Cross sections for single and double strand breaks in SV-40 virus in EO buffer after heavy ion irradiation: Experiment and theory

Measured cross sections after heavy ion bombardment, for both single and double strand breaks of SV-40 virus in EO buffer (which emphasizes indirect effects), are consistent with the theory of Butts and Katz for 1-hit detectors

Cross sections for single and double strand breaks in SV-40 virus in EO buffer after heavy ion irradiation: Experiment and theory

Measured cross sections after heavy ion bombardment, for both single and double strand breaks of SV-40 virus in EO buffer (which emphasizes indirect effects), are consistent with the theory of Butts and Katz for 1-hit detectors

The State of Sustainable Research Software: Results from the Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE5.1)

This article summarizes motivations, organization, and activities of the Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE5.1) held in Manchester, UK in September 2017. The WSSSPE series promotes sustainable research software by positively impacting principles and best practices, careers, learning, and credit. This article discusses the Code of Conduct, idea papers, position papers, experience papers, demos, and lightning talks presented during the workshop. The main part of the article discusses the speed-blogging groups that formed during the meeting, along with the outputs of those sessions

Can Track and Field’s Governing Body Ban Female Runners From Competing in the U.S. Because of High Testosterone Levels?

This article explores the applicability, if any, in the United States of a decision rendered by a private sports arbitration organization in Lausanne, Switzerland: the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The decision validated regulations of World Athletics—the private organization that governs track and field internationally—which had the effect of banning an Olympic champion, Caster Semenya of South Africa, from international competition against females because she had testosterone levels that World Athletics deemed too high. The article focuses on the fact that the CAS decision uses the law of Monaco to decide the matter. CAS specifically states that the decision may not apply in other countries like the U.S. CAS expressly leaves such decisions to the courts of the respective countries involved. The article then explores the reasoning of CAS with respect to both the U.S. law of discrimination and the law of evidence. The article concludes that the CAS decision would not stand up under either set of laws in the United States. In particular, most of the evidence relied on by CAS would not be admissible in U.S. courts because of the standards set in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), that prohibit expert testimony not in accord with generally accepted scientific standards

Detection of Energetic Heavy Ions

The delta-ray theory of track structure, applied earlier to such 1-or-more hit detection systems as the inactivation of dry enzymes and viruses, the NaI(Tl) scintillation counter, and nuclear emulsion, is extended to the silver activated phosphate glass dosimeter, the LiF thermoluminescent dosimeter, the creation of free radicals in solid biological substances, solid and liquid organic scintillators, and the ferrous sulfate (Fricke) dosimeter. The response of these systems to both gamma-rays and heavy ions is characterized by two parameters: 1) Dγ37, the dose of gamma-rays at which 37% of the sensitive elements remain unaffected by the radiation, and 2) a0, the physical radius (or the exciton diffusion length, or the range of short-range order) of the sensitive element. The decline of detector response with increase in the stopping power of the bombarding ion, and the non-linearity of the detector response are characteristic properties of 1-hit detectors, and are most pronounced for the most sensitive detectors. Explicit information about the cross-sectional area of the sensitive target cannot be gained from measurement of the activation cross-section as a function of the stopping power of the incident ion, for there is no saturation cross-section for 1-hit detectors. Since parameters describing the incident ion and those describing the detector are not separable variables, the response of a detector cannot be described through a product of two factors, one containing only ion parameters and representing “radiation quality,” and the other containing only detector parameters and representing “ detector quality.

Incidence and Risk Factors Associated with a Second Squamous Cell Carcinoma or Basal Cell Carcinoma in Psoralen + Ultraviolet A Light-treated Psoriasis Patients

Psoralen + ultraviolet A-treated psoriasis patients are at increased risk for squamous cell carcinomas and basal cell carcinomas; however, the incidence and risk factors associated with second squamous cell carcinomas and basal cell carcinomas in this population are not well qualified. Incidence and risk factors for second squamous cell carcinomas and basal cell carcinomas were studied in a cohort of 1380 psoralen + ultraviolet A-treated psoriasis patients prospectively followed for over 20 y; 264 had a squamous cell carcinoma and 258 a basal cell carcinoma after beginning psoralen + ultraviolet A therapy. After a first squamous cell carcinoma, the risk of a second squamous cell carcinoma was 26% at 1 y, 62% at 5 y, and 75% at 10 y. Risk increased with high psoralen + ultraviolet A exposure prior to the first squamous cell carcinoma (hazard ratio 3.32, 95% confidence interval 1.53, 7.18). Higher rates of post-first squamous cell carcinoma psoralen + ultraviolet A treatment also were associated with greater risk (hazard ratio 1.56 for every additional 10 treatments per year for patients with low pre-first squamous cell carcinoma psoralen + ultraviolet A exposure, 95% confidence interval 1.35, 1.81). Patients exposed to high levels of tar and/or ultraviolet B before a first squamous cell carcinoma were also at higher risk (hazard ratio 1.72, 95% confidence interval 1.14–2.60). Risk of a second basal cell carcinoma was 21% at 1 y, 49% at 5 y, and 61% at 10 y. There was some evidence that high exposure to psoralen + ultraviolet A before a first basal cell carcinoma was associated with increased risk of second basal cell carcinoma (hazard ratio 1.45, 95% confidence interval 0.97–2.17). Higher post-first tumor psoralen + ultraviolet A treatment rates also increased risk (hazard ratio 1.24 for every additional 10 treatments per year, 95% confidence interval 1.06–1.47). Psoralen + ultraviolet A-treated psoriasis patients appear to have a greatly increased incidence of second squamous cell carcinoma compared with the general population. Patients who develop a squamous cell carcinoma after starting psoralen + ultraviolet A therapy should be closely monitored for a subsequent squamous cell carcinoma

Research Software Development & Management in Universities: Case Studies from Manchester's RSDS Group, Illinois' NCSA, and Notre Dame's CRC

Modern research in the sciences, engineering, humanities, and other fields depends on software, and specifically, research software. Much of this research software is developed in universities, by faculty, postdocs, students, and staff. In this paper, we focus on the role of university staff. We examine three different, independently-developed models under which these staff are organized and perform their work, and comparatively analyze these models and their consequences on the staff and on the software, considering how the different models support software engineering practices and processes. This information can be used by software engineering researchers to understand the practices of such organizations and by universities who want to set up similar organizations and to better produce and maintain research software.Comment: 2019 Intl. Work. on Soft. Eng. for Science (SE4Science), May 28, 2019, with ICSE'1

Cauchy, infinitesimals and ghosts of departed quantifiers

Procedures relying on infinitesimals in Leibniz, Euler and Cauchy have been interpreted in both a Weierstrassian and Robinson's frameworks. The latter provides closer proxies for the procedures of the classical masters. Thus, Leibniz's distinction between assignable and inassignable numbers finds a proxy in the distinction between standard and nonstandard numbers in Robinson's framework, while Leibniz's law of homogeneity with the implied notion of equality up to negligible terms finds a mathematical formalisation in terms of standard part. It is hard to provide parallel formalisations in a Weierstrassian framework but scholars since Ishiguro have engaged in a quest for ghosts of departed quantifiers to provide a Weierstrassian account for Leibniz's infinitesimals. Euler similarly had notions of equality up to negligible terms, of which he distinguished two types: geometric and arithmetic. Euler routinely used product decompositions into a specific infinite number of factors, and used the binomial formula with an infinite exponent. Such procedures have immediate hyperfinite analogues in Robinson's framework, while in a Weierstrassian framework they can only be reinterpreted by means of paraphrases departing significantly from Euler's own presentation. Cauchy gives lucid definitions of continuity in terms of infinitesimals that find ready formalisations in Robinson's framework but scholars working in a Weierstrassian framework bend over backwards either to claim that Cauchy was vague or to engage in a quest for ghosts of departed quantifiers in his work. Cauchy's procedures in the context of his 1853 sum theorem (for series of continuous functions) are more readily understood from the viewpoint of Robinson's framework, where one can exploit tools such as the pointwise definition of the concept of uniform convergence. Keywords: historiography; infinitesimal; Latin model; butterfly modelComment: 45 pages, published in Mat. Stu