Disqus - Latest Comments for cupton

Re: A Final Nail in the Coffin for Turnitin?

cupton — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 14:17:51 -0000

Every year we catch plagiarism. And I think there would be more if students thought they could get away with it. Our problem is large lab classes that change little year to year.
So...
we built a tool to compare just the files you give it: www.plagiarism3D.com
Give it 1000 lab reports from 2019, give it 1000 lab reports from 2018... and it will find common text and present it in a very easy to understand format.

Re: Plagiarism Policing and Profit

cupton — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 19:02:02 -0000

Hmm... now I'm bitter and twisted because no one really showed interest in our tool to detect plagiarism that doesn't store student's work. Perhaps it would have been easier to sell than give away.
plagiarism3D

Re: Complete genome direct RNA sequencing of influenza A virus

cupton — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 11:42:29 -0000

Abstract: "short highly conserved termi"
What's a "termi"?

Re: Anti-Turnitin manifesto calls for resistance to some technology in digital age

cupton — Wed, 21 Jun 2017 16:38:17 -0000

Are you interested in other tools for plagiarism detection?

Re: Why plagiarism is not necessarily deceitful or deserving of censure (essay)

cupton — Fri, 26 May 2017 12:45:44 -0000

New software for plagiarism detection: @plagiarism3D (Twitter).

Re: Mattel introduces new line of anti-vaccine Barbies complete with viruses and bacteria

cupton — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 15:26:11 -0000

Pardon?
Excuse me?
Speak up!

Re: Principles of Virology, Fourth Edition

cupton — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 12:42:17 -0000

Paper back versions just landed in my mailbox, very nice :-)
Are the figures available for teaching?

Re: First checked bag fee: why?

cupton — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 12:52:13 -0000

Is that an extra $50 for a Victoria to Vancouver return flight?

Re: First checked bag fee: why?

cupton — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 12:26:58 -0000

Seems like the less frequent fliers are paying for the bags of the frequent fliers. Getting sick of WestJet.

Re: First checked bag fee: why?

cupton — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 12:24:09 -0000

I rarely use the toilets on a flight. I'm probably due a rebate...

Re: Virology question of the week: why a segmented viral genome?

cupton — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 19:02:25 -0000

My answer would be "Why not?"
I see +ssRNA, -ssRNA and dsRNA genomes as all part of the same process of RNA replication, just depends which has evolved to be put in the virion. (not quite the segmented genome issue)

Re: What Does 20 Million Look Like?

cupton — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:59:27 -0000

20 million is actually a vast underestimate because it doesn't reflect the fact that smallpox has been erradicated (by a vaccination program).

Re: TWiV Special: Ignorance with Stuart Firestein

cupton — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:28:17 -0000

Science is like following a fractal...

Re: Investigation: Drug Resistance, Chicken And 8 Million UTIs

cupton — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:42:06 -0000

I was just flipping the numbers around. I know that's not strictly true. So what happens in different parts of the world? Different "standards of hygiene"? etc etc. So many questions...

Re: Investigation: Drug Resistance, Chicken And 8 Million UTIs

cupton — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 20:20:14 -0000

I agree with your comment about the "collapse of mainstream journalism", but I would say "investigative journalism".

OK, there's a problem if these UTIs are caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria, BUT why do women get infections every 9 yrs???? I doubt that antibiotic resistant bacteria are more likely to cause infection (if that's true, then it's interesting too).
Is 1 every 9 years the same for world wide figures? Is it better in some countries/populations? if so why? Has the frequency changed in recent yrs? Is it constant for all ages? What else correlates?

Re: Should Science Pull the Trigger on Antiviral Drugs—That Can Blast the Common Cold?

cupton — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:52:02 -0000

Anyone know what this means: "By spinning the fluid in a centrifuge, he could isolate small clumps of
proteins that flew toward the edge as the bigger ones stayed close to
the center."

Re: Should Science Pull the Trigger on Antiviral Drugs—That Can Blast the Common Cold?

cupton — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:10:51 -0000

I agree. It's a fine line.

Re: Should Science Pull the Trigger on Antiviral Drugs—That Can Blast the Common Cold?

cupton — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:06:08 -0000

No, I do understand that it's hard to simplify material and present it in a way that can be digested by non-scientists. But as you point out, I'm not talking about an act of omission - it is a rather an important fact about virus replication.
I do agree that most readers won't care or notice, but if I send my students to read it as a review - they may dismiss the rest of the article because of the error.
I have several of the author's books (I like them). I expect he'd like to know about such errors.

Re: Should Science Pull the Trigger on Antiviral Drugs—That Can Blast the Common Cold?

cupton — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:53:14 -0000

Sorry, actually, the first caption says that models were printed in 3-D, so they are "photos".

Re: Should Science Pull the Trigger on Antiviral Drugs—That Can Blast the Common Cold?

cupton — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:40:25 -0000

I don't think that's a good representation of the HIV virus. And it's misleading to label it a "photo".

Re: Should Science Pull the Trigger on Antiviral Drugs—That Can Blast the Common Cold?

cupton — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:28:15 -0000

Most RNA viruses DO NOT replicate in the nucleus, neither do the poxviruses. So "All viruses replicate in essentially the same way, and the new
generation of antiviral drugs aims to disrupt that process at different
points. Here’s how they work.—C.Z." is a very great over simplification.

Re: Free Technology for Teachers: Oolone - A Visual Search Engine That I Can Now Recommend

cupton — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:13:10 -0000

Hmmm, I don't like being restricted to viewing 4 images at a time. Maybe there's a way around that.
With Google, I can quickly scan 100s of images.

Re: TWiV 100: TWiV catches a big fish

cupton — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:54:08 -0000

Awesome. I remember sitting in a virology lecture as a student and our Prof announced the discovery of mRNA splicing!!

Re: Are all virus particles infectious?

cupton — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:26:38 -0000

OK, for a virus like polio (+sense ssRNA) to generate progeny virus,
1) the infecting virus has to release a "competent genome" (full length, no debilitating mutations);
2) the genomic RNA has to "connect" with a ribosome and be completely translated - perhaps multiple times;
3) the resulting polyprotein has to undergo the correct self-cleavages (is this more efficient in trans rather than cis);
4) the replication complex then has to generate a template (-sense ssRNA) before the genome is degraded;
5) the replication complex has to then generate new genomic RNA before the template is degraded.

I would have guessed that upon initial infection all these steps would have a probability of success considerably lower than 1 due to concentration effects.
Transcription and translation of almost 10kb takes quite a while - and this length is about 10 x the average eukaryotic mRNA. I would also expect eukaryotic translation rates have evolved to favor the "average message", perhaps at the expense of error/success rates.

All in all, I think that if single polio genome enters a cell, it has a very low probability of successfully generating progeny virus.

Re: I bet Moses didn't have as much trouble timetabling lectures as I do

cupton — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:03:28 -0000

Phew, I should be able to make it to retirement without having to learn anything new :-)