on the other hand, can be "deconstructed" by the universal tile set to form a genome encoding it, which will then replicate and also initiate the growth of copies of assemblies of the target shape. Since the lengths of the genomes for these constructions are proportional to the number of points in the target shape, we also present a replicator which utilizes hierarchical self-assembly to greatly reduce the size of the genomes required. The main goals of this work are to examine minimal requirements of self-assembling systems capable of self-replicating behavior, with the aim of better understanding self-replication in nature as well as understanding the complexity of mimicking it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores reflexivity in qualitative research, challenging conventional perspectives that revolve around the binary of 'insider' and 'outsider' positioning. While traditionally reflexivity has been understood through the lens of a researcher's socio-historical positionality, we argue for a more dynamic understanding, emphasizing that academic self-formation is an ongoing process of self-creation. Drawing inspiration from the ancient Akadēmía, where writing was a method of self-reflection, we recontextualize reflexive qualitative writing, aligning it with Foucault's interpretations of Ancient Greek and Renaissance concepts. We posit that writing, especially in doctoral research, is not just a tool for communication but a means of self-formation. This perspective redefines reflexivity as a transformative intellectual and existential process. The paper critically examines the prevailing insider/outsider binary in the research literature, suggesting that researcher identities are fluid and constantly shaped by interactions. By integrating Foucault's later work on ethics, we explore the ethical dimensions of reflexivity and the formation of the ethical subject. Ultimately, this paper contributes to the academic discourse on reflexivity, offering a more fluid, transformative view of the doctoral process and reflexive writing in qualitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological systems have a unique ability inherited through their genome. It allows them to build, operate, and manage a society of cells with complex organizational structures, where autonomous components execute specific tasks and collaborate in groups to fulfill systemic goals with shared knowledge. The system receives information from various senses, makes sense of what is being observed, and acts using its experience while the observations are still in progress. We use the General Theory of Information (GTI) to implement a digital genome, specifying the operational processes that design, deploy, operate, and manage a cloud-agnostic distributed application that is independent of IaaS and PaaS infrastructure, which provides the resources required to execute the software components. The digital genome specifies the functional and non-functional requirements that define the goals and best-practice policies to evolve the system using associative memory and event-driven interaction history to maintain stability and safety while achieving the system's objectives. We demonstrate a structural machine, cognizing oracles, and knowledge structures derived from GTI used for designing, deploying, operating, and managing a distributed video streaming application with autopoietic self-regulation that maintains structural stability and communication among distributed components with shared knowledge while maintaining expected behaviors dictated by functional requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is a critical analysis of the logocentric representation of brain as a conceptual basis for artificial neural networks (ANNs). Neuro-logocentrism turns possible mostly because of some similarities of brain activity to logical reasoning. They are discrete mode of action, semblance of realization of logical connectives and inferences, presence of two “values” (“all-or-none” principle). It is demonstrated that they are only loose analogies. The idea that neurons are net nodes that realize logical and computational operations as quite simple automata is based on the concept of connectionism that appears a new special type of hylemorphism. On the contrary, brain activity demonstrates the primacy of the whole and its irreducibility to the aggregative sum of elements and parts. It appears continual totality, where everything is reciprocally interconnected, so that it is impossible to establish any unified formalism for it. Brain essentially is a part of the living, not “bio-logic” but fully biological reality, which has an emergent mode of existence with its unique properties. Such processes as neuroplasticity and synaptic pruning are responsible for adaptive and teleonomic re‑shaping of the brain. Usual conventional logic is suitable for computing machines and their nets, but it is incapable of reproducing such autopoietic phenomena. As a result, there is a fatal ontological gap between natural networks of neurons and ANNs. The second ones are not able to implement complex cognitive functions as they are product of the logocentric hypertrophy of algorithms which is fully devoid of flexibility of the living brain.

Despite the encyclopedic knowledge accumulated in contemporary biology, it is still frustratingly elusive to find an uncontroversial answer to the (apparently) simple question, “What are living beings?” Since the traditional approach to answering this question has been by means of definitions, it has been pointed out that an alternative might be to change the strategy and, following the example of other sciences, try to find not a definition but a theoretical identity for living beings. However, according to some critics, such a move is neither possible nor advisable since current biology, limited to only earthly samples of life, does not have enough empirical basis and theoretical development to formulate a theoretical identity for living beings. In this paper, contrary to this diagnosis, I make room for and propose a theoretical identity statement for living beings. First, I argue that the limitations to proposing such an identity are not as severe as it is assumed. Second, I suggest answering the question, “What are living beings?” with the theoretical identity statement, ‘Living beings are exoautopoietic bodies.’ I explain this proposal’s theoretical grounds and defend it against potential objections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use the recent appearance of LLMs and GPT-equipped robotics to raise questions about the nature of semantic meaning and how this relates to issues concerning artificially-conscious machines. To do so, we explore how a phenomenology constructed out of the association of qualia (defined as somatically-experienced sense data) and situated within a 4e enactivist program gives rise to intentional behavior. We argue that a robot without such a phenomenology is semantically empty and, thus, cannot be conscious in any way resembling human consciousness. Finally, we use this platform to address and supplement widely-discussed concerns regarding the dangers of attempting to produce artificially-conscious machines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue that the Jonasian turn undergone by the Varelian autopoietic theory, which was intended to include a teleological complement to autopoiesis, can be replaced by the phenomenology of biology in the German philosopher Helmuth Plessner, which, unlike the Jonasian one, does not include anthropocentric existential assumptions in the consideration of living beings. The argument unfolds in four steps: a) first, we will develop the fundamental elements of the classical version of the autopoietic theory, elaborated by Maturana and Varela in the ‘70s, which, among other things, is decidedly anti-teleological; b) then, we will show that years later, Varela turns towards teleology in the so-called Jonasian turn, including within the autopoietic theory elements of existential phenomenology; c) subsequently, we will develop some of the most relevant arguments of Plessnerian biological phenomenology, especially those arguments in relation to the concept of positionality and which serve for this complementarity between the autopoietic and Plessnerian positions; d) finally, we will conclude that the autopoietic theory, due to the accusations it receives for having turned towards an existentialist philosophy, can migrate towards the Plessnerian biological phenomenology, which does not suffer from the anthropocentric problems attributed to the Jonasian phenomenology.

The article analyzes Racine’s place in two French works: the autofiction “Son/ Threads” (“Fils”) (1977) by Serge Doubrovsky (1928–2017) and the novel “Titus did nоt love Berenice” (“Titus n’aimait pas Bérénice”) (2015) by Nathalie Azoulai (b. 1966). To study the role of Racine’s tragedies, we turn to the technique of mise en abyme, widely and variedly used by both authors. Recursion appears at the level of multiple quotations and homonymy (Azoulai’s novel characters are named after Racine’s “Berenice” characters). As a result, the micro-story (Racine) turns into a macro-story, reflecting the life problems of modern characters and helping them to understand themselves. That leads to autopoiesis — the ability to self-reproduce, to “self-construct.” Both characters change due to their deep immersion in reading: “Text- Book” becomes “Text-Life.” The analysis of specific features of Racine’s dramaturgy gives the reason why his tragedies are capable of having such a deep existential impact. Fictional immersion, according to J.-M. Schaeffer has a modeling function, offering a scenario of actions that can be productively used in real life.

Phages are the most prevalent and diverse entities in the biosphere and represent the simplest systems that are capable of self-replication. Many fundamental concepts of transcriptional regulation were revealed through phage studies. The replication of phages within bacteria entails the hijacking of the host transcription machinery. Typically, this is accomplished through proteins and RNAs encoded by the phage genome that bind to the host RNA polymerase and modify its characteristics. Understanding these processes offers valuable insights into the mechanisms of bacterial transcription itself. Historically, X-ray crystallography has been the major tool for elucidating the structural basis of phage transcriptional regulation. In recent years, the application of cryoelectron microscopy has not only allowed the exploration of protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions at near-atomic resolution but also captured transient intermediate states, further expanding our mechanistic understanding of phage transcriptional regulation. In this review, He et al. describe the various strategies phages have adopted to modulate transcription initiation, transcription elongation, and transcription termination from a structural perspective. They also discuss potential applications of these findings and future directions of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diplomacy is often presented as subordinated to politics as if it merely received politically willed 'inputs' to produce politically structured 'outputs'. However, diplomacy often deviates from political instructions. It can even operate almost without any political considerations whatsoever. This observation gives rise to a sense that politics and diplomacy operate as two separate systems that are mutually dependent and yet simultaneously independent from each other. To illuminate this relationship, the present paper draws from Modern Systems Theory (especially Parsons and Luhmann) to argue that politics and diplomacy engage in double interchanges: (1) they stimulate each other through premises for actions like 'foreign policy goals', and (2) they implement each other such that diplomatic happenings can be booked as political successes and vice versa. The discussion section outlines how the autonomy of the two systems varies empirically – such as in the case of politically appointed diplomats – and how extreme cases of autonomous operations (apolitical diplomacy or adiplomatic politics) face negative sanctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a universal definition of religion eludes the field of religious studies, it certainty seems that people are becoming differently religious rather than a-religious, especially since the latter half of the twentieth century. To explain the enduring relevance of religion in human experience, this article expands on recent evolutionary and sociological research in the systems theory of religion and develops a philosophical approach to understanding religion as a complex adaptive system. Frameworks of meaning and beliefs communicated by religious systems emerge and adapt in relation to interpretive selection pressures communicated by individuals-in-community relative to entropy's role in one's contingent experience as a "teleodynamic self" in the arrow of time. Religious systems serve an entropy-reducing function in the minds of individuals, philosophically speaking, because their sign and symbol systems communicate an "anentropic" dimension to meaning that prevents uncertainty ad infinitum (e.g., maximum Shannon entropy) concerning matters of existential concern for phenomenological systems, i.e., persons. Religious systems will continue to evolve, and new religious movements will spontaneously emerge, as individuals find new ways to communicate their intuition of this anentropic dimension of meaning in relation to their experience of contingency in the arrow of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is emerging as a promising modality for cancer treatment. However, improving the tumor bioavailability and anti-hypoxia capability of sonosensitizers faces a big challenge. In this work, we present a tumor microenvironment (TME)-mediated nanomorphology transformation and oxygen (O 2) self-production strategy to enhance the sonodynamic therapeutic efficacy of tumors. A smart probe Ce6-Leu@Mn2+ that consists of a glutathione (GSH) and leucine amino peptidase (LAP) dual-responsive unit, a 2-cyanobenzothiazole (CBT) group, and a Mn2+-chelated Ce6 as sonosensitizer for tumor SDT was synthesized, and its SDT potential for liver tumor HepG2 in living mice was systematically studied. It was found that the probes could self-assemble into large nanoparticles in physiological condition and spontaneously transformed into small particles under the dual stimulation of GSH and LAP in TME resulting in enhanced tumor accumulation and deep penetration. More notably, Ce6-Leu@Mn2+ could convert endogenous hydrogen peroxide to O 2 , thereby alleviating the hypoxia and achieving effective SDT against hypoxic tumors under the excitation of ultrasound. We thus believe this smart TME-responsive probe may provide a noninvasive and efficient means for malignant tumor treatment. Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is emerging as a promising therapeutic modality for cancer treatment. However, how to improve the tumor bioavailability and anti-hypoxia capability of sonosensitizers remains a huge challenge. Herein, we rationally developed a theranostic probe Ce6-Leu@Mn2+ that can transform into small-size nanoparticles from initial large particles under the dual stimulation of LAP and GSH in tumor microenvironment (TME) resulting in enhanced tumor accumulation, deep tissue penetration as well as remarkable O 2 self-production for enhanced sonodynamic therapy of human liver HepG2 tumor in living mice. This smart TME-responsive probe may provide a noninvasive and efficient means for hypoxic tumor treatment. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A vital step to successfully orienting Deleuze with biosemiotics (and theories of biological complexity overall) is to discover a coherent scientific throughline in his work that also accounts for the aesthetic/creative dimension of his philosophy. This requires the heterodox move (from a Deleuzean point of view) of giving priority to the organism. I argue that Deleuze's treatment of the organism does more than signal a superficial relation to biological complexity theory that, as a result of his nuanced take on the matter, undermines the value of the organic body to his system. Instead, we can recognize a working theory of autopoiesis in the early Deleuze that scaffolds as well as substantiates his later ethological and biosemiotic observations and reveals a definite, albeit minimal, notion of subjectivity in his work. Most importantly, reorienting his logic of sense as a logic of sense-making, or the context-dependent signification between system and environment (Thompson, 2007), allows us to begin the work of mining a scientific throughline in Deleuze's work akin to biological complexity theory that is of value to both Deleuze studies and biosemiotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is genuine self‐creation – understood as self‐directed value‐acquisition – possible? Many philosophers think not. I disagree. I explain why a recent attempt to solve the problem fails and use it to motivate an alternative proposal: indirect evaluative voluntarism. Indirect evaluative voluntarism is not only well‐suited to explaining how self‐creation is possible; it also unifies two important aspects of our doxastic lives, viz. responsibility for the acquisition of both evaluative and non‐evaluative beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way organismic agents come to know the world, and the way algorithms solve problems, are fundamentally different. The most sensible course of action for an organism does not simply follow from logical rules of inference. Before it can even use such rules, the organism must tackle the problem of relevance. It must turn ill-defined problems into well-defined ones, turn semantics into syntax. This ability to realize relevance is present in all organisms, from bacteria to humans. It lies at the root of organismic agency, cognition, and consciousness, arising from the particular autopoietic, anticipatory, and adaptive organization of living beings. In this article, we show that the process of relevance realization is beyond formalization. It cannot be captured completely by algorithmic approaches. This implies that organismic agency (and hence cognition as well as consciousness) are at heart not computational in nature. Instead, we show how the process of relevance is realized by an adaptive and emergent triadic dialectic (a trialectic), which manifests as a metabolic and ecological-evolutionary co-constructive dynamic. This results in a meliorative process that enables an agent to continuously keep a grip on its arena, its reality. To be alive means to make sense of one's world. This kind of embodied ecological rationality is a fundamental aspect of life, and a key characteristic that sets it apart from non-living matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their article, Totaro and Ninno attempt to solve the problem of the continuum, using Maturana and Varela's theory of autopoiesis and biology of cognition to draw parallels with abstract mathematical number and set theories. All of these are held to involve recursive, self-production, self-referential processes and operations such that they can be regarded as isomorphic to one another. However, the cited mathematical theories they cite involve unobservable platonic-realist entities that bear little or no relation to concrete, limited, embodied observers, biological organisms, or cognitive-psychological processes in minds and brains. Fundamental problems in Maturana's theory of observers and of consciousness are discussed. The proposed approach conflates processes of recursion, self-production, self-reference, and observation, thereby eliminating critical distinctions between embodied, observable processes and platonic mathematical ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a great need to understand how we might leverage research-practice partnerships (RPPs) to change K–12 school practices, organizations, and policies that continue to reflect structural racism in schooling. In this paper, we present case vignettes of RPPs that aim to create educational improvement efforts but focus on building from the racialized understandings of student and educator experiences. The case vignettes explore the tensions and obstacles that RPPs might face in this context and how partnerships might operationalize processes to create conditions for positive change when putting racial experiences at the center of their work. We illustrate how the creation of RPPs and the moves we made helped us understand the connection between race and the personal, interpersonal, and systemic dynamics of partnership work. These cases contribute a deeper conceptual understanding that may be transferable to other RPP contexts and inform the work of other RPPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this response to Hartman and Clough, this issue, I delve into an expanded view of autopoiesis through an unstable form of text – poetic writing – as I further play with indeterminacies. I ponder about a Hartmanian-Cloughian socially engaged psychoanalysis and its affordances to be noisy while harnessing the indeterminacy of infinite (yet always contingent) translations. With these, I further explore their proposal to shatter a dominant information infrastructure along with boundaries of the social and the psychic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Nauki o Wychowaniu. Studia Interdyscyplinarne is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Artnodes is the property of Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article by Jaime F. Cárdenas-García challenges optimistic projections about artificial general intelligence (AGI) and introduces the concept of "info-autopoiesis" as a framework to understand the limits of AI and AGI. The framework draws from biological systems and emphasizes the self-referential and recursive nature of information processing. The article critiques current AI methodologies and calls for a more cautious and ethically aware approach to AI development. It suggests that a paradigm shift towards a bio-inspired approach could lead to more robust AI systems. The article also highlights the need for transparency, safety, and governance in AI research and applications. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of BMS: Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique (Sage Publications Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this study is to better understand the processes and procedures adopted by micro-influencers to create 'instagrammable' content. It is based on 17 in-depth interviews with foodie micro-influencers based in London and Barcelona. Interview data was complemented with participant observation in restaurants or cafes. This paper makes three original contributions. Firstly, the study expands the understanding of the concept of 'instagrammability' by approaching it from the perspective of influencers creating content to satisfy and/or grow an audience. Secondly, it illustrates how two dominant factors drive influencers' content creation process: the self/audience focus content branding orientation. The 'audience-focus' content development process varied drastically, with some influencers being very conscious of responding to their audiences' needs whereas others maintained first and foremost a very strong 'self-focus'. However, even for the influencers who were the most responsive to their audiences' perceived wishes, a sense of 'self-focus' was maintained as an anchor point in all developed content, often linked to a passion for a certain type of food. Thirdly, this paper maps and describes the behind-the-scenes content creation process adopted by micro-influencers, including four stages (1) Content Planning, (2) Media Gathering, (3) Editing, and (4) Publishing, which was followed by an engagement phase. This study offers a timely contribution to better comprehend the content creation cycle adopted by micro-influencers by using foodie influencers as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since Varela and Maturana proposed the concept of autopoiesis as the minimal requirement for life, there has been a focus on cellular systems that erect topological boundaries to separate themselves from their surrounding environment. Here, we reconsider whether the existence of such a spatial boundary is strictly necessary for self-producing entities. This work presents a novel computational model of a minimal autopoietic system inspired by dendrites and molecular dynamic simulations in three-dimensional space. A series of simulation experiments where the metabolic pathways of a particular autocatalytic set are successively inhibited until autocatalytic entities that could be considered autopoietic are produced. These entities maintain their distinctness in an environment containing multiple identical instances of the entities without the existence of a topological boundary. This gives rise to the concept of a metabolic boundary which manifests as emergent self-selection criteria for the processes of self-production without any need for unique identifiers. However, the adoption of such a boundary comes at a cost, as these autopoietic entities are less suited to their simulated environment than their autocatalytic counterparts. Finally, this work showcases a generalized metabolism-centered approach to the study of autopoiesis that can be applied to both physical and abstract systems alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key norm of good science is research integrity, which includes the freedom to inquire as an independent, self-organising system, and the responsibility to identify, frame, and engage in the problems of society, in a scientific manner. This paper investigates the challenges to scientific integrity experienced by university research centres. Research centres are organised around specific problematic fields in society and are expected to have specific societal impacts. Therefore, they are born with the paradox of being restricted in terms of scientific freedom yet required to meet science standards. As an example, we analyse the Danish Centre for Rural Research (CLF) which, like many other institutions of science and research centres, has become increasingly dependent on various external funding over the past decades. In social systems theoretical terms, research centres are hybrid organisations that operate simultaneously in the function systems of science, politics, and economy. The question is whether it is possible for research centres to uphold the requisite research integrity to provide society with truthful and critical knowledge – i.e. to uphold the necessary autopoiesis of the science function system, operating in the medium of truth – and at the same time be able to navigate in the structures of power that the centre is faced with, in terms of funding, outside control, and expectations of expectations. The medieval court jester, who was able to speak unwelcome truths to the all-mighty king without getting his head cut off, was a solution to this kind of paradox. The question is how we can handle this paradox in contemporary sciences, increasingly depending on external funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In David Cronenberg's Crimes of the Future (2022), a series of mutations persistently germinate within the bodies of a group of humans known as neo-organ generators, manifesting in the form of seemingly superfluous organs. While mutation in Cronenberg's oeuvre is often associated with a viral tendency within the body, leading to grotesque organismic transformations, this article posits that the director's signature portrayal of organic excess in Crimes of the Future bears resemblance to the behavioral patterns of vegetal beings, whose ontology may offer a creative leeway out of the virus-organism dialectic. Although the plant, as a figure, is not the focal point of the film, I argue that the neo-organs' resilience to destruction and disruption of systematic control and manipulation by the governing bodies of the film share an essence with the plant and its will for disorganization. I refer to this rebellious force as "disorganic entelechy," and trace it within the burgeoning new flesh in the film to investigate whether the becoming-plant bodies of the film can combat the deadly modes of the exploitative humanistic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Senecavirus A (SVA) is a newly emerging picornavirus associated with swine vesicular lesions and neonatal mortality, threatening the global pig industry. Despite sustained efforts, the molecular mechanisms of SVA pathogenesis have not yet been fully elucidated. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that SVA infection can induce complete mitophagy in host cells, which depends on SVA replication. Mitophagy has been subsequently proven to promote SVA replication in host cells. Genome-wide screening of SVA proteins involved in inducing mitophagy showed that although VP2, VP3, 2C, and 3A proteins can independently induce mitophagy, only the 2C protein mediates mitophagy through direct interaction with TUFM (Tu translation elongation factor, mitochondrial). The glutamic acids at positions 196 and 211 of TUFM were shown to be two key sites for its interaction with 2C protein. Moreover, TUFM was discovered to interact directly with BECN1 and indirectly with the ATG12–ATG5 conjugate. Further experiments revealed that TUFM needs to undergo ubiquitination modification before being recognized by the macroautophagy/autophagy receptor protein SQSTM1/p62, and E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF185 catalyzes K27-linked polyubiquitination of TUFM through the interaction between RNF185's transmembrane domain 1 and TUFM to initiate SVA-induced mitophagy. The ubiquitinated TUFM is recognized and bound by SQSTM1, which in turn interacts with MAP1LC3/LC3, thereby linking the 2C-anchored mitochondria to the phagophore for sequestration into mitophagosomes, which ultimately fuse with lysosomes to achieve complete mitophagy. Overall, our results elucidated the molecular mechanism by which SVA induces mitophagy to promote self-replication and provide new insights into SVA pathogenesis.Abbreviations: aa: amino acid; Baf A1: bafilomycin A1; BHK-21: baby hamster kidney-21; CCCP: carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone; co-IP: co-immunoprecipitation; CQ: chloroquine; DAPI: 4',6-diamidino-2'-phenylindole; DMSO: dimethyl sulfoxide; EGFP: enhanced green fluorescent protein; ER: endoplasmic reticulum; GAPDH: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; GFP: green fluorescent protein; GST: glutathione S-transferase; HA: hemagglutinin; hpi: hours post-infection; hpt: hours post-transfection; IPTG: isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside; mAb: monoclonal antibody; MAP1LC3/LC3: microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3; MAVS: mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein; Mdivi-1: mitochondrial division inhibitor-1; MOI: multiplicity of infection; mRFP: monomeric red fluorescent protein; MS: mass spectrometry; ORF: open reading frame; PBS: phosphate-buffered saline; SD: standard deviation; SQSTM1/p62: sequestosome 1; ST: swine testis; SVA: Senecavirus A; TCID50: 50% tissue culture infectious dose; TIMM23: translocase of inner mitochondrial membrane 23; TM: transmembrane; TOMM20: translocase of outer mitochondrial membrane 20; TUFM: Tu translation elongation factor, mitochondrial; Ub: ubiquitin; UV: ultraviolet; VDAC1: voltage dependent anion channel 1; WT: wild-type; μg: microgram; μm: micrometer; μM: micromole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Union promoted the concept of collective self-consumption and the so-called energy communities, to involve citizens in energy management and to improve energy efficiency. In accordance, this work incorporates energy communities including public residential buildings in a city of the north of Spain to identify the possibilities of energy communities based on Photovoltaic energy systems, and to analyze their feasibility for self-production. In addition, the possibility of including a rooftop of a factory is studied to supply the complete electric demand. An economic analysis gives a 2 years payback, and an environmental analysis shows that this installation would save almost 1,600 tons/y of CO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Has the renewal of interest in the ostensible agency of living beings signaled an advance from a merely heuristic Kantian sense of purposiveness to an unequivocally, empirically grounded research program or are there as yet hidden tensions or contradictions in, for example, the organizational autonomy approach to natural agency? Can normativity be found to be immanent in nature but only beginning with the living cell or must a thoroughgoing naturalism find the seeds of normativity immanent throughout abiotic as well as biotic nature? Beginning with a brief exposition of Kant´s influential treatment and recommendation for how to methodologically combine what he took to be the inevitable epistemological limit to explaining the origins of ostensible biotic purposefulness with the legitimate intentions of scientific research and explanation, this essay will critically engage with three recent essays that attempt to grapple with the preceding questions. Having putatively raised questions about the consistency and adequacy of each of the individual positions, the essay will attempt to move synthetically, drawing upon aspects of all three contributions, in the direction of a "cooperativity theoretic" approach to incipient natural normativity and agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La teoría de las máquinas artificiales iluminará un marco epistémico para futuros eventos contingentes, como el encuentro con otros tipos de vida consciente en el universo, la hipotética emergencia de una autoconciencia artificial o singularidad tecnológica. Se trata de un esfuerzo epistémico que modificará los marcos epistemológicos éticos humanos y las relaciones sujeto-objeto. Esta teoría explica la autoconciencia como intercambio autónomo de señales comunicadas, física y simbólicamente, mediante dominios fenomenales compartidos por máquinas autopoiéticas de la misma especie dentro del conjunto global de la biósfera, donde el total de las máquinas autopoiéticas evoluciona a través de relaciones co-emergentes. Los rasgos atribuidos a las máquinas artificiales dependen de la disponibilidad representacional de la autoconciencia humana como único caso autorreferencial, en una máquina autopoiética, que implica más libertad de interacciones desarrolladas en un complejo sistema de procesos autorreferenciales. El desarrollo causal autónomo de la singularidad tecnológica crearía hipotéticamente sus propios paradigmas más allá de valores o expectativas humanas, donde la lógica mimética conductual sería sólo una huella pasada en sus transformaciones que ya no se aplica al sustento de su identidad: una autonomía epistémica. Las actualizaciones autónomas de la singularidad tecnológica deberían seguir el Principio de Continuidad que determina que toda modificación en los sistemas complejos ocurre por grados de cambio: un estado en el futuro será coherente con su proceso de desarrollo, enmarcado necesariamente por su estado y trayectoria inicial.

In the target article “How molecules became signs” I offer a molecular “thought experiment” that provides a paradigm for resolving the major incompatibilities between biosemiotic and natural science accounts of living processes. To resolve these apparent incompatibilities I outline a plausible empirically testable model system that exemplifies the emergence of chemical processes exhibiting semiotic causal properties from basic nonliving chemical processes. This model system is described as an autogenic virus because of its virus-like form, but its nonparasitic self-repair and reproductive dynamics. The 16 commentaries responding to this proposal recognize its material plausibility but are divided on its value in resolving this basic biosemiotic challenge. In response, I have addressed some of the most serious criticisms raised and have attempted to diagnose the major sources of incompatible assumptions that distinguish the autogenic paradigm from other major paradigms. In particular, I focus on four main issues: the significance of the shift from a cellular to a viral perspective, the relevance of intrinsic versus extrinsic initiation and channeling of interpretive work, the insufficiency of molecular replication as a basis for grounding biological semiosis, and a (universal?) three step scaffolding logic that enables referential displacement of sign vehicle properties without loss of referential continuity (as exemplified by DNA-protein relations). Although I can’t conclude that this is the only way that biosemiotic properties can emerge from physical-chemical relations that otherwise lack these properties, I contend that this approach offers a biologically plausible demonstration that it is possible.

Introduction. Revealing the content of the capital forms multiplication process is significant for modern economic science in theoretical and applied aspects. The political and economic peculiarities of the study are to reveal the essence of capital as a benefit that generates income in various forms. Theoretical analysis. The authors’ point of view is an alternative to the generally accepted point of view on capital as a self-increasing value, as a certain social attitude based on the exploitation of wage labor, and the allocation of forms corresponding to the stages of its circulation as priority functional forms of capital. The authors introduce a new category into scientific circulation – capital forms multiplication. According to the authors’ interpretation, it is an objective process of constant generation of various new forms of manifestation and movement of capital. Empirical analysis. The authors’ approach allows us to single out such a property of capital as autopoiesis, understood as self-building, self-reproduction, self-regulation. The authors’ capital forms classification is presented, where, along with traditional forms of capital (cash, trade, etc.), new types of capital are highlighted and valorized – intellectual, knowledge, information, network, symbolic (image, brand). In recent years, the autopoiesis of capital has manifested itself in the multiplication of such forms as emotional and aesthetic capital. Results. The capital multiplication process is revealed on the basis of its many forms’ analysis, which tend to grow.