Following upon Merlin Donald’s claim that human specificity emerges in history, and not exclusively in evolutionary time, it will be suggested that the diversified means of producing semiosis created by human beings account for the spread of empathy and altruism not only beyond the kin group, but to humankind in general. This amounts to treating other cultures as different from us, but still able to enter into communication with us (as an Alter), as opposed to treating these cultures as being part of nature, and thus only susceptible to being communicated about (as an Alius). Starting out from the theory of bio-cultural evolution defended by Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd, as well as from the multi-level selection theory of Elliott Sober and David Sloan Wilson, we try to lay bare the way in which semiotic structures play a role for transforming cultural evolution, contrary to biological evolution, into human history. We inquiry into what makes the existence of Alter-culture possible, if, as Sober and Wilson have claimed, armed with game theory, an altruistic society (an Ego-culture in our terms), is only possible in opposition to another group in relation to which group egoism rules (that is, in our terms, an Alius-culture). We will follow Michael Tomasello in arguing for the primacy of games of cooperation, rather than competition, while adding an historical dimension, which serves to explain how such cooperation can be extended beyond the primary group (our Ego-culture). However, we will insist on the importance of multiple semiotic resources for the boot-strapping of empathy and altruism, as well as on the genesis of this process in cultural encounters, as reflected in the spirit of the Enlightenment.

Hydrobionts are considered as highly potential source for bioproduction (including energy carriers and fertilizers) and many biotechnological processes that include hydrobionts, particularly their biomass as a substrate are used in different fields of energy, cosmetology, medicine, pharmaceutics, aquaculture, agriculture, forestry etc. Latest developments prove efficiency in applying anaerobic digestion for purifying wastewaters from organic pollutants with the help of macrophytes and microphytes in conducting biomethanogenesis. Many studies have established that it is possible to reach high level of lipid extraction from algae (to 95%) with the help of organic solvents (methanol, acetone, hexane, diethyl ether etc). Blue – green algae biomass has been scientifically proved to be a good source for methane, methanol, ethanol, propanol, isopropanol, biodiesel and other biofuel types production. Macroalgae and microalgae contain β- carotene, biotin, folic acid, fucoidans, lectins, phenolics, sulphated polysaccharides and other derived biologically active compounds that can be used in producing vitamins, have anti-ulcer, antioxidant, antibiotic, antifouling, immune modulatory and other properties. Cyanidioschyzon merolae, Ostreococcus lucimarinus, O. tauri, Micromonas pusilla have shown high potential for hydrogen production while Rhizoclonium sp. has been experimentally used as a bounding material in briquetting miscanthus granules, resulting in 20 % higher dynamic strength. The article is a literature review and the purpose of this work is to classify and systemize hydrobionts, reveal regularity of their growth, conduct critical analysis on existing biotechnologies on using separate representatives of aquatic biomes as a raw material and also to review ways of intensification for these biotechnologies.

Arsenic is one of the most harmful pollutants in groundwater. In this paper, the Nepali bio sand filter (BSF) was modi-fied with different bio-adsorbents, and proved to be an efficient method for arsenic removal from groundwater. Three dif-ferent bio-adsorbents were used to modify the Nepali BSF. Iron nails and biochar BSF, ~96% and ~93% arsenic removal was achieved, within the range of WHO guidelines. In iron nails, BSF and biochar BSF ~15 dm3∙h–1 arsenic content water was treated. In the other two BSFs, rice-husk and banana peel were used, the arsenic removal efficiency was ~83% of both BSFs. Furthermore, the efficiency of rice-husk and banana peel BSFs can be increased by increasing the surface area of the adsorbent or by reducing the flow rate.

The prevalence of heavy metals in wastewater is the cause of death of numerous organisms which take part in biological treatment of wastewater, that is why the aim of the study has been to asses the influence of cadmium and copper ions upon the microfauna of activated sludge. 5, 10, 50, and 100 mg/l of Cd2+ and Cu2+ were added into the samples of activated sludge and then, after 24 hours, the microscopic observations of activated sludge microfauna were carried out, and all changes concerning the amount of microfauna, functional groups, and species composition were determined. The results obtained allowed to find a high level of toxicity of Cd2+ and Cu2+ ions to activated sludge microfauna, which resulted in the changes in the value of the Sludge Biotic Index and classes of sludge, survivability of microfauna, and reduction in the number of taxonomic units. It was observed that Cu2+ ions are more toxic to activated sludge microfauna than Cd2+ ions in identical doses. Organisms sensitive to Cd2+ and Cu2+ ions have been found to be testate amoebae, Aspidisca sp. and Epistylis sp., as well as organisms relatively sensitive to tested metals, which turned out to be ciliates of Opercularia and Vorticella convalaria genera.

The removal of organic dyes from industrial wastewater remains a problem, both technically and

economically. In this study, Yarrowia lipolytica yeast cells were isolated from poultry meat and immobilized using

alginate. The immobilized Yarrowia lipolytica yeast was used as biosorbent to remove methylene blue (MB) dye

from synthetic effl uent water. The results show that maximum adsorption capacity under optimum conditions was

66.67 mg∙g-1. The equilibrium adsorption data fi tted well onto the Freundlich adsorption isotherms with R2

>0.99.

Adsorption kinetics was of pseudo-second order process suggesting that the adsorption was a chemisorption. FTIR

spectra identifi ed typical absorption bands of a biosorbent. Sorption of MB dye on Yarrowia lipolytica yeast cells

was exothermic with weak sorption interaction.

This paper presents a preoperative hip reconstruction method with diagnosed osteoarthritis using Durom Hip Resurfacing System (DHRS). The method is based on selection and application of the resurfacing to the pelvis reconstructed on the basis of computed tomography. Quality and geometrical parameters of distinguished tissues have a fundamental significance for locating and positioning the acetabular and femoral components. The application precedes the measurements of anatomical structures on a complex numerical model. The developed procedure enables functional selection of endo-prosthesis and its positioning in such a way that it secures geometric parameters within the bone bed and the depth , inclination angles and ante-version of the acetabular component, the neck-shaft angle and ante-torsion angle of the neck of the femoral bone, and reconstruction of the biomechanical axis of the limb and the physiological point of rotation in the implanted joint. Proper biomechanics of the bone-joint complex of the lower limb is determined by correlation of anatomical-geometrical parameters of the acetabular component and parameters of the femoral bone.

Among rapid development of wireless communication, technology cryptography plays a major role in securing the personal information of the user. As such, many authentication schemes have been proposed to ensure secrecy of wireless communication but they fail to meet all the required security goals. The proposed signcryption scheme uses multi-factor authentication techniques such as user biometrics, smart card and passwords to provide utmost security of personal information. In general, wireless devices are susceptible to various attacks and resource constraint by their very nature. To overcome these challenges a lightweight cryptographic scheme called signcryption has evolved. Signcryption is a logical combination of encryption and digital signature in a single step. Thereby it provides necessary security features in less computational and communication time. The proposed research work outlines the weaknesses of the already existing Cao et al.’s authentication scheme, which is prone to biometric recognition error, offline password guessing attack, impersonation attack and replay attack. Furthermore, the proposed study provides an enhanced multi-factor authentication scheme using signcryption based on hyper elliptic curve cryptography and bio-hash function. Security of the proposed scheme is analyzed using Burrows-Abadi-Needham logic. This analysis reveals that the proposed scheme is computational and communication-efficient and satisfies all the needed security goals. Finally, an analysis of the study results has revealed that the proposed scheme protects against biometric recognition error, password guessing attack, impersonation attack, DoS attack and dictionary attack.

Studies on the relative toxicity of different bio-rational insecticides against second instar larvae and adults of onion thrips, Thrips tabaci were carried out on Experimental Farm and in the laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Suez Canal. Eight insecticides Dipel 2x, BioFly, Agrin, BioGuard, Spinosad, Neemix, Mectin and Match were all evaluated for their relative toxicity towards T. tabaci with recommended dose, half of recommended dose and quarter of recommended dose in the laboratory and only recommended dose under field conditions. Spinosad was the most toxic among the tested insecticides followed by Mectin, Match and Agrin when used against thrips adults. The respective values of LC₅₀ of those insecticides were 0.048 cm/l, 0.070 cm/l, 0.079 cm/l and 0.137 g/l. Also, Spinosad was the most effective insecticide against second instar larvae followed descendingly by: Agrin, Match and Dipel 2x. Toxicity index values at LC₅₀ level show such superior efficiency of Spinosad (100%) when applied against adults and second instar larvae of onion thrips under labora tory conditions. All insecticides under field conditions caused reduction of infestations of thrips. For the residual effect post application, all insecticides gave significant reductions in thrips numbers at the 21 day post treatment except for: Agrin and Match. Spinosad, Mectin, Neemix and BioFly gave the best control and continued to suppress thrips populations till 21 days after treatment. Spinosad was non harmful and Dipel 2x, Agrin were slightly harmful, BioGuard was significantly harmful whereas BioFly, Match and Mectin were very harmful to Orius albidipennis.

The spectroscopic FT-IR and FT-Raman methods allowed to identify the cross-linking process of the aqueous composition of poly(acrylic

acid)/sodium salt of carboxymethyl starch (PAA/CMS-Na) applied as a binder for moulding sands (as a novel group binders BioCo). The

cross-linking was performed by physical agent, applying the UV-radiation. The results of structural studies (IR, Raman) confirm the

overlapping of the process of cross-linking polymer composition PAA/CMS-Na in UV radiation. Taking into account the ingredients and

structure of the polymeric composition can also refer to a curing process in a binder - mineral matrix mixture. In the system of bindermineral

matrix under the influence of ultraviolet radiation is also observed effect of binding. However, the bonding process does not occur

in the entire volume of the investigated system, but only on the surface, which gives some possibilities for application in the use of UV

curing surface of cores, and also to cure sand moulds in 3D printing technology

Biosensors are a crucial part of most of bioanalytical diagnostic devices and systems. Due to semiconductor technologies, a great progress in diminution of costs and miniaturisation as well as an increased reliability of these devices was achieved. Application of

molecular and biological techniques in the detection process has contributed to a real increase in sensitivity, selectivity, the detection limit and the number of analytes to be detected. Different transducers of chemical parameters into electrical output signals are applied in these devices. Electrochemical principles, both potentiometric and amperometric, are opted for due to their simplicity of application and extremely low costs of such biosensors. Ion sensitive field effect transistors (ISFETs) may be easily integrated into the required electronics, resulting in their miniaturisation. Further miniaturisation may be attained by development of miniaturised total analytical systems (uTAS). To ensure competitive parameters of these biosensors, optimal methods of immobilisation of biochemical receptors (ionophores, enzymes, antibodies, etc.) should be developed. A review of the work by the authors related to these problems is presented in the article.

The aim of present work is to investigate the mass transfer of steady incompressible hydromagnetic fluid near the stagnation point with deferment of dust particles over a stretching surface. Most researchers tried to improve the mass transfer by inclusion of cross-diffusion or dust particles due to their vast applications in industrial processes, extrusion process, chemical processing, manufacturing of various types of liquid drinks and in various engineering treatments. To encourage the mass transport phenomena in this study we incorporated dust with microorganisms. Conservation of mass, momentum, concentration and density of microorganisms are used in relevant flow equations. The arising system of nonlinear partial differential equations is transformed into nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The numerical solutions are obtained by the Runge-Kutta based shooting technique and the local Sherwood number is computed for various values of the physical governing parameters (Lewis number, Peclet number, Eckert number). An important finding of present work is that larger values of these parameters encourage the mass transfer rate, and the motile organisms density profiles are augmented with the larger values of fluid particle interaction parameter with reference to bioconvection, bioconvection Lewis number, and dust particle concentration parameter.

On the basis of hydrogen peroxide decomposition process occurring in the bioreactor with fixed-bed of commercial catalase the optimal feed temperature was determined. This feed temperature was obtained by maximizing the time-average substrate conversion under constant feed flow rate and temperature constraints. In calculations, convection-diffusion-reaction immobilized enzyme fixed-bed bioreactor described by a coupled mass and energy balances as well as general kinetic equation for rate of enzyme deactivation was taken into consideration. This model is based on kinetic, hydrodynamic and mass-transfer parameters estimated in earlier work. The simulation showed that in the biotransformation with thermal deactivation of catalase optimal feed temperature is only affected by kinetic parameters for enzyme deactivation and decreases with increasing value of activation energy for deactivation. When catalase undergoes parallel deactivation the optimal feed temperature is strongly dependent on hydrogen peroxide feed concentration, feed flow rate and diffusional resistances expressed by biocatalyst effectiveness factor. It has been shown that the more significant diffusional resistances and the higher hydrogen peroxide conversions, the higher the optimal feed temperature is expected.

To explore the basic principles of hierarchical materials designed from nanoscale and up, we have been studying the mechanics of robust and releasable adhesion nanostructures of gecko [1]. On the question of robust adhesion, we have introduced a fractal-like hierarchical hair model to show that structural hierarchy allows the work of adhesion to be exponentially enhanced as the level of structural hierarchy is increased. We show that the nanometer length scale plays an essential role in the bottom-up design and, baring fracture of hairs themselves, a hierarchical hair system can be designed from nanoscale and up to achieve flaw tolerant adhesion at any length scales. For releasable adhesion, we show that elastic anisotropy leads to orientation-dependent adhesion strength. Finite element calculations revealed that a strongly anisotropic attachment pad in contact with a rigid substrate exhibits essentially two levels of adhesion strength depending on the direction of pulling.

This Paper takes in consideration the Social teaching of the Church, particularly expressed in the Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis Laudato si’ and in other documents of the Magisterium. The article presents the basic characteristics of „Culture of Care” and „Culture of Waste”, of biopower, of positive biopolitics and of negative biopolitics (thanatobiopolitics) with some alarming examples (legalization of abortion, selective abortions of females, destruction of supernumerary frozen embryos, lobbying for the legalization of euthanasia). Subsequently, it introduces the contribution of the Christian faith to these debates, from the biblical, theological and moral point of view, and invites the reader to respond to the urgent challenges in biopolitics by the responsible creativity in the social, moral and political fields. The „Culture of Care” is a culture of acceptance of the other, shaped by Christian hope and love, a culture of presence and of interest in the other, following the example of Jesus Christ.