Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Bioinformatics Mining and Modeling Methods for the Identification of Disease Mechanisms in Neurodegenerative Disorders

Since the decoding of the Human Genome, techniques from bioinformatics, statistics, and machine learning have been instrumental in uncovering patterns in increasing amounts and types of different data produced by technical profiling technologies applied to clinical samples, animal models, and cellular systems. Yet, progress on unravelling biological mechanisms, causally driving diseases, has been limited, in part due to the inherent complexity of biological systems. Whereas we have witnessed progress in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, the area of neurodegenerative diseases has proved to be very challenging. This is in part because the aetiology of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer´s disease or Parkinson´s disease is unknown, rendering it very difficult to discern early causal events. Here we describe a panel of bioinformatics and modeling approaches that have recently been developed to identify candidate mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases based on publicly available data and knowledge. We identify two complementary strategies-data mining techniques using genetic data as a starting point to be further enriched using other data-types, or alternatively to encode prior knowledge about disease mechanisms in a model based framework supporting reasoning and enrichment analysis. Our review illustrates the challenges entailed in integrating heterogeneous, multiscale and multimodal information in the area of neurology in general and neurodegeneration in particular. We conclude, that progress would be accelerated by increasing efforts on performing systematic collection of multiple data-types over time from each individual suffering from neurodegenerative disease. The work presented here has been driven by project AETIONOMY; a project funded in the course of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI); which is a public-private partnership of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations (EFPIA) and the European Commission (EC)

Near-Infrared Electroluminescence and Low Threshold Amplified Spontaneous Emission above 800 nm from a Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Emitter

International audienc

Optimal stride frequencies in running at different speeds

<div><p>During running at a constant speed, the optimal stride frequency (SF) can be derived from the u-shaped relationship between SF and heart rate (HR). Changing SF towards the optimum of this relationship is beneficial for energy expenditure and may positively change biomechanics of running. In the current study, the effects of speed on the optimal SF and the nature of the u-shaped relation were empirically tested using Generalized Estimating Equations. To this end, HR was recorded from twelve healthy (4 males, 8 females) inexperienced runners, who completed runs at three speeds. The three speeds were 90%, 100% and 110% of self-selected speed. A self-selected SF (SF_self) was determined for each of the speeds prior to the speed series. The speed series started with a free-chosen SF condition, followed by five imposed SF conditions (SF_self, 70, 80, 90, 100 strides·min^-1) assigned in random order. The conditions lasted 3 minutes with 2.5 minutes of walking in between. SF_self increased significantly (p<0.05) with speed with averages of 77, 79, 80 strides·min^-1 at 2.4, 2.6, 2.9 m·s^-1, respectively). As expected, the relation between SF and HR could be described by a parabolic curve for all speeds. Speed did not significantly affect the curvature, nor did it affect optimal SF. We conclude that over the speed range tested, inexperienced runners may not need to adapt their SF to running speed. However, since SF_self were lower than the SF_opt of 83 strides·min^-1, the runners could reduce HR by increasing their SF_self.</p></div

Synthesis and Electron Accepting Properties of Two Di(benz[f]indenone)-Fused Tetraazaanthracene Isomers

International audienceWe designed and synthesized a novel di(benz[f]indenone)-fused tetraazaanthracene derivative and isolated its two isomers, 1a and 1s, having anti and syn configurations, respectively. Their structure and that of the condensation reaction intermediates, anti-2a and syn-2s, were fully characterized using one- and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The optical and electronic properties of 1a and 1s were investigated using ultraviolet-visible absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies, cyclic voltammetry, and time-dependent density functional theory calculations. The presence of the carbonyl and ethynyltris(isopropyl)silane groups endows the di(benzoindenone)-fused azaacene derivatives with a strong electron accepting character. With an electron affinity of approximately -3.7 eV, the two isomers represent attractive electron-deficient molecular systems for the generation of n-channel semiconducting materials. Organic field effect transistors of 1a and 1s showed electron transport, and organic solar cells gave a proof of concept of the potential of the two compounds as electron acceptor materials when they are paired with an electron donor polymer

Synthesis and Electron Accepting Properties of Two Di(benz[ f ]indenone)-Fused Tetraazaanthracene Isomers

We designed and synthesized a novel di(benz[f ]-indenone)-fused tetraazaanthracene derivative and isolated its two isomers, 1a and 1s, having anti and syn configurations, respectively. Their structure and that of the condensation reaction intermediates, anti-2a and syn-2s, were fully characterized using one- and two dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and single crystal X-ray diffraction. The optical and electronic properties of 1a and 1s were investigated using ultraviolet−visible absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies, cyclic voltammetry, and time-dependent density functional theory calculations. The presence of the carbonyl and ethynyltris(isopropyl)silane groups endows the di(benzoindenone)-fused azaacene derivatives with a strong electron accepting character. With an electron affinity of approximately−3.7 eV, the two isomers represent attractive electron-deficient molecular systems for the generation of n-channel semiconducting materials. Organic field effect transistors of 1a and 1s showed electron transport, and organic solar cells gave a proof of concept of the potential of the two compounds as electron acceptor materials when they are paired with an electron donor polymer

Synthesis and Electron Accepting Properties of Two Di(benz[ f ]indenone)-Fused Tetraazaanthracene Isomers

We designed and synthesized a novel di(benz[f ]-indenone)-fused tetraazaanthracene derivative and isolated its two isomers, 1a and 1s, having anti and syn configurations, respectively. Their structure and that of the condensation reaction intermediates, anti-2a and syn-2s, were fully characterized using one- and two dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and single crystal X-ray diffraction. The optical and electronic properties of 1a and 1s were investigated using ultraviolet−visible absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies, cyclic voltammetry, and time-dependent density functional theory calculations. The presence of the carbonyl and ethynyltris(isopropyl)silane groups endows the di(benzoindenone)-fused azaacene derivatives with a strong electron accepting character. With an electron affinity of approximately−3.7 eV, the two isomers represent attractive electron-deficient molecular systems for the generation of n-channel semiconducting materials. Organic field effect transistors of 1a and 1s showed electron transport, and organic solar cells gave a proof of concept of the potential of the two compounds as electron acceptor materials when they are paired with an electron donor polymer