Logical Dreams

We discuss the past and future of set theory, axiom systems and independence results. We deal in particular with cardinal arithmetic

The BioJS article collection of open source components for biological data visualisation.

Data-driven research has gained momentum in the life sciences. Visualisation of these data is essential for quick generation of hypotheses and their translation into useful knowledge. BioJS is a new proposed standard for JavaScript-based components to visualise biological data. BioJS is an open source community project that to date provides 39 different components contributed by a global community. Here, we present the BioJS F1000Research collection series. A total of 12 components and a project status article are published in bulk. This collection does not intend to be an all-encompassing, comprehensive source of BioJS articles, but an initial set; future submissions from BioJS contributors are welcome

iAnn: an event sharing platform for the life sciences

Summary: We present iAnn, an open source community-driven platform for dissemination of life science events, such as courses, conferences and workshops. iAnn allows automatic visualisation and integration of customised event reports. A central repository lies at the core of the platform: curators add submitted events, and these are subsequently accessed via web services. Thus, once an iAnn widget is incorporated into a website, it permanently shows timely relevant information as if it were native to the remote site. At the same time, announcements submitted to the repository are automatically disseminated to all portals that query the system. To facilitate the visualization of announcements, iAnn provides powerful filtering options and views, integrated in Google Maps and Google Calendar. All iAnn widgets are freely available. Availability: http://iann.pro/iannviewer Contact: [email protected]

Variations in the Electrostatic Landscape of Class II Human Leukocyte Antigen Molecule Induced by Modifications in the Myelin Basic Protein Peptide: A Theoretical Approach

The receptor-ligand interactions involved in the formation of the complex between Class II Major Histocompatibility Complex molecules and antigenic peptides, which are essential for establishing an adaptive immunological response, were analyzed in the Class II Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) - Myelin Basic Protein (MBP) peptide complex (HLA-DRβ1*1501-MBP) using a multipolar molecular electrostatic potential approach. The Human Leukocyte Antigen - peptide complex system was divided into four pockets together with their respective peptide fragment and the corresponding occupying amino acid was replaced by each of the remaining 19 amino acids. Partial atomic charges were calculated by a quantum chemistry approach at the Hatree Fock/3-21*G level, to study the behavior of monopole, dipole and quadrupole electrostatic multipolar moments. Two types of electrostatic behavior were distinguished in the pockets' amino acids: “anchoring” located in Pocket 1 and 4, and “recognition” located in Pocket 4 and 7. According to variations in the electrostatic landscape, pockets were ordered as: Pocket 1>Pocket 9≫Pocket 4≈Pocket 7 which is in agreement with the binding ability reported for Class II Major Histocompatibility Complex pockets. In the same way, amino acids occupying the polymorphic positions β13R, β26F, β28D, β9W, β74A, β47F and β57D were shown to be key for this Receptor-Ligand interaction. The results show that the multipolar molecular electrostatic potential approach is appropriate for characterizing receptor-ligand interactions in the MHC–antigenic peptide complex, which could have potential implications for synthetic vaccine design

INTERESES COLOMBIANOS EN EL TLC

1. Teniendo en cuenta los resultados de las negociaciones del TLC, ¿cuáles cree que son los aspectos más sobresalientes a favor y en contra de los intereses patrios, en el sector de la economía? Como los resultados de la negociación todavía no se conocen a cabalidad, quisiera, en lugar de incurrir en una contabilidad detallada de ganadores y perdedores, reiterar algunos puntos generales que, en mi opinión, son fundamentales para entender qué gana y qué pierde el país con la firma del TLC. Un ..

COVID-19-Associated Orphanhood and Caregiver Death in the United States

Background: Most COVID-19 deaths occur among adults, not children, and attention has focused on mitigating COVID-19 burden among adults. However, a tragic consequence of adult deaths is that high numbers of children might lose their parents and caregivers to COVID-19- associated deaths. Methods: We quantified COVID-19-associated caregiver loss and orphanhood in the US and for each state using fertility and excess and COVID-19 mortality data. We assessed burden and rates of COVID-19-associated orphanhood and deaths of custodial and co-residing grandparents, overall and by race/ethnicity. We further examined variations in COVID-19-associated orphanhood by race/ethnicity for each state. Results: We found that from April 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021, over 140,000 children in the US experienced the death of a parent or grandparent caregiver. The risk of such loss was 1.1 to 4.5 times higher among children of racial and ethnic minorities, compared to Non-Hispanic White children. The highest burden of COVID-19-associated death of parents and caregivers occurred in Southern border states for Hispanic children, Southeastern states for Black children, and in states with tribal areas for American Indian/Alaska Native populations. Conclusions: We found substantial disparities in distributions of COVID-19-associated death of parents and caregivers across racial and ethnic groups. Children losing caregivers to COVID-19 need care and safe, stable, and nurturing families with economic support, quality childcare and evidence-based parenting support programs. There is an urgent need to mount an evidence-based comprehensive response focused on those children at greatest risk, in the states most affected

Dasty3, a WEB framework for DAS

Motivation: Dasty3 is a highly interactive and extensible Web-based framework. It provides a rich Application Programming Interface upon which it is possible to develop specialized clients capable of retrieving information from DAS sources as well as from data providers not using the DAS protocol. Dasty3 provides significant improvements on previous Web-based frameworks and is implemented using the 1.6 DAS specification

COVID-19-associated orphanhood and caregiver death in the United States

Background: Most COVID-19 deaths occur among adults, not children, and attention has focused on mitigating COVID-19 burden among adults. However, a tragic consequence of adult deaths is that high numbers of children might lose their parents and caregivers to COVID-19-associated deaths. Methods: We quantified COVID-19-associated caregiver loss and orphanhood in the US and for each state using fertility and excess and COVID-19 mortality data. We assessed burden and rates of COVID-19-associated orphanhood and deaths of custodial and co-residing grandparents, overall and by race/ethnicity. We further examined variations in COVID-19-associated orphanhood by race/ethnicity for each state. Results: We found that from April 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021, over 140,000 children in the US experienced the death of a parent or grandparent caregiver. The risk of such loss was 1.1 to 4.5 times higher among children of racial and ethnic minorities, compared to Non-Hispanic White children. The highest burden of COVID-19-associated death of parents and caregivers occurred in Southern border states for Hispanic children, Southeastern states for Black children, and in states with tribal areas for American Indian/Alaska Native populations. Conclusions: We found substantial disparities in distributions of COVID-19-associated death of parents and caregivers across racial and ethnic groups. Children losing caregivers to COVID-19 need care and safe, stable, and nurturing families with economic support, quality childcare and evidence-based parenting support programs. There is an urgent need to mount an evidence-based comprehensive response focused on those children at greatest risk, in the states most affected