Our editorial introduces this Special Issue devoted to exploring the ethics of youth work practice in the twenty-first century. The call for papers for this Special Issue went out in October 2022 w...

Increased amyloid beta (Aβ) production by sequential cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) by the β‐ and γ‐secretases contributes to the etiological basis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This process requires APP and the secretases to be in the same subcellular compartments, such as the endosomes. Since all membrane organelles in the endomembrane system are kinetically and functionally linked, any defects in the trafficking and sorting machinery would be expected to change the functional properties of the whole system. The Golgi (...) is a primary organelle for protein trafficking, sorting and modifications, and Golgi defects have been reported in AD. Here we hypothesize that Golgi fragmentation in AD accelerates APP trafficking and Aβ production. Furthermore, Golgi defects may perturb the proper trafficking and processing of many essential neuronal proteins, resulting in compromised neuronal function. Therefore, molecular tools that can restore Golgi structure and function could prove useful as potential drugs for AD treatment. (shrink)

Sitting on the fine line between pathogen ‘transmissibility’ and ‘severity’, the Behavioural Immune System (BIS) is responsible for activating behaviours that minimise infection risks and maximise fitness. To achieve self-preservation, the BIS also fuels social and political attitudes. We aim to explain societal changes that may be sparked by COVID-19 by highlighting links between human evolutionary history and our psychological faculties mediated by the BIS.

Minichromosome maintenance (Mcm) proteins are well‐known for their functions in DNA replication. However, their roles in chromosome segregation are yet to be reviewed in detail. Following the discovery in 1984, a group of Mcm proteins, known as the ARS‐nonspecific group consisting of Mcm13, Mcm16‐19, and Mcm21‐22, were characterized as bonafide kinetochore proteins and were shown to play significant roles in the kinetochore assembly and high‐fidelity chromosome segregation. This review focuses on the structure, function, and evolution of this group of Mcm (...) proteins. Our in silico analysis of the physical interactors of these proteins reveals that they share non‐overlapping functions despite being copurified in biochemically stable complexes. We have discussed the contrasting results reported in the literature and experimental strategies to address them. Taken together, this review focuses on the structure‐function of the ARS‐nonspecific Mcm proteins and their evolutionary flexibility to maintain genome stability in various organisms. (shrink)

When used in conjunction with the current floorplan and the optimization technique in circuit design engineering, this research allows for the evaluation of design parameters that can be used to reduce congestion during integrated circuit fabrication. Testing the multiple alternative consequences of IC design will be extremely beneficial in this situation, as will be demonstrated further below. If the importance of placement and routing congestion concerns is underappreciated, the IC implementation may experience significant nonlinear problems throughout the process as a (...) result of the underappreciation of placement and routing congestion concerns. The use of standard optimization techniques in integrated circuit design is not the most effective strategy when it comes to precisely estimating nonlinear aspects in the design of integrated circuits. To this end, advanced tools such as Xilinx VIVADO and the ICC2 have been developed, in addition to the ICC1 and VIRTUOSO, to explore for computations and recover the actual parameters that are required to design optimal placement and routing for well-organized and ordered physical design. Furthermore, this work employs the perimeter degree technique to measure routing congestion in both horizontal and vertical directions for a silicon chip region and then applies the technique to lower the density of superfluous routing. Recently, a metaheuristic approach to computation has increased in favor, particularly in the last two decades. It is a classic graph theory problem, and it is also a common topic in the field of optimization. However, it does not provide correct information about where and how nodes should be put, despite its popularity. Consequently, in conjunction with the optimized floorplan data, the optimized model created by the Improved Harmonic Search Optimization algorithm undergoes testing and investigation in order to estimate the amount of congestion that occurs during the routing process in VLSI circuit design and to minimize the amount of congestion that occurs. (shrink)

In the past few decades, increased awareness of environmental pollution has led to the exploitation of microbial metabolic potential in the construction of several genetically engineered microorganisms (GEMs) for bioremediation purposes. At the same time, environmental concerns and regulatory constraints have limited the in situ application of GEMs, the ultimate objective behind their development. In order to address the anticipated risks due to the uncontrolled survival/dispersal of GEMs or recombinant plasmids into the environment, some attempts have been made to construct (...) systems that would contain the released organisms. This article discusses the designing of safer genetically engineered organisms for environmental release with specific emphasis on the use of bacterial plasmid addiction systems to limit their survival thus minimizing the anticipated risk. We also conceptualize a novel strategy to construct “Suicidal Genetically Engineered Microorganisms (SGEMs)” by exploring/combining the knowledge of different plasmid addiction systems (such as antisense RNA‐regulated plasmid addiction, proteic plasmid addiction etc.) and inducible degradative operons of bacteria. BioEssays 27:563–573, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The ageing society poses significant challenges to Europe’s economy and society. In coming to grips with these issues, we must be aware of their ethical dimensions. Values are the heart of the European Union, as Article 1a of the Lisbon Treaty makes clear: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity…”. The notion of Europe as a community of values has various important implications, including the development of inclusion policies. A special case of exclusion concerns the (...) gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology and those without access to it, the “digital divide”, which in Europe is chiefly age-related. Policies to overcome the digital divide and, more generally speaking, e-inclusion policies addressing the ageing population raise some ethical problems. Among younger senior citizens, say those between 65 and 80 years old, the main issues are likely to be universal access to ICT and e-participation. Among the older senior citizens, say those more than 80 years old, the main issues are mental and physical deterioration and assistive technology. An approach geared towards the protection of human rights could match the different needs of senior citizens and provide concrete guidance to evaluate information technologies for them. (shrink)

The ageing society poses significant challenges to Europe’s economy and society. In coming to grips with these issues, we must be aware of their ethical dimensions. Values are the heart of the European Union, as Article 1a of the Lisbon Treaty makes clear: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity…”. The notion of Europe as a community of values has various important implications, including the development of inclusion policies. A special case of exclusion concerns the (...) gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology and those without access to it, the “digital divide”, which in Europe is chiefly age-related. Policies to overcome the digital divide and, more generally speaking, e-inclusion policies addressing the ageing population raise some ethical problems. Among younger senior citizens, say those between 65 and 80 years old, the main issues are likely to be universal access to ICT and e-participation. Among the older senior citizens, say those more than 80 years old, the main issues are mental and physical deterioration and assistive technology. An approach geared towards the protection of human rights could match the different needs of senior citizens and provide concrete guidance to evaluate information technologies for them. (shrink)

E-inclusion is getting a lot of attention in Europe these days. The European Commission and EU Member States have initiated e-inclusion strategies aimed at reaching out to the e-excluded and bringing them into the mainstream of society and the economy. The benefits of mainstreaming the excluded are numerous. Good practices play an important role in the strategies, and examples can be found in e-health, e-learning, e-government, e-inclusion and other e-domains. So laudable seems the rationale for e-inclusion, few have questioned the (...) benefits. In fact, e-inclusion does raise ethical issues, and this paper discusses a few of the key ones. The paper draws several conclusions, principally regarding the need for some empirical research on what happens to the e-excluded once they have access to information and communications technologies, notably the Internet. (shrink)

In this paper, we employ what we term as ‘the ethical dimension in political market orientation ’ framework to underline how an integration of information from relevant stakeholder groups can inform the formulation of market-oriented, yet ethical policies. Against the backdrop of India’s Look East Policy, we undertake a critical analysis of historic economic data from 1980 to 2014 in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, often termed as the Seven Sisters because of their (...) interdependence. Our analysis of the data, using time-series methods, reveals that policy changes ensuing from the economic reforms of 1990s and the initiation of the LEP in 1991 have resulted in regional income convergence in North-Eastern India. A key contribution of our work emanates from the fact that we determine two structural breaks endogenously from long time-series data, thereby identifying three distinct policy regimes, rather than specifying exogenous breaks based on historic and theoretical conjectures. Overall, our work offers both conceptual insights into processes that enable ethical and inclusive policy making, as well as empirical evidence emerging from stochastic convergence of incomes per capita for the Seven Sister states in the North-Eastern region in India, to illustrate how regional economic inequality can be reduced through targeted market-oriented policies. (shrink)

Stress associated proteins (SAPs), novel A20/AN1 zinc‐finger domain‐containing proteins, are fast emerging as potential candidates for biotechnological approaches in order to improve abiotic stress tolerance in plants – the ultimate aim of which is crop‐yield protection. Until relatively recently, such proteins had only been identified in humans, where they had been shown to be key regulators of innate immunity. Their phylogenetic relationship and recruitment of diverse protein domains reflect an architectural and mechanistic diversity. Emerging evidence suggests that SAPs may act (...) as ubiquitin ligase, redox sensor, and regulator of gene expression during stress. Here, we evaluate the new knowledge on SAPs with a view to understand their mechanism of action. Furthermore, we set an agenda for investigating hitherto unexplored roles of these proteins. (shrink)

Precise and timely diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is important to control its progression among subjects. Currently, a neuroimaging technique called dopaminergic imaging that uses single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with 123I-Ioflupane is popular among clinicians for detecting Parkinson’s disease in early stages. Unlike other studies, which consider only low-level features like gray matter, white matter, or cerebrospinal fluid, this study explores the non-linear relation between different biomarkers (SPECT + biological) using deep learning and multivariate logistic regression. Striatal binding ratios (...) are obtained using 123I-Ioflupane SPECT scans from four brain regions which are further integrated with five biological biomarkers to increase the diagnostic accuracy. Experimental results indicate that this investigated approach can differentiate subjects with 100% accuracy. The obtained results outperform the ones reported in the literature. Furthermore, logistic regression model has been developed for estimating the Parkinson’s disease onset probability. Such models may aid clinicians in diagnosing this disease. (shrink)

Ethical questions about information and communications technologies have been debated since World War II. Western democracies have had more than 50 years of experience in addressing and organising the ethical, social and legal aspects of scientific and technological developments. However, this expertise, tradition and experience are not enough to manage the most urgent ethical and social issues and contemporary challenges involving ICT. A systematic and institutional organisation of social values in the context of modern ICT tools is needed.This paper focuses (...) on four major areas: developing a specific approach to ethical issues raised by ICT; describing in more detail the age-related digital divide in Europe; identifying technology trends and emerging challenges; and defining the legal framework for inclusion of senior citizens in the digital society. The paper then concludes with a summary of its key points on the basis of which it makes three proposals as a contribution to efforts aimed at overcoming the exclusion of senior citizens from today's Information Society. (shrink)