scholarly journals The evolution of genetics to genomics

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Alan T. Branco
Keyword(s):  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Mathematical Models ◽  
Life Science ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Human Control ◽  
Human Illness ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Theories Of Evolution

Development of civilizations and the technology of Development improvement of crop and animals have been under human control for more than 10.000 years. Despite the term Genetics started being employed a few centuries ago, its practice is ancient and responsible for thriving of the human society to the point we see now. The recent advances in this fi eld started with the theories of evolution, mathematical models to predict traits, and studies at cellular level. The explosion of knowledge on the last few decades associated with the advancing of internet and computers led to advent of a new discipline in genetics: genomics. Here is discussed the transition from genetics to genomics and some of the main factors that were responsible for this progress. Nowadays genomics is part of most of life science studies and the outcomes are leading to outstanding discoveries on how the genome is precisely concerted; the fi ndings have been crucial to understand human illness and for development of personalized and more precise medical treatment.

Embracing Noise and Error

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-146
Author(s):  
Bálint L. Bálint
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Models ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Freedom Of Choice ◽  
Profound Change ◽  
Pure Mathematics ◽  
Error Factor ◽  
Flow Of Time ◽  
Entire Society ◽  
Personal Level

Abstract In his article “Embracing Noise and Error”, Bálint L. Bálint argues that human society is going through a profound change as mathematical models are used to predict human behavior both on a personal level and on the level of the entire society. An inherent component of mathematical models is the concept of error or noise, which describes the level of unpredictability of a system by the specific mathematical model. The author reveals the educational origin of the abstract world that can be described by pure mathematics and can be considered an ideal world without errors. While the human perception of the world is different from the abstractions we were taught, the mathematical models need to integrate the error factor to deal with the unpredictability of reality. While scientific thinking developed the statistic-probabilistic model to define the limits of predictability, here we present that in a flow of time driven by entropy, stochastic variability is an in-built characteristic of the material world and represents ultimately the singularity of each individual moment in time and the chance for our freedom of choice.

scholarly journals Recent developments of ion sources for life-science studies at the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (invited)

2016 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 02C107 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Kitagawa ◽  
A. G. Drentje ◽  
T. Fujita ◽  
M. Muramatsu ◽  
K. Fukushima ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Science ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
Heavy Ion ◽  
Ion Sources ◽  
Recent Developments

Electrodeposition Characteristics of Bismuth-Telluride Films

2004 ◽  
Vol 845 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Prabhakar ◽  
E. J. Podlaha-Murphy ◽  
M. C. Murphy ◽  
R. V. Devireddy
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Models ◽  
Bismuth Telluride ◽  
Low Temperatures ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
Thermoelectric Coolers ◽  
Artificial Tissue ◽  
Tissue System

ABSTRACTThis work is a part of an on-going research effort to develop an array of micro thermoelectric coolers (TECs) for highly localized control of temperature at the cellular level. Prefabrication experimentation and modeling were carried out to understand the behavior of the proposed device. Mathematical models were used to identify important device parameters and optimal device dimensions. Preliminary experiments have shown that it is feasible to produce the TECs through electrodeposition of bismuth and telluride on modules produced using a modified multistep LIGA (Lithographie, Galvanoformung and Abformung) technique. The development and characterization of the proposed TECs would enable the bioengineer highly localized control of temperature in a native or artificial tissue system. Thus enabling further usage of low temperatures in biological systems for both destructive (cryosurgical) and beneficial (cryopreservation) procedures.

Beyond Metaphor: Mathematical Models in Economics as Empirical Research

1999 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Breslau ◽  
Yuval Yonay
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Models ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Laboratory Studies ◽  
Clear Separation ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
Published Report ◽  
Analytical Work ◽  
Depth Interviews

The ArgumentWhen economists report on research using mathematical models, they use a literary form similar to the experimental report in the laboratory sciences. This form consists of a narrative of a series of events, with a clear temporal segregation of the agency of the author and the agency of the objects of study. Existing explanations of this literary form treat it as a rhetorical device that either conceals the agency of the author in constructing and interpreting the findings, or simply appropriates the appearance of accepted (natural-)scientific method. This article — based on analysis of a research program in economics, a single article that issued from that program, and in-depth interviews with the authors — proposes an alternate interpretation. Drawing on the praxeological “laboratory studies” tradition in science studies, we treat work with mathematical models as involving the interaction of economists with objects (models) that act independently of the analyst's will. The clear separation of the economist's and the models agency, as depicted in the published report, is not the result of a rhetorical rewriting of actual events, but is a practical accomplishment. Every step in the analytical work that preceded the paper is devoted to developing a procedure in which the economists' agency will be completely accountable in terms of accepted practices, and the performance of the model will be distinct and compelling.

Nauka wobec wyzwań współczesnej rzeczywistości społeczno-politycznej

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 21-29
Author(s):  
Andrzej Chodubski
Keyword(s):  
Science Studies ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Productive Force ◽  
Political Sciences ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
The World ◽  
Structured Knowledge ◽  
The One

It is indicated in the lecture that science, as human activity that aims at the objective recognition of a person and his universe, is nowadays perceived as a fundamental power that generates the cultural and civilizational nature of mankind and the world around it. The widening horizon of cultural life has been changing and still changes the scientific and research challenges, including the way, in which science is defined. At present, scientific and technological progress, legal solutions, educational requirements, constantly generate new challenges for science and make it a productive force. The role of social and political sciences that until recently strived to make their ways to achieve the title of science that is a methodologically structured knowledge about human, society and the world, has been changing.At present, the place of social and political reality in the sphere of scientific cognition is perceived as dichotomous – on the one hand, due to the methodology of researches, including attempts to compare them with exact sciences, their scientific separateness is assessed critically; however, on the other hand, taking into account the worked out methods and ways of defining cultural and civilizational reality, explantation of occurrences, processes, humanistic and social values, they are set in the classical science studies, as a whole.

The marine benthos of Arctic and sub-Arctic continental shelves

Polar Record ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 17 (111) ◽  
pp. 595-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Curtis
Keyword(s):  
Life Science ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Biological Research ◽  
Bottom Fauna ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Arctic Seas ◽  
Marine Life ◽  
Continental Shelves

The study of marine life from the bottom of Arctic and sub-Arctic seas has long been a topic of scientific interest, and such work represents an important part of contemporary biological research in the polar regions. Contributions to this field have been made through the collective efforts of investigators from many nations over the years and include findings of considerable significance for life science studies as a whole, as well as for specific polar problems. Together with contemporary research on the pelagic and planktonic biota of northern waters, current work on the bottom fauna (benthos) offers much potential for developing our fundamental knowledge of biological processes in the Arctic seas.

Partners of Humans: A Realistic Assessment of the Role of Robots in the Foreseeable Future

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Aleksander
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Actual State ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Control ◽  
The Press ◽  
Realistic Assessment ◽  
The Media ◽  
University Of Chicago Press

As robots are generally thought to perform human-like tasks, they depend on the successes of information technology in the area of artificial intelligence to succeed in such pursuits. But robots, through their anthropomorphic character and their weighty presence in science fiction, attract the attention of the press and the media in a way that, at times, blurs the distinction between the actual state of the art and exaggerated claims. This makes it hard to assess the true functional positioning of robots, how this is likely to move forward and whether the outcome of progress could be detrimental to human society. The aim of this paper is to review the actual level of competence that is being achieved in robotics research laboratories and a plausible impact that this is likely to have on human control over life and jobs. The key thesis here is that cognition in machines and even an artificial form of consciousness lead to operations in a set of tasks (the ‘algorithmic’ category) which is different from that available to truly cognitive and conscious human beings (the ‘life-need’ category): that is, in the paper it is argued that a major category error (Ryle in The concept of mind, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1949) looms in predictions of serious threats to humanity. As far as a threat to jobs goes, it is argued that early attention to education and re-skilling of humans in the workplace can lead to an effective symbiosis between people and robots.

scholarly journals International Organizations: the Main Factors of Emergence and Development

2015 ◽  
pp. 102-110
Author(s):  
L. S. Voronkov
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Vital Functions ◽  
Main Factors

The author argues that the emergence of the first permanent intergovernmental (IIGO) and non-governmental (INGO) organizationsin the second half of the XIX-th century was due to common causes. He tries to justify the need to consider them not as independent objects of study, but as the phenomenon, caused by the high level of internationalization of economic life of states and of socio-economic consequences of the industrial revolution, reached in this period. The emergence of IIGOs, based on international treaty, was accompanied by establishment of a large number of INGOs operating in similar fields of human activity, which performed supplementary functions and regulated areas of cooperation and public needs, not covered by interstate agreements. The article presents the main factors that in later stages of internationalization and development of contemporary international relations gave the impetus to emergence and development of international organizations, including the military-technological revolution, that gave birth to mass destruction weapons and avalanche-like growth of the number of human and material losses during wars and military conflicts, the Cold War between world communism and world capitalism, the collapse of the colonial system and formation ofa new main contradiction of the world politics between the "Club of rich countries" and states of the "global periphery", beginning of development of regional integration processes and, finally, the emergence of global problems. The article emphasizes that both IIGOs and INGOs evolved from the supportive tools in implementation of multilateral interaction of sovereign states towards becoming an integral part of contemporary international relations, fulfilling many vital functions of modern human society and its citizens. Given the involvement of the overwhelming majority of modern sovereign states and tens of thousands of civil society organizations in activity of numerical IIGOs and INGOs, none of the existing centers of world power can afford to trample down and to subordinate activities of all these international organizations. The development of IIGOs and INGOs makes any attempts to create a unipolar system of contemporary international relations impossible.

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