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Animal Coloration (book) The examples are mainly from Beddard's own observation of "animals that may be usually seen in the Zoological Society's Gardens", though he also introduces and quotes the work of other scientists, including Henry Walter Bates and Alfred Russel Wallace. The book has four colour plates by Peter Smit, who both drew and prepared the chromolithographic plates. Plate 1 is stated in the "List of Illustrations" "To face page 108", but as bound in the first edition it is used as a Frontispiece, facing the title page. There are also 36 woodcuts (in black and white) in the text, though one of these, "Eolis and Dendronotus" is intentionally repeated as figures 10 and 19 to accompany the text in two places. The woodcuts vary from small line drawings on a simple white background (as in the diagrammatic figure 28 of "Psyche helix", and figure 34 of the winter moth) to page-width illustrations like figure 2 which shows ermines in winter pelage, in a realistic depiction with a detailed snowy scene in the background. The woodcuts are certainly by a number of different artists; many are unsigned, but figures 5 and 26 are signed "E.A. Brockhaus X.A" lower right (X=cut, A=Artist), while figure 29 is signed "GM" lower left, and figures 35 and 36 are signed "ES" lower left. Figure 2 bears a monograph "FR", lower left, and figure 7, of the penguin "Aptenodytes patagonica" is stated to be "from Brehm" ("Brehms Tierleben"). "Animal Coloration" has a simple structure of six chapters in its 288 pages
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Animal Coloration (book) The American zoologist and ornithologist Joel Asaph Allen reviewed "Animal Coloration" in "The Auk" in 1893. Allen notes Beddard's remark that the book contains hardly anything novel, so that it is mainly a review of previous theories, but welcomes it as a review of the state of knowledge together with Beddard's critical commentary. Allen notes that Beddard could have gone further in criticising Weismann and Poulton on colour changes, but is "glad to see [that Beddard] is willing to grant that the influence of an animal's surroundings may exercise a direct influence upon its coloration without the intervention of the agency of 'natural selection.'" Allen praises Beddard's "commendable conservatism" in his discussion of camouflage, which he compares to the "credulous spirit" of other authors. Reviewing the chapter on warning coloration, Allen remarks that the great horned owl is known to prey on the skunk, showing that even such a disagreeably pungent animal can be subject to predation. On mimicry, Allen is critical of Bates's theory, arguing that edible mimics (such as flies) are often not protected by resembling distasteful models (such as wasps). Allen notes that Beddard deals with many special cases "as of .. spiders mimicking ants, etc." and finds the arguments against any selective advantage from Batesian mimicry, and so against natural selection, somewhat conclusive
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Animal Coloration (book) Finally, reviewing the chapter on sexual selection, Allen writes (knowing that Wallace largely rejected sexual selection) Allen then makes some remarks, praising Beddard for the "fine vein of irony" that he uses of The zoologist Edward Bagnall Poulton, whose work is referred to throughout Beddard's book, reviewed "Animal Coloration" in "Nature" in 1892. Poulton is critical of Beddard and other authors, defending Darwin's theory of natural selection as "the most generally accepted explanation of organic evolution" and insisting that in "case after case" the Darwinian explanation turns out to be correct. The white supremacist scientist Robert Wilson Shufeldt reviewed "Animal Coloration" in "Science" in 1892, praising it as a concise and useful summary of the subject. He admires Macmillan Publishers' handling of the book with its attractive wood-cuts and coloured lithographic plates. He is pleased to find many Americans in the index. He quotes Beddard's distinction between colour and coloration. He considers that the book brings readers fully up to date and even adds a few new ideas. He recommends the book to all working American naturalists. The anonymous reviewer in "Popular Science Monthly" in December 1892 writes that Beddard has "made a book interesting to both the zoologist and the general reader
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Animal Coloration (book) " On protective coloration, "he raises the question whether as a matter of fact animals are concealed from their foes by their protective resemblances, and shows that there is much evidence on the negative side", and further that such colours are sometimes produced "more simply and directly than by the operation of natural selection." On warning colours, the reviewer notes that Beddard gives "much weight" to Eisig's theory that "the usual bright pigments" in caterpillars (accidentally) cause inedibility, "instead of being produced to advertise it" and that Beddard cautions against assuming that "the sight or taste of animals were the same as that of man". Beddard's "Animal Coloration" is cited and discussed both by historians of science, and by practising scientists from a number of different fields. For example, the book illuminates the progress of Darwinism, camouflage research, sexual selection, mimicry and the debate on the purpose of animal coloration triggered by Abbott Thayer. These areas are described in turn below. The historian Robinson M. Yost explains that Darwinism went into eclipse during the 1890s. At that time, most zoologists felt that natural selection could not be the main cause of biological adaptation, and sought alternative explanations. As a result, many zoologists rejected both Batesian mimicry and Müllerian mimicry
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Animal Coloration (book) Beddard, writes Yost, explained some problems in the theory of mimicry including that, given how many insect species there are, resemblances between species could arise by chance, and that mimicry was sometimes either useless or actually harmful. In Yost's view, Beddard wanted more evidence that natural selection really was responsible. Yost cites the staunch Darwinist Poulton's hostile review of 1892, which asserts the pre-eminence of Darwin's theory. But, writes Yost, Beddard was not alone in being wary of natural selection. The zoologist Martin Stevens and colleagues, in 2006, write that "almost all early discussions of camouflage were of the background-matching type", citing Wallace, Poulton, and Beddard, "until the pioneering work of Thayer (1909) and Cott (1940)", which added disruptive coloration. Cott however both makes use of Beddard as an authority (for the fact that the Hudson's Bay lemming turns white in winter whereas the Scandinavian lemming does not, and for his experiments on the effectiveness of prey coloration on predators) and is critical of him for the "extreme and illogical" opinion held by Beddard and other authors that keeping perfectly still is vital to camouflage. Cott pointed out on that subject that a cryptic colour scheme makes an animal harder to track and to recognize, even while it is moving
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Animal Coloration (book) The ornithologist Geoffrey Edward Hill, writing in 2002, notes that both Poulton and Beddard discuss sexual selection, and both agreed that "sexual selection by female choice is a likely explanation for the bright coloration of at least some species of birds". In contrast, Hill observes, Cott's detailed 1940 book does not mention it at all; like other zoologists including Wallace and Huxley, Cott preferred explanations "firmly rooted in natural selection". The American evolutionary zoologists Jane Van Zandt Brower and Lincoln Pierson Brower followed up the experiments described in the book (pp. 153–159). Beddard, they write, observed the results of feeding the drone fly "Eristalis tenax", a harmless but intimidating Batesian mimic of honeybees, to various predators. A chameleon, a green lizard, and a sand skink eagerly consumed the flies, whereas a thrush and a great spotted woodpecker did not. However, they — like Cott before them, they note — were unable to replicate Beddard's claim that toads would eat insects of any kind, including stinging bees and wasps. They describe their own experimental investigations of bees and their drone fly mimics, like Beddard using toads as the predators, concluding that the Batesian mimicry of the honeybee by the drone fly was "highly effective". The historian of science Sharon Kingsland, in a 1978 paper on "Abbott Thayer and the protective coloration debate", uses Beddard repeatedly to illuminate the different strands of the argument. She quotes Beddard (p
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Animal Coloration (book) 94) on how difficult the question of animal coloration seemed in the 1890s. Thayer — an artist, not a scientist — had dived head-first into the debate. One of the protagonists, notes Kingsland, was Joel Asaph Allen, who had reviewed Beddard's book, and who believed that the environment directly influenced animal coloration — Kingsland cites Beddard p. 54 here —, so natural selection seemed to him an unlikely factor, and he pointed out that blending inheritance would dilute the effect of selection. Furthermore, argues Kingsland, again citing Beddard (p. 148), another major protagonist, Alfred Russel Wallace, was emphasizing the problem of conspicuous markings, which could be selected for as warning coloration. Wallace went so far as to argue, notes Kingsland, that bright colours in sexual dimorphism "resulted from a surplus of vital energy", citing Beddard p. 263 ff. Thayer, on the other hand, had exactly one explanation for everything: natural selection for protective coloration, in particular camouflage by countershading, which radically departed from earlier explanations such as Allen's environmental influences (colours might be affected by light) or Beddard's suggestion that dolphins might have dark backs and light bellies as camouflage when seen from above and from below (Kingsland cites Beddard, p. 115).
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Congener (chemistry) In chemistry, congeners are related chemical substances "related to each other by origin, structure, or function". Any significant quantity of a polyhalogenated compound is by default a blend of multiple molecule types because each molecule forms independently, and chlorine and bromine do not strongly select which site(s) they bond to.
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Methylidyne group In chemistry, a methylidyne group or just methylidyne is a neutral part of a molecule (a substituent or functional group) with formula ≡CH, consisting of a carbon atom bonded to a hydrogen atom by one single bond and to the rest of the molecule by one triple bond. For example, a methylidyne group is present in "n"-methylidyne-1-hexanaminium, −()−≡CH The name "methylidyne" is also used for the methylidyne radical (carbyne) ⫶CH, the same two atoms not bound to any other atom.
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D. A. Webb David Allardice Webb or (12 August 1912 – 26 September 1994) was an Irish botanist and chair of botany at Trinity College, Dublin from 1949 to 1966. He was son of George and Dr Ella Webb. In Ireland he had studied under Henry Horatio Dixon and also studied in the United Kingdom. In addition to botany he edited a history of Trinity College with R. B. McDowell and published a book on the history of art in Trinity College. In 1982 he received the Boyle Medal of the Royal Dublin Society. His botanical specialties included his work as a leading taxonomist of "Saxifraga". He died in a car accident on his way to the University of Reading's herbarium. The 8th edition of "An Irish Flora" was renamed "Webb's An Irish Flora" in his honour.
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IC 2233 IC 2233, also known as UGC 4278, is a spiral galaxy lying in the constellation of Lynx. is located between 26 and 40 million light-years away from Earth. A comparatively quiet galaxy with a low rate of star formation (less than one solar mass every twenty years), it was long thought to be possibly interacting with the Bear's Paw galaxy. However, this is now considered highly unlikely as radio observations with the Very Large Array showed the two galaxies lie at different distances. This galaxy was discovered by British astronomer Isaac Roberts in 1894.
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Vinylene group In chemistry, vinylene (also ethenylene or 1,2-ethenediyl) is a divalent functional group (a part of a molecule) with formula −CH=CH−; namely, two carbons, each connected to the other by a double bond, to an hydrogen atom by a single bond, and to the rest of the molecule by another single bond. This group can be viewed as a molecule of ethene (ethylene, HC=CH) with an hydrogen removed from each carbon; or a vinyl group −CH=CH with one hydrogen removed from the terminal carbon. It should not be confused with the vinylidene group =C=CH or >C=CH. A vinylene unit attached to two distinct atoms other than hydrogen (namely R−CH=CH−R') is a source of cis-trans isomerism. The vinylene group is the repeating unit in polyacetylene and in polyenes.
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Unconventional protein secretion (known as ER/Golgi-independent protein secretion or nonclassical protein export ) represents a manner in which the proteins are delivered to the surface of plasma membrane or extracellular matrix independent of the endoplasmic reticulum or Golgi apparatus. This includes cytokines and mitogens with crucial function in complex processes such as inflammatory response or tumor-induced angiogenesis. Most of these proteins are involved in processes in higher eukaryotes, however an unconventional export mechanism was found in lower eukaryotes too. Even proteins folded in their correct conformation can pass plasma membrane this way, unlike proteins transported via ER/Golgi pathway. Two types of unconventional protein secretion are these: signal-peptid-containing proteins and cytoplasmatic and nuclear proteins that are missing an ER-signal peptide (1). These proteins contain a specific signal-peptide sequence, which is to be translated into the endoplasmic reticulum, but are, however, able to reach the cell surface unconventionally. They can be packed into a COPII-coated vesicle and directly fuse with plasma membrane or can fuse with endosomal or lysosomal compartment. Alternatively, they can be packed into non-COPII-coated vesicle as well and fuse with Golgi (before reaching plasma membrane) or directly delivered to the plasma membrane. Soluble proteins can reach the surface of the cell both by non-vesicular and vesicular mechanisms
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Unconventional protein secretion Non-vesicular mechanisms use a carrier to get proteins into extracellular space (for example phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate). Vesicular mechanisms can use the lysosome-dependent pathway, microvesicle shedding or biogenesis of multivesicular bodies.
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Inherent viscosity is the ratio of the natural logarithm of the relative viscosity to the mass concentration of the polymer. is defined as formula_1 where c is the mass concentration of the polymer (g/dL) and formula_2 is the relative viscosity, which is defined as formula_3 where formula_4 is the viscosity of the solution and formula_5 is the viscosity of the solvent. The unit of inherent viscosity is dL/g.
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Crater of eternal darkness A crater of eternal darkness is a depression on a body in the Solar System within which lies a point that is always in darkness. A related term is "permanently shadowed regions". As of 2019, there are 324 known permanently shadowed regions on the Moon. Such a crater must be located at high latitude (close to a pole) and be on a body with very small axial tilt. On the Moon, permanent shadow can exist at latitudes as low as 58°; approximately 50 permanently shadowed regions exist in the 58°- 65° latitude range for both lunar hemispheres. Craters of eternal darkness might be advantageous for space exploration and colonization, as they could potentially preserve sources of water ice. For example, Rozhdestvenskiy crater shows indirect indications of water ice in its interior. In some cases, peaks of eternal light are located nearby, that could be advantageous for solar power generation. For example, there are 2 peaks near Shackleton Crater that are illuminated a combined ~94% of a lunar year. Permanently shadowed regions have a stable surface temperature. On the Moon, the temperature hovers somewhere at or below 50 degrees Kelvin. Another temperatures estimate is 25 K to 70 K. On the other hand, computer simulations show that powerful solar storms can charge up the soil in permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles, and may possibly produce "sparks" that could vaporize and melt the soil. Below is an incomplete list of such craters: The Moon: Mercury: Many such craters also exist on Ceres
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Crater of eternal darkness Lunar Flashlight is planned to launch in 2021 as a secondary payload for the Artemis 1 mission. A camera called ShadowCam is being built that will be able to take high-resolution images of Permanently Shadowed Regions. It is a NASA instrument that will fly on board the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) in 2022.
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HTVC010P is a virus which was discovered by Stephen Giovannoni and colleagues at Oregon State University. "The Economist" reports that a February 2013 paper in "Nature" says that "it probably really is the commonest organism on the planet". It is a bacteriophage that infects the extremely abundant bacteria "Pelagibacter ubique" in the Pelagibacterales order.
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Erwin Janchen Emil Erwin Alfred Ritter von Janchen-Michel (born 15 May 1882 in Vöcklabruck; died 10 July 1970 in Vienna) was an Austrian botanist. He earned his doctorate in 1923 at the University of Vienna. He was scientifically active at the Botanical Institute of the University. He made several research trips. Among the plants first described by Janchen (with co-author Gustav Wendelberger) is the native Austrian wild form of "Brassica rapa" subsp. "silvestris".
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NGC 784 is a barred spiral galaxy about 16.0 Mly away in the constellation Triangulum. is located within the Virgo Supercluster.
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Pencil cleavage in geology refers to a cleavage in rock such that long, slender, pencil-shaped fragments of rock are created by fracturing during the weathering of a sedimentary rock. is usually associated with rock units that contain high angle of intersection between cleavages, such as a diagenetic cleavage and a later tectonic cleavage.
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Lag deposit A lag deposit is the deposition of material winnowed by physical action. Aeolian processes, fluvial processes, and tidal processes can remove the finer portion of a sedimentary deposit leaving the coarser material behind. Lag deposits are found in processes such as central island formation in streams and rivers. One theory of desert pavement formation is that they are an aeolian lag deposit. Armored beaches and inlets can be composed in part by lag deposits of shells or cobbles created when tidal forces strip away the finer sand and silt.
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Telescopium in Chinese astronomy The modern constellation Telescopium lies across one of the quadrants symbolized by the Black Tortoise of the North (北方玄武, "Běi Fāng Xuán Wǔ"), and The Southern Asterisms (近南極星區, "Jìnnánjíxīngōu"), that divide the sky in traditional Chinese uranography. The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 望遠鏡座 ("wàng yuǎn jìng zuò"), meaning "the telescope constellation". The map of Chinese constellation in constellation Telescopium area consists of :
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Western Livestock Journal The is a weekly livestock industry newspaper. Originally called the "Farm and Ranch Market Journal", it was started by Nelson R. Crow in 1922 and is published by Crow Publications. The "Farm and Ranch Market Journal" became "Western Livestock Journal" in the early 1930s. In 1952, Nelson purchased "Livestock Magazine" from the Biggs family in Denver. The two weeklies were combined in the ’70s to create one national edition of "Western Livestock Journal" and the monthly magazine was renamed "Livestock Magazine", and split into three editorial editions. "Livestock Magazine" ceased publication in the early ’80s. Crow Publications publishes the "Northwest American Bull Guide" magazine (yearly), the "Commercial Cattle Issue" (yearly), the "Properties Ranch & Home magazine" (quarterly), as well as the "Western Livestock Journal" (weekly). Crow Publications/"Western Livestock Journal" is located in Greenwood Village (CO, United States).
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MALBAC Multiple Annealing and Looping Based Amplification Cycles (MALBAC) is a quasilinear whole genome amplification method. Unlike conventional DNA amplification methods that are non-linear or exponential (in each cycle, DNA copied can serve as template for subsequent cycles), utilizes special primers that allow amplicons to have complementary ends and therefore to loop, preventing DNA from being copied exponentially. This results in amplification of only the original genomic DNA and therefore reduces amplification bias. is “used to create overlapped shotgun amplicons covering most of the genome”. For next generation sequencing, is followed by regular PCR which is used to further amplify amplicons. Prior to MALBAC, a single cell is isolated by various methods including laser capture microdissection, microfluidic devices, flow cytometry, or micro pipetting, then lysed. single-cell whole-genome amplification involves 5 cycles of quenching, extending, melting, and looping. The major advantage of is that DNA is amplified almost linearly. The utilization of specialized primers enables looping of amplicons which then prevents them from being further amplified in subsequent cycles of MALBAC. These primers are 35 nucleotides long, with 8 variable nucleotides that hybridize to the templates and 27 common nucleotides. The common nucleotide sequence is GTG AGT GAT GGT TGA GGT AGT GTG GAG. The 8 variable nucleotides anneal randomly to the single stranded genomic DNA molecule
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MALBAC After one extension, semi-amplicon, an amplicon containing the common nucleotide sequence on only the 5’ end, is made. This semi-amplicon is used as a template for another round of extension, which then results in a full-amplicon, an amplicon where the 3’ end is complementary to the sequence on the 5’ end. primers have variable components which allow them to randomly bind to the template DNA. This means that on a single fragment at any cycle, there could be multiple primers annealed to the fragment. A DNA polymerase such as one derived from "Bacillus stearothermophilus" ("Bst" polymerase) is able to displace the 5’ end of another upstream strand growing in the same direction. "Bst" DNA polymerase has an error rate of 1/10000 bases. At the end of PCR, picograms of genetic material is amplified to microgram of DNA, yielding enough DNA to be sequenced. offers an unbiased approach to the amplification of DNA from a single cell. This method of single cell sequencing has a vast number of applications, many of which have yet to be exploited. may aid in the analysis of forensic specimens, in pre-natal screening for genetic diseases, in understanding the development of reproductive cells, or in elucidating the complexity of a tumour. At its foundation, this technology allows researchers to observe the frequency with which mutations accumulate in single cells
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MALBAC Moreover, it permits the detection of chromosomal abnormalities and gene copy number variations (CNVs) within and between cells, and further facilitates the detection of uncommon mutations that result in single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In the field of cancer research, has many applications. It may be used to examine intratumor heterogeneity, to identify genes which may confer an aggressive or metastatic phenotype, or to evaluate the potential for a tumour to develop drug resistance. A pioneering application of was published in a December 2012 issue of Science and described the use of this technology to measure the mutation rate of the colon cancer cell line SW4802. By sequencing the amplified DNA of three kindred colon cancer cells in parallel with unrelated colon cancer cells from a different lineage, SNPs were identified with no false positives detected. It was also observed that purine-pyrimidine transversions occurred at a high frequency among the SNPs. The characterization of copy number and single nucleotide variations of single colon cancer cells highlighted the heterogeneity present within a tumour. has been applied as a method to examine the genetic diversity amongst reproductive cells. By sequencing the genomes of 99 individual human sperm cells from an anonymous donor, was used to examine genetic recombination events involving single gametes and ultimately provide insight into the dynamics of genetic recombination and its contribution to male infertility
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MALBAC Additionally, within an individual sperm, identified duplicated or missing chromosomes, as well as SNPs or CNVs which could negatively affect fertility. has resulted in many significant advances over other single cell sequencing techniques, foremost that it can report 93% of the genome of a single human cell. Some advantages of this technology include reduced amplification bias and increased genome coverage, the requirement for very little template DNA, and low rates of false positive and false negative mutations. is a form of whole genome sequencing which reduces the bias associated with exponential PCR amplification by using a quasilinear phase of pre-amplification. utilizes five cycles of pre-amplification and primers containing a 27 nucleotide common sequence and an 8 nucleotide variable sequence to produce fragments of amplified DNA (amplicons) which loop back on themselves to prevent additional copying and cross-hybridization. These loops cannot be used as a template for amplification during and therefore reduce the amplification bias commonly associated with the uneven exponential amplification of DNA fragments by polymerase chain reaction. has been described to have better amplification uniformity than other methods of single sequencing, such as multiple displacement amplification (MDA). MDA does not utilize DNA looping and amplifies DNA in an exponential fashion, resulting in bias
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MALBAC Accordingly, the amplification bias associated with other single cell sequencing methods results in low coverage of the genome. The reduced bias associated with has generated better genome sequence coverage than other single cell sequencing methods. can be used to amplify and subsequently sequence DNA when only one or a few cells are available, such as in the analysis of circulating tumour cells, pre-natal screens or forensic samples. Only a small amount of starting template (picograms of DNA) is required to initiate the process, and therefore it is an ideal method for the sequencing of a single human cell. Single cell sequencing often has a high rate of false negative mutations. A false negative mutation rate is defined as the probability of not detecting a real mutation, and this may occur due to amplification bias resulting from the loss, or drop-out, of an allele. The sequence coverage uniformity of in comparison to other single cell sequencing techniques has enhanced the detection of SNPs and reduced allele dropout rate. Allelic dropout rate increases when an allele of a heterozygote fails to amplify resulting in identification of a ‘false homozygote.’ This may occur due to low concentration of DNA template, or the uneven amplification of template resulting in one allele of a heterozygote being copied more than the other. The allele dropout rate of has been shown to be much lower (approximately 1%) compared to MDA which is approximately 65%
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MALBAC In contrast to MDA which has been shown to have a 41% SNP detection efficiency in comparison with bulk sequencing, has been reported to have SNP detection deficiency of 76%. has also been reported to have a low false positive rate. False positive mutations generated by largely result from errors introduced by DNA polymerase during the first cycle of amplification that are further propagated during subsequent cycles. This false positive rate can be eliminated by sequencing 2-3 cells within a lineage derived from a single cell to verify the presence of a SNP, and by eliminating sequencing and amplification errors by sequencing unrelated cells from a separate lineage.
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Stochastic quantization In theoretical physics, stochastic quantization is a method for modelling quantum mechanics, introduced by Edward Nelson in 1966, and streamlined by Parisi and Wu. serves to quantize Euclidean field theories, and is used for numerical applications, such as numerical simulations of gauge theories with fermions. This serves to address the problem of fermion doubling that usually occurs in these numerical calculations. takes advantage of the fact that a Euclidean quantum field theory can be modeled as the equilibrium limit of a statistical mechanical system coupled to a heat bath. In particular, in the path integral representation of a Euclidean quantum field theory, the path integral measure is closely related to the Boltzmann distribution of a statistical mechanical system in equilibrium. In this relation, Euclidean Green's functions become correlation functions in the statistical mechanical system. A statistical mechanical system in equilibrium can be modeled, via the ergodic hypothesis, as the stationary distribution of a stochastic process. Then the Euclidean path integral measure can also be thought of as the stationary distribution of a stochastic process; hence the name stochastic quantization.
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Dijet event In particle physics, a dijet event is a collision between subatomic particles that produces two particle jets. Dijet events are measured at LHC to constrain QCD models, in particular the parton evolution equations and parton distribution functions. This is accomplished by measuring the azimuthal correlations between the two jets.
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Zachary Sharp Zachary D. Sharp is an American stable isotope geochemist. He is credited with the development of laser-based technology for measuring oxygen isotopes in silicates and oxides. His contributions include laser analyses of meteorites, paleoclimate reconstruction by oxygen and hydrogen isotope ratios, and analysis of isotopic composition of volcanoes, fossils, and forensic samples. He received a PhD from the University of Michigan in 1987, under the supervision of Eric J. Essene, followed by postdoctoral work at the Carnegie Institution for Science Geophysical Laboratory. From 1989 to 1998 he worked as a senior research scientist at the Institut de Mineralogie at the University of Lausanne. Since 2002, he has been on faculty at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico. Sharp received the title of Regents' Professor in 2008. He is a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Prize in Earth sciences. He is an associate editor of the American Journal of Science.
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Cryotank or cryogenic tank is a tank that is used to store frozen biological material. The term “cryotank” refers to storage of super-cold fuels, such as liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Cryotanks and cryogenics can be seen in many sci-fi movies, but they are still currently undeveloped. All that needs to be done is for a human to be loaded into the tank and then they can be frozen until a time comes when any diseases they have can be cured and they can live an even longer life. This could also be used in space travel and just preserving human life in general. The problem with this is when the human body is frozen, ice crystals form in the cells. The ice crystals then continue to expand rupturing the cell wall and destroying the integrity of the cell, or killing it. This means in order for humans to undergo the cryogenic process a way to significantly raise the levels of glucose produced in the human body is needed. Cryogenic tanks are used to store natural gases such as oxygen, argon, nitrogen, helium, hydrogen and other materials. Tanks can store the materials at the correct temperature and pressure for transportation. In science fiction, cryogenic tanks are used to freeze people. "cry-" is a Greek prefix which means "cold or freezing", hence humans are stored in the tank frozen until a future date. Cryotanks are found in some science fiction films such as "Prometheus" (2012) and "The Host" (2013).
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Plaque-forming unit A plaque-forming unit (PFU) is a measure used in virology to describe the number of virus particles capable of forming plaques per unit volume. It is a proxy measurement rather than a measurement of the absolute quantity of particles: viral particles that are defective or which fail to infect their target cell will not produce a plaque and thus will not be counted. For example, a solution of tick-borne encephalitis virus with a concentration of 1,000 PFU/μl indicates that 1 μl of the solution contains enough virus particles to produce 1000 infectious plaques in a cell mono-layer, but no inference can be made about the relationship of pfu to number of virus particles. The concept of plaque-forming units of virus is equivalent to the concept of colony-forming units of bacteria.
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Michał Hieronim Leszczyc-Sumiński Michal Hieronim Leszczyc-Suminski (Born September 30, 1820 in Ośno - Died 26 May 1898 in Tharandt) was a Polish botanist, painter and art collector. He is an alumnus of Humboldt University of Berlin. He married Anne Hudson (1830–1874), the daughter of George Hudson, the so-called Railway King of England.
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Talimogene laherparepvec is a biopharmaceutical drug to treat melanoma that cannot be operated on; it is injected directly into a subset of lesions which generates a systemic immune response against the patient's cancer. The final four year analysis from the pivotal phase 3 study upon which TVEC was approved by the FDA showed a 31.5% response rate with a 16.9% CR rate. There was also a substantial and statistically significant survival benefit in patients with earlier metastatic disease (stages IIIb-IVM1a) and in patients who hadn't received prior systemic treatment for melanoma. The earlier stage group had a reduction in the risk of death of approximately 50% with one in four patients appearing to have met, or be close to be reaching, the medical definition of cure. Real world use of talimogene laherparepvec have shown response rates of up to 88.5% with CR rates of up to 61.5% Int J Cancer. Around half of people treated with talimogene laherparepvec in clinical trials experienced fatigue and chills; around 40% had fever, around 35% had nausea, and around 30% had flu-like symptoms as well as pain at the injection site. The reactions were mild to moderate in severity; 2% of people had severe reactions and these were generally cellulitis. is a genetically engineered herpes virus (an oncolytic herpes virus). Two genes were removed – one that shuts down an individual cell's defenses, and another that helps the virus evade the immune system –, and a gene for human GM-CSF was added
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Talimogene laherparepvec The drug works by replicating in cancer cells, causing them to burst; it was also designed to stimulate an immune response against the patient's cancer, which has been demonstrated by multiple pieces of data, including regression of tumors which have not been injected with talimogene laherparepvec. The drug was created and initially developed by BioVex, Inc. and was continued by Amgen, which acquired BioVex in 2011. It was the first oncolytic immunotherapy approved globally; it was approved in the US in October 2015 and approved in Europe in December 2015. is delivered by injecting it directly into tumors, thereby creating a systemic anti-tumor immune response. In the US, talimogene laherparepvec is FDA approved to treat Stage IIIb-IVM1c melanoma patients for whom surgical intervention is not appropriate and with tumors which can be directly injected; the EMA approved population in Europe is for Stage IIIb-IVM1a. has been proven to significantly extend survival in patients with Stage IIIb-IVM1a melanoma and patients who have not received prior systemic therapy for melanoma. Around half of people treated with talimogene laherparepvec in clinical trials experienced fatigue and chills; around 40% had fever, around 35% had nausea, and around 30% had flu-like symptoms as well as pain at the injection site. The reactions were mild to moderate in severity; 2% of people had severe reactions and these were generally cellulitis
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Talimogene laherparepvec More than 10% of people had edema, headache, cough, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, muscle pain, or joint pain. Between 1% and 10% developed cold sores, pain or infection in the lesion, anemia, immune mediated events (like vasculitis, pneumonia, worsening psoriasis, glomerulonephritis and vitiligo ), dehydration, confusion, anxiety, depression, dizziness, insomnia, ear pain, fast heart beating, deep vein thrombosis, high blood pressure, flushing, shortness of breath when exercising, sore throat, symptoms of the common cold, stomach pain, back pain, groin pain, weight loss, or oozing from the injection site. is taken up by normal cells and cancer cells like the wild type herpes simplex virus, it is cleared in the same way. directly destroys the cancer cells it infects, inducing a systemic immune response against the patient's cancer. The virus invades both cancerous and healthy cells, but it cannot productively replicate in healthy tissue because it lacks Infected cell protein 34.5 (ICP34.5). When cells are infected with a virus they shut down and die, but ICP34.5 blocks this stress response, allowing the virus to hijack the cell's translation machinery to replicate itself. A herpesvirus lacking the gene coding for ICP34.5 cannot replicate in normal tissue. However, in many cancer cells the stress response is already disrupted, so a virus lacking ICP34.5 can still replicate in tumors
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Talimogene laherparepvec After the virus has replicated many times, the cell swells and finally bursts, killing the cell and releasing the copies of the virus, which can then infect nearby cells. While is using the cells's translation machinery to replicate, it also uses it make the cell create GM-CSF. GM-CSF is secreted or released when the cancer cell bursts, attracting dendritic cells to the site, which pick up the tumor antigens, process them, and then present them on their surface to cytotoxic (killer) T cells which in turn sets of an immune response. is a biopharmaceutical drug; it is an oncolytic herpes virus that was created by genetically engineering a strain of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) taken from a person infected with the virus, rather than a laboratory strain. Both copies of the viral gene coding for ICP34.5 were deleted and replaced with the gene coding for human GM-CSF, and the gene coding for ICP47 was removed. In wild herpes virus, ICP47 suppresses the immune response to the virus; it was removed because the drug was designed with the intention of activating the immune system. The first oncolytic virus to be approved by a regulatory agency was a genetically modified adenovirus named H101 by Shanghai Sunway Biotech. It gained regulatory approval in 2005 from China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) for the treatment of head and neck cancer. is the world's first approved oncolytic immunotherapy, i.e
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Talimogene laherparepvec it was also designed to provide systemic anti-tumor effects through the induction of an anti-tumor immune response. was created and initially developed by BioVex, Inc. under the brand OncoVEX. Development was continued by Amgen, which acquired BioVex in 2011. BioVex was founded in 1999, based on research by Robert Coffin at University College London, and moved its headquarters to Woburn, Massachusetts in 2005, leaving about half its employees in the UK. The phase II clinical trial in melanoma was published in 2009 and the phase III trial was published in 2013. was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat melanoma in October 2015. It was the first approval of an oncolytic virus and the first approval of a gene therapy in the West. It was approved by the European Medicines Agency in December of that year. Amgen estimated that talimogene laherparepvec would be priced at $65,000 per patient at the time it was approved. As of 2016, talimogene laherparepvec had been studied in early stage clinical trials in pancreatic cancer, soft-tissue sarcoma, and head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma; it had also been tested in combination with checkpoint inhibitors ipilimumab and pembrolizumab.
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Quantitative biology is an umbrella term encompassing the use of mathematical, statistical or computational techniques to study life and living organisms. The central theme and goal of quantitative biology is the creation of predictive models based on fundamental principles governing living systems. The subfields of biology that employ quantitative approaches include:
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Indian Ocean Experiment The (INDOEX) was a 1999 multinational scientific study designed to measure the transport of air pollution from Southeast Asia into the Indian Ocean. The project was led by Veerabhadran Ramanathan.
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Ferrimolybdite is a hydrous iron molybdate mineral with formula: Fe(MoO)·8(HO) or Fe(MoO)·n(HO). It forms coatings and radial aggregates of soft yellow needles which crystallize in the orthorhombic system. It was first described in 1914 for an occurrence in the Alekseevskii Mine in the Karysh River Basin, Khakassia Republic, Siberia, Russia. It was named for its composition (ferric iron and molybdenum). It occurs as an oxidation product of molybdenum bearing ore deposits. Associated minerals include: molybdenite, pyrite and chalcopyrite.
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Heavy liquid A heavy liquid is a solution or liquid chemical substance with a high density and a relatively low viscosity. Heavy liquids are often used for determination of density in mineralogy, for density gradient centrifugation and for separating mixtures. Common applications of heavy liquids include: The classical heavy liquids like 1,1,2,2-tetrabromoethane ("Muthmanns solution"), potassium tetraiodomercurate(II) ("Thoulets solution"), bromoform or diiodomethane which are used in mineralogy are very toxic. These toxic chemicals are avoided today in consideration of the fact that there are alternative water based, non-toxic heavy liquids like sodium polytungstate solutions. With this relatively new heavy liquid densities up to 3.1 g·cm can be adjusted . Adding parts of pulverulent Tungsten carbide increases the density to 4.6 g·cm.
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Bojite is a variety of gabbro characterized by the presence of plagioclase feldspar and primary hornblende and absence of clinopyroxene typically associated with gabbroic rocks. It was initially defined by geologist E. Weinschenk in 1898. The term "bojite" has been superseded by the usage of "hornblende gabbro" as defined by the 2002 IUGS Subcommission on the Systematics of Igneous Rocks for rocks composed of plagioclase + hornblende and <5% pyroxene.
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NGC 5223 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici. It was discovered on 1 May 1785 by William Herschel.
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Marco Antonio Serna Díaz Hermano (11 July 1936 - 31 December 1991) was a herpetologist, ornithologist, and naturalist from Colombia. Serna was born to Marco Antonio Serna and Anna Judith Díaz in San Vicente Ferrer in Antioquia, Colombia. On 20 June 1950 he entered the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in San Pedro, Antioquia, where he discovered his love for natural sciences. From 1956 to 1958 he studied in San Antonio de Prado. On 10 January 1962 he made his perpetual profession at the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. He was curator of birds, amphibians, and reptiles at the Museo de La Salle in Bogotá, and professor of ornithology at the University of Antioquia. Serna was both president of the Sociedad Antioqueña de Ornitología which he co-founded in 1984, and the Asociación Colombiana de Ornitología, two notable ornithological organisations in Colombia. Together with Juan Arturo Rivero, a herpetologist from Puerto Rico, he described several new frog species, including "Pristimantis dorsopictus", "Pristimantis johannesdei", "Hyloxalus breviquartus", "Pseudopaludicola ceratophryes", and "Colostethus ramirezi". In 1971, he collected the last known specimen of the Antioquia brush finch ("Atlapetes blancae"). In 2012, the newly described Antioquia wren ("Thryophilus sernai") was named in his honour. In 1984, Rivero described the frog species "Eleutherodactylus sernai" which was later synonymized with "Eleutherodactylus cerastes" (Lynch, 1975).
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Anatoliy Koroteyev Anatoliy Sazonovich Koroteyev (; born July 22, 1936) is a Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist and academic who contributed to the field of rocket engine physics. Koroteyev was born in Baranovo, Moscow Oblast. In 1959, he graduated from S. Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute. Anatoliy Koroteev is an expert in propulsion and power systems of space-rocket complexes, generation and application of low-temperature plasma, and obtaining powerful energy flow. With his direct participation and leadership made major research and development: He is In 2012, Koroteyev announced that a nuclear reactor for space would be developed at the Keldysh Research Centre and tested at Sosnovy Bor. Koroteyev has created more than 220 inventions and concepts in the fields of rocket engines and power in space. Koroteyev is a proponent of nuclear propulsion. He believes that nuclear propulsion can provide the energy needed for a Mars mission.
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Electron-hole droplets are a condensed phase of excitons in semiconductors. The droplets are formed at low temperatures and high exciton densities, the latter of which can be created with intense optical excitation or electronic excitation in a p-n junction. Evidence for electron-hole droplets was first observed by J. R. Haynes of Bell Labs in 1966, who observed a frequency shift in the spectrum radiated by silicon at low temperatures (~3 K). The shift was attributed to the recombination of a bound state of two excitons (electron-hole pairs). V. M. Asnin and A. A. Rogachev discovered metallic conduction in germanium at low temperatures when the density of excitons exceeded the amount required to transition into a metallic state.
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Trans,polycis-decaprenyl diphosphate synthase (, "Rv2361c", "(2Z,6Z,10Z,14Z,18Z,22Z,26Z,30Z,34E)-decaprenyl diphosphate synthase") is an enzyme with systematic name "(2Z,6E)-farnesyl-diphosphate:isopentenyl-diphosphate farnesylcistransferase (adding 7 isopentenyl units) ". This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction The enzyme is involved in the biosynthesis of decaprenyl phosphate.
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Jacobus Boomsma Jacobus Jan "Koos" Boomsma (born 1951) is a Dutch evolutionary biologist in Denmark who studies social evolution and the evolution of mating systems. Boomsma obtained an MSc and PhD degree in Biology in 1976 and 1982 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He currently directs the Centre of Social Evolution and works as a Professor of Biology at the University of Copenhagen. He is known most recently for the monogamy hypothesis, which states that strict lifetime monogamy enabled the evolution of eusociality in the Hymenoptera (bees, ants, wasps, etc.). He has also lent influential contributions to the fields of mutualisms and sexual conflict and heads research programmes in evolutionary medicine, invasive social syndromes and fungal agriculture. He is a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
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Astrology and science Astrology consists of a number of belief systems that hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events or descriptions of personality in the human world. Astrology has been rejected by the scientific community as having no explanatory power for describing the universe. Scientific testing has found no evidence to support the premises or purported effects outlined in astrological traditions. Where astrology has made falsifiable predictions, it has been falsified. The most famous test was headed by Shawn Carlson and included a committee of scientists and a committee of astrologers. It led to the conclusion that natal astrology performed no better than chance. Astrologer and psychologist Michel Gauquelin claimed to have found statistical support for "the Mars effect" in the birth dates of athletes, but it could not be replicated in further studies. The organisers of later studies claimed that Gauquelin had tried to influence their inclusion criteria for the study by suggesting specific individuals be removed. It has also been suggested, by Geoffrey Dean, that the reporting of birth times by parents (before the 1950s) may have caused the apparent effect. Astrology has not demonstrated its effectiveness in controlled studies and has no scientific validity, and is thus regarded as pseudoscience
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Astrology and science There is no proposed mechanism of action by which the positions and motions of stars and planets could affect people and events on Earth in the way astrologers say they do that does not contradict well-understood, basic aspects of biology and physics. The majority of professional astrologers rely on performing astrology-based personality tests and making relevant predictions about the remunerator's future. Those who continue to have faith in astrology have been characterised as doing so "in spite of the fact that there is no verified scientific basis for their beliefs, and indeed that there is strong evidence to the contrary". Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson commented on astrological belief, saying that "part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us. Without that knowledge, without that capacity to think, you can easily become a victim of people who seek to take advantage of you". The continued belief in astrology despite its lack of credibility is seen as one demonstration of low scientific literacy. The foundations of the theoretical structure used in astrology originate with the Babylonians, although widespread usage did not occur till the start of the Hellenistic period after Alexander the Great swept through Greece. It was not known to the Babylonians that the constellations are not on a celestial sphere and are very far apart. The appearance of them being close is illusory
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Astrology and science The exact demarcation of what a constellation is, is cultural, and varied between civilisations. Ptolemy's work on astronomy was driven to some extent by the desire, like all astrologers of the time, to easily calculate the planetary movements. Early western astrology operated under the ancient Greek concepts of the Macrocosm and microcosm; and thus medical astrology related what happened to the planets and other objects in the sky to medical operations. This provided a further motivator for the study of astronomy. While still defending the practice of astrology, Ptolemy acknowledged that the predictive power of astronomy for the motion of the planets and other celestial bodies ranked above astrological predictions. During the Islamic Golden Age, astronomy was funded so that the astronomical parameters, such as the eccentricity of the sun's orbit, required for the Ptolemaic model could be calculated to a sufficient accuracy and precision. Those in positions of power, like the Fatimid Caliphate vizier in 1120, funded the construction of observatories so that astrological predictions, fuelled by precise planetary information, could be made. Since the observatories were built to help in making astrological predictions, few of these observatories lasted long due to the prohibition against astrology within Islam, and most were torn down during or just after construction. The clear rejection of astrology in works of astronomy started in 1679, with the yearly publication La Connoissance des temps
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Astrology and science Unlike the west, in Iran, the rejection of heliocentrism continued up towards the start of the 20th century, in part motivated by a fear that this would undermine the widespread belief in astrology and Islamic cosmology in Iran. The first work, Falak al-sa'ada by Ictizad al-Saltana, aimed at undermining this belief in astrology and "old astronomy" in Iran was published in 1861. On astrology, it cited the inability of different astrologers to make the same prediction about what occurs following a conjunction, and described the attributes astrologers gave to the planets as implausible. Astrology provides the quintessential example of a pseudoscience since it has been tested repeatedly and failed all the tests. Science and non-science are often distinguished by the criterion of falsifiability. The criterion was first proposed by philosopher of science Karl Popper. To Popper, science does not rely on induction; instead, scientific investigations are inherently attempts to falsify existing theories through novel tests. If a single test fails, then the theory is falsified. Therefore, any test of a scientific theory must prohibit certain results that falsify the theory, and expect other specific results consistent with the theory. Using this criterion of falsifiability, astrology is a pseudoscience. Astrology was Popper's most frequent example of pseudoscience
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Astrology and science Popper regarded astrology as "pseudo-empirical" in that "it appeals to observation and experiment", but "nevertheless does not come up to scientific standards". In contrast to scientific disciplines, astrology does not respond to falsification through experiment. According to Professor of neurology Terence Hines, this is a hallmark of pseudoscience. In contrast to Popper, the philosopher Thomas Kuhn argued that it was not lack of falsifiability that makes astrology unscientific, but rather that the process and concepts of astrology are non-empirical. To Kuhn, although astrologers had, historically, made predictions that "categorically failed," this in itself does not make it unscientific, nor do the attempts by astrologers to explain away the failure by claiming it was due to the creation of a horoscope being very difficult (through subsuming, after the fact, a more general horoscope that leads to a different prediction). Rather, in Kuhn's eyes, astrology is not science because it was always more akin to medieval medicine; they followed a sequence of rules and guidelines for a seemingly necessary field with known shortcomings, but they did no research because the fields are not amenable to research, and so, "They had no puzzles to solve and therefore no science to practise." While an astronomer could correct for failure, an astrologer could not. An astrologer could only explain away failure but could not revise the astrological hypothesis in a meaningful way
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Astrology and science As such, to Kuhn, even if the stars could influence the path of humans through life astrology is not scientific. Philosopher Paul Thagard believed that astrology can not be regarded as falsified in this sense until it has been replaced with a successor. In the case of predicting behaviour, psychology is the alternative. To Thagard a further criterion of demarcation of science from pseudoscience was that the state of the art must progress and that the community of researchers should be attempting to compare the current theory to alternatives, and not be "selective in considering confirmations and disconfirmations". Progress is defined here as explaining new phenomena and solving existing problems, yet astrology has failed to progress having only changed little in nearly 2000 years. To Thagard, astrologers are acting as though engaged in normal science believing that the foundations of astrology were well established despite the "many unsolved problems", and in the face of better alternative theories (Psychology). For these reasons Thagard viewed astrology as pseudoscience. To Thagard, astrology should not be regarded as a pseudoscience on the failure of Gauquelin's to find any correlation between the various astrological signs and someone's career, twins not showing the expected correlations from having the same signs in twin studies, lack of agreement on the significance of the planets discovered since Ptolemy's time and large scale disasters wiping out individuals with vastly different signs at the same time
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Astrology and science Rather, his demarcation of science requires three distinct foci; "theory, community [and] historical context". While verification and falsifiability focused on the theory, Kuhn's work focused on the historical context, but the astrological community should also be considered. Whether or not they: In this approach, true falsification rather than modifying a theory to avoid the falsification only really occurs when an alternative theory is proposed. For the philosopher Edward W. James, astrology is irrational not because of the numerous problems with mechanisms and falsification due to experiments, but because an analysis of the astrological literature shows that it is infused with fallacious logic and poor reasoning. This poor reasoning includes appeals to ancient astrologers such as Kepler despite any relevance of topic or specific reasoning, and vague claims. The claim that evidence for astrology is that people born at roughly "the same place have a life pattern that is very similar" is vague, but also ignores that time is reference frame dependent and gives no definition of "same place" despite the planet's moving in the reference frame of the solar system. Other comments by astrologers are based on severely erroneous interpretations of basic physics, such as a claim by one astrologer that the solar system looks like an atom
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Astrology and science Further, James noted that response to criticism also relies on faulty logic, an example of which was a response to twin studies with the statement that coincidences in twins are due to astrology, but any differences are due to "heredity and environment", while for other astrologers the issues are too difficult and they just want to get back to their astrology. Further, to astrologers, if something appears in their favour, they latch upon it as proof, while making no attempt to explore its implications, preferring to refer to the item in favour as definitive; possibilities that do not make astrology look favourable are ignored. From the Quinean web of knowledge, there is a dichotomy where one must either reject astrology or accept astrology but reject all established scientific disciplines that are incompatible with astrology. Astrologers often avoid making verifiable predictions, and instead rely on vague statements that let them try to avoid falsification. Across several centuries of testing, the predictions of astrology have never been more accurate than that expected by chance alone. One approach used in testing astrology quantitatively is through blind experiment. When specific predictions from astrologers were tested in rigorous experimental procedures in the Carlson test, the predictions were falsified. All controlled experiments have failed to show any effect
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Astrology and science Shawn Carlson's now renowned experiment was performed by 28 astrologers matching over 100 natal charts to psychological profiles generated by the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) test using double blind methods. The experimental protocol used in Carlson's study was agreed to by a group of physicists and astrologers prior to the experiment. Astrologers, nominated by the National Council for Geocosmic Research, acted as the astrological advisors, and helped to ensure, and agreed, that the test was fair. They also chose 26 of the 28 astrologers for the tests, the other 2 being interested astrologers who volunteered afterwards. The astrologers came from Europe and the United States. The astrologers helped to draw up the central proposition of natal astrology to be tested. Published in "Nature" in 1985, the study found that predictions based on natal astrology were no better than chance, and that the testing "clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis". Scientist and former astrologer Geoffrey Dean and psychologist Ivan Kelly conducted a large-scale scientific test, involving more than one hundred cognitive, behavioural, physical and other variables, but found no support for astrology. A further test involved 45 confident astrologers, with an average of 10 years' experience and 160 test subjects (out of an original sample size of 1198 test subjects) who strongly favoured certain characteristics in the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire to extremes
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Astrology and science The astrologers performed much worse than merely basing decisions off the individuals' ages, and much worse than 45 control subjects who did not use birth charts at all. A meta-analysis was conducted, pooling 40 studies consisting of 700 astrologers and over 1,000 birth charts. Ten of the tests, which had a total of 300 participating, involved the astrologers picking the correct chart interpretation out of a number of others that were not the astrologically correct chart interpretation (usually three to five others). When the date and other obvious clues were removed, no significant results were found to suggest there was any preferred chart. In 10 studies, participants picked horoscopes that they felt were accurate descriptions, with one being the "correct" answer. Again the results were no better than chance. In a study of 2011 sets of people born within 5 minutes of each other ("time twins") to see if there was any discernible effect, no effect was seen. Quantitative sociologist David Voas examined the census data for more than 20 million individuals in England and Wales to see if star signs corresponded to marriage arrangements. No effect was seen
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Astrology and science In 1955, astrologer and psychologist Michel Gauquelin stated that although he had failed to find evidence to support such indicators as the zodiacal signs and planetary aspects in astrology, he had found positive correlations between the diurnal positions of some of the planets and success in professions (such as doctors, scientists, athletes, actors, writers, painters, etc.), which astrology traditionally associates with those planets. The best-known of Gauquelin's findings is based on the positions of Mars in the natal charts of successful athletes and became known as the "Mars effect". A study conducted by seven French scientists attempted to replicate the claim, but found no statistical evidence. They attributed the effect to selective bias on Gauquelin's part, accusing him of attempting to persuade them to add or delete names from their study. Geoffrey Dean has suggested that the effect may be caused by self-reporting of birth dates by parents rather than any issue with the study by Gauquelin. The suggestion is that a small subset of the parents may have had changed birth times to be consistent with better astrological charts for a related profession. The sample group was taken from a time where belief in astrology was more common. Gauquelin had failed to find the Mars effect in more recent populations, where a nurse or doctor recorded the birth information
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Astrology and science The number of births under astrologically undesirable conditions was also lower, indicating more evidence that parents choose dates and times to suit their beliefs. Beyond the scientific tests astrology has failed, proposals for astrology face a number of other obstacles due to the many theoretical flaws in astrology including lack of consistency, lack of ability to predict missing planets, lack of any connection of the zodiac to the constellations, and lack of any plausible mechanism. The underpinnings of astrology tend to disagree with numerous basic facts from scientific disciplines. Testing the validity of astrology can be difficult because there is no consensus amongst astrologers as to what astrology is or what it can predict. Dean and Kelly documented 25 studies, which had found that the degree of agreement amongst astrologers' predictions was measured as a low 0.1. Most professional astrologers are paid to predict the future or describe a person's personality and life, but most horoscopes only make vague untestable statements that can apply to almost anyone. Georges Charpak and Henri Broch dealt with claims from western astrology in the book "Debunked! ESP, Telekinesis, and other Pseudoscience". They pointed out that astrologers have only a small knowledge of astronomy and that they often do not take into account basic features such as the precession of the equinoxes, which would change the position of the sun with time
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Astrology and science They commented on the example of Elizabeth Teissier who claimed that "the sun ends up in the same place in the sky on the same date each year" as the basis for claims that two people with the same birthday but a number of years apart should be under the same planetary influence. Charpak and Broch noted that "there is a difference of about twenty-two thousand miles between Earth's location on any specific date in two successive years" and that thus they should not be under the same influence according to astrology. Over a 40 years period there would be a difference greater than 780,000 miles. Edward W. James, commented that attaching significance to the constellation on the celestial sphere the sun is in at sunset was done on the basis of human factors—namely, that astrologers didn't want to wake up early, and the exact time of noon was hard to know. Further, the creation of the zodiac and the disconnect from the constellations was because the sun is not in each constellation for the same amount of time. This disconnection from the constellations led to the problem with precession separating the zodiac symbols from the constellations that they once were related to
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Astrology and science Philosopher of science, Massimo Pigliucci commenting on the movement, opined "Well then, which sign should I look up when I open my Sunday paper, I wonder?" The tropical zodiac has no connection to the stars, and as long as no claims are made that the constellations themselves are in the associated sign, astrologers avoid the concept that precession seemingly moves the constellations because they don't reference them. Charpak and Broch, noting this, referred to astrology based on the tropical zodiac as being "...empty boxes that have nothing to do with anything and are devoid of any consistency or correspondence with the stars." Sole use of the tropical zodiac is inconsistent with references made, by the same astrologers, to the Age of Aquarius, which depends on when the vernal point enters the constellation of Aquarius. Some astrologers make claims that the position of all the planets must be taken into account, but astrologers were unable to predict the existence of Neptune based on mistakes in horoscopes. Instead Neptune was predicted using Newton's law of universal gravitation. The grafting on of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto into the astrology discourse was done on an "ad hoc" basis. On the demotion of Pluto to the status of dwarf planet, Philip Zarka of the Paris Observatory in Meudon, France wondered how astrologers should respond: Astrology has been criticised for failing to provide a physical mechanism that links the movements of celestial bodies to their purported effects on human behaviour
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Astrology and science In a lecture in 2001, Stephen Hawking stated "The reason most scientists don't believe in astrology is because it is not consistent with our theories that have been tested by experiment." In 1975, amid increasing popular interest in astrology, "The Humanist" magazine presented a rebuttal of astrology in a statement put together by Bart J. Bok, Lawrence E. Jerome, and Paul Kurtz. The statement, entitled 'Objections to Astrology', was signed by 186 astronomers, physicists and leading scientists of the day. They said that there is no scientific foundation for the tenets of astrology and warned the public against accepting astrological advice without question. Their criticism focused on the fact that there was no mechanism whereby astrological effects might occur: Astronomer Carl Sagan declined to sign the statement. Sagan said he took this stance not because he thought astrology had any validity, but because he thought that the tone of the statement was authoritarian, and that dismissing astrology because there was no mechanism (while "certainly a relevant point") was not in itself convincing. In a letter published in a follow-up edition of "The Humanist", Sagan confirmed that he would have been willing to sign such a statement had it described and refuted the principal tenets of astrological belief. This, he argued, would have been more persuasive and would have produced less controversy
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Astrology and science The use of poetic imagery based on the concepts of the macrocosm and microcosm, "as above so below" to decide meaning such as Edward W. James' example of "Mars above is red, so Mars below means blood and war", is a false cause fallacy. Many astrologers claim that astrology is scientific. If one were to attempt to try to explain it scientifically, there are only four fundamental forces (conventionally), limiting the choice of possible natural mechanisms. Some astrologers have proposed conventional causal agents such as electromagnetism and gravity. The strength of these forces drops off with distance. Scientists reject these proposed mechanisms as implausible since, for example, the magnetic field, when measured from earth, of a large but distant planet such as Jupiter is far smaller than that produced by ordinary household appliances. Astronomer Phil Plait noted that in terms of magnitude, the sun is the only object with an electromagnetic field of note, but astrology isn't based just off the sun alone. While astrologers could try to suggest a fifth force, this is inconsistent with the trends in physics with the unification of Electromagnetism and the weak force into the electroweak force. If the astrologer insisted on being inconsistent with the current understanding and evidential basis of physics, that would be an extraordinary claim. It would also be inconsistent with the other forces which drop off with distance. If distance is irrelevant, then, logically, all objects in space should be taken into account
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Astrology and science Carl Jung sought to invoke synchronicity, the claim that two events have some sort of acausal connection, to explain the lack of statistically significant results on astrology from a single study he conducted. However, synchronicity itself is considered neither testable nor falsifiable. The study was subsequently heavily criticised for its non-random sample and its use of statistics and also its lack of consistency with astrology. It has also been shown that confirmation bias is a psychological factor that contributes to belief in astrology. Confirmation bias is a form of cognitive bias. From the literature, astrology believers often tend to selectively remember those predictions that turned out to be true and do not remember those that turned out false. Another, separate, form of confirmation bias also plays a role, where believers often fail to distinguish between messages that demonstrate special ability and those that do not. Thus there are two distinct forms of confirmation bias that are under study with respect to astrological belief. The Barnum effect is the tendency for an individual to give a high accuracy rating to a description of their personality that supposedly tailored specifically for them, but is, in fact, vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. If more information is requested for a prediction, the more accepting people are of the results. In 1949 Bertram Forer conducted a personality test on students in his classroom
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Astrology and science Each student was given a supposedly individual assessment but actually all students received the same assessment. The personality descriptions were taken from a book on astrology. When the students were asked to comment on the accuracy of the test, more than 40% gave it the top mark of 5 out of 5, and the average rating was 4.2. The results of this study have been replicated in numerous other studies. The study of the Barnum/Forer effect has been focused mostly on the level of acceptance of fake horoscopes and fake astrological personality profiles. Recipients of these personality assessments consistently fail to distinguish between common and uncommon personality descriptors. In a study by Paul Rogers and Janice Soule (2009), which was consistent with previous research on the issue, it was found that those who believed in astrology are generally more susceptible to giving more credence to the Barnum profile than sceptics. By a process known as self-attribution, it has been shown in numerous studies that individuals with knowledge of astrology tend to describe their personalities in terms of traits compatible with their astrological signs. The effect is heightened when the individuals were aware that the personality description was being used to discuss astrology. Individuals who were not familiar with astrology had no such tendency. In 1953, sociologist Theodor W. Adorno conducted a study of the astrology column of a Los Angeles newspaper as part of a project that examined mass culture in capitalist society
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Astrology and science Adorno believed that popular astrology, as a device, invariably led to statements that encouraged conformity—and that astrologers who went against conformity with statements that discouraged performance at work etc. risked losing their jobs. Adorno concluded that astrology was a large-scale manifestation of systematic irrationalism, where flattery and vague generalisations subtly led individuals to believe the author of the column addressed them directly. Adorno drew a parallel with the phrase opium of the people, by Karl Marx, by commenting, "Occultism is the metaphysic of the dopes." False balance is where a false, unaccepted or spurious viewpoint is included alongside a well reasoned one in media reports and TV appearances and as a result the false balance implies "there were two equal sides to a story when clearly there were not". During "Wonders of the Solar System", a TV programme by the BBC, the physicist Brian Cox said: "Despite the fact that astrology is a load of rubbish, Jupiter can in fact have a profound influence on our planet. And it's through a force. . . gravity." This upset believers in astrology who complained that there was no astrologer to provide an alternative viewpoint. Following the complaints of astrology believers, Cox gave the following statement to the BBC: "I apologise to the astrology community for not making myself clear. I should have said that this new age drivel is undermining the very fabric of our civilisation
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Astrology and science " In the programme "Stargazing Live", Cox further commented by saying: "in the interests of balance on the BBC, yes astrology is nonsense." In an editorial in the medical journal "BMJ", editor Trevor Jackson cited this incident showing where false balance could occur. Studies and polling has shown that the belief in astrology is higher in western countries than might otherwise be expected. In 2012, in polls 42% of Americans said they thought astrology was at least partially scientific. This belief decreased with education and education is highly correlated with levels of scientific knowledge. Some of the reported belief levels are due to a confusion of astrology with astronomy (the scientific study of celestial objects). The closeness of the two words varies depending on the language. A plain description of astrology as an "occult influence of stars, planets etc. on human affairs" had no impact on the general public's assessment of whether astrology is scientific or not in a 1992 eurobarometer poll. This may partially be due to the implicit association amongst the general public, of any wording ending in "ology" with a legitimate field of knowledge. In Eurobarometers 224 and 225 performed in 2004, a split poll was used to isolate confusion over wording. In half of the polls, the word "astrology" was used, while in the other the word "horoscope" was used. Belief that astrology was at least partially scientific was 76%, but belief that horoscopes were at least partially scientific was 43%
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Astrology and science In particular, belief that astrology was very scientific was 26% while that of horoscopes was 7%. This appeared to indicate that the high level of apparent polling support for astrology in the EU was indeed due to confusion over terminology.
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IAU (1976) System of Astronomical Constants The International Astronomical Union at its XVIth General Assembly in Grenoble in 1976, accepted (Resolution No. 1 a whole new consistent set of astronomical constants recommended for reduction of astronomical observations, and for computation of ephemerides. It superseded the IAU's previous recommendations of 1964 (see IAU (1964) System of Astronomical Constants), became in effect in the Astronomical Almanac from 1984 onward, and remained in use until the introduction of the IAU (2009) System of Astronomical Constants. In 1994 the IAU recognized that the parameters became outdated, but retained the 1976 set for sake of continuity, but also recommended to start maintaining a set of "current best estimates" this "sub group for numerical standards" had published a list, which included new constants (like those for relativistic time scales) The system of constants was prepared by Commission 4 on ephemerides led by P. Kenneth Seidelmann (after whom asteroid 3217 Seidelmann is named). At the time, a new standard epoch (J2000.0) was accepted; followed later by a new reference system with fundamental catalogue (FK5), and expressions for precession of the equinoxes, and in 1979 by new expressions for the relation between Universal Time and sidereal time , and in 1979 and 1980 by a theory of nutation
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IAU (1976) System of Astronomical Constants There were no reliable rotation elements for most planets, but a joint working group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements was installed to compile recommended values The IAU(1976) system is based on the astronomical system of units: IAU commission 4: ,
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Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry is the official review journal of the Mineralogical Society of America and The Geochemical Society. It was established in 1974 as "Mineralogical Society of America Short Course Notes" and renamed to "Reviews in Mineralogy" in 1980. It obtained its present name in 2000. The journal is abstracted and indexed in GeoRef, Scopus, and Science Citation Index Expanded.
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Iron ring (laboratory) An iron ring or ring clamp is an item of laboratory equipment which comprises a conjoined metal ring and radially-extending rod. In some cases, the rod terminates in a screw clamp for attachment to a retort stand or other support; in others, the rod may be attached to a stand by means of a laboratory clamp holder. Iron rings are commonly used in chemistry laboratories for supporting apparatus above the work surface, for example: In some cases, a slot is cut in the side of the ring opposite the rod. This is to allow a funnel to be placed upon and removed from the ring from the side rather than from above, a safer procedure.
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Adelmar Faria Coimbra-Filho (June 4, 1924 – June 27, 2016) was a Brazilian biologist and primatologist. He is a pioneer in studies of and conservation of lion tamarins. He is founder and Former Director of the Rio de Janeiro Primate Centre. Coimbra Filho's titi is named after him. Coimbra-Filho was born in Fortaleza. He began his career in 1947. He rediscovered the black lion tamarin, and assisted in conservation of the golden lion tamarin through a zoo-based breeding program in collaboration with Devra G. Kleiman. His awards and honors include the Augusto Ruschi Award from the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
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Vibroscope ( 'vibrate' + scope) is an instrument for observing and tracing (and sometimes recording) vibration. For example, a primitive mechanical vibroscope consists of a vibrating object with a pointy end which leaves a wave trace on a smoked surface of a rotating cylinder. Vibroscopes are used to study properties of substances. For examples, polymers' torsional modulus and Young's modulus may be determined by vibrating the polymers and measuring their frequency of vibration under certain external forces. Similar approach works to determine linear density of thread-shaped objects, such as fibers, filaments, and yarn. Vibroscopes are also used to study sound in different areas of the mouth during speech. Jean-Marie Duhamel published about an early recording device he called a vibroscope in 1843.
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Ignaz Friedrich Tausch (29 January 1793, in Theusing – 8 September 1848) was a Bohemian botanist. He studied philosophy, medicine and natural sciences at the University of Prague, becoming an associate professor of economic and technical botany in 1815. He discovered at least eleven species of plants, including "Rhizobotrya alpina" and "Saxifraga hostii". During his career he worked at the botanical garden of Emanuel Joseph Malabaila von Canal (1745-1826). He was the taxonomic authority of many botanical species. Plants bearing the specific epithet of "tauschii" are named in his honor, e.g. "Triticum tauschii". In 1825, Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal named the genus "Tauschia", or umbrellaworts (family Apiaceae) after him. Tausch was born on January 29, 1793 in Bohemia to a master brewer, Josef Tauch, and Elizabeth Tausch. In his youth, Tausch visited a Piaristengymnasium, a higher educational institution, in the town of Schlackenwerth, sparking his curiosity in botany. From 1809 to 1812, he attended the Charles University in Prague, where he studied philosophy, medicine, and botany. From 1815 to 1826, he served as a professor of botany at the botanical garden of Emmanuel Canal at Prague. From 1821 to his death, he was a member of the Academy in Turin, and in 1843, became president of the Bohemian Horticultural Society. He died at Prague on September 8, 1848, at the age of 55.
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George Francis Scott Elliot George Francis Scott-Elliot FRGS FLS FRSE (1862–1934) was a botanist and academic author of Franco-Scots descent. He was a personal friend of Patrick Geddes. Scott-Elliot was born in Calcutta in India of Franco-Scots parentage. His father, James Scott Elliot (d.1880) was a merchant in Calcutta, coming from the Scottish Borders. He went to Cambridge University in 1879 and graduated BA (Maths tripos). He then attended Edinburgh University gaining a BSc in Botany. He had a natural love of travel. His first major trip was 1888-89 when he explored South Africa Mauritius and Madagascar. In June 1890 he gave a lecture to the Linnean Society on the flora of Madagascar. He then did further studies in Libya and Egypt before being commissioned by the Franco-Britiah Delineation Committee to define the boundaries of Sierra Leonne. From 1896 to 1903, he lectured in Botany at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. In 1903, he undertook a tour of South America. From 1902 to 1909 he was President of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. At this period he lived at Drumwhill near New Galloway in Kirkcudbrightshire. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1913. His proposers were Robert Kidston, John Horne, John Aitken and James Geikie. He resigned in 1927
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George Francis Scott Elliot Although "over-age" he volunteered almost immediately at the onset of the First World War and joined the King's Own Scottish Borderers and saw active duty under fire in Egypt as a Captain and was awarded the Order of the Nile. In 1917, whilst returning home on leave, his ship was torpedoed off the coast of Italy. Ensuing ill-health from this near-drowning left him unable to rejoin his regiment on active duty, and instead he became a commanding officer in the Home Defence Corps. He later retired with his wife to Wadhurst in Sussex to be near his brother, Lt Col William Scott Elliot DSO (1873-1943). In his final years, he returned to Scotland and died in the Moat Brae Nursing Home in Dumfries on 20 June 1934. George Scott-Elliot is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of African chameleon, "Trioceros ellioti". He married Annie Johnston-Stewart daughter of Robert Hathorn Johnston-Stewart of Glasserton and Physgill, in April 1896 near Whithorn in Wigtownshire. They lived originally at Wilton Mansions in Glasgow. They later moved to Kilmalcolm and finally to Kilbarchan. His nephew was Major General James Scott Elliot, who later became commander of the King's Own Scottish Borderers.
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Terradynamics is the study of forces and movement during terrestrial locomotion (particularly that using legs) on ground that can flow such as sand and soil. The term "terradynamics" is used in analogy to aerodynamics for flying in the air and hydrodynamics for swimming in water. has been used "to predict a small legged robot’s locomotion on granular media".
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MAXI J1659-152 is a rapidly rotating black-hole/star system, discovered by NASA's Swift space telescope on September 25, 2010. On March 19, 2013, ESA's XMM-Newton space telescope has helped to identify a star and a black hole that orbit each other at the rate of once every 2.4 hours. The black hole and the star orbit their common center of mass. Because the star is the lighter object, it lies farther from this point and has to "travel around its larger orbit at a breakneck speed of two million kilometers per hour", 500 to 600 km/s, or about 20 times Earth's orbital velocity. The star was the fastest moving star ever seen in an X-ray binary system until the recent discovery of system 47 Tuc X9. On the other hand, the black hole orbits at 'only' . The black hole in this compact pairing is at least three times more massive than the Sun, while its red dwarf companion star has a mass only 20% that of the Sun. The pair is separated by roughly a million kilometers – for comparison the distance to the Sun from Earth is about 150 million kilometers.
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Neutron–proton ratio The neutron–proton ratio (N/Z ratio or nuclear ratio) of an atomic nucleus is the ratio of its number of neutrons to its number of protons. Among stable nuclei and naturally occurring nuclei, this ratio generally increases with increasing atomic number. This is because electrical repulsive forces between protons scale with distance differently than strong nuclear force attractions. In particular, most pairs of protons in large nuclei are not far enough apart, such that electrical repulsion dominates over the strong nuclear force, and thus proton density in stable larger nuclei must be lower than in stable smaller nuclei where more pairs of protons have appreciable short-range nuclear force attractions. For each element with atomic number "Z" small enough to occupy only the first three nuclear shells, that is up to that of calcium ("Z" = 20), there exists a stable isotope with "N"/"Z" ratio of one, with the exception of beryllium ("N"/"Z" = 1.25) and every element with odd atomic number between 9 and 19 inclusive ("N" = "Z" + 1). Hydrogen-1 ("N"/"Z" ratio = 0) and helium-3 ("N"/"Z" ratio = 0.5) are the only stable isotopes with neutron–proton ratio under one. Uranium-238 has the highest "N"/"Z" ratio of any primordial nuclide at 1.587, while lead-208 has the highest "N"/"Z" ratio of any known stable isotope at 1.537. Radioactive decay generally proceeds so as to change the "N"/"Z" ratio to increase stability
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Neutron–proton ratio If the "N"/"Z" ratio is greater than 1, alpha decay increases the "N"/"Z" ratio, and hence provides a common pathway towards stability for decays involving large nuclei with too few neutrons. Positron emission and electron capture also increase the ratio, while beta decay decreases the ratio. Nuclear waste exists mainly because nuclear fuel has a higher stable "N"/"Z" ratio than its fission products. For stable nuclei, the neutron-proton ratio is such that the binding energy is at a local minimum or close to a minimum. From the liquid drop model, this bonding energy is approximated by empirical Bethe–Weizsäcker formula Given a value of formula_2 and ignoring the contributions of nucleon spin pairing (i.e. ignoring the formula_3 term), the binding energy is a quadratic expression in formula_4 that is minimized when the neutron-proton ratio is formula_5.
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John C. Tully is a theoretical chemist, a researcher and Sterling Professor emeritus of Chemistry at Yale University. He is known for his development of surface hopping, a method for including excited states in molecular dynamics calculations. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. He was the 2007 recipient of the Welch Award in Chemistry. In 2020 he was awarded the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences.
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Sklodowska (Martian crater) Sklodowska is a crater on Mars, located in the Mare Acidalium quadrangle at 33.7°N and 2.9°W. It measures in diameter and was named after Polish chemist and first female Nobel Laureate Marie Skłodowska Curie (1867–1934). The naming was approved in 1973, by the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature. Pictures of Sklodowska show numerous branched channels along its rim. Some are visible in the pictures below.
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Meiothermus is a genus of Deinococcus–Thermus bacteria. The phylogeny is based on 16S rRNA-based LTP release 132 by 'The All-Species Living Tree' Project. The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LSPN) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Note: ♠ Strain found at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) but not listed in the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) List of bacterial orders
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Microraft A (Isoraft) is an arrays of microwells for cell sorting, isolating cells, analyzing cells over time, and generating clonal populations. This platform provides biomedical scientists with access to diverse cell culture surfaces with integrated, easy-to-use cell separating capabilities at low cost. The microrafts have bases composed of detachable concave elements fabricated by a dip-coating process using a polydimethylsiloxane mold as the template and the array substrate. This manufacturing approach allows the microrafts to possess low autofluorescence and can therefore be utilized for fluorescence-based identification of cells. Cells plated on the microarray settle and attach at the center of the wells due to the microrafts’ concavity. Individual microrafts are dislodged using a needle inserted through the compliant polymer substrate. The hard polymer material of the microrafts protect the cells from damage by the needle. Cell analysis and isolation can be carried out using a standard inverted microscope. Released cells/microrafts can be collected, cultured and clonally expanded. Using this system, extremely high single-cell cloning rates of greater than 95% have been achieved. This system is ideal for both adherent and non-adherent cell types.
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List of parson-naturalists Parson-naturalists were ministers of religion who also studied natural history. The archetypical parson-naturalist was a priest in the Church of England in charge of a country parish, who saw the study of science as an extension of his religious work. The philosophy entailed the belief that God, as the Creator of all things, wanted man to understand his Creations and thus to study them through scientific techniques. They often collected and preserved natural artefacts such as leaves, flowers, birds' eggs, birds, insects, and small mammals to classify and study. Some wrote books or kept nature diaries.
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Oncolytic herpes virus Many variants of herpes simplex virus have been considered for viral therapy of cancer; the early development of these was thoroughly reviewed in the journal "Cancer Gene Therapy" in 2002. This page describes (in the order of development) the most notable variants—those tested in clinical trials: G207, HSV1716, NV1020 and Talimogene laherparepvec (previously Oncovex-GMCSF). These attenuated versions are constructed by deleting viral genes required for infecting or replicating inside normal cells but not cancer cells, such as ICP34.5, ICP6/UL39, and ICP47. HSV1716 is a first generation oncolytic virus developed by The Institute of Virology, Glasgow, UK, and subsequently by Virttu Biologics (formerly Crusade Laboratories, a spin-out from The Institute of Virology), to selectively destroy cancer cells. The virus has the trade name SEPREHVIR. It is based on the herpes simplex virus (HSV-1). The HSV1716 strain has a deletion of the gene ICP34.5. ICP34.5 is a neurovirulence gene (enabling the virus to replicate in neurons of the brain and spinal cord). Deletion of this gene provides the property of tumor-selective replication to the virus (i.e. largely prevents replication in normal cells, while still allowing replication in tumor cells), although it also reduces replication in tumor cells as compared to wild type HSV. A vital part of the normal mechanism of HSV-1, the ICP34.5 protein has been proposed to condition post-mitotic cells for viral replication. With no ICP34
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Oncolytic herpes virus 5 gene, the HSV-1716 variant is unable to overcome normal defences of healthy differentiated cells (mediated by PKR) to replicate efficiently. However, tumour cells have much weaker PKR-linked defences, which may be the reason why HSV1716 effectively kills a wide range of tumour cell lines in tissue culture. An HSV1716 variant, HSV1716NTR is an oncolytic virus generated by inserting the enzyme NTR into the virus HSV1716 as a GDEPT strategy. In-vivo, administration of the prodrug CB1954 to athymic mice bearing either A431 or A2780 tumour xenografts, 48 hours after intra-tumoral injection of HSV1790, resulted in a marked reduction in tumour volumes and significantly improved survival compared to administration of virus alone. A similar approach has been taken with a variant of HSV1716 that expresses the noradrenaline transporter to deliver radioactive iodine into individual infected cancer cells, by tagging a protein that cancer cells transport. The nor-adrenaline transporter specifically transports a compound containing radioactive iodine across the cell membrane, using genes from the virus. The only cells in the body that receive a significant radiation dose are those infected and their immediate neighbours. G207 was constructed as a second-generation vector from HSV-1 laboratory strain F, with ICP34.5 deleted and the ICP6 gene inactivated by insertion of the E. coli LacZ gene. Two phase I clinical trials in glioma were completed
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Oncolytic herpes virus The results of the first trial were published simultaneously with the first trial of HSV1716 in 2000, with commentators praising the demonstration of safety of these viruses when injected into brain tumours but also expressing disappointment that viral replication could not be demonstrated due to the difficulty of taking biopsies from brain tumours. NV1020 is an oncolytic herpes virus initially developed by Medigene Inc. and licensed for development by Catherex Inc. in 2010. NV1020 has a deletion of just one copy of the ICP34.5 gene and ICP6 is intact. A direct comparison of NV1020 and G207 in a mouse model of peritoneal cancer showed that NV1020 is more effective at lower doses. A Phase I/II study completed in 2008 evaluating NV1020 for treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer in the liver. The study assessed tumour response by CT scan and FDG-PET scans, showing 67% of patients had an initial increase in tumour size then followed by a decrease in 64% of patients. Talimogene laherparepvec is the USAN name for the oncolytic virus also known as 'OncoVEX GM-CSF'. It was developed by BioVex Inc. (Woburn, MA, USA & Oxford, UK) until BioVex was purchased by Amgen in January 2011. It is a second-generation herpes simplex virus based on the JS1 strain and expressing the immune stimulatory factor GM-CSF. Like other oncolytic versions of HSV it has a deletion of the gene encoding ICP34.5, which provides tumor selectivity
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Oncolytic herpes virus It also has a deletion of the gene encoding ICP47, a protein that inhibits antigen presentation, and an insertion of a gene encoding GM-CSF, an immune stimulatory cytokine. Deletion of the gene encoding ICP47 also puts the US11 gene (a late gene) under control of the immediate early ICP47 promoter. The earlier and greater expression of US11 (also involved in overcoming PKR-mediated responses) largely overcomes the reduction in replication in tumor cells of ICP34.5-deleted HSV as compared to wild type virus, but without reducing tumor selectivity. Including phase III : See Talimogene laherparepvec
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Karoo (crater) Karoo is an impact crater on the asteroid 253 Mathilde, named for the Great Karoo Basin, a coal basin in South Africa. It is 33.4 kilometers in diameter and was the most prominent crater seen during NEAR Shoemaker's flyby of the asteroid. The critical crater diameter is the scale at which cratering “goes global” and results in a solitary distinct crater. All smaller craters—however large D might be—are local events. Mathilde is thus a particularly interesting case, since it is the largest asteroid imaged at sufficient resolution to show that its topography is clearly exogenic, governed by impacts. Mathilde has several craters of a similar size to Karoo; according to gravity-regime scaling it suffered ∼5 impacts by objects, ranging from ∼0.8 to 1.2 km diameter, without being struck once by an object large enough to disrupt it. This seems odd, and Cheng and Barnouin-Jha (1999) find Mathilde's survival unlikely, and appeal to oblique impacts. But it may be an effect of preservation in the case where D is so large that even hemisphere-spanning craters are, by definition, “local.” If, for example, Mathilde's attenuation is somewhat higher than usual, say α = 1.4, then based on Fig. 2 none of its craters exceeds the critical crater diameter. This would explain the crowding of giant craters, since none of these would result in global degradation
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Karoo (crater) Indeed, if Karoo, at 33 km diameter, represents D and resurfaced the asteroid, then the 5 or more other giant impacts must have happened subsequently, which is highly unusual given that they are in fact almost just as large. Thus α = 1.33 from Fig. 2a is likely a lower limit on Mathilde's attenuation.
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Indium gallium arsenide phosphide () is a quaternary compound semiconductor material, an alloy of gallium arsenide and indium phosphide. This compound has applications in photonic devices, due to the ability to tailor its band gap via changes in the alloy mole ratios, "x" and "y". Indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits, or PICs, commonly use alloys of to construct quantum wells, waveguides and other photonic structures, lattice matched to an InP substrate, enabling single-crystal epitaxial growth onto InP. Many devices operating in the near-infrared 1.55 μm wavelength window utilize this alloy, and are employed as optical components (such as laser transmitters, photodetectors and modulators) in C-band communications systems.
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NCBioImpact is a partnership of North Carolina organizations created to enhance the trained workforce for biotechnology and other life science employers by educating students and retraining incumbent workers. The partnership works to promote economic development in North Carolina while offering comprehensive biomanufacturing training and education programs located at two universities in the University of North Carolina System and the North Carolina Community College System. In 2002, biomanufacturing executives in the Research Triangle region in North Carolina, working with NCBIO, asked the North Carolina Biotechnology Center to conduct a study of the workforce and training needs of the industry. "Window on the Workplace 2003" was published the following year. As a result of that study, a partnership among industry, government, academic leaders and nonprofits, such as the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and NCBIO, submitted a proposal to provide unique training to increase the number of workers to the Golden LEAF Foundation. Equipment and construction funds were provided for three initiatives, which now receive part of their operating funds from the North Carolina General Assembly, along with contracts, grants and training fees
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38999618
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NCBioImpact A 2010 Battelle report commissioned by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center found that almost 47,000 biotechnology-related (direct and indirect) jobs were added during the period of 2008-2010, bringing the total jobs in North Carolina to almost 227,000 and annual compensation and benefits increased nearly $3.3 Billion. The president of the North Carolina Biosciences Organization (NCBIO), the trade association for North Carolina's life science community, stated "makes it possible for companies growing or relocating to North Carolina to bring new facilities and new workers on-line in substantially shortened timelines with better quality outcomes and higher productivity." As an example, two major companies, Novartis and Merck & Co. located facilities in North Carolina after considering all factors, including the hands-on training programs offered by the university and community college systems. The program offers continuing education, workforce development, business services and outreach activities for startup companies. The seven BioNetwork centers are located throughout the state in order to provide specialized life science training where it is needed. BioNetwork offers training in the following centers: The Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) is located on the Centennial Campus at North Carolina State University. BTEC offers many programs, including graduate and undergraduate education, workforce training, and bioprocess and analytical services
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38999618
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