scholarly journals 2-Fluoromalonate Esters: Fluoroaliphatic Building Blocks for the Life Sciences

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 981-992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antal Harsanyi ◽  
Graham Sandford
Keyword(s):  
Life Sciences ◽  
Building Blocks

ChemInform Abstract: 2-Fluoromalonate Esters: Fluoroaliphatic Building Blocks for the Life Sciences

ChemInform ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (40) ◽  
pp. no-no
Author(s):  
Antal Harsanyi ◽  
Graham Sandford
Keyword(s):  
Life Sciences ◽  
Building Blocks

scholarly journals Levels metaphor and building blocks—towards a domain granularity framework for the life sciences

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Life Sciences ◽  
Formal Theory ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Other ◽  
General Domain ◽  
Comprehensive Information ◽  
Initial Basis ◽  
Information Framework

Arranging a heterogeneous collection of entities into a hierarchy of linearly ordered levels (layers or strata) is a general ordering scheme that is a widely used notion for organizing knowledge. On the basis of four specific examples, all of which are relevant in the life sciences, I briefly discuss the diversity of different notions of the underlying levels metaphor. Before I turn to ontology research and Keet's formal theory of granularity, I introduce a specific notion of general building blocks, which gives rise to a hierarchy of levels of building blocks that is intended to function as an organizational backbone for integrating various granular perspectives that are relevant in the life sciences. Each such granular perspective employs its own specific application of the levels metaphor, which is integrated with the other perspectives within a general domain granularity framework for the life sciences. The resulting granularity framework is meant to provide the initial basis on which a desperately required overarching and more comprehensive information framework for the life sciences can be developed.

scholarly journals Levels and building blocks—towards a domain granularity framework for the life sciences

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Life Sciences ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Formal Ontology ◽  
Basic Formal Ontology ◽  
Online Data ◽  
Data Repositories ◽  
Comprehensive Information ◽  
Material Entity ◽  
Information Framework ◽  
Require Data

The use of online data repositories and the establishment of new data standards that require data to be computer-parsable so that algorithms can reason over them have become increasingly important with the emergence of high-throughput technologies, Big Data and eScience. As a consequence, there is an increasing need for new approaches for organizing and structuring data from various sources into integrated hierarchies of levels of entities that facilitate algorithm-based approaches for data exploration, data comparison and analysis. In this paper I contrast various accounts of the level idea and resulting hierarchies published by philosophers and natural scientists with the more formal approaches of theories of granularity published by information scientists and ontology researchers. I discuss the shortcomings of the former and argue that the general theory of granularity proposed by Keet circumvents these problems and allows the integration of various different hierarchies into a domain granularity framework. I introduce the concept of general building blocks, which gives rise to a hierarchy of levels that can be formally characterized by Keet's theory. This hierarchy functions as an organizational backbone for integrating various other hierarchies that I briefly discuss, resulting in a general domain granularity framework for the life sciences. I also discuss the implicit consequences of this granularity framework for the structure of top-level categories of 'material entity' of the Basic Formal Ontology. The here suggested domain granularity framework is meant to provide the basis on which a more comprehensive information framework for the life sciences can be developed.

Animals, Empathy, and Raẖamim in the Study of Religion

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron S. Gross
Keyword(s):  
Building Block ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Ritual ◽  
Present Essay

Both classical and contemporary Jewish texts, surveyed here, articulate a religious opposition to hunting for sport. This essay interprets compassion-based rabbinic opposition to hunting as reflecting a pragmatic concern with cultivating a regard and even a reverence for the capacities of empathy and sympathy. In particular, this “redescription” will analyze the rabbinic opposition to hunting in terms of more basic “building blocks” of religion, specifically empathy and sympathy as defined by the life sciences. I conclude that the most complete way to understand compassion-based rabbinic opposition to hunting is as, simultaneously, a society-forming performance, a symbolic statement about human attitudes towards life, and—the focus of the present essay—a vehicle for responding to the “building block” capacities for empathy and sympathy. A concluding section considers the implications of this case study for religious studies, arguing for the value of considering animals as participants in religious ritual.

scholarly journals Rapid Production and Recovery of Cell Spheroids by Automated Droplet Microfluidics

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Langer ◽  
Haakan N. Joensson
Keyword(s):  
Life Sciences ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Free Cell ◽  
Droplet Microfluidics ◽  
Lead Discovery ◽  
Produce Cell ◽  
Cell Spheroids ◽  
Tissue Constructs ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Robotic Automation

The future of the life sciences is linked to automation and microfluidics. As robots start working side by side with scientists, robotic automation of microfluidics in general, and droplet microfluidics in particular, will significantly extend and accelerate the life sciences. Here, we demonstrate the automation of droplet microfluidics using an inexpensive liquid-handling robot to produce human scaffold-free cell spheroids at high throughput. We use pipette actuation and interface the pipetting tip with a droplet-generating microfluidic device. In this device, we produce highly monodisperse droplets with a diameter coefficient of variation (CV) lower than 2%. By encapsulating cells in these droplets, we produce cell spheroids in droplets and recover them to standard labware containers at a throughput of 85,000 spheroids per microfluidic circuit per hour. The viability of the cells in spheroids remains high throughout the process and decreases by >10% (depending on the cell line used) after a 16 h incubation period in nanoliter droplets and automated recovery. Scaffold-free cell spheroids and 3D tissue constructs recapitulate many aspects of functional human tissue more accurately than 2D or single-cell cultures, but assembly methods for spheroids (e.g., hanging drop microplates) have limited throughput. The increased throughput and decreased cost of our method enable spheroid production at the scale needed for lead discovery drug screening, and approach the cost at which these microtissues could be used as building blocks for organ-scale regenerative medicine.

scholarly journals Levels and building blocks—towards a domain granularity framework for the life sciences

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Life Sciences ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Formal Ontology ◽  
Basic Formal Ontology ◽  
Online Data ◽  
Data Repositories ◽  
Comprehensive Information ◽  
Material Entity ◽  
Information Framework ◽  
Require Data

The use of online data repositories and the establishment of new data standards that require data to be computer-parsable so that algorithms can reason over them have become increasingly important with the emergence of high-throughput technologies, Big Data and eScience. As a consequence, there is an increasing need for new approaches for organizing and structuring data from various sources into integrated hierarchies of levels of entities that facilitate algorithm-based approaches for data exploration, data comparison and analysis. In this paper I contrast various accounts of the level idea and resulting hierarchies published by philosophers and natural scientists with the more formal approaches of theories of granularity published by information scientists and ontology researchers. I discuss the shortcomings of the former and argue that the general theory of granularity proposed by Keet circumvents these problems and allows the integration of various different hierarchies into a domain granularity framework. I introduce the concept of general building blocks, which gives rise to a hierarchy of levels that can be formally characterized by Keet's theory. This hierarchy functions as an organizational backbone for integrating various other hierarchies that I briefly discuss, resulting in a general domain granularity framework for the life sciences. I also discuss the implicit consequences of this granularity framework for the structure of top-level categories of 'material entity' of the Basic Formal Ontology. The here suggested domain granularity framework is meant to provide the basis on which a more comprehensive information framework for the life sciences can be developed.

Photochemical Evolution of Interstellar/Precometary Organic Material

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 23-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis J. Allamandola ◽  
Max P. Bernstein ◽  
Scott A. Sandford
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Complex Species ◽  
Infrared Observations ◽  
Interstellar Ice ◽  
Polycyclic Aromatic ◽  
Ultraviolet Photolysis ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Simple Molecules ◽  
Complex Organic

AbstractInfrared observations, combined with realistic laboratory simulations, have revolutionized our understanding of interstellar ice and dust, the building blocks of comets. Since comets are thought to be a major source of the volatiles on the primative earth, their organic inventory is of central importance to questions concerning the origin of life. Ices in molecular clouds contain the very simple molecules H2O, CH3OH, CO, CO2, CH4, H2, and probably some NH3and H2CO, as well as more complex species including nitriles, ketones, and esters. The evidence for these, as well as carbonrich materials such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), microdiamonds, and amorphous carbon is briefly reviewed. This is followed by a detailed summary of interstellar/precometary ice photochemical evolution based on laboratory studies of realistic polar ice analogs. Ultraviolet photolysis of these ices produces H2, H2CO, CO2, CO, CH4, HCO, and the moderately complex organic molecules: CH3CH2OH (ethanol), HC(= O)NH2(formamide), CH3C(= O)NH2(acetamide), R-CN (nitriles), and hexamethylenetetramine (HMT, C6H12N4), as well as more complex species including polyoxymethylene and related species (POMs), amides, and ketones. The ready formation of these organic species from simple starting mixtures, the ice chemistry that ensues when these ices are mildly warmed, plus the observation that the more complex refractory photoproducts show lipid-like behavior and readily self organize into droplets upon exposure to liquid water suggest that comets may have played an important role in the origin of life.

Laboratory and in-situ analysis of comet dust

1988 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 8-9
Author(s):  
D.E. Brownlee ◽  
A.L. Albee
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Laboratory Study ◽  
Isotopic Analysis ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Sem Analysis ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Cometary Material ◽  
Comet Dust

Comets are primitive, kilometer-sized bodies that formed in the outer regions of the solar system. Composed of ice and dust, comets are generally believed to be relic building blocks of the outer solar system that have been preserved at cryogenic temperatures since the formation of the Sun and planets. The analysis of cometary material is particularly important because the properties of cometary material provide direct information on the processes and environments that formed and influenced solid matter both in the early solar system and in the interstellar environments that preceded it.The first direct analyses of proven comet dust were made during the Soviet and European spacecraft encounters with Comet Halley in 1986. These missions carried time-of-flight mass spectrometers that measured mass spectra of individual micron and smaller particles. The Halley measurements were semi-quantitative but they showed that comet dust is a complex fine-grained mixture of silicates and organic material. A full understanding of comet dust will require detailed morphological, mineralogical, elemental and isotopic analysis at the finest possible scale. Electron microscopy and related microbeam techniques will play key roles in the analysis. The present and future of electron microscopy of comet samples involves laboratory study of micrometeorites collected in the stratosphere, in-situ SEM analysis of particles collected at a comet and laboratory study of samples collected from a comet and returned to the Earth for detailed study.

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