Discrepant Patterns Research Articles

The structural discrepancy between the small and large gut microbiota of Asiatic toad (Bufo gargarizans) during hibernation.

Hibernating amphibians are suitable for the research on the adaptation of gut microbiota to long-term fasting and cold stresses. However, the previous studies mainly focus on the large or whole gut microbiota but not the small gut microbiota. To test the structural discrepancy between the small and large gut microbiota during hibernation, we performed two independent batches of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to profile the small and large gut microbiota of hibernating Asiatic toad (Bufo gargarizans) from two wild populations. Both batches of data revealed that Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes were the three most dominant phyla in the small and large gut microbiota. Three core OTUs with 100% occurrence in all gut microbiotas were annotated as Pseudomonas. A significant structural discrepancy was detected between the small and large gut microbiota. For instance, Proteobacteria assembled in the small intestine with a higher proportion than it did in the large intestine, but Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes assembled in the large intestine with a higher proportion than they did in the small intestine. The large gut microbiota exhibited higher diversity than the small gut microbiota. Nevertheless, a severe batch effect existed in the structural analysis of the gut microbiotas. The large gut microbiota showed a better resistance to the batch effect than the small gut microbiota did. This study provides preliminary evidence that microbes assemble in the small and large intestines of amphibians with discrepant patterns during hibernation.

Pathology Reports: Discrepancy Patterns of Second Opinions in a Referral Cancer Center

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic mismatch (discrepancy) of pathology reports in consulted specimens referred for second opinion. Materials and Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted at a major cancer center, Omid Hospital. In this study, 350 primary pathology reports and 350 reviewed pathology reports were extracted from the archives of Omid Hospital from 2011 to 2020 and assessed in terms of the extent of discrepancy, by two pathologists and one oncologist. The required data for each sample were entered into a checklist and then statistically analyzed. Cases with the same diagnosis on both reports were assigned to the matched group and the rest were assigned to the minor or major mismatch (discrepancy) group. Minor mismatches included changes in diagnosis that did not lead to changes in treatment (may lead to changes in prognosis or provide additional information to the oncologist) and major mismatches included changes in diagnosis leading to changes in treatment or remedies. Results Two hundred seven cases (59.1%) out of three hundred fifty cases had concordant results between the diagnosis of the first pathologist and the reviewing pathologist. In one hundred forty-three cases (40.9%) mismatch (discrepancy) was observed, including eighty- two cases (23.4%) with minor mismatches (discrepancy) and sixty-one cases (17.4%) with major mismatches (discrepancy). In the major mismatch group, fifteen cases (4.3%) changed from malignant to benign, eighteen cases (5.1%) changed from benign to malignant, two cases (0.6%) changed from one stage to another stage of Disease and twenty-six cases (7.4%) had changes in the type of malignancy. In this study, it was found that there was no significant relationship between anatomical areas of sampling and diagnostic mismatch (p = 0.254). The study also found that the rate of diagnostic mismatch in specimens obtained by resection or excisional biopsy was greater than that of small biopsies (eighty cases (22.8%) and sixty-two cases (17.7%, respectively)). There was no significant relationship in this regard (p = 0.077). Conclusion Compared to most similar studies, the present study reported the highest discrepancy between the diagnosis of the first pathologist and the reviewing pathologist (40.9%).

Minding the Gap: Adolescent and Parent/Caregiver Reporter Discrepancies on Symptom Presence, Impact of Covariates, and Clinical Implications.

Primary care practitioners (PCPs) provide care to adolescents in the context of their families. Supporting parent/caregiver knowledge of symptoms can create opportunities for better recognition of symptoms that can then lead to early identification, intervention, and prevention of poor outcomes. Cross-sectional comparative study of parent/caregiver reported versus adolescent reported symptom presence of anhedonia and depressed mood in the participants of ABCD Study. Large discrepancies exist between adolescent and parent-reported presence of symptoms. Improving understanding of the etiology, covariates, and patterns of discrepancies may improve primary care assessment, adolescent access to care, and intervention for adolescents and their families. Furthermore, providing education to families about symptom features, working to improve adolescent-caregiver communication, promoting adolescent advocacy, and connecting families to community resources are important attributes of primary care and areas of adolescent and family functioning that primary care providers can strengthen.

Multi-Informant Assessment of Adolescents' Social-Emotional Skills: Patterns of Agreement and Discrepancy among Teachers, Parents, and Students.

Objectives: This study explores the patterns of agreement and discrepancy among informants (teachers, parents, and students) in the domains of the Social Emotional Skills Scale Assessment System—Social Skills Scales (SESAS-SS), which is a translation of the Social Skills Improvement System—Rating Scales (SSIS-RS) for use in Spain. Methods: The sample is composed of students, 88 teachers, and 98 parents from Spanish secondary schools. Inter-rater agreements have been assessed, calculating the Pearson correlation coefficients among pairs of raters, effect size indices, and intraclass correlation coefficients at the subscale and total scale level. Results: The convergent validity coefficients were stronger than the divergent ones, with the highest level of agreement between teachers and parents in social skills, particularly for total social skills, engagement, empathy, and communication. The patterns of discrepancies confirmed weaker agreements between teachers and parents in self-control and between parents and students in empathy. Significant differences were also found in students’ estimates depending on gender. Conclusions: The SESAS-SS provides support for previous studies on inter-rater agreements for SS, extending the focus on the degree of agreement in the estimate of dyads of raters when considering the students’ gender.

Bilingualism effects on cognition in autistic children are not all-or-nothing: The role of socioeconomic status in intellectual skills in bilingual autistic children.

Previous research has suggested that bilingualism may improve cognition in children with autism, and that this boost may stem from improvement in executive functions. The Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children are considered to be reliable and valid measures of intelligence when administered to autistic children. These measures have so far revealed unusual psychometric properties in monolingual autistic children, notably distinctive patterns of strengths and weaknesses and low inter-correlation among verbal and nonverbal IQ subtests. The way bilingualism affects the intellectual functioning of autistic children has not been explored yet. Nor has there been a satisfactory factor structure that explains monolingual and bilingual autistic children's IQ performance in terms of individual factors, such as age and socioeconomic status. The current study examined the intelligence profiles of 316 bilingual and age- and gender-matched monolingual children with autism using the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Third Edition. The study applied clustering models to extract intelligence subtypes of autism, and mediation analyses to examine potential mediation effects of age and socioeconomic status on the children's verbal and nonverbal IQ performance. The results support the mediational role of the children's socioeconomic status in the association between bilingualism and intelligence. Low-socioeconomic status bilingual autistic children outperformed their monolingual peers on both verbal and nonverbal subtests, while the differences faded in medium-socioeconomic status and high-socioeconomic status children. The findings emphasize the positive effects of bilingualism on low-socioeconomic status autistic children's intelligence and also highlight high-socioeconomic status as a factor that may mitigate discrepant patterns of strengths and weaknesses in monolingual children's IQ performance.

Genetic characterization of nuclear export factor NXT1 and its paralog NXT2 in primates and murine rodents

Translocation of RNA across the nuclear envelope relies on transport receptors. Receptor nuclear transport factor 2 (NTF2)-like export protein 1 (NXT1 [also called p15 or p15-1]) shuttles between the nucleus and cytoplasm of metazoan cells and contributes to the nuclear export of a diverse spectrum of RNAs. NXT2 (also called p15-2), a paralog of NXT1 in eutherians, also has implications for RNA nuclear export. A comprehensive description is currently lacking as to the genetic signature of these molecules. In this study, we analyzed genetic changes in the NXT1 and NXT2 genes in primates and murine rodents, including the commonly used model organisms Macaca spp., Mus musculus, and Rattus norvegicus. The results show that NXT1 has been subject to functional constraints in both phylogenetic lineages. Conversely, NXT2 exhibits discrepant patterns of genetic changes between these taxa. Murine NXT2 has evolved conservatively; by contrast, adaptive selection has frequently contributed to genetic changes in primate NXT2. The genetic discrepancy of the NXT2 orthologs leads to the suggestion that they had experienced quite different evolutionary fates potentially constituting different functional implementations in these taxa. These findings raise awareness of further study on different organisms to comprehensively understand their functional characteristics.

Judical Appointments in South Africa

Abstract South Africa is widely regarded as a model of a constitutional democracy on the African continent. This is partly because of the progressive Constitution adopted in 1996 and the fact that the country has consistently managed to conduct democratic, free and fair elections since the end of apartheid in the early 1990s. The sustainability of South Africa's constitutional democracy rests on the ability of the judiciary to ensure compliance with the constitution. The competence and credibility of the judiciary hinge on the appointment of judges who are able to reflect the diversity of the country, act without fear or favor, and develop a jurisprudence which creates and deepens constitutionalism. Judicial independence is a key component of the credibility of the judiciary. The inconsistent application of norms and standards when selecting and appointing judges tends to undermine the credibility of the appointments process. The process of judicial selection and appointment in South Africa begins with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) advertising the existing judicial vacancies. After that, the JSC shortlists candidates who are then interviewed. Following these interviews, the JSC shortlists candidates for possible appointment by the President. A review of the transcripts of interviews conducted by the JSC from April 2014 to October 2019 shows patterns of discrepancies in the types of questions which candidates vying for the same judicial position are required to answer. This Article explains the process followed by the JSC, and then identifies and analyzes the discrepancies in the process employed by the JSC. The Article then demonstrates the negative impact which the discrepancies have had on both the quality of the judicial selection process and the quality of candidates shortlisted for appointment. Furthermore, this Article makes recommendations on how South Africa can draw from international norms and standards as well as good practices from comparative jurisdictions, to enhance consistency and fairness in its judicial selection and appointments processes.

The Free Association Task: Proposal of a Clinical Tool for Detecting Differential Profiles of Semantic Impairment in Semantic Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease.

Backround and Objectives: It is widely agreed that patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and patients suffering from semantic dementia (SD) might fail clinically administered semantic tasks due to a different combination of underlying cognitive deficits: namely, degraded semantic representations in SD and degraded representations plus executive control deficit in AD. However, no easy administrable test or test battery for differentiating the semantic impairment profile in these populations has been devised yet. Materials and Methods: In this study, we propose a new easy administrable task based on a free association procedure (F-Assoc) to be used in conjunction with category fluency (Cat-Fl) and letter fluency (Lett-Fl) for quantifying pure representational and pure control deficits, thus teasing apart the semantic profile of SD and AD patients. Results: In a sample of 10 AD and 10 SD subjects, matched for disease severity, we show that indices of asymmetric performance contrasting F-Assoc and each of the two verbal fluency tasks yield a clearly distinguishable discrepancy pattern across SD and AD. We also provide empirical support for the validity of an asymmetry measure contrasting F-Assoc and Cat-FL as an index of control impairment. Conclusions: The present study suggests that the free association procedure provides a pure measure of degradation of semantic representations avoiding the confound of possible concomitant executive deficits.

Factors associated with assisted ventilation use in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a nationwide population-based study in Korea

Few studies have investigated the factors associated with assisted ventilation use in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in western countries with a relatively small number of participants. This study aimed to evaluate the factors associated with assisted ventilation use using a large nationwide cohort covering the entire Korean population. We selected patients with primary or secondary diagnoses of ALS (ICD-10 code: G12.21) and a registration code for ALS (V123) in the rare intractable disease registration program. Covariates included in the analyses were age, sex, socioeconomic status and medical condition. Factors associated with non-invasive ventilation (NIV) and tracheostomy invasive ventilation (TIV) were evaluated. Logistic regression analyses were performed using odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. In total, 3057 patients with ALS were enrolled. During the 6-year follow-up period, 1228 (40%) patients started using assisted ventilation: 956 with NIV and 272 with TIV. There was no significant difference in the assisted ventilation use according to sex, whereas different patterns of discrepancies were noted between the sexes: Females living in non-metropolitan areas showed decreased use of assisted ventilation, whereas high income levels showed a positive relationship with assisted ventilation use only in males. Patients aged ≥ 70 years showed decreased use of NIV. NIV use was more affected by socioeconomic status than TIV, whereas TIV showed a significant relationship with medical conditions such as nasogastric tube insertion and gastrostomy. We found that various factors, including age, socioeconomic status, and medical condition, were related with assisted ventilation use. Understanding the pattern of assisted ventilation use would help set optimal management strategies in patients with ALS.

Considerable Uncertainties in Simulating Land Carbon Sinks Induced by Different Precipitation Products

AbstractPrecipitation, a key determinant of soil moisture variations, plays an important role in regulating terrestrial carbon fluxes on multiple time scales. It is a critical meteorological forcing to drive terrestrial biosphere model (TBM), however, with a large uncertainty itself. We here investigated to what extent precipitation alone can cause uncertainties of model‐simulated carbon flux from terrestrial ecosystems to atmosphere (FTA), based on eight precipitation products and a TBM, VEGAS. We find that the pattern of uncertainties in simulated FTA obviously differs from the pattern of discrepancies in precipitation, owing to divergent water sensitivities of vegetation over different regions. Globally, the uncertainty in FTA can be up to approximately 40.73% of the uncertainty in TRENDYv6 multi‐model simulated FTA which is caused by model structural and parameter uncertainty. A good linear relationship emerges between global area‐averaged land climatological annual precipitation and simulated total FTA with the slope of −0.0040 PgC yr−1 per mm yr−1 ( = 0.03; negative for carbon sink), where 70% is explained by the sensitivity over extra‐tropical Northern Hemisphere (NH). For seasonal cycle, compared to nearly constant inter‐precipitation spreads over tropics plus extra‐tropical southern hemisphere (Trop + SH), uncertainties in corresponding simulated FTA show obvious seasonal differences with the relatively larger uncertainties in March‐April‐May (MAM) and August‐September‐October (ASO). For interannual variability, uncertainties in simulated total FTA are, albeit smaller, nonnegligible, which are 40.61% (global), 38.17% (Trop + SH), and 29.63% (NH) of the TRENDYv6 inter‐model uncertainty, respectively. Therefore, generating better global precipitation product is important for reducing the uncertainty in simulating terrestrial carbon sinks.

Antecedents and Consequences of Discrepant Perceptions of Racial Socialization between Parents and Adolescents within Mexican-Origin Families.

Parents and adolescents often have different views regarding parental racial socialization practices; however, studies documenting such discrepancies remain scarce. Using a person-centered approach, this study investigated patterns of parent-adolescent discrepant views on racial socialization (i.e., cultural socialization, bias coping, bias awareness) as well as antecedents and consequences of the discrepancy profiles. Participants were 604 adolescents (54% female, Mage = 12.41, Rangeage = 11-15) and their mothers and fathers. The results showed distinct discrepancy patterns and suggested that more maternal/paternal warmth was associated with profiles that have smaller discrepancies or profiles in which adolescents reported higher socialization than parents. Adolescents who reported higher or similar socialization as parents demonstrated better adjustment. Implications for interventions aimed at strengthening parent-child relationships and communication about race and culture are discussed.

Measuring vegetation greenery in park using iPhone panoramic image and a new green vegetation extraction index

Park greenery contributes substantial health benefits for local residents. Few data source however is available to quantitatively measure the vegetation greenery along park trails. In this study, a typical park region in Homestead, Florida was selected as the study area. The iPhone panoramic images in 400 randomly generated sampling sites were examined to depict the vegetation greenery along park trails. A green vegetation extraction index (GVEI) was proposed to distinguish the green vegetation in the images, and the green vegetation index was computed to grade the sampling sites based on the GVEI results. The results demonstrated that the overall (kappa coefficient) accuracies of green vegetation classification in the sampling sites using the GVEI all exceeded 0.90 (0.87). The GVEI values obtained from iPhone and commonly used Google Street View (GSV) images showed a high correlation coefficient of 0.94, which indicated that the iPhone panoramic images were compatible with the GSV images, and suited for green vegetation identification and monitoring. The green view index of sampling sites showed discrepant patterns, 50 sites possessed the green view index of more than 30 %, indicating that people in these areas can enjoy visual and spiritual pleasure. Park managers and planners may strive to improve the vegetation greenery in the other sites to offer better health benefits for people. The method established in this study can be used as a reference for vegetation greenery monitoring in other parks.

A comparison of full information maximum likelihood and multiple imputation in structural equation modeling with missing data.

This article compares two missing data procedures, full information maximum likelihood (FIML) and multiple imputation (MI), to investigate their relative performances in relation to the results from analyses of the original complete data or the hypothetical data available before missingness occurred. By expressing the FIML estimator as a special MI estimator, we predicted the expected patterns of discrepancy between the two estimators. Via Monte Carlo simulation studies where we have access to the original complete data, we compare the performance of FIML and MI estimators to that of the complete data maximum likelihood (ML) estimator under a wide range of conditions, including differences in sample size, percent of missingness, and degrees of model misfit. Our study confirmed well-known knowledge that the two estimators tend to yield essentially equivalent results to each other and to those from analysis of complete data when the postulated model is correctly specified. However, some noteworthy patterns of discrepancies were found between the FIML and MI estimators when the hypothesized model does not hold exactly in the population: MI-based parameter estimates, comparative fit index (CFI), and the Tucker Lewis index (TLI) tend to be closer to the counterparts of the complete data ML estimates, whereas FIML-based chi-squares and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) tend to be closer to the counterparts of the complete data ML estimates. We explained the observed patterns of discrepancy between the two estimators as a function of the interplay between the parsimony and accuracy of the imputation model. We concluded by discussing practical and methodological implications and issues for further research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Improved ice content, radiation, precipitation and low-level circulation over the tropical pacific from ECMWF ERA-interim to ERA5

This study evaluates changes in simulated Pacific climate between two ECMWF re-analyses; the ERA Interim (ERAI) and the newest ERA5. Changes in the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) and possibly sea surface temperature result in greatly reduced discrepancies in ERA5’s ice water path (IWP), radiative fluxes and precipitation relative to satellite-based observational products. IWP shows the largest percentage change, increasing by over 300% from ERAI to ERA5, due to inclusion of falling ice (snow) that impacts radiative calculation. ERAI to ERA5 changes in high-cloud fraction are generally anticorrelated as expected with outgoing longwave radiation, with ERA5 having smaller longwave discrepancies versus CERES observations compared with ERAI. Reflected shortwave discrepancies are similarly reduced from ERAI to ERA5, which appears to be due to changes in both cloud fraction and optical depth. Finally, ERA5 also reduces a longstanding precipitation excess relative to the GPCP observational product in the southern trade winds region between the Southern Pacific and intertropical convergence zones. This appears to be related to cooler prescribed sea surface temperatures, thereby reducing local moisture supply via suppressing net latent heat flux and stronger surface trade-winds. Compared with GPCP and CERES, ERA5 shows similar geographic patterns of discrepancies to ERAI in terms of precipitation and top-of-atmosphere radiation, but their magnitudes are greatly reduced in ERA5.

Could ante-mortem computed tomography be useful in forensic pathology of traumatic intracranial haemorrhage?

BackgroundImaging techniques have proven valuable in forensic pathology practice, with computed tomography being preferred for forensic use. In the era of virtual autopsy and a low- to middle-income, resource-constrained country, a question arises as to whether ante-mortem computed tomography (ACT) could be cost-effective by reducing the number of invasive autopsies performed.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to assess the usefulness of ACT in forensic pathology by examining discrepancy rates between ACT scans and autopsy findings in cases of deceased individuals with traumatic intracranial haemorrhages and assess factors associated with discrepancies.MethodsEighty-five cases of ACT and autopsy reports from 01 January 2014 to 31 December 2016 from the Polokwane Forensic Pathology Laboratory, South Africa, were analysed retrospectively. Using Cohen’s kappa statistics, measures of agreement and resultant discrepancy rates were determined. Also, the discrepancy patterns for each identified factor was also analysed.ResultsThe discrepancy rate between ACT and autopsy detection of haemorrhage was 24.71% while diagnostic categorisation of haemorrhage was 55.3%. Classification discrepancy was most observed in subarachnoid haemorrhages and least observed in extradural haemorrhages. A markedly reduced level of consciousness, hospital stay beyond two weeks and three or fewer years of doctors’ experience contributed to classification discrepancies.ConclusionAnte-mortem computed tomography should be used only as an adjunct to autopsy findings. However, the low discrepancy rate seen for extradural haemorrhages implies that ACT may be useful in the forensic diagnosis of extradural haemorrhages.

Responding Fails to Extinguish During Human-Laboratory Experiments of Resurgence

Resurgence is observed when a previously extinguished behavior reemerges while a more recently reinforced behavior is extinguished. Resurgence is further defined as responding that is greater than an inactive control response that has never produced reinforcement. Recent studies of resurgence using neurotypical adults as participants in human-laboratory investigations have produced discrepant patterns of responding compared to nonhuman animal laboratory studies when comparing control response performance. Namely, human-laboratory investigations have produced no differences between target and control responding, and persistence of all response types across the resurgence-test phase. In the present study, we conducted two human-laboratory experiments to determine if these effects were a product of the history of reinforcement associated with the target response as well as the types of technology used in human-laboratory studies. For all participants, we found no differences in levels of resurgence and occurrence for the target and control response, respectively. Moreover, we observed persistence of all response types across the resurgence-test phase in a manner consistent with prior research. This finding was apparent even when the length of baseline (i.e., reinforcement for the target) was increased, when the length of extinction was increased, and when low-technology stimuli were used. We highlight the implications of this outcome in the context of recent human-laboratory studies that have used arbitrary responses to study resurgence, and discuss the possible role of verbal mediation in these investigations.

274 Multimodal longitudinal sleep tracking combining wearable, smartphone tap analysis and electronic questionnaires

Abstract Introduction The proliferation of wearable and smartphone technologies has enabled continuous monitoring of sleep using data from different channels (physiological [wearables], behavioural [phone usage] and ecological momentary assessment [EMA self-report]). As these modalities use different methods to assess sleep, information gaps suggested by discrepancies between estimates may be filled in through cross-referencing among the modalities to produce a more accurate sleep measurement. Moreover, the pattern of discrepancies could inform about specific sleep and peri-sleep behaviors (e.g. phone use before bedtime). Methods 198 staff and students from the National University of Singapore (61 male, mean age 26.15±5.83 years) were recruited for an 8-week study. Sleep timings were assessed daily from three modalities: a wearable sleep and activity tracker (Oura ring), estimations from smartphone touchscreen interactions (tappigraphy) and smartphone derived EMA self-reports. Sleep estimates from the different modalities were compared for agreement (bivariate correlation) and discrepancies (t-test). Additionally, clustering analysis of high-discrepancy nights (>1h discrepancy between modalities) was performed to identify pattens of sleep behaviors that could lead to specific discrepancies. Results Adherence throughout the 8-week monitoring period (total 11,088 nights) was = high for the Oura ring; 9826 nights [80%]), Tappigraphy; 9740 nights [88%)), and EMA; 9166 nights [83%]). Sleep estimates across the three modalities showed high agreement (r=0.79-.91), with some discrepancies: Relative to self-report data, Oura wake time tended to be a later (Mean diff=9mins, t=18.58, p<.001), while tappigraphy estimates of bedtime tended to be early (Mean diff=15mins, t=26.48, p<.001). On 23% of nights (1755 nights), however, large discrepancies were detected (>1h). K-means clustering identified three distinct patterns of discrepancy, which were dominantly expressed in different individuals. Group comparison revealed that these individuals differed in demographic variables (age, student/work status), sleep variables (sleep timing, duration, subjective sleepiness), and phone usage characteristics (overall and pre-bedtime phone usage). Conclusion These data show that the combined use of three streams of data concerning sleep is complementary. Moreover, discrepancy patterns provide specific insights into sleep and peri-sleep behaviors facilitating digital phenotyping. Support (if any) This research was supported by the National Medical Research Council Singapore (NMRC/STaR/015/2013 and NMRC/STaR19may-0001).

The Results of Exit Polls in Kansas to Verify Voting Machine Counts in the November 2016 Election

Abstract Citizens’ exit polls are performed by local voters to verify the official reported election results. Five citizens’ exit polls were run in southeast Kansas during the Nov 8th 2016 election. These exit polls were designed specifically to verify computer generated vote counts and run solely by volunteer labor, all local citizens who were willing to put in the necessary hours on Election Day to conduct the poll and later, to count the results by hand. These exit polls were able to obtain high participation rates resulting in the ability to detect small yet statistically significant differences. All five polling stations surveyed show evidence of multiple statistical anomalies in both the pattern and size of the errors between the official results and exit poll results although biases were not uniformly oriented across sites. The small discrepancies found in the studied races were insufficient to alter the outcomes. Non-response bias and unintentional errors were evaluated as potential causes; those explanations were plausible in some but not all cases. These results show a pattern of discrepancies between the exit polls and computer counted results displaying consistent bias within sites. This would be an expected outcome of a deliberate manipulation of the computer results. While this data doesn’t conclusively prove election interference and manipulation of votes counts, it should be taken seriously as a sign of such interference. Doubts about the accuracy of the reported results are appropriate unless other plausible explanations for the discrepancies can be found.

A mixed method study of self- and peer-assessment: Implications of grading online writing assignments on scientific news literacy

The current dynamic information environment allows readers to access a vast amount of content, but of varied quality. Information professionals increasingly should promote students’ scientific news literacy and critical thinking skills. The challenge for instructors, however, is to assess and provide constructive feedback on writing assignments, especially in large-scale online classes. Online peer-assessment tools can facilitate reliable self- and peer-assessment in scientific literacy education at scale. This mixed method study empirically examines differences between self- and peer-assessment and inter-rater reliability among peer assessors and investigates patterns of discrepancies in grading.

Asymmetric epigenome maps of subgenomes reveal imbalanced transcription and distinct evolutionary trends in Brassica napus

The complexity of the epigenome landscape and transcriptional regulation is significantly increased during plant polyploidization, which drives genome evolution and contributes to the increased adaptability to diverse environments. However, a comprehensive epigenome map of Brassica napus is still unavailable. In this study, we performed integrative analysis of five histone modifications, RNA polymerase II occupancy, DNA methylation, and transcriptomes in two B. napus lines (2063A and B409), and established global maps of regulatory elements, chromatin states, and their dynamics for the whole genome (including the An and Cn subgenomes) in four tissue types (young leaf, flower bud, silique, and root) of these two lines. Approximately 65.8% of the genome was annotated with different epigenomic signals. Compared with the Cn subgenome, the An subgenome possesses a higher level of active epigenetic marks and lower level of repressive epigenetic marks. Genes from subgenome-unique regions contribute to the major differences between the An and Cn subgenomes. Asymmetric histone modifications between homeologous gene pairs reflect their biased expression patterns. We identified a novel bivalent chromatin state (with H3K4me1 and H3K27me3) in B. napus that is associated with tissue-specific gene expression. Furthermore, we observed that different types of duplicated genes have discrepant patterns of histone modification and DNA methylation levels. Collectively, our findings provide a valuable epigenetic resource for allopolyploid plants.