bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Newborn Screening for Sickle Cell Disease in Liberia: A Pilot Study
Authors: Tubman Venée N. , Marshall Roseda , Jallah Wilhemina , Guo Dongjing , Ma Clement , Ohene‐Frempong Kwaku , London Wendy B. , Heeney Matthew M. 
Published: January 2016

BackgroundIn malaria‐endemic countries in West Africa, sickle cell disease (SCD) contributes to childhood mortality. Historically, Liberia had regions wherein hemoglobin S and beta‐thalassemia trait were mutually exclusive. Data on hemoglobinopathies in the Monrovia, the capital, are outdated and do not reflect urban migration. Updating the epidemiology of SCD is necessary to plan a public health and clinical agenda. Neither newborn screening (NBS) nor screening tools were available in country. This pilot study aimed to determine the feasibility of NBS using a South–South partnership and define the incidence of sickle cell trait (SCT) and SCD in Monrovia.ProcedureThis descriptive epidemiologic feasibility study collected dried blood spots from 2,785 consecutive newborns delivered at a hospital in Monrovia. Samples were analyzed by isoelectric focusing at a regional reference laboratory. Infants with SCD were referred for preventive care.ResultsSCT occurred in 10.31% of infants screened. SCD occurred in 33 infants screened [1.19% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.79–1.59%)] (FS: 28/33, FSB: 2/33, FSA: 2/33, FSX: 1/33). There were no infants with FSC phenotype observed. Nonsickling hemoglobin phenotypes “FC” and “F” were each present in three infants screened. Seventy‐six percent of infants with SCD were brought to care, demonstrating the feasibility of our approach.ConclusionsThe incidence of SCD and other hemoglobinopathies remains high in Liberia. Additional studies are needed to clarify sickle genotypes and identify the contribution of silent beta‐thalassemia alleles. By developing regional partnerships, countries similar to Liberia can acquire current data to inform NBS as an important public health initiative toward improving child health.
Comparison of Aortic Collagen Fiber Angle Distribution in Mouse Models of Atherosclerosis Using Second-Harmonic Generation (SHG) Microscopy
Authors: Watson Shana R. , Liu Piaomu , Peña Edsel A. , Sutton Michael A. , Eberth John F. , Lessner Susan M. 
Published: January 2016

AbstractCharacterization of collagen fiber angle distribution throughout the blood vessel wall provides insight into the mechanical behavior of healthy and diseased arteries and their capacity to remodel. Atherosclerotic plaque contributes to the overall mechanical behavior, yet little is known experimentally about how collagen fiber orientation is influenced by atherogenesis. We hypothesized that atherosclerotic lesion development, and the factors contributing to lesion development, leads to a shift in collagen fiber angles within the aorta. Second-harmonic generation microscopy was used to visualize the three-dimensional organization of collagen throughout the aortic wall and to examine structural differences in mice maintained on high-fat Western diet versus age-matched chow diet mice in a model of atherosclerosis. Image analysis was performed on thoracic and abdominal sections of the aorta from each mouse to determine fiber orientation, with the circumferential (0°) and blood flow directions (axial ±90°) as the two reference points. All measurements were used in a multiple regression analysis to determine the factors having a significant influence on mean collagen fiber angle. We found that mean absolute angle of collagen fibers is 43° lower in Western diet mice compared with chow diet mice. Mice on a chow diet have a mean collagen fiber angle of ±63°, whereas mice on a Western diet have a more circumferential fiber orientation (~20°). This apparent shift in absolute angle coincides with the development of extensive aortic atherosclerosis, suggesting that atherosclerotic factors contribute to collagen fiber angle orientation.
Multi-reporter selection for the design of active and more specific zinc-finger nucleases for genome editing
Authors: Oakes Benjamin L. , Xia Danny F. , Rowland Elizabeth F. , Xu Denise J. , Ankoudinova Irina , Borchardt Jennifer S. , Zhang Lei , Li Patrick , Miller Jeffrey C. , Rebar Edward J. , Noyes Marcus B. 
Published: January 2016

AbstractEngineered nucleases have transformed biological research and offer great therapeutic potential by enabling the straightforward modification of desired genomic sequences. While many nuclease platforms have proven functional, all can produce unanticipated off-target lesions and have difficulty discriminating between homologous sequences, limiting their therapeutic application. Here we describe a multi-reporter selection system that allows the screening of large protein libraries to uncover variants able to discriminate between sequences with substantial homology. We have used this system to identify zinc-finger nucleases that exhibit high cleavage activity (up to 60% indels) at their targets within the CCR5 and HBB genes and strong discrimination against homologous sequences within CCR2 and HBD. An unbiased screen for off-target lesions using a novel set of CCR5-targeting nucleases confirms negligible CCR2 activity and demonstrates minimal off-target activity genome wide. This system offers a straightforward approach to generate nucleases that discriminate between similar targets and provide exceptional genome-wide specificity.
Single-Readout High-Density Memristor Crossbar
Authors: Zidan M. A. , Omran H. , Naous R. , Sultan A. , Fahmy H. A. H. , Lu W. D. , Salama K. N. 
Published: January 2016

AbstractHigh-density memristor-crossbar architecture is a very promising technology for future computing systems. The simplicity of the gateless-crossbar structure is both its principal advantage and the source of undesired sneak-paths of current. This parasitic current could consume an enormous amount of energy and ruin the readout process. We introduce new adaptive-threshold readout techniques that utilize the locality and hierarchy properties of the computer-memory system to address the sneak-paths problem. The proposed methods require a single memory access per pixel for an array readout. Besides, the memristive crossbar consumes an order of magnitude less power than state-of-the-art readout techniques.
Light scattering of rectangular slot antennas: parallel magnetic vector vs perpendicular electric vector
Authors: Lee Dukhyung , Kim Dai-Sik 
Published: January 2016

AbstractWe study light scattering off rectangular slot nano antennas on a metal film varying incident polarization and incident angle, to examine which field vector of light is more important: electric vector perpendicular to, versus magnetic vector parallel to the long axis of the rectangle. While vector Babinet’s principle would prefer magnetic field along the long axis for optimizing slot antenna function, convention and intuition most often refer to the electric field perpendicular to it. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that in accordance with vector Babinet’s principle, the incident magnetic vector parallel to the long axis is the dominant component, with the perpendicular incident electric field making a small contribution of the factor of 1/|ε|, the reciprocal of the absolute value of the dielectric constant of the metal, owing to the non-perfectness of metals at optical frequencies.
Targeted pruning of a neuron’s dendritic tree via femtosecond laser dendrotomy
Authors: Go Mary Ann , Choy Julian Min Chiang , Colibaba Alexandru Serban , Redman Stephen , Bachor Hans-A. , Stricker Christian , Daria Vincent Ricardo 
Published: January 2016

AbstractNeurons are classified according to action potential firing in response to current injection. While such firing patterns are shaped by the composition and distribution of ion channels, modelling studies suggest that the geometry of dendritic branches also influences temporal firing patterns. Verifying this link is crucial to understanding how neurons transform their inputs to output but has so far been technically challenging. Here, we investigate branching-dependent firing by pruning the dendritic tree of pyramidal neurons. We use a focused ultrafast laser to achieve highly localized and minimally invasive cutting of dendrites, thus keeping the rest of the dendritic tree intact and the neuron functional. We verify successful dendrotomy via two-photon uncaging of neurotransmitters before and after dendrotomy at sites around the cut region and via biocytin staining. Our results show that significantly altering the dendritic arborisation, such as by severing the apical trunk, enhances excitability in layer V cortical pyramidal neurons as predicted by simulations. This method may be applied to the analysis of specific relationships between dendritic structure and neuronal function. The capacity to dynamically manipulate dendritic topology or isolate inputs from various dendritic domains can provide a fresh perspective on the roles they play in shaping neuronal output.
Theoretical Entities in Statistical Explanation
Authors: Greeno James G. 
Published: January 2016

The ideas in this paper are based on an analysis of statistical explanation that uses the information transmitted by a theory. Consider a theory that specifies a probability distribution on the events of some domain, where for purposes of analysis we divide the variables that describe the domain into two sets: [M], a set of variables whose values are to be explained, and [S], a set of variables whose values are used to explain the values of the variables in [M]. The information transmitted by the theory is(1)where H(S) and H(M) are the uncertainties of the events in [S] and [M], respectively, and H(S x M) is the uncertainty of the joint events.To illustrate this idea, consider the problem of explaining medical symptoms such as fever, coughing, skin rash and abdominal pain.
Comments on Suppes’ Paper: The Essential but Implicit Role of Modal Concepts in Science
Authors: Bressan Aldo 
Published: January 2016

In contrast to his views of some years ago Suppes in now convinced that modal concepts are essential to standard scientific talk. Yet he emphasizes two main points: (1) in a majority of cases the modal concepts remain implicit in that talk, and (2) this logic is scarcely used in either theoretical or experimental analysis of empirical phenomena. Furthermore, in dealing with probability and referring in particular to the sample space, he substantially says that modal concepts are left implicit to eliminate excess baggage.In my opinion the situation emphasized by Suppes and described by him in detail, is quite natural and to be foreseen, up to details: Indeed, first, mathematization is the most important step in the qualitative development of science.
Statistical Explanations
Authors: Fetzer James H. 
Published: January 2016

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic appraisal of the covering law and statistical relevance theories of statistical explanation advanced by Carl G. Hempel and by Wesley C. Salmon, respectively. The analysis is intended to show that the difference between these accounts is in-principle analogous to the distinction between truth and confirmation, where Hempel's analysis applies to what is taken to be the case and Salmon's analysis applies to what is the case. Specifically, it is argued(a)that statistical explanations exhibit the nomic expectability of their explanandum events, which in some cases may be strong but in other cases will not be;(b)that the statistical relevance criterion is more fundamental than the requirement of maximal specificity and should therefore displace it; and,(c)that if statistical explanations are to be envisioned as inductive arguments at all, then only in a qualified sense since, in particular, the requirement of high inductive probability between explanans and explanandum must be abandoned.
Informal Aspects of Theory Reduction
Authors: Hull David L. 
Published: January 2016

The issues which separate the members of this symposium concern the nature of reduction and scientific theories. However, these issues involve primarily informal aspects of theory reduction. But more than this, they concern the nature of philosophy of science itself.Kenneth Schaffner (1967) has set out what he terms a general reduction paradigm, a development of earlier efforts by such philosophers as Ernest Nagel, J. H. Woodger, and Carl Hempel. This model, according to Schaffner, “represents an ideal standard for accomplished reductions, and does not characterize the research programmes of molecular biologists.” Following the lead of his predecessors, Schaffner does not intend for his model of theory reduction to characterize the ongoing process of science (Wimsatt’s rational) but an abstract, formal relation between atemporal rational reconstructions of scientific theories (Wimsatt’s rational).
The Infinite Ballot Box of Nature: De Morgan, Boole, and Jevons on Probability and the Logic of Induction
Authors: Strong John V. 
Published: January 2016

Nature is to us like an infinite ballot box, the contents of which are being continually drawn, ball after ball, and exhibited to us. Science is but the careful observation of the succession in which balls of various character present themselves ([12], p. 150).The project of formulating an account of scientific inference in terms of concepts drawn from probability theory, and based on the programmatic belief that inductive logic (that is, the theory of the principles of inductive reasoning) is the same as probability logic, is one usually associated in our own day with the names of such twentieth-century philosophers of science as John Maynard Keynes, Hans Reichenbach and Rudolf Carnap ([13], [27], [3]).
Sociobiology: Sound Science or Muddled Metaphysics?
Authors: Ruse Michael 
Published: January 2016

The public image of science is that of an enterprise of dispassionate, cool objectivity: something involving sober, emotion-free, white-coated people, as they battle collectively to wrest secrets from the stubborn universe. Nor is this an image entirely unacceptable to scientists themselves. Witness, for example, the great fondness they have for Sir Karl Popper's philosophy of science, with its scenario of men of science ruthlessly discarding favoured brain-children in the face of ugly but falsifying facts. Even biologists avidly swallow and regurgitate this picture, despite the fact that Popper calmly tells them that their most important theory is but a collection of half-baked truisms.However, as historians of science know only too well, much of the actual activity of science descends right down to (metaphorical) bare-knuckle fighting of the most bloody kind.
Scientific Problems and Constraints
Authors: Nickles Thomas 
Published: January 2016

What is the relation between a scientific problem and the constraints on its satisfactory solution? To what extent can problems be identified with (or how far are they determined by) such constraints? What types of constraints are there, and how do the various types function to determine problems and their solutions? I wish to consider these questions in the context of a single historical case, the blackbody radiation problem, 1859-1900. Since only the most condensed treatment of even one historical problem is possible, I select one with a familiar and accessible history (see for details). Despite the historical attention it has received, I know of no philosophical treatment of the blackbody case from a problem oriented viewpoint.More attention to constraints on problem solutions can help philosophers of science in several ways.
Towards a Richer Model of Man: A Critique of Laudan’s Progress and Its Problems
Authors: Westman Robert S. 
Published: January 2016

In setting forth a new theory of the growth of scientific knowledge, Larry Laudan shows that any account of scientific change has consequences for the relationship between the history, philosophy and sociology of science. It is a laudable feature of his work that he does not treat any of these disciplines as undifferentiated monoliths. In fact, one of his main goals is to show that his account of progress requires specific ways of doing and relating these three disciplines. As an historian invited to speak at the Philosophy of Science Association, it seemed appropriate for me to appraise the function of history of science in Laudan’s program. Without going into unnecessary detail, let me begin by examining some of his main claims.The focus of Laudan’s argument is on science construed as a form of problem-solving activity and on progress and rationality as appraisals of problem-solving capabilities.
Some Problems about Solving Problems
Authors: Mellor D.H. 
Published: January 2016

The two other commentators, being, like Professor Laudan, scholars, have commented on the whole of his book. As a mere philosopher, I may perhaps be forgiven if I get little further than the first chapter of Progress and Its Problems.We know that the practice of science increases our knowledge and understanding of things and events, and consequently our capacity to predict and control them. That is why the practice of science interests philosophers who are concerned to say how such knowledge and understanding, such capacity for prediction and control, can be acquired. It challenges them to show why scientific practice should deliver these cognitive goods. Some who decline the challenge, or fail to meet it, may deny that it does deliver the goods; but their conscious practice, of preferring aircraft to broomsticks for flight and telephones to telepathy for communication, belies the sincerity of their denials.
Problem-solving, Research Traditions, and the Development of Scientific Fields
Authors: Frankel Henry 
Published: January 2016

If science is essentially a problem-solving activity, it stands to reason that a good part of the rationale behind the development and growth of new scientific fields (or subfields) is the generation of problem-solutions. I should like to argue that the origin and, especially, the development of new scientific fields is primarily a research procedure for solving existing unsolved problems and generating and solving new unsolved problems. By a scientific field I have in mind the following:A scientific field (F) has the following characteristics: (a) a given subject matter and (b) a data base about the subject matter, at least some of which is puzzling or problematic, (c) a set of problems arising from the puzzling subject matter (internal problems), (d) a set of problems arising from data in another field (applied or external problems), but thought solvable through appeal to the data base of F, (e) a set of techniques for expanding the data base, and (f) a set of theories or solutions to the internal problems.
Scientific Explanation and Norms in Science
Authors: Gruender David 
Published: January 2016

For some thirty years, now, discussions of explanation in science have begun with the theory most clearly articulated by Hempel and Oppenheim (1948). It has been modified, extended, and defended by Hempel with perserverance and patience since then (1965). As a result, it has served as the standard against which competitors strived, and the clarity with which it has been set forth and defended has played a large role in the fecundity of the debate it has aroused.It is not my intention here to attack or defend the theory in any of its versions, but to examine some aspects of the debate as they bear on the development of our concepts of what science is about. For the theory has been, taken by its friends and its enemies to play a dual role: it is, on the one hand, intended to be descriptive of what science does; while, at the same time, it is to serve as a model or ideal of what science ought to strive to be.
Probabilistic Causality and Multiple Causation
Authors: Humphreys Paul 
Published: January 2016

I shall argue in this paper that although much attention has been paid to causal chains and common causes within the literature on probabilistic causality, a primary virtue of that approach is its ability to deal with cases of multiple causation. In doing so I shall try to indicate some ways in which contemporary sine qua non analyses of causation are too narrow Cand ways in which probabilistic causality is not) and refine an argument by Relchenbach designed to provide a basis for the asymmetry of causation.In his contribution to this symposium (Salmon 1981) Professor Salmon has emphasized the central role played by processes and interactions in causality. Whereas his discussion of common causes naturally has a futuristic orientation using causal fans of the type given in Fig. 1.,I shall be rather more backwards-looking and concentrate on the advantages that probabilistic causation possesses for the analysis of multiple causes of the type in Fig. 2.
Niels Bohr on the Unity of Science
Authors: MacKinnon Edward 
Published: January 2016

When the Unity of Science movement organized, Niels Bohr was listed as the first member of the Advisory Committee. He contributed a one page paper to Volume One of the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science (Bohr 1938). This paper stressed, but did not explain, the idea that to bring out the proper unity of science it is necessary to analyze the presuppositions underlying the unambiguous application of even our most elementary concepts. Since this rather trivial paper was the only contribution to the movement Bohr made, he might seem to have little interest in the unity of science.The opposite was the case. Bohr thought that his explanation of the unity proper to physics was one of his most basic, and certainly his most misunderstood, contributions to science. Yet, he thought that he never succeeded in making his position intelligible to professional philosophers.
Similarities and Differences between Evolutionary Theory and the Theories of Physics
Authors: Williams Mary B. 
Published: January 2016

In the 1950's and 60's there arose a plethora of claims that the structure of evolutionary theory was intrinsically different from the structures of the theories of physics—and thus from the structure that philosophers of science claimed to be the structure of scientific theories. There were claims:1)that evolutionary theory had no laws (Smart 1963);2)that evolutionary concepts were so peculiar that their definitions violated the ordinary standards for definitions (Beckner 1959);3)that evolutionary theory was not axiomatizable (Beckner 1959);4)that evolutionary theory made no falsifiable predictions (Scriven 1959, Manser 1965, Smart 1963);5)that evolutionary biology relied on teleological explanations which violated the deductive-nomological explanation form (Hempel 1965); and6)that evolutionary biology made significant use of narrative explanations which also violated the deductive-nomological explanation form (Goudge 1961)
Technology and Value Theory
Authors: Smith Carol Ann 
Published: January 2016

I begin this paper by surveying the kinds of questions that arise in the emerging field of Technology and Society Studies. This survey leads me to ask if the area of value theory is sufficiently well-developed to sustain intelligent and critical discussion of the value issues in this field. I note that philosophers have had little to say about the kinds of value questions that arise and, in the remainder of the paper, I argue that what little there is has often got off on the wrong foot — either because of assumptions that are wrong-headed or because the approach is question-begging for some of the central value issues.While the field of Technology and Society Studies is as yet rather ill-defined, a perusal of the literature and the course descriptions suggests the categorization that follows.