The arXiv of the future will not look like the arXiv

Alberto Pepe

and 2 collaborators

The arXiv is the most popular preprint repository in the world. Since its inception in 1991, the arXiv has allowed researchers to freely share publication-ready articles prior to formal peer review. The growth and the popularity of the arXiv emerged as a result of new technologies that made document creation and dissemination easy, and cultural practices that incentivized collaboration and data sharing. The arXiv represents a unique place in the history of research communication and the Web itself, however it has arguably changed very little since its creation. Here we look at the strengths and weaknesses of arXiv in an effort to identify what possible improvements can be made based on new technologies not previously available. Based on this, we argue that a modern arXiv might in fact not look at all like the arXiv of today.

The statistical likelihood of Steph Curry's ridiculous shooting streak

Nathan Jenkins

The best 3-point shooters in the NBA hit around 40% of their attempts with Kyle Korver leading the way at nearly 50%. An oft-forgotten detail is that these numbers occur against NBA level defenses. What would these guys shoot under little or no pressure, ie what would they shoot in practice?

Results: Statistical Learning for Metabolites detected in newly diagnosed diabetes patients

Daniel Kennedy

and 2 collaborators

Background/Motivation

Glucose dependency renders the developing brain particularly vulnerable to the dysglyacemic insults of type 1 diabetes [1]. Whilst much of the research to date has focussed upon the impacts of diabetic dysglycaemia after diagnosis, recently there has been a focus upon the brain impacts of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) [2-5]. DKA can occur at any time but affects up to 15-70An understanding of the exact cellular mechanisms of cerebral oedema has remained elusive- due in part to the infrequency of the problem and the idiosyncratic nature of each clinical episode of resuscitation. In vitro and in vivo animal studies have thus been employed to identify the pathophysiology of cerebral oedema in DKA with both potential vasogenic and cytotoxic mechanisms being identified [2, 3, 11-13]. Previously we have reported data from a cohort of patients presenting with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes during childhood with or without DKA [10]. In the primary report we identified transient regional brain volume changes that were associated with executive function performance 6 months thereafter. This was associated with lower levels of neuronal activity (as spectroscopically measured by N-acetylaspartate [NAA]) in frontal grey matter and basal ganglia. Other investigators have also shown lower levels of NAA levels in the basal ganglia in children during DKA [14]. The purpose of this study then is to expand our understanding of the sequence and nature of cellular injury in the brain in children with DKA. In order to do this, we have investigated a broader range of spectroscopically measured metabolites that are associated with neuronal function and integrity in a series of prospective and longitudinal assessments in our DKA study cohort.

The data set was obtained from a cohort of newly diagnosed diabetes patients, some of whom had DKA. Measurements were made at 1, 5, 28 days and again at 6 months. Variables include volume, neuropsychological testing, MRI and single voxel MRS recorded from basal ganglia, frontal grey and white matter. The data-set resulted in a large number of variables with high ’noise’.

There was little prior knowledge of relationships between variables, and so an exploratory methodology was undertaken with few modeling assumptions.

Variable Abbreviation Key
Variable Name	Type	Abbreviation
Frontal Grey Matter	Region	FGM
Frontal White Matter	Region	FWM
Left Basal Ganglia	Region	LBG
myo-Inositol	Metabolite	mI
N-Acetylaspartarte	Metabolite	NAANAAG
Glutamine-Glutamate	Metabolite	GluGln
Choline	Metabolite	GPCPCh

Citi Bike Trips Distance Analysis for Men and Women

Ruben Hambardzumyan

Citi Bike is one of the most commonly preferred options for public transportation in New York. As such, it continuously collects millions of rows of data about its customers and subscribers, that contain significant insights reflecting various behavioural patterns of Citi Bike’s users. Particularly, considering that men in average are physically more developed, do they cycle longer distances than women? In this article, a research of the platform’s data has been conducted to discuss the issue and the results have been discussed.

Interactive Drake Equation

Matteo Cantiello

In order to estimate the number of technological civilizations that might exist among the stars, in 1961 Frank Drake proposed a simple equation. Below you can play with an interactive plot showing the number N of communicative civilizations in the Galaxy as function of their average longevity L. You can change the values of the various parameters using the sliders.

Research Olympics

Josh Nicholson

and 2 collaborators

The 2016 Olympics have captivated the world -- records are breaking, medal counts are climbing, and nationalism is roaring! It's all very exciting. It should get even more exciting in Tokyo in four years time at the 2020 games when several new sports are scheduled to be introduced, including surfing, skateboarding, and... research! Okay, research definitely won't be included, but what if it were? How would each country fare? Here we look at research output vs. Olympic prowess on a per-country basis.