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The evolutionary history of Class I aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRS) through the reconstruction of ancestral sequences is presented. From structural molecular modeling, we sought to understand its relationship with the acceptor arms and the tRNA anticodon loop, how this relationship was established, and the possible implications in determining the genetic code and the translation system. The results of the molecular docking showed that in 7 out 9 aaRS, the acceptor arm and the anticodon loop bond practically in the same region. Domain accretion process in aaRS and repositioning of interactions between tRNAs and aaRS are illustrated. Based on these results, we propose that the operational code and the anticodon code coexisted, competing for the aaRS catalytic region, while consequently contributed to the stabilization of these proteins.

Since being inaugurated as the eighth president of Indonesia, Prabowo has attracted some concerns about the trajectory of Indonesia's foreign policy under his rule. In November 2024, Indonesia and China concluded a Joint Statement that would potentially abandon Indonesia's decade-long held foreign policy in the South China Sea. Equally puzzling is Indonesia's membership in the emerging power bloc, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) in early 2025. How can we make sense of these empirical anomalies? Bridging the foreign policy analysis literature of the 'Operational Code Approach', this empirical explanatory case study looks at Prabowo's foreign policy in 2024 and 2025. It provides a socio-psychological analysis of the leaders' operational code. Doing so considers the relevance of Prabowo's 'philosophical' and 'instrumental' beliefs in shaping Indonesia's contemporary policies. As a result, this study considers the relevance of Prabowo's personal beliefs as influencing a subjective interpretation of Indonesia's foreign policy doctrine of a free and active foreign policy, influenced by Prabowo's anti-oppression norms, fear of colonialism, military background, and appetite to secure economic interests.

This paper focuses on foreign policy processes of states as social entities, which are made manifest as the \"psychology of the state\" and specified as learning effects due to external causes (object appraisal); steering effects due to internal causes (ego defense); and social interaction effects from learning and steering processes (self-other mediation).The cases under investigation are the manifest psychology of the state of Israel across three individual Israeli leaders: Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, and Benjamin Netanyahu. The dependent variables are their beliefs about the nature of the political universe (friendly/hostile), the most effective strategies for exercising power (cooperation/conflict), and historical control (low/high). The independent variables are the personality processes of object appraisal (terrorist attacks and fatalities), ego defense (mistrust and self-confidence), and mediation of self-other relations (task v. process orientation and belief in ability to control events. They are analyzed within the context of game theory models of complex adaptive systems.

Political Islam and Islamist organizations have broadly gained strength across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the post-Cold War era. Following the Arab uprisings, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), generally viewed as the world's largest and most influential Islamist organization, has shaped the wider landscape of MENA politics. This study examines MB leadership by comparing M. Morsi of Egypt, R. Ghannouchi of Tunisia, and K. Meshaal of Gaza as examples of Islamist leaders to explain their political belief systems and predict their foreign-policy behavior. We use the operational code approach, a content-analysis software and statistical tests to conduct the study. Results show that the three leaders' foreign policy beliefs are analogous to the averages of world leaders. Results also partially support the hypothesis that their foreign-policy propensities are similar to each other. We conclude that despite the conventional portrayal of MB leadership, these leaders use negotiation and cooperation to settle their differences in foreign affairs, and the best way to approach them is to engage in a Rousseauvian assurance game that emphasizes international social cooperation. Results also suggest important implications in terms of mainstream international relations theories.

The Serbian Orthodox Church has been described in scholarship as having had a significant impact onto the social and political life of Serbia, especially since the wars of the nineties. With the coming of the age of the Internet and social science automation, however, more options have gradually become available to researchers in the recent years. For this reason, this article will tackle the official rhetoric of the Serbian Orthodox Church in relation to the sociopolitical with the assistance of social science automation. Forming an examination via the methodological lens of Operational Code Analysis, this article delves into the Church’s discourse on Kosovo, via heavy vetting of all official statements given on the website of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It also expands upon the initial methodology – Operational Code Analysis – to an analysis of an institution with a uniform discourse, which has so far not seen light in scholarly production.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was‎ formally closed on 21 December 2017. During the quarter century of its existence, ‎ICTY’s rulings had a significant impact on public discourses and narratives‎ about the Bosnian war. Different opinions among the citizens of Bosnia‎ and Herzegovina (BiH) about ICTY’s role and its verdicts have emerged over ‎time, especially among the leaders of the dominant ethno-political parties representing ‎the three ethno-constituent groups – Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs.‎ Milorad Dodik, current member of the BiH Presidency, a former President of ‎Republika Srpska (RS) entity, and the leader of one of the most prominent political‎ parties in RS, was particularly vocal and critical about the work of the ‎ICTY. This paper closely examines Dodik’s public views and opinions toward ‎the ICTY. We use content- and operational code analysis to analyze key features‎ of his perceptions toward the ICTY’s work while serving as the President ‎of RS for two consecutive terms.‎

This paper challenges both rationalist and constructivist approaches in explaining China’s foreign policy behavior toward multilateral institutions after the Cold War. Borrowing insights from socialization theory and operational code analysis, this paper suggests a ‘superficial socialization’ argument to explain China’s pro-multilateralist diplomacy after the Cold War. Using operational code analysis to examine belief changes across three generations of Chinese leadership and on different occasions, we argue that China’s pro-multilateralist behavior is a product of ‘superficial socialization’, in which Chinese foreign policy elites change their beliefs about the outside world and regarding the future realization of their political goals in multilateral institutions. However, Chinese policy makers have not changed their instrumental beliefs regarding strategies even in multilateral institutions. China is indeed socialized through multilateral institutions, but its scope is still far from the ‘fundamental socialization’ stage when states’ interests, preferences, and even identities change.

This article explores the relationship between domestic concerns about regime survival in Russia and Vladimir Putin’s muscular policy toward the Ukraine since 2013. After critically examining claims that the Ukraine crisis was caused by NATO enlargement, American diplomatic weakness or strategic folly, the authors consider the operational code construct as an alternative explanation to better explain Putin’s decision-making. They attempt to show that Putin’s intervention in the Ukraine was shaped, above all, by the political ‘rules’ of an authoritarian regime, which viewed growing links between a significant ‘near abroad’ state and the EU as a potentially destabilizing at home. Putin’s political system assigns a prominent regime maintenance role to Russia’s intelligence services and is one characterized by widespread corruption, stark inequality, the suppression of independent media organizations, and the systematic harassment and intimidation of political opponents.

The identity/recognition of tRNAs, in the context of aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (and other molecules), is a complex phenomenon that has major implications ranging from the origins and evolution of translation machinery and genetic code to the evolution and speciation of tRNAs themselves to human mitochondrial diseases to artificial genetic code engineering. Deciphering it via laboratory experiments, however, is difficult and necessarily time- and resource-consuming. In this study, we propose a mathematically rigorous two-pronged in silico approach to identifying and classifying tRNA positions important for tRNA identity/recognition, rooted in machine learning and information-theoretic methodology. We apply Bayesian Network modeling to elucidate the structure of intra-tRNA-molecule relationships, and distribution divergence analysis to identify meaningful inter-molecule differences between various tRNA subclasses. We illustrate the complementary application of these two approaches using tRNA examples across the three domains of life, and identify and discuss important (informative) positions therein. In summary, we deliver to the tRNA research community a novel, comprehensive methodology for identifying the specific elements of interest in various tRNA molecules, which can be followed up by the corresponding experimental work and/or high-resolution position-specific statistical analyses.