scholarly journals Spirals, Scalp Whorls and Skin Biomechanics: Nature’s Own Design For Expansion

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharad P. Paul

AbstractThis paper began as an exercise in curiosity – logarithmic spiral designs abound in nature ‐‐ in galaxies, flowers, pinecones and on human scalps as whorls. Why are humans the only primates to have whorls on the scalp? Is the formation of scalp whorls mechanical or genetic? A mechanical theory has long been postulated– the mechanical theory suggests that hair whorl patterning is determined by the tension on the epidermis during rapid expansion of the cranium while the hair follicle is growing downwards – however, this has never before been experimentally proven conclusively. We found, that under certain conditions, we were able to experimentally recreate spirals on the scalp to demonstrate that the basis of scalp whorls is indeed mechanical – and that logarithmic spirals are indeed nature’s own design for rapid expansion of organic tissues. Given our experiments only created whorls when certain conditions were satisfied (and not in others), they have given us great insight into the mechanical formation of skin whorls and the physiology of skin stretch. We believe that these findings will lead to many more advances in understanding skin dynamics and indeed the behavior of any living tissue when confronted by stretch. As a corollary, the application of the results of these studies have led us to the discovery of a new surgical technique for closure of scalp defects using the golden spiral pattern, and this will be the subject of a separate paper.

Author(s):  
Hannah Lee

This paper is the attempt to show how system theory could provide critical insight into the transdisciplinary field of library and information sciences (LIS). It begins with a discussion on the categorization of library and information sciences as an academic and professional field (or rather, the lack of evidence on the subject) and what is exactly meant by system theory, drawing upon the general system theory established by Ludwig von Bertalanffy. The main conversation of this paper focuses on the inadequacies of current meta-level discussions of LIS and the benefits of general system theory (particularly when considering the exponential rapidity in which information travels) with LIS.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsair-Wei Chien ◽  
Hsien-Yi Wang ◽  
Yang Shao ◽  
Willy Chou

BACKGROUND Researchers often spend a great deal of time and effort retrieving related journals for their studies and submissions. Authors often designate one article and then retrieve other articles that are related to the given one using PubMed’s service for finding cited-by or similar articles. However, to date, none present the association between cited-by and similar journals related to a given journal. Authors need one effective and efficient way to find related journals on the topic of mobile health research. OBJECTIVE This study aims (1) to show the related journals for a given journal by both cited-by and similarity criteria; (2) to present the association between cited-by and similarity journals related to a given journal; (3) to inspect the patterns of network density indices among clusters classified by social network analysis (SNA); (4) to investigate the feature of Kendall's coefficient(W) of concordance. METHODS We obtained 676 abstracts since 2013 from Medline based on the keywords of ("JMIR mHealth and uHealth"[Journal]) on June 30, 2018, and plotted the clusters of related journals on Google Maps by using MS Excel modules. The features of network density indices were examined. The Kendall coefficient (W) was used to assess the concordance of clusters across indices. RESULTS This study found that (1) the journals related to JMIR mHealth and uHealth are easily presented on dashboards; (2) a mild association(=0.14) exists between cited-by and similar journals related to JMIR mHealth and uHealth; (3) the median Impact Factor were 3.37 and 2.183 based on the representatives of top ten clusters grouped by the cited-by and similar journals, respectively; (4) all Kendall’s coefficients(i.e., 0.82, 0.89, 0.92, and 0.75) for the four sets of density centrality have a statistically significant concordance (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS SNA provides deep insight into the relationships of related journals to a given journal. The results of this research can provide readers with a knowledge and concept diagram to use with future submissions to a given journal in the subject category of Mobile Health Research. CLINICALTRIAL Not available


2021 ◽  
pp. 097226292098394
Author(s):  
Kannan Perumal

The work ‘Corruption Measurements: Caught Between Conceptualizing the Phenomenon and Promoting New Governance Agenda?’ is a qualitative study based on reviewing the literature available on the subject. It starts with the introduction that explains the evolution of the idea of measuring corruption, its relevance to governance and associated theoretical issues. The topic, ‘Evolution of Corruption Measurements’ gives an overview about different corruption indices. While the topic ‘Challenges to Corruption Measurements’ briefly introduces the challenges faced by corruption measurements, the topics ‘Conceptualizing Corruption’ and ‘Methodological Issues’ give insight into the contentions faced by corruption measurements from different theoretical perspectives. Also, explained in these sections are how the corruption measurements have conceptualized corruption over the period of three decades; and how do they keep evolving their methods in order to become more relevant in policy advocacy. Issues associated with data aggregation also are explained in-depth in this work. This work demonstrates that though continuous methodological evolution and empirical research have helped corruption measurements to improve their acceptance level, the gap that exist between corruption control framework and practice will remain a challenge to address in future if corruption measurements do not genuinely account the contextual realities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Iliadis ◽  
Imogen Richards ◽  
Mark A Wood

‘Newsmaking criminology’, as described by Barak, is the process by which criminologists contribute to the generation of ‘newsworthy’ media content about crime and justice, often through their engagement with broadcast and other news media. While newsmaking criminological practices have been the subject of detailed practitioner testimonials and theoretical treatise, there has been scarce empirical research on newsmaking criminology, particularly in relation to countries outside of the United States and United Kingdom. To illuminate the state of play of newsmaking criminology in Australia and New Zealand, in this paper we analyse findings from 116 survey responses and nine interviews with criminologists working in universities in these two countries, which provide insight into the extent and nature of their news media engagement, and their related perceptions. Our findings indicate that most criminologists working in Australia or New Zealand have made at least one news media appearance in the past two years, and the majority of respondents view news media engagement as a professional ‘duty’. Participants also identified key political, ethical, and logistical issues relevant to their news media engagement, with several expressing a view that radio and television interviewers can influence criminologists to say things that they deem ‘newsworthy’.


Author(s):  
Gábor Sulyok

AbstractThe history of the breach of treaties can be traced back to the ancient Near East. The relative abundance and diversity of contemporary sources attest that the breaking of treaty obligations must have been a rather persistent problem, and that such occurrences were regarded as events of utmost importance throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. The present study strives to demonstrate how peoples of old may have perceived and reacted to the breach of treaties on the basis of selected writings—the Legend of Etana, the Indictment of Madduwatta, the Indictment of Mita, the plague prayers of Mursili and the Old Testament—that provide, beyond the exposition of actual or alleged facts, a deeper insight into the psychological and procedural aspects of the subject.


2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (9) ◽  
pp. 801-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.W. Hart ◽  
K. Medger ◽  
B. van Jaarsveld ◽  
N.C. Bennett

African mole-rats have provided great insight into mammalian evolution of sociality and reproductive strategy. However, some species have not received attention, and these may provide further insights into these evolutionary questions. The cooperatively breeding Mahali mole-rat (Cryptomys hottentotus mahali (Roberts, 1913)) is one such species. Body mass, reproductive-tract morphometrics, gonad histology, and plasma reproductive hormone concentrations were studied for breeding and non-breeding males and females over 1 year. This study aimed to discern if this species exhibits a seasonal or aseasonal breeding pattern and whether there is a relaxation of reproductive suppression at any point in the year in non-breeding animals. The pattern of reproductive relaxation during the wetter months is similar to other African mole-rat species. Interestingly, births and pregnant breeding females were recorded throughout the year, thus indicating an aseasonal breeding strategy, despite inhabiting a region that experiences seasonal rainfall. However, there were periods of the year favouring increased reproduction to enable an increased likelihood of offspring survival. This suggests that the Mahali mole-rat may be an opportunistic breeder possibly brought about by the benefits of living in a cooperatively breeding group and potentially moving into more arid environments that were previously unexploited by the genus Cryptomys Gray, 1864.


1987 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 32-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
K T V Grattan

The subject area of fibre optic sensing is one in which there has been shown a very rapid expansion of interest over the last few years. Many novel techniques are appearing in the literature and some products are available to the industrial user. The background to fibre optic means of temperature sensing and some recent developments will be reviewed in this paper.


In examining the air cells of the lungs of a hare that had been coursed, the author found the superficial large cells filled with colourless coagulable lymph, forming white specks, and the smaller, more interior ones filled with coagula of red blood. No such appearance was seen in the lungs of hares, snared or shot. A run of fifteen minutes with greyhounds so exhausts the hare, that it is frequently known to die from over exertion before the dogs are able to reach it. To examine the state of the lungs, in which the white specks were seen, they were injected with mercury through the bronchiæ, and then immersed in rectified spirits to prevent them from collapsing, and in this state examined microscopically and drawn by Mr. Bauer. The drawings accompany the paper. The white specks appear to be portions of coagulable lymph, separated from the circulating blood in consequence of its disturbed state, and the author considers them as giving great insight into the nature of that destructive disease called tubercles in the lungs; and in support of this idea quotes Dr. Baillie’s description, and refers to his plates of them in his Morbid Anatomy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 397-421
Author(s):  
Matko Matija Marušić

The paper discusses a group of monumental crucifixes from the 13th-century East Adriatic and Italy, pained or executed in low relief, that display a verse inscriptions on the transverse limb of the cross. The main scope of the paper is to examine the provenance of the text inscribed in order to yield clearer insight into their function, use and original location in the church interiors. The paper specifically aims at analyzing three monumental crucifixes from the East-Adriatic city of Zadar which, although have already been the subject of a respectable number of studies, have not attracted attention as objects of devotion. My interest, therefore, is turned towards verse inscription as their distinctive feature and, as I shall argue, a key aspect in understanding their function. Examining the nature of the text displayed, iconography and materiality of these crucifixes, my main argument is to demonstrate how these objects provoked a multi-faced response from their audience, since were experienced by seeing, hearing and touching respectively.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrycja Rojek

Rojek Patrycja, Konkretyzacja estetyczna w Zwierzętach nocy (2016) Toma Forda [Aesthetic Concretization in Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals (2016)]. „Przestrzenie Teorii” 32. Poznań 2019, Adam Mickiewicz University Press, pp. 401–416. ISSN 1644-6763. DOI 10.14746/pt.2019.32.22. The subject of Austin Wright’s novel Tony and Susan (published in 1993) is the reader’s experience. The peculiar relationship that forms between the main female character - a reader of literary fiction – and the novel itself as well as its author, inspired in 2016 Tom Ford to capture the specifics of the same relationships using the language of moving images. This article presents the effects of studying the complex system of communication situations occurring in the novel and its film adaptation: each of them contains an additional story around which further author-reader relationships are formed. The analysis shows that a significant part of the film’s plot is not a direct insight into the novel, but its concretization projected by a female protagonist. Tom Ford’s film is therefore considered in relation to Roman Ingarden’s theory on aesthetic concretization.


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