Taxonomy for Humans or Computers? Cognitive Pragmatics for Big Data

Criticism of big data has focused on showing that more is not necessarily better, in the sense that data may lose their value when taken out of context and aggregated together. The next step is to incorporate an awareness of pitfalls for aggregation into the design of data infrastructure and institutions. A common strategy minimizes aggregation errors by increasing the precision of our conventions for identifying and classifying data. As a counterpoint, we argue that there are pragmatic trade-offs between precision and ambiguity that are key to designing effective solutions for generating big data about biodiversity. We focus on the importance of theory-dependence as a source of ambiguity in taxonomic nomenclature and hence a persistent challenge for implementing a single, long-term solution to storing and accessing meaningful sets of biological specimens. We argue that ambiguity does have a positive role to play in scientific progress as a tool for efficiently symbolizing multiple aspects of taxa and mediating between conflicting hypotheses about their nature. Pursuing a deeper understanding of the trade-offs and synthesis of precision and ambiguity as virtues of scientific language and communication systems then offers a productive next step for realizing sound, big biodiversity data services

A Study of Flexibility in Wrestlers as Compared with Other Sport Groups

Flexibility in the human is relatively new in research. As a part of kinesiology it has not been studied extensively. Flexibility and its implication on athletic performance has not been studied extensively. The teaching of skills requires a knowledge and understanding of the range and movement of which joints are generally capable. More research is needed to determine the place of flexibility in athletic training programs and this has been the motive for conducting this study. The basic purpose of this study was to determine the extent of flexibility of wrestlers as compared with football players, basketball players, shot putters and discus throwers, and 18-year-old college freshman non-athletes. The measurements of flexibility for wrestlers were determined from 41 freshmen and varsity wrestlers of South Dakota State College and Mankato State College during the 1962-63 school year. The measurements for the other groups had been previously established by other studied. With the exception of football players, all the subjects were measured by 28 standard flexibility measures established by Leighton, and the measuring instrument used was the Leighton Flexometer. Because just nine measurements of flexibility for football players were available, the comparison with wrestlers was based on this number. The data from the measurements on wrestlers were analyzed statistically to determine whether any or all of these scores differed significantly from those previously established for basketball players, football players, shot putters and discus throwers, and 18 year old college freshman non athletes

Immune response following traumatic spinal cord injury: Pathophysiology and therapies

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition that is often associated with significant loss of function and/or permanent disability. The pathophysiology of SCI is complex and occurs in two phases. First, the mechanical damage from the trauma causes immediate acute cell dysfunction and cell death. Then, secondary mechanisms of injury further propagate the cell dysfunction and cell death over the course of days, weeks, or even months. Among the secondary injury mechanisms, inflammation has been shown to be a key determinant of the secondary injury severity and significantly worsens cell death and functional outcomes. Thus, in addition to surgical management of SCI, selectively targeting the immune response following SCI could substantially decrease the progression of secondary injury and improve patient outcomes. In order to develop such therapies, a detailed molecular understanding of the timing of the immune response following SCI is necessary. Recently, several studies have mapped the cytokine/chemokine and cell proliferation patterns following SCI. In this review, we examine the immune response underlying the pathophysiology of SCI and assess both current and future therapies including pharmaceutical therapies, stem cell therapy, and the exciting potential of extracellular vesicle therapy

Electromechanical Piezoresistive Sensing in Suspended Graphene Membranes

Monolayer graphene exhibits exceptional electronic and mechanical properties, making it a very promising material for nanoelectromechanical (NEMS) devices. Here, we conclusively demonstrate the piezoresistive effect in graphene in a nano-electromechanical membrane configuration that provides direct electrical readout of pressure to strain transduction. This makes it highly relevant for an important class of nano-electromechanical system (NEMS) transducers. This demonstration is consistent with our simulations and previously reported gauge factors and simulation values. The membrane in our experiment acts as a strain gauge independent of crystallographic orientation and allows for aggressive size scalability. When compared with conventional pressure sensors, the sensors have orders of magnitude higher sensitivity per unit area.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure

Establishing catalytic activity on an artificial (βα)8-barrel protein designed from identical half-barrels

AbstractIt has been postulated that the ubiquitous (βα)8-barrel enzyme fold has evolved by duplication and fusion of an ancestral (βα)4-half-barrel. We have previously reconstructed this process in the laboratory by fusing two copies of the C-terminal half-barrel HisF-C of imidazole glycerol phosphate synthase (HisF). The resulting construct HisF-CC was stepwise stabilized to Sym1 and Sym2, which are extremely robust but catalytically inert proteins. Here, we report on the generation of a circular permutant of Sym2 and the establishment of a sugar isomerization reaction on its scaffold. Our results demonstrate that duplication and mutagenesis of (βα)4-half-barrels can readily lead to a stable and catalytically active (βα)8-barrel enzyme

Understanding Opioid Users’ Views on Fentanyl could help Reduce Overdoses

The opioid overdose crisis is a national public health emergency, made much worse in recent years by the widespread emergence of fentanyl – a highly potent synthetic opioid. This research brief summarizes the findings from their research conducted in southwestern Pennsylvania in 2017 and 2018. Results show that the majority of interviewees who use opioids are fearful of and want to avoid fentanyl and would utilize harm reduction strategies such as fentanyl test strips if they were made more widely available

The Stories behind the Struggle: A Closer Look at First Experiences with Opioid Misuse

The opioid crisis is a national public health emergency. Over 47,000 people in the U.S. died of opioid overdoses in 2017. Improving our knowledge about how people first come to misuse opioids can help to inform prevention and treatment interventions. This research brief shows that opioid misuse most often begins before age 25, most people obtain the opioids they misuse from friends and family rather than a health care provider, and experimenting and coping with life stressors are the most common motivations for starting opioid misuse

The Stories behind the Struggle: A Closer Look at First Experiences with Opioid Misuse

The opioid crisis is a national public health emergency. Over 47,000 people in the U.S. died of opioid overdoses in 2017. Improving our knowledge about how people first come to misuse opioids can help to inform prevention and treatment interventions. This research brief shows that opioid misuse most often begins before age 25, most people obtain the opioids they misuse from friends and family rather than a health care provider, and experimenting and coping with life stressors are the most common motivations for starting opioid misuse