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Fathers contribute to healthy child development, but there are limited data that provide an in-depth understanding of fathers' perceptions of the challenges and rewards of fatherhood. We recruited 122 fathers from three different ethnic groups living in Atlanta, Georgia to conduct a mixed-methods research study on fathers' perceptions of the challenges and rewards of fatherhood. Challenges included financial responsibilities (56%), sleep-deprivation (47%), work-family conflict (44%), negative changes in their relationship with their partner (43%), and children crying and whining (23%). Ninety seven percent of fathers agreed that having children added meaning to their life when asked. Many indicated that having children infused their life with an invaluable sense of meaning and purpose, and inspired them to become better people. The most common spontaneously mentioned rewards included witnessing developmental milestones (38%), experiencing the child as an extension of oneself (26%), witnessing children's accomplishments (26%), and feeling loved by children (20%). In quantitative analyses, higher selfreported quality of family life was associated with living with children full-time, having fewer children, getting more sleep, having planned the first child, and minimal work-family conflict and financial stress. Finally, fathers reported increases in positive affect and decreases in negative affect over the course of the interviews, suggesting that they benefited psychologically from reflecting on and sharing their experience as fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mount Meager volcanic complex (MMVC) is one of the eight major calc-alkaline volcanic centres within the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt, Canada. MMVC volcanism spans ∼2 Ma and has been mainly intermediate to felsic in composition. However, small-volume mafic centres are located around the periphery of the Mount Meager massif and have been collectively referred to as the Mosaic Assemblage or Mount Meager basalts. Here, we present new 40Ar/39Ar ages and expanded chemical datasets for the MMVC mafic rocks. We show that mafic eruptive ages are both older and longer-lived than previously interpreted, spanning the last ∼450 ka, and occurring in four episodes at ∼440, 200, 106, and 17 ka. We also found that chemical signatures for the MMVC mafic rocks have evolved across the four periods, fluctuating from "OIB"-like melt characteristics to more typical slab-influenced, calc-alkaline, before returning to "OIB"-like in the youngest phase. These findings provide the first evidence of a temporal-chemical evolution of melt sourcing for the Garibaldi belt volcanism. Lastly, field mapping has identified edifices and deposits that are glaciovolcanic in origin (vs. nonglaciovolcanic), which were used in conjunction with our new 40Ar/39Ar age estimates to document the presence or absence of Coast Mountain sectors of earlier Cordilleran ice sheets in southwest British Columbia over the last 500 ka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The factorization method was introduced by Schrödinger in 1940. Its use in bound-state problems is widely known, including in supersymmetric quantum mechanics; one can create a factorization chain, which simultaneously solves a sequence of auxiliary Hamiltonians that share common eigenvalues with their adjacent Hamiltonians in the chain, except for the lowest eigenvalue. In this work, we generalize the factorization method to continuum energy eigenstates. Here, one does not generically have a factorization chain—instead all energies are solved using a "single-shot factorization", enabled by writing the superpotential in a form that includes the logarithmic derivative of a confluent hypergeometric function. The single-shot factorization approach is an alternative to the conventional method of "deriving a differential equation and looking up its solution", but it does require some working knowledge of confluent hypergeometric functions. This can also be viewed as a method for solving the Ricatti equation needed to construct the superpotential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The present study tries to provide a comprehensive estimate of gender differences in the years of life lost due to CVD across the major states of India during 2017–18. Methods: The information on the CVD related data were collected from medical certification of causes of death (MCCD reports, 2018). Apart from this, information from census of India (2001, 2011), SRS (2018) were also used to estimate YLL. To understand the variation in YLL due to CVD at the state level, nine sets of covariates were chosen: share of elderly population, percentage of urban population, literacy rate, health expenditure, social sector expenditure, labour force participation, HDI Score and co-existence of other NCDs such as diabetes, & obesity. The absolute number of YLL and YLL rates were calculated. Further, Pearson's correlation had been calculated and to understand the effect of explanatory variables on YLL due to CVD, multiple linear regression analysis had been applied. Results: Men have a higher burden of premature mortality in terms of Years of life lost (YLL) due to CVD than women in India, with pronounced differences at adult ages of 50–54 years and over. The age pattern of YLL rate suggests that the age group 85 + makes the highest contribution to the overall YLL rate due to CVD. YLL rate showed a J-shaped relationship with age, starting high at ages below 1 years, dropping to their lowest among children aged 1–4 years, and rising again to highest levels at 85 + years among both men and women. In all the states except Bihar men had higher estimated YLL due to CVD for all ages than women. Among men the YLL due to CVD was higher in Tamil Nadu followed by Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. On the other hand, the YLL due to CVD among men was lowest in Jharkhand followed by Assam. Similarly, among women the YLL due to CVD was highest in Tamil Nadu followed by Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. While, the YLL due to CVD among women was lowest in Jharkhand. Irrespective of gender, all factors except state health expenditure were positively linked with YLL due to CVD, i.e., as state health expenditure increases, the years of life lost (YLL) due to CVDs falls. Among all the covariates, the proportion of a state's elderly population emerges as the most significant predictor variable for YLL for CVDs (r = 0.42 for men and r = 0.50 for women). Conclusion: YLL due to cardiovascular disease varies among men and women across the states of India. The state-specific findings of gender differences in years of life lost due to CVD may be used to improve policies and programmes in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The present study tries to provide a comprehensive estimate of gender differences in the years of life lost due to CVD across the major states of India during 2017–18. Methods: The information on the CVD related data were collected from medical certification of causes of death (MCCD reports, 2018). Apart from this, information from census of India (2001, 2011), SRS (2018) were also used to estimate YLL. To understand the variation in YLL due to CVD at the state level, nine sets of covariates were chosen: share of elderly population, percentage of urban population, literacy rate, health expenditure, social sector expenditure, labour force participation, HDI Score and co-existence of other NCDs such as diabetes, & obesity. The absolute number of YLL and YLL rates were calculated. Further, Pearson's correlation had been calculated and to understand the effect of explanatory variables on YLL due to CVD, multiple linear regression analysis had been applied. Results: Men have a higher burden of premature mortality in terms of Years of life lost (YLL) due to CVD than women in India, with pronounced differences at adult ages of 50–54 years and over. The age pattern of YLL rate suggests that the age group 85 + makes the highest contribution to the overall YLL rate due to CVD. YLL rate showed a J-shaped relationship with age, starting high at ages below 1 years, dropping to their lowest among children aged 1–4 years, and rising again to highest levels at 85 + years among both men and women. In all the states except Bihar men had higher estimated YLL due to CVD for all ages than women. Among men the YLL due to CVD was higher in Tamil Nadu followed by Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. On the other hand, the YLL due to CVD among men was lowest in Jharkhand followed by Assam. Similarly, among women the YLL due to CVD was highest in Tamil Nadu followed by Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. While, the YLL due to CVD among women was lowest in Jharkhand. Irrespective of gender, all factors except state health expenditure were positively linked with YLL due to CVD, i.e., as state health expenditure increases, the years of life lost (YLL) due to CVDs falls. Among all the covariates, the proportion of a state's elderly population emerges as the most significant predictor variable for YLL for CVDs (r = 0.42 for men and r = 0.50 for women). Conclusion: YLL due to cardiovascular disease varies among men and women across the states of India. The state-specific findings of gender differences in years of life lost due to CVD may be used to improve policies and programmes in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment in family planning (FP) provides returns through a lifetime. Global evidence shows that FP is the second-best buy in terms of return on investment after liberalizing trade. In this study, we estimate the cumulative benefits of FP investments for India from 1991 to 2016 and project them up to 2061 with four scenarios of fertility levels. The findings suggest that India will have greater elasticity of FP investments to lifetime economic returns compared to the world average (cost–revenue ratio of 1:120). We have taken four scenarios for the goalpost, viz., 2.1, 1.8, 1.6, and 1.4. Although different scenarios of total fertility rate (TFR) levels at the goalpost (i.e., the year 2061) offer varied lifetime returns from FP, scenario TFR < 1.8 will be counterproductive and will reduce the potential benefits. With a comprehensive approach, if the country focuses more on improving the quality of FP services and on reducing the unmet need for FP to enhance reproductive health care and expand maximum opportunities for education and employment for both women and men, it can improve its potential to reap more benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction U.S. military pilots are required to meet certain medical standards in order to maintain an active flying status. Military pilots face potential temporary or permanent loss of flying privileges in the setting of a new condition or symptom that does not meet required standards, which could result in negative social and occupational repercussions for the pilot. For this reason, it has been proposed that U.S. military pilots participate in health care avoidance behavior, but little evidence exists to characterize such a trend in this population. Materials and Methods We conducted a non-probabilistic Internet survey of the general population of U.S. pilots from November 1, 2019 through August 1, 2021. The current study is a sub-analysis of military pilots. Results A total of 4,320 pilots answered the informed consent question, and 264 selected one military pilot type and were included in this sub-analysis. There were 72% of military pilots who reported a history of health care avoidance behavior (n  = 190), and no statistical difference was found between age groups, gender, and military pilot types. There were 55.5% of pilots who reported a history of seeking informal medical care (n  = 147), 33.7% of pilots who have flown despite a new symptom they felt required medical evaluation, 42.5% of pilots who reported withholding information on aeromedical screening (n  = 111), and 11.4% of pilots who reported a history of undisclosed prescription medication use (n  = 30). Conclusions U.S. military pilots may participate in health care avoidance behavior because of fear for loss of flying status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Ureteral stenting following uncomplicated ureteroscopy (URS) is common practice. Several studies have proven the safety of omitting routine stent placement following distal ureteral stone treatment. However, there is a paucity of data regarding the utility of stent placement for proximal URS. We designed a prospective, randomized controlled trial to evaluate the role of ureteral stent placement following URS for proximal ureteral and renal stones. Methods: Seventy-two patients with proximal ureteral or renal stones measuring as much as 1.5 cm were prospectively randomized into stented (37) or unstented (35) groups. The surgeon was blinded to the treatment group until after stone treatment. Patients tracked postoperative pain medications and completed validated pain questionnaires on postoperative days 0, 3, 7, and 28. Stents were removed on postoperative day 7. Postoperative follow-up imaging was obtained at 4 weeks. Results: No statistical differences were observed between the two groups in terms of demographics or stone characteristics. The operative time was longer in the stented group (p < 0.03). Patients in the stented group had more irritative urinary symptoms (p < 0.0001) and pain (p < 0.0001), missed more days of work (p < 0.01), and used more narcotics (p < 0.0005) during the first week, but no differences were observed at 30 days. Emergency room visits and overall complication rates were similar between the two groups. Three nonstented patients required stent placement. Two stented patients required early stent removal. Urinary tract infections developed in three stented patients, but not in unstented patients. Postoperative imaging did not reveal any hydronephrosis in either group, and the total stone-free rate was 94%. Conclusions: For most patients undergoing uncomplicated ureteroscopic treatment for proximal ureteral and kidney stones, it may be safe to omit ureteral stents to potentially decrease urinary symptoms and pain while improving short-term quality of life. Further studies with larger patient cohorts may be warranted to confirm our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE To document and compare preoperative and postoperative stance analysis measurements in animals with naturally occurring patellar luxation. ANIMALS 131 client-owned dogs surgically treated for naturally occurring unilateral or bilateral patella luxation between March 30, 2015, and February 12, 2020. PROCEDURES Weight bearing as a percent body weight on each limb was recorded with the use of a platform device for analyzing stance (PetSafe Stance Analyzer; LiteCure LLC, Companion Animal Health) preoperatively and postoperatively for all dogs. Signalment, limb affected, lameness grade, luxation direction, luxation grade, and surgical procedure were collected from patient records and assessed for the effects of these variables on weight bearing preoperatively or at the first or second postoperative recheck examination. RESULTS There were 61 males and 70 females, with a mean age and body weight of 4.62 years and 13.01 kg, included in the study. As age increased, body weight decreased in these dogs (P = .025). There was a statistically significant improvement in lameness after surgery (P = .008) at the second postoperative recheck examination. Lameness significantly decreased as postoperative time increased (P < .001, r = 0.503). As age increased, lameness at the initial visit decreased compared to younger dogs but not significantly (P = .062). There was no significant effect of preoperative luxation grade, luxation direction, surgical procedure, or sex when comparing initial lameness or lameness at recheck examination. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Surgical correction of patella luxation improves lameness as measured by postoperative stance analysis. Preoperative luxation grade or direction, surgical procedure performed, and sex of the animal did not significantly affect outcome in this group of dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Established vaccine hesitancy measurement instruments, such as the Vaccine Hesitancy Determinants Matrix, are not sufficiently equipped to adequately and consistently measure political and ideological attitudes. Focusing on Germany, which is a particularly interesting case since it witnessed the establishment of the by far most well‐organized and sustained 'anti‐Covid' movement in Europe, this quantitative study explores the impact of political ideology and partisanship on the degree of vaccine hesitancy based on four surveys (February—October 2021) among more than 30,000 individuals. We demonstrate that party affiliation, political ideology and region of residence all impact vaccine hesitancy. In fact, they turn out to have a greater impact than two factors often analysed with respect to vaccine hesitancy: gender and educational background. Further interaction models show that the effect of political ideology on vaccine hesitancy is moderated by age, gender and region of residency. For instance, while the more rightwing a young individual is, the more hesitant they are towards SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccination—for older individuals, this is not the case. Our findings are relevant for future investigators measuring vaccine hesitancy and policy makers contemplating the differential impact of complex public health interventions: as the impact of political and ideological attitudes on vaccine hesitancy are not adequately captured by established vaccine hesitancy measurement instruments, we recommend its modification to include a clear and harmonised definition of the political‐ideological dimension of vaccine hesitancy together with pre‐validated measurement items that improve future studies. In addition, we reason that vaccine hesitancy, while being an outcome of complex socio‐political factors, is in itself an indicator for societal cohesion and anomie, the degree of which is associated with trust in (health) policy makers, (public) health authorities, health service providers, etc. Therefore, we further recommend that vaccine hesitancy questions should be integrated in pertinent national surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Menarcheal timing is associated with growth, development, health, wellbeing, and reproduction across the lifespan. Although sexual orientation is a known correlate of health and developmental inequities, relatively little evolutionarily framed research has investigated sexual orientation‐based variation in maturational timing. To improve our understanding of menarcheal timing among sexual minority (SM) people, we use a biocultural‐evolutionary life history lens that takes into account the stresses of minoritization to examine the relationship between sexual orientation and self‐reported age at menarche in a sample of American adults. Methods: Using the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a large, nationally representative dataset (n = 9757), we fit multiple logistic regression models and survival curves to evaluate associations between sexual orientation, indicators of somatic and material resources during adolescence (e.g., education, citizenship, upper arm length), and self‐reported menarche. Results: SM respondents were more likely to report earlier (by 4–5 months) ages of menarche (p <.001). Post‐hoc tests revealed that these differences were driven by bisexual (p <.001) and same‐sex experienced (p <.001) relative to heterosexual and lesbian/gay respondents. Earlier menarcheal timing among SM respondents persisted after adjusting for socio‐demographic factors and proxies of developmental conditions. Discussion: Our findings reveal that SM status is associated with earlier ages of menarche, an important social and reproductive milestone. We argue that uniting life history theory with the minority stress hypothesis better explains differences in menarcheal timing by sexual orientation than previous paradigms. Investigators should attend to sexual orientation‐based variation in maturational timing using holistic, inclusive approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The height of the COVID-19 pandemic was an exceptionally stressful time for families that offered a unique opportunity to understand how stressful experiences occurring outside the relationship shape behavior occurring inside the relationship. Given the social distancing requirements of the pandemic, however, most research addressing this issue has relied on self-reports of behavior, which are susceptible to bias. In the summer of 2020, we asked a sample of married individuals living in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom to complete online questionnaires assessing neuroticism and attachment insecurity, their levels of chronic stress, and their levels of acute stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We then asked participants to submit a 10-min video of themselves and their spouse attempting to solve an important marital problem that they recorded on their smartphone or other device and uploaded to a secure server. Coders were able to reliably code the behavior of both partners using an established coding system, and the distribution of codes was similar to prior research. Consistent with predictions, participants' COVID-19 stress interacted with their neuroticism and attachment avoidance to predict their levels of oppositional behavior, controlling for their levels of chronic stress and their partner's behavior; neuroticism and attachment avoidance were associated with behaving in a more oppositional manner among participants who reported high but not low COVID-19 stress. Attachment anxiety trended toward predicting more oppositional behavior regardless of stress. These results shed light on how stress affects behavior and introduce a novel way to observe family behavior remotely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the impact of war on Newfoundland, including Labrador, while Newfoundland was independent from Canada, and the role of war in the eventual addition of Newfoundland as a province of Canada in 1949. Newfoundland's small and scattered population meant that it was never a particularly prosperous place, although the railway embodied the hope of the existence of a real future. Locally, some fishing premises and farms performed well, but there was a pervasive opinion, expressed in the degree of outmigration, that one could not do well in the territory. Its leadership went through a number of changes, from responsible government with an elected assembly in 1855 to Commission of Government in the 1930s and 1940s. But the overriding issue was the Canadian Confederation of 1867, and here the Confederates had an overall advantage, given the Canadian welfare state of the late 1940s. After a referendum following the Second World War, Newfoundland joined the union as the tenth province on 30 March 1949. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid warfare is the most common term used by commentators to describe the complexity and multifaceted character of contemporary warfare. Hybrid warfare refers to coercive methods of strategic competition that take place below the threshold of conventional military conflict and is usually applied to the blend of military and non-military methods of warfare employed by the West's principal adversaries, Russia and China. The term hybrid warfare has evolved from an essentially military concept to one that potentially embraces all the instruments of state power. Hybrid warfare remains an ill-defined and contested term, and there are many other buzzwords, such as irregular warfare, hybrid threats, and gray zone aggression, that are used to describe the same phenomenon. This article examines the evolution of thinking on hybrid warfare and these related concepts. It highlights the challenges that scholars and practitioners have faced in trying to define and apply these terms in the policy environment in a manner that promotes common understanding and strategic coherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluid intelligence is arguably the defining feature of human cognition. Yet the nature of its relationship with the brain remains a contentious topic. Influential proposals drawing primarily on functional imaging data have implicated 'multiple demand' frontoparietal and more widely distributed cortical networks, but extant lesion-deficit studies with greater causal power are almost all small, methodologically constrained, and inconclusive. The task demands large samples of patients, comprehensive investigation of performance, fine-grained anatomical mapping, and robust lesion-deficit inference, yet to be brought to bear on it. We assessed 165 healthy controls and 227 frontal or non-frontal patients with unilateral brain lesions on the best-established test of fluid intelligence, Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices, employing an array of lesion-deficit inferential models responsive to the potentially distributed nature of fluid intelligence. Non-parametric Bayesian stochastic block models were used to reveal the community structure of lesion deficit networks, disentangling functional from confounding pathological distributed effects. Impaired performance was confined to patients with frontal lesions [ F (2,387) = 18.491; P < 0.001; frontal worse than non-frontal and healthy participants P < 0.01, P <0.001], more marked on the right than left [ F (4,385) = 12.237; P < 0.001; right worse than left and healthy participants P < 0.01, P < 0.001]. Patients with non-frontal lesions were indistinguishable from controls and showed no modulation by laterality. Neither the presence nor the extent of multiple demand network involvement affected performance. Both conventional network-based statistics and non-parametric Bayesian stochastic block modelling heavily implicated the right frontal lobe. Crucially, this localization was confirmed on explicitly disentangling functional from pathology-driven effects within a layered stochastic block model, prominently highlighting a right frontal network involving middle and inferior frontal gyrus, pre- and post-central gyri, with a weak contribution from right superior parietal lobule. Similar results were obtained with standard lesion-deficit analyses. Our study represents the first large-scale investigation of the distributed neural substrates of fluid intelligence in the focally injured brain. Combining novel graph-based lesion-deficit mapping with detailed investigation of cognitive performance in a large sample of patients provides crucial information about the neural basis of intelligence. Our findings indicate that a set of predominantly right frontal regions, rather than a more widely distributed network, is critical to the high-level functions involved in fluid intelligence. Further they suggest that Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices is a useful clinical index of fluid intelligence and a sensitive marker of right frontal lobe dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Billions of salmonids are produced annually by artificial reproduction for harvest and conservation. Morphologically, behaviourally and physiologically these fish differ from wild-born fish, including in ways consistent with domestication. Unlike most studied domesticates, which diverged from wild ancestors millennia ago, salmonids offer a tractable model for early-stage domestication. Here, we review a fundamental mechanism for domestication-driven differences in early-stage domestication, differentially expressed genes (DEGs), in salmonids. We found 34 publications examining DEGs under domestication driven by environment and genotype, covering six species, over a range of life-history stages and tissues. Three trends emerged. First, domesticated genotypes have increased expression of growth hormone and related metabolic genes, with differences magnified under artificial environments with increased food. Regulatory consequences of these DEGs potentially drive overall DEG patterns. Second, immune genes are often DEGs under domestication and not simply owing to release from growth-immune trade-offs under increased food. Third, domesticated genotypes exhibit reduced gene expression plasticity, with plasticity further reduced in low-complexity environments typical of production systems. Recommendations for experimental design improvements, coupled with tissue-specific expression and emerging analytical approaches for DEGs present tractable avenues to understand the evolution of domestication in salmonids and other species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social participation is considered one of the central components of successful and healthy aging. This study aimed to examine the moderating role of marital status and living arrangement with social participation and its association with life satisfaction of older Indian adults. Samples of 31,464 individuals aged ≥ 60 years were extracted from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, wave-1. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and multivariable linear regression were performed for the analysis. The moderation effect of marital status and living arrangements on the relationship between social participation and level of life satisfaction among Indian older adults were also analyzed. Overall, life satisfaction among older men was relatively higher than older women in this study. Older adults' involvement in social participation [β = 0.39, p < 0.05], being in marital union [β = 0.68, p < 0.001] and co-residing either with spouse [β = 1.73, p < 0.001] or with other family members [β = 2.18, p < 0.001] were positively related to their greater life satisfaction. Interaction of social participation with marital status showed that participating in social activities can boost life satisfaction only among married older people. Further, moderation effect of social participation with living arrangements showed that older adults who were not involved in social participation but living with a spouse or any other household members had higher life satisfaction, and again participation in social activities increased their life satisfaction to a greater level. The establishment of social clubs and advocating social policies oriented toward meaningful social connections are highly needed, especially for older Indians living alone or currently not in a marital union, which will help to enhance their overall life satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human brain is distinct from those of other species in terms of size, organization, and connectivity. How do structural evolutionary differences drive patterns of neural activity enabling brain function? Here, we combine brain imaging and biophysical modeling to show that the anatomical wiring of the human brain distinctly shapes neural dynamics. This shaping is characterized by a narrower distribution of dynamic ranges across brain regions compared with that of chimpanzees, our closest living primate relatives. We find that such a narrow dynamic range distribution supports faster integration between regions, particularly in transmodal systems. Conversely, a broad dynamic range distribution as seen in chimpanzees facilitates brain processes relying more on neural interactions within specialized local brain systems. These findings suggest that human brain dynamics have evolved to foster rapid associative processes in service of complex cognitive functions and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity analyses across continental extents are important in providing comprehensive information on patterns and likely drivers of diversity. For vascular plants in Australia, community‐level diversity analyses have been restricted by the lack of a consistent plot‐based survey dataset across the continent. To overcome these challenges, we collated and harmonised plot‐based vegetation survey data from the major data sources across Australia and used them as the basis for modelling species richness (α‐diversity) and community compositional dissimilarity (β‐diversity), standardised to 400 m2, with the aim of mapping diversity patterns and identifying potential environmental drivers. The harmonised Australian vegetation plot (HAVPlot) dataset includes 219 552 plots, of which we used 115 083 to analyse plant diversity. Models of species richness and compositional dissimilarity both explained approximately one‐third of the variation in plant diversity across Australia (D2 = 33.0% and 32.7%, respectively). The strongest environmental predictors for both aspects of diversity were a combination of temperature and precipitation, with soil texture and topographic heterogeneity also important. The fine‐resolution (≈ 90 m) spatial predictions of species richness and compositional dissimilarity identify areas expected to be of particular importance for plant diversity, including south‐western Australia, rainforests of eastern Australia and the Australian Alps. Arid areas of central and western Australia are predicted to support assemblages that are less speciose or unique; however, these areas are most in need of additional survey data to fill the spatial, environmental and taxonomic gaps in the HAVPlot dataset. The harmonised data and model predictions presented here provide new insight into plant diversity patterns across Australia, enabling a wide variety of future research, such as exploring changes in species abundances, linking compositional patterns to functional traits or undertaking conservation assessments for selected components of the flora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective was to assess for an association between chemotherapy‐induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) onset and development of depression and anxiety in breast cancer (BrCa) survivors. Methods: A retrospective observational cohort was used and identified from Optum's De‐identified Clinformatics® Data Mart Database years 2012–2015. Three groups of women were derived based on BrCa and CIPN status: BrCa+/CIPN+ (n = 244), BrCa+/CIPN− (n = 8870), and BrCa−/CIPN− (n = 1,125,711). The ratio of the prevalence ratios (RPR) determined if the change in risk of depression and anxiety from the 12‐month preindex period to postindex period I (0–6 months) and II (7–12 months) was different for BrCa+/CIPN+ compared to BrCa+/CIPN− and BrCa−/CIPN−. Results: The adjusted RPR for depression was significantly elevated for BrCa+/CIPN+ compared to BrCa+/CIPN− and BrCa−/CIPN− for postindex periods I (RPR = 1.35 [1.10,1.65] and 1.33 [1.08,1.63], respectively) and II (RPR = 1.53 [1.21,1.94] and 1.50 [1.17,1.93], respectively). The RPR for anxiety was significantly elevated for BrCa+/CIPN+ compared to BrCa+/CIPN− and BrCa−/CIPN− for postindex periods I (RPR = 1.37 [1.12,1.67] and 1.31 [1.06,1.61], respectively) and II (RPR = 1.41 [1.13,1.76] and 1.28 [1.02,1.62], respectively). Conclusions: Among BrCa survivors, CIPN onset is associated with a subsequent increased 12‐month risk of depression and anxiety. Depression and anxiety screening should be considered in BrCa+/CIPN+ survivors, particularly given their known impact on fall risk. The observed association between CIPN and an increased risk of depression and anxiety should be further studied in prospective studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To make the network more reliable and to address energy imbalance issues the cooperative selection of dynamic relay beamforming and energy balanced operation is proposed. Statistic Autonomous Beamforming (SAB) selection of nodes includes picking dynamic relay's that is used to transmit data. SAB requires very low feedback load, and this strategy is applied for multi user methods like Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO). SAB based cooperative scheme is applied by the base station where maximum number of dynamic beams is selected for the active transmission. With the help of transmission power base station can increase the energy harvest at the receiving hub by focussing the power utilized for data transmission on dynamic relay beams. A close-form statistical distribution is derived to calculate the amount of energy harvested in the selected dynamic beams with respect to MIMO users. The performance trade off of average harvested energy, secrecy rate and residual energy of the dynamic relays and the sum rate of multiple MIMO users are analysed. The energy consumption for the proposed scheme is 28% better compared to the existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research provides mixed evidence regarding the direction of the association between sexual and marital satisfaction. Whereas some studies suggest a bidirectional association, other studies fail to document one direction or the other. The current investigation used a 12-day diary study of 287 married individuals to clarify the nature of this association. Results from time-lagged mixed modeling revealed a significant positive bidirectional association. Both higher global sexual satisfaction one day and satisfaction with sex that occurred that day predicted higher marital satisfaction the next day; likewise, higher marital satisfaction one day significantly predicted higher global sexual satisfaction the next day and higher satisfaction with sex that occurred the next day. Both associations remained significant after controlling for participant's gender/sex, neuroticism, attachment insecurity, self-esteem, stress, perceived childhood unpredictability and harshness, age of first intercourse, construal level, age, and length of marriage. We also explored whether these covariates moderated either direction of the association. Daily stress was the most reliable moderator, with three of the four interactions tested remaining significant after Bonferroni corrections. The bidirectional association between global sexual and marital satisfaction and the positive association between satisfaction with sex that occurred that day and marital satisfaction the next day were significantly stronger when individuals experienced high versus low stress. Although the exploratory nature of all moderation analyses suggests they should be replicated before drawing strong conclusions, these findings highlight the importance of sexual satisfaction to marital satisfaction and vice versa and point to the power of stress in strengthening these associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although librarians have the goal of helping patrons, one component of the librarian stereotype is that librarians are authoritarian and therefore unapproachable. The stereotype then serves as a means by which librarians become an unintended barrier to effective library use. We term this contradiction between wanting to be helpful and yet perceived as being unapproachable as the problem of the "ironic librarian." In this research, we used in-depth interviews to examine how individual reference librarians tried to resolve the problem of the ironic librarian. Respondents reported several strategies they used to make themselves more approachable and to alter patrons' expectations of librarians. Although respondents felt they were successful in enhancing their approachability, they noted that their efforts could also lead them to feel exploited by patrons. These results suggest that librarians can become more approachable and contradict the perspective that views the library as an intimidating space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Research and scholarship are critical to advance the effective design, implementation, and evaluation of health professions education activities as well as to study outcomes and disseminate observations to the community. Yet, many educators are neither involved in nor equipped to conduct quality education research. This gap underscores the continuing education need to guide and train health professions educators to rigorously investigate, prepare, and report their educational research. Methods: A novel session called the Education Research Accelerator was designed to increase knowledge about education research methods and resources and to improve participants’ competence and performance in implementing studies. A panel helped prospective researchers develop ideas or advance projects toward completion by offering real-time feedback to pitched ideas; a live audience of learners participated virtually, expanding the impact of the session, facilitating connections, and potentially inspiring other research ideas. The outcomes of the Education Research Accelerator were evaluated immediately after the session and 18 months later. Results: The Education Research Accelerator conferred favorable outcomes for participants’ competence in designing education research studies and awareness of using available resources. Long-term follow-up confirmed actual benefits to use effective methodology to advance education research projects and to use resources and connections established in the Education Research Accelerator. Conclusions: Although further study is needed, the Education Research Accelerator model is a novel intervention to enhance learning, forge needed connections, and increase the sophistication of conducting education research. We propose that the model can be replicated and applied in other settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions: (1) What can be learned by extending a national classification into unsampled forest types? (2) Are both remotely sensed and environmental predictors needed to model and map associations? (3) For mapping, are LiDAR-generated canopy structure parameters or reflectance from spectral imagery more useful? (4) How can we assess uncertainty of a final map? Location: Warawara Forest, Northland, New Zealand. Methods: We sampled 205 vegetation plots and assigned them to an existing national classification using the fuzzy classification framework of noise clustering. Plots too distinct to be assigned were used to define new associations. We produced spatial models of each association using boosted regression trees. Predictors included 11 environmental, 11 canopy reflectance, and 17 canopy structure variables. We created a composite map by assigning each map pixel to the association with the highest occurrence probability. We evaluated uncertainty by examining locations where no class was predicted with probability above 0.2 and by creating a confusion map based on entropy. Results: Forty-five plots were assigned to six of 79 existing national associations and 147 plots were used to define two new forest associations. Three shrubland types are widespread nationally, whereas two young forest types are northern. Three mature forest types are narrowly distributed nationally, with the new "High-elevation hardwood forest" largely restricted to Warawara Forest. Three associations were mapped using remotely sensed predictors alone, whereas two also required environmental predictors. Overall, canopy reflectance predictors explained more deviance than canopy structure. Examining locations where no association was predicted well and where multiple associations were predicted equally showed areas mapped as younger forests to have greatest uncertainty. Conclusions: In answering our questions, we present a vegetation classification and map for Warawara Forest that provides a framework to guide the indigenous people's management responses to threats to valued communities and their species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated rate laws in analytic form are scarce in the kinetics literature in cases where a reaction mechanism involves an autocatalytic step. As an example, we have taken up the challenge of integrating the rate law for a mechanism where an initial autocatalytic step competes with a subsequent step in which the catalyst decays unimolecularly to form the product. In addition to its chemical application, this mechanism forms the basis for theories of metabolism and chemical evolution. Even though it is one of the most elementary mechanisms possible, an exact analytic solution to the governing rate law has never been obtained in closed form. Of greatest chemical interest is the case where the autocatalytic step is much faster than the unimolecular step. This situation has the effect of enhancing the yield of the product and is known as the efficient regime. We derive a closed form analytical solution to the rate equation which is accurate in this limit. We use our analytic solution to obtain a formula for the induction time during which the rate of formation of product is accelerating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hematological malignancies place individuals at risk of CNS involvement from their hematological disease and opportunistic intracranial infection secondary to disease-/treatment-associated immunosuppression. Differentiating CNS infection from hematological disease infiltration in these patients is valuable but often challenging. We sought to determine if statistical models might aid discrimination between these processes. Neuroradiology, clinical and laboratory data for patients with hematological malignancy at our institution between 2007 and 2017 were retrieved. MRI were deep-phenotyped across anatomical distribution, presence of pathological enhancement, diffusion restriction and hemorrhage and statistically modelled with Bayesian-directed probability networks and multivariate logistic regression. 109 patients were studied. Irrespective of a diagnosis of CNS infection or hematological disease, the commonest anatomical distributions of abnormality were multifocal-parenchymal (34.9%), focal-parenchymal (29.4%) and leptomeningeal (11.9%). Pathological enhancement was the most frequently observed abnormality (46.8%), followed by hemorrhage (22.9%) and restricted diffusion (19.3%). Logistic regression could differentiate CNS infection from hematological disease infiltration with an AUC of 0.85 where, with OR > 1 favoring CNS infection and < 1 favoring CNS hematological disease, significantly predictive imaging features were hemorrhage (OR 24.61, p = 0.02), pathological enhancement (OR 0.17, p = 0.04) and an extra-axial location (OR 0.06, p = 0.05). In conclusion, CNS infection and hematological disease are heterogeneous entities with overlapping radiological appearances but a multivariate interaction of MR imaging features may assist in distinguishing them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social conflicts and political pressures represent a specific man-made hazard for heritage protection and result in contested heritage. One of the recent cases, Equestrian Indians publicly displayed in Chicago, was the subject of contestation following the Black Lives Matter protests. The aim of this paper was to critically assess heritage contestation in this case study, also demonstrating other factors influencing heritage contestation than those so far detected in theory, and to find possible coping strategies. Qualitative mixed methods were applied: desk research, critical instance case study, and unstructured interviews. Analysis was completed in line with four theories (international relations theory, collective memory theory, social movement theory and cancel culture) and the results showed: (a) that the case had no greater effect on international relations of the USA and Croatia; (b) a new type of dissonance: a reversed contestation based on a distorted narrative; (c) illusory resistance in the social movement theory; (d) a new theory termed "cancel heritage", denoting the cancel culture features a spill-over to a collective memory. Possible coping strategies for heritage protection point to the need for a more nuanced participatory approach while forgetting, but possibly the most effective method leading to a collective psychological liberation is hardly achievable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a reluctance to discuss sex and gender within the context of special education. Often, the assumption is that individuals with disabilities are asexual or too immature to have thoughts about sex and sexuality. Misconceptions about individuals with disabilities concerning sex and sexuality exclude this population from resources or avenues to explore this very important aspect of being human. Individuals with disabilities who also identify as queer face further isolation from support and a sense of community. The group of people who identify as disabled and queer struggle to find support from either of the intersectional Identities. The queer and disabled population is often excluded from the queer community because of a disability while at the same time being ostracized from the support of the disability community because they are queer. This article investigates data collected from Internet postings, involving individuals who self-identify as queer and disabled to examine issues and concerns faced by this unseen population. In these data, individuals expose their feelings about sex, sexuality, gender identity, access, and disability as they express their very personal accounts of living in two worlds. These analyzed narratives uncover the voices of an intersectional population who the ableist and heteronormative culture has ignored and pushed aside. The goal of an exploration into the perspectives and experiences of the project contributors is to provide insight that eventually leads to understanding and enables more effective support systems to be provided for individuals who simultaneously identify as queer and disabled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the fall of the Arecibo 305 m telescope platform on 2020 December 1, there has been much discussion of building a new Arecibo telescope or rebuilding the facility that was destroyed. In the collapse, the top of the three platform support towers was sheared off, and the feed arm fell free from the swinging platform and destroyed 25% of the dish. Fortunately, the Control Building, the home of the computers, spectrometers, masers, atomic clocks, 430 MHz Klystrons, etc., was spared. By replacing the main dish support cables and resurfacing with coarse mesh, the main dish can be repaired as a reflector for < HF operation. By replacing the damaged aluminum panels to make the dish whole again, RF operations at up to 500 MHz can be resumed. In this paper, we outline the steps that can be taken to restore High Frequency (HF, 3–30 MHz) ionospheric heating, 430 MHz ionospheric incoherent scattering radar, passive radio observations of satellite arcing and pulsars, and to extend the field of regard to 47∘ from the zenith. This would restore and improve much of the utility of the Arecibo dish. Part of this plan involves supporting, positioning and pointing novel point feeds from lightweight football-camera-like cables, strung from the rebuilt tower tops. It is believed that the dish may thus become broadly useful long before replacement facilities can be engineered and constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When modelling a thermal process such as freezing, it is convenient to make use of thermal property models based on the food's composition; however, there does not appear to be any suitable models specifically for thermal diffusivity. In the absence of such models, thermal diffusivity may be determined from models for effective thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity and density as functions of composition, as well as an appropriate ice fraction model. However, the accuracy of the predictions is strongly dependent on the choice of effective thermal property models. In particular, the effective specific heat capacity model must incorporate the effect of latent heat release as a function of temperature. For meat during freezing, it is recommended that the Dul'Nev Novikov effective thermal conductivity model, Pham's ice fraction model and Chen's effective heat capacity model are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canine histiocytic proliferative disorders include aggressive and fatal diseases, such as histiocytic sarcoma (HS) and histiocytosis (SyH). The molecular mechanisms underlying cell proliferation need to be elucidated for the development of effective treatments. In the present study, mRNA expression levels were comprehensively analysed in cell lines derived from localized HS, disseminated HS, SyH and Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) in dogs. Based on the results obtained, the growth inhibitory effects of palbociclib, a CDK4/6 inhibitor, were verified with the cell lines in vitro and in xenograft mouse model. Hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis plots of mRNA expression profiles divided the cell lines into three groups: a localized HS group, disseminated HS/SyH group, and LCH. The results of an ingenuity pathway analysis suggested that the MAPK signalling pathway was activated in the localized HS and LCH cell lines, and the PI3K signalling pathway in the disseminated and localized HS cell lines. In all cell lines, the expression of the tumour suppressor genes TP53, CDKN2A and CDKN1A was down‐regulated, whereas that of Rb was preserved. In vitro assessments revealed the growth inhibitory effects of palbociclib in all cell lines examined. In a xenograft mouse model using a cell line from disseminated HS, palbociclib exerted significant growth inhibitory effects. These results suggest the potential of palbociclib as a therapeutic drug candidate for the treatment of malignant histiocytic proliferative disorders of the dog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To demonstrate how hemidivisional vector planning of refractive laser treatments of astigmatism can be used to directly address idiopathic corneal irregular astigmatism that has an asymmetrical, non-orthogonal bow tie topography appearance. Design: Case study. Methods: The cornea is conceptually divided into two hemidivisions along the flat meridian of the corneal topographic astigmatism (CorT), which means that each hemidivision will approximately correspond to one lobe of the asymmetric, non-orthogonal topographic bow tie. An astigmatism reduction treatment can then be planned separately for each hemidivision using the vector planning technique, based on both its two hemidivisional CorT measures and common manifest refractive cylinder. The remaining irregularity is then regularized, and the junctional zone smoothed across the flat meridian. The final intended treatment thus combines hemidivisional astigmatism reduction and regularization of the corneal astigmatism and spherical refractive error in one treatment application. This could be applied to LASIK, PRK, SMILE, and Transepithelial PRK procedures using Designer Cornea® software. Results: A theoretical treatment profile is derived from an actual example of a cornea with idiopathic asymmetric non-orthogonal astigmatism. The three steps of the derivation are as follows: (i) astigmatism reduction through the use of the vector planning technique; (ii) regularization, and (iii) smoothing across the hemidivisional midline. Conclusions: Hemidivisional vector planning treatments could potentially both reduce and regularize asymmetric non-orthogonal astigmatism. These treatments can be systematically customized to account for qualitative and quantitative differences between the two corneal hemidivisions at the same time as correction of coexistent myopia or hyperopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topology optimization (TO) is well suited to exploit the geometric freedom provided by additive manufacturing (AM), but only when the two technologies are properly integrated. Failure to account for the manufacturing process in the execution of the optimization formulation can lead to performance loss and increased production time and/or cost. This paper discusses a TO methodology motivated by the unique features of wire and filament based AM processes with high deposition rates where a constant thickness of deposited features is desired to manage heat flow and path planning during fabrication. In addition to typical manufacturing constraints such as minimum feature size and feature separation, the proposed approach utilizes discrete object projection to impose a constant thickness requirement on all structural features, including structural members and connection points (joints). The mathematical consistency of the developed framework enables the use of gradient-based optimizers, and tradeoffs between design freedom and computational cost are discussed. Although the technique was developed with a specific electron beam fabrication process in mind, it is readily extendable to other AM technologies with similar requirements as well as to create lattice-like designs. The approach is demonstrated on benchmark minimum compliance problems and is shown to successfully design structural components that are directly manufacturable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insecticidal non-proteinogenic amino acid S-(2-carboxyethyl)-L-cysteine (β-CEC) and its assumed metabolite, S-(2-carboxyethyl)-l-cysteine sulfoxide (β-CECO), are present abundantly in a number of plants of the legume family. In humans, these amino acids may occur as a result of exposure to environmental acrylonitrile or acrylamide, and due to consumption of the legumes. The β-CEC molecule is a homolog of S-carboxymethyl-l-cysteine (carbocisteine, CMC), a clinically employed antioxidant and mucolytic drug. We report here detailed structural data for β-CEC and β-CECO, as well as results of in vitro studies evaluating cytotoxicity and the protective potential of the amino acids in renal tubular epithelial cells (RTECs) equipped with reporters for activity of seven stress-responsive transcription factors. In RTECs, β-CEC and the sulfoxide were not acutely cytotoxic, but activated the antioxidant Nrf2 pathway. β-CEC, but not the sulfoxide, induced the amino acid stress signaling, which could be moderated by cysteine, methionine, histidine, and tryptophan. β-CEC enhanced the cytotoxic effects of arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury, but inhibited the cytotoxic stress induced by cisplatin, oxaliplatin, and CuO nanoparticles and acted as an antioxidant in a copper-dependent oxidative DNA degradation assay. In these experiments, the structure and activities of β-CEC closely resembled those of CMC. Our data suggest that β-CEC may act as a mild activator of the cytoprotective pathways and as a protector from platinum drugs and environmental copper cytotoxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haiti's groundwater resources are poorly understood and scarcely researched, despite their importance as the principal source for water supply. The knowledge gap and its role of inhibiting informed relief, recovery and investments in development are described, along with an update on progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This essay leads a topical collection of seven articles that advance hydrogeological knowledge of Haiti. Additional data, research and monitoring are identified as urgently needed for the nation's sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Plaine des Gonaïves houses a regionally significant yet data-scarce coastal aquifer in one of the driest regions of Haiti. It is the primary source of water for the region, including Haiti's third largest city, Gonaïves. Pressure on groundwater resources will be compounded as municipal water services modernize and energy infrastructure enables the resurgence of commercial agriculture. In anticipation of increased stress and greater impacts, this study was undertaken (including data discovery, reconnaissance, and analysis) to gain insights and to advance understanding of the groundwater resources. The alluvial aquifer covers >115 km2, exceeds 100 m thickness, and supports pumping yields as high as 532 m3/h. The heterogeneous multilayer aquifer exhibits hydraulic conductivities that range by an order of magnitude, influencing groundwater flow, residence times, and chemistry. Significant recharge occurs in the central and upgradient portions of the plain; river infiltration appears to be a more significant recharge source than direct infiltration. In the downgradient portion of the plain, confined aquifer pressure increases and discharge areas include the Quinte River, springs, wetlands, ditches and canals. Underlying the alluvium, discontinuous groundwater in bedrock with structural influence may mix with the alluvial aquifer, affecting isotopic composition and water chemistry. Increased abstraction, climate change, and intensification of agriculture and urban development could have consequential impacts on water quantity, water quality and ecosystems. The results, insights, and supporting datasets are a baseline to guide planning and to advance a hydrogeological conceptual model that supports sustainable and informed groundwater management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mountain block recharge (MBR) mechanisms are an important component of the water budget for many alluvial aquifers worldwide. The MBR dynamics are complex, difficult to constrain, and quantification is highly uncertain. These challenges are magnified in data-scarce study areas, including the Cul-de-Sac and Leogane plains, two of Haiti's largest alluvial aquifers, which are flanked by the Massif de la Selle mountain block. The associated groundwater supplies the regional metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince (RMPP) and it is facing increasing pressure, requiring improved understanding of the aquifer system to guide management and protection. This report introduces the aquifers and investigates the significance of river infiltration from flows originating from the mountain block. The approach to derive important insight on recharge included analysis of broad datasets on piezometry, isotopes, hydrochemistry, and streamflow. The findings indicate that river infiltration is a major source of recharge to the alluvial aquifers. Grise and Blanche river infiltration may account for >80% of recharge to the Cul-de-Sac aquifer, exhibiting temporal variation correlated to climate events such as cycles of the El Niño/La Niña Southern Oscillations. Momance and Rouyone river infiltration may account for >50% of recharge to the Leogane aquifer. The results direct attention to the Massif de la Selle carbonate aquifer system, where bulk recharge is estimated to be four times greater than both alluvial aquifers. The Massif not only supplies the RMPP with ~65% of its water supply from karst springs, but its streamflow also recharges the alluvial aquifers that supply the balance of RMPP supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reconnaissance was performed for Tunnel Diquini and Source Mariani in the metropolitan region of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to address concerns of decreasing flows and to evaluate potential impacts of a proposed river diversion scheme in the study area. The tunnel and spring are the two largest water sources serving the Port-au-Prince municipal water system and discharge from the Massif de la Selle carbonate aquifer. Considering their significance and importance to the water security of the region, there are limited data or studies specific to the water sources. An introductory framework was established regarding the flow regimes, the origin of waters, and recharge dynamics of the sources. Field reconnaissance and stable-isotope, tracer, and chloride-mass-balance techniques were applied to strengthen the conceptual understanding of the water sources. Recharge to this portion of the Massif de la Selle carbonate aquifer is variable depending on monthly rainfall intensity and 3–7-year climatic cycles. Rather than a consistent long-term decreasing flow trend, a particularly intense period from 2007 through 2010 resulted in the highest flows on record, which have steadily recessed to historical norms in recent years. The recharge characteristics and catchment areas indicate that neither water source is connected to the River Momance; however, a connection to the River Froide is possible, particularly related to the tunnel. Finally, recharge rates and an estimate of renewable groundwater in the Massif de la Selle show the regional significance and importance of the carbonate aquifer for current supplies and future water development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A geophysical reconnaissance was conducted to support aquifer characterization and evaluate groundwater potential in the western portion of the Plaine du Nord aquifer to provision the growing water demands of the city of Cap-Haitien in the Republic of Haiti. Hybrid-source audio-magnetotelluric (HSAMT) soundings and gravity measurements were collected to support the Government of Haiti in sourcing additional water supplies for the city. The Plaine du Nord aquifer is poorly characterized considering it is one of Haiti's largest aquifers, few drilling logs are available, and only one borehole has investigated the deeper extents of the aquifer. HSAMT supports depth profiling of subsurface resistivity, which supports interpretations of geological strata and groundwater conditions. Gravity measurements allow for complementary mapping of Earth density anomalies and contrasts, which assist in interpreting aquifer thicknesses or depth to bedrock. Pairing HSAMT and gravity methods permitted both an estimation of aquifer thickness and relative changes in sediment characteristics. Gravity results allowed for the mapping of aquifer thickness across the study area, with interpreted thickness greater than 300 m in the coastal zone. HSAMT results cross correlated with available well records and enabled the delineation of zones with increased groundwater potential. The results of the combined methods indicate groundwater storage potential of freshwater in deeper alluvium and emphasize the importance of strengthening resource characterization, modelling and monitoring to guide sustainable resource development and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luminescence dating of rocks and sediments associated with various anthropogenic rock arrangements has the potential to provide age information for these hard-to-date features. This study applies infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) to sediments under rocks and to the rocks themselves from tipi rings and other features from the northern Plains. Dates are provided for 27 sediment and 5 rock samples from 7 archaeological sites in Montana, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan, ranging in age from 0.20 to 4.35 ka. Most of the ages are consistent with one another and with other dating evidence but some discrepancies show the complexity involved in this kind of dating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerebral aneurysms that compress cranial nerve VIII can cause hearing loss and imbalance. Hearing function that does not recover after aneurysm occlusion can signal neurological damage with the potential for permanent deafness. A 72-year-old woman presented with gradually worsening left-sided hearing loss and imbalance over a period of 10 years. She was found to have a lesion of the cerebellopontine angle, which proved to be a large fusiform vertebral artery aneurysm with mass effect on cranial nerve VIII. The patient underwent surgical clip occlusion of the vertebral artery distal to the posterior inferior cerebellar artery and proximal to the aneurysm, which no longer filled on catheter angiography. Postoperatively, the patient experienced delayed complete loss of ipsilateral hearing on the third post-operative day. Otherwise, she made a good recovery with improvement in her balance issues. At that time, we suspected that delayed occlusion of a perforating vessel had probably caused irreversible hearing loss. Ten months later, the patient awoke with significant subjective recovery of her hearing. Audiometry confirmed substantial improvement in her hearing likely due to the aneurysm shrinking away from and decompressing the cranial nerve. This case highlights the continued usefulness of vascular occlusion in the management of selected cases of intracranial aneurysms and also that neurological function may recover suddenly, even in very delayed fashion, following treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Individuals remain poorly predictable from population-level analyses of the brain. • The fidelity limits data scale, compute, and model flexibility impose are unknown. • We quantify these limits in multimodal, multitarget analyses across 23810 people. • We show a radical change in modelling regimes is needed for individual prediction. Our knowledge of the organisation of the human brain at the population-level is yet to translate into power to predict functional differences at the individual-level, limiting clinical applications and casting doubt on the generalisability of inferred mechanisms. It remains unknown whether the difficulty arises from the absence of individuating biological patterns within the brain, or from limited power to access them with the models and compute at our disposal. Here we comprehensively investigate the resolvability of such patterns with data and compute at unprecedented scale. Across 23 810 unique participants from UK Biobank, we systematically evaluate the predictability of 25 individual biological characteristics, from all available combinations of structural and functional neuroimaging data. Over 4526 GPU*hours of computation, we train, optimize, and evaluate out-of-sample 700 individual predictive models, including fully-connected feed-forward neural networks of demographic, psychological, serological, chronic disease, and functional connectivity characteristics, and both uni- and multi-modal 3D convolutional neural network models of macro- and micro-structural brain imaging. We find a marked discrepancy between the high predictability of sex (balanced accuracy 99.7%), age (mean absolute error 2.048 years, R2 0.859), and weight (mean absolute error 2.609Kg, R2 0.625), for which we set new state-of-the-art performance, and the surprisingly low predictability of other characteristics. Neither structural nor functional imaging predicted an individual's psychology better than the coincidence of common chronic disease (p < 0.05). Serology predicted chronic disease (p < 0.05) and was best predicted by it (p < 0.001), followed by structural neuroimaging (p < 0.05). Our findings suggest either more informative imaging or more powerful models will be needed to decipher individual level characteristics from the human brain. We make our models and code openly available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3 See my review, "What's Left of Cambridge Economics?" Geoffrey Harcourt had published on the Cambridge-Cambridge capital controversies, saving graduate students enormous trouble. But within a decade or so, the great window of academic effervescence and free thought that had been Cambridge economics would shut. [Extracted from the article]

Atrial fibrillation can present with symptoms of myocardial infarction and elevated troponin, even in the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). We sought to determine the characteristics that predict underlying obstructive CAD. Obstructive CAD was far more likely in those with troponin elevation. In those with elevated troponin, diabetes mellitus was an independent predictor of obstructive CAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let f be a transcendental entire function. It was shown in a previous paper (2017) that the holomorphic flow z = f(z) always has infinitely many trajectories tending to infinity in finite time. It will be proved here that such trajectories are in a certain sense rare, although an example will be given to show that there can be uncountably many. In contrast, for the classical antiholomorphic flow z = f(z), such trajectories need not exist at all, although they must if f belongs to the Eremenko-Lyubich class B. It is also shown that for transcendental entire f in B there exists a path tending to infinity on which f and all its derivatives tend to infinity, thus affirming a conjecture of Rubel for this class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective thermal diffusivity models are useful for predicting thermal diffusivities of heterogeneous materials. The literature contains models that may be broadly categorised into four different types: (1) effective thermal diffusivity for highly specific applications (e.g. empirical curve fitting of measured data); (2) effective thermal diffusivity as a weighted averages of the components' thermal diffusivities and volume fractions; (3) effective thermal diffusivity calculated from effective thermal conductivity, effective density and effective specific heat capacity known as the 'lumped parameter' approach (which is the most commonly employed method); (4) comparison of times for a fixed quantity of heat to be transferred to a composite material with the heat transfer time for a material with an effective thermal diffusivity. The latter three modelling methods were tested on theoretical composite materials, and none performed consistently better than the others, suggesting there is scope for further work in this area. Of the three methods, the least accurate on average was the lumped parameter method. Given that this relationship is often used to derive thermal conductivity data from thermal diffusivity data (or vice versa), it is possible that significant error is introduced to the derived property in addition to any measurement error, which is often not acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Principles and applications of organizational behavior management (OBM) can be incorporated within human services settings to promote applied research that contributes to client outcomes, employee performance, systems development, and other value-added benefits. We describe organizational strategies for building a program of research and dissemination focused on (a) leadership direction and support, (b) assessment of barriers (competing contingencies) to research, (c) integration of research with routine service delivery, (d) formation of research teams, (e) oversight by a research review committee, (f) research training, supervision, and mentorship, (g) incentivizing research participation among employees, and (h) organizational research ethics. Steps and recommendations for implementing these strategies are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In harmonic radar (HR), the transmitter illuminates a nonlinear target (the tag), causing the return signal to consist of harmonics at multiples of the transmitted carrier frequency. Of them, the second harmonic is usually the strongest and the one to which the receiver is tuned. This frequency difference distinguishes the tag reflection from environmental clutter, which remains at the illuminating frequency. However, the passive nature of HR tags severely limits the reflected power, and therefore the operational range of a HR system. We propose to increase the range and/or signal to noise ratio (SNR) by novel restructuring at the physical and signal levels. For this, we accompany the original transmitter with auxiliary transmitters able to send simple tones that are synchronized to arrive at the tag in phase, and we design the receiver to detect an intermodulation component. The resulting range and SNR are much greater than those of the original, conventional HR system, even if the original system were to transmit with power equal to the aggregate power of the proposed system. Achieving mutually coherent, (in phase), arrival of the tones at the tag is the focus of the present paper. We provide a system framework that models the tag, then present the adaptive phase coherence algorithm and analyze the probabilistic growth of the output signal power. We also account for the effects of frequency shifts due to transmitter mobility and the frequency offset errors in the transmitter local oscillators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]