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This study presents an application of the self-organizing migrating algorithm (SOMA) to train artificial neural networks for skin segmentation tasks. We compare the performance of SOMA with popular gradient-based optimization methods such as ADAM and SGDM, as well as with another evolutionary algorithm, differential evolution (DE). Experiments are conducted on the skin dataset, which consists of 245,057 samples with skin and non-skin labels. The results show that the neural network trained by SOMA achieves the highest accuracy (93.18%), outperforming ADAM (84.87%), SGDM (84.79%), and DE (91.32%). The visual evaluation also reveals the SOMA-trained neural network’s accurate and reliable segmentation capabilities in most cases. These findings highlight the potential of incorporating evolutionary optimization algorithms like SOMA into the training process of artificial neural networks, significantly improving performance in image segmentation tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study presents an application of the self-organizing migrating algorithm (SOMA) to train artificial neural networks for skin segmentation tasks. We compare the performance of SOMA with popular gradient-based optimization methods such as ADAM and SGDM, as well as with another evolutionary algorithm, differential evolution (DE). Experiments are conducted on the skin dataset, which consists of 245,057 samples with skin and non-skin labels. The results show that the neural network trained by SOMA achieves the highest accuracy (93.18%), outperforming ADAM (84.87%), SGDM (84.79%), and DE (91.32%). The visual evaluation also reveals the SOMA-trained neural network’s accurate and reliable segmentation capabilities in most cases. These findings highlight the potential of incorporating evolutionary optimization algorithms like SOMA into the training process of artificial neural networks, significantly improving performance in image segmentation tasks.

An outline of the nature of the ritual drink soma (Sanskrit) or haoma (Avestan) as described in ancient Indo-Iranian poetic traditions: how it was obtained, prepared, and consumed; what effects were reported. Several proposed identifications of the plant source are briefly discussed. The identification that is probably correct (Ephedra species) is placed in its context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germ cells (reproductive cells and their progenitors) give rise to the next generation in sexually reproducing organisms. The loss or removal of germ cells often leads to sterility in established research organisms such as the fruit fly, nematodes, frog, and mouse. The failure to regenerate germ cells in these organisms reinforced the dogma of germline–soma barrier in which germ cells are set‐aside during embryogenesis and cannot be replaced by somatic cells. However, in stark contrast, many animals including segmented worms (annelids), hydrozoans, planaria, sea stars, sea urchins, and tunicates can regenerate germ cells. Here I review germ cell and gonad regeneration in annelids, a rich history of research that dates back to the early 20th century in this highly regenerative group. Examples include annelids from across the annelid phylogeny, across developmental stages, and reproductive strategies. Adult annelids regenerate germ cells as a part of regeneration, grafting, and asexual reproduction. Annelids can also recover germ cells after ablation of germ cell progenitors in the embryos. I present a framework to investigate cellular sources of germ cell regeneration in annelids, and discuss the literature that supports different possibilities within this framework, where germ–soma separation may or may not be preserved. With contemporary genetic‐lineage tracing and bioinformatics tools, and several genetically enabled annelid models, we are at the brink of answering the big questions that puzzled many for over more than a century. Research Highlights: Germ cells (sperm and egg) give rise to the next generation via sexual reproduction.Loss of germ cells and gonads leads to sterility in many organisms, but some organisms regenerate germ cells and gonads.Annelids (segmented worms) are highly regenerative, and regenerate germ cells and gonads in different contexts.An extensive review of more than a century of annelid literature on germ cell and gonad regeneration is presented.A framework to investigate the cellular origins of germ cell and gonad regeneration is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For aging to evolve, selection against mortality must decrease with age. This prevailing view in the evolutionary theory of senescence posits that mutations with deleterious effects happening late in life—when purging selection is weak—may become fixed via genetic drift in the germline, and produce a senescent phenotype. Theory, however, has focused primarily on growing populations and the fate of single deleterious mutations. In a mathematical model, we demonstrate that relaxing both of these simplifying assumptions leads to unrealistic outcomes. In density-regulated populations, previously fixed deleterious mutations should promote the fixation of other deleterious mutations that lead to senescence at ever younger ages, until death necessarily occurs at sexual maturity. This sequential fixation of deleterious mutations is not promoted by a decrease in population size, but is due to a change in the strength of selection. In an individual-based model, we also show that such evolutionary dynamics should lead to the extinction of most populations. Our models therefore make rather unrealistic predictions, underlining the need for a reappraisal of current theories. In this respect, we have further assumed in our models that the deleterious effects of mutations can only occur at certain ages, marked, for instance, by somatic or physiological changes. Under this condition, we show that the catastrophic accumulation of deleterious mutations in the germline can stop. This new finding emphasizes the importance of investigating somatic factors, as well as other mechanisms underlying the deleterious effects of mutations, to understand senescence evolution. More generally, our model therefore establishes that patterns of senescence in nature depend not only on the decrease in selection strength with age but also on any mechanism that stops the catastrophic accumulation of mutations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web service-based applications are applications that use Restful to exchange data over the network and interact directly with other applications. One of the advantages of web service-based applications is that many applications can access services on different platforms. This is very beneficial in the business sector if a company or organization builds applications on a large scale, and application development is carried out in stages. With the characteristics of web service-based applications, namely a neutral platform, it is very easy to integrate systems when the development process is carried out in stages. Therefore, this research will design a web service-based application based on business processes, especially Kredit Usaha Rakyat (KUR) between PT ABC Credit Guarantee Company and PT Bank XYZ. The methods used are Thomas Erl's SOA methods and SOMA. The results obtained are a method that will be a guide for producing web service-based KUR Online Guarantee applications with PT Bank XYZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Olfactory receptor cells are primary sensory neurons that catch odor molecules in the olfactory system, and vomeronasal receptor cells catch pheromones in the vomeronasal system. When odor or pheromone molecules bind to receptor proteins expressed on the membrane of the olfactory cilia or vomeronasal microvilli, receptor potentials are generated in their receptor cells. This initial excitation is transmitted to the soma via dendrites, and action potentials are generated in the soma and/or axon and transmitted to the central nervous system. Thus, olfactory and vomeronasal receptor cells play an important role in converting chemical signals into electrical signals. In this review, the electrophysiological characteristics of ion channels in the somatic membrane of olfactory receptor cells and vomeronasal receptor cells in various species are described and the differences between the action potential dynamics of olfactory receptor cells and vomeronasal receptor cells are compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a comprehensive analysis of enhancing software effort estimation accuracy using a Self-Organizing Migration Algorithm (SOMA)-optimized Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO). By conducting a comparative study of traditional COCOMO models and SOMA-optimized variants across preprocessed datasets (NASA93, NASA63, NASA18, Kemerer, Miyazaki94, and Turkish), our research focuses on crucial evaluation metrics, including Mean Magnitude of Relative Error (MMRE), Prediction at 0.25 (PRED(0.25)), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). The analysis encompasses various configurations of COCOMO models—basic, intermediate, and post-architecture COCOMO II, supplemented with additional statistical testing and residual analysis for in-depth insights. The results demonstrate that the SOMA-optimized COCOMO models generally surpass traditional models in predictive accuracy, especially notable in metrics such as MMRE where an improvement of up to 12%, PRED(0.25) with an enhancement of 15%, MAE reduction by 18%, and a decrease in RMSE by 20% were observed. However, performance variances were identified in specific scenarios, highlighting areas for further refinement, particularly in large-scale estimations where residual plots suggested the potential for underestimation or overestimation. The study concludes that integrating the SOMA optimization algorithm into COCOMO models significantly enhances the accuracy of software effort estimations, providing valuable insights for future research to optimise estimations for larger projects and advance prediction models. This advancement addresses the technical challenge of parameter accuracy and offers a methodological improvement in model selection and application, underscoring the potential of metaheuristic optimization in software effort estimation.

Cette réflexion se donne pour objectif, afin de creuser la question de la place de la création dans le processus psychique courant, d'examiner l'articulation de la métapsychologie psychanalytique avec le fond somatique des expériences vécues. Elle repose sur l'hypothèse selon laquelle le travail d'intégration de l'expérience subjective enregistrée au plan somatique suppose la création d'une forme compatible avec le fonctionnement psychique. Elle repose donc sur une méthodologie spécifique des recherches sur les modélisations métapsychologiques dont l'axe majeur consiste à essayer de dégager pas seulement tel ou tel énoncé de celles-ci, mais surtout le processus de théorisation que le fil des textes (de Freud) permet de repérer. En ce sens elle se présente comme une « clinique de la théorie ». L'analyse du processus de théorisation, s'il s'attache bien sûr aux propositions dont Freud égrène ses textes, est surtout centrée sur une analyse de leur enchaînement et, partant d'une certaine forme d'associativité. Cette méthode de lecture, fondée donc sur une prise en compte de l'associativité des textes, suppose l'hypothèse d'un « transfert » de Freud sur la « sorcière métapsychologie », transfert qui témoigne de ce que Freud continue le travail auto-analytique amorcé dans l'interprétation des rêves. Pour ce travail, elle trouve des appuis épistémologiques aussi bien dans des travaux et recherches issues de la psychologie du développement que de certains énoncés issus des neurosciences. Pour articuler davantage la métapsychologie psychanalytique dans le fond somatique de l'expérience subjective, il est nécessaire de déconstruire l'hypothèse d'un système perception-conscience – hypothèse née d'une illusion du Moi en lien avec la rapidité des processus cérébraux – pour souligner que la perception est un processus somatique hautement organisé par la complexité des opérations cérébrales qui en déterminent la forme. Le fait de rendre à la perception sa place dans le soma oblige aussi à faire évoluer la conception de la pulsion dont la poussée ne saurait être séparée de l'impact de l'expérience subjective sur le vécu du sujet. Enfin, cette inflexion paradigmatique permet de creuser le rôle et la fonction des enveloppes-noyaux du Moi pour en souligner la dialectique dans le travail de création des formes compatibles avec le fonctionnement psychique. L'enjeu de l'évolution paradigmatique ainsi impliquée est d'ouvrir la voie à une prise en compte nouvelle des processus archaïques très actifs dans toute une série des souffrances narcissiques-identitaires, elle devrait ainsi ouvrir sur un type de travail de construction-reconstruction des premières expériences vécues et de leur impact sur la suite du développement psychique, mais aussi des expériences traumatiques qui présentent de nombreux points communs avec celles-ci. La métapsychologie est vivante et elle évolue à la fois sous la pression de la clinique mais aussi de l'évolution de nos savoirs aussi bien en psychologie du développement précoce (et de la vie fœtale) que de celle des neurosciences. Grâce à cette évolution, il semble de plus en plus nécessaire et heuristique de parfaire son articulation avec le fond biologique du fonctionnement humain. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between psychoanalytic metapsychology and the somatic background of lived experience, in order to explore the question of the place of creation in the current psychic process. It is based on the hypothesis that the work of integrating subjective experience recorded at the somatic level presupposes the creation of a form compatible with psychic functioning. It is therefore based on a specific methodology for research into metapsychological modeling, the main thrust of which consists in trying to identify not just one particular statement, but above all the process of theorization that can be identified throughout Freud's texts. In this sense, it is presented as a "clinical theory." The analysis of the process of theorization, while of course focusing on the propositions that Freud spells out in his texts, is above all centered on an analysis of their sequence, and hence of a certain form of associativity. This method of reading, based on a consideration of the associativity of the texts, assumes the hypothesis of a "transference" from Freud to the "metapsychological witch," a transference that testifies to the fact that Freud is continuing the self-analytical work begun in the Interpretation of Dreams. For our purposes here, this methodology is epistemologically supported by both work and research from developmental psychology and in certain statements from the neurosciences. In order to articulate psychoanalytic metapsychology more closely to the somatic background of subjective experience, it is necessary to deconstruct the hypothesis of a perception-consciousness system – a hypothesis born of an illusion of the ego in relation to the speed of cerebral processes – in order to emphasize that perception is a somatic process that is highly organized by the complexity of the cerebral operations that determine its form. Giving perception back its place in the soma also requires us to change our conception of the drive, the thrust of which cannot be separated from the impact of subjective experience on the subject's life. Finally, this paradigmatic inflection allows us to delve deeper into the role and function of the ego's core-envelopes, highlighting their dialectic role in the creation of forms compatible with psychic functioning. The challenge of the paradigmatic evolution thus implied is to open the way to a new consideration of the archaic processes that are very active in a whole series of narcissistic suffering. It should thus open the way to a type of construction-reconstruction work on early experiences and their impact on the rest of psychic development, but also on traumatic experiences that have many points in common with them. Metapsychology is alive and evolving under the pressure of both clinical and neuroscientific developments, as well as the evolution of our knowledge in early developmental psychology (and in fetal psychology). Thanks to this evolution, it seems increasingly necessary and heuristic to perfect its articulation with the biological basis of human functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Oral feeding practices of young patients on high-flow oxygen (HFO2) have been controversial. Limited literature exists on this topic, but new studies suggest introducing oral feeds. Objective: This study aims to describe the changes in swallowing and feeding of a group of young children on HFO2. Method: Twelve participants (mean age 34.17 months [s.d. = 3.97]) on HFO2 were assessed clinically at the bedside using the Schedule of Oral Motor Assessment. Assessments were conducted twice to determine the change in characteristics: upon approval from the managing doctor when respiratory stability on HFO2 was achieved and for a second time on the last day of receiving HFO2 (mean 2.6 days apart). Patients received standard in-patient care and speech therapy intervention. Results: Most participants displayed typical oral motor function at initial and final assessments for liquid, puree and semi-solid consistencies. Purees and soft solid consistencies were introduced to most participants (n = 11, 91.7%). Solids and chewables were challenging for all participants during both assessments. Half of the participants displayed gagging and a wet vocal quality with thin liquids at the initial assessment only. Conclusion: This small-scale study found that HFO2 should not preclude oral diets, but in this sample, small amounts of oral feeding could be introduced with caution, in an individualised manner, and with a collaborative multidisciplinary approach. Further research is essential. Contribution: Partial oral feeding of specific consistencies was possible during the assessment of young paediatric in-patients on HFO2. Monitoring of individual patient characteristics and risk factors by a specialist feeding team is essential.

Abstract Background Cell type specialization is a hallmark of complex multicellular organisms and is usually established through implementation of cell-type-specific gene expression programs. The multicellular green alga Volvox carteri has just two cell types, germ and soma, that have previously been shown to have very different transcriptome compositions which match their specialized roles. Here we interrogated another potential mechanism for differentiation in V. carteri, cell type specific alternative transcript isoforms (CTSAI). Methods We used pre-existing predictions of alternative transcripts and de novo transcript assembly with HISAT2 and Ballgown software to compile a list of loci with two or more transcript isoforms, identified a small subset that were candidates for CTSAI, and manually curated this subset of genes to remove false positives. We experimentally verified three candidates using semi-quantitative RT-PCR to assess relative isoform abundance in each cell type. Results Of the 1978 loci with two or more predicted transcript isoforms 67 of these also showed cell type isoform expression biases. After curation 15 strong candidates for CTSAI were identified, three of which were experimentally verified, and their predicted gene product functions were evaluated in light of potential cell type specific roles. A comparison of genes with predicted alternative splicing from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a unicellular relative of V. carteri, identified little overlap between ortholog pairs with alternative splicing in both species. Finally, we interrogated cell type expression patterns of 126 V. carteri predicted RNA binding protein (RBP) encoding genes and found 40 that showed either somatic or germ cell expression bias. These RBPs are potential mediators of CTSAI in V. carteri and suggest possible pre-adaptation for cell type specific RNA processing and a potential path for generating CTSAI in the early ancestors of metazoans and plants. Conclusions We predicted numerous instances of alternative transcript isoforms in Volvox, only a small subset of which showed cell type specific isoform expression bias. However, the validated examples of CTSAI supported existing hypotheses about cell type specialization in V. carteri, and also suggested new hypotheses about mechanisms of functional specialization for their gene products. Our data imply that CTSAI operates as a minor but important component of V. carteri cellular differentiation and could be used as a model for how alternative isoforms emerge and co-evolve with cell type specialization.

The aesthetics of body and dress are in a continuous flux. The body, being the locus where fashion challenges the traditional norms, escapes from the narrow boundaries of the conventionally beautiful; the disgusting soma, in the realm of Negative Aesthetics, takes its place. In this paper, I attempt to define what is disgusting fashion and how can contribute to the deliberation of the body from the restricting margins of the aesthetically beautiful. The distorted imagery of the feminine soma is the center of the analysis of the non-beautiful as an aesthetically pleasing phenomenon. Different examples of repulsive clothing are analyzed from a philosophical point of view, in order to understand the relation between the negative emotional responses towards disgusting fashion and its aesthetic value.

Background: Cell type specialization is a hallmark of complex multicellular organisms and is usually established through implementation of cell-type-specific gene expression programs. The multicellular green alga Volvox carteri has just two cell types, germ and soma, that have previously been shown to have very different transcriptome compositions which match their specialized roles. Here we interrogated another potential mechanism for differentiation in V. carteri, cell type specific alternative transcript isoforms (CTSAI). Methods: We used pre-existing predictions of alternative transcripts and de novo transcript assembly with HISAT2 and Ballgown software to compile a list of loci with two or more transcript isoforms, identified a small subset that were candidates for CTSAI, and manually curated this subset of genes to remove false positives. We experimentally verified three candidates using semi-quantitative RT-PCR to assess relative isoform abundance in each cell type. Results: Of the 1978 loci with two or more predicted transcript isoforms 67 of these also showed cell type isoform expression biases. After curation 15 strong candidates for CTSAI were identified, three of which were experimentally verified, and their predicted gene product functions were evaluated in light of potential cell type specific roles. A comparison of genes with predicted alternative splicing from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a unicellular relative of V. carteri, identified little overlap between ortholog pairs with alternative splicing in both species. Finally, we interrogated cell type expression patterns of 126 V. carteri predicted RNA binding protein (RBP) encoding genes and found 40 that showed either somatic or germ cell expression bias. These RBPs are potential mediators of CTSAI in V. carteri and suggest possible pre-adaptation for cell type specific RNA processing and a potential path for generating CTSAI in the early ancestors of metazoans and plants. Conclusions: We predicted numerous instances of alternative transcript isoforms in Volvox, only a small subset of which showed cell type specific isoform expression bias. However, the validated examples of CTSAI supported existing hypotheses about cell type specialization in V. carteri, and also suggested new hypotheses about mechanisms of functional specialization for their gene products. Our data imply that CTSAI operates as a minor but important component of V. carteri cellular differentiation and could be used as a model for how alternative isoforms emerge and co-evolve with cell type specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Weismann barrier has long been regarded as a basic tenet of biology. However, upon close examination of its historical origins and August Weismann's own writings, questions arise as to whether such a status is warranted. As scientific research has advanced, the persistence of the concept of the barrier has left us with the same dichotomies Weismann contended with over 100 years ago: germ or soma, gene or environment, hard or soft inheritance. These dichotomies distract from the more important questions we need to address going forward. In this review, we will examine the theories that have shaped Weismann's thinking, how the concept of the Weismann barrier emerged, and the limitations that it carries. We will contrast the principles underlying the barrier with recent and less recent findings in developmental biology and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance that have profoundly eroded the oppositional view of germline vs. soma. Discarding the barrier allows us to examine the interactive processes and their response to environmental context that generate germ cells in the first place, determine the entirety of what is inherited through them, and set the trajectory for the health status of the progeny they bear.

Non-orthogonal multiple-access (NOMA) is designed to transmit massive amounts of user communications. The incidence matrix manages the relationship between users and resources. This study focused on increasing user supportability and complexity reduction using larger incidence matrices. Our approach to optimizing the incidence matrix to improve system capacity and reduce complexity is based on two critical mathematical concepts: Parallel classes in hypergraph theory and combinatorial designs allow us to explore and extend incidence matrices. Frame theory is used to estimate matrix structures. Then, we investigate applications utilizing our incidence matrix designs–Simple Orthogonal Multi-Arrays (SOMA). The characteristics of SOMA reflect the unique Latin Square pattern, allowing us to produce a highly flexible and fair resource allocation matrix. SOMA designs let us support overload factors over 500%. The theoretical performance analysis equations of our NOMA system were established to support dynamic adaptability and optimization. We implemented and evaluated security methods for eavesdroppers. The prototype of the user hierarchy allows a higher-priority group to have a lower error rate without significantly affecting the system’s performance. Finally, the Monte Carlo simulation indicated that our NOMA systems allow higher degrees of freedom and lower complexity than other NOMA schemes while maintaining graceful error rates with a maximum 33% improvement.

This article puts forward the thesis that the ancient Greek culture of the classical period was not spiritual, thus treating it as “the childhood of mankind, where it developed most beautifully” (K. Marx). The latter statement should be further explained. For this purpose, we defined the meanings of the concept of spirituality stemming from our more profound understanding of the concept of spirit. Our findings reveal that spirituality is the human ability, i.e., a reflection of spiritual culture in an individual overtaken by it. However, spirituality can also have a negative meaning and turn into quasi-spirituality, the essence of which was uncovered as part of our analysis. It was shown that quasi-spirituality (similarly to the lack of spirituality) manifests the disintegration of culture involved in the process during which an individual creates themselves, as well as a form of inferiority of life, its simplification. Such “spirituality” is an abstraction of life and a sublimated spirit that replaced the lack of spirituality, vulgarity that rules “below”, “eternal” and “exalted” spirit. As an airy, stilted, broken, and pretentious, it is a ghost spirit, a surrogate spirit. Viewed from this perspective, the culture of the ancient Greeks was not spiritual. The above conclusion was confirmed by appealing to the concept of soma (body) as denoting the integrity of a personality, a unity of body and spirit (on the mental level).

Bu çalışmada Soma, Çatalağzı ve Tunçbilek termik santrallerinden elde edilen uçucu küllerin, Kunduzlar toprak barajının çekirdek kısmının inşa edildiği ince taneli zeminin kompaksiyon ve dayanım özellikleri üzerindeki etkileri incelenmiştir. Zemine %5, %10, %15, %20, %25 ve %30 oranlarında uçucu kül katkıları eklenerek optimum su muhtevaları belirlenmiştir. Optimum su muhtevalarında hazırlanan numuneler kesme kutusu ve serbest basınç deneylerine tabi tutulmuştur. Çalışmanın sonucunda; her üç termik santralden alınan uçucu küllerin katkı oranları arttıkça, zeminin optimum su muhtevasının arttığı ve maksimum kuru yoğunluğunun ise azaldığı belirlenmiştir. Serbest basınç dayanımları karşılaştırıldığında, Tunçbilek ve Çatalağzı uçucu küllerinin %10 katkı oranında, Soma uçucu külünün ise % 5 katkı oranında en yüksek dayanımlara ulaştığı belirlenmiştir. Kullanılan uçucu küller arasında ise en yüksek dayanım Soma uçucu külünün %5 katkısında oluşmuştur. Kayma dayanımları karşılaştırıldığında ise en yüksek dayanım Tunçbilek ve Çatalağzı uçucu küllerinde %10, Soma uçucu külünde ise %5 katkı oranında meydana gelmiştir.

Fasting increases lifespan in invertebrates, improves biomarkers of health in vertebrates and is increasingly proposed as a promising route to improve human health. Nevertheless, little is known about how fasted animals use resources upon refeeding, and how such decisions affect putative trade-offs between somatic growth and repair, reproduction and gamete quality. Such fasting-induced trade-offs are based on strong theoretical foundations and have been recently discovered in invertebrates, but the data on vertebrates are lacking. Here, we report that fasted female zebrafish, Danio rerio, increase investment in soma upon refeeding, but it comes at a cost of egg quality. Specifically, an increase in fin regrowth was accompanied by a reduction in 24 h post-fertilization offspring survival. Refed males showed a reduction in sperm velocity and impaired 24 h post-fertilization offspring survival. These findings underscore the necessity of considering the impact on reproduction when assessing evolutionary and biomedical implications of lifespan-extending treatments in females and males and call for careful evaluation of the effects of intermittent fasting on fertilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial published in Frontiers in Psychiatry titled "The 'Connectivome Theory': psyche, soma and the systemic involvement of connective tissue in neurodivergence." The editorial explores the concept of the "Connectivome Theory," which suggests that connective tissue plays a significant role in neurodivergence, particularly in autism spectrum disorder. The theory proposes that the connective tissue, which forms the structural configuration of the body, not only provides support but also facilitates the interaction and regulation of different body systems. The editorial discusses several research articles that further investigate the relationship between connective tissue and neurodivergence, including studies on intestinal metabolites, exercise, nutrition, sleep, visual-motor involvement, bladder and bowel dysfunctions, stretch marks, and dental care in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The authors conclude that connective tissue and its alterations have a central role in autism spectrum disorders, and future studies could expand our understanding of the relationship between connective tissue and neurodivergence. [Extracted from the article]

Day-by-day impulse detection seems critical because removing the random-valued impulse noise with high density from the noisy image is a typical task. The specified noise does not regularly obstruct the pixels of the image. The proposed work, which combines self-organizing migration & adaptive dual-threshold techniques, gives optimal output for the noisy image in less time. The proposed methodology has been applied on various noisy images with different window sizes and it has proven better results while reconstructing the original image with high quality from the noisy image. To evaluate the performance of the proposed work MSE and PSNR has considered as evaluation parameters. PSNR value is evaluated by varying the noise from 10 to 70%. As per the comparative analysis, it is proved that proposed method gives better results and able to preserve the object information in the given noisy image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley is well known novel of the modern English literature. It belongs to the dystopian genre of writing, which means that it portrays an undesirable or frightening society. Written between two world wars and influenced by the scientific advances of that era, it prophesied the use of science by totalitarian state to keep the society under control. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the brave new world society and its reflection in our modern society. Using various sources, mainly books, articles and essays from other authors, this study gives an analysis of the society which Huxley portrayed in his novel. It tells about the characters, structure of the society, its development and current affairs. As a conclusion, this paper shows that the society in Brave New World, judged by contemporary standards of human rights, is a totalitarian one and that the humans live in an oppressive regime where their individual rights are suppressed and punished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst the lingering prominence of idealist and rationalist traditions in the philosophy of education, the notion of living, sentient body (or soma) seems to have received scant attention by educational philosophers hitherto. These traditions—whose strong influence can be traced back to such philosophers as Plato, Descartes, Leibniz and Wolff—elevate and privilege the import of reasoning and mind over the body, rendering the latter ancillary and even distorting to the pursuit of knowledge and truth. Drawing on the idea of somaestehtic philosophy initially proposed by Richard Shusterman, this article first discusses this philosophical outlook and then expands it by foregrounding the notion of the libidinal body—that is, the potentiality of the performative dimension of the soma in constructing and reconstructing knowledge. It argues that the soma itself is, in fact, the site of desire for knowledge production and reproduction. To buttress this argument, the article provides evidence from Borneo's Dayaknese communities as one of the instances of the somatic society where the practices of the libidinal body for the community's education are most conspicuous. The article ends with some thoughts on the possible research directions the philosophy of education ought to take to push the field forward in its pursuit for virtue and the good life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elephant testicles do not descend, with implications for sperm production being hot enough to compromise germline DNA replication/repair. Uniquely, elephants also possess 20 copies of a gene encoding for the p53 protein. Did elephants evolve multiplication of the TP53 gene complex to protect their germline rather than to fight cancer? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As connectomic datasets exceed hundreds of terabytes in size, accurate and efficient skeleton generation of the label volumes has evolved into a critical component of the computation pipeline used for analysis, evaluation, visualization, and error correction. We propose a novel topological thinning strategy that uses biological-constraints to produce accurate centerlines from segmented neuronal volumes while still maintaining biologically relevant properties. Current methods are either agnostic to the underlying biology, have non-linear running times as a function of the number of input voxels, or both. First, we eliminate from the input segmentation biologically-infeasible bubbles, pockets of voxels incorrectly labeled within a neuron, to improve segmentation accuracy, allow for more accurate centerlines, and increase processing speed. Next, a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) detects cell bodies from the input segmentation, allowing us to anchor our skeletons to the somata. Lastly, a synapse-aware topological thinning approach produces expressive skeletons for each neuron with a nearly one-to-one correspondence between endpoints and synapses. We simultaneously estimate geometric properties of neurite width and geodesic distance between synapse and cell body, improving accuracy by 47.5% and 62.8% over baseline methods. We separate the skeletonization process into a series of computation steps, leveraging data-parallel strategies to increase throughput significantly. We demonstrate our results on over 1250 neurons and neuron fragments from three different species, processing over one million voxels per second per CPU with linear scalability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Going from natural language directions to fully specified executable plans for household robots involves a challenging variety of reasoning steps. In this paper, a processing pipeline to tackle these steps for natural language directions is proposed and implemented. It uses the ontological Socio-physical Model of Activities (SOMA) as a common interface between its components. The pipeline includes a natural language parser and a module for natural language grounding. Several reasoning steps formulate simulation plans, in which robot actions are guided by data gathered using human computation. As a last step, the pipeline simulates the given natural language direction inside a virtual environment. The major advantage of employing an overarching ontological framework is that its asserted facts can be stored alongside the semantics of directions, contextual knowledge, and annotated activity models in one central knowledge base. This allows for a unified and efficient knowledge retrieval across all pipeline components, providing flexibility and reasoning capabilities as symbolic knowledge is combined with annotated sub-symbolic models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that the renowned Chicano poet Andrés Montoya (1968–1999) is a mystic poet. Lyrically on par with Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Teresa of Avila, Rumi, and Meister Eckhart, Montoya's mystic poetic expression develops and is portrayed via the intelligent, communicative body (the soma); the same entity that simultaneously expresses the weight of social chains in which his poetic speaker and his community are ensconced. I argue that Montoya's poetic subject is a communal soma, biblical with the force of Divine Sophia and the Mayan principle of In Lak'ech. Montoya crystallizes a decolonizing poetic subjectivity of a collective spiritual aspirant inspired by Chicanx liberation theology. I argue that Montoya's collection the ice worker sings and other poems is a spiritual journey of the soma, of a collective Chicano homo sacer evolving his mystic communion with God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay focuses on the social crisis Brown subalternized women have faced in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, since the early 1990s. I study counterhegemonic representations of the Juárez feminicides to bring out of the shadows the tacit, and tangible, social, cultural, spiritual, and even physical repercussions of these murders. Stemming from the "theories of the flesh" put forward by Gloria Anzaldúa (1942–2004), Cherríe Moraga (b. 1952), and other Chicana and Latina writers and scholars, I investigate manifestations of the wound in Lourdes Portillo's highly acclaimed documentary Señorita Extraviada (2001) and Mexican film director Carlos Pérez Osorio's Netflix documentary The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo (2020), along with Marisela Treviño Orta's play Braided Sorrow (2005). Drawing on Stephanie Fetta's theories of the soma and somatic analysis, I examine testimonios and other articulations and renderings of the wound as a means of discussing the internalized and somatic responses to the psychosocial repercussions brought forth by this wave of feminicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The NW Anatolia of Turkey (especially the Biga Peninsula) hosts substantial skarn, porphyry Cu-Mo, and epithermal Pb–Zn ± Ag ± Au mineralizations. Of these, ore-forming processes of the Soma (Manisa) region in the southern part of the Biga Peninsula are distinguished. Two subtypes of mineralization zones were identified in the study area. The first subtype of mineralization is located nearby outward sections of Turkali pluton, resembling a porphyry type of mineralization with higher homogenization temperatures (197.5 to 280.1 ℃) with salinities 2.4 to 15.8 wt.% NaCl equivalents. The relatively high anomalies of Cu (up to 0.36% and Mo up to 634 ppm) with minor gold anomalies found in outward zones of Turkali pluton suggested the pluton likely to host higher-grade porphyry-type mineralization. The mineralogical assemblage of Turkali-related mineralization consists of chalcopyrite and molybdenite with minor sphalerite and also points out a granite-hosted porphyry-hydrothermal system. The second subtype of mineralization which is located around Yayladalı village can be described as a volcanic-hosted polymetallic Pb–Zn ± Au ± Ag hydrothermal-type mineralization. The main ore minerals are galena and sphalerite with supergene minerals including smithsonite and cerussite; therefore, this mineralization can be considered as a volcanic-hosted multiphase hydrothermal polymetallic deposition. The homogenization temperatures of 191.5 to 251.4 ℃ with salinities 5.86 to 18.0 wt. NaCl equivalents also support this conclusion. Both mineralization fields have high alteration index values, as expected. The volcanic-hosted mineralization zone has higher Ishikawa Alteration Index (AI) and chlorite carbonate pyrite index (CCPI) values, probably caused by the higher permeability of acidic volcanic rocks with lots of fractures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews evidence for India's entheomycological traditions--religious practices using fungi to produce spiritual experiences- and proposes needed studies. The proposed fungal identity [Amanita muscaria (L.) Lam.] of the entheogenic Soma and the identity of soma substitutes still lack adequate ethnobotanical studies. Furthermore, the need for entheomycological studies in India is illustrated by the presence of many psychoactive mushrooms and evidence of their possible sacred use in India. Evidence for historical entheomycology is illustrated in: the mushroom stones of Kerala; entheogenic mushroom traditions and mushroom iconography in Buddhism; the mushroom sculptures on the thresholds of the temples of Khajuraho; and results from a pilot interview on cultural history of entheogenic mushrooms in a rural area of Chattarpur near Khajuraho. A review of recent Indian ethnomycology publications provides guidelines for entheomycology research by indicating optimal regional areas, research methods, interview respondents and language groups for research into India's mycophilic cultures and elusive entheomycological traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a discussion of the therapeutic process in the case presented in Paolo Stramba-Badiale's paper Hope and Uncertainty. The Subjective Experience of the Body During the Covid-19 Pandemic. The patient's face was disfigured by the surgical treatment of cancer. This discussion considers psychosomatic perspectives of European and African theoreticians and integrates Kohut's concept of the somatic self with more recent concepts of psychoanalytic Self Psychology. The patient's psychological healing process, mediated through the therapeutic relationship with her analyst, combined with the paradoxical impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and their impact on the eventual integration of her disfigured face—her injured body self—into her whole self, will be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of the plant world of the Thracians as part of the cult practice is relatively less studied. In fact, the whole philosophy of Orphism and Hermeticism is imbued with practical agriculture. Therefore, it should not be viewed in isolation from the sacred rituals dedicated to the gods. The cult of grapes and wine and their connection with the Dionysian holidays is well known. But the secrets of the Bacchic ceremonies lie in the composition of the so-called. "Soma", which is probably a type of hallucinogenic substance. An ecstatic elixir known in Vedic rituals was made from a plant with white aromatic flowers. Soma is the name of the liquid prepared, but also the name of a deity. The Aryans describe this ritual as related to agriculture. In this regard, we can find artifacts in Bulgaria from the Thracian culture, which were not illuminated due to the inability to connect with the cult of the minor deity Hypnos. During the Eleusinian Mysteries, where a ritual with wheat and barley was performed, a drink was used, which contained the so-called "honeydew" or an extract of an intoxicating plant agent. The purpose of Soma rituals was to achieve immortality. The vertical culture of the Thracians, which is dedicated to the connection with the gods and their perfect world, turns every agricultural activity into a special sacred space [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]