#PhD Research topic in Digital Image Processing

[jcmarchi]

Breakthrough to Circular and Emission-Free Building - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/breakthrough-to-circular-and-emission-free-building-technology-org/

Breakthrough to Circular and Emission-Free Building - Technology Org

The building industry faces enormous challenges. By 2050, the built environment must not only be emission-free, but also circular.

Within the NWA programme titled ‘Transition to a circular and emission-free building industry’, UT is contributing to research to facilitate the transition required to meet these challenges. UT researcher Marc van den Berg (Faculty of Engineering Technology) and colleagues are focusing on the digital aspects of supporting material reuse and recycling processes as part of this research.

Building – illustrative photo. Image credit: Pixabay (Free Pixabay license)

Renovation projects are complex challenges characterised by intensive decision-making and organisational activities. Such projects connect a variety of otherwise fragmented disciplines, including designers, builders and demolition companies.

Crucial for fostering more circular renovation practices with lower emissions is the availability of information on reusable materials and design strategies which factor in the preservation of existing value.

Collaborative, Digitised and Integral Processes to Achieve Circular and Emission-Free Renovation (PACER)

The PACER (Collaborative, Digitised and Integral Processes to Achieve Circular and Emission-Free Renovation) project, in which UT is represented, aims to provide collaborative, digitised, integral processes, tools, and legal and economic frameworks to achieve circular and emission-free renovation practices.

Dutch Research Agenda (NWA)

This programme of the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA) focuses on existing buildings and invites interdisciplinary consortia to investigate how buildings can be renovated in a circular and emission-free manner by studying a concrete case at the street or neighbourhood level. Societal and technical perspectives of circular and emission-free construction are jointly included.

Transition of the construction sector

The aim of the thematic NWA programme titled ‘Transition to a circular and emission-free building industry’ is to achieve breakthroughs and develop action perspectives that contribute to the transition of the building industry, primarily in relation to renovation projects. The NWA programme is organised in association with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, NWO and the Taskforce for Applied Research SIA.

Within the NWA programme, two broad multidisciplinary consortia will spend the next five years carrying out research to advance the transition to circular and emission-free building, with significant involvement of professional experts in the sector. The total funding awarded under the programme is approximately €2,865,000.

Read also the press release accompanying Marc van den Berg’s PhD research titled: ‘UT provides tools for circular demolition and design of buildings (utwente.nl)’

Source: University of Twente

You can offer your link to a page which is relevant to the topic of this post.

[derbysilkmill]

The Interlace Project - What is it and meet the volunteers

On the 15th of February this year I sat in on a workshop held at the Museum and Art Gallery as part of the Interlace Project. With the buzz of Pangolin Day happening in the World Collections gallery, I got to see a small group of museum volunteers getting to grips with the weaving work they were undertaking as part of the project, which will eventually form an art installation to go into the new Museum of Making. This was being led by artist Toni Buckby and museum volunteer Ruth Winterbottom. Scroll further down to find out more about the wonderful volunteers involved.

More recently I had the pleasure of talking again with Toni, and asked her some more in-depth questions about Interlace.

Please introduce yourself.

“My name is Toni Buckby and I'm an artist and PhD researcher based in Sheffield. My work spans the seemingly diverse but oddly related fields of textiles, electronics and computer art. I specialise in hand embroidery, with a particular focus on the 16th Century technique of blackwork, and the creation of experimental interactive electronics. I also spin, weave, draw, code, laser cut, 3D print... I spend most of my time attempting to get impractical ideas to function! I love to collaborate, so I often work with other artists on projects, as well as running public workshops and making a lot of my work available online for others to use. I see a parallel between the making of textiles and the making of digital work – both are logical processes of building complex structures through simple components. There is certainly a conceptual similarity, but I also create hybrid works, like embedding electronics into fabric or creating computer simulations based on textile techniques. I’m quite playful in my approach to my work – I take great delight in mashing (often disparate) materials and ideas together to see what happens - it’s why I like to collaborate so much. There's joy in the attempt to get something working (or not!).”

Image: Toni introducing museum volunteers to the bare cocoon bodies they will be weaving onto

Image: The wooden structures are modelled on silk moth cocoons, these being intrinsic to the silk weaving that took place at the Museum of Making site during the 18th Century. ©Toni Buckby

What is the Interlace Project?

“The Interlace Project began in 2017, when I was invited by Derby Museums to design and produce simple weaving looms that could be manufactured in the maker space at The Silk Mill. All the loom designs and instructions for how to use them were made available for free online (click here), and I've also run many public workshops in the basics of weaving using the looms. Inspired by the building's history as a silk spinning mill, I have now designed a large interactive textile sculpture, which is being made in collaboration with museum volunteers. The sculpture consists of nine woven silk moth cocoon shapes that have fibre optic light strands running through them; all being made by museum volunteer Ruth Winterbottom and her team of amazingly skilled volunteer weavers. The pattern of the lights will be programmed by visitors using punch cards (similar to the ones that were used to create weaving patterns on Jacquard looms in the 19th Century), and the colours will be controlled by touching small woven panels, a mixture of different fibres plus rows of conductive metal thread, that have been made by over 100 volunteers during several group workshops.”

Image: An early cardboard mock-up gives an indication of what the installation will look like. ©Toni Buckby

Image: An example of the fabric and metal touch panels that will form the interactive controls for the installation. ©Toni Buckby

What drew you towards wanting to work with Derby Museums and the Museum of Making?

“Two of my key interests as an artist are showing and sharing the processes of making. I love the fact that Derby’s Museum of Making will celebrate manufacturing processes as well as getting people involved through its events, workshops, volunteer programme and maker space. I've met so many brilliant, enthusiastic people over the course of developing The Interlace Project and it's been a real pleasure working with an organisation that has such similar interests.”

Are there any thoughts or feelings you would like Interlace to provoke?

“I think, firstly, I hope visitors to the museum will be delighted by the piece - it's very playful! Secondly, I hope that people will take the time to appreciate the effort and skill of the volunteers who have made the work. I've been genuinely blown away by the quality and creativity of all those who have contributed so far - both the experienced weavers and those who had never woven before getting involved in the project. Everyone should be immensely proud of their work!”

Image: One of the cocoons approaching completion, fibre-optic and organic threads interspersed

Image: An example cocoon with the fibres illuminated. ©Toni Buckby

How will people be able to get involved with the project?

“Visitors to the museum will be able to interact with the sculptural installation by programming the light patterns and colours. Additionally, the online resources (designs and instructions) are available on the projects Instructables site, if people would like to have a go at weaving themselves. Finally, as the interactive woven panels are going to need to be replaced every few months, we are also (hopefully) going to have more workshops in future where people can have a go at weaving their own panel, which will then become (temporally) part of the installation”.

It will be very exciting to see this artwork in action when it takes its place in the Museum of Making, and to see how it will very physically link the first use of Derby’s Silk Mill as a factory with it’s new iteration as the Museum of Making, showcasing our regions industrial heritage and innovative future.

Check back for more posts from Oliver!

Interlace Volunteer Responses

We asked some of our wonderful volunteers about their experience on the Interlace project and here’s what they had to say.

Ruth

We asked Ruth why she decided to start volunteering with Derby Museums: 

‘I enjoy art, heritage and involvement with people and always relished my visits to the Museum.  When we moved into an apartment next to the Silk Mill, it was a no-brainer!’

What about Ruth’s involvement on the Interlace project?:

‘I’ve been working with Toni Buckby to help realise, with a team of local skilled craftspeople, her vision for a textile installation in the new Museum of Making. Toni references the silk cocoon and weaving in her computer-controlled light display.’

Ruth shared what she has got from being involved in the Interlace project:

‘It has been a pleasure and rare privilege to be part of such a professional textile project!  I’ve revisited old skills, learned new ones and interacted with lovely people, not least Toni herself.  She is a wonderful artist and generous person. It’s humbling to be part of the start of a new Museum’s journey.’

Barbara

Barbara responded to a Derby Museums call out asking for volunteers for a weaving project; she said:

‘Weaving sounded right up my street! I love designing and making things particularly with textiles of all types.’

Just before the lockdown Barbara was able to take home a piece of the project to work on:

‘It took many hours of peaceful meditative activity which was marvellous occupation in the circumstances that was very good for me; also providing a topic of conversation with friends and family that was positive and different from the constant Covid coverage and shared anxious feelings of being separated from much loved and familiar people and activities’.

Hazel

Hazel met volunteer project coordinator Ruth at a Derbyshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers meeting where Ruth presented Toni Buckby’s concept:

‘I jumped at the chance [to be involved] - what a great idea and to be part of the museum redevelopment.’

Hazel has been weaving one of the cocoons:

‘This was something new for me and a bit of a challenge, but after over 60 hours of weaving I’m really pleased with the results [and have got] a huge sense of satisfaction from the weaving process and immense pride in what I’ve achieved. I can’t wait to see it installed.’

Sandra

Sandra joined as a volunteer through the Derbyshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and has woven one of the cocoons:

‘As the silk mill was an important, past Derby industry I felt it was relevant, as a member of The Derbyshire Guild, to represent the group by using my weaving skills on a piece of the installation. It has been a great opportunity to work on a creative form using materials, especially the lighting, which I wouldn’t normally have used.’

Bibi

Bibi explains why she got involved with the project:

‘The idea of weaving a cocoon was irresistible to me. I am also excited about the development of the Museum of Making and what it is going to offer to the community.’

However it wasn’t without its challenges:

‘This cocoon was a challenge. The design is so good and the whole exercise was very rewarding in its outcome. I am delighted to be part of the project as a group effort. I am looking forward to seeing them all illuminated.’

Joan

Joan, as a weaver, was interested in helping with this project:

‘[I have] never undertaken a project of this sort before. I certainly found this an interesting challenge with the optical fibre being a difficult addition and always at the back of my mind the fact that my work was going to be on public display.’

Thank you to all of our volunteers who are helping to make the Museum of Making, we really wouldn’t be able to do it without you!

[eminentstechnologies-blog]

Digital Image Processing is to perform Image Processing on images with the help of Algorithms. Now a day's Image processing technique

[nuadox]

Image bank could help advance diabetes research

- By Nuadox Crew -

An extensive image bank of pancreas samples could greatly advance global diabetes research.

The most extensive image bank of samples of the pancreas from children who developed diabetes shortly before death has gone live at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, with the aim to advance global medical research in the diabetes field.

The University of Exeter and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) teamed up to make high-resolution images of pancreatic tissue available in Pancreatlas, the world’s first on-line imaging database of human pancreatic tissue created and housed at VUMC.

The pancreas contains the beta cells that produce the insulin that controls blood sugar and because of this is implicated in diseases such as diabetes. The image bank is a valuable asset to researchers because the human pancreas cannot be safely biopsied, and study of the cellular changes that cause type 1 diabetes can only be undertaken in pancreas specimens from individuals with the disease following their death.

The Exeter Archival Diabetes Biobank (EADB) includes 345 images of post-mortem tissue procured by former University of Glasgow professor Alan Foulis in the 1980s. These images represent the largest collection of pancreas samples recovered from patients who died shortly after the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes.

Foulis bequeathed the tissue collection to the University of Exeter Medical School upon his retirement, and the specimens were then digitized by Professor Peter In't Veld of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The collection’s curators, Exeter professors Noel Morgan, PhD, and Sarah Richardson, PhD, contacted the Pancreatlas creators to see if the images could be added to the online database and made available to anyone in the world. The Exeter professors then facilitated the image transfer.

The EADB’s 345 images represent 189 different donors ranging in age from three month up to 17 years. The onset of type 1 diabetes ranges from within days of their death to 19 years’ duration. The images are of tissue sections stained using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) or by immunohistochemistry targeting protein biomarkers to hormones and other signaling proteins.

In total, Pancreatlas currently hosts 2,180 images, representing several biobanks and research initiatives. The site provides the scientific community access to annotated images of human pancreas tissue and associated donor characteristics with the hope of advancing the understanding of diseases such as diabetes, pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis.

The online database of images was designed on the principles of automation and scalability as well as ease of use. Images are grouped into curated collections for easy exploration of specific topics or disease states, or alternatively, users can search for images of interest across all collections. Filtering menus allow users to view and refine images based on experimental information (e.g., tissue processing, biomarkers visualized) as well as clinical details (e.g., disease status and duration).

Comprehensive image datasets from across the human lifespan are also included in Pancreatlas to provide context for investigators working, for example, to understand how development of the pancreas may relate to diabetes progression or the origins of pancreatic cancer.

--

Source: University of Exeter

Full study: Pancreatlas / Applying an Adaptable Framework to Map the Human Pancreas in Health and Disease. Patterns.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2020.100120

Read Also

Novel artificial pancreas concept for young children with type 1 diabetes (video)

[architectnews]

RCA New Battersea Campus, Royal College of Art London

Royal College of Art Battersea New Campus, RCA London Building News, Design Image

RCA New Battersea Campus, Royal College of Art London

23 + 20 + 7 Sep 2021

The Landmark Building For The Royal College Of Art

Design: Herzog & De Meuron Architects

Address: Riverside, 1 Hester Rd, London SW11 4AN, England, UK

Royal College of Art, London, UK: pictures © Herzog & deMeuron

Royal College of Art – new Battersea campus

Thursday 23 September 2021 – The Royal College of Art, the world’s leading university of art and design, will launch its new campus in Battersea, London, on 11 January 2022. The state-of-the-art building, designed by internationally renowned Swiss architects, Herzog & de Meuron, will provide a new home for innovation and design, embodying the RCA’s academic vision to interweave art and design with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

The new Battersea campus is the largest development in the College’s 184-year history, enabling it to expand the frontiers of knowledge in art and design through innovative research, teaching and knowledge exchange. The RCA’s internationally recognised specialism in art and design has influenced generations and shaped our current world, encompassing both large-scale industry and common place objects, from the cars we drive and the buildings in which we live and work, to the clothes we wear and the art that lifts us out of the mundane. Its mission to imagine the future can now be fully realised with outstanding new facilities, incorporating cutting-edge technologies across the disciplines of computer and materials science, robotics, advanced manufacturing and intelligent mobility.

With a focus on ‘action’ research, students will be empowered to foster new design approaches to real-world problems and create innovations that lead to demonstrable impacts on a global scale to improve and change lives. Areas of application will include safer and better health services, designs for a more inclusive society, new products for the global longevity economy, and advances in design for mobility through emerging technologies. Alongside this research focus, the College’s centre for entrepreneurship, InnovationRCA, will spearhead the commercialisation of new human-centred design products and sustainability initiatives within industry. The new campus will ensure the College continues to play a vital role in driving innovation in the UK and beyond by providing answers to the challenges of rapid urbanisation, the effects of climate change, an ageing population, and the need for ethical responsibility within all creative practices.

Located to the south of the existing RCA buildings in Battersea, the 15,500 square-metre landmark new building will act as a radical spatial catalyst, embracing a greater cross-disciplinary dialogue between vehicle designers and architects, animators and ceramicists, fashion designers and textile students, sculptors and jewellery designers, performance artists and filmmakers within new make-spaces to push the boundaries in developing ground-breaking research.

Comprising two connected building blocks, the first four-storey Studio Building will focus on postgraduate teaching, making and learning with enhanced studios and workshops for Sculpture and Contemporary Art Practice, Design Products and Robotics. Designed as social and educational spaces of creative transfer and collaboration, the studios will also accommodate temporary exhibitions and large-scale works. The Design Studios will consist of the Design Product Studios, Innovation Design Studios, an Engineering Studio, the Immersion Lab, the Materials Nature Lab, the Manufacturing Lab and the Computer Science Lab, while the Moving Image Studio will be a highly specified, flexible working space allowing film and video production activities to be performed at the most advanced technical level, facilitating students to produce industry standard work.

A dramatic double-height covered street Hangar lies at the heart of the building, providing a multifunctional activity space for large-scale automotive and sculptural objects to be assembled and exhibited. The Hangar will become the focal point for RCA artists and makers, and their interactions with the public, including events, screenings, performances, exhibitions and graduate shows. The smaller Robotics Hangar and gallery space will provide flexible research testing and assembly areas for intelligent mobility, design engineering, sculpture, and aquatic and aerial robotics.

The Rausing Research and Innovation Building will comprise eight floors of dedicated independent research space, including new research centres for Materials Science, Textile Circularity, Design for Ageing and Computer Science, alongside InnovationRCA, the Clore Innovation Centre and the renowned Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. Two of its floors will unite the Mobility Design Centre with the MA in Intelligent Mobility. New laboratories will include a lab for advanced modelling and manufacturing processes along with the Visualisation Lab, an immersive visual and acoustic virtual cocoon capable of modelling complex constructed environments and digitally capturing the real world, opening-up new ways of working with simulation, virtual reality and immersive technology. At the pinnacle of the building, commanding views across London, the Knowledge Exchange Centre will offer a suite of seminar and conference facilities for cross-disciplinary use by students, academics, researchers and industry partners, furthering the RCA’s close collaboration with the industry sector.

Sustainability and energy efficiency are central to the new development, certifying the continuation of the RCA’s global contribution as the number one university for art and design. Approximately £3 million will be invested in making the building BREEAM excellent, using a combination of integrated design and most significantly a commitment to low and zero carbon technologies.

Through Herzog & de Meuron’s architectural vision, the campus will increase the RCA’s overall footprint in Battersea to create a united the 26,000 square-metre campus, providing a new hub for innovation and design within the wider Battersea Creative Quarter.

Dr. Paul Thompson, Vice-Chancellor, Royal College of Art, said: “The opening of our new campus in Battersea, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to realise our academic ambition to become a STEAM university, combining innovative new technologies with the traditional disciplinary practices to provide exceptional experiences for designers, artists and storytellers who will go on to enhance the world.”

Jacques Herzog, Founding Partner, Herzog & de Meuron, said: “Our experience with designing many museums in the last 20 years tells me that art institutions increasingly tend to blur the traditional boundaries between the collection, presentation, preservation, and even the production of art. In addition, such institutions want to be great social spaces and focal points for public life. Our design for the new RCA and its programming at Battersea traces a path not so dissimilar to this new ideal. Students, teachers, and visitors will find themselves in a kind of village built around the topic of art, with an architectural atmosphere that encourages the entire community to engage in a constant process of teaching and learning, producing, presenting, and discussing art.”

About the RCA

The Royal College of Art is the world’s leading university of art and design. Specialising in teaching and research, the RCA offers degrees of MA, MPhil, MRes and PhD across the disciplines of architecture, arts & humanities, design and communications.

A small, specialist and research-intensive postgraduate university based in the heart of London, the RCA provides 2000 students with unrivalled opportunities to deliver art and design projects that transform the world.

The RCA’s approach is founded on the premise that art, design, creative thinking, science, engineering and technology must all collaborate to solve today’s global challenges.

The University employs around 1000 professionals from around the world – professors, researchers, art and design practitioners, advisers and visiting lecturers – to teach and develop students in 30 academic programmes. RCA students are exposed to new knowledge in a way that encourages them to experiment.

The RCA runs joint courses with Imperial College London and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

InnovationRCA, the university’s centre for enterprise, entrepreneurship, incubation and business support, has helped over 70 RCA business ideas become a reality that has led to the creation of over 750 UK jobs.

Alumni include David Adjaye, Christopher Bailey, Monster Chetwynd, David Hockney, Tracey Emin, Thomas Heatherwick, Lubaina Himid, Clare Waight Keller and Rose Wylie.

The RCA was named the world’s leading university of art and design in the QS World Rankings 2021 for the seventh consecutive year.

For more information visit: www.rca.ac.uk

picture courtesy of architecture practice

About Herzog & de Meuron

Established in Basel in 1978, Herzog & de Meuron is a partnership led by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron together with Senior Partners Christine Binswanger, Ascan Mergenthaler, Stefan Marbach, Esther Zumsteg, and Jason Frantzen. An international team of nearly 500 collaborators including the two Founders, five Senior Partners, ten Partners, and 41 Associates work on projects across Europe, the Americas and Asia. The main office is in Basel with additional offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, Berlin and Copenhagen.

The practice has designed a wide range of projects from the small scale of a private home to the large scale of urban design. Many projects are highly recognized public facilities, such as museums, stadiums, and hospitals, and they have completed distinguished private projects including offices, laboratories and apartment buildings. Awards received include the Pritzker Architecture Prize (USA) in 2001, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal (UK), the Praemium Imperiale (Japan), both in 2007, and the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (USA) in 2014.

Website: https://www.rca.ac.uk/more/building-battersea/

Previously on e-architect

10 Nov 2016 Herzog & de Meuron wins Royal College of Art Design Competition Design: Herzog & de Meuron, Architects image © 2016, Herzog & de Meuron Royal College of Art Design Competition

Royal College of Art Battersea Award

Dyson Building wins a RIBA London Award Design: Haworth Tompkins Architects image courtesy of architects practice Royal College of Art Battersea building design by Haworth Tompkins

10 Aug 2016 Shortlist for Battersea South Architect London: RCA

Phone: +963 936 145 151

Location: Royal College of Art Battersea, Riverside, 1 Hester Road, London, SW11 4AN, England, UK

Battersea Architectural Designs

Battersea Architecture

Battersea Properties

Battersea Power Station Battersea Power Station

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home Design: Jonathan Clark Architects photos by Nick Hufton, Al Crow Dogs and Cats Home Veterinary Hospital in Battersea

Battersea Aerial Photographs aerial photo : The London Helicopter Battersea Building Photos

St John’s Hill Redevelopment Architects: HawkinsBrown image from architect St John’s Hill Redevelopment in Battersea

Thomas’s Battersea Square, Wandsworth Design: Ackroyd Lowrie Thomas’s Battersea Square, Wandsworth School

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Comments / photos for the RCA New Battersea Campus, Royal College of Art London building design by Herzog & De Meuron Architects page welcome

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[reportingfordigitalmedia]

Task 1: Reporting for digital media

Reporting for digital media task 1 – Identify and research a news story to report on chosen digital media Research: The articles analyzed (informative news): 

Article 1: ‘’Anonymous ‘doctors’ support abortion’’ on Newsbook https://newsbook.com.mt/en/maltese-abortion-laws-are-violation-of-human-rights-ngo/ 

Article 2: ‘’Doctors For Choice: Maltese Medical Professionals Band Together To Advocate For Safe Access To Abortion’’  on Lovin’ Malta 

https://lovinmalta.com/news/local/doctors-for-choice-maltese-medical-professional-band-together-to-advocate-for-safe-access-to-abortion/

 B: 

In terms of narrative construction, Lovin’ Malta’s article follows an easily legible structure by starting with the lead which hooks the reader and encapsulates the scope of the article: ‘’An anonymous group of independent medical professionals have banded together to form a group advocating for the safe access to abortion in Malta.’’ In comparison, Newsbook provides the sentences ‘’A new NGO called Doctors for Choice (DFCM) has been set up to lobby for the introduction of abortion in Malta. The press release sent by the organisation was not signed by anyone.’’ In regards to treatment, the Newsbook article is much more negative with diction such as ‘’not signed by anyone’’ and ‘’could not verify…doctors or not’’. 

The tone is doubtful with Newsbook’s article, whereas Lovin’ Malta’s article is positive and informative. Lovin’ Malta’s article introduces the subject, the organization: ‘’Doctors for choice’’ through two quotes: the first quote stating their mission, accompanied by a second paragraph which explained their reasons firmly and through testimonies by other women and reference to the legal climate. This method holds the reader’s attention due to proximity and usual subject matter, eventually provoking discussion. Underneath the paragraph, Lovin’ Malta places a photo which redirects the reader to their Facebook page, an effective method of promotion and an easy way to share information. 

The photo displays diversity and feminism, with ‘’absolute’’ words such as ‘’should’’, following the rule of threes which states that statements and subjects are more interesting when they come in threes. The photo is minimalistic in design and easy for the mind to process, using checkmarks to represent future goals. The world health organization logo in the bottom right denotes reliability and the reader feels obliged to listen to the message. A stock photo of a pro-choice rally in Ireland is inserted and captioned as ‘’stock photo’’, with the words ‘’not a walking womb’’ written on a sign carried by a woman, which may shed light on the message being pushed by Doctors for Choice, with the intention of highlighting their agenda through a similar event (another pro-choice rally). 

 On the other hand, Newsbook did not label their stock image, which sends the wrong connotations in regard to the thought put into the article and the quality, as a journalist should always cite their sources. A survey is utilized in both articles, however in the case of Lovin Malta’s article, the survey details were not disclosed. ‘’Surveys shown’’ does not offer any means to research the said survey properly, however, the conclusion that the survey came to (that both political parties are against abortion) was confirmed through use of the hyperlinks ‘’ PN Leader Adrian Delia has repeatedly suggested’’. In this case, the survey findings’ conclusion was explained through another article. The Lovin’ Malta article ends with a powerful statement with the insertion of a hyperlink, stating that the president George Abela said that he will resign before signing abortion into law. This type of statement encourages debate and perhaps shock in readers as such a decision has news value. 

The press release by Doctors for Choice is inserted at the end along with their logo redirecting to their Facebook page, giving the reader a second opportunity to visit their page. In regard to quality, the Lovin’ Malta article trumps the Newsbook article as there is more attention paid to enclosing detail, exposing the subject’s mission statement and actual reporting of the issue. The title names the organization and the mission statement, instead of the vague and rather ‘’accusing’’ and disapproving tone that Newsbook utilizes. One can see the difference when comparing: Maltese Medical Professionals Band Together To Advocate For Safe Access To Abortion versus ’Anonymous ‘doctors’ support abortion’’. Lovin’ Malta calls them ‘’medical professionals’’ and Newsbook calls them ‘’anonymous ‘doctors’’’, with doctors in inverted commas implying a sarcastic overcast on the term. 

Additionally, Lovin’ Malta calls for ‘’safe access to abortion’’ whilst Newsbook writes ‘’support abortion’’ which has different connotations, ‘’safe access’’ has more positive connotations as it encourages safety and reduction of mortality (regardless of subject matter), and ‘’support abortion’’ drives different conclusions to mind in comparison with the former. It is interesting the note the structure of Newsbook’s article, as there is not much depth to the writing, with the information on surface level. Newsbook, in this article, would report news, and then interject their opinion discreetly through hyperlinks. The journalist wrote a paragraph consisting of quotes said by the organization but would instantly ‘’counter’’ these quotes by use of hyperlinks to other articles which negatively respond to the quotes, revealing a true agenda. One can say that the older and religious Maltese audience has a negative outlook on the topic, as one would gather from the comments they leave on articles about abortion. Therefore, the role of the journalist in this case was to ‘’reassure’’ the audience that they do not hold a view in favor of abortion. 

 In comparison, Lovin’ Malta’s article which did not reveal any bias but informed appropriately with multiple social media links and reference to the organization. Most of the article was quoted from other sources and did not feature emotional adjectives towards the subject. Culturally, the ‘’share on social media’’ buttons on articles are used abundantly when it comes to the topic of abortion as it always generates response over social media. Therefore, journalists treat the topic carefully and stay away from it all together if possible; hence Newsbook writing in a vague manner and pushing their agenda against the topic. Writing positively about the topic, or provoking discussion, leads to negative comments which override the positive due to the ‘unusual’ nature of the topic. 

Lovin’ Malta’s intention was to inform the public and advertise Doctors for Choice, which was accepted by the intended audience: young people, due to their use of journalese and younger writers, but rejected by the older generation who slammed the article.

 C. 

The article ‘’Anonymous ‘doctors’ support abortion’ was written by Fr Joe Borg, PhD, a university of Malta lecturer and winner of the Gold award for journalists. Whilst Fr.Joe Borg is a qualified source, he is not a reliable source in regards to this topic as he fails to be neutral by writing with a negative agenda and withholds information which pertains to the 5 W’s. The first indication of bias is from the author’s title of ‘Fr’, as Catholics cannot be pro-choice (Catholic Answers, 2014), which provides the reader with the indication that the article may lean heavily towards an anti-abortion stance and in that case would picture the topic and the news surrounding it with a different angle, mostly a negative one. 

The author writes for Newsbook. The website in itself is authentic and written by professionals in their respective fields, however, exudes conservative bias in the way that ‘Lovin Malta’ is a news outlet of liberal bias. As Newsbook holds a predominately conservative agenda and approach, this requires the author to be liable to the negative agenda that surrounds abortion in Malta, and in the case of the article: show distrust towards doctors who support abortion in Malta as a result of the stigma. Placing the word ‘doctors’ in the title inside quotation marks is derogatory and aims to discredit the doctors by creating an aura of distrust and mockery. The doctors which the author was referring to are qualified and registered, but by looking at the title one does not receive the same reassurance. The negative agenda pertaining to abortion is clear as traditional society aims to silence all debate and flow of information surrounding the topic, therefore the author claims that he could not verify the names of the ‘’anonymous doctors’’. 

However, the names of the administrators were found on their online website along with photos on their Facebook page. Doctors for Choice’s Facebook page was founded on the same day the article was written, therefore it is Newsbook’s journalistic duty to update their article with more information and photos which were available on all Doctors for Choice’s platforms (Doctors for Choice, Malta, 2020). The wording of the title ‘’doctors support abortion’’ creates internal conflict as it insinuates that a ‘’good’’ doctor does not support abortion and aims to shame an individual for thinking otherwise due to the connotations of this phrase and the tone surrounding it. The article solidifies its stance through a survey completed by University of Malta students over whether students are for or against legalization of abortion. The results favored the article’s agenda and initially impact the reader by hitting close to home, where out of 733 students, 58.4% of those were against legalization of abortion in Malta. On the other hand, 41.6% were in favor. Furthermore, Newsbook came to the conclusion that university students are against abortion. However, Newsbook included a hyperlink: Majority of university students oppose abortion – KSU survey which stated that 11,000 students took part, therefore the conclusion reached is invalid as only a minuscule fraction contributed, hence one cannot say that 733 out of 11,000 is the majority.

 Additionally, due to the stigma surrounding the topic and the lack of education without negative bias, one cannot assume that all survey responses are accurate and educated. 2019 was a historical year in Malta, where the topic of abortion was debated and addressed by the president, politicians and young people (such as the pro-choice rallies in September. The news value rests on the unusual nature, the proximity of it all and the prominence of the topic, as Malta is the only EU country to ban abortion in all circumstances, therefore opening a discourse is not normal for the country and has never evolved to this degree. (Cacciottolo, 2018). 

The article was published in May, rendering it two months after an important event where president George Vella stated his stance against abortion where he made a ‘’pledge to respect life from start to finish’’ in his first speech after oath. It is interesting to note the persistent use of ‘’Pro-abortion’’ and ‘’Pro abortionists’’ as a depiction of liability. ‘’Pro-abortion’’ and ‘’Pro abortionists’’ are applied more than once in lieu of ‘’pro-choice’’, the proper term. This choice was calculated and purposely done to demonize the pro-choice movement by placing their topic of interest, abortion, to the forefront. This practice is apparent in the sensationalist hyperlink ‘’Pro-Abortionists say they are passionate about reproductive rights’’, intended to garner a strong reaction where ‘’pro-abortionists’’ is the first thing one sees which solidifies the ‘’mocking’’ aura. This leads to another Newsbook article which utilized an unattractive picture (not posed, taken in the spur of the moment) and furthers the agenda conservative, right-wing news sources hold.

 References 

Anonymous ‘doctors’ support abortion - Newsbook Borg, J. (2019). Anonymous ‘doctors’ support abortion - Newsbook. [online] Available at: https://newsbook.com.mt/en/maltese-abortion-laws-are-violation-of-human-rights-ngo/?fbclid=IwAR0IxDjERrs3c7jTSpUm_PpeIrX8GnktR40QjlyWG7PnRkt8eKBIr_KL-C8 [Accessed 17 Mar. 2020] 

 Pro-Abortionists say they are passionate about reproductive rights - Newsbook Debono, S. (2019). Pro-Abortionists say they are passionate about reproductive rights - Newsbook. [online] Available at: https://newsbook.com.mt/en/pro-abortionists-say-they-are-passionate-about-reproductive-rights/ [Accessed 17 Mar. 2020]. 

 The Journalists' Questions: 5 Ws and an H ThoughtCo. (2020). The Journalists' Questions: 5 Ws and an H. [online] Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/journalists-questions-5-ws-and-h-1691205 [Accessed 17 Mar. 2020]. 

 'Fake news' isn't the problem — mainstream news with an agenda is TheHill. (2016). 'Fake news' isn't the problem — mainstream news with an agenda is. [online] Available at: https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/media/307783-fake-news-isnt-the-problem-mainstream-news-with-an-agenda-is [Accessed 17 Mar. 2020] 

 Cacciattolo, M. (2018). Malta sets stage for abortion debate. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45900815 [Accessed 17 Mar. 2020].

 Why Catholics Can’t Be Pro-Choice Catholic Answers. (2014). Why Catholics Can’t Be Pro-Choice. [online] Available at: https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/why-catholics-cant-be-pro-choice [Accessed 17 Mar. 2020]. Reproductiverights.org. (2020). [online] Available at: https://reproductiverights.org/sites/default/files/documents/European%20abortion%20law%20a%20comparative%20review.pdf [Accessed 17 Mar. 2020].

[barry127]

20 Top Quality Blogs That Every researcher and Ph.D. Students Will Love

In this post, I’d like to share 20 popular blogs by academics. Each listing gives you a brief idea of what you will find in the blog. Aside from being avid bloggers, these academics also have a prominent Twitter presence. For this reason, I’ve also included their twitter account URL. I hope you like this list and find an academic blog that you really enjoy reading!

1. Scientific Editing (@ScientificEdit1)

Scientific Editing was established with a goal to accelerate international scientific research communication. At Scientific Editing, we take great effort to understand our authors’ needs. We aim to help scientists and academic authors break through the language barriers, bridge the gap between authors and peer-reviewed journals, and accelerate the process of publishing high-quality articles.

Visit: https://www.scientific-editing.info

Armed with an in-house editing team, we provide high-quality services to academic, publishing, and pharmaceutical communities. All of our editors are native English-speakers with a Ph.D., or extensive editing and publishing experience in different fields, and have been carefully screened and selected.

2. Academics Write (@academicswrite):

As the name suggests, Academics Write is a blog about “academic writing in all disciplines.” Blog owner, Kim Mitchell, is from a nursing discipline and is an instructor at Red River College, Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada. Academics Writ hosts an interesting mix of blog posts that includes research-based information, experience-based stories and anecdotes, and opinion pieces. Kim writes for an audience of post-secondary instructors, academic writers and students, and blogs on topics such as the value of writing, self-efficacy, myths about academic writing, and deciding when it is right to give a student an extension.

Do you need Scientific Editing service? Visit: https://www.scientific-editing.info

3. Athene Donald’s Blog (@AtheneDonald):

Athene Donald is a Physics Professor at the University of Cambridge and has been a professor for over 20 years. Unlike some of the other blogs in this list that have adopted a coaching-oriented approach, Professor Donald’s blog seems to offer researchers’ opinions and perspectives. Her blog posts cover topics such as what to do and avoid doing at academic conferences, gender disparity in academia, etc. She also attempts to maintain a balance by sharing a few blog posts about her personal life and interests.

4. Beyond the Doctorate (@FionaEWhelan):

Beyond the Doctorate is a blog managed by Dr. Fiona Whelan, Academic Standards and Quality Officer at the Queen Mary University of London. Dr. Whelan’s blog goes beyond discussions about her academic career. She started this blog for the purpose of sharing her experiences with other doctoral students as she made “a transition away from pure research into a practical job in the real world.” advises students on dealing with different stages of academic life, exploring alternative academic careers, etc.

5. Dan Cohen (@dancohen):

Dr. Dan Cohen is a Vice Provost, Dean, and Professor at Northeastern University. He blogs about topics such as current trends in library and information science, digital libraries, ebooks, the influence of digital technology on various aspects of life today, web cultures, digital humanities, digital public libraries, science communication trends, and science publishing. In an interesting post, Dr. Cohen talks about a concept that he has called “essay.” According to him, the essay is “a manifestation of the convergence of journalism and scholarship in mid-length forms online.” He further explains that an essay avoids academic jargon as it is written for “both specialists and an intelligent general audience.”

6. Diary of Dr. Logic (@SaraLUckelman):

Diary of Dr. Logic is a blog managed by Sara L. Uckelman, Assistant Professor at Durham University. Diary of Dr. Logic offers blog posts on several topics related to scientific publishing and life as an academic. More specifically, Uckelman blogs about her approach to teaching logic and philosophy, maintaining a healthy work-life balance and tips for being productive and more.

7. DoctoralWritingSIG (@DocwritingSIG):

DoctoralWritingSIG is moderated by Dr. Claire Aitchison, Doctoral Writing Consultant; Dr. Cally Guerin, Research Training Scheme Officer, University of Adelaide; and Dr. Susan Carter, Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland. DoctoralWritingSIG is an informative forum where those interested in doctoral writing can “share information, resources, ideas, and dreams,” irrespective of where they stand in their academic careers. With a view to build a base of knowledge and skills around research writing, the blog covers topics such as grant writing, tips on writing the different sections of a thesis or dissertation, grammar advice, and academic publishing guidance.

8. Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega, Ph.D. (@raulpacheco):

Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega is an Assistant Professor in the Public Administration Division of the Centre for Economic Research and Teaching. His blog is populated with insightful articles on various aspects of academic life, such as academic writing, reading strategies, and surviving and thriving in academia. He also has posted on his own research and public policy issues that interest him. Dr. Pacheco-Vegas blog posts that offer interesting text, mixed with relevant images and tweets, provide a very exciting reading experience.

9. Dr. Catherine Pope (@catherinepope):

Dr. Catherine Pope is a freelance research and writing skills, trainer. She blogs about academic writing; focusing on topics like overcoming delays, implementing planning techniques before writing, etc. Her blog also offers posts dedicated to helping readers learn about tools for researchers to improve their productivity. Dr. Pope maintains separate categories for blog posts that provide tips for using Evernote and Zotero. Both of these are digital tools designed to facilitate various aspects of conducting research and writing research articles.

10. Dr. Nadine Muller (@Nadine_Muller):

Dr. Nadine Muller is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University. Her blog is about academia and her experiences in academia. She says, among other things, that her blog is about “redefining what it takes to be an academic and how academics are expected to present themselves, their lives and their work.” Muller aims to provide support, education and development resources to postgraduate and early-career researchers. She blogs on topics in preparation for an academic job interview, prioritization during doctoral studies, and academic mental health within academia.

Do you need research paper editing? Visit: https://www.scientific-editing.info

11. Ellie Mackin (@EllieMackin):

Dr. Ellie Mackin Roberts is a Teaching Fellow in Ancient History at the University of Leicester and a Research Associate at the Institute of Classical Studies, London. She is also one of the moderators of the @ECRchat — Twitter feed for early career researchers. Her blog consists of a rich reserve of posts covering a wide range of topics relating to academic life. She blogs about academic writing, post-doctoral life, academic conferences, job applications, and many other interesting topics.

12. Explorations of Style (@explorstyle):

Explorations of Style is a blog that “offers an ongoing discussion of the challenges of academic writing.” The blog is managed by Rachael Cayley, associate professor in the Graduate Center for Academic Communication, University of Toronto. Professor Cayley aims to provide her readers with strategies to help them improve their skills in research writing. To this end, she blogs on topics such as. Managing writing anxiety, creating inverted contours, and writing process.

13. Feral Librarian (@mchris4duke):

Feral Librarian is a blog managed by Dr. Chris Bourg, Director of Libraries at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Bourg blogs about research libraries, higher education, and scientific publishing. Occasionally, her blog post also discusses some of her personal interests — issues of sports, music and social justice. Among the blog’s latest posts is a text version of Dr. Bourg’s exciting keynote address at the 2018 Creative Commons Global Summit — “Open as in Dangerous.”

14. From Ph.D. to Life (@FromPhDtoLife):

From Ph.D. to Life is a blog run by Dr. Jennifer Polk, History Ph.D. turned academic, life, and career coach for graduate students and PhDs. Summing it up herself, Dr. Polk says she helps “PhDs launch meaningful careers” by helping them delve deeper into their own interests, explore their opportunities and deal with academic pressure. The Ph.D. for Life offers a wide range of resources for PhDs, all aiming to help them maneuver their academic careers effortlessly and live a better life. Dr. Polk recommends his transition question and answers as a must-read section! This section shows inspiring stories about PhDs as they take us through their fulfilling post-doctoral journeys.

15. From The Lab Bench (@FromTheLabBench):

The Lab, Bench is a blog about “all things science.” It is administered by Dr. Paige Brown Jarreau, a science communication specialist for the College of Science, Louisiana State University. As she continued her doctorate, Dr. realized Jarreau that although she enjoyed time on the lab bench, she loved writing and communicating about her research even more! And that’s how “From the Lab Bench” was born. Dr. Jarreau blogs on topics such as science blogging, social media consulting and science journalism.

16. Get a Life, Ph.D. (@tanyaboza):

Get a Life, Ph.D. is a blog managed by Tanya Golash-Boza, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Merced. The main theme of her blog succeeds in academia, while also living a rich life outside academia. In this blog, she shares advice that will help readers “balance life and work and achieve a happier life on the fast track.” Get a Life, Ph.D. offers a number of informative blog posts on academic writing and publishing. Professor Golash-Boza blogs on topics such as writing a literature review, responding to revising and submitting a journal decision, and presenting at academic conferences. She also writes about academics’ work-life balance, how academics can find time to train, make the most of academic travel, and be an academic parent.

17. Green Tea and Velociraptors (@Protohedgehog):

Green Tea and Velociraptors is a blog managed by Dr. Jon Tennant, Founder, Open Science MOOC. The blog’s exciting name is being revived by its fascinating theme and imagery — it’s not every day you see a dinosaur wearing a top hat at a fancy tea party! Green tea and velociraptors offer you a wide variety of interesting topics to choose from. Dr. Tennant blogs about his learning as a Ph.D. student, his research interests, and other topics relevant to academic life, such as peer review and open science and science communication. The blog also has a section that includes all of his own research publications.

18. Helen Kara (@DrHelenKara):

Dr. Helen Kara is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Visiting Fellow at the UK’s National Centre for Research Methods. She has been an independent researcher since 1999 and instructs researchers and students in research methods. Dr. Kara blogs about research methods, academic writing, and publishing, research ethics, research collaboration, etc.

19. James Hayton, Ph.D. (@jameshaytonphd):

Former physicist Dr. James Hayton works with Ph.D. students to help them through the Ph.D. research and writing process. He aims to make the lives of Ph.D. students a little easier when embarking on their journey towards their Ph.D. students. His main focus is to help them develop the skills needed to do a Ph.D. In light of this, his blog offers a rich reserve of blog posts covering topics such as academic writing, doctoral survival, choosing a topic for your thesis, and dealing with Ph.D. mistakes.

20. Jo Van Every (@JoVanEvery ):

Dr. Jo Van Every is an academic career guide who loves “helping others love their academic work.” Her blog provides advice on academic writing; more specifically, it aims to help you develop effective writing skills. She also blogs about publishing to scientific and non-scientific audiences and making decisions throughout the academic journey, addressing procrastination, the need to maintain work-life balance and peer review among many others.

Are you looking for thesis proofreading? Visit: https://www.scientific-editing.info

[gereportscee]

Startuppers Hitting Us Up With Their Prototypes

A company on Váci Street takes a conscious approach to assisting healthcare startups in achieving international reputation. Its long-term goal is to make sure that great ideas no longer have to travel to the USA to become world-famous – as ten original ideas out of ten do nowadays – but that they can take off from Europe, too. Even from Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. Let us introduce you to Health Venture Lab, power by GE Healthcare, and to four startups destined to make it big in the world of healthcare.

Based on the Forbes interview written by Emese Fekete; Forbes, 2019. November Issue

On the artificial turf flooring, there stands a professional table-tennis table – it’s not every day that you get to see a large Hungarian corporation having such fancy stuff on the second floor of its office building. Here, at the Váci Street headquarters of GE healthcare, this is just another of the many atmospheric elements. No wonder that the place was named ‘Office of the Year’ three years ago – as a matter of fact, the US-based multinational company, which has undergone extensive streamlining for some years now, doesn’t even call it ‘office building’ but ‘campus’.

The cool factor has been added knowingly and intentionally to the work environment as some 700 people come to work here every day. The place hosts a regional service center, along with sales, financial, legal and marketing hubs, and also a think tank comprising more than 400 software development engineers. As we speak, they are the largest development team in GE Healthcare all over Europe.

“This is a hub in Europe,” GE Hungary Vice President Endre Ascsillán says. “Our developers are assigned with global tasks. They keep getting assignments from other European countries and the USA, and we do our best to retain these customers and attract even more from abroad. We’re growing continuously and a year from now, we’ll employ as many as 600 developers.”

In the past few years, the environment has become more and more attractive for European startups geared for healthcare innovation. This trend has intensified since the company’s business accelerator program, the Health Venture Lab (HVL), sponsored by GE and EIT Health, was launched. Today, Health Venture Lab is considered as one of the top 10 healthcare startup schemes on the continent (at least it was ranked as such by the Financial Times, with HVL being the only one among Easter European accelerators to receive such a distinction). In the context of consecutive semi-annual programs, the business incubator sponsors dozens of fresh ideas each year and helps startups develop these ideas into marketable products.

“When startuppers hit us up to join the program with their prototypes under their arm, they also bring their ideas with them and what they get is business training and mentoring” says Endre Ascsillán, adding that this is a decidedly narrow-gauged ‘medtech accelerator’, supporting healthcare related software and hardware solutions for applicants that already have a well-developed prototype.”

Ascsillán emphasizes that what his company offers is professional assistance: admitted applicants enter a world that comprises both the Budapest hub and the environment that the hub has consciously built around itself over the years. This environment includes GE’s global professional infrastructure and a host of clinical and academic partnerships (from the University of Debrecen through Sorbonne to Boston MIT). For a period of six months, each participant receives customized coaching on marketing and pricing, or software development issues, depending on the individual needs of the startup concerned.

Within the framework of this program and during the above stage, startups do not receive any funding from GE because, as Endre Ascsillán puts it, that is not what the Lab is all about. “There’s plenty of cash lying around in the market. So much, in fact, that it’s made the operation of the system somewhat counterproductive.” What the market really needs is ‘smart money’, that is, investment combined with expertise – this is something that the startups participating in the recently closed program have also confirmed. Each of them says that even though they are constantly looking for investors that would help them proceed with the development of their ideas, coaching and mentoring is just as important for them. They crave smart money.

As a next step following Health Venture Lab, GE is developing a financial platform that would bring together high-quality and reliable venture capital investors with investment-worthy startups. “We represent the ’smart’ part of the platform, while venture capital investors will add the ‘money’ Ascsillán describes the direction that GE is headed, as the long-term goal is to make sure that great ideas no longer have to travel to the USA to become world-famous – as ten original ideas out of ten do nowadays – but that they can take off from Europe, too. Global success stories of the future may even get a head start in Budapest, Hungary.

The second accelerator program was completed on October 18. 23 start-ups joined the program, including 17 international and 6 Hungarian teams . We will introduce four of them.  

HOW TO GET PREGNANT USING SALIVA AND SMART PHONE

A tiny microscope, a drop of saliva, a smartphone and an application with imaging analytical algorithm - Babyndex's saliva test shows you fertile days in minutes.

On that Sunday morning on the porch of the Bodós’ family home, it was not only a father and son sitting down to talk – it was fifty years of gynecological experience and a keen interest in IT innovation meeting with fresh expertise in digitization. The experience and interest was brought to the table by Ákos Bodó, obstetrician-gynecologist at Hatvan Hospital, while digitization was his son Zajzon Bodó’s thing who had worked for the European Commission as an economist for many years, analyzing electronic infrastructures and market competition. This combination in itself would not automatically have resulted in the establishment of a healthcare startup aimed at helping people get pregnant, but Zajzon Bodó had always been interested in process automation and when he noticed that healthcare was one of the least digitized industries, the idea of Babyndex came to the fore in family conversations on Sundays.

After having discussed the central issue, namely, things that were still done ‘analog’ in gynecology, it did not take long for father and son to arrive at the topic of the saliva test that, in theory, would reliably indicate a rise in estrogen level, that is, the fertile window, a few days prior to ovulation. However, since the analog method for analyzing a saliva sample is difficult for the uninitiated, this method – even though more reliable than urine pregnancy tests, not to mention the calendar method – has not become widespread. Anyone can get a microscope, and there are special applications for the results of the microscopic examination, read with the naked eye, to be entered into, but a solution for the necessary image analysis – in other words, a precise identification of the crystal structure of saliva – is yet to be found.

But that is the very essence of the entire process: the Babyndex application uses an image processing algorithm to analyze saliva samples, and applies artificial intelligence to extract information from the image and arrive at a conclusion whether the crystal structure signaling a rise in estrogen level is present or not. This part of the application is being developed by a friend of Zajzon Bodó’s, Slovenian bioinformatician Tilen Kranjc (who has a PhD in image analysis), who met Zajzon at a professional conference and joined the team as a co-owner earlier in the year.

Here is how it will work in practice. Firstly, you buy a microscope about the size of a lipstick (an analog device you can find in stores), unscrew the cap and place a drop of saliva (possibly in the morning, before eating or drinking) on the integrated microscope stage. Wait 10 minutes for the saliva to dry, and then place the camera of your smartphone on the microscope and take a photo of the sample, lit by a built-in LED lamp. You can now have the application to immediately analyze the sample by using the image processing algorithm and come to a conclusion on whether the crystal signaling a fertility window is present.

Zajzon Bodó has filed for an international patent, and he is very confident about the marketability and future prospects of the idea. He has been even more confident since Harvard University conducted a research study on the subject last year and predicted ovulation with an accuracy of 99%. International market interest in the prototype of Babyndex is high: the company is in negotiations with an Austrian clinic and, among others, the German pharmaceutical manufacturing company Bayer. They are not only interested in Babyndex because it is expected to be a hit among women trying to conceive (there is a market for that that is worth about half a billion euros at the moment) but also because the application will theoretically be usable as a contraceptive method. The latter market comprises an even bigger customer base, worth about twenty billion euros.

COMPUTER GAME TO IMPROVE EYESIGHT

A Slovenian team is working on an exciting way for kids to cure lazy eye.

Even Žan Menart himself was skeptical at first when eye specialists advised him to focus on finding solutions for amblyopia. By then he and his team had already developed a free application that offered 15 different additional tests for optometrists, supplementing the range of basic vision tests. In the span of a few years, a hundred thousand eye doctors registered as users for the application but Žan still regarded optometry as a niche market. When experts from the Slovenian medical school approached him to develop a computer game that would help with the treatment of a certain vision development disorder called amblyopia, commonly known as ‘lazy eye’, he failed to see the business potential at first.

Five percent of children around the world have amblyopia, but only half of them experience actual vision problems in their everyday lives. The dominant opinion is that this condition can be effectively corrected and cured before the age of 7 or 8 by doing eye muscle exercises daily. The traditional method is to cover the eyeglass lense in front of the person’s good eye so that the muscles that control the movement of the lazy eye are forced to get to work. Also, children who have this condition are asked to do stimulating eye exercises by drawing on a piece of paper and making various hand gestures. Such exercises will only be effective if they are done with discipline and on a daily basis, but, as the doctors will warn their patients, they are very time-consuming and require active involvement on the part of parents, and, most of all, kids tend to find them really boring.

Žan and his team – including two doctors and two developers – decided to use their efforts toward finding a solution, and by today they work on the development of Amblyoplay full time. So far, they have developed ten computer games, with another two coming up this year, and they are planning to add to the software a new feature/new functions each month. Their products are not meant to substitute or replace doctors – they will just make eye exercising at home easier and more exciting as part of the overall therapy.

Based on the experiences gained by a testing team of 40 or 50 people, feedback from partner clinics and initial market response, Žan and his team have created something exciting both from a medical and business point of view, and the highest initial demand seems to come from the world’s biggest market, the USA and Canada. “There are lots of eye clinics in the US and Americans are very open to healthcare equipment, gadgets and therapies,”  Žan says. He has just returned from a trade fair in Las Vegas where he saw that his product was in high demand.

Also, their business model has been clearly defined by now and looks sustainable. They are offering three-month, six-month and twelve-month subscriptions at a price of €100, €170 and €300, respectively (or the equivalent USD amounts). Of course, subscriptions can be renewed – currently, the average term is seven months. New subscribers are given a box with special eyeglasses in it (one of the lenses is red and the other one is blue – they are required for playing the games) and an access code to the application. Experience has taught Žan that he had to “give people something tangible, some kind of physical item, because they weren’t willing to pay that much for the application in itself.” Bundled with the glasses, however, the application sells well and the profit margin (35 percent on three-month subscriptions) is high enough for the startup to break even in no time.

This means that even though at this moment they do not need additional capital, they are planning to enter the US market to sell high volumes next year, so preparations are being made for raising funds of 1 million euros from investors. Žan believes that making it into the top 3 service providers in the US market for at-home vision therapy within 5 years is a reasonable goal for the startup. Then they will enter the somewhat more conservative European market, but even before that, the application will already be available at the company’s webshop to all kids who are comfortable with doing exercises in the English language.

FIGHTING CANCER WITH DATABASE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

More data, more life, says a Romanian gynecologic oncologist who builds a platform with his colleagues where all necessary information is available at one place to cure cancer patients.

No one should be doomed to die just because a medical report is lost or takes too long to reach the right specialist, so says gynecologist-oncologist Madalin Margan of Temesvár, Romania. The young doctor knows well how health facilities in Romania – and, to some extent, in Easter Europe – work. The way he sees it, one of the biggest problems is that a huge amount of patient data, files and reports are floating around but these institutions are unable to analyze and process such information quickly and efficiently enough to help patients the way they should.

To that end, Oncochain is building a web-based platform available to all stakeholders that may be involved in any way in the treatment of patients. Such stakeholders include doctors at clinics, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, researchers at cancer centers, and, of course, the cancer patients themselves for whom each and every day matters and speed is of the essence.

A huge amount of patient data, files and reports are floating around but these institutions are unable to analyze and process information quickly and efficiently enough to help patents. 

Patients are asked to authorize stakeholders to access the platform by signing the necessary consent form, and once they have, all of their existing medical examinations and the results of such tests will be uploaded into the system. “We are fully GDPR compliant,” emphasizes Madalin, referring to the fact that they are dealing with truly sensitive data – it is no wonder that from the very beginning the startup has been working with a major law firm with regard to the furnishing of guarantees and securities.

But the most important thing is to ensure that healing gets done, meaning that the patient and their doctors are always up-to-date and have access to the entire corpus of examination results – and the dots that need to be connected will be connected. Madalin has found that due to the inadequate flow of information, many patients are left out of clinical research programs, the latest therapies, or research studies run by pharmaceutical companies, and even the so-called second medical opinion is slow to arrive as the diagnoses and medical reports relating to a patient can only be collected from multiple sources through a multistage process.

Even the patients themselves are not entirely certain about what is being done to them and how their treatment is progressing. Patients would be able to access their own Oncochain data via a smartphone application free of charge (the application for Android and iOS will be launched at year-end). Also, they will be notified by the system every time someone accesses their data. Healthcare providers, research institutes and pharmacies, however, will have to pay for using the platform.

An up-to-date and big database would be of immense value to pharmaceutical companies, too. Cancer treatment is a dynamically evolving field, but researchers need to analyze a high number and a huge variety of cancer cases in order to be able to come up with improved therapies. For that reason, in addition to Madalin’s fellow doctors, the Oncochain team also includes IT specialists, data miners and developers specialized in artificial intelligence and block-chain technologies, trying to integrate all the latest technologies (such as machine learning, AI, IoT) into their oncological software. As Madalin likes to say, “More data, more research, more lives saved.” 

[adalidda]

Illustration Photo: Autonomous transport robot Omron (credits: PressReleaseFinder / Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0))

Call for Proposals: Amazon Research Awards Program for Colleges or Universities that grant PhD degrees in fields related to Machine Learning

Amazon Research Awards (“ARAs”) are structured as a one-year unrestricted gifts to academic institutions. ARA funding amounts will be determined by Amazon in its sole discretion. ARA funding is not extendable or transferable, but you may submit new proposals for subsequent ARA Program calls.

Focus Areas

Computer vision Recognition: categorization, detection, segmentation Visual search Deep neural network compression and optimization Video understanding: actions, events Large-scale data annotation Computer vision for apparel Human body: detection, tracking, pose Motion: segmentation, tracking 3D modeling: structure-from-motion, slam, stereo and reconstruction Computational photography Computer vision for robotics Faces and gestures Image and video captioning

Fairness in artificial intelligence Transparency, explainability, and accountability in AI systems Theories of computational/algorithm fairness and factors that affect algorithmic trustworthiness Ethical decision-support and decision-making systems Detecting and ameliorating adverse biases in data and algorithms, and fairness-aware design of algorithms Metrics and methods for designing, piloting, and evaluating systems that mitigate against adverse biases and ensure fairness, including the use of human-machine collaboration and decision support Statistical methods for detecting bias in systems as they are operating

Knowledge management and data quality Data cleaning for machine learning Graph mining from knowledge graphs and user behaviors Knowledge embedding Knowledge extraction from unstructured and semi-structured data Knowledge verification Knowledge-based search Large-scale data alignment and integration Leveraging structured knowledge in deep learning and recommendation Quantitative and logical error detection

Machine learning algorithms and theory Active learning and data cleaning Data and resource efficient learning Deep learning and representation learning Fair, explicable and interpretable learning Transfer and meta-learning Online and continual learning Parallel and distributed Learning Robust and privacy preserving learning Reinforcement learning

Natural language processing Advances in neural MT for noisy and user-generated content Chatbots and dialogue systems Detection of inappropriate content Efficient training and fast inference for neural MT Context-aware MT Explainability in neural NLP methods Fact extraction, verification and trustworthiness in unstructured data Multitask and reinforcement learning for MT Named entity translation and transliteration NLP applications in search Question answering Text summarization Narrative understanding Common sense inference

Online advertising AI methods for online advertising Algorithmic marketing Large scale experimentation and testing Learning mechanisms Measurement of brand advertising Online algorithms for targeting, bidding and pricing Optimizing for long term objectives Prediction, forecasting and automated decision making in ad systems Structure of advertising marketplaces

Operations research and optimization Assortment management Management of warehouse operations Marketplace design: incentives/policies for increasing efficiency and growth in a multi-agent marketplace Strategic supply chain management: network design/topology Tactical supply chain management: vendor management (including supplier contract negotiation and procurement), inventory buying, inventory deployment, demand fulfillment Transportation: long-haul operations (including airline operations), last-mile operations Other supply chain optimization topic

Personalization Approaches to estimate quality of recommenders using abundant implicit and sparse explicit feedback Detecting and responding to spam in behavioral data to protect customers in recommendation contexts Scalable NLP approaches for search query understanding for non-English Scalable approaches to detect incorrect catalog information Approaches to identity synonyms in noisy product catalog Item-to-item collaborative filtering using deep learning

Robotics Affective and social interactions Autonomous navigation and mobility Dexterous and reactive manipulation Human machine interaction and collaboration Machine learning and learning from human preferences Motion planning Multi-robot systems and multi-agent pathfinding Object detection and pose estimation Sample-efficient reinforcement learning Semantic scene understanding for robotics Simulation and sim to real transfer SLAM and long-term autonomy Theoretical advances as well as practical applications

Search and information retrieval Multilingual language understanding Conversational search

Security, privacy and abuse prevention ML for malware analysis and detection Browser/device fingerprint and digital forensics Early detection of emerging patterns with limited labeled data (one-shot-learning) Fraud detection and prevention Graph modeling (latent representations from a graph and anomaly detection) Human-in-the-loop machine learning Online and adaptive machine learning Web behavioral modeling, online identity and password-less authentication Threat and intrusion detection for cloud security ML for obfuscation detection from text, image and online behaviors Detection and tracking of online adversarial attempts

Dateline for submission: October 4, 2019, 11:59 PT.

Check more https://adalidda.com/posts/hSXtrWahpN8qHRjQP/call-for-proposals-amazon-research-awards-program-for

[eminentstechnologies-blog]

Digital Image Processing is to perform Image Processing on images with the help of Algorithms. Now a day's Image processing technique

[jessicacpi-blog]

New Post has been published on http://www.capstoneprojectideas.com/mba-capstone-project-from-a-to-z/

Master of Business Administration (MBA) Capstone Project: From A to Z

What Is a Capstone Project MBA?

The MBA capstone project is a two-semester process with the direction of a staff guide in which understudies seek after free research on an inquiry or issue of their decision, draw in with the academic discussions in the applicable controls, and – create a generous paper that mirrors a profound comprehension of the point. The MBA capstone project ideas by the experts can help you in writing it in a better way. The project is all about the subjects that you have studied in the 2 semesters.

Structure of a Well-Written MBA Capstone Project

You should pursue an extremely organized process once your theme has been affirmed.

You should find and outline unique research that has been directed on your subject that you can incorporate into your venture. What inquire about has just been done on your exploration question?

What kind of research undertaking will you plan? Rather, you should show that the exploration you have led has addressed your inquiry or demonstrated our speculation. Now and again, with a Bachelor’s capstone venture, you won’t be requested.

At the Master’s and PhD levels, in any case, you should plan an examination venture that will expand upon the exploration officially finished by others. You will at that point need to investigate the information you have gathered and confirm that your examination question has been replied.

You will at that point review your task, being mindful so as to keep up an academic methodology and tone/style. Your decision will address our examination question or speculation once more. Did you answer the inquiry or demonstrate your speculation? What may others need to take a gander at to improve the work that you have done? Learn good ideas for MBA capstone project and law capstone project ideas.

MBA Capstone Project Business: How to Choose the Topic?

You have numerous options when it comes to choosing the topic for MBA capstone. Have a look at these topics to get great help for writing the capstone project.

Generate branding through online marketing tools

Brand management for internet-based branding initiatives

The interest rate in the stock market

Brand management for user visibility

Different marketing strategies for different types of industry

Adopting marketing strategies in the digital world

Increase business revenue without the use of technology

Social media marketing in the fashion industry

Healthcare branding strategies tips

Review on consumer buying behavior towards SUV cars

E-Learning: Is it effective in MBA?

Brand communications strategies

Brand promotions on effective marketing methods

Offline and online performance measurement tools and platforms

Impact of website marketing

France marketing strategies for restaurant businesses

Consumer engagement through online classified websites

Marketing for the healthcare industry

Business administration with the present generation

Effective practices for business administration over the years

Steps Timeline of Capstone Project MBA

For writing the capstone project for MBA, you must know about some basics of doing this task. Here are some steps that can guide you well in writing a captivating capstone paper.

Intro

In this segment of the capstone venture, understudies need to expound on the exploration issue, their methodology, points of interest and consequently share their thoughts on the chose subject. The presentation is a fundamental yet an essential piece of each task.

Literature review

You have to make reference to the prior looks into regarding the matter, think about them and give your examination on all the earlier discoveries. This area incorporates a concise depiction of the past data and looks into that had been led on the theme.

Methods

Basically, the whole data about the point and techniques adjusted for the examination should be clarified in this area. The depiction of the whole research is incorporated into this segment. The wellsprings of information, the strategy utilized for information accumulation, unwavering quality issues and so forth are every one of the parts of this area.

Results

You have to give a response to every one of the inquiries proposed toward the start of the capstone venture. It incorporates portrayal and union of information gathered in the examination work.

Concluding part

This is a sensible end must be strikingly confined. Beginning and consummation are critical in any capstone venture. Examination, future suggestions, and constraints make the end eye-catching.

Questions to Ask When Starting an MBA Capstone Project

What is the scope of this project?

What are the findings?

How long would the project take to be completed?

What is the purpose of choosing this topic?

What are the ways to get the precise findings?

The Expert Tips

Intriguing: for yourself as well as for others in your field. You need to choose an issue that is genuine that will take advantage on the off chance that you can unravel it.

Attainable: you just have a specific measure of time and different assets accessible to you for your undertaking. In this manner, you should take care to choose ventures that can be finished with what you have accessible.

Testing: you should have the capacity to exhibit what you have realized through your MBA program so the extent of your task must enable you to demonstrate your insight.

Concentration: your concentration is important if you are not so interested in this task.

One of a kind: on the off chance that the issue has just been examined and arrangements characterized, there is little advantage in your basically duplicating what they have effectively done.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them?

These are the mistakes that you must avoid while working on the capstone project for MBA. Students who don’t pay enough attention to this task confront serious issues of repetitive rejections.

Adding so many quotes without discussing each point properly.

Writing the words and sentences repetitively.

Not covering all the areas that can bring more improvement in the study.

Not adding the brief information under the single heading.

The addition of personal opinions and arguments. This can badly affect the image of your work without any doubt.

Check our list of MBA capstone project ideas and choose the right one for you!

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how to login noun student portal

Now, you will notice your noun student portal login page exam outcomes on the page that follows. Here is the factor, the Nouonline Portal tma login link is correct in entrance of your screen staring at you proper now, and for you to see it; you will have to learn further to the Noun scholar login portal process. This guideline is for all college students who've successfully registered with Noun edu portal login, but in a method or the other, have misplaced their Noun login password. When I attempt to login, I get the message: Invalid username or password! I Don’t understand if ant loss’ anytime I attempt to achieve to my TMA ,All is prepared but only GST 102 still not but prepared until date! However on account of the fact that you are a brand new scholar, you still must pay for matric gown, register your exams and courses plus other expenses. When you enter your Matric No, proceed and click on the Submit button. Step 5: on the subsequent web page, you can be requested to enter your Matric Number. You will also find the not too long ago student login portal for noun added iLearn on the NOUN pupil portal which in line with the school, promises to enhance academic customary of the Nigerian populace, irrespective of the situation, social status and geopolitical zones.

NOUN TMA Portal is now active so you can begin submitting TMAs. Here in this article, i will likely be giving an indepth overview of how the Noun TMA works and the way students of this great institution can use it for his or her advantages. A newly generated password might be sent to the email tackle you used for Open College of Nigeria registration, Log-on to your e mail address. Declaimer: This is not the official website of National Open College of Nigeria (NOUN). It's best to remember that you will want a pc with a great internet connection and likewise a printer linked to the computer earlier than you may print out NOUN consequence. Once you’re by you’ll get a profitable message, now you can proceed to print the course you registered. Relying upon the time out there to you and your workload, you may mix work and your studies or you possibly can research full time and progress at your own fee.

From the Image is an Example of the Scores any NOUN Pupil can get if he Subscribes to our TMA Advantage Resolution Provide. Click on on the "Noun Pupil Login." found on the Nouonline Portal homepage. Click on on the one you wish to test and consider it. Select the programme you wish to use for be it Undergraduate, Postgraduate or PhD. To qualify to proceed to applicable degree programme of NOUN, holders of Diploma Certificates would be required to make up any deficiencies of their SSCE / GCE, NECO, NABTEB and T.C II. Holders of HND with a minimum of Decrease Credit score from institutions recognised by the Senate of NOUN. As a result of its Open Distance Studying nature, NOUN does not offer lectures to students in classrooms, besides in some specific examine centers, like the examine center in Lagos which presents lectures to legislation college students. The institution of the National Open College of Nigeria is seen as the springboard for distance studying within the country. The eye of the administration of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has been drawn to malicious websites set as much as mislead and extort cash from students and the general public for entry to NOUN noun student portal login page sources online.

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That is to deliver to the attention of all Centre Administrators and college students that the students Management Portal (Studware) is currently undergoing upkeep. NOUN StudWare is a college students' information system developed and supported by the Directorate of Administration Data System of the Nationwide Open University of Nigeria, NOUN. The institution of the Nationwide Open University of Nigeria is seen as the springboard for distance learning within the country. In this submit we could be taking a look at Noun Scholar Portal as we're conscious that National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is Nigeria’s Federal Open and Distance Studying(ODL) establishment, the primary of its sort in the West African. I bought questioning what i ought to write about as this is my first put up. A registered and licensed Group Health Extension Worker with a Diploma in Community Health Extension (Bizarre National Diploma) and with not lower than two years publish qualification experience. Prior information and relevant work expertise (including first diploma/HND/RN) may be considered for superior placement and waiver.

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One of many benefits the school has over the other tertiary establishments in Nigeria is its immunity to union strikes such as the ASSU strike. Tutor-marked Assignments: This sort of assessment is designed to provide students with a possibility to assess their learning and progress over the duration of the course. Level to notice, the NOUN TMA is the same as Take a look at in different learning institutions. TMA on GST 204, AGR 202 and AFS 202 will not be loading. Are you in want of NOUN TMA solution? NB : Although we're but to get a tangible clarification from authoritative sources, from our important evaluation, we believe the suspension only affects prospective(incoming/new) students. Obligatory price for 400Level first semester college students which was previously N28,000 is now N18,000. The pioneer pupil enrollment of the establishment stood at 32,four hundred which rose to 57,759 students in 2011. Underneath the leadership of Prof Vincent Tenebe, the then Vice Chancellor, the establishment operated from its administrative headquarters positioned at Victoria Island, Lagos.

Be aware: a Profitable passport shall be displayed in your scholar portal homepage. In that, you can now login as a returning pupil on the NOUN Portal. After you’ve performed that, click on Apply to proceed to the pre-cost utility page. Then Click the Submit button to upload the photograph. After correcting filling in your username and password, click on on the “Log In” button. Password. Enter the password that accompanies your username. Fill in your Password but click on on “Forgot Your Password” when you can’t remember what you used as your password. Finally you have to login to your e-mail handle, so you can have access to the password sent to you by Noun. The portal gives access to classes like course registration, tuition fee verification, course listing, e-library, download of related course materials, portal clearance and iLearn. Reply with "first semester" when it's requested on the portal regardless of your current semester. Noun Portal login Details needs to be an important Asset to you. If you choose the “Edu Portal”, it would show you the principle log in page the place you could enter your registration noun student portal login page details.

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New genetics and society: A retrospective

I am in a collecting mood at the moment. When I heard that an article (with Carmen McLeod and Rusi Jaspal) on faecal microbial transplants had finally been accepted by New Genetics and Society, I began to count back and realised I had published quite a few articles in this journal (mostly written in collaboration with other people, such as Iina Hellsten, David Clarke, Aleksandra Stelmach and Kerry Kidd), articles that, at least in part, chart the progress of ‘new genetics’ in society.

Of course, there are many topics I have not covered in New Genetics and Society, but have talked about elsewhere; and there are many topics I have not covered anywhere at all, neither in New Genetics and Society nor any other interdisciplinary journal. New genetics and society is a vast field!

Cloning

It all started in 2003 with an article written with David Clarke entitled “Anatomy of a media event: how arguments clasehed in the 2001 human cloning debate”. That was about a now long forgotten but then very sensational staged media debate between two fertility ‘experts’. We thought that analysing such an event could be interesting, as such spectacles may shape public perceptions of an emerging technology; they can accelerate policy changes by exposing scientific, legal and ethical uncertainties; the use of images, metaphors, clichés and cultural narratives by scientists and the media engaged in this event can reinforce stereotypical representations of cloning; and they can also expose fundamental clashes in arguments about cloning.

Genomics

A year later, in 2004, Iina Hellsten and I published an article entitled “Genomics: Shifts in metaphorical landscapes between 2000 and 2003”. Iina and I had ‘met’ in the year 2000 when we discovered by accident that we were both submitting something on Dolly the sheep and cloning to the journal Metaphor and Symbol. Fortunately, both our articles made it into the journal and we have collaborated on issues related to genomics, avian flu, climate change etc. ever since – and also met in person.

This paper examined the shifts and changes in the metaphors used to describe the human genome and the human genome project (HGP) between 2000 and 2003, with the year 2001 as a trigger for genomic and metaphorical reflection. We asked: Did the findings announced in 2001 shake the metaphorical foundations on which the HGP had been built or not? Did novel metaphors capture the imagination of scientists and the public or did old metaphors survive throughout this period? What influence might the continuity or discontinuity in metaphorical framing of the HGP have on the public perception of the HGP as well as on its scientific understanding? To answer these questions, we systematically compared the metaphors used in one major scientific journal, Nature, and in one major UK newspaper, the online edition of the Guardian/The Observer during a period of two months around June 2000, February 2001 and April 2003.

Despite some differences between Nature and the Guardian, on the whole linguistic metaphors of the human genome as a book and a code on the one hand and the visual metaphors of a map or blueprint on the other hand, were carried over into thinking and talking about post-genomics and proteomics. Only very few alternative metaphors were introduced into the debate. Continuity in metaphor use was more prominent than discontinuity. New metaphors challenged neither old metaphors nor established paradigms of thinking and writing about genomics.

The human genome

A year after that, in 2005, Kerry Kidd, then a research fellow at the Institute for Science and Society, and I edited a special issue for New Genetics and Society on the human genome and metaphors. This issue, tracking how concepts of a new science, genomics, filter into the public domain, contained articles by Iina Hellsten on how book of life metaphors get ‘updated’ over time (e.g. the metaphor of ‘annotation’, which later cropped up again in epigenetics), Martin Döring on German press coverage of the human genome project, Elena Gogorosi on Greek press coverage of the human genome project, Cheryl Koski on the human genome project and the technological imperative, and Alan Petersen et al. on medical genetics in news story and the cross-talk between science fact and science fiction. It also contained an “Introduction” by Kerry and myself.

This special issue complemented other work undertaken at that time, for example in a special issue on the meanings of genomics published by New Genetics and Society (Calvert & Hauskeller, 2004) and a special issue on genomic discourses published by Discourse & Society (Nerlich et al., 2004). It added new dimensions to these volumes by exploring in more depth cognitive, cultural and historical differences in genomic discourses.

The microbiome

Then a few years passed and new genetics moved on from the genome to the microbiome. Iina and I charted that change in an article entitled “Beyond the human genome: Microbes, metaphors and what it means to be human in an interconnected post-genomic world”. The article was published in 2009. Little did we know that a decade later the microbiome would ‘explode’, so to speak.

Four years after the completion of the Human Genome Project, the US National Institutes for Health launched the Human Microbiome Project on 19 December 2007. Using metaphor analysis, this article investigated reporting in English-language newspapers on advances in microbiomics from 2003 onwards, when the word “microbiome” was first used. This research was said to open up a “new frontier” and was conceived as a “second human genome project”, this time focusing on the genomes of microbes that inhabit and populate humans rather than focusing on the human genome itself. The language used by scientists and by the journalists who reported on their research employed a type of metaphorical framing that was very different from the hyperbole surrounding the decipherment of the “book of life”. Whereas during the HGP genomic successes had been mainly framed as being based on a unidirectional process of reading off information from a passive genetic or genomic entity, the language employed to discuss advances in microbiomics frames genes, genomes and life in much more active and dynamic ways.

Synthetic biology

And then…. along came synthetic biology. So, of course, Iina and I had to write something about the metaphors used to frame that new genetic enterprise. The 2011 paper was entitled metaphorically “Synthetic biology: Building the language of a new science brick by metaphorical brick”. We prefaced our article with a quote by Richard Jones from 2010, which still resonates today: “How much do we need to worry about a few arguable metaphors? Here, more than usually, because it is these ideas of complete control and the reduction of biology to the digital domain that are so central in investing the visions of synthetic biology with such power.”

In this article we examined metaphors used in English-speaking press coverage to conceptualise a new type of (interdisciplinary) bioscience: synthetic biology. Findings showed that three central metaphors were used between 2008 and May 2010. They exploit social and cultural knowledge about books, computers and engines and are linked to knowledge of three revolutions in science and society (the printing, information and industrial revolutions). These three central metaphors are connected to each other through the concepts of reading/writing, designing and mass production and they focus on science as a revolutionary process rather than on the end results or products of science. Overall, we observed the use of a complex bricolage of mixed metaphors and chains of metaphors that root synthetic biology in historical events and achievements, while at the same time extolling its promises for the future.

Epigenetics

At the same time as synbio emerged on the new genetics horizon, another new field began to make itself heard, namely epigenetics. Aleksandra Stelmach, then my PhD student, now co-worker and colleague, and I made a first incursion into the metaphorical landscape emerging around that field. The article entitled “Metaphors in search of a target: The curious case of epigenetics” appeared in 2015 in a special issue devoted to epigenetics and society.

Carrying out research in the fields of genetics and genomics and communicating about them would not be possible without metaphors such as “information,” “code,” “letter” or “book.” Genetic and genomic metaphors have remained relatively stable for a long time but are now beginning to shift in the context of synthetic biology and epigenetics. This article charts the emergence of metaphors in the context of epigenetics, first through collecting some examples of metaphors in scientific and popular writing and second through a systematic analysis of metaphors used in two UK broadsheets. Findings show that while source domains for metaphors can be identified, such as our knowledge of electrical switches or of bookmarks, it is difficult to pinpoint target domains for such metaphors. This may be indicative both of struggles over what epigenetics means for scientists (natural and social) and of difficulties associated with talking about this, as yet, young field in the popular press.

These struggles over definitions and metaphors continue to this day! See my previous blog post!

Image: Pixabay: Literature

  The post New genetics and society: A retrospective appeared first on Making Science Public.

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[filipeteimuraz]

The Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Scannable Content

Rarely do people read content from beginning to end.

Maybe it’s because of our “microwave,” instant gratification culture. Maybe it’s because millions of other articles are vying for people’s attention.

Or maybe it’s because reading from screens takes about 25% longer than reading from paper. Research has even indicated that readers experience an unpleasant feeling when reading online text.

Whatever the case may be, it’s crucial to take the right approach when writing for online readers—a new approach.

There’s a certain art to digital writing that differs significantly from writing traditional paper text.

If you expect to convert more of your audience into actual customers, you need to crack the code.

You need to switch up your game plan.

In my early days of writing, I didn’t realize this. I had an eye for visual appeal, but I was unsure of how this applied to blogging. There I was, blogging away every day without realizing how people were viewing my articles.

Now, I have a better idea of how people interact with written content online.

What you’re viewing right now is a result of my research and testing.

It’s about scannable content.

What you’re up against

First, let me set the stage for the idea of scannable content.

Did you know that 55% of people spend fewer than 15 seconds actively on a page?

That’s not ideal when your goal is to keep visitors exploring and to get them interested in your product/service/brand.

You’ve got only a small window to grab their attention and motivate them to read your content. And it’s not realistic to expect visitors to read it in its entirety. Hardly anyone does that anymore.

In fact, research on the way people read websites found that only 16% of their subjects read a webpage word by word. Most participants—79% of the test subjects—scanned new pages they came across.

The takeaway is that less than two out of 10 people will actually read an entire blog post. The vast majority will be highly selective about what they read and will merely scan through it.

Another interesting thing is that just because content gets shared doesn’t mean reading engagement increases.

Chartbeat analyzed 10,000 articles shared on social media and found “that there was no relationship whatsoever between the amount a piece of content is shared and the amount of attention an average reader will give that content.”

This graph illustrates this phenomenon:

What’s the solution?

It’s simple. You need to become adept at writing scannable content. This is what the modern digital reader is looking for (whether they consciously know it or not).

What exactly is scannable content?

According to Forbes,

“scannable content is short, sweet and to the point. Sentences and paragraphs are brief. Bold text and bullet points highlight key points. Links to other content are used to provide your readers with supplemental information.”

This writing format is geared toward 21st century readers, who primarily read content on a screen as opposed to a book or any other print publication.

It’s specifically tailored to streamline the way readers absorb information to keep them interested.

And it works.

Dr. Jakob Nielsen even found that scannable online content boosted readability by 57%. If you’re used to conventional writing (e.g., large blocks of text), you need to throw that approach out the window.

You need to embrace scannability. Fortunately, there’s a step-by-step process you can follow.

1. Write short paragraphs

You might have noticed that I prefer to use short paragraphs in my content.

Really short. In fact, a lot of my paragraphs are only a single sentence in length.

That’s not by accident.

I would say that this technique is perhaps the most important when it comes to creating scannable content.

Allow me to provide you with an example. Here’s a large, ugly block of text:

You probably find yourself straining your eyes to read through it.

And here’s some text broken down into much smaller, more digestible chunks:

Which do you find more aesthetically pleasing and easier to read?

I would bet you’d say the second one.

It’s broken up in a way that allows you to move seamlessly from one point to the next without it taxing your brain in the process.

The key is to include only one idea per paragraph and make it a maximum of four sentences. However, I try to stick with just one to three.

Remember that white space is your friend, so use plenty of it to break up text into smaller chunks.

2. Keep your sentences short

There’s no reason to drag your content out by writing long-winded sentences and using PhD-level vocabulary words that only the academic elite will understand.

You need to remember that your audience will consist of a lot of different readers with varying levels of education (and vocabulary).

If readers have to continually check the dictionary just to understand what you’re trying to say, it defeats the whole purpose.

That’s why you’re better off keeping your sentences fairly brief and not getting overly wordy just for the sake of sounding smart.

As a rule of thumb, any more than 16 words per sentence is too long.

Be practical, and try to simplify complex information as much as possible so that everyone can understand it. “Dumb it down” if you have to, but keep the value high.

3. Follow the four-syllable rule

A simple strategy to ensure your writing isn’t wordy is to avoid using any words with more than four syllables.

For instance, you would want to stay away from:

Unintelligibly

Appropriation

Lackadaisical

You get the idea.

Your readers should be able to maneuver their way through your content without becoming exhausted during the process.

4. Use subheaders

Most readers won’t be interested in every single point of your article.

Instead, most readers would prefer to bounce around to seek out the few pieces of key information that interest them the most.

You can accommodate this desire by including several subheaders throughout the body of your content.

This breaks it down in a logical way that makes your content “flow.”

If you read posts from any of my blogs including Quick Sprout, Crazy Egg, and Neil Patel, you’ll notice that I take full advantage of subheaders.

They serve as a quick and easy way to locate main points and accelerate the scanning process. Just make sure that each subheader encapsulates what the following paragraphs cover.

Also, try not to get too clever or cute about it. Instead, keep your subheadings simple and practical.

5. Use bullet points

Who doesn’t love bullet points? I know I do.

They seamlessly break down information so readers can extract key data without having to think too much about it.

Here’s a good example of bullet points used to perfection:

Rather than writing out your list in a sentence, separating your points by commas, create a bullet list, and your readers will love you for it.

6. Sprinkle in images

Images serve two distinct purposes.

First, they serve as an eye candy and fulfill your reader’s subconscious desire for visual stimuli.

Second, they provide periodic breaks between blocks of text.

Both help keep readers on your site for longer and encourage them to engage with your content.

I try to throw in an image at least every few paragraphs or so because I know the images I use enrich my content with information and add validity to my points.

I recommend using data-driven pictures (like graphs) or images to serve as examples, rather than merely using “placeholders,” because these will really add to the overall depth of your content.

7. Add links to external sources

To add authority and credibility to your writing, it’s a good idea to include quotes, data points, graphs, etc. from reliable sources.

I do this with pretty much every piece of content I write. It backs up my argument and proves that I’m not just pulling statistics out of thin air.

But since it’s not practical to include every gory detail, you’ll want to simply include a key sentence or two and insert a link to the original source.

If your readers wish to learn more about a certain topic you cover, they can simply visit the link. As a result, this won’t bog down your content with extraneous information.

8. Create lists

I love lists.

There’s something about breaking down content in a logical, sequential order I find satisfying. It keeps things neat and tidy.

Apparently, I’m not alone.

A study performed by Buzzsumo and Okdork analyzed over 100 million articles to determine which received the most shares. According to their findings, lists were the second most shareable format (only infographics were shared more).

If you really want to maximize the scannability of your content, use plenty of lists.

I’m not saying do this for every single piece of content you create because it will become redundant, but 50% or so should be a good number to shoot for.

Lists are a great weapon to have in your arsenal because they lend themselves to being scanned naturally.

Conclusion

Creating scannable content has arguably never been more important than it is today.

By accommodating the modern online reader and presenting information in a streamlined, visually appealing way, you can improve the reader’s experience.

This technique is also effective for preventing “cognitive overload,” which can drain a reader’s mental energy.

The end result is happier readers who spend more time on your site and who are more likely to convert.

http://www.quicksprout.com/the-step-by-step-guide-to-creating-scannable-content/ Read more here - http://review-and-bonuss.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-step-by-step-guide-to-creating.html

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CEE event showcases multidisciplinary opportunities

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s ninth annual Research Speed Dating event featured a well-rounded display of research from both civil and environmental engineering disciplines, from human microbiomes, carbon partitioning of plants, climate change, and urban pollution to recovering from major storm damage, algorithms for car-sharing networks, and integrating autonomy into transportation systems. The Feb. 15 event brought together a wide range of faculty, research scientists, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates to present their research findings.

Assistant Professor Tami Lieberman kicked off the event by highlighting her research that investigates how to add a microbe to an already established microbiome. Lieberman conducts her research through the lens of evolution, using DNA sequencing in order to identify how bacteria spreads between people, and how it is evolving within humans as they coexist with other adapted mutations. 

Lieberman, who is one of the department’s newest faculty members, explained that she is searching for expertise within lipid characterization, directed evolution, DNA, large data, and high-throughput microbiology. Her lab plans to explore many different areas such as the colonization of new bacterial strains, disease-specific adaptation, colon cancer, host-specificity, and immune responses to bacteria and probiotics. 

Switching gears from the world of microbiomes to the biosphere was PhD student Josh Moss in Professor Jesse Kroll’s lab. The Kroll lab studies atmospheric chemistry, and Moss’ research is concerned with various aspects of urban pollution, such as how smog forms, the reactions of certain chemicals in the atmosphere, and secondary organic aerosol. 

“When discussing smog, we talk about it in terms of secondary organic aerosol, and look at what humans and the biosphere emit as primary gasses that react in the atmosphere with oxidants such as OH radical and ozone to form secondary gases. They tend to either form new particles or they will condense onto existing particles to create smog; the mixture of particles and gasses which forms in the presence of UV light,” Moss explained. 

Incorporating computer modeling in conjunction with physical experiments in the lab has elicited many exciting opportunities to explore new avenues within his discipline, Moss said.

Moving the discussion from urban pollution to plant biology was Assistant Professor Dave Des Marais, who gave his talk on how plants respond to environmental stressors. He discussed how climate change is impacting growing seasons and is seeking ways to understand these issues. He explained that there is a lot of opportunity for collaboration and research within this field, including the chance to work with a lab in Israel to study numerous variables over time. 

Incoming Gilbert W. Winslow Assistant Professor Cathy Wu, who will officially begin her position in CEE this June, switched gears and introduced the audience to the world of transportation. Wu’s research is centered around the integration of autonomy into transportation systems. 

She said she aims to challenge conventional transportation systems by looking at the ways in which technology will influence certain systems for the better, making a difference in the long run. Wu came to the realization that researchers do not have a strong understanding of the potential impact autonomous vehicles could have on society.

“These vehicles can potentially provide access to one third of the population including the youth, the elderly, and the disabled. So, I set out and studied robotics, and then became determined to understand the impact of autonomous vehicles on the transportation system,” said Wu.

Wu’s interest in transportation continues to grow. “In the U.S, we have 37,000 traffic accidents each year, it is the leading cause of death in young people, and a vast majority of these accidents are caused by human error,” she explained. “Additionally, we waste 7 billion hours from people sitting in traffic each year, and more than a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions comes from transportation.”

Wu is investigating transportation through deep reinforcement learning — learning policy in order to maximize reward — simulations, and flow traffic LEGO blocks. Moving forward, she is interested in two technical aspects, reliability and scalability in terms of the types of decisions that can be made for urban systems. “There are so many rich perspectives in this department, and I am excited to see the interplay of this when it comes to decision-making,” concluded Wu.

Graduate student Andrew Feldman, who later went on to receive the best lightning talk award, presented on water exchange patterns in the soil-plant continuum based on SMAP Microwave Satellite Measurements. Feldman works with Bacardi Stockholm Water Foundations Professor Dara Entekhabi’s lab to study soil moisture and vegetation water content observations from NASA’s SMAP satellite in order to evaluate plant water storage changes following rainfall. 

New to the event this year was a panel discussion on the future of research in infrastructure and environment, moderated by Leon and Anne Goldberg Professor of Humanities, Sociology, and Anthropology Susan Silbey. Silbey serves as chair of the MIT faculty and is also a professor of behavioral and policy sciences within the MIT Sloan School of Management. 

“As a social scientist, I have a logical interest in the physical platform of social life, that is the natural and built environment within which social action takes place,” explained Silbey. “My research aims to understand how and when environmental, health, and safety regulations are more or less successful in managing hazards. More specifically, I study how management systems are introduced to control environmental, health, and safety hazards in laboratories. It seems to me my work and CEE addresses the same or overlapping phenomena.” 

The panel included CEE Professor Colette Heald, Paul M. Cook Career Development Assistant Professor Benedetto Marelli, JR East Professor of Engineering Professor Ali Jadbabaie, and Breene M. Kerr Professor Elfatih Eltahir. 

The discussion covered crucial topics such as the challenge of connecting engineering disciplines with the humanities in order to accomplish more as a society. A recurring issue that was brought up by the panel was how the department intends to solve environmental problems. 

“The climate is evolving and changing and there are increasing needs for adapting to that new climate, involving infrastructure in a major way. How do we engineer a process of societal adaptation? I think we are in a unique position as a department to address this concern,” said Eltahir. 

Heald supported that argument. “A National Academy of Sciences report about the future of engineering explained that the 20th century was regulation-driven, and the 21st century will be challenge-driven,” she said. “I think this is a great way to think about our department.” 

Heald and Eltahir agreed that the diversity of the department places CEE in a unique position to capitalize on the expertise available when tackling global issues. “Our diverse knowledge is beneficial when taking on climate change, and we can provide opportunity in various disciplines including infrastructure, systems, and the environment,” said Heald.

Eltahir explained that having a connection to the social sciences would be something that the department should consider seriously. He emphasized the challenge of consumerism, as a cultural and societal problem throughout the U.S, Europe, and China. “We live in a world that has limited resources, and the global society behaves with the implicit assumption that there are no limits,” explained Eltahir. 

“I thought it was a very interesting and thought-provoking afternoon; I think lots of departments, labs, and centers should stage such inviting and informative events,” said Silbey. 

The final portion of the evening included a digital poster presentation, which encouraged networking and collaboration between researchers in the department. More than 20 students, ranging from first-year students to postdocs, presented their digital posters.

Postdoc Fabiola Sanchez won honorable mention for her poster about the dynamics of the active-growing bacterial community in the estuarine environment during a 24-hour period. Her poster explains that the active community is different from the total, and its abundance exhibits a strong correlation with the chlorophyll levels and the day-night cycle.

The runner up, senior Stephanie Chin, presented a poster about analyzing noisy data with limited training data, based on a CNN approach, for the specific application of a traffic surveillance camera. This approach could help adapt general-purpose models for domain-specific content and applications, such as traffic surveillance images. 

PhD student Isabelle Su’s winning poster, “Exploring a Spider Web’s Structure with Sound,” explained the use of sonification in order to visualize complex 3-D spider web data through sound. Su created an interactive sonification model that can be used as a versatile data exploration tool, for instance, to find spider web patterns, as a creative platform or recreated for similar data networks. 

After announcing the prizes, the night concluded with a dinner for the participants and their colleagues, allowing for further networking opportunities. Inspiring research talks, a panel discussion, and digital poster presentation session successfully displayed the bright future that CEE has ahead. 

“Research speed dating gives the community of students, postdocs, staff, and faculty an opportunity to present their research and collaborative opportunities to their colleagues,” said McAfee Professor of Engineering and department head Markus Buehler. “The panel addressed many issues regarding climate change and efforts that call for numerous disciplines to come together when addressing critical challenges of infrastructure and environment. This event certainly highlighted the inspiring research that intends to solve the imperative large-scale societal issues of today, where science and engineering play a crucial role.” 

CEE event showcases multidisciplinary opportunities syndicated from https://osmowaterfilters.blogspot.com/