A quantitative perspective on ethics in large team science

The gradual crowding out of singleton and small team science by large team endeavors is challenging key features of research culture. It is therefore important for the future of scientific practice to reflect upon the individual scientist's ethical responsibilities within teams. To facilitate this reflection we show labor force trends in the US revealing a skewed growth in academic ranks and increased levels of competition for promotion within the system; we analyze teaming trends across disciplines and national borders demonstrating why it is becoming difficult to distribute credit and to avoid conflicts of interest; and we use more than a century of Nobel prize data to show how science is outgrowing its old institutions of singleton awards. Of particular concern within the large team environment is the weakening of the mentor-mentee relation, which undermines the cultivation of virtue ethics across scientific generations. These trends and emerging organizational complexities call for a universal set of behavioral norms that transcend team heterogeneity and hierarchy. To this end, our expository analysis provides a survey of ethical issues in team settings to inform science ethics education and science policy.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Keywords: team ethics; team management; team evaluation; science of scienc

An Empirical Study Comparing Unobtrusive Physiological Sensors for Stress Detection in Computer Work.

Several unobtrusive sensors have been tested in studies to capture physiological reactions to stress in workplace settings. Lab studies tend to focus on assessing sensors during a specific computer task, while in situ studies tend to offer a generalized view of sensors' efficacy for workplace stress monitoring, without discriminating different tasks. Given the variation in workplace computer activities, this study investigates the efficacy of unobtrusive sensors for stress measurement across a variety of tasks. We present a comparison of five physiological measurements obtained in a lab experiment, where participants completed six different computer tasks, while we measured their stress levels using a chest-band (ECG, respiration), a wristband (PPG and EDA), and an emerging thermal imaging method (perinasal perspiration). We found that thermal imaging can detect increased stress for most participants across all tasks, while wrist and chest sensors were less generalizable across tasks and participants. We summarize the costs and benefits of each sensor stream, and show how some computer use scenarios present usability and reliability challenges for stress monitoring with certain physiological sensors. We provide recommendations for researchers and system builders for measuring stress with physiological sensors during workplace computer use

Cervical epithelial damage and preterm birth

Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity. The uterine cervix is key in maintaining a healthy pregnancy. Excisional procedures for the treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) are associated with preterm birth (PTB), but underlying mechanisms are yet to be described. Intrauterine infection is involved in 40% of PTB and cervical damage is likely to facilitate ascending infection with vaginal bacteria. The aim of this thesis was to establish and characterise an in vitro and in vivo model of cervical damage to study its interplay with ascending infection. For this, the surfactant N-9 was used as a damage agent. N-9 was found to reduce the endocervical epithelial cells’ viability and compromise their epithelial permeability in vitro. When vaginally administered in pregnant C57Bl/6 mice, N-9 disrupted the structural integrity of the cervical epithelium, caused an influx of neutrophils and resulted in increased cell proliferation in the basement membrane of the cervix. Similar where the findings in the vaginal epithelium. However, N-9-induced epithelial damage had no effect on timing of delivery or pup survival. Following vaginal infection with a luciferase-expressing Ureaplasma parvum, mice previously treated with N-9 exhibited higher rates of ascending infection, with increased bioluminescence signal in the upper reproductive tract. They also demonstrated higher bacterial titres in the amniotic fluid and higher bacterial product copy numbers in the reproductive tissues. This resulted in increased preterm birth rates among mice in this group compared to vehicle-treated controls. Infection with Ureaplasma parvum was characterised by an inflammatory response in the uterus, the placenta and the fetal membranes with increased expression of the proinflammatory cytokines TNFa, IL-1b, CXCL-1 and CXCL-2. This effect may be mediated by TLR2, the expression of which was also shown to increase accordingly. Overall, these findings suggest that cervical epithelial damage facilitates ascending infection. This is a potential mechanism explaining the higher PTB incidence among women treated for CIN. The robust model of cervical epithelial damage during pregnancy described in this thesis can be used to study the barrier function of the cervix and its interplay with ascending infection in future studies

Preterm birth therapies to target inflammation

Preterm birth (PTB; defined as delivery before 37 weeks of pregnancy) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in infants and children aged <5 years, conferring potentially devastating short‐ and long‐term complications. Despite extensive research in the field, there is currently a paucity of medications available for PTB prevention and treatment. Over the past few decades, inflammation in gestational tissues has emerged at the forefront of PTB pathophysiology. Even in the absence of infection, inflammation alone can prematurely activate the main components of parturition resulting in uterine contractions, cervical ripening and dilatation, membrane rupture, and subsequent PTB. Mechanistic studies have identified critical elements of the complex inflammatory molecular pathways involved in PTB. Here, we discuss therapeutic options that target such key mediators with an aim to prevent, postpone, or treat PTB. We provide an overview of more traditional therapies that are currently used or being tested in humans, and we highlight recent advances in preclinical studies introducing novel approaches with therapeutic potential. We conclude that urgent collaborative action is required to address the unmet need of developing effective strategies to tackle the challenge of PTB and its complications

Biomedical Convergence Facilitated by the Emergence of Technological and Informatic Capabilities

We analyzed Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) from 21.6 million research articles indexed by PubMed to map this vast space of entities and their relations, providing insights into the origins and future of biomedical convergence. Detailed analysis of MeSH co-occurrence networks identifies three robust knowledge clusters: the vast universe of microscopic biological entities and structures; systems, disease and diagnostics; and emergent biological and social phenomena underlying the complex problems driving the health, behavioral and brain science frontiers. These domains integrated from the 1990s onward by way of technological and informatic capabilities that introduced highly controllable, scalable and permutable research processes and invaluable imaging techniques for illuminating fundamental structure-function-behavior questions. Article-level analysis confirms a positive relationship between team size and topical diversity, and shows convergence to be increasing in prominence but with recent saturation. Together, our results invite additional policy support for cross-disciplinary team assembly to harness transdisciplinary convergence.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures; 8 pages of Supplementary Informatio

Ο ρόλος του πατέρα στη διαμόρφωση της γυναικείας σεξουαλικής ταυτότητας: Μια κλινική περίπτωση

Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία επιχειρείται η μελέτη του ρόλου του πατέρα στις διαδικασίες διαμόρφωσης της σεξουαλικής ταυτότητας της γυναίκας. Πρόκειται για μια εννοιολογική – κλινική μελέτη, η οποία διακρίνεται σε θεωρητικό και κλινικό μέρος. Αρχικά, πραγματοποιείται μια βιβλιογραφική ανασκόπηση, στην οποία εξετάζεται ο ρόλος του πατέρα και ιδιαίτερα της συναισθηματικής του απουσίας, σε επιμέρους πτυχές της σεξουαλικής ταυτότητας του κοριτσιού και έπειτα της γυναίκας. Ειδικότερα, διερευνάται η συμβολή του πατέρα, ως αντικείμενο της ασυνείδητης φαντασίωσης, στην ψυχοσεξουαλική ανάπτυξη του κοριτσιού. Ο ρόλος του πατέρα στην προγενετήσια φάση της ανάπτυξης, τα πρώιμα άγχη που εγείρει η παρουσία ή η απουσία του, η συμμετοχή του στη φαντασίωση της πρωταρχικής σκηνής και στο οιδιπόδειο σύμπλεγμα καθώς και η ώθηση που δίνει στις διεργασίες ταυτότητας, μελετώνται εκτενώς. Στη συνέχεια, επιχειρείται η κλινική τεκμηρίωση – υποστήριξη των κυριότερων από τις ψυχαναλυτικές έννοιες της βιβλιογραφικής ανασκόπησης, μέσω της παρουσίασης κλινικού υλικού από τη θεραπεία μιας ασθενούς (Ν=1). Η μελέτη περίπτωσης αφορά ασθενή με καταθλιπτική συμπτωματολογία, για την οποία τα ζητήματα ταυτότητας (σεξουαλικής και φυλετικής) ανάγονται σε κυρίαρχα. Το υλικό συνίσταται σε αφηγήσεις, όνειρα και αναμνήσεις της ασθενούς, ενώ ιδιαίτερη έμφαση δίνεται στις επιπτώσεις της συναισθηματικής απουσίας του πατέρα στις διεργασίες ταυτότητας, όπως αυτές απεικονίζονται στον άξονα μεταβίβαση – αντιμεταβίβαση. Επιπλέον, στο κλινικό μέρος, γίνεται εστίαση στις σχέσεις αντικειμένου της ασθενούς, τις απαρτιωτικές διεργασίες ταυτότητας, την επιλογή αντικειμένου και τη φαντασίωση της πρωταρχικής σκηνής καθώς και την επαναβίωση των ανωτέρω θεμάτων στον μεταβιβαστικό χώρο. Περαιτέρω έμφαση δίνεται στις συνέπειες της συναισθηματικής απουσίας του πατέρα ως προς τη σεξουαλική ταυτότητα στη γυναίκα, στις οποίες περιλαμβάνονται μεταξύ άλλων οι προ-οιδιποδειακές καθηλώσεις και οι δυσκολίες ως προς τη δόμηση συνεκτικών ταυτίσεων. Τέλος, μέσω της θεραπείας, η οποία δύναται να έχει τη θέση πατρικής λειτουργίας, παρατηρούνται οι κινήσεις της ασθενούς ως προς την προοπτική της απαρτίωσης.In this thesis the role of the father and his contribution in the formation processes of female sexual identity is examined. The study uses a conceptual – clinical framework and consists of a theoretical part, in which a review of psychoanalytical concepts referred to the father in relation with the psychosexual development of his daughter is elaborated and a second part where a clinical study is presented. At first, the theoretical review reveals the role of the father and his absence, according to the psychoanalytic theory, in relation with the integrational processes of his daughter&apos;s sexual identity. The father, as an object of the unconscious fantasy, plays a crucial role in the pre-oedipal and the oedipal developmental stages as far as in the manifestation of early anxieties and the integrational processes of the sexual identity. In the second part, a clinical case (Ν=1) is presented in order to examine the theoretical concepts mentioned above in their clinical manifestations. The case study refers to a woman with depressive symptoms, whose preoccupation with identity issues (sexual and racial) was of paramount importance. The clinical study contains material such as the patient&apos;s dreams, her recollections and parts of her descriptions about critical events in her life. Specifically, the role of the parental imagos, the phantasy of the primal scene and the integrational identity processes are examined in detail. Furthermore, in the clinical material the consequences of the paternal absence in the processes of the female identity are underlined through the axis of transference – countertransference. It is inferred that the paternal emotional absence can hinder the integrational processes of the female sexual identity, creating pre – oedipal fixations and difficulties in the formation of coherent models of identification. As a conclusion, the therapeutic process, comprising qualities of paternal functioning, may facilitate the patient in the perspective of integration

Stress and productivity patterns of interrupted, synergistic, and antagonistic office activities.

We describe a controlled experiment, aiming to study productivity and stress effects of email interruptions and activity interactions in the modern office. The measurement set includes multimodal data for n = 63 knowledge workers who volunteered for this experiment and were randomly assigned into four groups: (G1/G2) Batch email interruptions with/without exogenous stress. (G3/G4) Continual email interruptions with/without exogenous stress. To provide context, the experiment's email treatments were surrounded by typical office tasks. The captured variables include physiological indicators of stress, measures of report writing quality and keystroke dynamics, as well as psychometric scores and biographic information detailing participants' profiles. Investigations powered by this dataset are expected to lead to personalized recommendations for handling email interruptions and a deeper understanding of synergistic and antagonistic office activities. Given the centrality of email in the modern office, and the importance of office work to people's lives and the economy, the present data have a valuable role to play