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The problem of pattern recognition can be stated as follows: Given an unknown function formula_4 (the "ground truth") that maps input instances formula_5 to output labels formula_6, along with training data formula_7 assumed to represent accurate examples of the mapping, produce a function formula_8 that approximates as closely as possible the correct mapping formula_9. (For example, if the problem is filtering spam, then formula_10 is some representation of an email and formula_11 is either "spam" or "non-spam"). In order for this to be a well-defined problem, "approximates as closely as possible" needs to be defined rigorously. In decision theory, this is defined by specifying a loss function or cost function that assigns a specific value to "loss" resulting from producing an incorrect label. The goal then is to minimize the expected loss, with the expectation taken over the probability distribution of formula_12. In practice, neither the distribution of formula_12 nor the ground truth function formula_4 are known exactly, but can be computed only empirically by collecting a large number of samples of formula_12 and hand-labeling them using the correct value of formula_16 (a time-consuming process, which is typically the limiting factor in the amount of data of this sort that can be collected). The particular loss function depends on the type of label being predicted. For example, in the case of classification, the simple zero-one loss function is often sufficient. This corresponds simply to assigning a loss of 1 to any incorrect labeling and implies that the optimal classifier minimizes the error rate on independent test data (i.e. counting up the fraction of instances that the learned function formula_8 labels wrongly, which is equivalent to maximizing the number of correctly classified instances). The goal of the learning procedure is then to minimize the error rate (maximize the correctness) on a "typical" test set.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=126706
| 195,343 |
828,470 |
Al-"trans"-retinoic acid (ATRA) is a morphogen signaling molecule, which means it is concentration dependent; malformations can arise when the concentration of ATRA is in excess or deficient. Other molecules that interact with ATRA are FGF8, Cdx and Hox genes, all participating in the development of various structures within the embryo. For example, ATRA plays an important role in activating Hox genes required for hindbrain development. The hindbrain, which later differentiates into the brain stem, serves as a major signaling center defining the border of the head and trunk. A double-sided retinoic acid gradient, that is high in the trunk and low at the junction with the head and tail, represses FGF8 in the developing trunk to allow normal somitogenesis, forelimb bud initiation, and formation of the atria in the heart. During exposure to excess ATRA, the hindbrain becomes enlarged, hindering the growth of other parts of the brain; other developmental abnormalities that can occur during excess ATRA are missing or fused somites, and problems with the aorta and large vessels within the heart. With an accumulation of these malformations, an individual can be diagnosed with DiGeorge syndrome. However, since ATRA partakes in various developmental processes, abnormalities associated with loss of ATRA are not just limited to sites associated with DiGeorge syndrome. Retinoic acid is essential throughout an individual's lifetime, but it is most critical during pregnancy. Without the proper concentrations of ATRA, severe abnormalities can be present and even fatal to the growing fetus. Genetic loss-of-function studies in mouse and zebrafish embryos that eliminate ATRA synthesis or ATRA receptors (RARs) have revealed abnormal development of the somites, forelimb buds, heart, hindbrain, spinal cord, eye, forebrain basal ganglia, kidney, foregut endoderm, etc.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3419656
| 828,024 |
1,511,224 |
The Chief Scientist provides senior leadership and develops high-level collaborations between Service, Department of Defense, local, national and international government, academia and industry, research, development, test, evaluation and acquisition organizations. The Chief Scientist oversees and manages a dynamic portfolio to meet organizational needs, while leveraging partnerships to develop tailored investments that advance state of the art solutions for world class precision medical care with an emphasis on mission aligned research in En Route Care, Trauma, Resuscitation and Stabilization; Diagnostics, Therapeutics and 'Omics; Modeling Simulation Training; Clinical Rehabilitative Medicine; and Clinical Investigations. This specialized expertise enables researchers to exploit new knowledge while developing, evaluating, and integrating applications of innovative technologies to provide the very best patient-centered care in the pre-hospital, in- and -out-patient environment, maintaining and restoring warfighter and beneficiary health, and building warrior medics to address present and future mission challenges. The ST office supports clinical researchers at over 70 sites worldwide. The Wing Chief Scientist is also the Authorized Institutional Official charged with the responsibility for the protection of human research subjects participating in research. Research Directorates under the Chief Scientist include:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11277244
| 1,510,374 |
98,324 |
Producer Harold Livingston was assigned to find writers for new episodes, while Roddenberry prepared a writers' guide briefing the uninitiated on the franchise canon. Of the original cast, only Leonard Nimoy stated he would not return. To replace Spock, Roddenberry created a logical Vulcan prodigy named Xon. Since Xon was too young to fill the role of first officer, Roddenberry developed Commander William Decker, and later added Ilia. The new series' pilot episode "In Thy Image" was based on a two-page outline by Roddenberry about a NASA probe returning to Earth, having gained sentience. Alan Dean Foster wrote a treatment for the pilot, which Livingston turned into a teleplay. When the script was presented to Michael Eisner, he declared it worthy of a feature film. At the same time, the success of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" showed Paramount that the box office success of "Star Wars" could be repeated. On November 11, just two and a half weeks before production on "Phase II" was due to start, the studio announced that the television series had been canceled in favor of a new feature film. Cast and crew who had been hired that Monday were laid off by Friday, and construction came to a halt. Production was moved to April 1978 so that the necessary scripts, sets, and wardrobe could be upgraded.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=277006
| 98,282 |
1,133,233 |
Several studies have suggested a high prevalence of neuropsychiatric disorders and mental disorder symptoms in Graves' disease (and thyroid disease in general), which are similar to those in patients with organic brain disease. These manifestations are diverse, affecting the central and peripheral nervous systems. The vast majority of patients with hyperthyroidism meet criteria for some psychiatric disorders, and those with milder presentations are probably not entirely free of mental symptoms such as emotional lability, tension, depression and anxiety. Anxiety syndromes related to hyperthyroidism are typically complicated by major depression and cognitive decline, such as in memory and attention. Some studies contradict the psychological findings. For example, a large 2002 study found "no statistical association between thyroid dysfunction, and the presence of depression or anxiety disorder." In one study on hospitalised elderly patients, over half had cognitive impairment with either dementia or confusion. However, a controlled study on 31 Graves' disease patients found that while patients had subjective reports of cognitive deficits in the toxic phase of Graves' thyrotoxicosis, formal testing found no cognitive impairment and suggested the reported symptoms may reflect the affective and somatic manifestations of hyperthyroidism. Notably, a literature review of 2006 notes methodology issues in the consistency of Graves' disease diagnostic criteria, which might explain the apparently contradicting findings. These researchers found many reports about residual complaints in patients who were euthyroid after treatment, with a high prevalence of anxiety disorders and bipolar disorder, as well as elevated scores on scales of anxiety, depression and psychological distress. In a 1992 study, a significant proportion of the 137 questioned patients with Graves' disease reported – among other things – increased crying (55%), being easily startled (53%), being tired all the time (47%), a significant decrease in social activity (46%), feelings of being out of control (45%), feelings of hopelessness (43%), loss of sense of humor (41%), loss of interest in things they formerly enjoyed (39%), not being able to 'connect' with others (34%).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31620645
| 1,132,640 |
1,007,876 |
The initial concept for the Model 27 was for the fighter to be carried half-exposed under the B-29, B-35, or B-36. The USAAF rejected this proposal, citing increased drag, and hence reduced range for the composite bomber-fighter configuration. On 19 March 1945, McDonnell's design team led by Herman D. Barkey, submitted a revised proposal, the extensively redesigned Model 27D. The smaller aircraft had an egg-shaped fuselage, three fork-shaped vertical stabilizers, horizontal stabilizers with a significant dihedral, and 37° swept-back folding wings to allow it to fit in the confines of a bomb bay. The diminutive aircraft measured long; the folding wings spanned . Only a limited fuel supply of was deemed necessary for the specified 30-minute combat endurance. A hook was installed along the aircraft's center of gravity; in flight, it retracted to lie flat in the upper part of the nose. The aircraft had an empty weight just short of . To save weight, the fighter had no landing gear. During the testing program, a fixed steel skid under the fuselage and spring-steel "runners" at the underside of the wingtips were installed in case of an emergency landing. Despite the cramped quarters, the pilot was provided with a cordite ejection seat, bail-out oxygen bottle, and high-speed ribbon parachute. Four machine guns in the nose made up the aircraft's armament.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=307179
| 1,007,356 |
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The first flight was made at Larkhill on 23 February 1914 by Busteed and it was then exhibited at the March 1914 Aero Show at Olympia in London. After more flying at Larkhill the prototype, later referred to as the Scout A, was returned to the factory at Filton and fitted with larger wings, increasing the chord by six inches (15 cm) and the span from 22 ft (6.71 m) to 24 ft 7 in (7.49 m). These were rigged with an increased dihedral of °. Other changes included a larger rudder, a new open-fronted cowling with six external stiffening ribs distributed in symmetrically uneven angles around the cowl's sides (especially when seen from "nose-on") and fabric panel-covered wheels. It was evaluated by the British military on 14 May 1914 at Farnborough, when, flown by Busteed, the aircraft achieved an airspeed of 97.5 mph (157 km/h), with a stalling speed of 40 mph (64 km/h) The aircraft was then entered for the 1914 Aerial Derby but did not take part because the weather on the day of the race was so poor that Bristol did not wish to risk the aircraft. By this time two more examples (works nos. 229 and 230) were under construction and the prototype was sold to Lord Carbery for £400 without its engine. Carbery fitted it with an 80 hp Le Rhône 9C nine-cylinder rotary and entered it in the London–Manchester race held on 20 June but damaged the aircraft when landing at Castle Bromwich and had to withdraw. After repairs, including a modification of the undercarriage to widen the track, Carbury entered it in the London–Paris–London race held on 11 July but had to ditch the aircraft in the English Channel on the return leg; while in France, only one of the two fuel tanks had been filled by mistake. Carbury managed to land alongside a ship and escaped but the aircraft was lost.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4115009
| 1,208,156 |
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As there is no hope of completing the original mission, the crew increase acceleration even more; they need to leave the Milky Way altogether in order to reach a region where the local gas density, and the concomitant radiation hazard, are low enough that they can repair the decelerator. The ship's ever-increasing velocity brings the time dilation to extreme levels and takes the crew further and further away from any possibility of contact with humanity. The initial plan is to locate and land on a suitable planet in another galaxy. Millions of years would have passed since their departure, and in any case they would be millions of light years from Earth. However, they find the vacuum of intergalactic space insufficient for safety; they must instead travel to a region between superclusters of galaxies to make repairs. They do, but the extremely thinly spread matter is then too dispersed to use for deceleration. They must wait, flying free but essentially without the ability to change course, until they randomly encounter enough galactic matter to decelerate enough to search for habitable planets. To make the waiting time shorter, they continue accelerating through the galaxy clusters they encounter, more and more closely approaching the speed of light with tau, or proper time, decreasing closer and closer to zero.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4438055
| 660,168 |
1,172,849 |
The Jupiter-4's basic architecture consisted of four voice cards (usually identical, unless mismatched revisions were installed by repair shops), each containing a: VCO, sub-oscillator, VCF (resonant low-pass which can self-oscillate), and a VCA. Early revision voice cards feature four discreet BA662s, while later revisions feature a single IR3109. Modulation included an attack-decay-sustain-release (ADSR) envelope for the filter, and another for the voltage-control amplifier and a final level output with an overload LED, as well as a separate unmemorized master volume control. In typical Roland fashion, the filter ADSR could be inverted allowing for "upside down" modulation. The LFO was notable for being able to reach audio frequencies, allowing for crude FM and AM synthesis. The LFO is routable to a comprehensive amount of options, including: the bender, VCO pitch, pulse-width, both highpass and lowpass filter cutoff, and the VCA. The final VCA level setting could be memorized in user presets, and was prior to the overall master stereo output volume. Those settings were memorized in the user presets but a fully adjustable depth remained independently configurable through the pitch wheel to combinations of VCO, VCF and VCA, as well as a bend range. The VCOs can garner unstable tuning if aging or low-quality electrolytic capacitors are used (two for each voice card). Synthesizer repair shops can replace these tuning capacitors with stable polystyrene capacitors for an instant perfect tune. Individual oscillator card VCO tuning is accessed by four capped holes in the middle of the back of the case, but the unit should be allowed to warm up before adjusting for at least 20 to 40 minutes prior to adjustment.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1942798
| 1,172,230 |
1,817,038 |
The US Army's Corps of Engineers greatly expanded its activities in Alaska during World War II, and several internal organizations came into being to address the problems they encountered. A soils laboratory, which investigated frost problems with runways, was established in Boston as part of the Corps' New England Division; it was made into a separate entity in the mid-1940s, called the Frost Effects Laboratory (FEL). A separate Permafrost Division, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, was established in January 1945. At the request of the US Navy's Division of Oceanography, FEL began ice mechanics testing in 1948 with the intention of creating a portable kit that could be used for drilling and coring ice and measuring ice properties in the field. The Navy envisaged the kit being light enough to carry in a small plane which could land on ice, so that the kit could be deployed quickly and easily. The result was the Ice Mechanics Test Kit, described by FEL in a 1950 paper, which was used in the field by the Navy and also by some scientific researchers. The kit included an auger able to produce 3-inch-diameter cores. The FEL researchers found that the base of the core barrel had to be tapered slightly so that the cuttings would move to the outside of the core barrel, where they could be carried up the auger flights; without this, the cuttings would accumulate inside the core barrel, around the core, and block further progress. The same study also evaluated non-coring auger designs, and determined that a clearance angle of 20° produced a good cutting action with little downward force required. Both thick and thin cutting edges were found to be effective. It was found that in very cold conditions, the ice cuttings would fall back out of the auger as it was removed from the hole, impeding progress, so a small baffle was added near the cutting edge: the cuttings could move up past it, but could not fall back down across it. When it was discovered that the non-coring auger tended to bend easily, and jam in the hole, but that the coring auger did not suffer from this problem, development of the non-coring auger ceased, and the final test kit only included the coring auger.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=56017314
| 1,816,004 |
532,281 |
On each major Greater Antillean Island (Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Jamaica), there are anole species that have adapted to specific niches and are referred to as ecomorphs: crown giant, trunk crown, trunk, trunk ground, twig and grass bush (a few additional, less widely used ecomorphs also exist). However, even within the Greater Antilles there are differences depending on island size and the amount of available habitats. The largest, Cuba and Hispaniola, have all six primary ecomorphs, while the smaller Puerto Rico and Jamaica have five and four respectively. Species living in a specific niche on each island tend to resemble each other in both appearance and behavior. For example, the Escambray twig anole of Cuba closely resembles the Puerto Rican twig and Jamaican twig anoles, as well as several species of twig ecomorphs from Hispaniola. Despite this they are not closely related and have adapted to their specific niche independently of each other. At least four of the six primary ecomorphs are of ancient origin as they have been documented in amber fossils from Hispaniola that are about 15–20 million years old (the two missing ecomorphs are crown giant and grass bush). Otherwise there are few known fossils, but early phylogenetic and immunological studies indicate that anoles originated 40–66 million years ago, first inhabitant Central or South America, and then came to the Caribbean (initially likely Cuba or Hispaniola). A more recent phylogenetic study, published in 2012, indicated that anoles originated in South America and diverged from other reptiles far earlier, about 95 million years ago. While a South American origin has been generally accepted, the very high age has been controversial and other studies published in 2011–2014 arrived at a lower age, estimating that anoles diverged from other reptiles 23–75, 53–72 or 81–83 million years ago, while a comprehensive study from 2017 estimated about 46–65 million years ago. This indicates that early anoles arrived on the Greater Antillean Islands in the Caribbean from the mainland of the Americas via rafting rather than overland via ancient (now submerged) land bridges. After arriving in the Caribbean they diversified into several new groups and one of these, the "Norops" lineage, later made its way back to mainland of the Americas.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=322654
| 532,007 |
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"Deinonychus" fossils have been uncovered in small groups near the remains of the herbivore "Tenontosaurus", a larger ornithischian dinosaur. This had been interpreted as evidence that these dromaeosaurids hunted in coordinated packs like some modern mammals. However, not all paleontologists found the evidence conclusive, and a subsequent study published in 2007 by Roach and Brinkman suggests that the "Deinonychus" may have actually displayed a disorganized mobbing behavior. Modern diapsids, including birds and crocodiles (the closest relatives of dromaeosaurids), display minimal long-term cooperative hunting (except the aplomado falcon and Harris's hawk); instead, they are usually solitary hunters, either joining forces time to time to increase hunting success (as crocodilians sometimes do), or are drawn to previously killed carcasses, where conflict often occurs between individuals of the same species. For example, in situations where groups of Komodo dragons are eating together, the largest individuals eat first and might attack smaller Komodo dragons that attempt to feed; if the smaller animal dies, it is usually cannibalized. When this information is applied to the sites containing putative pack-hunting behavior in dromaeosaurids, it appears somewhat consistent with a Komodo dragon-like feeding strategy. "Deinonychus" skeletal remains found at these sites are from subadults, with missing parts that may have been eaten by other "Deinonychus", which a study by Roach "et al." presented as evidence against the idea that the animals cooperated in the hunt. Different dietary preferences between juvenile and adult "Deinonychus" published in 2020 indicate that the animal did not exhibit complex, cooperative behavior seen in pack-hunting animals. Whether this extended to other dromaeosaurs is currently unknown. A third possible option is that dromaeosaurids did not exhibit long-term cooperative behaviour, but did show short-term cooperative behaviour as seen in crocodilians, which display both true cooperation and competition for prey.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=636929
| 284,125 |
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The English Electric Canberra is a bomber aircraft powered by two jet engines, and able to fly at high altitudes. An early prototype operated by Rolls-Royce regularly flew to 63,000 ft, where the usable speed range (coffin corner) was only 25 knots, during Avon engine test flights. The overall design has been described as being of a simple nature, somewhat resembling a scaled-up Gloster Meteor fighter, except for its use of a mid wing. The Canberra principally differed from its preceding piston-powered wartime bombers by its use of twin Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet engines. The fuselage was circular in cross section, tapered at both ends, and cockpit aside, entirely without protrusions; the line of the large, low-aspect-ratio wings was broken only by the tubular engine nacelles. The Canberra had a two-man crew in a fighter-style cabin with a large blown canopy, but delays in the development of the intended automatic radar bombsight resulted in the addition of a bomb aimer's position housed within the nose. The pilot and navigator were positioned in a tandem arrangement on Martin-Baker ejection seats.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=201787
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Sending humans to space is a dangerous task in which the implementation of various cyborg technologies could be used in the future for risk mitigation. Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist, stated "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war... I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space." The difficulties associated with space travel could mean it might be centuries before humans ever become a multi-planet species. There are many effects of spaceflight on the human body. One major issue of space exploration is the biological need for oxygen. If this necessity was taken out of the equation, space exploration would be revolutionized. A theory proposed by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline is aimed at tackling this problem. The two scientists theorized that the use of an inverse fuel cell that is "capable of reducing CO2 to its components with the removal of the carbon and re-circulation of the oxygen..." could make breathing unnecessary. Another prominent issue is radiation exposure. Yearly, the average human on earth is exposed to approximately 0.30 rem of radiation, while an astronaut aboard the International Space Station for 90 days is exposed to 9 rem. To tackle the issue, Clynes and Kline theorized a cyborg containing a sensor that would detect radiation levels and a Rose osmotic pump "which would automatically inject protective pharmaceuticals in appropriate doses." Experiments injecting these protective pharmaceuticals into monkeys have shown positive results in increasing radiation resistance.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20756967
| 355,745 |
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The "Ingenuity" team plans to fly the helicopter every two to three weeks during its indefinitely extended mission. The helicopter's longer-than-expected flying career lasted into a seasonal change on Mars, when the atmospheric density at its location became even lower. The flight team prepared by commanding "Ingenuity" to ground-test a faster rotor blade rotation, needed for sufficient lift. JPL said the higher planned flight speed of 2700 rpm would pose new risks, including vibration, power consumption and aerodynamic drag if the blade tips approach the speed of sound. The test speed was 2800 rpm, giving a margin for increase if the intended flight speed of 2700 is not enough. "Ingenuity" faced another challenge to remain functional during the Martian winter and solar conjunction, when Mars moves behind the Sun, blocking communications with Earth and forcing the rover and helicopter to halt operations. The shutdown happened in mid-October 2021, for which preparations started in mid-September. The helicopter remained stationary at its location 575 feet (175 meters) away from "Perseverance" and communicated its status weekly to the rover for health checks. JPL intended to continue flying "Ingenuity" since it survived solar conjunction. NASA leadership has acknowledged that extending the mission adds to the original Ingenuity budget of $80 million but has stated that any increase would be minimal compared to what NASA is learning.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=56300556
| 370,306 |
1,814,667 |
Next off, SVA with the improvement of the apparatus in which the process takes place, in situ studies, through X-ray and neutron scattering methods, can give more highly accurate images of the swollen and dried states of the BCP. Using methods such as also ellipsometry and interferometry can lead to discoveries about the thickness of the polymers in different states and nanostructure orientation, which will help to learn more about the equilibrium structure and the kinetics of developing a specified morphology. It is important here as well to be able to define small molecule additions to different parts of the block polymer at different points of the annealing and evaporation as to accurately be able to precisely know how the moieties will create certain orientations and directionality in structure. The final area moving forward is simply the implementation of the created block polymers in new intended applications and technology, beyond lab study and characterization of the method. It is important to go beyond creating the nanostructures and move into seeing the utility of the structures in an application, which will help reveal practical shortcomings of the created polymers and reveal areas of where to improve in parts of the structure, such as film integrity and attachment strength of the amorphous chains. Going beyond these simple surface imaging will allow us to realize and face some of the dangers and hindrances to functionality, such as the toxicity of working with organic solvents or the issues with dewetting the swollen state of the BCP.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=62377568
| 1,813,633 |
168,008 |
In 1943, while pursuing his shock research, Blalock was approached by pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig, who was seeking a surgical solution to a complex and fatal four-part heart anomaly called tetralogy of Fallot (also known as blue baby syndrome, although other cardiac anomalies produce blueness, or cyanosis). In infants born with this defect, blood is shunted past the lungs, thus creating oxygen deprivation and a blue pallor. Having treated many such patients in her work in Hopkins's Harriet Lane Home, Taussig was desperate to find a surgical cure. According to the accounts in Thomas' 1985 autobiography and in a 1967 interview with medical historian Peter Olch, Taussig suggested only that it might be possible to "reconnect the pipes" in some way to increase the level of blood flow to the lungs, but did not suggest how this could be accomplished. Blalock and Thomas realized immediately that the answer lay in a procedure they had perfected for a different purpose in their Vanderbilt work, involving the anastomosis (joining) of the subclavian artery to the pulmonary artery, which had the effect of increasing blood flow to the lungs. Thomas was charged with the task of first creating a blue baby-like condition in a dog, and then correcting the condition by means of the pulmonary-to-subclavian anastomosis. Among the dogs on whom Thomas operated was one named Anna, who became the first long-term survivor of the operation and the only animal to have her portrait hung on the walls of Johns Hopkins. In nearly two years of laboratory work involving 200 dogs, Thomas was able to replicate two of the four cardiac anomalies involved in tetralogy of Fallot. He did demonstrate that the corrective procedure was not lethal, thus persuading Blalock that the operation could be safely attempted on a human patient. Blalock was impressed with Thomas' work; when he inspected the procedure performed on Anna, he reportedly said, "This looks like something the Lord made." Even though Thomas knew he was not allowed to operate on patients at that time, he still followed Blalock's rules and assisted him during surgery.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=679723
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Steltzner, born 1963, is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and came from a family that was financially well off, his father being the heir to the Schilling spice fortune. He struggled in classes in high school, earned a failing grade in geometry, and was told by his father he would never amount to anything but a ditch digger. "I was sort of studying sex, drugs and rock and roll in high school," says Steltzner. After high school he played bass and drums in new wave bands. He studied jazz at Berklee College of Music in Boston, for less than a year. As "The New Yorker" put it, "He was a college dropout and small-town playboy (he briefly dated the model Carré Otis), an assistant manager at an organic market and an occasional grower of weed. He had few skills and fewer prospects." Around 1984, while driving home from music gigs at night, he noticed how the position of the constellation Orion was in a different place than before. This fascinated him, so he decided to take an astronomy class at College of Marin, but he was required to complete a class in physics first, and it was there he had a revelation: nature could be understood and predicted. As Steltzner put it, "I had found religion." By 1985 he quit music and devoted himself full-time to the challenge of school. His education included Tamalpais High School (1981) and College of Marin ; a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering at University of California, Davis (1990); a Master of Science degree in applied mechanics at California Institute of Technology (1991); and a PhD in engineering mechanics at University of Wisconsin–Madison (1999).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36645467
| 1,477,471 |
278,548 |
Owen Wangensteen at the University of Minnesota in the United States had been impressed by the work of Alan Thal, a young South African doctor working in Minnesota. Wangensteen asked Groote Schuur Head of Medicine John Brock if he might recommend any similarly talented South Africans and Brock recommended Barnard. In December 1955, Barnard travelled to Minneapolis, Minnesota to begin a two-year scholarship under Chief of Surgery Wangensteen, who assigned Barnard more work on the intestines, which Barnard accepted even though he wanted to move onto something new. Simply by luck, whenever Barnard needed a break from this work, he could wander across the hall and talk with Vince Gott who ran the lab for open-heart surgery pioneer Walt Lillehei. Gott had begun to develop a technique of running blood backwards through the veins of the heart so Lillehei could more easily operate on the aortic valve (McRae writes, "It was the type of inspired thinking that entranced Barnard"). In March 1956, Gott asked Barnard to help him run the heart-lung machine for an operation. Shortly thereafter, Wangensteen agreed to let Barnard switch to Lillehei's service. It was during this time that Barnard first became acquainted with fellow future heart transplantation surgeon Norman Shumway. Barnard also became friendly with Gil Campbell who had demonstrated that a dog's lung could be used to oxygenate blood during open-heart surgery. (The year before Barnard arrived, Lillehei and Campbell had used this procedure for twenty minutes during surgery on a 13-year-old boy with ventricular septal defect, and the boy had made a full recovery.) Barnard and Campbell met regularly for early breakfast. In 1958, Barnard received a Master of Science in Surgery for a thesis titled "The aortic valve – problems in the fabrication and testing of a prosthetic valve". The same year he was awarded a Ph.D. for his dissertation titled "The aetiology of congenital intestinal atresia". Barnard described the two years he spent in the United States as "the most fascinating time in my life."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7015
| 278,398 |
1,864,434 |
Cushing Hall was built in 1933 thanks to a donation from John F. Cushing, president of the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company. Cushing graduated in 1906 with an engineering degree, but had almost dropped out due to financial reasons. President Andrew Morrissey forgave his tuition and in recognition for his kindness, Cushing later donated the $300,000 needed for the new building. The hall was designed by Kervick and Fagan in collegiate Gothic style, and its exterior is decorated with the names of great scientists and engineers on the outside, and with engineering themed mosaics and frescoes on the inside. In 1977, Fitzpatrick Hall was built directly south of Cushing. Built by Ellerbe Associates, it was financed thanks to Edward B. Fitzpatrick, a New York construction executive and 1954 civil engineering graduate. Fitzpatrick's 184,960 square-feet were added to Cushing Hall's 104,898 square feet, more than doubling the school's space. Today, with its high-tech laboratories, Fitzpatrick Hall is the primary research, teaching, and computer center for the college, while Cushing is primarily used for office space. Cushing-Fitzpatrick are also home to the newly built Engineering Innovation Hub (EIH), which features state of the art machinery for engineering design and manufacturing, with machinery including automated mills and lathes, 3-D printers, robotics, metrology, computing resource, assembly spaced, water jet cutters and more. The EIH is a part of the university's iNDustry Labs program, designed to offer the school's technology, facilities, and expertise to local industry and business and to foster collaboration.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=48464061
| 1,863,362 |
584,418 |
NF2 is caused by a defect in the gene that normally gives rise to a product called "Merlin" or "Schwannomin", located on chromosome 22 band q11-13.1. Merlin was first discovered as a structural protein functioning as an actin cytoskeleton regulator. Later merlin's tumour suppressant role was described. Merlin regulates multiple proliferative signalling cascades such as receptor tyrosine kinase signalling, p21-activated kinase signalling, Ras signalling, MEK-ERK cascade, MST-YAP cascade. In a normal cell, the concentrations of active (dephosphorylated) merlin are controlled by processes such as cell adhesion (which would indicate the need to restrain cell division). It has been shown that Merlin inhibits Rac1 which is crucial for cell motility and tumour invasion. Also, merlin's interaction with cyclin D was described. It is known that Merlin's deficiency can result in unmediated progression through the cell cycle due to the lack of contact-mediated tumour suppression, mainly because of the cell:cell junction disruption, sufficient to result in the tumors characteristic of Neurofibromatosis type II. Recent studies showed that besides its cytoskeletal and cytoplasmic functions Merlin also translocates to the nucleus and suppresses proliferation by inhibiting E3 ubiquitin ligase CRL4(DCAF1). Finally, most recent studies indicated that Merlin also plays important role in energy metabolism regulation. Mutations of NF2 is presumed to result in either a failure to synthesize Merlin or the production of a defective peptide that lacks the normal tumor-suppressive effect. The Schwannomin-peptide consists of 595 amino acids. Comparison of Schwannomin with other proteins shows similarities to proteins that connect the cytoskeleton to the cell membrane. Mutations in the Schwannomin-gene are thought to alter the movement and shape of affected cells with loss of contact inhibition.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2792071
| 584,118 |
2,093,980 |
Osseous defects, whether from trauma or surgical intervention, all follow a similar healing pattern. Within minutes of defect formation, platelets collect at the site of the injury and adhere to the exposed collagen fibers. The release of the platelet contents stimulates additional platelet aggregation and initiates clot formation. This release also has a chemotactic effect and attracts various white blood cells (leukocytes) to the damaged tissues and an acute inflammatory response is initiated. Neutrophils and other leukocytes begin removing any bacteria, foreign material, and dead tissue via a process known as phagocytosis. The inflammatory response and other antigens in the wound also attract lymphocytes. These immune cells release cytokines, such as IL-1 and TNF-α,which can have multiple actions on further physiologic responses. For example, IL-1 amplifies the immune response by inducing the proliferation of T-cells, increases the phagocytic abilities of monocytes and macrophages, and induces the proliferation of fibroblasts. The disruption of the vascular supply, and the subsequent cellular reactions during the inflammatory and immune reactions, result in multiple changes in the local environment, including decreases in pH, oxygen content and the ionic concentrations for calcium, phosphorus, potassium and sodium. If these conditions persist, a chronic inflammatory response may set in, resulting in extensive tissue destruction. With respect to implant materials, chronic inflammation and foreign body reactions are associated with the development of a fibrous capsule around the implant. The goal of a graft material is to aid in tissue healing.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10648274
| 2,092,773 |
1,820,373 |
Forrester directed a multimillion-dollar National Institute of Health research program called a Specialized Center of Research in Ischemic Heart Disease at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. During this 20-year period Cedars-Sinai cardiology was ranked first in the western United States by U.S. News & World Report, a position which it continues to hold through the present day. Forrester's research led to three advances that altered the practice of cardiology. In the 1970s, he directed the development of hemodynamic monitoring at the bedside, using a balloon-tipped catheter he maneuvered through the heart. He used these measurements to create a method of care for patients with acute myocardial infarction that became known as the Forrester hemodynamic subsets. Hemodynamic monitoring allowed doctors to repeatedly measure the effect of drugs on the function of the heart at the bedside, and revolutionized the care of critically ill patients. The second advance came in the early 1980s, when Forrester and George Diamond created the field of probability analysis for coronary heart disease, which became known as the Diamond-Forrester method for interpreting diagnostic tests. Their approach integrated a patient's pre-test likelihood of having disease with the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic test to calculate a patient's post-test likelihood of disease. The method is now used worldwide in cardiology. The third major advance to which Forrester contributed came in the early 1990s: Forrester led a team that developed coronary angioscopy, a method for seeing inside a living patient's coronary arteries using a thin flexible fiberoptic catheter. His team discovered the presence of small, partially occlusive blood clots in patients with unstable angina (now called acute coronary syndrome), leading to the modern implementation of antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy in this condition.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44523992
| 1,819,336 |
1,299,587 |
Goff's parents decided to move back to Tulsa in 1915. Corliss had given up on the watchmaking business and became a grocery equipment salesman. Bruce was largely self-educated and displayed a great talent for drawing. He enrolled in the sixth grade at Lincoln Elementary School, where his first art teacher, a Miss Brown, strongly supported his individualistic artistic expression. His father apprenticed him at age 12 to the Tulsa architectural firm of Rush, Endacott and Rush. Goff's employers were impressed with his talent; they soon gave him responsibility for designing houses and small commercial projects. One of his earliest designs that was actually built was a house at 1732 South Yorktown Avenue in Tulsa's Yorktown Historical District; another was the 1920 McGregor House, at 1401 South Quaker Street in what is now known as the Cherry Street District. This house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. During this period, his work was heavily influenced through his correspondence with Frank Lloyd Wright and with Louis Sullivan, both of whom had encouraged him to practice architecture with Rush, Endacott and Rush instead of enrolling in Massachusetts Institute of Technology; they felt the formal education would stifle his creativity. Goff was made a firm partner in 1930. He and his high-school art teacher Adah Robinson are co-credited with the design of Tulsa's Boston Avenue Methodist Church, one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the United States. Goff designed the Tulsa Club Building, downtown Tulsa's historic landmark, in 1927.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1438317
| 1,298,873 |
1,246,511 |
In 1870 Smalley died and was replaced by Russell. Russell's talent, entrepreneurial flair, intimate knowledge of how to work the political and bureaucratic system of NSW and longevity gave him a 35-year tenure as Government Astronomer and made him the Grand Old Man of physical science in the colonies. It was during Russell's period that Sydney Observatory was popularly believed to have been at its professional zenith, particularly from the 1870s through to the 1890s. Russell wasted no time in pressing the government for the necessary physical and instrumental resources to carry out his astronomical programs at the observatory. The addition of a west wing designed by colonial architect James Barnett was the main work resulting from this. It provided for a major ground floor room for Russell, a library, a second equatorial dome on a tower at its northern extremity which removed the blind spot imposed by the time ball tower. An enlarged Muntz metal dome was also placed on the old equatorial tower to accommodate a new Schroeder telescope. The telescope remains a prized and functional possession today. Russell also turned his attention to improving the residence, claiming it was not large enough to accommodate his family. In 1875 Russell succeeded in securing an extension of the observatory enclosure. Like his predecessors, he had been concerned with the restrictive nature of the observatory grounds which made siting of meteorological and auxiliary astronomical instruments difficult, if not impossible. This extension, together with the adjacent signal station give the site its present symmetrical perimeter. The Astrographic Catalogue was Russell's greatest commitment and would affect programs at the observatory for 80 years. His interest in the application of photography to astronomy and a visit to Paris in 1887 prompted Russell to take part in a "great star catalogue". The Sydney Zone of the catalogue was a massive logistical enterprise and was not practically completed until 1964. Russell died in 1907 after taking leave for an extended period of time due to ill health. His assistant Alfred Lenehan was appointed acting Government Astronomer during this period and later Government Astronomer in 1907. However, in 1906 a premier's conference resolved that the Commonwealth Government would take over meteorological work, leaving astronomy to the states. Thus, the meteorological section of the observatory became a Commonwealth agency under the direction of a former officer of the observatory, Henry Hunt. Lenehan and Hunt continuously quarrelled and did not develop a good working relationship.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3911092
| 1,245,836 |
518,248 |
At first according to Andrew Dickson White's "A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom" from the 19th century, a biblical worldview affected negatively the progress of science through time. Dickinson also argues that immediately following the Reformation matters were even worse. The interpretations of Scripture by Luther and Calvin became as sacred to their followers as the Scripture itself. For instance, when Georg Calixtus ventured, in interpreting the Psalms, to question the accepted belief that "the waters above the heavens" were contained in a vast receptacle upheld by a solid vault, he was bitterly denounced as heretical. Today, much of the scholarship in which the conflict thesis was originally based is considered to be inaccurate. For instance, the claim that early Christians rejected scientific findings by the Greco-Romans is false, since the "handmaiden" view of secular studies was seen to shed light on theology. This view was widely adapted throughout the early medieval period and afterwards by theologians (such as Augustine) and ultimately resulted in fostering interest in knowledge about nature through time. Also, the claim that people of the Middle Ages widely believed that the Earth was flat was first propagated in the same period that originated the conflict thesis and is still very common in popular culture. Modern scholars regard this claim as mistaken, as the contemporary historians of science David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers write: "there was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [earth's] sphericity and even know its approximate circumference." From the fall of Rome to the time of Columbus, all major scholars and many vernacular writers interested in the physical shape of the earth held a spherical view with the exception of Lactantius and Cosmas.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42657576
| 517,979 |
395,058 |
The origin of the ichthyosaurs is contentious. Until recently, clear transitional forms with land-dwelling vertebrate groups had not yet been found, the earliest known species of the ichthyosaur lineage being already fully aquatic. In 2014, a small basal ichthyosauriform from the upper Lower Triassic was described that had been discovered in China with characteristics suggesting an amphibious lifestyle. In 1937, Friedrich von Huene even hypothesised that ichthyosaurs were not reptiles, but instead represented a lineage separately developed from amphibians. Today, this notion has been discarded and a consensus exists that ichthyosaurs are amniote tetrapods, having descended from terrestrial egg-laying amniotes during the late Permian or the earliest Triassic. However, establishing their position within the amniote evolutionary tree has proven difficult, due to their heavily derived morphology obscuring their ancestry. Several conflicting hypotheses have been posited on the subject. In the second half of the 20th century, ichthyosaurs were usually assumed to be of the Anapsida, seen as an early branch of "primitive" reptiles. This would explain the early appearance of ichthyosaurs in the fossil record, and also their lack of clear affinities with other reptile groups, as anapsids were supposed to be little specialised. This hypothesis has become unpopular for being inherently vague because Anapsida is an unnatural, paraphyletic group. Modern exact quantitative cladistic analyses consistently indicate that ichthyosaurs are members of the clade Diapsida. Some studies showed a basal, or low, position in the diapsid tree. More analyses result in their being Neodiapsida, a derived diapsid subgroup.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=314101
| 394,863 |
1,902,893 |
One of the first initiative of Owen's administration was to develop an alumni association for the college. The enhanced alumni association, in many ways, complimented the North Georgia College Foundation (NGCF), which was founded during the Hoag years to provide matching funds for federal student loans. Under the leadership of Owen the endowment of funds provided by the NGCF grew from one to five million dollars. Much of this money was used for student scholarships, of which there were none at the beginning of Owen's presidency. By the end of his presidency NGC offered over 300 scholarships, many of them funded by the NGCF. These scholarships not only helped to grow student enrollment, but they also attracted a higher caliber of students. In 1974 NGC began offering its first graduate program, which was a master's degree in education. Owen was determined to direct and develop the course of the University's expansion. In 1977 he created the Planning for the Future Committee. This committee comprised two subcommittees, one of which focused on academic facilities and the other, which focused on needed academic programs. One of the first major construction projects under the Owen administration was the renovation of the old library in 1974. The renovation came from social science departments' need for updated facilities. At a cost of $450,000 it was converted into a lecture hall and general purpose building. It was named the Will D. Young Social Science Center (now known as Young Hall) in honor of former dean William Donnell Young, who also briefly served as acting president before immediately before the appointment of Hoag to the position.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38647111
| 1,901,801 |
663,341 |
The overall fantasy look of the game's world, which mixed natural and technological elements, was also chosen in order to set it apart from classic science-fiction 3D games of the time. This world, as well as dragon and character designs, were mainly the work of Manabu Kusunoki, who took inspiration from various sources, including anime and manga, and who pushed the art direction toward a more Turkish/Ottoman style to avoid the European aesthetics of the early presentation video. Critics have noted similarities with the works of French artist Moebius (notably his comic book "Arzach",) of whom Kusunoki was a fan, as well as with Hayao Miyazaki's "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind", and David Lynch's "Dune" movie. Kentaro Yoshida, texturing and modeling artist, described the creation process as similar in style to "Star Wars", in that it "made an unearthly world appear so real". Takashi Iwade, in charge of the opening cutscene and character models, designed the enemies using a lot of various influences: "I got inspiration from antique clocks and various industrial products from the era of the industrial revolution for mechanics, and myriapods, marine mollusks, ammonite, and a rusty fishing boat for creatures when I started thinking of the original battleship". The team wanted a famous artist to make the game's cover art. Manabu Kusunoki suggested Moebius, who accepted, and the team sent him designs that he was to interpret. The resulting illustration was used as the cover art for the Japanese release of the game.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=599658
| 662,996 |
939,856 |
Contemporary research relies largely on multiple lines of evidence to determine the mode of a speciation event; that is, determining patterns of geographic distribution in conjunction with phylogenetic relatedness based on molecular techniques. This method was effectively introduced by John D. Lynch in 1986 and numerous researchers have employed it and similar methods, yielding enlightening results. Correlation of geographic distribution with phylogenetic data also spawned a sub-field of biogeography called vicariance biogeography developed by Joel Cracraft, James Brown, Mark V. Lomolino, among other biologists specializing in ecology and biogeography. Similarly, full analytical approaches have been proposed and applied to determine which speciation mode a species underwent in the past using various approaches or combinations thereof: species-level phylogenies, range overlaps, symmetry in range sizes between sister species pairs, and species movements within geographic ranges. Molecular clock dating methods are also often employed to accurately gauge divergence times that reflect the fossil or geological record (such as with the snapping shrimp separated by the closure of the Isthmus of Panama or speciation events within the genus "Cyclamen"). Other techniques used today have employed measures of gene flow between populations, ecological niche modelling (such as in the case of the Myrtle and Audubon's warblers or the environmentally-mediated speciation taking place among dendrobatid frogs in Ecuador), and statistical testing of monophyletic groups. Biotechnological advances have allowed for large scale, multi-locus genome comparisons (such as with the possible allopatric speciation event that occurred between ancestral humans and chimpanzees), linking species' evolutionary history with ecology and clarifying phylogenetic patterns.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=334986
| 939,355 |
1,865,679 |
The CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere (O&A) Business Unit was formed in 2014 as one of the then 10 "Flagship" operational units of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) as part of a major organisational restructure; from 2015 onwards the term "Flagship" was officially dropped. This Business Unit was formed essentially as a synthesis of the pre-existing CSIRO Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research (CMAR), representing the scientific capability, and the previously established Wealth from Oceans (WfO) Flagship, which was the route via which much of the relevant Australian government research funding was directed. As at 2016, its Director is Dr. Ken Lee, previously WfO Flagship Director. The O&A Business Unit currently employs between 350 and 400 staff who are located at its various laboratories including Hobart (Tasmania), Aspendale (Victoria), Dutton Park (Queensland), Black Mountain (Canberra) and Floreat Park (Western Australia). For 2016 it was quoted as operating with an annual budget of $108M Australian Dollars with its research organised into the following programs: Climate Science Centre; Coastal Development and Management; Earth System Assessment; Engineering and Technology; Marine Resources and Industries; and Ocean and Climate Dynamics. Certain previous CMAR activities, notably those involving the operation of the Marine National Facility (research vessel) RV Investigator and several scientific collections, are now managed within the separate CSIRO National Facilities and Collections Program.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52768889
| 1,864,606 |
586,616 |
The proopiomelanocortin gene (POMC) is expressed in the hypothalamus, in the pituitary gland. It yields a range of biologically active peptides and hormones and undergoes tissue-specific posttranslational processing to yield a range of biologically active peptides producing adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), b-endorphin, and a-, b- and c-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH). These peptides then interact with different melanocortin receptors (MCRs) and are involved in a wide range of processes including the regulation of body weight (MC3R and MC4R), adrenal steroidogenesis (MC2R) and hair pigmentation (MC1R). Published in the British Associations of Dermatologists in 2012, Lack of red hair phenotype in a North-African obese child homozygous for a novel POMC null mutation showed nonsense-mediated decay RNA evaluation in a hair pigment chemical analysis. They found that inactivating the POMC gene mutation results in obesity, adrenal insufficiency, and red hair. This has been seen in both in humans and mice. In this experiment they described a 3-year-old boy from Rome, Italy. He was a source of focus because he had Addison's disease and early onset obesity. They collected his DNA and amplified it using PCR. Sequencing analysis revealed a homozygous single substitution determining a stop codon. This caused an aberrant protein and the corresponding amino acid sequence indicated the exact position of the homozygous nucleotide. The substitution was localized in exon 3 and nonsense mutation at codon 68. The results from this experiment strongly suggest that the absence of red hair in non-European patients with early onset obesity and hormone deficiency does not exclude the occurrence of POMC mutations. By sequencing the patients DNA they found that this novel mutation has a collection of symptoms because of a malfunctioning nonsense-mediated mRNA decay surveillance pathway.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3378903
| 586,316 |
752,190 |
Consultation with the supervising physician is also advised in order to understand the patient's current condition and the type of arrhythmia involved, as well as the medication prescribed. It must be checked that the patient uses the medication correctly. Stress and anxiety can be reduced with anxiolytics. Short visits in the morning are to be preferred. Patient monitoring, with recording of the pulse, is indicated before treatment. It is very important to limit the use of vasoconstrictor in local anesthesia, with no more than two carpules. The treatment planned should not be too long or complicated. Although modern pacemakers are more resistant to electromagnetic interferences, caution is required when using electrical devices like ultrasound and electric scalpels that might interfere with pacemakers – especially the older models, since such devices developed in the last 30 years are bipolar and are generally not affected by the small electromagnetic fields generated by dental equipment. It is therefore important to know the type of pacemaker, the degree of electromagnetic protection of the generator, and the nature of the arrhythmia. If arrhythmia develops during dental treatment, the procedure should be suspended, oxygen is to be given, and the patient vital signs are to be assessed: body temperature (normal values: 35.5-37oC), pulse (normal values: 60-100 bpm), respiratory frequency (normal values in adults: 14-20 cycles or respirations per minute), blood pressure (normal values: systolic blood pressure under 140 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure under 90 mmHg). Sublingual nitrites are to be administered if there is chest pain. The patient should be placed in the Trendelenburg position, with vagal maneuvering where necessary (valsalva maneuver, massage in the carotid pulse region). The dental team should be prepared for basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation and initiation of the emergency procedure for evacuation to a hospital centre, if necessary.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2138187
| 751,788 |
173,795 |
Triton follows a retrograde and quasi-circular orbit, and is thought to be a gravitationally captured satellite. It was the second moon in the Solar System that was discovered to have a substantial atmosphere, which is primarily nitrogen with small amounts of methane and carbon monoxide. The pressure on Triton's surface is about 14 μbar. In 1989 the "Voyager 2" spacecraft observed what appeared to be clouds and hazes in this thin atmosphere. Triton is one of the coldest bodies in the Solar System, with a surface temperature of about . Its surface is covered by nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide and water ices and has a high geometric albedo of more than 70%. The Bond albedo is even higher, reaching up to 90%. Surface features include the large southern polar cap, older cratered planes cross-cut by graben and scarps, as well as youthful features probably formed by endogenic processes like cryovolcanism. "Voyager 2" observations revealed a number of active geysers within the polar cap heated by the Sun, which eject plumes to the height of up to 8 km. Triton has a relatively high density of about 2 g/cm indicating that rocks constitute about two thirds of its mass, and ices (mainly water ice) the remaining one third. There may be a layer of liquid water deep inside Triton, forming a subterranean ocean. Because of its retrograde orbit and relative proximity to Neptune (closer than the Moon is to Earth), tidal deceleration is causing Triton to spiral inward, which will lead to its destruction in about 3.6 billion years.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=818487
| 173,704 |
1,472,883 |
The complex mechanisms of FHA are unclear, though it is known that many neuromodulatory signals are involved in the regulation of pulsatile GnRH secretion. Some notable substances include kisspeptin, neuropeptide Y (NPY), ghrelin, peptide YY (PYY), leptin, adiponectin, CRH, β-endorphin, and allopregnanolone. Kisspeptin and its G-protein coupled receptor, GPR54, activate the HPO axis to directly stimulate GnRH secretion from the hypothalamus. NPY regulates energy balance and affects feeding behavior and appetite. If estradiol (E2) levels are sufficient, NPY induces GnRH secretion. Amenorrheic women have been found to have lower serum NPY than controls. Thus, in these hypoestrogenic subjects, decreased concentrations of this peptide may contribute to the observed disruption of GnRH release. Ghrelin stimulates appetite and inhibits the HPO axis, and it is found to be elevated in patients with FHA. Despite this, many patients with FHA display behaviors which result in low energy intake and therefore weight loss. It can be additionally noted that this trend may also be observed to a lesser extent in ovulatory women who are in negative energy balance due to imposed dieting and exercise strategies. Alternatively, PYY binds to hypothalamic neurons in order to decrease both energy intake and body weight. It has been suggested that the anorexigenic effects of PYY may hide the anticipated orexigenic effects of increased ghrelin levels in exercising and anorexic FHA patients. The combination of these factors could help explain why populations whose conditions have been triggered by low weight or excess exercise are not only more prone to display elevated serum ghrelin levels, but also commonly engage in abnormal eating behaviors. Ghrelin not only reduces fat utilization and stimulates appetite, but increased ghrelin is linked to alterations in GnRH and LH pulsatility, which can ultimately inhibit the HPO axis. Its elevation in women with FHA may account for the inability of some patients who have returned to a healthy weight to return to regular menses.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15738568
| 1,472,052 |
103,160 |
The earliest imperative languages were the machine languages of the original computers. In these languages, instructions were very simple, which made hardware implementation easier but hindered the creation of complex programs. FORTRAN, developed by John Backus at International Business Machines (IBM) starting in 1954, was the first major programming language to remove the obstacles presented by machine code in the creation of complex programs. FORTRAN was a compiled language that allowed named variables, complex expressions, subprograms, and many other features now common in imperative languages. The next two decades saw the development of many other major high-level imperative programming languages. In the late 1950s and 1960s, ALGOL was developed in order to allow mathematical algorithms to be more easily expressed and even served as the operating system's target language for some computers. MUMPS (1966) carried the imperative paradigm to a logical extreme, by not having any statements at all, relying purely on commands, even to the extent of making the IF and ELSE commands independent of each other, connected only by an intrinsic variable named $TEST. COBOL (1960) and BASIC (1964) were both attempts to make programming syntax look more like English. In the 1970s, Pascal was developed by Niklaus Wirth, and C was created by Dennis Ritchie while he was working at Bell Laboratories. Wirth went on to design Modula-2 and Oberon. For the needs of the United States Department of Defense, Jean Ichbiah and a team at Honeywell began designing Ada in 1978, after a 4-year project to define the requirements for the language. The specification was first published in 1983, with revisions in 1995, 2005, and 2012.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=197847
| 103,115 |
608,697 |
Project Maven is a Pentagon project involving using machine learning and engineering talent to distinguish people and objects in drone videos, apparently giving the government real-time battlefield command and control, and the ability to track, tag and spy on targets without human involvement. Initially the effort was led by Robert O. Work who was concerned about China's military use of the emerging technology. Reportedly, Pentagon development stops short of acting as an AI weapons system capable of firing on self-designated targets. The project was established in a memo by the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense on 26 April 2017. Also known as the Algorithmic Warfare Cross Functional Team, it is, according to Lt. Gen. of the United States Air Force Jack Shanahan in November 2017, a project "designed to be that pilot project, that pathfinder, that spark that kindles the flame front of artificial intelligence across the rest of the [Defense] Department". Its chief, U.S. Marine Corps Col. Drew Cukor, said: "People and computers will work symbiotically to increase the ability of weapon systems to detect objects." At the second Defense One Tech Summit in July 2017, Cukor also said that the investment in a "deliberate workflow process" was funded by the Department [of Defense] through its "rapid acquisition authorities" for about "the next 36 months".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=56127293
| 608,386 |
393,873 |
In the 18th and 19th centuries, calculations were performed without computers. The computations of life insurance premiums and reserving requirements are rather complex, and actuaries developed techniques to make the calculations as easy as possible, for example "commutation functions" (essentially precalculated columns of summations over time of discounted values of survival and death probabilities). Actuarial organizations were founded to support and further both actuaries and actuarial science, and to protect the public interest by promoting competency and ethical standards. However, calculations remained cumbersome, and actuarial shortcuts were commonplace. Non-life actuaries followed in the footsteps of their life insurance colleagues during the 20th century. The 1920 revision for the New-York based National Council on Workmen's Compensation Insurance rates took over two months of around-the-clock work by day and night teams of actuaries. In the 1930s and 1940s, the mathematical foundations for stochastic processes were developed. Actuaries could now begin to estimate losses using models of random events, instead of the deterministic methods they had used in the past. The introduction and development of the computer further revolutionized the actuarial profession. From pencil-and-paper to punchcards to current high-speed devices, the modeling and forecasting ability of the actuary has rapidly improved, while still being heavily dependent on the assumptions input into the models, and actuaries needed to adjust to this new world .
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=189373
| 393,678 |
1,463,495 |
Osmoreceptors are located in the vascular organ of lamina terminalis (VOLT) a circumventricular organ which lacks a blood-brain barrier. They have a defined functionality as neurons that are endowed with the ability to detect extracellular fluid osmolarity. The VOLT is strongly interconnected with the median preoptic nucleus, and together these structures comprise the anteroventral third ventricle region. Osmoreceptors have aquaporin 4 proteins spanning through their plasma membranes in which water can diffuse, from an area of high to low water concentration. If plasma osmolarity rises above 290 mOsmol/kg, then water will move out of the cell due to osmosis, causing the neuroreceptor to shrink in size. Embedded into the cell membrane are stretch inactivated cation channels (SICs), which when the cell shrinks in size, open and allow positively charged ions, such as Na and K ions to enter the cell. This causes initial depolarisation of the osmoreceptor and activates voltage-gated sodium channel, which through a complex conformational change, allows more sodium ions to enter the neuron, leading to further depolarisation and an action potential to be generated. This action potential travels along the axon of the neuron, and causes the opening of voltage-dependent calcium channels in the axon terminal. This leads to a Ca influx, due to calcium ions diffusing into the neuron along their electrochemical gradient. The calcium ions binds to the synaptotagmin 1 sub-unit of the SNARE protein attached to the arginine-vasopressin (AVP) containing vesicle membrane. This causes the fusion of the vesicle with the neuronal post synaptic membrane. Subsequent release of AVP into the posterior pituitary gland occurs, whereby vasopressin is secreted into the blood stream of the nearby capillaries.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1661168
| 1,462,672 |
2,056,053 |
In order to form and test fundamental community ecology hypotheses or address applications such as impact assessment, conservation, and exploitation of the marine environment, one needs to investigate the complex interactions between sediments, organisms, and water. A host of burgeoning technologies are slowly gaining acceptance to measure and explore this dynamic interface through biological, chemical, and physical approaches. Viollier et al. (2003) and Rhoads et al. (2001) provide overviews of this topic though the technologies involved and the standards used are changing rapidly. Several techniques have allowed benthologists to address ‘big-picture’ questions of geochemical-biological interactions and ecosystem functioning. Betteridge et al. (2003) used acoustic technology to measure sedimentary dynamics "in situ" at a scale relevant to macrofauna. Their benthic landers recorded water velocities near the seabed while simultaneously quantifying sediment disturbance patterns in high resolution. Benthic chambers have been used to examine the productivity of realistic macrofaunal assemblages under different flow regimes (Biles et al. 2003). Isotopic analysis methods permit [[food-web]] and environmental impact investigations (e.g. Rogers 2003; Schleyer et al. 2006) impossible to conduct outside of a laboratory only a few years ago. Short-sequence DNA methods (e.g. Biodiversity Institute of Ontario 2006) are rapidly moving toward automated identification and diversity assessment techniques that hold the promise of revolutionising benthic ecology.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14917968
| 2,054,869 |
676,535 |
To fill the new factory jobs, immigrants poured into the United States in the first mass wave of immigration in the 1840s and 1850s. Known as the period of old immigration, this time saw 4.2 million immigrants come into the United States raising the overall population by 20 million people. Historians often describe this as a time of "push-pull" immigration. People who were "pushed" to the United States immigrated because of poor conditions back home that made survival dubious while immigrants who were "pulled" came from stable environments to find greater economic success. One group who was "pushed" to the United States was the Irish, who were attempting to escape the Great Famine in their nation. Settling around the coastal cities of Boston, Massachusetts and New York City, the Irish were not initially welcomed because of their poverty and Roman Catholic beliefs. They lived in crowded, filthy neighborhoods and performed low-paying and physically demanding jobs. The Catholic Church was widely distrusted by many Americans as a symbol of European autocracy. German immigration, on the other hand, was "pulled" to America to avoid a looming financial disaster in their nation. Unlike the Irish, the German immigrants often sold their possessions and arrived in America with money in hand. German immigrants were both Protestant and Catholic, although the latter did not face the discrimination that the Irish did. Many Germans settled in communities in the Midwest rather than on the coast. Major cities such as Cincinnati, Ohio and St. Louis, Missouri developed large German populations. Unlike the Irish, most German immigrants were educated, middle-class people who mainly came to America for political rather than economic reasons. In the big cities such as New York, immigrants often lived in ethnic enclavess called "ghettos" that were often impoverished and crime-ridden. The most infamous of these immigrant neighborhoods was the Five Points in New York City. With increasing labor agitation for higher wages and better working conditions, such as by the Lowell mill girls in Massachusetts, many factory owners began to replace female workers with immigrants who would work cheaper and were less demanding about factory conditions.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=752072
| 676,182 |
306,608 |
In 1980–84, the Lebanese Air Force received from France ten SA 330C Pumas to equip its newly raised 9th transport squadron at Beirut Air Base, where it was initially based. In 1983, the squadron was relocated north of the Lebanese capital, with the machines being dispersed in small improvised helipads around Jounieh and Adma for security reasons. On 23 August 1984 a Puma helicopter carrying the Lebanese Armed Forces' Chief-of-staff and commander of the Seventh Brigade, General Nadim al-Hakim and eight other senior military officers crashed in thick fog near Beirut, all passengers and crewmen being killed. On 1 June 1987, the Lebanese Prime-Minister Rachid Karami was assassinated aboard a Puma helicopter en route to Beirut, when a bomb exploded in an attaché case on his lap. Injured in the explosion were Interior Minister Abdullah Rassi and three of the other twelve aides and crewmen on the helicopter, which was severely damaged. On 17 January 1988, another Puma helicopter crashed in the Mediterranean off the Bouar coast, killing both the pilot Captain Georges Sadaka and the co-pilot Jean Azzi, though their bodies were never found. During the final phase of the Lebanese Civil War, the Puma fleet – now reduced to seven or six helicopters on flying condition – was used in liaison flights with neighboring Cyprus on behalf of General Michel Aoun's interim military government, although fuel shortages and maintenance problems forced their crews to ground them for most of the time until the end of the war on October 1990.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=493615
| 306,444 |
1,213,243 |
Following the end of World War I, the Australian Government believed that an immediate evaluation of the RAN was necessary. Australia had based its naval policy on the Henderson "Recommendations" of 1911, developed by Sir Reginald Henderson. The government sent an invitation to Admiral John Jellicoe, he arrived in Australia in May 1919. Jellicoe remained in Australia for three months, before returning to England via New Zealand and Canada. Jellicoe submitted his findings in August 1919, titled the "Report on the Naval Mission to the Commonwealth". The report outlined several policies designed to strengthen British naval strength in the Pacific Ocean. The report heavily stressed a close relationship between the RAN and the Royal Navy. This would be achieved by strict adherence to the procedures and administration methods of the Royal Navy. The report also suggested constant officer exchange between the two forces. Jellicoe also called for the creation of a large Far East Imperial Fleet, which would be based in Singapore and include capital ships and aircraft carriers. The creation cost for this fleet was to be divided between Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand: contributing 75%, 20%, and 5% respectively. The suggested makeup of the RAN would include; one aircraft carrier, two battlecruisers, eight light cruisers, one flotilla leader, twelve destroyers, a destroyer depot ship, eight submarines, one submarine depot ship, and a small number of additional auxiliary ships. The annual cost and depreciation of the fleet was estimated to be £4,024,600. Except for implementing closer ties with the Royal Navy, none of Jellicoe's major recommendations were carried out.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5606945
| 1,212,591 |
1,710,937 |
"Fascioloides magna" is essentially of North American origin but the parasite was introduced into Europe with imported game animals at the second half of the 19th century. In spite of being native to North America the fluke was first described in Italy. In 1875, Bassi observed massive deaths of red deer in the Royal Park (now La Mandria Regional Park) near Torino, Italy. The signs were similar to well known fasciolosis in sheep. He named it "Distomum magnum". The author believed that the parasite was introduced into the park in wapiti imported from the United States in 1865. Most workers did not accept Bassi’s species because of his poor description. From 1882 to 1892, the fluke was recorded from different areas of the United States and described separately by many authors. Later, Stiles (1894) pointed out that the American findings are identical with species described previously by Bassi. Stiles made a complete morphological description of the adult fluke and named it "Fasciola magna" (Bassi 1875) Stiles 1894. In 1917, Ward showed that owing to the lack of the distinct anterior cone and the fact that vitellaria are confined to the region ventral to the intestinal branches, he established a new genus "Fascioloides" and rename it to "Fascioloides magna" (Bassi 1875) Ward 1917. In 1895, Stiles suggested that the life cycle of the fluke is very similar to "Fasciola hepatica", i.e. it includes an aquatic snail as an intermediate host. He gave a comparative description of the egg and miracidium of the fluke. However, first reported intermediate hosts of "F. magna" were not published until 1930’s. The complete life cycle of "F. magna", including a description of all the larval stages, was described by Swales (1935) in Canada.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2026820
| 1,709,977 |
1,536,358 |
After his PhD, Baulcombe spent the following three years as a postdoctoral fellow in North America, first at McGill University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) from January 1977 to November 1978, and then at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia, United States) until December 1980. Baulcombe returned to the United Kingdom then, where he joined the Plant Breeding Institute (PBI) in Cambridge and started his career as an independent scientist. At the PBI, Baulcombe initially held the position of Higher Scientific Officer, and was promoted to Principal Scientific Officer in April 1986. In August 1988 Baulcombe left Cambridge for Norwich. He joined the Sainsbury Laboratory as a senior research scientist, and also served as head of laboratory between 1990 and 1993 and between 1999 and 2003. In 1998 he was appointed honorary professor at the University of East Anglia, and given a full professorship there in 2002. In March 2007 it was announced that Baulcombe would become the next Professor of Botany at Cambridge University as a Royal Society Research Professor, taking up his post in September 2007. He serves on several committees and study sections, was elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 1997 and was president of the International Society of Plant Molecular Biology 2003–2004. , he is also a senior advisor for "The EMBO Journal". He also served on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2015.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11466981
| 1,535,490 |
883,884 |
The first patent resembling CLT was first developed in the 1920s by Frank J. Walsh and Robert L. Watts in Tacoma, Washington. Many sources however, date the first patent back to 1985 when it was patented in France. Significant developments were then made in Austria when Gerhard Schickhofer presented his PhD thesis research on CLT in 1994. Utilizing the theories he developed during his research, Schickhofer began working with three small sawmills and the Sawmillers Association, to start production of CLT. With help from some government funding, they were able to hand build a test CLT press and create the first few panels. At the same time, the first press system, utilizing water-based pressure, came on the market enabling Schickhofer and his team to think beyond the capabilities originally thought possible for CLT. After years of extensive research, Schickofer submitted the results to the Austrian and EU government bodies that dealt with the approval of materials for commercial products and in December 1998 it was approved. A period of substantial growth in production and projects soon followed in Germany and other European countries as a push for green buildings became more prominent. CLT was slow to take off in North America, but it has begun to gain momentum in more recent years.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16367375
| 883,420 |
189,460 |
When a new biopharmaceutical is developed, the company will typically apply for a patent, which is a grant to exclusive manufacturing rights. This is the primary means by which the drug developer can recover the investment cost for development of the biopharmaceutical. The patent laws in the United States and Europe differ somewhat on the requirements for a patent, with the European requirements perceived as more difficult to satisfy. The total number of patents granted for biopharmaceuticals has risen significantly since the 1970s. In 1978 the total patents granted was 30. This had climbed to 15,600 in 1995, and by 2001 there were 34,527 patent applications. In 2012 the US had the highest IP (Intellectual Property) generation within the biopharmaceutical industry, generating 37 percent of the total number of granted patents worldwide; however, there is still a large margin for growth and innovation within the industry. Revisions to the current IP system to ensure greater reliability for R&D (research and development) investments is a prominent topic of debate in the US as well. Blood products and other human-derived biologics such as breast milk have highly regulated or very hard-to-access markets; therefore, customers generally face a supply shortage for these products. Institutions housing these biologics, designated as 'banks', often cannot distribute their product to customers effectively. Conversely, banks for reproductive cells are much more widespread and available due to the ease with which spermatozoa and egg cells can be used for fertility treatment.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2654847
| 189,363 |
416,208 |
In 2003, Pawan Sinha, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, set up a program in the framework of the Project Prakash and eventually had the opportunity to find five individuals who satisfied the requirements for an experiment aimed at answering Molyneux's question experimentally. Prior to treatment, the subjects (aged 8 to 17) were only able to discriminate between light and dark, with two of them also being able to determine the direction of a bright light. The surgical treatments took place between 2007 and 2010, and quickly brought the relevant subject from total congenital blindness to fully seeing. A carefully designed test was submitted to each subject within the next 48 hours. Based on its result, the experimenters concluded that the answer to Molyneux's problem is, in short, "no". Although after restoration of sight, the subjects could distinguish between objects visually almost as effectively as they would do by touch alone, they were unable to form the connection between an object perceived using the two different senses. The correlation was barely better than if the subjects had guessed. They had no innate ability to transfer their tactile shape knowledge to the visual domain. However, the experimenters could test three of the five subjects on later dates (5 days, 7 days, and 5 months after, respectively) and found that the performance in the touch-to-vision case improved significantly, reaching 80–90%.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4459160
| 416,005 |
769,928 |
The use of triangles to estimate distances dates to antiquity. In the 6th century BC, about 250 years prior to the establishment of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the Greek philosopher Thales is recorded as using similar triangles to estimate the height of the pyramids of ancient Egypt. He measured the length of the pyramids' shadows and that of his own at the same moment, and compared the ratios to his height (intercept theorem). Thales also estimated the distances to ships at sea as seen from a clifftop by measuring the horizontal distance traversed by the line-of-sight for a known fall, and scaling up to the height of the whole cliff. Such techniques would have been familiar to the ancient Egyptians. Problem 57 of the Rhind papyrus, a thousand years earlier, defines the "seqt" or "seked" as the ratio of the run to the rise of a slope, "i.e." the reciprocal of gradients as measured today. The slopes and angles were measured using a sighting rod that the Greeks called a "dioptra", the forerunner of the Arabic alidade. A detailed contemporary collection of constructions for the determination of lengths from a distance using this instrument is known, the "Dioptra" of Hero of Alexandria (c. 10–70 AD), which survived in Arabic translation; but the knowledge became lost in Europe until in 1615 Snellius, after the work of Eratosthenes, reworked the technique for an attempt to measure the circumference of the earth. In China, Pei Xiu (224–271) identified "measuring right angles and acute angles" as the fifth of his six principles for accurate map-making, necessary to accurately establish distances, while Liu Hui (c. 263) gives a version of the calculation above, for measuring perpendicular distances to inaccessible places.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=207174
| 769,514 |
368,176 |
Because the only CFCs available to countries adhering to the treaty is from recycling, their prices have increased considerably. A worldwide end to production should also terminate the smuggling of this material. However, there are current CFC smuggling issues, as recognized by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in a 2006 report titled "Illegal Trade in Ozone Depleting Substances". UNEP estimates that between 16,000–38,000 tonnes of CFCs passed through the black market in the mid-1990s. The report estimated between 7,000 and 14,000 tonnes of CFCs are smuggled annually into developing countries. Asian countries are those with the most smuggling; as of 2007, China, India and South Korea were found to account for around 70% of global CFC production, South Korea later to ban CFC production in 2010. Possible reasons for continued CFC smuggling were also examined: the report noted that many banned CFC producing products have long lifespans and continue to operate. The cost of replacing the equipment of these items is sometimes cheaper than outfitting them with a more ozone-friendly appliance. Additionally, CFC smuggling is not considered a significant issue, so the perceived penalties for smuggling are low. In 2018 public attention was drawn to the issue, that at an unknown place in east Asia an estimated amount of 13,000 metric tons annually of CFCs have been produced since about 2012 in violation of the protocol. While the eventual phaseout of CFCs is likely, efforts are being taken to stem these current non-compliance problems.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54910
| 367,983 |
1,601,673 |
Turbomole was developed in 1987 and turned into a mature program system under the control of Reinhart Ahlrichs and his collaborators. Turbomole can perform a large-scale quantum chemical simulations of molecules, clusters, and later periodic solids. Gaussian basis sets are used in Turbomole. The functionality of the program concentrates extensively on the electronic structure methods with effective cost-performance characteristics such as density functional theory, second–order Møller-Plesset and coupled cluster theory. Aside from energies and structures, an assortment of optical, electrical, and magnetic properties are available from analytical energy derivative for electronic ground and excited states. However, up to the year 2000, Turbomole was only limited to the calculation of molecules in gas phase, thus, COSMO has been implemented in the Turbomole in a cooperative initiative of BASF AG and Bayer AG. Turbomole version 6.5 releasing in the year 2013, comes with post-Kohn-Sham calculations within the random-phase approximation. Turbomole also comes with another significant additions including nonadiabatic molecular dynamics, ultra-efficient higher order CC methods, new density functionals and periodic calculations. TmoleX is available as a graphical user interface for Turbomole allowing the user to perform the entire workflow of a quantum chemical investigation ranging from building of an initial structure to the interpretation of the results.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3528480
| 1,600,772 |
754,623 |
Ronald Coase (1910–2013) of the Chicago School of Economics was the most prominent economic analyst of law, and the 1991 Nobel Prize in Economics winner. His first major article "The Nature of the Firm" (1937) argued that the reason for the existence of firms (companies, partnerships, etc.) is the existence of transaction costs. Homo economicus trades through bilateral contracts on open markets until the costs of transactions make the use of corporations to produce things more cost-effective. His second major article "The Problem of Social Cost" (1960) argued that if we lived in a world without transaction costs, people would bargain with one another to create the same allocation of resources, regardless of the way a court might rule in property disputes. Coase used the example of an old legal case about nuisance named "Sturges v Bridgman", where a noisy sweets maker and a quiet doctor were neighbors and went to court to see who should have to move. Coase said that regardless of whether the judge ruled that the sweets maker had to stop using his machinery, or that the doctor had to put up with it, they could strike a mutually beneficial bargain about who moves house that reaches the same outcome of resource distribution. Only the existence of transaction costs may prevent this. So the law ought to preempt what "would" happen, and be guided by the most efficient solution. The idea is that law and regulation are not as important or effective at helping people as lawyers and government planners believe. Coase and others like him wanted a change of approach, to put the burden of proof for positive effects on a government that was intervening in the market, by analyzing the costs of action.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7881361
| 754,220 |
162,100 |
A free market for imported foodstuffs, the driving factor behind the 1846 repeal of the Corn Laws, reaped long-term benefits for consumers in Great Britain as world agricultural production increased. Consumers in Ireland, where there was severe famine in the 1840s, did not benefit to the same extent. At first agriculture in Great Britain, through its superior productivity, was able to weather and even thrive following the repeal of the Corn Laws, contrary to the dire warnings of the landowners who had warned of immediate agricultural ruin. By the 1870s, the global price of grain began to fall dramatically following the opening up of the Midwestern United States and interior of Canada to mechanized cultivation. Combined with lower global transportation costs, the average price of a quarter of grain fell from 56"s" in the years 1867–71, to 27"s" 3"d" per quarter in 1894–98. This lowered the cost of living and enabled Britain to meet the demands of a quickly growing population (grain imports tripled in volume between 1870 and 1914, while the population grew 43% between 1871 and 1901). It also caused the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the countryside by the late 1870s, where a series of bad harvests combined with the far cheaper price of foreign grain induced a long decline for the British agricultural sector. Wheat-producing areas like East Anglia were especially hard hit, with overall wheat cultivation down from 13% of agricultural output in 1870, to 4% in 1900. Landowners argued for a re-introduction of the Corn Laws to protect domestic farming, but this was rebuffed by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who argued that returning to protectionism would endanger British manufacturing supremacy.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33643110
| 162,015 |
1,906,063 |
Having decided not to escape to the West, in June 1945 he applied to the newly installed government of the People’s Republic of Poland to join the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Because of his knowledge of several languages, aged just 21, he was employed in the rank of Counsellor. He was assigned as Chief of Protocol to the Ministry of Shipping & Foreign Trade. In that capacity he participated in numerous negotiations with foreign delegations in Warsaw. In August 1945 he was a member of the Polish Delegation, as its interpreter, to the UNRRA Conference held in London. In the autumn of that year he was appointed counsellor to the embassy in the Hague, but that appointment was cancelled for political reasons, due to his origins and his alleged Home Army past. He returned to Kraków to complete his studies – firstly at the Academy of Economics, obtaining his degree in 1947 and then in the Faculty of History of Art of the Jagiellonian University, gaining his Master of Arts degree in March 1950. At the same time, he was involved in student activities and was the founder of the "Club of the Logophagoi", (Klub Logofagów), a debating society which comprised many prominent students and young scholars – some eminent politicians and scholars were to emerge from its ranks. The club was also the prototype for later clubs of the Catholic intelligentsia, which was preparing for the fall of Communism.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28810330
| 1,904,967 |
1,313,432 |
Fluid–structure interactions are a crucial consideration in the design of many engineering systems, e.g. automobile, aircraft, spacecraft, engines and bridges. Failing to consider the effects of oscillatory interactions can be catastrophic, especially in structures comprising materials susceptible to fatigue. Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940), the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, is probably one of the most infamous examples of large-scale failure. Aircraft wings and turbine blades can break due to FSI oscillations. A reed actually produces sound because the system of equations governing its dynamics has oscillatory solutions. The dynamic of reed valves used in two strokes engines and compressors is governed by FSI. The act of "blowing a raspberry" is another such example. The interaction between tribological machine components, such as bearings and gears, and lubricant is also an example of FSI. The lubricant flows between the contacting solid components and causes elastic deformation in them during this process. Fluid–structure interactions also occur in moving containers, where liquid oscillations due to the container motion impose substantial magnitudes of forces and moments to the container structure that affect the stability of the container transport system in a highly adverse manner. Another prominent example is the start up of a rocket engine, e.g. Space Shuttle main engine (SSME), where FSI can lead to considerable unsteady side loads on the nozzle structure. In addition to pressure-driven effects, FSI can also have a large influence on surface temperatures on supersonic and hypersonic vehicles.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6061729
| 1,312,712 |
1,778,404 |
Molecular cytogenetics combines two disciplines, molecular biology and cytogenetics, and involves the analysis of chromosome structure to help distinguish normal and cancer-causing cells. Human cytogenetics began in 1956 when it was discovered that normal human cells contain 46 chromosomes. However, the first microscopic observations of chromosomes were reported by Arnold, Flemming, and Hansemann in the late 1800s. Their work was ignored for decades until the actual chromosome number in humans was discovered as 46. In 1879, Arnold examined sarcoma and carcinoma cells having very large nuclei. Today, the study of molecular cytogenetics can be useful in diagnosing and treating various malignancies such as hematological malignancies, brain tumors, and other precursors of cancer. The field is overall focused on studying the evolution of chromosomes, more specifically the number, structure, function, and origin of chromosome abnormalities. It includes a series of techniques referred to as fluorescence "in situ" hybridization, or FISH, in which DNA probes are labeled with different colored fluorescent tags to visualize one or more specific regions of the genome. Introduced in the 1980s, FISH uses probes with complementary base sequences to locate the presence or absence of the specific DNA regions you are looking for. FISH can either be performed as a direct approach to metaphase chromosomes or interphase nuclei. Alternatively, an indirect approach can be taken in which the entire genome can be assessed for copy number changes using virtual karyotyping. Virtual karyotypes are generated from arrays made of thousands to millions of probes, and computational tools are used to recreate the genome "in silico".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8036853
| 1,777,402 |
117,732 |
The 18th century featured remedies to many of the society's early problems. The number of fellows had increased from 110 to approximately 300 by 1739, the reputation of the society had increased under the presidency of Sir Isaac Newton from 1703 until his death in 1727, and editions of the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" were appearing regularly. During his time as president, Newton arguably abused his authority; in a dispute between himself and Gottfried Leibniz over the invention of infinitesimal calculus, he used his position to appoint an "impartial" committee to decide it, eventually publishing a report written by himself in the committee's name. In 1705, the society was informed that it could no longer rent Gresham College and began a search for new premises. After unsuccessfully applying to Queen Anne for new premises, and asking the trustees of Cotton House if they could meet there, the council bought two houses in Crane Court, Fleet Street, on 26 October 1710. This included offices, accommodation and a collection of curiosities. Although the overall fellowship contained few noted scientists, most of the council were highly regarded, and included at various times John Hadley, William Jones and Hans Sloane. Because of the laxness of fellows in paying their subscriptions, the society ran into financial difficulty during this time; by 1740, the society had a deficit of £240. This continued into 1741, at which point the treasurer began dealing harshly with fellows who had not paid. The business of the society at this time continued to include the demonstration of experiments and the reading of formal and important scientific papers, along with the demonstration of new scientific devices and queries about scientific matters from both Britain and Europe.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=496064
| 117,687 |
1,167,466 |
A network of ten identical DPF machines operates in eight countries around the world. This network produces research papers on topics including machine optimization & diagnostics (soft x-rays, neutrons, electron and ion beams), applications (microlithography, micromachining, materials modification and fabrication, imaging & medical, astrophysical simulation) as well as modeling & computation. The network was organized by Sing Lee in 1986 and is coordinated by the Asian African Association for Plasma Training, AAAPT. A simulation package, the Lee Model, has been developed for this network but is applicable to all plasma focus devices. The code typically produces excellent agreement between computed and measured results, and is available for downloading as a Universal Plasma Focus Laboratory Facility. The Institute for Plasma Focus Studies IPFS was founded on 25 February 2008 to promote correct and innovative use of the Lee Model code and to encourage the application of plasma focus numerical experiments. IPFS research has already extended numerically-derived neutron scaling laws to multi-megajoule experiments. These await verification. Numerical experiments with the code have also resulted in the compilation of a global scaling law indicating that the well-known neutron saturation effect is better correlated to a scaling deterioration mechanism. This is due to the increasing dominance of the axial phase dynamic resistance as capacitor bank impedance decreases with increasing bank energy (capacitance). In principle, the resistive saturation could be overcome by operating the pulse power system at a higher voltage.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2744989
| 1,166,848 |
1,200,904 |
There is also controversy surrounding preservation methods. A major controversy at the end of the twentieth century centered on the practice of discarding items that had been microfilmed. This was the subject of novelist Nicholson Baker's book "Double Fold", which chronicled his efforts to save many old runs of American newspapers (formerly owned by the British Library) from being sold to dealers or pulped. A similar concern persists over the retention of original documents reformatted by any means, analog or digital. Concerns include scholarly needs and legal requirements for authentic or original records as well as questions about the longevity, quality and completeness of reformatted materials. Retention of originals as a source or fail-safe copy is now a fairly common practice. Another controversy revolving around different preservation methods is that of digitization of original material to maintain the intellectual content of the material while ignoring the physical nature of the book. Further, the Modern Language Association's Committee on the Future of the Print Record structured its "Statement on the Significance of Primary Records" on the inherent theoretical ideology that there is a need to preserve as many copies of a printed edition as is possible as texts and their textual settings are, quite simply, not separable, just as the artifactual characteristics of texts are as relevant and varied as the texts themselves (in the report mentioned herewith, G. Thomas Tanselle suggests that presently existing book stacks need not be abandoned with emerging technologies; rather they serve as vitally important original (primary) sources for future study).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9396111
| 1,200,263 |
2,132,641 |
Mainland Canada is one of the world's largest producers of GM canola and also grows GM maize, soybean and sugarbeet. Health Canada, under the Food and Drugs Act, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are responsible for evaluating the safety and nutritional value of genetically modified foods. Environmental assessments of biotechnology-derived plants are carried out by the CFIA's Plant Biosafety Office (PBO). The Canadian regulatory system is based on whether a product has novel features regardless of method of origin. In other words, a product is regulated as GM if it carries some trait not previously found in the species whether it was generated using traditional breeding methods (e.g. selective breeding, cell fusion, mutation breeding) or genetic engineering. Canadian law requires that manufacturers and importers submit detailed scientific data to Health Canada for safety assessments for approval. This data includes: information on how the GM plant was developed; nucleic acid data that characterizes the genetic change; composition and nutritional data of the novel food compared to the original non-modified food' potential for new toxins; and potential for being an allergen. A decision is then made whether to approve the product for release along with any restrictions or requirements. Labeling of foods as products of Genetic Engineering or not products of Genetic Engineering is voluntary. The Canadian regulations were reviewed by the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee between 1999 and 2003, with the conclusion that the current level of regulation was satisfactory. The committee was accused by environmental and citizen groups of not representing the full spectrum of public interests by only having one member of the board of 20 representing non-governmental organisations and for being too closely aligned to industry groups.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54903954
| 2,131,416 |
1,913,160 |
Berlyand was born in Kharkov on September 20, 1957. His father, Viktor Berlyand, was a mechanical engineer, and his mother, Mayya Genkina, an electronics engineer. Upon his graduation in 1979 from the department of mathematics and mechanics at the National University of Kharkov, he began his doctoral studies at the same university and earned a Ph. D. in 1984. His Ph. D. thesis studied the homogenization of elasticity problems. He worked at the Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics in Moscow. In 1991 he moved to the United States and started working at Pennsylvania State University, where he has served as a full professor since 2003. He has held long-term visiting positions at Princeton University, the California Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Argonne and Los Alamos National Laboratories. His research has drawn support from the National Science Foundation(NSF), NIH/NIGMS, the Applied Mathematics Program of the DOE Office of Sciences, BSF (the Bi-National Science Foundation USA-Israel) and the NATO Science for Peace and Security Section. Berlyand has authored roughly 100 works on homogenization theory and PDE/variational problems in biology and material science. He has organized a number of professional conferences and serves as a co-director of the Center for Mathematics of Living and Mimetic Matter at Penn State University. He has supervised 17 graduate students and ten postdoctoral fellows.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=55895288
| 1,912,061 |
1,440,509 |
Despite the wide range of foods that choline is found in, studies have shown that the mean choline intake of men, women and children are below the Adequate Intake levels. It is important to note that not enough choline is naturally produced by the body, so diet is an important factor. People who consume a large quantity of alcohol may be at an increased risk for choline deficiency. Sex and age also plays a role, with premenopausal females being less sensitive to choline deficiency than either males or postmenopausal females. This has been theorized to be a result of premenopausal women having an increased ability to synthesize choline in some form, which has been confirmed in studies on rats. In such instances of deficiency, choline supplements or (if able) dietary changes may be beneficial. Good sources of choline include liver, milk, eggs and peanuts. There is further evidence to suggest that choline supplements can be used to treat people who have neurological disorders as well we memory defects. Oral doses of CDP-choline (another form of choline) given to elderly subjects with memory deficits, but without dementia, for four weeks showed improved memory in free recall tasks, but not in recognition tests. In a second study, patients with early Alzheimer-type dementia were treated with twenty-give gram doses of phosphatidylcholine every day for six months. Slightly improvements were shown in memory tests compared to the placebo control group. Other studies conducted did not find any such improvement.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27024757
| 1,439,699 |
473,156 |
For the NAA procedure to be successful, the specimen or sample must be selected carefully. In many cases small objects can be irradiated and analysed intact without the need of sampling. But, more commonly, a small sample is taken, usually by drilling in an inconspicuous place. About 50 mg (one-twentieth of a gram) is a sufficient sample, so damage to the object is minimised. It is often good practice to remove two samples using two different drill bits made of different materials. This will reveal any contamination of the sample from the drill bit material itself. The sample is then encapsulated in a vial made of either high purity linear polyethylene or quartz. These sample vials come in many shapes and sizes to accommodate many specimen types. The sample and a standard are then packaged and irradiated in a suitable reactor at a constant, known neutron flux. A typical reactor used for activation uses uranium fission, providing a high neutron flux and the highest available sensitivities for most elements. The neutron flux from such a reactor is in the order of 10 neutrons cm s. The type of neutrons generated are of relatively low kinetic energy (KE), typically less than 0.5 eV. These neutrons are termed thermal neutrons. Upon irradiation, a thermal neutron interacts with the target nucleus via a non-elastic collision, causing neutron capture. This collision forms a compound nucleus which is in an excited state. The excitation energy within the compound nucleus is formed from the binding energy of the thermal neutron with the target nucleus. This excited state is unfavourable and the compound nucleus will almost instantaneously de-excite (transmutate) into a more stable configuration through the emission of a prompt particle and one or more characteristic prompt gamma photons. In most cases, this more stable configuration yields a radioactive nucleus. The newly formed radioactive nucleus now decays by the emission of both particles and one or more characteristic delayed gamma photons. This decay process is at a much slower rate than the initial de-excitation and is dependent on the unique half-life of the radioactive nucleus. These unique half-lives are dependent upon the particular radioactive species and can range from fractions of a second to several years. Once irradiated, the sample is left for a specific decay period, then placed into a detector, which will measure the nuclear decay according to either the emitted particles, or more commonly, the emitted gamma rays.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21933
| 472,920 |
568,536 |
EELS is spoken of as being complementary to energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (variously called EDX, EDS, XEDS, etc.), which is another common spectroscopy technique available on many electron microscopes. EDX excels at identifying the atomic composition of a material, is quite easy to use, and is particularly sensitive to heavier elements. EELS has historically been a more difficult technique but is in principle capable of measuring atomic composition, chemical bonding, valence and conduction band electronic properties, surface properties, and element-specific pair distance distribution functions. EELS tends to work best at relatively low atomic numbers, where the excitation edges tend to be sharp, well-defined, and at experimentally accessible energy losses (the signal being very weak beyond about 3 keV energy loss). EELS is perhaps best developed for the elements ranging from carbon through the 3d transition metals (from scandium to zinc). For carbon, an experienced spectroscopist can tell at a glance the differences between diamond, graphite, amorphous carbon, and "mineral" carbon (such as the carbon appearing in carbonates). The spectra of 3d transition metals can be analyzed to identify the oxidation states of the atoms. Cu(I), for instance, has a different so-called "white-line" intensity ratio than Cu(II) does. This ability to "fingerprint" different forms of the same element is a strong advantage of EELS over EDX. The difference is mainly due to the difference in energy resolution between the two techniques (~1 eV or better for EELS, perhaps a few tens of eV for EDX).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=72489
| 568,246 |
1,726,449 |
RNA viruses such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) evolve at an extremely rapid rate, orders of magnitude faster than mammals or birds. For these organisms, ancestral reconstruction can be applied on a much shorter time scale; for example, in order to reconstruct the global or regional progenitor of an epidemic that has spanned decades rather than millions of years. A team around Brian Gaschen proposed that such reconstructed strains be used as targets for vaccine design efforts, as opposed to sequences isolated from patients in the present day. Because HIV is extremely diverse, a vaccine designed to work on one patient's viral population might not work for a different patient, because the evolutionary distance between these two viruses may be large. However, their most recent common ancestor is closer to each of the two viruses than they are to each other. Thus, a vaccine designed for a common ancestor could have a better chance of being effective for a larger proportion of circulating strains. Another team took this idea further by developing a center-of-tree reconstruction method to produce a sequence whose total evolutionary distance to contemporary strains is as small as possible. Strictly speaking, this method was not "ancestral" reconstruction, as the center-of-tree (COT) sequence does not necessarily represent a sequence that has ever existed in the evolutionary history of the virus. However, Rolland and colleagues did find that, in the case of HIV, the COT virus was functional when synthesized. Similar experiments with synthetic ancestral sequences obtained by maximum likelihood reconstruction have likewise shown that these ancestors are both functional and immunogenic, lending some credibility to these methods. Furthermore, ancestral reconstruction can potentially be used to infer the genetic sequence of the transmitted HIV variants that have gone on to establish the next infection, with the objective of identifying distinguishing characteristics of these variants (as a non-random selection of the transmitted population of viruses) that may be targeted for vaccine design.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6383817
| 1,725,478 |
1,021,363 |
A few approaches and measures which can be taken in order to conserve forests are methods by which erosion can be minimized, waste is properly disposed, conserve native tree species to maintain genetic diversity, and setting aside forestland (provides habitat for critical wildlife species). Additionally, forest fires can also occur frequently and measures can also be taken to further prevent forest fires from occurring. For example, in Guatemala’s culturally and ecologically significant Petén region, researchers were able to find over a 20-year period, actively managed FSC-certified forests experienced substantially lower rates of deforestation than nearby protected areas, and forest fires only affected 0.1 percent of certified land area, compared to 10.4 percent of protected areas. However, it must be duly noted that short term decisions regarding forest sector employment and harvest practices can have long-term effects on biodiversity. Planted forests become increasingly important as they supply approximately a quarter of global industrial roundwood production and are predicted to account for 50% of global output within two decades (Brown, 1998; Jaakko Poyry, 1999). Although there have been many difficulties, the implementation of forest certification has been quite prominent in being able to raise effective awareness and disseminating knowledge on a holistic concept, embracing economic, environmental and social issues, worldwide. While also providing a tool for a range of other applications than assessment of sustainability, such as e.g. verifying carbon sinks.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1259241
| 1,020,834 |
1,953,414 |
RASD1 is expressed in many tissues including brain, heart, liver, and kidney. It is also present in bone marrow, but its expression is absent or at very low levels in spleen, lymph node, and peripheral blood leukocytes. RASD1 modulates multiple signaling cascades. RASD1 could activate G proteins in a receptor-independent manner and inhibit signal transduction through several different G protein-coupled receptors. Although RASD1 is a member of the Ras superfamily of small G-proteins, which often promotes cell growth and tumor expansion, it plays an active role in preventing aberrant cell growth. It can be induced by corticosteroids and may play a role in the negative feedback loop controlling adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) secretion. In the hypothalamus, RASD1 expression is induced in two ways: one by elevated glucocorticoids in response to stress, and one in response to increased plasma osmolality resulting from osmotic stress. Based on its inhibitory actions on CREB phosphorylation, increased RASD1 in vasopressin-expressing neurons may be essential in controlling the transcriptional responses to stressors in both the supraoptic nucleus and paraventricular nucleus via modulation of the cAMP-PKA-CREB signaling pathway. RASD1 is also reported to function with leptin in the activation of TRPC4 transient receptor potential channels and, thus, plays a role in regulating electrical excitability in gastrointestinal myocytes, pancreatic β-cells, and neurons. In addition, the interaction between RASD1 and Ear2 is involved in renin transcriptional regulation.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14777557
| 1,952,293 |
1,293,736 |
Revelle was deeply involved in the growth of oceanography in the United States and internationally after World War II. Working for the Navy in the late 1940s, he helped to determine which projects gained funding. He also promoted the idea that the Navy ought to support "basic research" instead of only trying to build new technology. At Scripps he launched several major long-range expeditions in the 1950s, including the MIDPAC, TRANSPAC (with Canada and Japan), EQUAPAC, and NORPAC, each traversing a different part of the Pacific Ocean. He and other scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography helped the U.S. government to plan nuclear weapons tests, in the hope that oceanographers might make use of the data. Revelle was one of the committee chairmen in the influential National Academy of Sciences studies of the biological effects of atomic radiation (BEAR), the results of which were published in 1956. In 1952, along with Dr. Seibert Q. Duntley, he successfully moved the MIT Visibility Lab to SIO with financial support of the U.S. Navy. Along with oceanographers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Revelle planned the American contributions to the oceanographic program of the International Geophysical Year (IGY). He became the first president of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, an international group of scientists devoted to advising on international projects, and was a frequent adviser to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, created in 1960.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2296257
| 1,293,025 |
1,086,752 |
As the design of the Stranraer progressed, it deviated to a greater extent from the Scapa, opting for an alternative thin-wing arrangement around a two-bay structure. The Stranraer's weight, and the surface area and span of its wings, were 12 percent greater; the elevator was also 7 percent larger, while the rudders featured trim tabs capable of holding the aircraft straight under single-engine flight. While some consideration towards adopting the Rolls-Royce Kestrel was made, the moderately supercharged Bristol Pegasus IIIM radial engine was selected instead, as it was an air-cooled type, having no need of heavy radiators and pipes. While the airframe of the Stranraer was broadly similar to the Scapa, it was cleaner in terms of its aerodynamics. Much of the airframe was composed of alclad, while detailed fittings were fabricated from stainless steel; metallic objects were anodised as an anti-corrosion measure. For additional structural strength, a pair of interplane struts were introduced. The hull was considerably larger, its cross-section being increased by 18 percent, yet still achieving virtually identical hydrodynamic performance. The forward gun was redesigned to be retractable, the middle gunner's position was lowered, and a tail gunner position was added just aft of the control surfaces, completed with a hooded windshield. In general, the equipment of which the aircraft was to be fitted with were the result of lessons learnt from operations of the earlier Southamptons.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=586463
| 1,086,194 |
1,399,699 |
All of the vehicles in "2001" were designed with extreme care in order for the small-scale models as well as full-scale interiors to appear realistic. The modeling team was led by Kubrick's two hirees from NASA, science advisor Fred Ordway and production designer Harry Lange, along with Anthony Masters who was responsible for turning Lange's 2-D sketches into models. Ordway and Lange insisted on knowing "the purpose and functioning of each assembly and component, down to the labeling of individual buttons and the presentation on screens of plausible operating, diagnostic and other data." Kubrick's team of thirty-five designers was often frustrated by script changes done after designs for various spacecraft had been created. Douglas Trumbull, chief special effects supervisor, writes "One of the most serious problems that plagued us throughout the production was simply keeping track of all ideas, shots, and changes and constantly re-evaluating and updating designs, storyboards, and the script itself. To handle all of this...a "control room"...was used to keep track of all progress on the film." Ordway (who worked on designing the station and the five principal space vehicles) has noted that U.S. industry had problems satisfying Kubrick with its equipment suggestions, while design aspects of the vehicles had to be updated often to accommodate rapid screenplay changes, one crew member resigning over an unspecified related issue. Eventually, conflicting ideas of what Kubrick had in mind, what Clarke was writing, and equipment and vehicular realities emerging from Ordway, Lange, Masters, and construction supervisor Dick Frift and his team were resolved, and coalesced into final designs and construction of the spacecraft before filming began in December 1965.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37415478
| 1,398,924 |
1,613,289 |
VATS lobectomy is the same as lobectomy performed via thoracotomy in that the pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, and bronchus to the involved pulmonary lobe are individually dissected, ligated and divided. Generally, endoscopic stapling devices are used to ligate and divide the vessels and the bronchus however conventional suture material can also be used. During VATS lobectomy, the structures being operated on are not directly visualized with the naked eye but are visualized solely with a rigid thoracoscope. A camera attached to the thoracoscope transmits the image to a video screen, which allows surgeons and assistants to observe the flow of the operation. Surgical specimens are placed into a water-tight bag and removed from the chest without morcellization (i.e. breaking up the specimen into small pieces before removal); this prevents seeding of the VATS incisions with tumor cells and allows for an intact specimen for pathology examination and cancer staging. Removal of lymph nodes from the mediastinum is not compromised by VATS and remains a cornerstone of the surgical therapy of lung cancer. Visualization is enhanced due to the magnification afforded by the fiberoptic thoracoscope and a 30-degree angle of visualization aids in looking around corners. However, because the incisions are too small to allow passage of the surgeon's hands into the thorax, the surgeon's tactile input is compromised. VATS operations rely on a thorough understanding of pulmonary anatomy to allow for strategically placed incisions (usually 3–5 incisions total). The main advantages of VATS over thoracotomy are that major muscles of the chest wall are not divided and rib spreaders that can lead to rib fractures or costovertebral joint pain are not used. This results in a hospital length of stay after VATS lobectomy generally reported to range from 3–5 days, or roughly half that for lobectomy via thoracotomy.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22682698
| 1,612,384 |
1,836,786 |
An experiment was performed to determine if UNC-5 is required for localization of presynaptic components in DA9. When testing the effect of unc-5::intron::unc-5 transgene on a mislocalization defect in UNC-5 mutant animals at 25 °C a significant rescue of the mislocalization defect was observed. In mutant animals, ventral and dorsal migrations are disrupted but longitudinal movements are unaffected. They discovered that this rescue does not occur at 16 °C because the transgene fails to produce UNC-5 at that temperature. This is relevant because is shows that the mislocalization defect is due to a change in temperature at the L4 larval stage which occurs after DA9 is fully developed. This suggests that UNC-5 is only required for the early outgrowth phase to guide axons. UNC-5 presents a novel function in maintaining polarized localization of GFP::RAB-3 independently of early polarization and guidance. When testing directly for whether UNC-6 netrin provides information for localization of presynaptic components an interesting discovery was made. The egl-20::unc-6 transgene creates an enlarged asynaptic zone of the DA9 dorsal axon. They further observed that the enlarged asynaptic domain is restored partly in UNC-5 which demonstrates that UNC-5 acts cell autonomously in DA9 in order to mediate ectopic UNC-6 exclusion of presynaptic components. The UNC-6 gradient is high ventrally and low dorsally and encompasses the dendrite and ventral axon of DA9. UNC-6 was recently found to cause the initial polarization of the C. elegans hermaphrodite specific neuronal cell body. The findings of this experiment suggest that UNC-6 and UNC-5 coordinate two different functions in DA9 and that the netrin is expressed after axon guidance is complete. Extracellular cues such as Wnt fibroblast growth factor can promote synapse formation, contradicting the traditional view of synapse formation from contact between synaptic partners to trigger the assembly of synaptic components. Inhibitory factors such as UNC-5 play essential roles in the formation and maintenance of synaptic components.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40631926
| 1,835,737 |
13,256 |
The lack of an internal gun "was the biggest mistake on the F-4", Chesire said; "Bullets are cheap and tend to go where you aim them. I needed a gun, and I really wished I had one." Marine Corps General John R. Dailey recalled that "everyone in RF-4s wished they had a gun on the aircraft." For a brief period, doctrine held that turning combat would be impossible at supersonic speeds and little effort was made to teach pilots air combat maneuvering. In reality, engagements quickly became subsonic, as pilots would slow down in an effort to get behind their adversaries. Furthermore, the relatively new heat-seeking and radar-guided missiles at the time were frequently reported as unreliable and pilots had to fire multiple missiles just to hit one enemy fighter. To compound the problem, rules of engagement in Vietnam precluded long-range missile attacks in most instances, as visual identification was normally required. Many pilots found themselves on the tail of an enemy aircraft, but too close to fire short-range Falcons or Sidewinders. Although by 1965 USAF F-4Cs began carrying SUU-16 external gunpods containing a 20 mm (.79 in) M61A1 Vulcan Gatling cannon, USAF cockpits were not equipped with lead-computing gunsights until the introduction of the SUU-23, virtually assuring a miss in a maneuvering fight. Some Marine Corps aircraft carried two pods for strafing. In addition to the loss of performance due to drag, combat showed the externally mounted cannon to be inaccurate unless frequently boresighted, yet far more cost-effective than missiles. The lack of a cannon was finally addressed by adding an internally mounted 20 mm (.79 in) M61A1 Vulcan on the F-4E.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11759
| 13,251 |
1,779,305 |
The competitive diplomacy on display between India and China in the IOR is a measure of strategic power play on the Indo-Pacific space which was described by a commentator as "a battle for the soul of the Indo-Pacific". The Chinese have systematically built their Submarine capabilities to not only meet their own requirements but also to export to other regional allies. The Chinese provide a cheaper option for developing nations as against the traditional European military suppliers like Germany, France, and others. It not only supplies submarines to such countries but in return also controls their military actions in multiple ways. With support bases in the IOR, even conventional diesel submarines more suited to the littorals in large numbers from China can pose a formidable threat for India, if not detected on time. The Chinese have made their soft acoustic capability building a priority and have worked on it systematically. The 'Undersea Great Wall (UGW)' project has been an ambitious undertaking and an integral part of their soft acoustic capability initiative since 1980 but it was not announced by the China State ShipbuildingCorporation (CSSC) until Dec 2015. The CSSC announced that it would construct an underwater observation system in the disputed South China Sea region. The UGW is part of the major project to set up an offshore observation network by 2020, released by the State Oceanic Administration. The stated larger vision of the Chinese government is to be seen as a global maritime power with a network covering coastal waters, the high seas, and polar waters.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60878831
| 1,778,303 |
1,398,511 |
In August 1541, Rheticus presented both a copy of "Chorographia" (containing a systematic approach to the preparation of maps, distinguishing chorography from geography, discussing various methods of cartographic survey by the use of the compass as well as improvements to the aforementioned instrument) and "Tabula chorographica auff Preussen und etliche umbliegende lender" ("Map of Prussia and Neighboring Lands") to Albert, Duke of Prussia. Knowing the duke had been trying to compute the exact time of sunrise, Rheticus made an instrument that determined the length of the day, and through this favor obtained from him a recommendation to Wittenberg that "De revolutionibus" be published. Albrecht asked Rheticus to end his travels and return to his teaching position. Rheticus returned to the University of Wittenberg in October 1541, then elected dean of the Faculty of Arts as well as joining the theological faculty. In May 1542, he traveled to Nürnberg to supervise the printing by Johannes Petreius of the first edition of "De revolutionibus" in which he included tables of trigonometric functions he had calculated in further support of Copernicus' work, but had to leave in fall to take a position at the University of Leipzig, and Andreas Osiander replaced him. A theologian, Osiander would use this role to add an unauthorized preface in a would-be attempt to avoid censorship, explicitly describing the theory discussed therein as a model of pure hypothesis predicated on assumptions that are coincidentally consistent with the calculations. Towards this, Rheticus would allegedly deface every such copy he came across. Copernicus' major work would eventually be published shortly before his death in 1543.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50392
| 1,397,738 |
958,589 |
Atypical HUS (aHUS) represents 5–10% of HUS cases and is largely due to one or several genetic mutations that cause chronic, uncontrolled, and excessive activation of the complement system, which is a group of immune signaling factors that promote inflammation, enhance the ability of antibodies and phagocytic cells to clear microbes and damaged cells from the body, and directly attack the pathogen's cell membrane. This results in platelet activation, endothelial cell damage, and white blood cell activation, leading to systemic TMA, which manifests as decreased platelet count, hemolysis (breakdown of red blood cells), damage to multiple organs, and ultimately death. Early signs of systemic complement-mediated TMA include thrombocytopenia (platelet count below 150,000 or a decrease from baseline of at least 25%) and evidence of microangiopathic hemolysis, which is characterized by elevated LDH levels, decreased haptoglobin, decreased hemoglobin (the oxygen-containing component of blood), and/or the presence of schistocytes. Despite the use of supportive care, an estimated 33–40% of patients will die or have end-stage renal disease (ESRD) with the first clinical manifestation of aHUS, and 65% of patients will die, require dialysis, or have permanent renal damage within the first year after diagnosis despite plasma exchange or plasma infusion (PE/PI) therapy. Patients who survive the presenting signs and symptoms of aHUS endure a chronic thrombotic and inflammatory state, which puts them at lifelong elevated risk of sudden blood clotting, kidney failure, other severe complications and premature death.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=542776
| 958,083 |
1,520,129 |
IMT was regarded as a tumor that occurs in children or young adults and presented in the lung, mesentery, greater omentum or, less commonly, heart, liver, spleen, pancreas, colon, small intestine, spermatic cord, prostate, uterus, eye orbit, peripheral or central nervous system nerves, brain meninges, spinal cord, or other sites. However, a more recent retrospective study of 92 patients accumulated by the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program of the National Cancer Institute found the mean age of disease onset was 47.4 years with peak occurrences at 0 to 4, 36 to 40, and >50 years old; middle-aged individuals (41 to 64 years) represented 1/3 of all cases. In this study, the commonest sites of tumor occurrence were the lower limb and hip (22% of cases), upper limb and shoulder (12% of cases), and head, face, and neck (9% of cases). Another recent study of 25 patients found the commonest sites of IMT were the abdomen (40% of cases) and lung/thoracic wall (32% of cases). Individual IMT cases are also reported to present in the urinary bladder, anal canal, and parameningeal spaces (i.e. sites adjacent to the meninges such as the nasopharynx, middle ear, paranasal sinuses, infratemporal fossa and pterygopalatine fossa). Apparently, the age and organ/tissue distribution of IMT various with the patient population examined: in general it can present in individuals of almost any age and in almost any organ or tissue site. IMT most commonly presents as a tumor localized to a single site but may be associated with distal metastases in up to 5% of all cases or up to 10% of cases in which the tumor cells express an ALK fusion protein. The tumors range in size from 1–25 cm (average 6.5 cm) with two-thirds being 1.5–6.5 cm. In rare cases, the tumors have spontaneously regressed.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33868993
| 1,519,271 |
315,856 |
Long-term use of linezolid has also been associated with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, a progressive and enduring often irreversible tingling numbness, intense pain, and hypersensitivity to cold, beginning in the hands and feet and sometimes involving the arms and legs. Chemotherapy drugs associated with CIPN include thalidomide, the epothilones such as ixabepilone, the "vinca" alkaloids vincristine and vinblastine, the taxanes paclitaxel and docetaxel, the proteasome inhibitors such as bortezomib, and the platinum-based drugs cisplatin, oxaliplatin and carboplatin. and optic neuropathy, which is most common after several months of treatment and may also be irreversible. Although the mechanism of injury is still poorly understood, mitochondrial toxicity has been proposed as a cause; linezolid is toxic to mitochondria, probably because of the similarity between mitochondrial and bacterial ribosomes. Lactic acidosis, a potentially life-threatening buildup of lactic acid in the body, may also occur due to mitochondrial toxicity. Because of these long-term effects, the manufacturer recommends weekly complete blood counts during linezolid therapy to monitor for possible bone marrow suppression, and recommends that treatment last no more than 28 days. A more extensive monitoring protocol for early detection of toxicity in seriously ill patients receiving linezolid has been developed and proposed by a team of researchers in Melbourne, Australia. The protocol includes twice-weekly blood tests and liver function tests; measurement of serum lactate levels, for early detection of lactic acidosis; a review of all medications taken by the patient, interrupting the use of those that may interact with linezolid; and periodic eye and neurological exams in patients set to receive linezolid for longer than four weeks.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=424464
| 315,687 |
2,021,089 |
Much the same as the previous two orthologues, "Grhl3" is involved in the regulation of epidermal tissue, such as the formation of the jaw, neural tube and other craniofacial features, and does so across both land and aquatic organisms. "Grhl3" is a downstream target of "Irf6", and plays a key role in processes involving fusion during development much like "Grhl2", especially so in the oral palate and spinal cord. A mutation of "Grhl3," that causes an increase or a decrease in expression, can lead to Van der Woude syndrome, which is characterized by phenotypes that include cleft lip and/or palate and spina bifida. Primarily, "Grhl3" appears to play a vital role for regulating the development of the craniofacial skeleton. A genome-wide association study found that "Grhl3" is an etiological variant for a nonsyndromic form of cleft palate, ~50% of all cleft palate cases, highlighting the level of impact that dysregulation of "Grhl3" has on development. Apart from the defects that are physically noticeable, "Grhl3" is also expressed in the brain of mice embryos and has been shown to regulate the impulsiveness and anxiety levels of mice. Furthermore, it appears that "grhl3" regulates the enveloping layer of zebrafish and axial extension as well as cell size and identity during embryonic development. If expression is disrupted during the early stages of disruption it will lead to severe defects that can lead to the death of the embryo before epiboly is complete. Epiboly is the stage of development for select organisms, such as the xenopus, sea urchin and zebrafish, when the cells of the embryo grow and migrate to the opposite end of the yolk sac to envelop it to continue developing.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63194019
| 2,019,926 |
875,101 |
In his account of the history of the Soviet BW programme, Alibek, who as Kanatzhan Baizakovich Alibekov had been a biological weapons scientist for "Biopreparat", describes a quite separate strand of early BW research being pursued in Leningrad. This work was allegedly initiated in the 1920s at the Leningrad Military Medical Academy under the control of OGPU (see above). According to Alibek, in 1928, the Revolutionary Military Council signed a decree about the weaponization of typhus. The Leningrad Military Medical Academy began cultivating typhus in chicken embryos. He also alleges that human experimentation occurred with typhus, glanders and melioidosis in the Solovetsky camp. Another, possibly more reliable source, regarding the Soviet BW programme in Leningrad are a series of secret reports generated by the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) - commonly known as MI6. A total of fourteen highly detailed reports on the Soviet BW programme were issued in the period 1924-1927. SIS identifies Petr Petrovich Maslakovets and Semen Ivanovich Zlatogorov as the lead BW scientists working on "Yersinia pestis" (the causative organism of plague) and other dangerous pathogens. Zlatogorov was in fact one of the world's leading authorities on pneumonic plague and had studied 40 strains of plague bacilli from around the world. He had been a leading participant of a Russian team despatched to combat the October 1910 to February 1911 outbreak of pneumonic plague in Manchuria. The SIS reports indicate that Zlatogorov and Maslakovets conducted some of their research on a so-called Plague Fort - Fort Alexander 1, located at Kronstadt. Here they aimed to develop strains of plague that remained viable when loaded into artillery shells, aerial bombs and other means of dispersal. German intelligence independently identified the secret BW programme allegedly managed by Zlatogorov and Maslakovets.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11564525
| 874,639 |
1,637,766 |
Jackson has received numerous awards, medals and honorary degrees: the inaugural Eppendorf-Nature European Young Investigator Award (1995); the Tenovus Medal for Cancer Research (1997); the Colworth Medal (1997); the Anthony Dipple Carcinogenesis Young Investigator award (2002); the Biochemical Society GlaxoSmithKline Award (2008); the BBSRC Innovator of the Year Award (2009); the Royal Society Buchanan Medal (2011), the latter in recognition of his "outstanding contributions to understanding DNA repair and DNA damage response signalling pathways", and the Gagna A. & Ch. Van Heck Prize (2015) for "his cardinal contributions related to cellular events that detect, signal the presence of and repair DNA damages". Jackson is the co-winner of the King Faisal International Prize for Science 2016, in recognition of his "outstanding contribution to defining the link between the basic mechanism of genomic DNA instability and its relationship to cancer. Specifically, he unraveled the salient components of the pathway involved in DNA repair. He is also credited with an innovative approach to bring his findings into tangible therapeutic products to treat cancer". He was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 1997, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2008. In 2016 Jackson was awarded the Dr A. H. Heineken Prize for Medicine for his "fundamental research into DNA repair in human cells and for the successful application of knowledge of that process in the development of new cancer drugs". In 2017 he was awarded the Genome Stability Network medal for his contributions to the field of genome stability and particularly for the realisation of the therapeutic potential of targeting the DDR. The Fondation ARC's Leopold Griffuel Prize in Translational and Clinical Research was presented to Jackson in 2019 for his work on DNA damage repair and his role in the development of medicines such as PARP1 and 2 inhibitors, currently used for cancer treatment. In 2020, he was awarded the Royal Society's Mullard Award for his research on DNA repair mechanisms and synthetic lethality that led to the discovery of olaparib which has reached blockbuster status for the treatment of ovarian and breast cancers.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43124732
| 1,636,841 |
1,083,680 |
Serious computer and digital hardware bugs caused by metastability have a fascinating social history. Many engineers have refused to believe that a bistable device can enter into a state that is neither "true" nor "false" and has a positive probability that it will remain indefinite for any given period of time, albeit with exponentially decreasing probability over time. However, metastability is an inevitable result of any attempt to map a continuous domain to a discrete one. At the boundaries in the continuous domain between regions which map to different discrete outputs, points arbitrarily close together in the continuous domain map to different outputs, making a decision as to which output to select a difficult and potentially lengthy process. If the inputs to an arbiter or flip-flop arrive almost simultaneously, the circuit most likely will traverse a point of metastability. Metastability remains poorly understood in some circles, and various engineers have proposed their own circuits said to solve or filter out the metastability; typically these circuits simply shift the occurrence of metastability from one place to another. Chips using multiple clock sources are often tested with tester clocks that have fixed phase relationships, not the independent clocks drifting past each other that will be experienced during operation. This usually explicitly prevents the metastable failure mode that will occur in the field from being seen or reported. Proper testing for metastability frequently employs clocks of slightly different frequencies and ensuring correct circuit operation.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2277871
| 1,083,123 |
2,031,457 |
He was a lead author of the sixth chapter of the IPCC Second Assessment Report, published in 1995, and helped oversee the chapter about climate projections in the IPCC AR4, published in 2007. He is an ISI highly cited researcher, and is known for his research linking global warming to extreme weather. He has also done much research into the use of global climate models. One of these studies, in which Meehl et al. showed that models could not reproduce recent warming without including anthropogenic influences, was featured in a 2004 review of climate science by the George W. Bush administration. His research has also shown that record high temperatures in the continental United States were more than twice as common as record lows in the 2000s, that it may soon be possible to predict heat waves three weeks in advance (rather than 10 days, which is the best current forecasts can do), and that the global warming hiatus observed over the last 15 years or so may be caused by more heat accumulating in the deep ocean. When Meehl joined Matthew England to publish one such study in "Nature Climate Change" in 2014, Meehl said that this study "...makes the case that, though other factors could contribute somewhat to the early-2000s hiatus, the Pacific is a major driving force in producing naturally-occurring climate variability that can overwhelm the warming from ever-increasing greenhouse gases to produce the hiatus." He also proposed that this occurred because of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation switching to its negative phase. In September 2014, Meehl et al. published another study on this topic, in which they attempted to simulate the hiatus with currently available climate models. They found that these models were able to simulate the hiatus, and concluded that it was largely caused by natural variability.
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=41955369
| 2,030,288 |
1,447,897 |
Current research has focused on a variety of different types of plants in order to determine which is the most eligible and efficient. The plant has to be robust, nutritious, appetizing, transformable, and ideally domestic. Some examples of crops that are being tested include: corn, tomato, rice, carrots, soybeans, alfalfa, papaya, quinoa, peas, apples, algae, wheat, lettuce, potatoes, bananas, and tobacco; with the last four being the most common. When looking at which plants are the best, there are many factors that must be taken into account. From the research, scientists have started to pair crops with diseases. They believe that edible vaccines can be made for many diseases; such as, rotavirus, cholera, gastroenteritis, autoimmune disease, malaria and rabies For example, they think that booster shots can be distributed through lettuce. It is also essential to find foods that can be eaten raw because it is thought that cooking would denature the proteins. Because of this, bananas and tomatoes have become top viable options. While bananas are productionally inexpensive and native in many underdeveloped nations, tomatoes have the ability to preserve healing processes because they are immune to thermal process; this makes them great for HIV antigens. They are an ideal crop because they contain beta-amyloid. Even though crops seem optimal, it is also necessary to look at the by-products. For example, tobacco has been found to be good for recombinant protein production, it is unsuitable for vaccine production because the plant also produces toxic compounds. Additionally, potatoes have been a main focus for edible vaccines, so much so that clinical trials using potatoes has already began.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=59951553
| 1,447,081 |
2,146,890 |
He received a B.A. in biology and geology from Bowdoin College (1979) and a Ph.D. in zoology and geology from Duke University (1984). In 2013 he was named the Carnegie-CASE Science Professor of the Year for New York state. Since 1990 he has co-hosted Natural Selections a weekly science program on North Country Public Radio. An expert reviewer for the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, he has published several dozen technical papers in "Science, PNAS," and other journals, and has written for "National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times," and other periodicals for general audiences. He is the author of "Field Notes from the Northern Forest" (Syracuse University Press, 1997), "Deep Future: The Next 100,000 Years of Life On Earth" (St. Martin's Press, 2011), which was a Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book of 2011, "Your Atomic Self" (St. Martin's Press, 2014), a Commended Book for the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books, and "Still Waters: The Secret World of Lakes" (W.W. Norton, 2018). His science-outreach efforts have also included a graphic novel about his student-centered research on Walden Pond, numerous public presentations on climate change and lake ecology, and a convention of Catholic Climate Ambassadors at Paul Smith's College in March, 2016.
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=55556286
| 2,145,659 |
1,015,908 |
Despite the development of output, industrialisation was carried out mainly by extensive methods: economic growth was ensured by an increase in the gross capital formation rate in fixed capital, a savings rate (due to a fall in the consumption rate), employment rates and the exploitation of natural resources. British scientist Don Filzer believes that this was due to the fact that as a result of collectivisation and a sharp decline in the standard of living of the rural population, human labor was greatly devalued. Vadim Rogovin notes that the desire to fulfill the plan led to a situation of overstretching forces and a permanent search for reasons to justify the non-fulfillment of excessive tasks. Because of this, industrialisation could not feed solely on enthusiasm and demanded a series of compulsory measures. Since October 1930, the free movement of labor was prohibited and criminal penalties were imposed for violations of labor discipline and negligence. Since 1931, workers had become responsible for damage to equipment. In 1932 the forced transfer of labor between enterprises became possible and the death penalty was introduced for the theft of state property. On December 27, 1932, an internal passport was restored, which Lenin at one time condemned as "czarist backwardness and despotism". The seven-day week was replaced by a full working week, the days of which, without names, were numbered from 1 to 5. On every sixth day, there was a day off for work shifts, so that factories could work without interruption. Prisoners' labor was actively used (see Gulag). In fact, during the first five-year plan the communists laid the foundations of forced labor for the Soviet population. All this became the subject of sharp criticism in democratic countries, and not only by the liberals, but also by the social democrats.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11818766
| 1,015,385 |
1,980,013 |
In the case of Optiwind (now defunct), there appears to be a growing body of evidence that they believe have solved for both the acceleration and economic challenges posed by CWAT/DAWT designs. Where previous attempts at new designs in this category have focused purely on acceleration magnitude, Optiwind appears to have taken a more holistic approach to their design, considering cost as much as acceleration benefit. In addition, the ongoing operational and maintenance cost of the entire unit appears to be successfully addressed in this design. It is absent the significant cost drivers of HAWT systems - large composite blades, gearbox, yaw motor, pitch control, lubrication, etc. In addition, the novel foundation geometry appears to have mitigated the structural challenges of the conventional monopole foundation design, which was originally conceived to offset the counter-rotational effects ("wobbling") of large, three blade turbines. As such, it is reasonable to assume that Optiwind's holistic approach to systemwide costs have led to a series of designs and discoveries that can realistically deliver the economic advantages of accelerated wind at a cost that is less than the net system cost. This is accurate if the Optiwind system is compared to a HAWT purely on rating. The problem therein is, if one compares the Optiwind design based on its stack height (the distance from its lowest turbine to the highest turbine) to a traditional HAWT of the same diameter, the overall power output of the machine is 20% less than that of the HAWT, with all the attendant material and structural expenses generally associated with a CWAT/DAWT. On average a CWAT/DAWT system would need to produce at least 2-3 times the energy a HAWT could produce from the maximum area used by the CWAT/DAWT in order to offset the substantially larger material costs. There is no evidence yet that there are any DAWT/CWAT designs capable of this level of increase when compared on an apples to apples basis with HAWT's.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21987025
| 1,978,875 |
631,312 |
Aggressive attempts at total removal do result in prolonged progression-free survival in most patients, but for tumors that clearly involve the hypothalamus, complications associated with radical surgery have prompted to adopt a combined strategy of conservative surgery and radiation therapy to residual tumor with as high a rate of cure. This strategy seems to offer the best long-term control rates with acceptable morbidity. But optimal management of craniopharyngiomas remains controversial. Although it is generally recommended that radiotherapy is given following subtotal excision of a craniopharyngioma, it remains unclear as to whether all patients with residual tumour should receive immediate or differed at relapse radiotherapy. Surgery and radiotherapy are the cornerstones in therapeutic management of craniopharyngioma. Radical excision is associated with a risk of mortality or morbidity particularly as hypothalamic damage, visual deterioration, and endocrine complication between 45 and 90% of cases. The close proximity to neighboring eloquent structures poses a particular challenge to radiation therapy. Modern treatment technologies including fractionated 3-D conformal radiotherapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy, and recently proton therapy are able to precisely cover the target while preserving surrounding tissue, Tumor controls in excess of 90% can be achieved. Alternative treatments consisting of radiosurgery, intracavitary application of isotopes, and brachytherapy also offer an acceptable tumor control and might be given in selected cases. More research is needed to establish the role of each treatment modality.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3085444
| 630,974 |
452,022 |
Another critical intervention in museums is the conception of permanent exhibitions, which are long-lasting galleries presenting the museum collections that critically reveal and approach the connections between the institution, its history and practices, and the cultural and social context in which the institution is embedded. This practice seeks to highlight the transformations in the paradigms that have determined the messages and languages of museums in the past, and invites visitors to reflect on the diverse roles of museums through history. The display of the collections of the Museum of Antioquia (Medellín, Colombia) exemplifies this practice. The design of the gallery "Historias para re-pensar" (Histories to re-think) focuses on the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, and proposes a critical review of the region’s art history thereby inquiring about the role of collectors and the Museum in the construction of aesthetic paradigms. The gallery includes contemporary works in order to install a dialogue between the past and the present. Additionally, the section of the permanent exhibition titled "Galleries for decolonial dialogues: The persistence of the dogma" displays an anachronistic array of works and documents in order to convey how enduring colonial dogmas determined the country’s cultural values and visual experiences during the 19th century. The project of redeveloping the Museum’s permanent galleries is part of a larger institutional transformation that makes the Museum of Antioquia a great example of comprehensive critical museology practices. Another example of this Museum’s critical approach is the artistic residency project of artist Nadia Granados who, with curator Carolina Chacón and a group of sex workers based in downtown Medellín, developed in 2017 the award-winning cabaret/performance "Nadie sabe quién soy yo" (No one knows who I am). From then on, the performers funded the group Las Guerreras del Centro, a collective to highlight the lives and stories of sex workers through artistic performances, knitting circles and other community actions.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=844809
| 451,803 |
359,272 |
Many knock-outs have been made in the apoptosis pathways to test the function of each of the proteins. Several caspases, in addition to APAF1 and FADD, have been mutated to determine the new phenotype. In order to create a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) knockout, an exon containing the nucleotides 3704–5364 was removed from the gene . This exon encodes a portion of the mature TNF domain, as well as the leader sequence, which is a highly conserved region necessary for proper intracellular processing. TNF-/- mice develop normally and have no gross structural or morphological abnormalities. However, upon immunization with SRBC (sheep red blood cells), these mice demonstrated a deficiency in the maturation of an antibody response; they were able to generate normal levels of IgM, but could not develop specific IgG levels . Apaf-1 is the protein that turns on caspase 9 by cleavage to begin the caspase cascade that leads to apoptosis . Since a -/- mutation in the APAF-1 gene is embryonic lethal, a gene trap strategy was used in order to generate an APAF-1 -/- mouse. This assay is used to disrupt gene function by creating an intragenic gene fusion. When an APAF-1 gene trap is introduced into cells, many morphological changes occur, such as spina bifida, the persistence of interdigital webs, and open brain . In addition, after embryonic day 12.5, the brain of the embryos showed several structural changes. APAF-1 cells are protected from apoptosis stimuli such as irradiation. A BAX-1 knock-out mouse exhibits normal forebrain formation and a decreased programmed cell death in some neuronal populations and in the spinal cord, leading to an increase in motor neurons .
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2457
| 359,085 |
1,368,564 |
"Overwatch" was developed with half a dozen features to bring in a wider audience, including an accessibility feature for color blind individuals. During development, one important goal was to have "combat clarity" for the player, so that when a player moved into a new area, enemy characters would be clearly visible. This was enabled by contrasting the hues and saturation levels used for players to those used within the maps, and creating characters with distinctly different silhouettes to allow a player to identify the hero from a distance, including whether they were friend or foe. They found during development that having players be able to change heroes in mid-match to be important to gameplay. This inspired them to forego plans to release "Overwatch" as a free-to-play model with microtransactions or with paid downloadable content but instead make it a single-purchase title. Keller said that they wanted players to be able to jump to any Hero as necessitated by the situation, and the free-to-play or downloadable content approach could limit that ability if none of the team's players had purchased access to that hero. Keller also stated that the free-to-play/downloadable content model could fragment their player community, with gamers only playing with friends that had the same content instead of all available players. The game's engine was developed from scratch within Blizzard as to target a wide range of personal computers, including laptops that use integrated graphics processors. Senior software engineer Ryan Greene said that they looked to create a hardware "minspec" that would assure the game ran at nearly 30 frames-per-second on these lower-end machines, which once met would allow higher end machines as well as the consoles to run at 60 frames-per-second, as well as optimizing other performance-related issues.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=55762533
| 1,367,808 |
853,957 |
In late 2017, ULA decided to bring elements of the ACES upper stage forward and begin work on Centaur V. Centaur V will have ACES' diameter and advanced insulation, but does not include the Integrated Vehicle Fluids (IVF) feature expected to allow the extension of upper stage on-orbit life from hours to weeks. Centaur V will use two different versions of the RL10-C engine with nozzle extensions to improve the fuel consumption for the heaviest payloads. This increased capability over Common Centaur will permit ULA to meet NSSL requirements and retire both the Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy rocket families earlier than initially planned. The new rocket publicly became the Vulcan Centaur in March 2018. In May 2018, the Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 was announced as Centaur V's engine following a competitive procurement process against the Blue Origin BE-3. Each stage will mount two engines. In September 2020, ULA announced that ACES was no longer being developed, and that Centaur V would be used instead. Tory Bruno, ULA's CEO, stated that the Vulcan's Centaur 5 will have 40% more endurance and two and a half times more energy than the upper stage ULA currently flies. “But that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Bruno elaborated. “I’m going to be pushing up to 450, 500, 600 times the endurance over just the next handful of years. That will enable a whole new set of missions that you cannot even imagine doing today.”
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=79533
| 853,502 |
1,484,395 |
A. N. Kolmogorov had the original idea for the KZ filter during a study of turbulence in the Pacific Ocean. Kolmogorov had just received the International Balzan Prize for his law of 5/3 in the energy spectra of turbulence. Surprisingly the 5/3 law was not obeyed in the Pacific Ocean, causing great concern. Standard fast Fourier transform (FFT) was completely fooled by the noisy and non-stationary ocean environment. KZ filtration resolved the problem and enabled proof of Kolmogorov's law in that domain. Filter construction relied on the main concepts of the continuous Fourier transform and their discrete analogues. The algorithm of the KZ filter came from the definition of higher-order derivatives for discrete functions as higher-order differences. Believing that infinite smoothness in the Gaussian window was a beautiful but unrealistic approximation of a truly discrete world, Kolmogorov chose a finitely differentiable tapering window with finite support, and created this mathematical construction for the discrete case. The KZ filter is robust and nearly optimal. Because its operation is a simple Moving Average (MA), the KZ filter performs well in a missing data environment, especially in multidimensional time series where missing data problem arises from spatial sparseness. Another nice feature of the KZ filter is that the two parameters have clear interpretation so that it can be easily adopted by specialists in different areas. A few software packages for time series, longitudinal and spatial data have been developed in the popular statistical software R, which facilitate the use of the KZ filter and its extensions in different areas. I.Zurbenko Postdoctoral position at UC Berkeley with Jerzy Neyman and Elizabeth Scott provided a lot of ideas of applications supported in contacts with Murray Rosenblatt, Robert Shumway, Harald Cramér, David Brillinger, Herbert Robbins, Wilfrid Dixon, Emanuel Parzen.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32683147
| 1,483,558 |
526,023 |
Scientists use a number of methods to study the complex structures and functions of the 3′ UTR. Even if a given 3′-UTR in an mRNA is shown to be present in a tissue, the effects of localization, functional half-life, translational efficiency, and trans-acting elements must be determined to understand the 3′-UTR's full functionality. Computational approaches, primarily by sequence analysis, have shown the existence of AREs in approximately 5 to 8% of human 3′-UTRs and the presence of one or more miRNA targets in as many as 60% or more of human 3′-UTRs. Software can rapidly compare millions of sequences at once to find similarities between various 3′ UTRs within the genome. Experimental approaches have been used to define sequences that associate with specific RNA-binding proteins; specifically, recent improvements in sequencing and cross-linking techniques have enabled fine mapping of protein binding sites within the transcript. Induced site-specific mutations, for example those that affect the termination codon, polyadenylation signal, or secondary structure of the 3′-UTR, can show how mutated regions can cause translation deregulation and disease. These types of transcript-wide methods should help our understanding of known cis elements and trans-regulatory factors within 3′-UTRs.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=345919
| 525,750 |
469,395 |
A large toolbox of chemical reactions is available for each step of the synthesis of a fine chemical. The reactions have been developed on laboratory scale by academia over the last two centuries and subsequently adapted to industrial scale, for instance for the manufacture of dyestuffs & pigments. The most comprehensive handbooks describing organic synthetic methods is "Methods of Molecular Transformations". About 10% of the 26,000 synthetic methods described therein are currently used on an industrial scale for fine chemicals production. Amination, condensation, esterification, Friedel–Crafts, Grignard, halogenation (esp. chlorination), and hydrogenation, respectively reduction (both catalytic and chemical) are most frequently mentioned on the websites of individual companies. Optically active cyanohydrins, cyclopolymerization, ionic liquids, nitrones, oligonucletides, peptide (both liquid- and solid-phase), electrochemical reactions (e.g., perfluorination) and steroid synthesis are promoted by only a limited number of companies. With the exception of some stereospecific reactions, particularly biotechnology, mastering these technologies does not represent a distinct competitive advantage. Most reactions can be carried out in standard multipurpose plants. The very versatile organometallic reactions (e.g., conversions with lithium aluminum hydride, boronic acids) may require temperatures as low as -100 °C, which can be achieved only in special cryogenic reaction units, either by using liquefied nitrogen as coolant or by installing a low-temperature unit. Other reaction-specific equipment, such as filters for the separation of catalysts, ozone or phosgene generators, can be purchased in many different sizes. The installation of special equipment generally is not a critical path on the overall project for developing an industrial-scale process of a new molecule.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3694845
| 469,159 |
203,790 |
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman began work on a series of papers examining "heuristic and biases" used in the judgment under uncertainty. Prior to that, the predominant view in the field of human judgment was that humans are rational actors. Kahneman and Tversky explained that judgment under uncertainty often relies on a limited number of simplifying heuristics rather than extensive algorithmic processing. Soon, this idea spread beyond academic psychology, into law, medicine, and political science. This research questioned the descriptive adequacy of idealized models of judgment, and offered insights into the cognitive processes that explained human error without invoking motivated irrationality. One simplifying strategy people may rely on is the tendency to make a judgment about the frequency of an event based on how many similar instances are brought to mind. In 1973, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman first studied this phenomenon and labeled it the "availability heuristic". An availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. As follows, people tend to use a readily available fact to base their beliefs on a comparably distant concept. There has been much research done with this heuristic, but studies on the issue are still questionable with regard to the underlying process. Studies illustrate that manipulations intended to increase the subjective experience of ease of recall are also likely to affect the amount of recall. Furthermore, this makes it difficult to determine whether the obtained estimates of frequency, likelihood, or typicality are based on participants' phenomenal experiences or on a biased sample of recalled information.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=403396
| 203,685 |
1,384,851 |
In the twentieth century the primacy of the division between the subjective and the objective, or between mind and matter, was disputed by, among others, Bertrand Russell and Gilbert Ryle. Philosophy began to move away from the metaphysics of categorisation towards the linguistic problem of trying to differentiate between, and define, the words being used. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s conclusion was that there were no clear definitions which we can give to words and categories but only a "halo" or "corona" of related meanings radiating around each term. Gilbert Ryle thought the problem could be seen in terms of dealing with "a galaxy of ideas" rather than a single idea, and suggested that category mistakes are made when a concept (e.g. "university"), understood as falling under one category (e.g. abstract idea), is used as though it falls under another (e.g. physical object). With regard to the visual analogies being used, Peirce and Lewis, just like Plotinus earlier, likened the terms of propositions to points, and the relations between the terms to lines. Peirce, taking this further, talked of univalent, bivalent and trivalent relations linking predicates to their subject and it is just the number and types of relation linking subject and predicate that determine the category into which a predicate might fall. Primary categories contain concepts where there is one dominant kind of relation to the subject. Secondary categories contain concepts where there are two dominant kinds of relation. Examples of the latter were given by Heidegger in his two propositions "the house is on the creek" where the two dominant relations are spatial location (Disjunction) and cultural association (Inherence), and "the house is eighteenth century" where the two relations are temporal location (Causality) and cultural quality (Inherence). A third example may be inferred from Kant in the proposition "the house is impressive or sublime" where the two relations are spatial or mathematical disposition (Disjunction) and dynamic or motive power (Causality). Both Peirce and Wittgenstein introduced the analogy of colour theory in order to illustrate the shades of meanings of words. Primary categories, like primary colours, are analytical representing the furthest we can go in terms of analysis and abstraction and include Quantity, Motion and Quality. Secondary categories, like secondary colours, are synthetic and include concepts such as Substance, Community and Spirit.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5370
| 1,384,084 |
974,660 |
Sequence data is a list of bases found in a given stretch of DNA. Its value lies in the discoveries and new technologies it allows. For Lander, one of these applications is the study of disease. Lander is the founder and director of the Broad Institute, a collaboration between MIT, Harvard, the Whitehead institute, and affiliated hospitals. Its goal is "to create tools for genome medicine and make them broadly available to the scientific community in order to apply these tools to propel the understanding and treatment of disease". To this end they are studying the variation in the human genome and have led an international effort that has assembled a library of 2.1 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). These act as markers or signposts in the genome, allowing the identification of disease susceptibility genes. They hope to construct a map of the human genome using blocks of these SNP called linkage disequilibrium (LD). This map will be of significant help in medical genetics by allowing researchers to link a given condition to a given gene or set of genes using the LD as a marker. This will allow for improved diagnostic procedures. Lander and his colleagues are hoping the LD map will allow them to test the Common Disease-Common Variant hypothesis that states that many common diseases may be caused by a small number of common alleles. For example, 50% of the variance in susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease is explained by the common allele ApoE4. Lander's group has recently discovered an important association that accounts for a large proportion of population risk for adult-onset diabetes.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=610184
| 974,149 |
1,261,902 |
However, the Romans made many significant technological advances, such as the invention of hydraulic cement and concrete. They used such new materials to great advantage in their structures, many of which survive to this day, like their masonry aqueducts, such as the Pont du Gard, and buildings, such as the Pantheon and Baths of Diocletian in Rome. Their methods were recorded by historical figures Vitruvius and Frontinus for example, who wrote handbooks to advise fellow engineers and architects. Romans knew enough history to be aware that widespread technological change had occurred in the past and brought benefits, as shown for example by Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia. That tradition continued as the empire grew in size and absorbed new ideas. Romans thought of themselves as practical, so small-scale innovation was common (such as the development of the ballista into the polybolos or repeating ballista). The traditional view is that their reliance on a plentiful slave labour force and a lack of a patent or copyright system have both been cited as reasons that there was little social or financial pressure to automate or reduce manual tasks. However, this view is being challenged by new research that shows they did indeed innovate, and on a wide scale. Thus the watermill had been known to the Greeks, but it was the Romans who developed their efficient utilisation. The set of mills at Barbegal in southern France were worked by a single aqueduct, which drove no fewer than 16 overshot mills built into the side of a hill. They probably were built by the army and supplied flour to a wide region. Floating mills were also used to exploit fast flowing rivers.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7968910
| 1,261,215 |
987,523 |
For numerous reasons, in the opinion of U.S. naval aviation historian Richard K. Smith, "Akron" never got the chance to show what it was capable of. Initially, the idea had been to use her as a scout for the fleet, just as the German Navy zeppelins had been used during World War I, with her airplanes being simply useful auxiliaries capable of extending her range of vision or of defending her against attacking enemy aircraft. Gradually, in the minds of the more forward-thinking officers familiar with airship and scouting fleet operations, that was reversed, it and "Macon" came to be regarded as aircraft carriers, whose sole job was to get the scouting airplanes to the search area and then to support them in their flights. The mothership herself should stay in the background, out of sight of enemy surface units, and act merely as a mobile advanced base for the airplanes, which should do all of the actual searching. Any aircraft carrier could do that, but only an airship could do it so quickly since her speed was at least twice that of a surface ship, enabling her to get to the scene or be switched from flank to flank quickly. However, it was an experimental ship, a prototype, and it took time for the doctrine and suitable tactics to evolve. It also took time to develop the techniques of navigating, controlling, and coordinating the scouts. At first, developments were hampered by inadequate radio equipment, as well as the difficulties encountered by the scout pilots in navigating, scouting, and communicating from their cramped open cockpits.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60944
| 987,007 |
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