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Stable transgenesis is a transformative tool in model organism biology. Although the sea urchin is one of the oldest animal models in cell and developmental biology, studies in this animal have largely relied on transient manipulation of wild animals, without a strategy for stable transgenesis. Here, we build on recent progress to develop a more genetically tractable sea urchin species, Lytechinus pictus, and establish a robust transgene integration method. Three commonly used transposons (Minos, Tol2 and piggyBac) were tested for nonautonomous transposition, using plasmids containing a polyubiquitin promoter upstream of a H2B-mCerulean nuclear marker. Minos was the only transposable element that resulted in significant expression beyond metamorphosis. F0 animals were raised to sexual maturity, and spawned to determine germline integration and transgene inheritance frequency, and to characterize expression patterns of the transgene in F1 progeny. The results demonstrate transgene transmission through the germline, the first example of a germline transgenic sea urchin and, indeed, of any echinoderm. This milestone paves the way for the generation of diverse transgenic resources that will dramatically enhance the utility, reproducibility and efficiency of sea urchin research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a crucial argument in seventeenth-century maritime law: the concept of mare tutum , or 'the secure sea'. According to this idea, the sea was characterized by chaotic piracy and required a strong central governing authority to impose order. Once the sea was secure, the ruler would reap the rewards of commerce and tariff revenues. Mare tutum espoused the idea of sea sovereignty for the goal of economic growth. Crucial to this idea was Thucydides' account of the Cretan King Minos. The jurists Nicolaes Bonaert, Pietro Battista Borghi, and Giovanni Palazzi used the model of Minos' Aegean thalassocracy to argue for Portuguese, Genoese, and Venetian control of the seas. The article illuminates the hitherto unknown importance of Thucydides in maritime law. It also complicates the traditional mare liberum / mare clausum framework by positing a third option which focused on control of the seas as a means to fostering trade and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cricket Gryllus bimaculatus is an emerging model insect of the order Orthoptera that is used in a wide variety of biological research themes. This hemimetabolous species appears highly complementary to Drosophila and other well-established holometabolous models. To improve transgenesis applications in G. bimaculatus, we have designed a transformation marker gene inspired from the widespread Drosophila mini-white+. Using CRISPR/Cas9, we first generated a loss-of-function mutant allele of the Gb-white gene (Gb-w), which exhibits a white eye coloration at all developmental stages. We then demonstrate that transgenic insertions of a piggyBac vector containing a 3xP3-Gb-w+ cassette rescue eye pigmentation. As an application, we used this vector to generate G. bimaculatus lines expressing a centromeric histone H3 variant (CenH3.1) fused to EGFP and validated EGFP-CenH3.1 detection at cricket centromeres. Finally, we demonstrate that Minos-based germline transformation and site-specific plasmid insertion with the ΦC31 integrase system function in G. bimaculatus., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest. The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Genetics Society of America.)

Early Modern pilgrims, travelling by sea from Western and Central Europe to the Holy Land, had to cross a large part of the Mediterranean basin before they reached their destination. Their ships usually made stops at various islands, including the island of Crete, which was under Venetian rule for a wide timespan (1212–1669). Travellers from the Lands of the Bohemian Crown had taken part in the pilgrim-traffic since the Middle Ages, and often left reports for future generations. There are three well-known travelogues written in the Czech language that contain a detailed description of Crete, namely books by Jan Hasištejnský of Lobkowicz (journey in 1493, travelogue in 1505/1509, not printed), Oldřich Prefát of Vlkanov (1546, 1563), and Kryštof Harant of Polžice and Bezdružice (1598, 1608). Their depictions of the island reflect the basic characteristics of their travelogues. Hasištejnský is mainly concerned with contemporary Crete and its not-so-distant past, reporting almost exclusively information gained during his journey. In addition to describing the current state of the island, Prefát highlights its mythological connections, pointing loosely to further reading. Harant’s account is the most complex one. He links his contemporary experience with the corpus of knowledge that was handed down by authorities, both ancient and modern. His citation method may not be perfect, but his list of referenced authors is vast. Cretan memorabilia mentioned by Prefát and Harant include sites associated with the island’s mythological tradition and its remote (“Minoan”) past which received legendary features in later Greek renditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After discussing why Minos and the domain he overlooks seem similarly compounded from rational and unintelligible elements, I argue that the 'ruina' before which the lustful curse in Canto v of Inferno refers to both the 'hellish whirlwind' that torments the sinners and the scree (also called 'ruina') the pilgrim sidles down following his encounter with the Minotaur. Topographical and figural, Dante's 'ruin' is political as well; the terms 'ruina/rapina' he pairs to describe it, the remarkable soundscape of the second circle, and the appearance of Semiramis and Ninus, who gave Nineveh its name, all suggest that Dante drew on the prophecy of that city's destruction in the Book of Nahum. In its acoustic fog of war, Dante found biblical corroboration of the inevitable downfall of authority infected by appetite, which he made the global backdrop for the more local but no less ruinous affair of Paolo and Francesca. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L’étude propose de lire les dialogues apocryphes sans être influencés par le préjugé d’inauthenticité et en les rapportant aux dialogues authentiques seulement une fois que leur logique interne a été décelée. À travers une étude comparée de l’Hipparque et du Minos, on suggère que les dialogues apocryphes peuvent être lus comme les toutes premières interprétations des dialogues de Platon, qui auraient comme caractéristique particulière d’être sous forme dialoguée. Répondant à une vision de la philosophie comme dialectique, le dialogue apocryphe se configurerait alors comme un genre particulier de dialogue socratique, car il possède un sous-texte écrit qu’il « fait parler », qu’il interroge et dont il tire son inspiration. L’Hipparque et le Minos interpréteraient alors les écrits politiques de Platon à l’aune des intérêts politiques de l’Académie après la mort de Platon.

Abstract Mapping radioactive contamination using aerial survey measurements is an area under active investigation today. The radiometric aerial survey technique has been extensively applied following reactor accidents and also would provide a key tool for response to a malicious radiological or nuclear incident. Methods exist to calibrate the aerial survey system for quantification of the concentration of natural radionuclides, which can provide guidance. However, these methods have anticipated a spatial distribution of the source which is large in comparison to the survey altitude. In rapid emergency-response aerial surveys of areas of safety concern, deposits of relatively small spatial extent may be expected. The activity of such spatially restricted hot spots is underestimated using the traditional methods. We present here a spatial deconvolution method which can recover some of the variation smoothed out by the averaging due to survey at altitude. We show that the method can recover the true spatial distribution of concentration of a synthetic source. We then apply the method to real aerial survey data collected following detonation of a radiological dispersal device. The findings and implications of the deconvolution are then discussed by reference to a groundbased truckborne survey over the same contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: In yeast, a sequence of physical and genetic interactions termed the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)–mitochondria organizing network (ERMIONE) controls mitochondria–ER interactions and mitochondrial biogenesis. Several functions that characterize ERMIONE complexes are conserved in mammalian cells, suggesting that a similar tethering complex must exist in metazoans. Recent studies have identified a new family of nuclear‐encoded ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities (AAA+‐ATPase) mitochondrial membrane proteins specific to multicellular eukaryotes, called the ATPase family AAA domain‐containing protein 3 (ATAD3) proteins (ATAD3A and ATAD3B). These proteins are crucial for normal mitochondrial–ER interactions and lie at the heart of processes underlying mitochondrial biogenesis. ATAD3A orthologues have been studied in flies, worms, and mammals, highlighting the widespread importance of this gene during embryonic development and in adulthood. ATAD3A is a downstream effector of target of rapamycin (TOR) signalling in Drosophila and exhibits typical features of proteins from the ERMIONE‐like complex in metazoans. In humans, mutations in the ATAD3A gene represent a new link between altered mitochondrial–ER interaction and recognizable neurological syndromes. The primate‐specific ATAD3B protein is a biomarker of pluripotent embryonic stem cells. Through negative regulation of ATAD3A function, ATAD3B supports mitochondrial stemness properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the start of Plato's Minos an anonymous comrade argues that the variability of law according to time and place undermines the claim that it conveys moral truth. But by the end he has accepted Minos as the greatest of lawgivers because of his education by Zeus. How does he manage to slide so quickly from the moral laxity of conventionalism to the moral absolutism of divine revelation? Guided by this question, the author considers how the two divergent parts of the Minos form one whole, and so what Plato suggests is the common basis to conventionalism and piety. Plato's Minos thus ends up having an unexpectedly close relationship to his Euthyphro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The western corn rootworm (WCR), a major pest of maize, is notorious for rapidly adapting biochemically, behaviourally and developmentally to a variety of control methods. Despite much effort, the genetic basis of WCR adaptation remains a mystery. Since transformation-based applications such as transposon tagging and enhancer trapping have facilitated genetic dissection of model species such as Drosophila melanogaster, we developed a germline-transformation system for WCR in an effort to gain a greater understanding of the basic biology of this economically important insect. Here we report the use of a fluorescent-marked Minos element to create transgenic WCR. We demonstrate that the transgenic strains express both an eye-specific fluorescent marker and piggyBac transposase. We identified insertion-site junction sequences via inverse PCR and assessed insertion copy number using digital droplet PCR (ddPCR). Interestingly, most WCR identified as transgenic via visual screening for DsRed fluorescence proved to carry multiple Minos insertions when tested via ddPCR. A total of eight unique insertion strains were created by outcrossing the initial transgenic strains to nontransgenic WCR mates. Establishing transgenic technologies for this beetle is the first step towards bringing a wide range of transformation-based tools to bear on understanding WCR biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Condoms have been a subject of curiosity throughout history. The idea of safer sex has been explored in ancient and modern history, and has been used to prevent venereal diseases. We conducted a historical and medical review of condoms using primary and secondary sources as well as using the RSM library and the internet. These resources show that the first use of a condom was that of King Minos of Crete. Pasiphae, his wife, employed a goat′s bladder in the vagina so that King Minos would not be able to harm her as his semen was said to contain "scorpions and serpents" that killed his mistresses. To Egyptians, condom-like glans caps were dyed in different colours to distinguish between different classes of people and to protect themselves against bilharzia. The Ancient Romans used the bladders of animals to protect the woman; they were worn not to prevent pregnancy but to prevent contraction of venereal diseases. Charles Goodyear, the inventor, utilized vulcanization, the process of transforming rubber into malleable structures, to produce latex condoms. The greater use of condoms all over the world in the 20 th and 21 st centuries has been related to HIV. This account of the use of condoms demonstrates how a primitive idea turned into an object that is used globally with a forecast estimated at 18 billion condoms to be used in 2015 alone.

Plato's Minos presents a twofold argument. In part it is a facile defense of law directed at a typical Athenian citizen. On another level it is a sophisticated teaching that ponders the question what is law for the would-be philosopher or student of Socrates. These arguments are made in three parts. First, it becomes clear that Socrates' interlocutor has been influenced or corrupted by the teachings of sophists. Second, Socrates attempts to reform the interlocutor's opinion of law by suggesting there is a science of law. Finally, Socrates argues that present day Greek laws are derived from the oldest Greek laws, which were revealed and taught by Zeus himself. With this twofold argument Socrates counters his interlocutor's sophists' influenced opinion of l aw and reveals to the careful reader the complexity of the question: what is law? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his ‘Natural History’ (36.84-93), Pliny the Elder lists four buildings termed ‘labyrinths’. His second labyrinth, which came directly after the Egyptian one, was built by Daedalus in Crete, not far from Knossos, and appears on Knossian coins as the symbol of Knossos. The main aim of this article is to discuss the differing forms of this labyrinth and their origins. The first coins of Knossos appeared around 470 BC and bore a pattern of four meanders to indicate a labyrinth. A square labyrinth pattern followed and this was finally replaced by one of circular form.