Are We Legislating Away Our Scientific Future? The Database Debate

The ambiguity of the present copyright laws governing the protection of databases creates a situation where database owners, unsure of how IP laws safeguard their information, overprotect their data with oppressive licenses and technological mechanisms (condoned by the DMCA) that impede interoperation. Databases are fundamental to scientific research, yet the lack of interoperability between databases and limited access inhibits this research. The US Congress, spurred by the European Database Directive, and heavily lobbied by the commercial database industry, is presently considering ways to legislate database protections; most of the present suggestions for legislation will be detrimental to scientific progress. The author agrees that new legislation is necessary, but not to provide extra-copyright protections, as database owners would like, but to create an environment wherein data is easily accessible to academic research and interoperability is encouraged; yet simultaneously providing database owners with incentives to produce new databases. One possibility would be to introduce standardized compulsory licensing of databases to academics following an embargo period where databases could be sold at free-market prices (to recoup costs). Databases would be given some sort of intellectual property protection both during and after this embargo in return for a limiting of technical safeguards and conforming to interoperability standards

Maskless imaging of dense samples using pixel super-resolution based multi-height lensfree on-chip microscopy.

Lensfree in-line holographic microscopy offers sub-micron resolution over a large field-of-view (e.g., ~24 mm2) with a cost-effective and compact design suitable for field use. However, it is limited to relatively low-density samples. To mitigate this limitation, we demonstrate an on-chip imaging approach based on pixel super-resolution and phase recovery, which iterates among multiple lensfree intensity measurements, each having a slightly different sample-to-sensor distance. By digitally aligning and registering these lensfree intensity measurements, phase and amplitude images of dense and connected specimens can be iteratively reconstructed over a large field-of-view of ~24 mm2 without the use of any spatial masks. We demonstrate the success of this multi-height in-line holographic approach by imaging dense Papanicolaou smears (i.e., Pap smears) and blood samples

Bolitoglossa heiroreias

Number of Pages: 3Integrative BiologyGeological Science

A Lanczos Method for Approximating Composite Functions

We seek to approximate a composite function h(x) = g(f(x)) with a global polynomial. The standard approach chooses points x in the domain of f and computes h(x) at each point, which requires an evaluation of f and an evaluation of g. We present a Lanczos-based procedure that implicitly approximates g with a polynomial of f. By constructing a quadrature rule for the density function of f, we can approximate h(x) using many fewer evaluations of g. The savings is particularly dramatic when g is much more expensive than f or the dimension of x is large. We demonstrate this procedure with two numerical examples: (i) an exponential function composed with a rational function and (ii) a Navier-Stokes model of fluid flow with a scalar input parameter that depends on multiple physical quantities

Computer program for predicting creep behavior of bodies of revolution

Computer program, CRAB, uses finite-element method to calculate creep behavior and predict steady-state stresses in an arbitrary body of revolution subjected to a time-dependent axisymmetric load. Creep strains follow a time hardening law and a Prandtl-Reuss stress-strain relationship

Diversity, Social Goods Provision, and Performance in the Firm

The last decade has seen a growing interest among economists on the effect of diversity on the provision of social goods and the stock of social capital. Indeed, in the workplace, cooperation, trust, and other social goods may be important elements of the smooth functioning of an office, but firm owners ultimately care about an office’s performance, as reflected in revenues, costs, and profits. We explore this next logical question: how does diversity affect ultimate performance? We have a unique data set from a firm which operates numerous small offices in the United States and abroad. They have provided us with eight years of individual-level employee survey data, which measure quantities such as level of cooperation, as well as office-level measures of diversity and performance over that period. We find some evidence that more homogeneous offices enjoy higher levels of social goods provision but that those offices do not perform any better and may actually perform worse. We speculate that one possible reason that the more homogeneous offices do not perform better despite higher levels of social goods provision is that they do not have as diverse a portfolio of skills, talents, and interests on which to draw.diversity, social goods

Into the Light: Diurnality has Evolved Multiple Times in Geckos

Geckos are the only major lizard group consisting mostly of nocturnal species. Nocturnality is presumed to have evolved early in gecko evolution and geckos possess numerous adaptations to functioning in low light and at low temperatures. However, not all gecko species are nocturnal and most diurnal geckos have their own distinct adaptations to living in warmer, sunlit environments. We reconstructed the evolution of gecko activity patterns using a newly generated time-calibrated phylogeny. Our results provide the first phylogenetic analysis of temporal activity patterns in geckos and confirm an ancient origin of nocturnality at the root of the gecko tree. We identify multiple transitions to diurnality at a variety of evolutionary time scales and transitions back to nocturnality occur in several predominantly diurnal clades. The scenario presented here will be useful in reinterpreting existing hypotheses of how geckos have adapted to varying thermal and light environments. These results can also inform future research of gecko ecology, physiology, morphology and vision as it relates to changes in temporal activity patterns