Borderline personality disorder is a complex psychopathological phenomenon. It is usually thought to consist in a vast instability of different aspects that are central to our experience of the ...world, and to manifest as "a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity" American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2013, p. 663. Typically, of the instability triad-instability in (1) self, (2) affect and emotion, and (3) interpersonal relationships-only the first two are described, examined, and conceptualized from an experiential point of view. In this context, disorders of self have often motivated analyses of self-experience and the sense of self, affective disorders have been frequently considered in the light of emotional experience and its phenomenological structure. Patterns in the phenomenology of social experience have found comparatively little traction when it comes to the conceptualization of the interpersonal disturbances in borderline. In this paper, I argue that interpersonal instability in borderline consists in much more than fragile and shifting relationships but, most importantly, also involves certain styles in experiencing others. These styles, I suggest, may play an explanatory role for the borderline-typical patterns of interpersonal turmoil and so deserve more attention. To better describe and understand these styles, I explore the phenomenological structure of borderline affective instability and discuss the implications it might have for how a person experiences and relates to other people. Considering core aspects of borderline affective instability, such as alexithymia, emotional contagion, emotion dysregulation, and chronic emptiness, I propose borderline can be interpreted as a disturbance of interaffective exchange, which gives rise to certain ways of experiencing others that imply a social impairment.
Summary
Although the evolutionary drivers of genome size change are known, the general patterns and mechanisms of plant genome size evolution are yet to be established. Here we aim to assess the ...relative importance of proliferation of repetitive DNA, chromosomal variation (including polyploidy), and the type of endoreplication for genome size evolution of the Pleurothallidinae, the most species‐rich orchid lineage. Phylogenetic relationships between 341 Pleurothallidinae representatives were refined using a target enrichment hybrid capture combined with high‐throughput sequencing approach. Genome size and the type of endoreplication were assessed using flow cytometry supplemented with karyological analysis and low‐coverage Illumina sequencing for repeatome analysis on a subset of samples. Data were analyzed using phylogeny‐based models. Genome size diversity (0.2–5.1 Gbp) was mostly independent of profound chromosome count variation (2n = 12–90) but tightly linked with the overall content of repetitive DNA elements. Species with partial endoreplication (PE) had significantly greater genome sizes, and genomic repeat content was tightly correlated with the size of the non‐endoreplicated part of the genome. In PE species, repetitive DNA is preferentially accumulated in the non‐endoreplicated parts of their genomes. Our results demonstrate that proliferation of repetitive DNA elements and PE together shape the patterns of genome size diversity in orchids.
Significance Statement
A unique feature of orchids that remains poorly understood is partial endoreplication (PE), a form of endopolyploidy resulting in multiplication of only a fraction of the genome in the course of cell differentiation. Using repeatome analysis within a novel evolutionary frame, we investigated the linkage between PE and genome size evolution in Pleurothallidinae orchids, and showed that proliferation of repetitive elements in PE species enlarges mainly the non‐endoreplicated part of the genome.
Next generation metabarcoding is becoming an indispensable tool in fungal community ecology. Here we tested Illumina metabarcoding, a method that generates shorter reads but achieves deeper ...sequencing than 454 metabarcoding approaches. We found that paired-end Illumina MiSeq data cover the full ITS1 in many fungal lineages and are suitable for environmental fungal community assessment. There was substantial read loss during data cleanup (78.6%), which, however, did not impede the analyses, because of the large number of initial sequences (over 4Mio). We observed a high stochasticity in individual PCR reactions. Comparing three repeated sets of PCRs products showed that 58.5% of the total fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) found were not recovered by any single set of PCR reactions. Similarly, comparing three annealing temperatures showed that 63.6% of all fungal OTUs were not recovered using any single annealing temperature. These findings suggest that sampling of soil fungal communities is more exhaustive, if we combine repeated PCR products, and PCR products generated at various annealing temperatures. To analyze the above issues we sampled 16 soil cores along a 270 cm transect in a meadow. In total we recovered 3320 fungal OTUs (based on a 95% similarity threshold). Distance decay analysis indicated that community similarity decreased slightly with geographical distance.
•Illumina metabarcoding with ITS1 is suitable for analyzing soil fungal communities.•Read loss due to methodological issues needs to be accounted for when designing study.•Using repeated PCR reactions increases number of OTUs recovered.•Using different annealing temperatures increases number of OTUs recovered.•Deep sequencing reveals significant distance decay in fungal community similarity.
The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate the contributions of phenomenology-inspired approaches to the explanation of psychopathological phenomena. First, I introduce the notion of Explanatory ...First-Person Approaches (EFPA) which share the assumption that the explanation of consciousness and conscious phenomena necessitates, at least partially, phenomenal facts functioning as explanans. Phenomenal facts refer to facts about structures and processes of consciousness. To differentiate phenomenology from other EFPA and to extract its distinctive feature, I compare phenomenology to the method falling under the category of EFPA it overlaps with the most: new introspective methods as recently described. I then present genetic phenomenology as the distinctive feature of phenomenology and show how particularly genetic phenomenology complements biological explanations of psychopathological phenomena in the context of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. Moreover, I present Cognitive Theory (CT) as the most acknowledged EFPA in the broader scientific community, demonstrate CT's limitations in explaining conscious phenomena in the context of psychological disturbances such as depression, and show how genetic phenomenology can also significantly complement the cognitive approach. An example in the context of burnout-depression will be given. The overall argument for the significance of phenomenology is as follows: Genetic phenomenology renders phenomenology a distinctive kind of EFPA; genetic phenomenology can complement one of the most dominant non-EFPA accounts in the science of psychiatric disorders: biological reductionism; and genetic phenomenology can complement the most dominant existing EFPA in the science of psychological disturbances: Cognitive Theory.
During the past decade, significant progress has been made in the field of resonant optics ranging from fundamental aspects to concrete applications. While several techniques have been introduced for ...the fabrication of highly defined metallic nanostructures, the synthesis of complex, free-standing three-dimensional (3D) structures is still an intriguing, but so far intractable, challenge. In this study, we demonstrate a 3D direct-write synthesis approach that addresses this challenge. Specifically, we succeeded in the direct-write fabrication of 3D nanoarchitectures via electron-stimulated reactions, which are applicable on virtually any material and surface morphology. By that, complex 3D nanostructures composed of highly compact, pure gold can be fabricated, which reveal strong plasmonic activity and pave the way for a new generation of 3D nanoplasmonic architectures that can be printed on-demand.
High‐throughput metabarcoding studies on fungi and other eukaryotic microorganisms are rapidly becoming more frequent and more complex, requiring researchers to handle ever increasing amounts of raw ...sequence data. Here, we provide a flexible pipeline for pruning and analyzing fungal barcode (ITS rDNA) data generated as paired‐end reads on Illumina MiSeq sequencers. The pipeline presented includes specific steps fine‐tuned for ITS, that are mostly missing from pipelines developed for prokaryotes. It (1) employs state of the art programs and follows best practices in fungal high‐throughput metabarcoding; (2) consists of modules and scripts easily modifiable by the user to ensure maximum flexibility with regard to specific needs of a project or future methodological developments; and (3) is straightforward to use, also in classroom settings. We provide detailed descriptions and revision techniques for each step, thus giving the user maximum control over data treatment and avoiding a black‐box approach. Employing this pipeline will improve and speed up the tedious and error‐prone process of cleaning fungal Illumina metabarcoding data.
We provide a step by step protocol for pruning and analyzing Illumina metabarcoding data of complex fungal communities. While the individual tools we use are not novel, we think that our pipeline can be of great help especially to those labs with only basic bioinformatics knowledge.
We map the complete plasmonic spectrum of silver nanodisks by electron energy loss spectroscopy and show that the mode which couples strongest to the electron beam has radial symmetry with no net ...dipole moment. Therefore, this mode does not couple to light and has escaped from observation in optical experiments. This radial breathing mode has the character of an extended two-dimensional surface plasmon with a wavenumber determined by the circular disk confinement. Its strong near fields can impact the hybridization in coupled plasmonic nanoparticles as well as couplings with nearby quantum emitters.
INFORMATION AND PRICE DISPERSION Pennerstorfer, Dieter; Schmidt-Dengler, Philipp; Schutz, Nicolas ...
International economic review,
05/2020, Volume:
61, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Limited information is the key element generating price dispersion in models of homogeneous-goods markets. We show that the global relationship between information and price dispersion is an ...inverse-U shape. We test this mechanism for the retail gasoline market using a new measure of information based on commuter data from Austria. Commuters sample gasoline prices on their commuting route, providing us with spatial variation in the share of informed consumers. Our empirical estimates are in line with the theoretical predictions. We also quantify how information affects average prices paid and the distribution of surplus in the gasoline market.
The photonic local density of states (LDOS) governs the enhancement of light-matter interaction at the nanoscale, but despite its importance for nanophotonics and plasmonics experimental local ...density of states imaging remains extremely challenging. Here we introduce a tomography scheme based on electron microscopy that allows retrieval of the three-dimensional local density of states of plasmonic nanoparticles with nanometre spatial and sub-eV energy resolution. From conventional electron tomography experiments we obtain the three-dimensional morphology of the nanostructure, and use this information to compute an expansion basis for the photonic environment. The expansion coefficients are obtained through solution of an inverse problem using as input electron-energy loss spectroscopy images. We demonstrate the applicability of our scheme for silver nanocuboids and coupled nanodisks, and resolve local density of states enhancements with extreme sub-wavelength dimensions in hot spots located at roughness features or in gaps of coupled nanoparticles.Imaging the photonic local density of states of plasmonic nanoparticles remains extremely challenging. Here, the authors introduce a tomography scheme based on electron microscopy that allows retrieval of the three-dimensional local density of states with nanometre spatial and sub-eV energy resolution.
Dimensionality has a significant impact on the optical properties of solid-state nanostructures. For example, dimensionality-dependent carrier confinement in semiconductors leads to the formation of ...quantum wells, quantum wires and quantum dots. While semiconductor properties are governed by excitonic effects, the optical response of metal nanostructures is dominated by surface plasmons. Here we find that, in contrast to excitonic systems, the mode dispersions in plasmonic structures of different dimensionality are related by simple scaling rules. Employing electron energy loss spectroscopy, we show that the modes of silver nanodisks can be scaled to the surface and edge modes of extended silver thin films. We thereby introduce a general and intuitive ordering scheme for plasmonic excitations with edge and surface modes as the elementary building blocks.
PDF
