RPYS i/o: A web-based tool for the historiography and visualization of citation classics, sleeping beauties, and research fronts

Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS) and Multi-RPYS provide algorithmic approaches to reconstructing the intellectual histories of scientific fields. With this brief communication, we describe a technical advancement for developing research historiographies by introducing RPYS i/o, an online tool for performing standard RPYS and Multi-RPYS analyses interactively (at http://comins.leydesdorff.net/). The tool enables users to explore seminal works underlying a research field and to plot the influence of these seminal works over time. This suite of visualizations offers the potential to analyze and visualize the myriad of temporal dynamics of scientific influence, such as citation classics, sleeping beauties, and the dynamics of research fronts. We demonstrate the features of the tool by analyzing--as an example--the references in documents published in the journal Philosophy of Science

Instability of non-supersymmetric smooth geometries

Recently certain non-supersymmetric solutions of type IIb supergravity were constructed [hep-th/0504181], which are everywhere smooth, have no horizons and are thought to describe certain non-BPS microstates of the D1-D5 system. We demonstrate that these solutions are all classically unstable. The instability is a generic feature of horizonless geometries with an ergoregion. We consider the endpoint of this instability and argue that the solutions decay to supersymmetric configurations. We also comment on the implications of the ergoregion instability for Mathur's `fuzzball' proposal.Comment: v2: typos corrected, reference adde

Synergistic effects of oncolytic reovirus and docetaxel chemotherapy in prostate cancer

Reovirus type 3 Dearing (T3D) has demonstrated oncolytic activity in vitro, in in vivo murine models and in early clinical trials. However the true potential of oncolytic viruses may only be realized fully in combination with other modalities such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy and radiotherapy. In this study, we examine the oncolytic activity of reovirus T3D and chemotherapeutic agents against human prostate cancer cell lines, with particular focus on the highly metastatic cell line PC3 and the chemotherapeutic agent docetaxel. Docetaxel is the standard of care for metastatic prostate cancer and acts by disrupting the normal process of microtubule assembly and disassembly. Reoviruses have been shown to associate with microtubules and may require this association for efficient viral replication

Prophylactic radiotherapy for the prevention of procedure-tract metastases after surgical and large-bore pleural procedures in malignant pleural mesothelioma (SMART): a multicentre, open-label, phase 3, randomised controlled trial.

The use of prophylactic radiotherapy to prevent procedure-tract metastases (PTMs) in malignant pleural mesothelioma remains controversial, and clinical practice varies worldwide. We aimed to compare prophylactic radiotherapy with deferred radiotherapy (given only when a PTM developed) in a suitably powered trial.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the 'Additional Link' above to access the full-text via the publisher's site.Published (Open Access

Pattern-Induced Covert Category Learning in Songbirds

Language is uniquely human, but its acquisition may involve cognitive capacities shared with other species. During development, language experience alters speech sound (phoneme) categorization. Newborn infants distinguish the phonemes in all languages but by 10 months show adult-like greater sensitivity to native language phonemic contrasts than non-native contrasts. Distributional theories account for phonetic learning by positing that infants infer category boundaries from modal distributions of speech sounds along acoustic continua. For example, tokens of the sounds /b/ and /p/ cluster around different mean voice onset times. To disambiguate overlapping distributions, contextual theories propose that phonetic category learning is informed by higher-level patterns (e.g., words) in which phonemes normally occur. For example, the vowel sounds /Ι/ and /e/ can occupy similar perceptual spaces but can be distinguished in the context of "with" and "well." Both distributional and contextual cues appear to function in speech acquisition. Non-human species also benefit from distributional cues for category learning, but whether category learning benefits from contextual information in non-human animals is unknown. The use of higher-level patterns to guide lower-level category learning may reflect uniquely human capacities tied to language acquisition or more general learning abilities reflecting shared neurobiological mechanisms. Using songbirds, European starlings, we show that higher-level pattern learning covertly enhances categorization of the natural communication sounds. This observation mirrors the support for contextual theories of phonemic category learning in humans and demonstrates a general form of learning not unique to humans or language