Level of organisation

Endpoints for environmental assessments may be selected at different levels of biological organisation  

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In the OE of jawed fish only cellular, and little if any, tissue specialisation is achieved. During metamorphosis from tadpole to adult in amphibia, a developmental parallel of water-to-land transition includes the timing of maturation of the AOS. The system as it appears in living amphibians, is already a more or less discrete entity (Fig. 4.3) with its own sub-set of receptors. A process of regionalisation within the bulb, already underway even at the level of organisation in cartilaginous fishes, shows parallel adjustments (Dryer and Graziadei, 1993). 

David Hull Related to the last issue that Williams raises, I must admit that I know no physics. I have no idea what is really going on down there at the lowest levels of organisation. I have to get my understanding from tertiary sources and hope they are right. But no one person can know everything. 

Jim Griesemer. So as long as phenogenics, in your sense, extends to all levels of organisation, then I think it s that harder project. 

In analysing travel experience levels, 8 travel experience variables were used in this second study international trips level, domestic trips level, total international travel time, number of usual travel companion(s), proportion of international pleasure travel, proportion of domestic pleasure travel, level of organised/package travel experience, and self perceived level of travel experience. Before employing cluster analysis to identify different travel experience level groups, the variables were standardised variables subject to cluster analysis must be measured on equal scales as variables with large values contribute more to the calculations of distance measures than those with small values (SPSS Inc., 1999). One way to avoid... 

Similar defence responses are provoked by other forms of stress (eg, air pollutants, herbicides, cold or drought stress, etc.). Analogous responses were also observed during natural plant senescence. It is a challenging hypothesis that several kinds of stress factors demonstrate a common site of action at the subcellular level (Clijsters et al., 1990) and might accelerate the process of plant senescence (Lee et al., 1976a Van Assche et al., 1990). Its further evaluation, however, needs the continuation of research on senescence processes, stress effects and metal action at several levels of organisation. 

We note from all this prior work that structure at the macro, micro, nano and molecular levels of organisation will all be important. Secondly, the properties of the composite food product will not be related simply to a list of its components (the recipe), since different structural forms can be assembled from the same components by different processes. Emphasis on structure and its origin discriminates food materials science from the former descriptive approach of formulation/process empiricism embodied in most recipes. 

The description of structure in complex chemical systems necessarily involves a hierarchical approach we first analyse microstructure (at the atomic level), then mesostructure (the molecular level) and so on. This approach is essential in many biological systems, since self-assembly in the formation of biological structures often takes place at many levels. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced in the complex structures formed by amphiphilic proteins that spontaneously associate in water. For example myosin molecules associate into thick threads in an aqueous solution. Actin can be transformed in a similar way from a monomeric molecular solution into helical double strands by adjusting the pH and ionic strength of the aqueous medium. The superstructure in muscle represents a higher level of organisation of such threads into an arrangement of infinite two-dimensional periodicity. 

As with other natural fibres, silk has a hierarchical microstructure - about five anti-parallel (f-sheets, each with around 12 chains, aggregate to form parallel, crystalline microfibrils (approximately 10 nm in diameter), bundles of which make up fibrillar elements (roughly 1 p,m across), which in turn associate to comprise the individual fibroin filaments (7-12 xm) at each level of organisation, the ordered elements are embedded within amorphous matrices derived from the non-crystalline components. Once again, then, the behaviour of the structural composite can be understood in terms of the semi-crystalline array of its component parts. 

Teilhard s viewpoint allows him to depict an imaginary evolution of the noosphere. The psychic, interior side of matter or so-called radial energy" directs matter to higher levels of organisation which culminate in the end of the evolutionary process. This end is external to the evolution itself The Earth s noosphere will be replaced by a supermind and will coalesce into a so-called Omega-Point. As Teilhard put it (1961, pp. 273, 287-288) ... 

Similar to the three-dimensional structure of proteins, three levels of organisation can be distinguished for DNA. The primary structure is determined by the sequence of nucleotides, usually written as the sequence of bases they contain. The secondary structure is given by the shape of the double stranded helix. This helical chain does not exist as a straight, long molecule. It forms turns and twists and folds. This coiling is referred to as the tertiary structure of DNA. 

We identified fom clusters from the questionnaire responses. One (which we labelled disenfranchising pharmacies ) was characterised by a low level of control on the JCQ (little control over how they do their work), a mean effort-reward ratio of 1.36 on the ERI (effort exceeding reward), a low level of overcommitment on the JCQ (able to distance themselves from their work), a low level of organisational learning on the PSCQ (the pharmaey has little commitment to improving safety) and a low level of safety focus on the PSCQ (the pharmacy does not see safety as a priority). Examples of conunents made by these respondents included ... 

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