scholarly journals Graduate Curriculum for Biological Information Specialists: A Key to Integration of Scale in Biology

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole L. Palmer ◽  
Bryan P. Heidorn ◽  
Dan Wright ◽  
Melissa H. Cragin

Scientific data problems do not stand in isolation. They are part of a larger set of challenges associated with the escalation of scientific information and changes in scholarly communication in the digital environment. Biologists in particular are generating enormous sets of data at a high rate, and new discoveries in the biological sciences will increasingly depend on the integration of data across multiple scales. This work will require new kinds of information expertise in key areas. To build this professional capacity we have developed two complementary educational programs: a Biological Information Specialist (BIS) masters degree and a concentration in Data Curation (DC). We believe that BISs will be central in the development of cyberinfrastructure and information services needed to facilitate interdisciplinary and multi-scale science. Here we present three sample cases from our current research projects to illustrate areas in which we expect information specialists to make important contributions to biological research practice.

AI & Society ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Anker

AbstractThis paper addresses three aspects of Bio Art: iconography, artificial life, and wetware. The development of models for innovation require hybrid practices which generate knowledge through epistemic experimental practices. The intersection of art and the biological sciences contain both scientific data as well as the visualization of its cultural imagination. In the Bio Art Lab at the School of Visual Arts, artists use the tools of science to make art.


1999 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen A. Evans

The Human Genome Project is a massive government and privately funded undertaking to sequence the entire human genome and discover all 80,000 human genes in less than 15 years. As the project nears completion in the first decade of the 21st century, the ramifications of public availability of this vast amount of biological information are likely to pervade society. The legal, ethical and social issues raised by the genome project and associated biological research are expected to have a profound and long lasting impact on daily life. How society deals with the many emerging issues involving genetic privacy, designer babies, and the transformation of medical care among others will be a major focus of public and governmental discussion in the next decade.


2021 ◽  
Vol 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinesh Kumar Patel

Background: Natural products and their derived phytochemicals have been used in the medicine and gaining importance in the modern medicine due to their therapeutic potential and health beneficial effect on human disorders. Plenty of herbal drug based products are available in the market and playing an important role in the human health care system due to their health beneficial properties in human being. In the modern age we can find many herbal based products in the market mainly prepared from the natural products and used for the prevention and treatment of various human disorders. Benzylisoquinoline alkaloids are the important class of alkaloidal compounds and the better example are morphine, codeine, sanguinarine, berberine and canadine which are mainly known for their medicinal value in the medicine. Methods: Hydrastis canadensis is the important medicinal plant found to contain a significant amount of canadine, hydrastine and berberine. In the present investigation, numerous scientific databases such as Google, Pubmed, Science direct etc. have been searched to collect the important scientific information of canadine and analyzed to know the health beneficial aspect of canadine in the medicine. All the collected scientific information data’s were analyzed and have been categorized into mainly pharmacological and analytical aspects. Results: From the analysis of the collected scientific information, it was found that Hydrastis canadensis contain significant amount of canadine with many more phytochemical including canadaline, hydrastidine, isohydrastidine etc. Pharmacological activity data analysis revealed the biological importance of Hydrastis canadensis in the medicine for their traditional uses against gastritis, colitis, duodenal ulcers, loss of appetite, liver disease, bile secretion disorder, snake bites and vaginitis in the medicine. However, scientific data analysis of canadine revealed their effectiveness for their acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity, anti-cancer, anti-microbial, anti-allergic activity and anti-oxidant activity. Different modern analytical tools have been used in the modern medicine for the isolation and quantification of canadine in the Hydrastis canadensis. Conclusion: Present investigation revealed the medicinal importance and pharmacological activities of a canadine in the medicine for the treatment of numerous human health complications. These scientific data will be helpful to the scientist to know the biological importance of canadine in the medicine against various forms of human complications.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (20) ◽  
pp. 6780
Author(s):  
Zhitong Lai ◽  
Rui Tian ◽  
Zhiguo Wu ◽  
Nannan Ding ◽  
Linjian Sun ◽  
...  

Pyramid architecture is a useful strategy to fuse multi-scale features in deep monocular depth estimation approaches. However, most pyramid networks fuse features only within the adjacent stages in a pyramid structure. To take full advantage of the pyramid structure, inspired by the success of DenseNet, this paper presents DCPNet, a densely connected pyramid network that fuses multi-scale features from multiple stages of the pyramid structure. DCPNet not only performs feature fusion between the adjacent stages, but also non-adjacent stages. To fuse these features, we design a simple and effective dense connection module (DCM). In addition, we offer a new consideration of the common upscale operation in our approach. We believe DCPNet offers a more efficient way to fuse features from multiple scales in a pyramid-like network. We perform extensive experiments using both outdoor and indoor benchmark datasets (i.e., the KITTI and the NYU Depth V2 datasets) and DCPNet achieves the state-of-the-art results.


Author(s):  
Xavi Marsellach

The current state of biological knowledge contains an unresolved paradox: life as a continuity in the face of the phenomena of ageing. In this manuscript I propose a theoretical framework that offers a solution for this apparent contradiction. The framework proposed is based on a rethinking of what ageing is at a molecular level, as well as on a rethinking of the mechanisms in charge of the flow of information from one generation to the following ones. I propose an information-based conception of ageing instead of the widely accepted damage-based conception of ageing and propose a full recovery of the chromosome theory of inheritance to describe the intergenerational flow of information. Altogether the proposed framework allows a precise and unique definition of what life is: a continuous flow of biological information. The proposed framework also implies that ageing is merely a consequence of the way in which epigenetically-coded phenotypic characteristics are passed from one generation to the next ones.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 106-112
Author(s):  
Masoud Dadashi ◽  
Shaian Tavakolian ◽  
Ebrahim Faghihloo

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is considered as one of the most common carcinogenic viruses in humans throughout the world and is mostly associated with gynecologic malignancies. However, it is also one of the environmental factors that is involved in colorectal cancer (CRC). Objective: A meta-analysis was performed to investigate the prevalence of HPV infection in patients suffering from the CRC. Methods: The frequency of the HPV in patients with CRC was studied from 2001 to 2016. To this end, several databases were reviewed, including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Iranmedex, and the Scientific Information Database. Then, the analysis was done by Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (V2.0, Biostat) software. Considering heterogeneity between different studies, the random effect model was used and then the results were checked with Cochran’s Q-statistic. Results: The meta-analysis revealed that the frequency of HPV infection in patients with CRC was 33.7% (a 95% CI of 28.4-39.5). The additional stratified analysis also showed that HPV infection in CRC patients was more widespread in European countries compared to Asian and American countries. Conclusion: The high rate of HPV infection is a major concern in sexually transmitted diseases around the world, therefore, controlling high-risk behaviors, vaccination, screening, and HPV subtyping can be useful in managing HPV infections.


2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 158-174
Author(s):  
Olga V. Popova ◽  

The article presents a study of gift-giving practices in the context of the development of modern biomedicine and shows their relationship to the realization of epistemic virtues. In biomedicine, the gain and production of knowledge (the gift of knowledge) is often grounded in bodily gift (sacrifice) and donor practices. The latter are associated with a number of mishaps in the history of biomedicine, reflecting the violation of moral norms in the process of obtaining scientific data and demonstrating the need for a clear differentiation of intellectual and moral virtues. An important factor in the formation of the epistemic norms of modern biomedicine has been the transformation of the values of scientific knowledge from practices of coercion to giving. As a result, the involuntary sacrifice of biomaterials to science was replaced by voluntary practices of somatic giving and informational exchange that determine the process of mutual recognition in science. It is shown that gift-giving in science is closely associated with intellectual virtues, with intellectual generosity characterizing the idea of openness in science and scientists’ intention for production and constant growth of knowledge, and can also be related to the idea of altruistic service to science, involving the exchange of received scientific data and access to free information in the network space. A number of examples of the modern digital gift ethos and the implementation of the principles of openness of knowledge and knowledge exchange in the context of the creation of biomedical expert digital platforms, the formation of social scientific networks – platforms with open access to scientific information, the development of the phenomenon of “garage” science and other “zones of exchange” experience are considered.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (12) ◽  
pp. 71-77
Author(s):  
N. V. Pimenov ◽  
◽  
E. A. Pustovit ◽  

The problem of otitis in small pets is widespread and requires improvement of therapeutic approaches based on modern scientific data and research achievements. This article presents an overview of current sources of primary scientific information on the field of microbiology in inflammatory diseases of the ear in small domestic animals – dogs and cats. Information about microbiom (involved in the pathogenesis of otitis), ability of microorganisms to biofilm formation and resistance to antimicrobial drugs is presented. The associativity of the bacterial component, its colonization ability and these characteristics actualize the problem of improving antibacterial treatment, prevention tactics and scientific research in this matter.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (S335) ◽  
pp. 348-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Berrilli ◽  
Marco Casolino ◽  
Dario Del Moro ◽  
Roberta Forte ◽  
Luca Giovannelli ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Space WEeatherR TOr vergata university (SWERTO) service is an operational Space Weather service based on multi-instrument data from space-based (PAMELA, ALTEA) and ground-based (IBIS, MOTHII) instruments. The service (spaceweather.roma2.infn.it) is located at the Physics Department of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy (UTOV) and will allow registered users to access scientific data from instrumentation available to UTOV researchers through national and international collaborations. It will provide intuitive software for the selection and visualization of such data and results from prototype forecasting codes for flare probability and Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) fluxes. The service is designed to promote access to technical and scientific information by the regional industries which employ technologies vulnerable to Space Weather effects. Basically, SWERTO aims to: i) design and construct a data-base with particle fluxes recorded by space missions and spectro-polarimetric measurements of the solar photosphere; ii) allow an Open Access to the data-base and to prototype forecasts to regional industries involved and exposed to Space Weather effects; iii) implement a tutorial and a FAQ section to help decision makers to became aware of and evaluate the risks from Space Weather events; iv) outreach and customer products. SWERTO has been financed by the Regione Lazio FILAS-RU-2014-1028 grant.


2020 ◽  
pp. 096739112097118
Author(s):  
Mustafa Taşyürek

In this study, process parameters and mechanical properties of the multi-scale composite were investigated experimentally and predictably. Multi-scale material includes boron carbide particles and multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in the epoxy-based matrix. Both reinforcements were reinforced into the matrix with various rates simultaneously. Average three tensile strength and hardness values were determined. The tensile strength and hardness were enhanced thanks to high rate of B4C usage up to 54.09% and 2.54%, respectively. The microstructure of the hybrid composite was investigated by Scanning Electron Microscopy. Also, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy was used to interpret spectral bands. The experimental data were analyzed using optimization method. Optimal process parameters for tensile strength and interfacial properties were determined. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to obtain most significant factor and optimum levels of parameters. Finally, it was observed that B4C ratio is the most dominant factor affecting the mechanical and thermal properties.


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