Attributing Creativity

Three kinds of things may be creative: persons, processes, and products. The standard definition of creativity, used nearly by consensus in psychological research, focuses specifically on products and says that a product is creative if and only if it is new and valuable. We argue that at least one further condition is necessary for a product to be creative: it must have been produced by the right kind of process. We argue furthermore that this point has an interesting epistemological implication: when you judge a product to be creative--attributing creativity--you are not just judging it to be new and valuable. Even if you did not witness how it was produced, you are also making a judgement about how it was produced

Synthesis of a novel polyester building block from pentoses by tin-containing silicates

C5-Sugars form a new bio-monomer (trans-2,5-dihydroxy-3-pentenoic acid methyl ester), which can undergo enzymatic copolymerization with E6-HH to form multifunctional polymers.</p

Cohousing in the Flower City: A Carbon Capture Design

Our climate is changing rapidly due to an excess of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. A major force behind the release of these gases is the means by which we generate our energy — the combustion of fossil fuels. One of the biggest drivers of this energy demand within the United States is our built environment and more pointedly our cold-climate, urban based, residential building stock. All signs indicate that unless steps are taken, this demand will continue to grow. Ed Mazria’s Architecture 2030 Challenge proposes an ambitious plan for achieving carbon neutrality in buildings by 2030. What if there was an opportunity for buildings to not only be carbon neutral but carbon negative? This could be accomplished through a combination of carbon sequestration and designing for net-zero energy usage. Many avenues for inactive sequestration of carbon have been explored but of the active methods suitable for the built environment, only the application of an algae facade has been explored and brought to fruition to-date. Using an algae facade in concert with design for net-zero energy use, the goal of this project is to showcase a concept for a carbon negative building through the lens of a common house for the Flower City Cohousing Community, an intentional urban community in Rochester, NY

Molecular characterisation of microorganisms within the stump-tailed lizard tick, Amblyomma albolimbatum, in Western Australia

Ticks pose a major threat to the health and wellbeing of humans, domesticated animals and wildlife. Recently, a bacterial community study (16S rRNA) on the stump-tailed lizard tick, Amblyomma albolimbatum, removed from bobtails, Tiliqua rugosa, in Western Australia (WA), revealed the presence of Coxiella, Francisella and Rickettsia DNA sequences. However, resolution to species level could not be achieved due to the short sequences generated through next generation sequencing. In addition, oocytes proposed to be Hemolivia sp. have been identified within the gut epithelium of A. albolimbatum; however molecular data confirming the species is lacking. Here we present for the first time, molecular data supporting the presence of Coxiella burnetii, Francisella sp. nov., Rickettsia spp. and Hemolivia mariae within A. albolimbatum in WA. Three hundred and six ticks, morphologically identified as A. albolimbatum, were removed from 88 T. rugosa lizards at the Kanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, Perth, WA from 2013 to 2015. A subset of 142 ticks were subjected to genomic DNA extraction and screened for Coxiella, Francisella, Rickettsia using genus-specific assays and haemoparasites using a nested 18S rRNA assay followed by Sanger sequencing. Coxiella burnetii was found in a single A. albolimbatum based on 16S and GroEL genes. Coxiella burnetii is the causative agent of Q fever and coxiellosis in people and animals, respectively, and therefore, its presence is of major concern. Secondly, a Francisella sp. nov. based on a concatenated alignment of 4,230 bp (16S, tpiA, prfB, rpoA, dnaA) was generated with a 3% genetic distance to F. persica, a known soft tick endosymbiont. Interestingly, there was evidence of three Rickettsia spp. which warrants further investigation as two were closely related to the Spotted Fever Rickettsia spp. group. Lastly, two samples had a 100% genetic identity to H. mariae at the 18S gene, which is consistent with the previous report of Hemolivia within A. albolimbatum and that ticks have an important role for the sylvatic lifecycle of this parasite. Further research is required to determine the prevalence of these microbes within questing A. albolimbatum ticks and the role they play in the health of T. rugosa and wildlife rehabilitation workers

Cartesian Clarity

Clear and distinct perception is the centrepiece of Descartes’s philosophy — it is the source of all certainty — but what does he mean by ‘clear’ and ‘distinct’? According to the prevailing approach, what it means for a perception to be clear is that its content has a certain objective property, like truth. I argue instead that clarity is at least partly a subjective, phenomenal quality whereby a content is presented as true to the perceiving subject. Clarity comes in degrees. Any weak degree of clarity, available to the senses, can be merely subjective, since what it presents as true may not actually be true. But complete clarity, available to intellectual perception, has an objective dimension, since what it presents as true is always some truth, some bit of reality. Further, I argue that the other perceptual qualities that Descartes identifies — obscurity, confusion, and distinctness — are all defined in terms of clarity. Of particular note is the fact that distinctness is not a positive feature to be added to clarity: a distinct perception is just a completely clear perception

Orchestration of Floral Initiation by APETALA1

The MADS-domain transcription factor APETALA1 (AP1) is a key regulator of Arabidopsis flower development. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying AP1 function, we identified its target genes during floral initiation using a combination of gene expression profiling and genome-wide binding studies. Many of its targets encode transcriptional regulators, including known floral repressors. The latter genes are down-regulated by AP1, suggesting that it initiates floral development by abrogating the inhibitory effects of these genes. Although AP1 acts predominantly as a transcriptional repressor during the earliest stages of flower development, at more advanced stages it also activates regulatory genes required for floral organ formation, indicating a dynamic mode of action. Our results further imply that AP1 orchestrates floral initiation by integrating growth, patterning, and hormonal pathways