246 research outputs found

    Enhancing Scholarly Publications: Developing Hybrid Monographs in the Humanities and Social Sciences

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    Enhancing publications has a long history but is gaining acceleration as authors and publishers explore electronic tablets as devices for dissemination and presentation. Enhancement of scholarly publications, in contrast, more often takes place in a Web environment and is coupled with presentation of supplementary materials related to research. The approach to enhancing scholarly publications presented in this article goes a step further and involves the interlinking of the “objects” of a document: datasets, supplementary materials, secondary analyses, and post-publication interventions. This approach connects the user-centricity of Web 2.0 with the Semantic Web. It aims at facilitating long-term content structure through standardized formats intended to improve interoperability between concepts and terms within and across knowledge domains. We explored this conception of enhancement on a small set of books prepared for traditional academic publishers. While the project was primarily an exercise in development, the conclusion section of the article reflects on areas where conceptual and empirical studies could be initiated to complement this new direction in scholarly publishing.FSW - CWTS - Ou

    280 one-opposition near-Earth asteroids recovered by the EURONEAR with the <i>Isaac Newton</i> Telescope

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    Context. One-opposition near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are growing in number, and they must be recovered to prevent loss and mismatch risk, and to improve their orbits, as they are likely to be too faint for detection in shallow surveys at future apparitions. Aims. We aimed to recover more than half of the one-opposition NEAs recommended for observations by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) using the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in soft-override mode and some fractions of available D-nights. During about 130 h in total between 2013 and 2016, we targeted 368 NEAs, among which 56 potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), observing 437 INT Wide Field Camera (WFC) fields and recovering 280 NEAs (76% of all targets). Methods. Engaging a core team of about ten students and amateurs, we used the THELI, Astrometrica, and the Find_Orb software to identify all moving objects using the blink and track-and-stack method for the faintest targets and plotting the positional uncertainty ellipse from NEODyS. Results. Most targets and recovered objects had apparent magnitudes centered around V ~ 22.8 mag, with some becoming as faint as V ~ 24 mag. One hundred and three objects (representing 28% of all targets) were recovered by EURONEAR alone by Aug. 2017. Orbital arcs were prolonged typically from a few weeks to a few years; our oldest recoveries reach 16 years. The O−C residuals for our 1854 NEA astrometric positions show that most measurements cluster closely around the origin. In addition to the recovered NEAs, 22 000 positions of about 3500 known minor planets and another 10 000 observations of about 1500 unknown objects (mostly main-belt objects) were promptly reported to the MPC by our team. Four new NEAs were discovered serendipitously in the analyzed fields and were promptly secured with the INT and other telescopes, while two more NEAs were lost due to extremely fast motion and lack of rapid follow-up time. They increase the counting to nine NEAs discovered by the EURONEAR in 2014 and 2015. Conclusions. Targeted projects to recover one-opposition NEAs are efficient in override access, especially using at least two-meter class and preferably larger field telescopes located in good sites, which appear even more efficient than the existing surveys

    The Effect of Calcium Ions on Mechanosensation and Neuronal Activity in Proprioceptive Neurons

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    Proprioception of all animals is important in being able to have coordinated locomotion. Stretch activated ion channels (SACs) transduce the mechanical force into electrical signals in the proprioceptive sensory endings. The types of SACs vary among sensory neurons in animals as defined by pharmacological, physiological and molecular identification. The chordotonal organs within insects and crustaceans offer a unique ability to investigate proprioceptive function. The effects of the extracellular environment on neuronal activity, as well as the function of associated SACs are easily accessible and viable in minimal saline for ease in experimentation. The effect of extracellular [Ca2+] on membrane properties which affect voltage-sensitivity of ion channels, threshold of action potentials and SACs can be readily addressed in the chordotonal organ in crab limbs. It is of interest to understand how low extracellular [Ca2+] enhances neural activity considering the SACs in the sensory endings could possibly be Ca2+ channels and that all neural activity is blocked with Mn2+. It is suggested that axonal excitability might be affected independent from the SAC activity due to potential presence of calcium activated potassium channels (K(Ca)) and the ability of Ca2+ to block voltage gated Na+ channels in the axons. Separating the role of Ca2+ on the function of the SACs and the excitability of the axons in the nerves associated with chordotonal organs is addressed. These experiments may aid in understanding the mechanisms of neuronal hyperexcitability during hypocalcemia within mammals

    The implicitome: A resource for rationalizing gene-disease associations

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    High-throughput experimental methods such as medical sequencing and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identify increasingly large numbers of potential relations between genetic variants and diseases. Both biological complexity (millions of potential gene-disease associations) and the accelerating rate of data production necessitate computational approaches to prioritize and rationalize potential gene-disease relations. Here, we use concept profile technology to expose from the biomedical literature both explicitly stated gene-disease relations (the explicitome) and a much larger set of implied gene-disease associations (the implicitome). Implicit relations are largely unknown to, or are even unintended by the original authors, but they vastly extend the reach of existing

    A new biphasic osteoinductive calcium composite material with a negative Zeta potential for bone augmentation

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    The aim of the present study was to analyze the osteogenic potential of a biphasic calcium composite material (BCC) with a negative surface charge for maxillary sinus floor augmentation. In a 61 year old patient, the BCC material was used in a bilateral sinus floor augmentation procedure. Six months postoperative, a bone sample was taken from the augmented regions before two titanium implants were inserted at each side. We analyzed bone neoformation by histology, bone density by computed tomography, and measured the activity of voltage-activated calcium currents of osteoblasts and surface charge effects. Control orthopantomograms were carried out five months after implant insertion. The BCC was biocompatible and replaced by new mineralized bone after being resorbed completely. The material demonstrated a negative surface charge (negative Zeta potential) which was found to be favorable for bone regeneration and osseointegration of dental implants

    Citalopram reduces aggregation of ATXN3 in a YAC transgenic mouse model of Machado-Joseph disease

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    Machado-Joseph disease, also known as spinocerebellar ataxia type 3, is a fatal polyglutamine disease with no disease-modifying treatment. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor citalopram was shown in nematode and mouse models to be a compelling repurposing candidate for Machado-Joseph disease therapeutics. We sought to confirm the efficacy of citalopram to decrease ATXN3 aggregation in an unrelated mouse model of Machado-Joseph disease. Four-week-old YACMJD84.2 mice and non-transgenic littermates were given citalopram 8 mg/kg in drinking water or water for 10 weeks. At the end of treatment, brains were collected for biochemical and pathological analyses. Brains of citalopram-treated YACMJD84.2 mice showed an approximate 50% decrease in the percentage of cells containing ATXN3-positive inclusions in the substantia nigra and three examined brainstem nuclei compared to controls. No differences in ATXN3 inclusion load were observed in deep cerebellar nuclei of mice. Citalopram effect on ATXN3 aggregate burden was corroborated by immunoblotting analysis. While lysates from the brainstem and cervical spinal cord of citalopram-treated mice showed a decrease in all soluble forms of ATXN3 and a trend toward reduction of insoluble ATXN3, no differences in ATXN3 levels were found between cerebella of citalopram-treated and vehicle-treated mice. Citalopram treatment altered levels of select components of the cellular protein homeostatic machinery that may be expected to enhance the capacity to refold and/or degrade mutant ATXN3. The results here obtained in a second independent mouse model of Machado-Joseph disease further support citalopram as a potential drug to be repurposed for this fatal disorder.This work was funded by Becky Babcox Research Fund/pilot research award G015617, University of Michigan to M.C.C. and NINDS/NIH R01NS038712 to H.L.P. The work performed at the University of Minho was funded by the European Regional Development Funds (FEDER), through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE), and by National funds, through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007038. This article was developed under the scope of the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Program (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the FEDER. This work was also supported by FCT and COMPETE through the projects [PTDC/SAU-GMG/112617/2009] (to P.M.) and [EXPL/BIM-MEC/ 0239/2012] (to A.T.C.); by FCT through the project [POCI-01-0145- FEDER-016818 (PTDC/NEU-NMC/3648/2014)] (to P.M.); by National Ataxia Foundation (to P.M. and to A.T.C.); and by Ataxia UK (to P.M.). S.D.S. and A.T.C. were supported by fellowships from FCT, SFRH/BD/ 78388/2011 and SFRH/BPD/102317/2014, respectively. FCT fellowships are co-financed by POPH, QREN, Governo da República Portuguesa and EU/FSE

    The Implicitome: A Resource for Rationalizing Gene-Disease Associations

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    High-throughput experimental methods such as medical sequencing and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identify increasingly large numbers of potential relations between genetic variants and diseases. Both biological complexity (millions of potential gene-disease associations) and the accelerating rate of data production necessitate computational approaches to prioritize and rationalize potential gene-disease relations. Here, we use concept profile technology to expose from the biomedical literature both explicitly stated gene-disease relations (the explicitome) and a much larger set of implied gene-disease associations (the implicitome). Implicit relations are largely unknown to, or are even unintended by the original authors, but they vastly extend the reach of existing biomedical knowledge for identification and interpretation of gene-disease associations. The implicitome can be used in conjunction with experimental data resources to rationalize both known and novel associations. We demonstrate the usefulness of the implicitome by rationalizing known and novel gene-disease associations, including those from GWAS. To facilitate the re-use of implicit gene-disease associations, we publish our data in compliance with FAIR Data Publishing recommendations [https://www.force11.org/group/fairgroup] using nanopublications. An online tool (http://knowledge.bio) is available to explore established and potential gene-disease associations in the context of other biomedical relations.UB – Publicatie

    Design and construction of the MicroBooNE detector

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    This paper describes the design and construction of the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber and associated systems. MicroBooNE is the first phase of the Short Baseline Neutrino program, located at Fermilab, and will utilize the capabilities of liquid argon detectors to examine a rich assortment of physics topics. In this document details of design specifications, assembly procedures, and acceptance tests are reported
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