Like many others, I believe that the information revolution is a constitutive moment in human history, and not only because of the development of technologies that change our habits and improve the quality of our lives. More than anything else, it is because the information revolution profoundly and dramatically changes our self-concept. That revolution is changing our understanding of the place we occupy in the universe (the erosion of anthropocentrism), forcing us to rethink our uniqueness as human beings and our human essence. I believe that the preconditions of our existence are changing dramatically nowadays, and consequently, our notions of belonging and identity require revision.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its implementing regulations prohibit federally-funded educational institutions and healthcare centers from engaging in disparate impact discrimination “on the ground of race, color, or national origin” in all of their operations.

From 2014 to 2020, we compiled radiocarbon ages from the lower 48 states, creating a database of more than 100,000 archaeological, geological, and paleontological ages that will be freely available to researchers through the Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database. Here, we discuss the process used to compile ages, general characteristics of the database, and lessons learned from this exercise in “big data” compilation.

Reliable spatially resolved compositional analysis through atom probe tomography requires an accurate placement of the detected ions within the three-dimensional reconstruction. Unfortunately, for heterogeneous systems, traditional reconstruction protocols are prone to position some ions incorrectly. This stems from the use of simplified projection laws which treat the emitter apex as a spherical cap, although the actual shape may be far more complex. For instance, sampled materials with compositional heterogeneities are known to develop local variations in curvature across the emitter due to their material phase specific evaporation fields. This work provides three pivotal precursors to improve the spatial accuracy of the reconstructed volume in such cases. First, we show scanning probe microscopy enables the determination of the local curvature of heterogeneous emitters, thus providing the essential information for a more advanced reconstruction considering the actual shape. Second, we demonstrate the cyclability between scanning probe characterization and atom probe analysis. This is a key ingredient of more advanced reconstruction protocols whereby the characterization of the emitter topography is executed at multiple stages of the atom probe analysis. Third, we show advances in the development of an electrostatically driven reconstruction protocol which are expected to enable reconstruction based on experimental tip shapes.

Implementation of clinically useful research discoveries in the academic environment is challenged by limited funding for early phase proof-of-concept studies and inadequate expertise in product development and commercialization. To address these limitations, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established the National Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) program in 2013. Three centers competed successfully for awards through this mechanism. Here, we present the experience of one such center, the Boston Biomedical Innovation Center (B-BIC), and demonstrate its remarkable success at the translation of innovations to clinical application and commercialization, as well as skills development and education.

Adolescent females are at elevated risk for the development of depression. In this study, we addressed two questions: Are pubertal hormones associated with adolescent mental health? Might this association depend on pubertal development? We tested the hypothesis that estradiol, which has been associated with adolescent social sensitivity, might interact with pubertal stage to predict depression risk at three time points in ninth and tenth grade. Hormones and pubertal development were measured ninth-grade females. Linear regression analyses were used to predict fall ninth-grade (N = 79), spring ninth-grade (N = 76), and spring tenth-grade (N = 67) Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) scores. The hypothesized model was not statistically significant, but exploratory analyses revealed that two- and three-way interactions incorporating estradiol, puberty (stage and perceived onset), and cortisol predicted current and future CDI scores. Our exploratory model did not predict changes in CDI but did account for future (spring of ninth grade) CDI scores. Specifically, estradiol was positively correlated with fall and spring ninth-grade depressive symptoms in participants with high cortisol who also reported earlier stages and later perceived onset of pubertal development. These findings suggest that hormones associated with sensitivity to the social environment deserve consideration in models of adolescent depression risk.

The lift and drag forces acting on a small spherical particle in a single wall-bounded linear shear flow are examined via numerical computation. The effects of shear rate are isolated from those of slip by setting the particle velocity equal to the local fluid velocity (zero slip), and examining the resulting hydrodynamic forces as a function of separation distance. In contrast to much of the previous numerical literature, low shear Reynolds numbers are considered ($10^{-3} \lesssim Re_{\gamma } \lesssim 10^{-1}$). This shear rate range is relevant when dealing with particulate flows within small channels, for example particle migration in microfluidic devices being used or developed for the biotech industry. We demonstrate a strong dependence of both the lift and drag forces on shear rate. Building on previous theoretical $Re_{\gamma } \ll 1$ studies, a wall-shear-based zero-slip lift correlation is proposed that is applicable when the wall lies both within the inner and outer regions of the disturbed flow. Similarly, we validate an improved wall-shear-based zero-slip drag correlation that more accurately captures the drag force when the particle is close to, but not touching, the wall. Application of the new correlations to predict the movement of a force-free particle shows that the examined shear-based lift force is as important as the previously examined slip-based lift force, highlighting the need to accurately account for shear when predicting the near-wall movement of force-free particles.