American Philosophical Society

About: American Philosophical Society is a other organization based out in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Philosophy of science & Antibody. The organization has 43 authors who have published 44 publications receiving 444 citations.

Molecular mapping of Osp-A mediated immunity against Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease.

Abstract: It is paradoxical that although antibodies to the outer surface protein (Osp) A of Borrelia burgdorferi protect mice against infection and that immunization of uninfected mice with Osp-A is protective, antibodies to Osp-A induced early in natural infection of mice are not curative. A region recognized by a neutralizing mAb is also recognized by sera from chronically infected or immunized mice but is not bound by sera from mice infected for 15 days. Infection in mice, despite the presence of early Osp-A antibody, may therefore be explained in part by the lack of response to this epitope. Sera from infected humans recognizes this region, although in this case the immune response to Osp-A occurs only late in infection. Nonetheless, the fact that both human sera and sera from mice immunized with Osp-A bind a conformationally dependent epitope that localizes to the same region tentatively suggests that humans are able to respond to a protective epitope and that an Osp-A-based vaccine may elicit protective immunity in humans.

James Keill, George Cheyne, and Newtonian physiology, 1690–1740

Abstract: Mechanical explanations of human physiology proliferated in the seventeenth century. The anatomic and physiological discoveries made in the fifty years between Descartes's Traite de l'homme (written 1633) and Newton's Principia (1687) led to the playing of increasingly convoluted variations on this theme of the mechanical philosophy. In one variation, Giovanni Borelli and Lorenzo Bellini applied the new mechanics of Galileo and his followers to human anatomy, particularly to the description of muscular motion. In another, Boyle's mechanical chemistry was called upon to explain a variety of physiological functions from respiration to digestion to animal heat. Following in this pattern, Newtonian dynamics could have added yet another variation. But, as Newton himself was well aware, the possible existence of short-range forces analogous to gravity could rework the theme of the mechanical philosophy itself.' Newton had early recognized that short-range forces had obvious implications for physiological explanation; his 1692 essay "De natura acidorum" included several comments on this topic. In query 23 (known to us, from its position in later editions, as query 31) of the 1706 Opticks he presented several chemical examples of short-range attractions that related to animal function, such as fermentation,

Stories of impact: the role of narrative in understanding the value and impact of digital collections

Abstract: Cultural heritage institutions leverage digitization to fulfill their mission to preserve, represent, and provide access to collections under their care. Despite their common interest in documenting the progress of digitization and online access, the library, archives, and museums (LAM) sector lacks a conceptual framework for assessing and demonstrating the impact of digitized ethnographic collections. Reporting the findings of a yearlong interdisciplinary study, this article underscores the importance of storytelling in articulating the value and impact of digitized ethnographic collections held in cultural heritage institutions. We begin with an overview of the literature on the assessment and describe the methods we employed in our study. Next, we identify and discuss the different ways that stories and storytelling are strategically mobilized in conversations about the impact of digitization. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for cultural heritage practice and collection development.