Contributions from the Bermuda Biological Station for Research.

Title varies slightly.

Science progress.

"A review journal of current scientific advance."

Estudos sobre o comportamento do consumidor na SciELO

Los estudios de comportamiento de los consumidores han llamado la atención de investigadores de diferentes países, de diversas áreas de especialización y con objetivos variados. Este artículo es un estudio bibliométrico interdisciplinario sobre el comportamiento del consumidor en el contexto internacional (países de Iberoamérica y África del Sur) de la plataforma SciELO (ScientificElectronic Library Online). Mediante el análisis de una muestra conformada por 153 artículos, se observó que las ciencias sociales y las humanidades aplicadas son las áreas de investigación que aportan mayor cantidad de trabajos, con un predominio de las ciencias de la administración. Asimismo, se constató que la mayor parte de los aportes son de carácter empírico y proceden universidades.

Las normativas del CONICET y la UNLP sobre la mención de la afiliación institucional en las publicaciones científicas. Problemas recurrentes y nuevas tensiones en el sistema científico y tecnológico argentino

Recientes normativas sobre el contenido y forma de mencionarla afiliación institucional de los investigadores de dos de las principales instituciones públicas de investigación de Argentina (la Universidad Nacional de La Plata y el Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas) obligan a reflexionar sobre problemas recurrentes y nuevas tensiones en torno a las relaciones institucionales del sistema científico-tecnológico argentino. Los objetivos de esta contribución son: 1) analizar las normativas de ambas instituciones; 2) señalar sus principales virtudes y falencias; y 3) alertar sobre los peligros de promulgar reglamentaciones no consensuadas. Las diferentes y hasta contradictorias normativas referidas a cómo los científicos deben registrar su afiliación institucional en las publicaciones están basadas en miradas aisladas, que colocan a numerosos investigadores con doble dependencia institucional en una encrucijada cuando deben cumplirlas. Los ejemplos analizados exponen la falta de coordinación inter-institucional y la necesidad de tener una mirada que contémplelas relaciones de cooperación nacional, regional e internacional en un escenario científico y tecnológico cada vez más globalizado. No parece razonable promulgar normativas que pongan a las instituciones estatales en una suerte de competencia por apropiarse de la producción científica de los investigadores, canibalizándose unas a otras. A contramano de la historia y del espíritu de colaboración que ha primado dentro del sistema argentino de ciencia y tecnología, estas visiones sesgadas ponen en serio riesgo el lugar privilegiado que ha logrado la Argentina entre los principales países productores de ciencia de América Latina, así como el reconocimiento internacional de sus instituciones científico-tecnológicas

Receptor binding studies disclose a novel class of high-affinity inhibitors of the Escherichia coli FimH adhesin

Mannose-binding type 1 pili are important virulence factors for the establishment of Escherichia coli urinary tract infections (UTIs). These infections are initiated by adhesion of uropathogenic E. coli to uroplakin receptors in the uroepithelium via the FimH adhesin located at the tips of type 1 pili. Blocking of bacterial adhesion is able to prevent infection. Here, we provide for the first time binding data of the molecular events underlying type 1 fimbrial adherence, by crystallographic analyses of the FimH receptor binding domains from a uropathogenic and a K-12 strain, and affinity measurements with mannose, common mono- and disaccharides, and a series of alkyl and aryl mannosides. Our results illustrate that the lectin domain of the FimH adhesin is a stable and functional entity and that an exogenous butyl alpha- D-mannoside, bound in the crystal structures, exhibits a significantly better affinity for FimH (K-d = 0.15 muM) than mannose (K-d = 2.3 muM). Exploration of the binding affinities of alpha-D-mannosides with longer alkyl tails revealed affinities up to 5 nM. Aryl mannosides and fructose can also bind with high affinities to the FimH lectin domain, with a 100-fold improvement and 15-fold reduction in affinity, respectively, compared with mannose. Taken together, these relative FimH affinities correlate exceptionally well with the relative concentrations of the same glycans needed for the inhibition of adherence of type 1 piliated E. coli. We foresee that our findings will spark new ideas and initiatives for the development of UTI vaccines and anti-adhesive drugs to prevent anticipated and recurrent UTIs.

Managing change and time in dynamic workflow processes

Business environments have become exceedingly dynamic and competitive in recent times. This dynamism is manifested in the form of changing process requirements and time constraints. Workflow technology is currently one of the most promising fields of research in business process automation. However, workflow systems to date do not provide the flexibility necessary to support the dynamic nature of business processes. In this paper we primarily discuss the issues and challenges related to managing change and time in workflows representing dynamic business processes. We also present an analysis of workflow modifications and provide feasibility considerations for the automation of this process.

Chronology

In this chronological table of the ‘long’ eighteenth century I have sought to place scientific publications in the context of their cultural milieu. I have purposefully omitted birth and death dates of the great figures of the eighteenth century in preference for the dates when their most significant publications and/or other contributions appeared.

Analysis of the intraocular pressure pulse

This thesis was concerned with investigating methods of improving the IOP pulse’s potential as a measure of clinical utility. There were three principal sections to the work. 1. Optimisation of measurement and analysis of the IOP pulse. A literature review, covering the years 1960 – 2002 and other relevant scientific publications, provided a knowledge base on the IOP pulse. Initial studies investigated suitable instrumentation and measurement techniques. Fourier transformation was identified as a promising method of analysing the IOP pulse and this technique was developed. 2. Investigation of ocular and systemic variables that affect IOP pulse measurements In order to recognise clinically important changes in IOP pulse measurement, studies were performed to identify influencing factors. Fourier analysis was tested against traditional parameters in order to assess its ability to detect differences in IOP pulse. In addition, it had been speculated that the waveform components of the IOP pulse contained vascular characteristic analogous to those components found in arterial pulse waves. Validation studies to test this hypothesis were attempted. 3. The nature of the intraocular pressure pulse in health and disease and its relation to systemic cardiovascular variables. Fourier analysis and traditional parameters were applied to the IOP pulse measurements taken on diseased and healthy eyes. Only the derived parameter, pulsatile ocular blood flow (POBF) detected differences in diseased groups. The use of an ocular pressure-volume relationship may have improved the POBF measure’s variance in comparison to the measurement of the pulse’s amplitude or Fourier components. Finally, the importance of the driving force of pulsatile blood flow, the arterial pressure pulse, is highlighted. A method of combining the measurements of pulsatile blood flow and pulsatile blood pressure to create a measure of ocular vascular impedance is described along with its advantages for future studies.

Why Most Biomedical Findings Echoed by Newspapers Turn Out to be False: The Case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Context: Because positive biomedical observations are more often published than those reporting no effect, initial observations are often refuted or attenuated by subsequent studies. Objective: To determine whether newspapers preferentially report on initial findings and whether they also report on subsequent studies. Methods: We focused on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Using Factiva and PubMed databases, we identified 47 scientific publications on ADHD published in the 1990s and soon echoed by 347 newspapers articles. We selected the ten most echoed publications and collected all their relevant subsequent studies until 2011. We checked whether findings reported in each ‘‘top 10’’ publication were consistent with previous and subsequent observations. We also compared the newspaper coverage of the ‘‘top 10’’ publications to that of their related scientific studies. Results: Seven of the ‘‘top 10’’ publications were initial studies and the conclusions in six of them were either refuted or strongly attenuated subsequently. The seventh was not confirmed or refuted, but its main conclusion appears unlikely. Among the three ‘‘top 10’’ that were not initial studies, two were confirmed subsequently and the third was attenuated. The newspaper coverage of the ‘‘top 10’’ publications (223 articles) was much larger than that of the 67 related studies (57 articles). Moreover, only one of the latter newspaper articles reported that the corresponding ‘‘top 10’’ finding had been attenuated. The average impact factor of the scientific journals publishing studies echoed by newspapers (17.1 n = 56) was higher (p,0.0001) than that corresponding to related publications that were not echoed (6.4 n = 56). Conclusion: Because newspapers preferentially echo initial ADHD findings appearing in prominent journals, they report on uncertain findings that are often refuted or attenuated by subsequent studies. If this media reporting bias generalizes to health sciences, it represents a major cause of distortion in health science communication.

Documentation of glaciers and mountain chains in the Nordvestfjord of Scorsby Sound (East Greenland, July 2016) by landscape photography during Maria S. Merian cruise MSM56

From the 12th until the 17th of July 2016, research vessel Maria S. Merian entered the Nordvestfjord of Scorsby Sound (East Greenland) as part of research cruise MSM56, "Ecological chemistry in Arctic fjords". A large variety of chemical and biological parameters of fjord and meltwater were measured during this cruise to characterize biogeochemical fluxes in arctic fjords. The photo documentation described here was a side project. It was started when we were close to the Daugaard-Jensen glacier at the end of the Nordvestfjord and realized that not many people have seen this area before and photos available for scientists are probably rare. These pictures shall help to document climate and landscape changes in a remote area of East Greenland. Pictures were taken with a Panasonic Lumix G6 equipped with either a 14-42 or 45-150 objective (zoom factor available in jpg metadata). Polarizer filters were used on both objectives. The time between taking the pictures and writing down the coordinates was maximally one minute but usually shorter. The uncertainty in position is therefore small as we were steaming slowly most of the time the pictures were taken (i.e. below 5 knots). I assume the uncertainty is in most cases below 200 m radius of the noted position. I did not check the direction I directed the camera to with a compass at the beginning. Hence, the direction that was noted is an approximation based on the navigation map and the positioning of the ship. The uncertainty was probably around +/- 40° but initially (pictures 1-17) perhaps even higher as this documentation was a spontaneous idea and it took some time to get the orientation right. It should be easy, however, to find the location of the mountains and glaciers when being on the respective positions because the mountains have a quite characteristic shape. In a later stage of this documentation, I took pictures from the bridge and used the gyros to approximate the direction the camera was pointed at. Here the uncertainty was much lower (i.e. +/- 20° or better). Directions approximated with the help of gyros have degree values in the overview table. The ship data provided in the MSM56 cruise report will contain all kinds of sensor data from Maria S. Merian sensor setup. This data can also be used to further constrain the position the pictures were taken because the exact time a photo was shot is noted in the metadata of the .jpg photo file. The shipboard clock was set on UTC. It was 57 minutes and 45 seconds behind the time in the camera. For example 12:57:45 on the camera was 12:00:00 UTC on the ship. All pictures provided here can be used for scientific purposes. In case of usage in presentations etc. please acknowledge RV Maria S. Merian (MSM56) and Lennart T. Bach as author. Please inform me and ask for reprint permission in case you want to use the pictures for scientific publications. I would like to thank all participants and the crew of Maria S. Merian Cruise 56 (MSM56, Ecological chemistry in Arctic fjords).