bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Transformative Philosophy
Authors: Amir Lydia
Published: September 2023

The contemporary relevance of unraveling the transformative power of philosophy lies in helping to secure its place in the academe and in enabling personal change for the benefit of the individual and the society in which we live. Yet formulating the transformative power of various philosophies, of different philosophic notions, and of philosophy itself as a rational discipline which addresses the mind leads to laying the ground for a new field. This is what I attempt to do on my own, yet briefly, in this article, and at length, with the help of others, in the Handbook for Transformative Philosophy. In the current article, I explain why only Eastern philosophies are usually considered transformative, I argue that Western philosophy is deeply transformative and I formulate that which performs in it the required transformation of the self. I further identify religious readings of philosophy as one impediment to experiencing philosophy’s transformative power, and I point to the ideal of personal philosophic redemption as a promising avenue for modern transformative philosophies.
A sampling of philosophical counseling frameworks, tools, and practices
Authors: Repetti Rick
Published: September 2023

In this paper I first argue for a somewhat paradoxically ‘methodless method’ of philosophical practice that includes as many methods as a practitioner can learn and include in their toolkit, as well as no method. Then I overview over a dozen major things, and some minor ones, that philosophical counselors and other philosophical practitioners might benefit from adding to their philosophical practice toolkits. These include: The DIME framework, 4e Cognitive Science, the 4Ps of knowing, the Gestalt change process model, Philosophical Fellowship (aka Philosophical Companionship), Dialectic to Dialogos, Nelsonian Socratic Dialogue, Self-Determination Theory, the Ikigai Framework, Philosophical Midwifery, the Eightfold Path, the Four Agreements, and Meditation. Where appropriate, I offer what I take to be basic elements of rationale for viewing certain of these items, particularly some that might not appear philosophical from an analytic perspective, as philosophical practice tools as well as an explanation of the basic techniques involved in each tool. In the concluding section, based on already having provided some reasons for thinking otherwise seemingly non-philosophical practices ought to be included in the philosophical counselor’s toolkit, I will add some justify-cation for a broader conception of philosophical counseling that some might think exceeds the legitimate scope of practice for the profession.
Reactions of Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn) Genotypes for Blast Resistance and Yield in Wukari and Takum Taraba State, Nigeria
Authors: Gani Musa , Tunwari Bilkoya Adamu
Published: September 2023

Finger millet contains high level of methionine, tryptophan, vitamin B, fibre and minerals such as phosphorus, iron, calcium, which serve a good source of balance diet formulations for hypertension, obesity, diabetic patients, pregnant women, nursing mothers, children, people leaving with HIV, malnourished people, incidence of iron deficiency (anemia), and calcium deficiency causing rickets in young children. Production constraints responsible for the low yields have been identified as pests, blast and Striga, drought, low soil fertility, labor intensity, high weed infestation, low yielding varieties, lodging, and poor attitude to the crop. Finger millet blast about 50% yield losses. This disease has been identified as the highest priority constraint to finger millet production in Nigeria, since most landraces and a number of other genotypes are highly susceptible. Field trials were conducted on 22 germplasm (U 15, P224, ACC 32, ACC14, KNE814, IE 3779, KNE 628, KNE 688, KNE 1149, Etiyo Brown, Gulu E, Kala, RW 127(IE 6613), KNE 392, GBK 029681, ACC 3953, GBK 011136A, KNE 689, KNE 1034, Emiroit, Red local check and Black local check) from ICRISAT and farmers in 3 replicates at Wukari and Takum in 2019, to assess for blast disease resistance and yield. A significant negative correlation (0.52) was found between blast severity and DF (days to flowering) suggesting that late/medium flowering varieties are more resistant than the early ones as indicated by genotypes KNE814, IE 3779, KNE 628, KNE 688, KNE 1149, Gulu E,, KNE 392, GBK 029681, ACC 3953, GBK 011136A, KNE 689, KNE 1034, Emiroit and Red (local check) varieties, which were medium maturing and highly resistance to blast disease, with foliar blast severity (1.07 - 3.0), neck blast (1.5 - 2.5) and finger blast (11 - 25 %), NET (3.45 - 4.38), NFPH (5.80) and subsequently highest yield (1565 - 1887 kg/ha), compared to black local variety with the highest foliar blast severity (4.00 - 6.70), neck blast (2.7 - 4.40), finger blast (32 - 36 %), NET (2.50 - 2.70), NFPH (3.30 - 4.70) and lowest yield (688 - 989 kg/ha), respectively in Wukari and Takum locations. Hence, these varieties resistant to foliar, neck, finger blast diseases, good yield parameters are recommended as sources of germplasm for genetic improvement and further research.
Shipping Context With Data -- Convention, Protocol, and Infrastructure
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

How do you effectively share a computational process? You could simply share a directory of source code and rely on shared conventions – shared programming language, shared tooling for build and runtime environments, a README.txt convention for communicating setup instructions, etc.
Conceptual Provenance
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

We often think of provenance as a physical thing, tracking the history of a sample and of what we measured. But the provenance of a result started when someone had the idea or the request to measure it. The metadata for a result is not just the parameters on the instrument, or how much sample, or which sample – it’s all those other steps upstream. Conceptual metadata are like tags, meaningful handles.
Headless Materials Research Management Systems
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

A headless content management system (CMS) is one that is API-first, decoupled from any particular presentation layer on the front-end. Such a service can support multiple channels for working with and presenting content, given the type of user and their context. Strapi is one example of an open-source headless CMS.
Haplocanthosaurus neural canals are weird, part 1: in which we tell the world
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

 A.  Recovered skeletal elements of  Haplocanthosaurus  specimen MWC 8028.  B.  Caudal vertebra 3 in right lateral view.  C.  The same vertebra in posterior view. Lines show the location of sections for D and E.  D.  Midsagittal CT slice. The arrow indicates the ventral expansion of the neural canal into the centrum.
Cool URIs don’t change
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

It’s now 22 years since Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, wrote the classic document Cool URIs don’t change [1]. It’s core message is simple, and the title summarises it. Once an organization brings a URI into existence, it should keep it working forever. If the document at that URI moves, then the old URI should become a redirect to the new. This really is Web 101 — absolute basics.
Event Sourcing With Eliot
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

Eliot is a Python logging system that outputs a stream of JSON objects detailing causal chains of actions. Scientific computing is identified in its documentation as an ideal use case for this style of logging, in part because feedback cycles can be slow for such long-running processes where interactive step-debugging is inconvenient. It seems that such logs would also be appropriate for event sourcing.
Saltapotamus, meet Obesethocoelicaudia
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

This just in from John Conway: John doesn’t say much about it in the tweet where he unveiled this piece: just “A new #painting, of a Saltapotamus”. His website is just a little more forthcoming: This reminds me very strongly of  Obesethocoelicaudia  , a fat restoration of  Opisthocoelicaudia  that John kindly did for Matt and me to use in our 2014 SVPCA talk, “Slender Giants”: (  Saltasaurus  and
Haplocanthosaurus MWC 8028, with Bernie for scale
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

Can I really be the first one to have done this? Seems unlikely. Sing out in the comments if you’ve seen others. Anyway, folks, here’s your new all-purpose scale silhouette. Useful fact: the standard metal folding chairs found from sea to shining sea are 29.25 inches tall, or 0.75 meters. Bernie might be in a plastic folding chair here, I dunno, I’m no expert.
Version Control for Data
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

Git is the common tool for version control of code. How does it work? It works by grouping events about lines. Lines are added or removed, and a group of add/remove events is a transaction, i.e. a “commit”. A sequence of these line-delta-group events can be replayed from the log to construct a snapshot of the codebase at any point in the commit history.
How Is Data Unification Different Than Data Fusion?
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

In response to this note, a reader asked I re-read the Stonebraker whitepaper I had linked to in that note, and what it describes does  not  seem meaningfully different than data fusion. I propose that data unification is more conservative than data fusion – it stops short of the lossy reduction often required for decision-support systems.
A third pneumatic hiatus in a specimen of Barosaurus
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

Here’s a pretty cool image: Plate 7 from Lull (1919), showing the partial skeleton of  Barosaurus  YPM 429 (above), compared to the much more complete skeleton of  Diplodocus  CM84/94 (below). I’ve been pretty familiar with that  Barosaurus  skeleton diagram since I was about 9 years old, because it’s in Donald Glut’s  New Dinosaur Dictionary  , which I’ve written about here before.
Haplocanthosaurus neural canals are weird, part 2: getting comparative specimens from the grocery store
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

Anatomical features of the neural canal in birds and other dinosaurs.  A.  MWC 9698, a mid caudal vertebra of  Apatosaurus  in posterodorsal view. Arrows highlight probable vascular foramina in the ventral floor of the neural canal.  B.  LACM 97479, a dorsal vertebra of  Rhea americana  in left anterolateral view. Arrows highlight pneumatic foramina inside the neural canal.
Data Lifecycles
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

I was asked about a positioning statement for my business, to describe  who  I work with and  what outcome  I help them with: something like “Helping X with Y”. I gave this: The response I got was “Great start. What type of researchers would be an ideal fit?” I had thought I had specialized my audience sufficiently: I’m not helping “people”, I’m helping researchers.
Relating the ISO 11179 Metadata Registry (MDR) Standard to Semantic Web Standards
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

This is a brief note on my perception of the ISO 11179 Metadata Registry (MDR) standard, including my perception of its relation to W3C Semantic Web standards. Examples are taken from this Wikipedia article. In ISO 11179, there are  concepts  . There are relations of concepts to wider and more narrow concepts.
Data Collaboration Is Hard Like Distributed Computing Is Hard
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

It is hard to mediate among concrete representations, among data structures with differing schema. There are certainly valiant efforts to replicate shared data structures without conflict and to facilitate distributed schema evolution, i.e. to sync “under the hood” concerns.
The QUDT System for Dimensional Analysis and Unit Conversions
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

In order to integrate quantitative data, you need to know (a) if units are commensurate, and (b) if so, how to do conversions. The Quantities, Units, Dimensions, and Types (QUDT) ontology serves three major purposes. First, it provides a global reference for units via URIs; this helps avoid tacit conventions that are prone to misinterpretation. Second, it provides for dimensional analysis via so-called “quantity kind” dimensional vectors;
Resource Description (Ontology/Schema) Versus Resource Layout (API)
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

Resource description refers to defining concepts and relationships that represent the content and structure of some subject matter (ontology) or a database (schema) in a formal language. The relationship between ontology and database schema is nuanced – Uschold provides a nice comparison.  1  You can formally describe resources using the resource description framework (RDF), SQL’s data definition language (DDL), etc.
Good experiences of peer-review at Qeios
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

A month after I and Matt published our paper “Why is vertebral pneumaticity in sauropod dinosaurs so variable?” at  Qeios  , we were bemoaning how difficult it was to get anyone to review it. But what a difference the last nineteen days have made!
My favorite t-shirt
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

If you’ve been around SV-POW! for long, you’ve seen me in this shirt: “Retro Brontosaurus Dinosaur T-shirt” by Dinosaur Tees, modeled by Matt Wedel, cast right forelimb of  Brachiosaurus  for scale. I found it on Amazon.
The Costs of FAIR
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

I have written a bit about benefits of FAIR; however, a reader rightly pointed out to me that there is no such thing as a free lunch – what are some of the costs of FAIR? Below is my first stab at a diagram that I hope distinguishes some costs and benefits of FAIR, and how they are related, in the case of building an “inside track” for an existing research-information lifecycle.
Elsevier charge $37.95 for access to an unformatted manuscript with intrusive watermarking and the illustrations removed
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

Today should be a day of rejoicing, as it brings us a new sauropod:  Arackar licanantay  Rubilar-Rogers et al. 2021., a small titanosaur from Chile. It’s not, though. Because not only is this paper behind a paywall in Elsevier’s journal  Cretaceous Research  , but the paywalled paper is what they term a “pre-proof” — a fact advertised in a tiny font half way down the page rather than in a giant red letters at the top.
Here’s that badger-skull multiview you ordered
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

For reasons that I will explain in a later post, I am parting with one of my most treasured possessions: the badger skull that I extracted from my roadkill specimen four years ago. As a farewell, I finally photographed it properly from all the cardinal directions, and prepared this multiview: Don’t forget to click though for the full resolution version!
Are You Just Creating Another Data Silo?
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

You have a data-intensive research problem. Custom software will help you solve it. Code is written. A dataset is collected to feed the code. Did you just create another silo? What would it mean to be data-centric, with only one data platform and with applications on top, where applications come and go? In your group, who decides what kind of database to use?
The Kent Uncertainty Principle - On Data and Reality
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

The more precisely the position of some particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be predicted from initial conditions, and vice versa.
Go-to-Declaration for Data
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

One of my favorite features of the PyCharm code editor is go-to-declaration: you can hold the control key and hover your mouse over a usage of a symbol, and you’ll see a tooltip with a preview of the declaration/definition of the symbol. Click it, and you’ll jump to the definition, perhaps in another file. After you’ve reviewed the definition, a keyboard shortcut gets you back to the usage point.
K-Lines via RDF and PROV
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

A “knowledge line”, aka “K-line”, is a representation of knowledge that connects what we know with how it’s used – we keep each thing we learn close to the agents that learn it in the first place.  1  When a K-line is re-activated, the agents attached to it are re-activated, putting a system in a “mental state” similar to when this thing we know was last generated, used, and/or persisted.
A CSV File That Knows Its Schema and Context
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

Have you ever given or gotten data as CSV? Are the meanings of the columns always clear? How are they made clear? Are the given column labels/names and the given file/sheet names always enough? If additional information beyond the CSV file is needed, how is that facilitated? A separate README file that travels with the CSV as part of a zipped archive file?
A funny thing happened on the way to the Shiny Digital Future
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

Picture is unrelated. Seriously. I’m just allergic to posts with no visuals. Stand by for more random brachiosaurs. Here’s something I’ve been meaning to post for a while, about my changing ideas about scholarly publishing. On one hand, it’s hard to believe now that the Academic Spring was almost a decade ago.
My Oddbins corkscrew resembles a titanosaur femur
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

These things just catch my eye, I can’t help it.  Left:  Oddbins corkscrew, circa 1997.  Right:  left femur of  Patagotitan mayorum  , circa 100,000,000 BC. Note that the corkscrew features a distinct medially directed femoral head, the bulge in the lateral margin of the proximal portion that is characteristic of titanosaurs, and a straight shaft.
Sargable Science
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

Some queries can be optimized; others can’t. This is due to the structure of the query itself, which in turn is due to the structure of the underlying data. “Sargable” is database-speak for  Search ARGument ABLE  .  1  A query is sargable if it  can  be optimized, e.g. by creating and using an index. It’s a good idea to write sargable queries.
Analysing the distribution of complete sauropod necks
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

Matt dropped me a line midweek about the catalogue of complete sauropod necks, with some interesting thoughts.
James Herrmann’s mammal sculptures for the Cincinnati Museum Center
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

When last I blogged about James Herrmann’s art, it was about some cool sculptures of dinosaurs that he had done for the Cincinnati Museum Center. I am particularly taken with the sculptures that are skeleton on one side, and fully-fleshed on the other side. Now he’s doing mammals, specifically Ice Age megafauna.
The TetZooMCon palaeoart workshop
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

Darren has written a brief review of TetZooMCon, the online event that replaced the now traditional annual conference of Tetrapod Zoology.
Xinjiangtitan has the longest preserved neck of any lifeform to date
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

 Xinjiangtitan  when originally described, from Wu et al. (2013) We’re  way  late to this party, but better late than never I guess. Wu et al. (2013) described  Xinjiangtitan shanshanesis  as a new mamenchisaurid from the Middle Jurassic of China. At the time of the initial description, all of the dorsal and sacral vertebrae had been uncovered, as well as a handful of the most posterior cervicals and most anterior caudals.
Herons lie, part 2
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

I just stumbled across this tweet from bird photographer Gloria (@Lucent508). Four photos of the same individual, apparently a Green Heron. In this image, I am juxtaposing the third image (left-right flipped and scaled up) with the first image (filled out on the left with a stretched reflection of part of the background). Where has it put that long neck in the lower image?
You! Shall not! Pass!
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

OK,  technically  this is MB.R.3822, a dorsal vertebra of  Giraffatitan brancai  formerly known as HMN Ar1, in posterior view, rendered from a 3D scan provided by Heinrich Mallison. But you can’t tell me that when you look at that you don’t see Gandalf shouting at a balrog.
Oculudentavis: the plot thickens
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

Since we wrote about the putative tiny bird  Oculudentavis  (Xing et al. 2020) last time, things have become rather weirder. I want to discuss two things here: how we got to where we are, and what happens to the zoological name  Oculudentavis khaungraae  .  Xing et al. 2020, Extended Data Fig. 1.  Close-up photographs of HPG-15-3. Part  a  , Entire skull in left lateral view.
Parker (1874) on the structure and development of the pig skull
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

These are nice. Click through to empiggen. I ripped them from Parker (1874), which appears to be a free download from JSTOR, here, and tweaked the colors just a bit. If you are here for serious science, these guides to the abbreviations used in the plates will come in handy. I hacked the second one, below, to include the descriptions of the plates above, which are the last in the series, not the first.
Imaging bone cells in 420-million-year-old jawless fish
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

The early armored fish  Bothriolepis  , which Yara Haridy affectionately refers to as a “beetle mermaid”. Art by Brian Engh, dontmesswithdinosaurs.com.
Relating versus Replacing
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

“Centralization”. “Mapping”. These are overloaded concepts. They mean different things in different contexts. One hawk-eyed reader has rightly cried Ambiguous! on my usage of these terms in recent notes.
A sauropod on Mars
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

This is old news, for those who have been following NASA’s Perseverance rover since before it left Earth, and it’s also not my find–my friend, colleague, and sometime co-author Brian Kraatz send me a heads-up about it this morning.
The box turtles clean up nicely
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

Here’s Easty dirty, with a dull-looking shell and a pretty serious ‘tub ring’ of hard-water stains around the crown of her carapace. This shot is a few years old, but she looks about the same now when she’s filthy. But here’s how she cleans up: On Saturday I gave her a good soak in some warm distilled water and scrubbed her shell with a toothbrush. She shined up beautifully.
A JSON File That Knows Its Schema and Context
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

If you provide JSON, either as files or as API responses, you might be one step away from ensuring that anyone encountering that JSON has a portal to what it means. This step is to provide a single extra key-value pair in each JSON document – the key is “@context”, and the value is a URL. JSON-LD is “a JSON-based format to serialize Linked Data.
Towards a catalogue of complete sauropods necks
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

Early in my 2015 preprint on the incompleteness of sauropod necks, I wrote “Unambiguously complete necks are known from published account of only six species of sauropod, two of which are species of the same genus”, and listed them.  Taylor 2015: Figure 3.  W. H. Reed’s diagram of Quarry C near Camp Carnegie on Sheep Creek, in Albany County, Wyoming.
A FAIR Slice
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

I like Cynthia Arnold’s approach to the problem of data discovery for a materials R&D organization. In a podcast episode for Citrine, she says  1  : An inventory, understanding what you have, is all about  finding  . Nothing is accessible yet, just identifiable. She goes on: This is backtracking a FAIR  2  pipeline.
Help me, stats people!
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

I have several small ordered sequences of data, each of about five to ten elements. For each of them, I want to calculate a metric which captures how much they vary along the sequence. I don’t want standard deviation, or anything like it, because that would consider the sequences 1 5 2 7 4 and 1 2 4 5 7 equally variable, whereas for my purposes the first of these is much more variable.
A Continuant-Event Model for Recording Scientific Data
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

The RDF data model is quite flexible: Anybody can say Anything about Any topic (aka the “AAA slogan”). However, I recommend – and describe here – a particular modeling strategy when it comes to entering new facts about research activities into a data management system. Once entered this way, workflows may add additional derived facts to suit the needs of downstream applications.
My new badger skull (work in progress)
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

Last week, while Fiona and I were out walking, we noticed a decaying roadkill badger a bit over half a mile from our house. Yesterday we were out walking again, and we saw that it had decayed to the point where there was not much to the flesh at all. I prodded it with my foot and found that the skull was about ready to come away.
Hey, Mike! Why haven’t you been blogging much lately?
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

Well, one reason is the utterly rancid “block editor” that WordPress has started imposing with increasing insistence on its poor users. If there is one thing that world really doesn’t need, it’s a  completely new  way of writing text. Seriously, WordPress, that was a solved problem in 1984.
How big was the Archbishop?
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

Various Internet rumours have suggested that the Archbishop is a super-giant sauropod one third larger than the mounted  Giraffatitan  specimen MB.R.2181 (formerly HMN SII). This is incorrect.
Reusable Data Attributes
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

Do you repeatedly define the same field/attribute across different classes / entity types? For example, you may have many different entities with an “id”, a “name”, etc. When an attribute “belongs to” an entity, you need to repeatedly register specifications for each (re)definition: it’s a string, it needs to pass these tests to be considered valid, etc. What if attributes were top-level?
John Conway’s BRONTOSMASH!
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

As John himsef admits in the tweet that announced this picture, it’s five years late … but I am prepared to forgive that because IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO BRONTOSMASH! As always, John’s art is not just scientifically accurate, but evocative.
Identifiers Versus Labels
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

Data protocols vary over project lifetimes, and many projects involve parameter sweeps. You might see filesystem directory structures evolve naming schemes like the following  1  : # let's not overthink this at first. concentration_A_0.25/ # hierarchy is good, right? concentration_A/0.25/ # paths are getting too long. conc_A/0.25/ # change to percentages. clever!
Name the journal. Shame the publisher.
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

Here’s an odd thing. Over and over again, when a researcher is mistreated by a journal or publisher, we see them telling their story but redacting the name of the journal or publisher involved. Here are a couple of recent examples. First, Daniel A. González-Padilla’s experience with a journal engaging in flagrant citation-pumping, but which he declines to name: Interesting highlight after rejecting a paper I submitted.
Equatorial Minnesota on Alamosaurus
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

 Figure 3.  BIBE 45854, articulated series of nine mid and posterior cervical vertebrae of a large, osteologically mature  Alamosaurus sanjuanensis  . Series is estimated to represent the sixth to fourteenth cervical vertebrae.  A  , composite photo-mosaic of the cervical series in right lateral view; identification of each vertebra indicated by C6 to C14, respectively.
Can we distinguish taphonomic distortion and (paleo)pathology from normal biological variation?
Authors: Wedel Matt
Published: September 2023

Taylor 2015: Figure 8. Cervical vertebrae 4 (left) and 6 (right) of  Giraffatitan brancai  lectotype MB.R.2180 (previously HMN SI), in posterior view. Note the dramatically different aspect ratios of their cotyles, indicating that extensive and unpredictable crushing has taken place. Photographs by author. Here are cervicals 4 and 8 from MB.R.2180, the big mounted  Giraffatitan  in Berlin.
Tenets of (Scalable) Data Unification
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

 Unification  is a process of combining partial-information structures. First used in computing for theorem proving,  1  it is used widely for  type inference  in programming-language compilers and for logic-programming systems.  Data unification  is described well in this whitepaper by Stonebraker.
The catalogue of complete sauropods necks nears completion
Authors: Taylor Mike
Published: September 2023

A couple of months ago, I asked for your help in compiling a list of all known complete sauropods necks. This has gone really well, and I want to thank everyone who chipped in, and all the various authors I have contacted for details as a result.
When ETL Is a Symptom
Authors: Winston Donny
Published: September 2023

When you have several different applications (e.g. to perform simulations and analyses) that each have their own data model, it’s typical for each to also maintain its own siloed data store. Then, in order to use all the applications in concert to complete a research project, or to support an ongoing research program, you need to run extract-transform-load (ETL) pipelines to sync the data.
A Case Study of Expressions by Type of 'Hand Gesture Language' in Identity Design
Authors:   Art·Design Research Institute of Kyung-Hee University, Jiang Dong Dong , Kim Un Chong
Published: September 2023

Non-verbal communication has gradually developed into an independent discipline since the 1950s, and many scholars are conducting endless research on non-linguistics even now. In fact, research on non-verbal hand gestures in the design field is still insufficient. The headquarters collected and analyzed cases using hand gestures in domestic and international identity design. The meaning was categorized into ritual/evaluation action, request/solicitation action, emotion expression action, information provision action, and instruction action to present the basis for analysis. As a result, the most commonly used gesture in identity design is a gesture with all five fingers outstretched. If the angle and direction of this gesture are different, the meaning of the design appears differently. Nonverbal communication has distinct cultural characteristics, so it shows great differences between countries and peoples, and sometimes even the same form can express contradictory meanings.
BASANT, A Marvellous Polyherbal Formulation that Cures Abnormal Vaginal Discharge Restoring Healthy Vagina, It Prevents Sexually Transmitted Infections such as Gonnorrhoeae, and HIV and eliminates HPV Preventing Carcinoma of Cervix
Authors: Talwar G.P. , C. Gupta Jagdish
Published: September 2023

While working at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, I learnt that a fairly large number of women suffer from abnormal vaginal discharge. Can anything be done to restore a healthy vagina? We developed a Polyherbal formulation employing Curcumin (diferuloyl methane), Aloe vera, purified extracts of Amla (Emblica Officinalis) and Neem (Azadirachta Indica) along with pharmacopially approved excipients. This formulation was named BASANT, which in India is the spring season. Curcumin is an important ingredient of the formulation besides others, and it has yellow hue.
Breast Tumors in Young Women in Cotonou: Diagnosis, Treatment and Prognosis
Authors: Denakpo Justin Lewis
Published: September 2023

Introduction: The high frequency of benign breast tumors in young women and the rarity of cancers but poor prognosis in a context of diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties deserve special attention. Objective: To study the clinical, therapeutic and prognostic aspects of breast tumors treated in Cotonou between 2015 and 2019. Method: This is a cross-sectional study with retrospective data collection on breast tumors treated between 2015 and 2019 in two reference hospitals in Cotonou. All patients aged under 40 treated for breast tumors were studied. The clinical, therapeutic and evolutionary characteristics of breast tumors were analyzed. Results: Breast cancer rate was 5.2% (n=12) versus 94.8% (n=219) for benign tumors. Self-examination was the circumstance of discovery in 81% (n=187) and average medical examination time was 6.4 months. The clinical characteristics in favor of malignancy were: hard consistency in 4.7% (n=16) of cases, irregularity in 25.6% (n=88) of cases, adhesion in 11.3% (n=39) and axillary adenopathy in 10.4% (n=36) of cases. The probability of confirmation of the nature of suspicious tumor on the clinico-radiological level was 3/10. Therapeutic decisions were mostly taken on clinical and radiological arguments. Histology was not systematic. The prognosis was good for benign tumors and bad for breast cancer with a cure rate of 25%. Conclusion: Diagnosis of breast tumors in young women is much more clinical. The absence of a radiotherapy department limits treatment and worsens the prognosis.
Setting Up a Cytology Laboratory for Cervical Cancer Screening in a Developing Country: A One Year’s Early Experience at a Private Facility
Authors: Boaz Mwesigwa , Febian Ngoma , Derrick Bary Abila , Emmanuel Othieno , Warsame Zahra Award
Published: September 2023

Introduction: Widespread cytology-based method of screening such as Pap smear test has significantly led to a reduction in the incidence and mortality associated with cervical cancer in many developed countries. In these countries, facilities needed for early detection of cervical cancer such as cytology laboratories are existent and generally available to their population. In a developing country like Somalia, access to cytology services for cervical cancer screening remains limited and as result majority of patients present with advanced stage disease (stage III & IV) that is too difficult to treat. Intervention: To address this challenge, the management of AL-Zahra Specialty Hospital contracted a cytologist based in Uganda to guide in setting-up of cytology laboratory in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia so as to provide cervical cancer screening and diagnostics services to the population. Other interventions made by the visiting cytologist involved guiding the procurement officer in the purchase of basic equipment, reagents, consumables and training of health care staff. This resulted into conducting 1020 cervical cytological tests over a period of 12months (1st September, 2018 to 30th September 2019). Lesions learnt: In order to increase access to cytology services, we learnt that the federal government of Somalia should consider making cervical cytology (pap smear test) as part of routine screening policy for all sexually active women as part of health care package. An increase in sample volume may be improved through awareness campaigns and conducting community screening activities. Conclusion: ﻿Somalia, a developing country has made great strides towards addressing the limited facilities for cervical cancer screening by using very limited funding. We hope that our experiences shall provide technical guidance & direction to physicians, laboratory managers and investors who wish to establish similar cervical cytology laboratories in an economically constrained low-resource setting.
Sexual and Reproductive Health Service Utilization and Associated Factors among Adolescent and Youth in Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia
Authors: Abera Legesse , Guta Alemu , Fentie Dilnessa
Published: September 2023

Background: adolescents and youth characterized by significant physiological, psychological, and social changes; these were put them at high risk for several sexual and reproductive health problems. Insufficient studies have addressed the burden and risk factors of young people’s sexual and reproductive health services utilization in Ethiopia. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the adolescents and youth sexual and reproductive health service utilization and associated factors in Dire Dawa City Administration, Eastern Ethiopia. Methods: For the quantitative data, community-based cross-sectional study was carried out using multistage sampling technique. Data was collected using pretested interview-administered questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS version 24.0. Binary and multiple logistic regression analysis were done to determine the association between the dependent and independent variables. For the qualitative data, phenomenological study was conducted and thematic analysis was employed. Results: This study revealed that the overall sexual and reproductive health service utilization was found to be 39.5%. Youths’ preference regarding the services majority preferred special service hours designated for adolescents (55.6%), (46.9) preferred a discounted price (43.2%) preferred free service, (37% %) preferred young health providers of the same sex. Having discussion on sexual and reproductive health issues with family, living with partner/friend, convenient service hour, short distance from health facility, having sexual activity within the last 12 months were among the factors associated with sexual and reproductive health services utilization. Conclusion and recommendation: This study revealed that the overall sexual and reproductive health service utilization was found to be low. Considering the physical and psychological changes of adolescents’ the discussion on sexual and reproductive health matters is highly important and expected from every family.
Repeated Induced Abortion and Trends of Contraceptive Utilization
Authors: Wassie Semahegn Tilahun
Published: September 2023

Worldwide more than 227 million women become pregnant each year, and roughly two-thirds of them deliver live infants. The remaining one-third of pregnancies end in miscarriage, stillbirth, or induced abortion. Following this fact, abortion is a sensitive and public health concern with religious, moral, cultural, and political dimensions. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Newsroom report, from 2015 to 2019, an average of 73.3 million induced (safe and unsafe) abortions occurred worldwide each year and approximately 45% of all abortions worldwide were unsafe. There were 39 induced abortions per 1000 women aged between 15–49 years. Risk is greater for women in areas of high fertility because they are pregnant more often and therefore face the risks of pregnancy more often than women in areas of low fertility. Of all the regions in the world, Africa has the highest number of abortion-related deaths, estimated at more than 15,000 in 2017, accounting for 7% of pregnancy-related deaths.
Late Postpartum Pyrexia and Ascites Due to Peritoneal Tuberculosis
Authors: Nayaka Sanjaya Walawe
Published: September 2023

Postpartum pyrexia is a serious condition which associates with increased maternal morbidity and mortality. Even though it is mostly associated with genital tract infections, tuberculosis has to be considered in prolonged pyrexia without any diagnosis due to its increased prevalence and atypical ways of presentation. This is a case of peritoneal tuberculosis presented with post-partum ascites and fever.
Aplasia Cutis Congenita Mimicking as Scalp Birth Injury in a Neonate: Case Report
Authors: Yadav Vidhu , Gothwal Sunil , Choudhary Ramesh
Published: September 2023

Aplasia cutis congenita (ACC) is a rare congenital skin defect. Exact aetiology of ACC is not well understood. Here, we report a case of aplaia cutis congenita mimicking as scalp injury at birth.
Acute Abdomen in Second Trimester Due to Ruptured Bicornuate Uterus
Authors: Nayaka Sanjaya Walawe
Published: September 2023

Acute abdomen in pregnancy is a challenging condition to the physicians due to difficulty in diagnosing and management. Bicornuate uterus (BU) is rare congenital anomalies which can gives arise to various obstetrics complications including uterine rupture even in unscarred uterus, present as acute abdomen. This is a case of acute abdomen in second trimester due to ruptured BU.
Confinement-guided ultrasensitive optical assay with artificial intelligence for disease diagnostics
Authors: Zhang Wenjing , Lu Yongfeng , Su Chenyi , Wang Yibo , Wang Yong-Fei , Zhang Bo , Jiang Cheng , Guo Keying , Xu Chuan
Published: September 2023

The necessity for ultrasensitive detection is becoming increasingly apparent as it plays a pivotal role in disease early diagnostics and health management, particularly when it comes to detecting and monitoring low-abundance biomarkers or precious samples with tiny volumes. In many disease cases, such as cancer, infectious disease, autoimmune disorder, and neurodegenerative disease, low-abundant target biomarkers like circulating tumor cells (CTCs), extracellular vesicle (EV) subpopulations, and post-translational modified proteins (PTMs) are commonly existing and can be served as early indicators of disease onset or progression. However, these biomarkers often exist in ultra-low quantities in body fluids, surpassing the detection limits of conventional diagnostic tools like enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). This leads to the inability to probe disease evolution at a very early stage from molecular pathology perspective. In such regard, ultrasensitive optical assays have emerged as a solution to overcome these limitations and have witnessed significant progress in recent decades. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the recent advancements in ultrasensitive optical detection for disease diagnostics, particularly focusing on the conjunction of confinement within micro-/nano-structures and signal amplification to generate distinguishable optical readouts. The discussion begins with a meticulous evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of these ultra-sensitive optical assays. Then, the spotlight is turned towards the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. The ability of AI to process large volumes of visible reporter signal and clinical data has proven invaluable in identifying unique patterns across multi-center cohort samples. Looking forward, the review underscores future advancements in developing convergent biotechnology (BT) and information technology (IT) toolbox, especially optical biosensors for high-throughput biomarker screening, point-of-care (PoC) testing with appropriate algorithms for their clinical translation are highlighted.
Antaŭparolo: 70 jaroj de CED, kiajn ŝanĝojn alfrontis la mondaj lingvo-problemoj intertempe?
Authors: Fians Guilherme , Schubert Klaus
Published: September 2023

En 1952, CED estis fondita de Ivo Lapenna por antaŭenigi la sciencan studon de Esperanto kaj ties diversaj aplikoj en ĉiuj vivosferoj. La sinteno, kiu tiam orientis CED estis ke la lingva diverseco de la mondo konsistigis barilon kiu malfaciligis internacian komunikadon. Konsekvence, se estis ununura mondlingva problemo, ni klopodu trovi ununuran solvon. Pro tio, la tiama nomo de CED estis Centro de Esploro kaj Dokumentado pri la Monda Lingvo-Problemo, kies ununura lingvo-problemo havus kiel eblan solvon la ampleksan akcepton de Esperanto. Tamen, tiu sinteno ŝanĝiĝis inter interlingvistoj en la 1970-aj jaroj. La kreskanta uzado de hegemoniaj lingvoj (kiel la angla) en internacia komunikado, la sciencoj kaj edukado (inter aliaj spacoj) evidentigis aliajn problemojn, kie ne-denaskaj parolantoj de la koncerna hegemonia lingvo (aŭ denaskaj parolantoj kiu parolis malpli laŭnorman formon de ĝi) suferis lingvan diskriminacion.
Antaŭparolo
Authors: Tonkin Humphrey
Published: September 2023

La tria numero de la nova serio de Esperantologio / Esperanto Studies nun troviĝas antaŭ vi. En sia nova vesto, la revuo estas denove firme establita. Tiu ĉi tria numero proponas entute ses artikolojn kaj du libro-recenzojn kiuj ĉiuj pritraktas, el diversaj vidpunktoj, la lingvon mem: Sabine Fiedler pri angla lingvaj elementoj en Esperanto, Tida Syuntaro pri la rolo de adjektivoj en Esperanto, kaj Wim Jansen kaj Otto Prytz pri vortfarado. Fakte, en siaj artikoloj Fiedler kaj Prytz ambaŭ certagrade traktas pruntadon el la angla. Fiedler prave atentigas pri la lingva konscio kaj lingva estetiko de parolantoj de Esperanto, kiuj certagrade rezistas la enŝteliĝon de fremdlingvaj influoj; sed ne eblas eviti la fakton, ke, ju pli insiste la angla lingvo fariĝas iuspeca universala komunikilo, des pli ofte ĝiaj neologismoj aperos alivestite en Esperanto, kaj des pli malofte oni celos kunmetitajn formojn por esprimi nove aperintajn nociojn. Unu el la plezuroj de Esperanto (kaj sekve ĝia estetiko) estas ĝia lingva manipuleblo. Ni daŭre kreu kaj uzu kunmetitajn formojn, paralele kun la neceso foje formi novajn vortojn por novaj konceptoj. Krom tiuj kvar artikoloj aperas du artikoloj de la redaktoroj de la revuo, en kiuj ni defiis unu la alian difini la intelektan aŭ fakan teritorion de Esperantologio kvazaŭ por krei gvidilon por la estonteco de la revuo. Mia redaktora kolego, la juna fakulo Guilherme Fians, rigardas en la estontecon kaj memorigas nin, ke difi nitaj disciplinoj ofte antaŭeniras per polemikado: fakuloj prenas malsamajn poziciojn, kaj, kvazaŭ kemie, formiĝas nova substanco.
Esperanto kaj lingvistiko: Cent jaroj da (mal)amikeco
Authors: Goodall Grant
Published: September 2023

La rilatoj inter la lingvistiko kaj tiuj kiuj uzas kaj evoluigas helplingvojn kiel Esperanton estis relative amikaj dum la komencaj jaroj, multe malheliĝis dum la postaj jardekoj, kaj nun ŝajne eniras pli kunlaboran kaj esperdonan periodon. En la komencaj jaroj, estis multe da reciproka influo kaj kunlaboro, sed dum la fruaj jardekoj de la 20a jarcento, la sinteno de lingvistoj rilate al Esperanto rapide fariĝis negativa, parte pro la tradiciaj deklaroj de esperantistoj pri sia lingvo kaj parte pro neeviteblaj konfliktoj inter la celoj de la lingvistiko kaj la stato de Esperanto kiel lingvo. Fine de la 20a jarcento, tamen, tiu situacio komencis ŝanĝiĝi, pro ŝanĝoj kaj inter esperantistoj kaj inter lingvistoj. Esperantistoj pli malofte esprimis ideojn pri lingvolernado, pri la logikeco de Esperanto, kaj pri la diverseco de lingvoj en la mondo kiujn lingvistoj trovus ŝoke neakcepteblaj. Intertempe, en la lingvistiko, ideoj pri lingvolernado kaj pri konstruitaj lingvoj maturiĝis tiomgrade ke oni nun povas almenaŭ imagi ke Esperanto iam fariĝos ordinara temo en la esplorkampoj de lingvistiko.
Akademio de Esperanto fronte al novaj taskoj
Authors: Kiselman Christer
Published: September 2023

La Akademio de Esperanto estis fondita en 1905. Laŭ sia nuna statuto ĝi havas 45 membrojn. Ĝi laboras ĉefe en sekcioj. Tiu ĉi artikolo resumas la novajn taskojn kiujn la Akademio frontas kaj donas superrigardon pri aktualaj projektoj.
The Subtext of 'Neŭtraleco': The Dreyfus Affair and the Esperanto Movement
Authors: Haggin Patience
Published: September 2023

Circa 1900 the Esperanto movement was centered in a France polarized by the Dreyfus Affair. The movement’s public documents never mention the Affair. Its leaders spoke of the need to maintain Esperanto’s neutrality on politics and religion in language that carried a subtext of the Affair. Private correspondence among prominent Esperantists reveals their factional split on the Affair and their desire to maintain Esperanto’s broad appeal in France. Their public discussion of neŭtraleco, in coded language, indicates their silence on the Affair was not by unanimous choice. The documents cited in this paper reveal the factional divide and power struggle that motivated the 1907 Ido schism. This research focuses on elite French Esperantists and complements work by historians who have focused on Zamenhof’s thinking. It includes research on Espero Pacifista and Espero Katolika, which few have studied. This research complements other work on L’Espérantiste by focusing on the Affair.