In this book, T. L. Short corrects widespread misconceptions of Peirce's theory of signs and demonstrates its relevance to contemporary analytic philosophy of language, mind and science. Peirce's ...theory of mind, naturalistic but nonreductive, bears on debates of Fodor and Millikan, among others. His theory of inquiry avoids foundationalism and subjectivism, while his account of reference anticipated views of Kripke and Putnam. Peirce's realism falls between 'internal' and 'metaphysical' realism and is more satisfactory than either. His pragmatism is not verificationism; rather, it identifies meaning with potential growth of knowledge. Short distinguishes Peirce's mature theory of signs from his better-known but paradoxical early theory. He develops the mature theory systematically on the basis of Peirce's phenomenological categories and concept of final causation. The latter is distinguished from recent and similar views, such as Brandon's, and is shown to be grounded in forms of explanation adopted in modern science.
Purpose
Early clinical recognition of sepsis can be challenging. With the advancement of machine learning, promising real-time models to predict sepsis have emerged. We assessed their performance by ...carrying out a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Methods
A systematic search was performed in PubMed, Embase.com and Scopus. Studies targeting sepsis, severe sepsis or septic shock in any hospital setting were eligible for inclusion. The index test was any supervised machine learning model for real-time prediction of these conditions. Quality of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology, with a tailored Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) checklist to evaluate risk of bias. Models with a reported area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) metric were meta-analyzed to identify strongest contributors to model performance.
Results
After screening, a total of 28 papers were eligible for synthesis, from which 130 models were extracted. The majority of papers were developed in the intensive care unit (ICU,
n
= 15; 54%), followed by hospital wards (
n
= 7; 25%), the emergency department (ED,
n
= 4; 14%) and all of these settings (
n
= 2; 7%). For the prediction of sepsis, diagnostic test accuracy assessed by the AUROC ranged from 0.68–0.99 in the ICU, to 0.96–0.98 in-hospital and 0.87 to 0.97 in the ED. Varying sepsis definitions limit pooling of the performance across studies. Only three papers clinically implemented models with mixed results. In the multivariate analysis, temperature, lab values, and model type contributed most to model performance.
Conclusion
This systematic review and meta-analysis show that on retrospective data, individual machine learning models can accurately predict sepsis onset ahead of time. Although they present alternatives to traditional scoring systems, between-study heterogeneity limits the assessment of pooled results. Systematic reporting and clinical implementation studies are needed to bridge the gap between bytes and bedside.
The emergence of the SARS‐CoV‐2 strain of the human coronavirus has thrown the world into the midst of a new pandemic. In the human body, the virus causes COVID‐19, a disease characterized by ...shortness of breath, fever, and pneumonia, which can be fatal in vulnerable individuals. SARS‐CoV‐2 has characteristics of past human coronaviruses, with close genomic similarities to SARS‐CoV, the virus that causes the disease SARS. Like these related coronaviruses, SARS‐CoV‐2 is transmitted through the inhalation of droplets and interaction with contaminated surfaces. Across the world, laboratories are developing candidate vaccines for the virus – with vaccine trials underway in the United States and the United Kingdom – and considering various drugs for possible treatments and prophylaxis. Here, we provide an overview of SARS‐CoV‐2 by analyzing its virology, epidemiology, and modes of transmission while examining the current progress of testing procedures and possible treatments through drugs and vaccines.
This review was written for the purpose of educating the public about the scientific aspects of SARS‐CoV‐2 that may be difficult to gather in the media. This review contains background information of SARS‐CoV‐2 as well as other coronaviruses. It also gives an overview of more technical topics, such as the structure of the virus and how scientists are working to create methods for testing, treatment, and further prevention of outbreaks.
A dramatic change in agricultural crops is needed in order to keep pace with the demands of an increasing human population, exponential need for renewable fuels, and uncertain climatic changes. ...Grasses make up the vast majority of agricultural commodities. How these grasses capture, transport, and store carbohydrates underpins all aspects of crop productivity. Sink–source dynamics within the plant direct how much, where, and when carbohydrates are allocated, as well as determine the harvestable tissue. Carbohydrate partitioning can limit the yield capacity of these plants, thus offering a potential target for crop improvement. Grasses have the ability to buffer this sink–source interaction by transiently storing carbohydrates in stem tissue when production from the source is greater than whole-plant demand. These reserves improve yield stability in grain crops by providing an alternative source when photosynthetic capacity is reduced during the later phases of grain filling, or during periods of environmental and biotic stresses. Domesticated grasses such as sugarcane and sweet sorghum have undergone selection for high accumulation of stem carbohydrates, which serve as the primary sources of sugars for human and animal consumption, as well as ethanol production for fuel. With the enormous expectations placed on agricultural production in the near future, research into carbohydrate partitioning in grasses is essential for maintaining and increasing yields in grass crops. This review highlights the current knowledge of non-structural carbohydrate dynamics in grass stems and discusses the impacts of stem reserves in essential agronomic grasses.
We present a new set of leading-twist parton distribution functions, referred to as "CJ15," which take advantage of developments in the theoretical treatment of nuclear corrections as well as new ...data. The analysis includes, for the first time, data on the free neutron structure function from Jefferson Lab and new high-precision charged lepton and W-boson asymmetry data from Fermilab. These significantly reduce the uncertainty on the d/u ratio at large values of x and provide new insights into the partonic structure of bound nucleons.
Crystallographic point defects (PDs) can dramatically decrease the efficiency of optoelectronic semiconductor devices, many of which are based on quantum well (QW) heterostructures. However, ...spatially resolving individual nonradiative PDs buried in such QWs has so far not been demonstrated. Here, using high-resolution cathodoluminescence (CL) and a specific sample design, we spatially resolve, image, and analyze nonradiative PDs in InGaN/GaN QWs at the nanoscale. We identify two different types of PDs by their contrasting behavior with temperature and measure their densities from 1014 cm–3 to as high as 1016 cm–3. Our CL images clearly illustrate the interplay between PDs and carrier dynamics in the well: increasing PD concentration severely limits carrier diffusion lengths, while a higher carrier density suppresses the nonradiative behavior of PDs. The results in this study are readily interpreted directly from CL images and represent a significant advancement in nanoscale PD analysis.
The molecular mechanisms that regulate the rapid transcriptional changes that occur during cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) proliferation and differentiation in response to infection are poorly ...understood. We have utilized ChIP-seq to assess histone H3 methylation dynamics within naive, effector, and memory virus-specific T cells isolated directly ex vivo after influenza A virus infection. Our results show that within naive T cells, codeposition of the permissive H3K4me3 and repressive H3K27me3 modifications is a signature of gene loci associated with gene transcription, replication, and cellular differentiation. Upon differentiation into effector and/or memory CTLs, the majority of these gene loci lose repressive H3K27me3 while retaining the permissive H3K4me3 modification. In contrast, immune-related effector gene promoters within naive T cells lacked the permissive H3K4me3 modification, with acquisition of this modification occurring upon differentiation into effector/memory CTLs. Thus, coordinate transcriptional regulation of CTL genes with related functions is achieved via distinct epigenetic mechanisms.
Display omitted
•Specific H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 patterns identify functionally related CTL genes•Many CTL-specific transcription factors are bivalent for H3K4me3 and H3K27me3•Bivalent loci largely resolve to a permissive signature rapidly after activation•H3K4me2 identifies a subset of rapidly transcribed immune-specific gene loci
It is unclear how changes in genome-wide histone methylation status regulate distinct transcriptional signatures observed in naive, effector, and memory virus-specific cytotoxic lymphocytes. Russ et al. identify key epigenetic signatures that delineate distinct transcriptional programs that underpin CD8+ T cell differentiation during infection.
Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) is one of the most heavily used sequence analysis tools available in the public domain. There is now a wide choice of BLAST algorithms that can be used to ...search many different sequence databases via the BLAST web pages (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/). All the algorithm–database combinations can be executed with default parameters or with customized settings, and the results can be viewed in a variety of ways. A new online resource, the BLAST Program Selection Guide, has been created to assist in the definition of search strategies. This article discusses optimal search strategies and highlights some BLAST features that can make your searches more powerful.
Zoonotic and pandemic influenza continue to pose threats to global public health. Pandemics arise when novel influenza A viruses, derived in whole or in part from animal or avian influenza viruses, ...adapt to transmit efficiently in a human population that has little population immunity to contain its onward transmission. Viruses of previous pandemic concern, such as influenza A(H7N9), arose from influenza A(H9N2) viruses established in domestic poultry acquiring a hemagglutinin and neuraminidase from influenza A viruses of aquatic waterfowl. We report a novel influenza A(H3N8) virus in chicken that has emerged in a similar manner and that has been recently reported to cause zoonotic disease. Although they are H3 subtype, these avian viruses are antigenically distant from contemporary human influenza A(H3N2) viruses, and there is little cross-reactive immunity in the human population. It is essential to heighten surveillance for these avian A(H3N8) viruses in poultry and in humans.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
PDF
