What are aggregations and what types of them exist? What is their role in human anatomy, information technology and sociology? Are they useful or not? We will talk about this in the framework of this article.
general information
First, let's get acquainted with what the term “aggregation” is. This word is used to denote the process of combining different elements into one common system. This is such a general concept that it can be used in all areas where it can be observed. You can even call aggregation a meeting of a couple of people that occupy a certain space. This is hard to believe, but if you look at the works of, say, Eric Berne, this does not seem to be an invention of the author. Moreover, aggregation is a basic concept in a number of classification systems of human communities, which are used in psychology and sociology. As an alternative, they often use such a phrase as a “social group”, which is somewhat more recognizable. But this applies only to sociology and psychology. Other disciplines and fields of use often use other alternative names.
Information Aggregation
Recently, it has often been suggested that over the twenty-first century, more information was generated by a person than in his entire previous history. For example, Harvard Business Review conducted a study according to which even over the past few years, such a quantity of data has been created that they exceed everything previously formulated and presented to our attention. At the same time, there was a trend when very large arrays of high-quality and interesting content are created not by professional authors, but by ordinary people using social networks and blogs. But such data aggregation has negative consequences. First of all, it is necessary to mention the problem of information overload. This is the situation when a person receives so much data that it becomes difficult to perceive them all. There are certain problems with the distribution of free time. Thus, experts at the previously mentioned Harvard Business Review claim that now a person spends about 1/5 of his time searching on the Web, of which almost half goes to what has already been viewed. From this we can conclude that we have certain problems in terms of both obtaining new data and storing existing ones.
The social aspect of behavior
It is extremely difficult for a person to live without society.
In one way or another, practically everyone has to contact other people. This is facilitated by the aggregation of interests, and the creation of a comfortable environment. In this regard, the role of social networks is interesting (especially in terms of obtaining information). For example, ComScore conducted a study, which established that every tenth visitor to news sites before visiting them visited Facebook. Thus, we can confidently say that sites of this type are gradually increasing their role in terms of search and familiarization with information. And how much data is transferred between people during simple communication? Alas, a person is not even able to calculate it. But artificial intelligence could carry out such aggregation.
Why is this necessary?
In the general case, aggregation is a useful toolkit that helps you navigate the ever-growing flow of information that falls upon a person. Why is aggregation gaining popularity? The fact is that almost without exception people like to read not some abstract information, but what they like. And it is advisable to spend at that time on a minimum. And here, aggregation is real revelation and salvation. After all, they save time, money, form a single entry point, divide information into categories and archive, and also increase the relevance of search results. And all this is an important component of the global network, also known as the Internet. Aggregations make it possible to avoid work at micro levels (the exception is human anatomy) and work already with united groups of objects.
How did everything evolve?
Aggregations of this type take their origin, perhaps, from the time of bookmarks, which appeared in the first browsers back in 1993, and search engines, which in their original form were directories of pre-selected links by someone. Gradually, it all developed.
And when the idea of Web 2.0 and user-generated content was formed, social bookmarking services arose . At the time of their organization, they were the flagships of such a movement. Many of the solutions that arose at the time work now. Now similar services offer their services in ranking and selection of content. As a rule, this applies to news aggregates. But similar mechanisms are used by many other services, such as picture boards, and many others. Even the previously mentioned social networks, when they offer new people for dating, act in a similar way, selecting according to their interests. The logical continuation in the form of the idea of Web 3.0 is the personalization of information and the development of various methods for its delivery to the end user. And due to the increase in the size of the information flow, the load on the user will grow, and with it the quality of content filtering will improve.
Link Aggregation
We continue the conversation about information technology. In this case, it means the combination of several data channels that are parallel in the Ethernet network into one logical one. This allows you to increase the reliability of data transmission and increase throughput. Although there are various implementations with their own specific points, in general, everything looks just like that. Link aggregation is an important point in building reliable networks. In the event of damage to one wire, information will be transmitted over the other.
Programming Aggregation
The second name of this process in this case is delegation. It is used in object-oriented programming. This implies a methodology for creating a new class by including existing ones. Aggregation is also called membership relation. When a new class is created, nested objects are usually declared private. And for programmers who work with them, they become inaccessible. On the one hand, this is inconvenient. But on the other hand, the creator of the class can change objects, and the work of the existing client code will not be disrupted. In addition, this all allows you to make the interaction more dynamic and flexible within certain boundaries.
Platelet Aggregation
But this concept does not live by uniform information flows. There is also platelet aggregation. What it is? This is the name of the process of adhesion (gluing) of platelets under the influence of specific stimulants among themselves. Is that all platelet aggregation? What is it at the micro level? Special inducers contribute to this: serotonin, adrenaline, thromboxane A2, ADP, unstable prostaglandins, and thrombocyte activating factor. When and how everything will happen, determine the glycoproteins of platelet membranes IIb / IIIa, when they interact with each other with fibrinogen. Could it be that platelet aggregation is disrupted? What is this in perspective? In this case, a person has bleeding. With a more detailed examination, he is diagnosed with a disease based on a deficiency (usually congenital) of glycoproteins or fibrinogen.
Cell aggregation
This topic in biology is considered slightly separate from the case of platelets. But in general, aggregation here also represents cell adhesion. A similar phenomenon can be observed only in multicellular formations. This process itself is a "sorting", during which the same type stick together, while the different types remain divided. Cell aggregation is observed both in artificial and in vivo. The intensity with which this process proceeds depends on the ionic composition of the medium and temperature. This phenomenon itself can be both positive and negative. A good example of the second case is red blood cell aggregation. By this is meant the formation of agglomeration of blood bodies of different densities and sizes when microcirculation is disturbed. And this is already causing negative consequences. The most significant is the deterioration of the
rheological properties of blood. This can be observed in cases where a person develops malaria, pneumonia or has a shock condition.