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Research on methods for measuring examinee engagement with constructed-response items is limited. The present study used data from the PISA 2018 Reading domain to construct and compare indicators of test-taking effort on constructed-response items: response time, number of actions, the union (combining effortless responses detected by either response time or number of actions measures or both), and the intersection of response time and number of actions (responses identified as effortless by both response time and number of actions measures). A 10% normative threshold identification method was used for both response time and number of actions. Pre-defined validation criteria were used to explore the validity of each of the four indicators. Number of actions yielded a similar number of effortless responses as the union measure. Response time and intersection measures also had similar results and were related to lower disengagement than the number of actions and union indicators. With the normative threshold identification method, number of actions and the union of the two process data may result in a higher level of response misclassifications on some constructed-response items than response time and the intersection measures. Response time appears to be a more valid indicator of test-taking effort on constructed-response items than number of actions.

BackgroundAccessible self-management interventions are required to support people living with breast cancer. ObjectiveThis was an industry-academic partnership study that aimed to collect qualitative user experience data of a prototype app with built-in peer and coach support designed to support the management of health behaviors and weight in women living with breast cancer. MethodsParticipants were aged ≥18 years, were diagnosed with breast cancer of any stage within the last 5 years, had completed active treatment, and were prescribed oral hormone therapy. Participants completed demographic surveys and were asked to use the app for 4 weeks. Following this, they took part in in-depth qualitative interviews about their experiences. These were analyzed using thematic analysis. ResultsEight participants (mean age, 45 years; mean time since diagnosis, 32 months) were included. Of the 8 participants, 7 (88%) were white, 6 (75%) had a graduate degree or above, and 6 (75%) had stage I-III breast cancer. Four overarching themes were identified: (1) Support for providing an app earlier in the care pathway; (2) Desire for more weight-focused content tailored to the breast cancer experience; (3) Tracking of health behaviors that are generally popular; and (4) High value of in-app social support. ConclusionsThis early user experience work showed that women with breast cancer found an app with integrated social and psychological support appealing to receive support for behavior change and weight management or self-management. However, many features were recommended for further development. This work is the first step in an academic-industry collaboration that would ultimately aim to develop and empirically test a supportive app that could be integrated into the cancer care pathway.

Abstract Climate is thought to affect the structure and evolution of drainage basins, but it is not clear how climate impacts the power law scaling between channel length and drainage area. Since climate controls runoff, streamflow, and erosion regimes, we looked for dependency of drainage basin morphometrics on climate within a near‐global data set. We show that increasingly arid regions have longer channels and narrower drainage basins, and power law scaling between channel length and basin area (Hack's Law) increases monotonically with aridity. We suggest these results arise due to downstream channel extension by rare large floods that erode channels into previously unchanneled terrain, yielding a morphometric signature in drylands that is preserved over long timescales due to a lack of subsequent topographic smoothing. This new understanding of drainage basin morphometrics on Earth may be used to inform interpretations of past climates on our planet and other solar system bodies.

Water confined in nanoscale cavities plays a crucial role in everyday phenomena in geology and biology, as well as technological applications at the water–energy nexus. However, even understanding the basic properties of nano-confined water is extremely challenging for theory, simulations, and experiments. In particular, determining the melting temperature of quasi-one-dimensional ice polymorphs confined in carbon nanotubes has proven to be an exceptionally difficult task, with previous experimental and classical simulation approaches reporting values ranging from ∼180 K up to ∼450 K at ambient pressure. In this work, we use a machine learning potential that delivers first principles accuracy (trained to the density functional theory approximation revPBE0-D3) to study the phase diagram of water for confinement diameters 9.5 < d < 12.5 Å. We find that several distinct ice polymorphs melt in a surprisingly narrow range between ∼280 and ∼310 K, with a melting mechanism that depends on the nanotube diameter. These results shed new light on the melting of ice in one-dimension and have implications for the operating conditions of carbon-based filtration and desalination devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To describe progression of best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), full-field stimulus thresholds (FST), and electroretinography (ERG) over 4 years in the USH2A-related Retinal Degeneration study and to assess their suitability as clinical trial endpoints. Design: Prospective natural history study. Participants: Participants (n = 105) with biallelic disease-causing sequence variants in USH2A and BCVA letter scores of ≥54 were included. Methods: BCVA, FST, fundus-guided microperimetry, static perimetry, and spectral domain OCT were performed annually and ERG at baseline and 4 years only. Mixed effects models were used to estimate annual rates of change with 95% confidence intervals. Associations of change from baseline to 4 years between BCVA, FST, ERG, and other metrics were assessed with Spearman correlation coefficients (rs). Main Outcome Measures: Best-corrected visual acuity, FST, and ERG. Results: The annual rate of decline in BCVA was 0.83 (95% confidence interval: 0.65−1.02) letters/year. For FST, the change was 0.09 (0.07−0.11) log cd.s/m2/year for white threshold, 0.10 (0.08−0.12) log cd.s/m2/year for blue threshold, and 0.05 (0.04−0.06) log cd.s/m2/year for red threshold. Changes were 22.6 (17.4−28.2)%/year for white threshold, 26.0 (20.3−32.1)%/year for blue threshold, and 12.3 (8.7−16.0)%/year for red threshold. The high percentage of eyes with undetectable ERGs at baseline limited assessment of change. Conclusions: Best-corrected visual acuity was not a sensitive measure of progression over 4 years. Full-field stimulus threshold was a more sensitive measure; however, additional information on the clinical relevance of changes in FST is needed before this test can be adopted as an endpoint for clinical trials. Financial Disclosure(s): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.

Trois missions menées en 1993, 1998 et 1999 consacrées à l'étude de la transmission de la leishmaniose canine à Chypre ont permis la capture de plusieurs milliers de phlébotomes appartenant à onze espèces : Phlebotomus (Phlebotomus) papatasi, P. (Paraphlebotomus) alexandri, P. (Pa.) jacusieli (première mention à Chypre), P. (Pa.) sergenti, P. (Larroussius) galilaeus, P. (L) tobbi, P. (Transphlebotomus) economidesi, P. (T.) mascittii, Sergentomyia (Sergentomyia) azizi (dont les auteurs revalident le statut spécifique), S . (S.) fallax et S. (S.) minuta. P. (Adlerius) kyreniae n'a pas été retrouvé durant les prospections. Des hypothèses relatives au peuplement de l'île sont formulées (l'une au Miocène durant la crise messinienne, l'autre au Pléistocène) en accord avec cet inventaire faunistique.

Purpose: Reading and speech difficulties are common in childhood, yet it is not fully understood how much of their etiology is shared. This partly derives from methodological issues related to overlooking the potential co-occurrence between the two sets of difficulties. This study investigated the effects of five bioenvironmental predictors in a sample assessed for such co-occurrence. Method: A combination of exploratory and confirmatory analyses was performed on longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study. Exploratory latent class analysis was performed on children's reading, speech, and language outcomes at ages 7 and 11 years. Membership in the obtained classes was modeled using a regression with sex and four early-life predictors: gestation period, socioeconomic status, maternal education, and the home reading environment. Results: The model yielded four latent classes that broadly reflected (1) average reading and speech, (2) excellent reading, (3) reading difficulties, and (4) speech difficulties. Early-life factors significantly predicted class membership. Male sex and preterm birth emerged as risk factors for both reading and speech difficulties. Protective effects against reading difficulties were identified for maternal education, and lower (but not higher) levels of socioeconomic status and the home reading environment. Conclusions: Co-occurrence of reading and speech difficulties in the sample was low, and differential patterns of effect of the social environment were supported. Reading outcomes were under stronger malleable influence than speech outcomes.

Dans le foyer leishmanien cypriote, les auteurs ont disséqué 2910 femelles de phlébotomes appartenant à 11 espèces : Phlebotomus papatasi, P. sergenti, P. jacusieli, P. alexandri, P. tobbi, P. galilaeus, P. mascittii, P. economidesi, Sergentomyia fallax, S. minuta et S. azizi . Les deux larroussius (P. galilaeus et P. tobbi ) sont les espèces les plus abondantes. Elles représentent plus de 60 % des captures réalisées avec des pièges CDC. Des promastigotes ont été observées chez un seul spécimen appartenant à l'espèce P. tobbi. Elles ont été mises en culture puis identifiées selon la méthode isoenzymatique. La souche de Leishmania isolée appartient à l'espèce Leishmania infantum, zymodème MON 1. Le même zymodème a été aussi isolé et identifié chez quatre chiens de l'île. En l'absence des vecteurs habituels de L. infantum dans l'est méditerranéen (P. neglectus ef P. syriacus) et en raison de sa répartition à Chypre, P. tobbi constitue vraisemblablement un bon vecteur local. Sa faible anthropophilie expliquerait peut-être le très faible nombre de cas humains. Le rôle de P. galilaeus dans la transmission de la leishmaniose à Chypre reste à préciser.

The dataset contains geospatial information relating to hundreds of single tombs and necropoleis across Cyprus, dating to the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The data were collected by the first author for the needs of her PhD thesis. The dataset is deposited on KTISIS and is hereby made available to future research efforts for update. There is substantial reuse potential pertaining to research on Cyprus as well as the wider Mediterranean in areas ranging from ancient topography and demography to funerary material culture and burial artefacts and customs.

Biphasic interfaces are complex but fascinating regimes that display a number of properties distinct from those of the bulk. The CO2–H2O interface, in particular, has been the subject of a number of studies on account of its importance for the carbon life cycle as well as carbon capture and sequestration schemes. Despite this attention, there remain a number of open questions on the nature of the CO2–H2O interface, particularly concerning the interfacial tension and phase behavior of CO2 at the interface. In this paper, we seek to address these ambiguities using ab initio-quality simulations. Harnessing the benefits of machine-learned potentials and enhanced statistical sampling methods, we present an ab initio-level description of the CO2–H2O interface. Interfacial tensions are predicted from 1 to 500 bars and found to be in close agreement with experiment at pressures for which experimental data are available. Structural analyses indicate the buildup of an adsorbed, saturated CO2 film forming at a low pressure (20 bars) with properties similar to those of the bulk liquid, but preferential perpendicular alignment with respect to the interface. The CO2 monolayer buildup coincides with a reduced structuring of water molecules close to the interface. This study highlights the predictive nature of machine-learned potentials for complex macroscopic properties of biphasic interfaces, and the mechanistic insight obtained into carbon dioxide aggregation at the water interface is of high relevance for geoscience, climate research, and materials science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is little understanding of men's weight loss outcomes and behaviors in self-directed contexts, such as digital commercial mobile weight management programs. This is an especially pressing question given that men often express disinterest in weight management programs and it is unknown how that manifests in self-directed environments. Aims: Two studies fill this gap by retrospectively observing how men lose weight and engage in weight loss behaviors (Study 1) and their perceptions of improvements and gained knowledge (Study 2) when participating in the full length of a commercial mobile behavior change program called Noom. Method: In Study 1, repeated-measures linear mixed modeling was used to examine whether weight loss was statistically significant from baseline to 16 weeks and how engagement behaviors predicted weight in a sample of 7,495 male Noom users. In Study 2, 971 male Noom users completed an exploratory survey on the impact of the behavior change education in the program. Results: In Study 1, men who remained in the full length of the program lost statistically significant weight from baseline to 16 weeks. 63% achieved clinically meaningful (5% or more) weight loss. Engagement in weight loss behaviors on the program predicted the amount of weight lost. In Study 2, men reported learning most about practical application and psychological aspects relating to food and psychology. Discussion and Conclusion: This is the first study to observe men's weight loss outcomes, behaviors, and perceptions of what they learned in a self-directed behavior change program. Our findings have important implications for more effective health promotion for the many men who choose to self-direct their weight loss.