Identical Set Research Articles

Parallel and identical test-retest reliability of the Tower of London test - Freiburg version.

The Tower of London - Freiburg version (TOL-F) was developed in three parallel-test versions (A, B, and C) that only differ in their physical appearance by interchanged ball colors, but not in their cognitive demands. We addressed the question whether the test-retest reliability of an identical problem set differs from the parallel test-retest reliability of a structurally identical problem set with a marginally different physical appearance. Reliabilities were assessed in two samples of young adults over a 1-week interval: In the parallel test-retest sample (n = 93; 49 female), half of the participants accomplished version A at the first session and version B at the second session, while the other half started with version B in the first session and continued with A in the second session. In the identical test-retest sample (n = 86; 48 female), half of the participants performed on version A in both the first and the second session, while the other half went through the same procedure with version B. For overall planning accuracy, intraclass correlation coefficients for absolute agreement were r = .501 for the parallel test-retest and r = .605 for the identical test-retest sample, with Pearson correlations of r = .559 and r = .708 respectively. Greatest lower bound estimates of reliability were adequate to high in the two samples (ranging between .765 and .854) confirming previous studies. Although the TOL-F revealed only moderate intraclass correlations for absolute agreement, it showed some of the highest psychometric indices compared to repeated assessments with other TOL tests.

Elliptic generalisation of integrable q-deformed anisotropic Haldane–Shastry long-range spin chain

We describe integrable elliptic q-deformed anisotropic long-range spin chain. The derivation is based on our recent construction for commuting anisotropic elliptic spin Ruijsenaars–Macdonald operators. We prove that the Polychronakos freezing trick can be applied to these operators, thus providing the commuting set of Hamiltonians for long-range spin chain constructed by means of the elliptic Baxter-Belavin -matrix. Namely, we show that the freezing trick is reduced to a set of elliptic function identities, which are then proved. These identities can be treated as conditions for equilibrium position in the underlying classical spinless Ruijsenaars–Schneider model. Trigonometric degenerations are studied as well. For example, in M = 2 case our construction provides q-deformation for anisotropic XXZ Haldane–Shastry model. The standard Haldane–Shastry model and its Uglov’s q-deformation based on XXZ R-matrix are included into consideration by separate verification.

Molecular signatures of intrarenal complement receptors C3AR1 and C5AR1 correlate with renal outcome in human lupus nephritis

ObjectiveLupus nephritis is one of the most common and serious complications of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Lupus nephritis is a major cause of kidney failure in patients with SLE, attributed...

Pandemic Vibrio cholerae acquired competitive traits from an environmental Vibrio species.

Vibrio cholerae is a human pathogen that thrives in estuarine environments. Within the environment and human host, V. cholerae uses the type VI secretion system (T6SS) to inject toxic effectors into neighboring microbes and to establish its replicative niche. V. cholerae strains encode a wide variety of horizontally shared effectors, but pandemic isolates encode an identical set of distinct effectors. Effector set retention in pandemic strains despite mobility between disparate strains suggests that horizontal acquisition of these effectors was crucial for evolving pandemic V. cholerae We attempted to locate the donor of the pandemic effectors to V. cholerae To this end, we identified potential gene transfer events of the pandemic-associated T6SS clusters between a fish pathogen, Vibrio anguillarum, and V. cholerae We supported the likelihood of interaction between these species by demonstrating that homologous effector-immunity pairs from V. cholerae and V. anguillarum can cross-neutralize one another. Thus, V. anguillarum constitutes an environmental reservoir of pandemic-associated V. cholerae T6SS effectors that may have initially facilitated competition between pre-pandemic V. cholerae and V. anguillarum for an environmental niche.

Validity of anthropometric equation-based estimators of fat mass in Samoan adults.

In 1999, a set of highly accurate Polynesian-specific equations to estimate adult body fat from non-invasive field measures of age, sex, height, and weight (Equation 1), age, sex, height, weight, and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) resistance (Equation 2), and age, sex, height, weight, and the sum of two skinfold thicknesses (Equation 3) were published. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of the equation-based estimators in a sample of Samoan adults recruited 20 years later between 2017 and 2019. Age, sex, height, weight, BIA resistance, skinfold thickness, and fat mass as measured using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) were available for 432 Samoan adults (mean age 50.9 years, 56% female) seen in 2017/2019. We compared equation-derived fat mass and DXA-derived fat mass using scatterplots and Pearson correlation coefficients. We then updated the equation coefficient estimates in a training set (2/3 of the sample) and evaluated the performance of the updated equations in a testing set (the remaining 1/3 of the sample). Equation-derived fat mass was strongly correlated with DXA-derived fat mass for Equation (1) (r2 =0.95, n=432), Equation (2) (r2 =0.97, n=425), and Equation (3) (r2 =0.95, n=426). Updating the equation coefficient estimates resulted in mostly similar coefficients and nearly identical testing set performance for Equation (1) (r2 =0.96, n=153), Equation (2) (r2 =0.98, n=150), and Equation (3) (r2 =0.96, n=150). The Polynesian-specific body fat estimation equations remained stable despite changing social and environmental factors and marked increase in obesity prevalence in Samoa.

Comprehensive Characterization of Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Lignan-Rich Coniferous Knotwood Extractives.

A knotwood of coniferous trees containing large amounts of polyphenolic extractives is considered a promising industrial-scale source of lignans possessing antioxidant properties and other bioactivities. The present study is aimed at a detailed characterization of the chemical composition and antioxidant activity of lignan-rich extractives obtained from the knotwood of the Norway spruce, Scotch pine, Siberian fir, and Siberian larch growing in the European North of Russia as a region with a highly developed forest industry. To achieve this, a comprehensive approach based on a combination of two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy with high-performance liquid chromatography-high-resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry, and the determination of antioxidant activity by the three complementary methods were proposed. The studied knotwood samples contained from 3.9 to 17% of extractive substances and were comparable to Trolox's antioxidant activity in the single-electron transfer processes and superoxide radical scavenging, which is associated with the predominance of polyphenolic compounds. The latter was represented by 12 tentatively identified monolignans and 27 oligolignans containing 3-5 phenylpropane units in their structure. The extracts were characterized by an identical set of lignans and differed only in the ratios of their individual compounds. Other components of the knotwood were flavonoids taxifolin, quercetin (Siberian larch), and three stilbenes (pinosylvin, its methyl ester, and pterostilbene), which were identified in the Scotch pine extractives. Sesquiterpene juvabione and its derivatives were found in extracts of Siberian larch knotwood.

An implicit representation for the analysis of piecewise affine discrete-time systems

This paper presents a new framework for stability assessment of discrete-time piecewise affine systems. An implicit representation for piecewise functions based on ramp nonlinearities is proposed. Instead of the usual sector inequalities adopted in the study of Lurie systems, we directly exploit properties of the ramp function, which are given by a particular set of identities and inequalities. These properties are then used to derive stability conditions associated to piecewise quadratic Lyapunov functions. These functions are implicitly defined from quadratic forms involving ramp functions. These conditions can be cast as LMIs and their numerical solution is illustrated by examples highlighting the advantages of the proposed method over existing stability analysis methods for PWA systems.

Alignment and Analysis of a Disparately Acquired Multibatch Metabolomics Study of Maternal Pregnancy Samples.

Untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry metabolomics studies are typically performed under roughly identical experimental settings. Measurements acquired with different LC-MS protocols or following extended time intervals harbor significant variation in retention times and spectral abundances due to altered chromatographic, spectrometric, and other factors, raising many data analysis challenges. We developed a computational workflow for merging and harmonizing metabolomics data acquired under disparate LC-MS conditions. Plasma metabolite profiles were collected from two sets of maternal subjects three years apart using distinct instruments and LC-MS procedures. Metabolomics features were aligned using metabCombiner to generate lists of compounds detected across all experimental batches. We applied data set-specific normalization methods to remove interbatch and interexperimental variation in spectral intensities, enabling statistical analysis on the assembled data matrix. Bioinformatics analyses revealed large-scale metabolic changes in maternal plasma between the first and third trimesters of pregnancy and between maternal plasma and umbilical cord blood. We observed increases in steroid hormones and free fatty acids from the first trimester to term of gestation, along with decreases in amino acids coupled to increased levels in cord blood. This work demonstrates the viability of integrating nonidentically acquired LC-MS metabolomics data and its utility in unconventional metabolomics study designs.

Solar PV Inverter Reactive Power Disaggregation and Control Setting Estimation

The wide variety of inverter control settings for solar photovoltaics (PV) causes the accurate knowledge of these settings to be difficult to obtain in practice. This paper addresses the problem of determining inverter reactive power control settings from net load advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) data. The estimation is first cast as fitting parameterized control curves. We argue for an intuitive and practical approach to preprocess the AMI data, which exposes the setting to be extracted. We then develop a more general approach with a data-driven reactive power disaggregation algorithm, reframing the problem as a maximum likelihood estimation for the native load reactive power. These methods form the first approach for reconstructing reactive power control settings of solar PV inverters from net load data. The constrained curve fitting algorithm is tested on 701 loads with behind-the-meter (BTM) PV systems with identical control settings. The settings are accurately reconstructed with mean absolute percentage errors between 0.425% and 2.870%. The disaggregation-based approach is then tested on 451 loads with variable BTM PV control settings. Different configurations of this algorithm reconstruct the PV inverter reactive power timeseries with root mean squared errors between 0.173 and 0.198 kVAR.

On the $$R$$-matrix identities related to elliptic anisotropic spin Ruijsenaars–Macdonald operators

We propose and prove a set of identities for ${\rm GL}_M$ elliptic $R$-matrix (in the fundamental representation). In the scalar case ($M=1$) these are elliptic function identities derived by S.N.M. Ruijsenaars as necessary and sufficient conditions for his kernel identity underlying construction of integral solutions to quantum spinless Ruijsenaars-Schneider model. In this respect the result of the present paper can be considered as the first step towards constructing solutions of quantum eigenvalue problem for the anisotropic spin Ruijsenaars model.

Ritual Techniques in Affliction Rites and the Lutheran-Catholic ecumenical Liturgy of Lund, 2016

Protest and reconciliation rituals play a contested but important role in social change. This essay analyzes how rituals of reconciliation effectively negotiate between competing factions and norms by using ritual techniques as embodied symbols. Against the horizon of theory from Victor and Edith Turner and Cas Wepener, participant observation of the Lutheran and Catholic Joint Commemoration of the Reformation “Common Prayer” in Lund, Sweden on October 31, 2016 reveals five stages: crisis/diagnosis, redress, forgiveness and acceptance, binding, and reparative mission. Each is marked by its own characteristic techniques, whereas some symbolic elements manifest the different stages throughout the liturgy. This liturgy demonstrates how one liturgy can speak to various factions and stages in the process of accommodating a new norm (Christian unity) within a contested set of identities (“Lutheran” and “Catholic”). It is in the stages of forgiveness and binding that the relationship between the ritual-symbolic realm and the real work of social reconciliation is most directly visualized.

Public Health Workforce Perceptions About Organizational Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Results From PH WINS 2021.

In response to calls to achieve racial equity, racism has been declared as a public health crisis. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is an approach public health organizations are pursuing to address racial inequities in health. However, public health workforce perceptions about organizational commitment to DEI have not yet been assessed. Using a nationally representative survey of public health practitioners, we examine how perceptions about supervisors' and managers' commitment to DEI and their ability to support a diverse workforce relate to perceptions of organizational culture around DEI. Data from the 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) to examine the relationship between public health employees' perceptions about their organization's commitment to DEI and factors related to those perceptions. PH WINS received 44 732 responses (35% response rate). We calculated descriptive statistics and constructed a logistic regression model to assess these relationships. Findings show that most public health employees perceive that their organizations are committed to DEI; however, perceptions about commitment to DEI vary by race, ethnicity, gender identity, and organizational setting. Across all settings, White respondents were more likely to agree with the statement, "My organization prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion" (range, 70%-75%), than Black/African American (range, 55%-65%) and Hispanic/Latino respondents (range, 62.5%-72.5%). Perception that supervisors worked well with individuals with diverse backgrounds had an adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of 5.37 ( P < .001); organizational satisfaction had an AOR of 4.45 ( P < .001). Compared with White staff, all other racial and ethnic groups had lower AOR of reporting their organizations prioritized DEI, with Black/African American staff being the lowest (AOR = 0.55), followed by Hispanic/Latino staff (AOR = 0.71) and all other staff (AOR = 0.82). These differences suggest that there are opportunities for organizational DEI commitment to marginalized public health staff to further support DEI and racial equity efforts. Building a diverse public health workforce pipeline will not be sufficient to achieve health equity if staff perceive that their organization does not prioritize DEI.

Impact of Horizontal Resolution (Submesoscale Permitting vs. Mesoscale Resolving) on Ocean Dynamic Features in the South China Sea

AbstractModel resolution is a key factor that impacts the model bias in simulating ocean dynamics. How would model resolution influence model bias is an important question. In this study, we set up two sets of experiments with identical settings except the grid resolution, one with a minimum spacing of 2 km, referred to as the submesoscale permitting (SP) model, and the other with a minimum spacing of 6 km, referred to as the mesoscale resolving (MR) model, to investigate the impact of horizontal resolution on simulated dynamic features in the South China Sea. Results show that the SP outperforms the MR model in simulating both barotropic and baroclinic tides, upper ocean circulation, sea surface height, and temperature in the South China Sea, and in simulating the evolution of the eddy pair east of Indo‐China Peninsula in summer and the Kuroshio loop current in the Luzon Strait in winter. The SP model also performs better in simulating thermal structure within the ocean and the winter mixed layer depth. Additionally, the SP model can capture more vertical motion features. The superiority of the SP model lies in its ability to better resolve terrain features that have a significant impact on ocean dynamical processes, and to resolve more physical processes. As a result, the SP model relies less on the uncertain parameterized processes. Our study has important implications for studies on the modeling of physical oceanography in the South China Sea, as well as for the reduction of climate model biases.

Photometric redshift-aided classification using ensemble learning

We present SHEEP, a new machine learning approach to the classic problem of astronomical source classification, which combines the outputs from the XGBoost, LightGBM, and CatBoost learning algorithms to create stronger classifiers. A novel step in our pipeline is that prior to performing the classification, SHEEP first estimates photometric redshifts, which are then placed into the data set as an additional feature for classification model training; this results in significant improvements in the subsequent classification performance. SHEEP contains two distinct classification methodologies: (i) Multi-class and (ii) one versus all with correction by a meta-learner. We demonstrate the performance of SHEEP for the classification of stars, galaxies, and quasars using a data set composed of SDSS and WISE photometry of 3.5 million astronomical sources. The resulting F1 -scores are as follows: 0.992 for galaxies; 0.967 for quasars; and 0.985 for stars. In terms of the F1-scores for the three classes, SHEEP is found to outperform a recent RandomForest-based classification approach using an essentially identical data set. Our methodology also facilitates model and data set explainability via feature importances; it also allows the selection of sources whose uncertain classifications may make them interesting sources for follow-up observations.

Timing of Postfertilization Pressure Shock Treatment for the Production of Mitotic Gynogens in Six Salmonid Species

AbstractDoubled haploid gynogens are individuals whose genetic material consists of two identical maternal chromosome sets and who lack paternal genetic contributions. These individuals can be useful in whole‐genome sequence assembly to eliminate allelic variation in an individual that otherwise complicates the discrimination of SNPs and paralogs in regular diploids. This is particularly important in salmonid species, which have extensive remnants of an ancestral whole‐genome duplication. Further, doubled haploid individuals are fully homozygous and can be used to generate clonal lines. Here, successful timing was determined for late pressure shocking for producing doubled haploid gynogens in five Oncorhynchus species (Chinook Salmon O. tshawytscha, Coho Salmon O. kisutch, Chum Salmon O. keta, Pink Salmon O. gorbuscha, and Sockeye Salmon O. nerka) and one Salvelinus species (domesticated Artic Char Salvelinus alpinus). For this study, sperm was treated with UV irradiation to inactivate the paternal nuclear DNA and used to fertilize eggs. The resulting zygotes were pressure shocked at various times following fertilization to form doubled haploid embryos via inhibition of the first cell division (mitotic gynogenesis). At an incubation temperature of 10.5°C, successful postfertilization pressure shock times for maximal survival of confirmed gynogens were 2.41–2.83 accumulated thermal units (ATUs) for Coho Salmon, 2.63–2.84 ATUs for Chum Salmon, 2.84–3.06 ATUs for Pink Salmon, 2.19 ATUs for Sockeye Salmon, and 2.63–3.06 ATUs for Chinook Salmon, whereas for Arctic Char a shock time of 2.29–2.54 ATUs at 4°C incubation was successful. Survival to fry stage ranged from less than 1% to 11.7%. Survivors were genotyped using microsatellite markers to assess nonpaternity and maternal homozygosity and were found to be 92.5% gynogens when averaged across all treatments and species. Mitotic gynogenetic individuals were produced in all six salmonid species and were used in subsequent studies to generate whole‐genome sequences for Chinook, Coho, Chum, and Sockeye salmons.

Informational Hold Up and Intermediaries

Why do some incomplete information markets feature intermediaries while others do not? I study the allocation of two goods in an incomplete information setting with a single principal, multiple agents with unit demand, and interdependent valuations. I construct a novel dynamic mechanism implemented by a principal who faces a set of intermediaries, each of whom represents an ex ante identical set of agents. This mechanism has a unique (up to permutation) weak perfect Bayesian equilibrium. The dynamic mechanism is inefficient with positive probability. Nevertheless, under mild conditions the agents are ex ante better off under the dynamic mechanism relative to a Vickrey-like auction because the intermediaries are more able to exploit information asymmetries in the dynamic mechanism than agents are able to exploit information asymmetries in the Vickrey-like auction. Finally, I show that in large markets the dynamic mechanism and Vickrey-like auction have the same expected total surplus. The comparison between the two mechanisms gives a stylized intuition for the hierarchical structure of larger markets and institutions.

Optimization design and drag reduction characteristics of bionic borehole heat exchanger

As a renewable energy source, geothermal energy has drawn attention because it is clean, low-carbon, resource-rich, stable, and sustainable supply. In the mining and operation of a geothermal energy system, there is a certain amount of fluid resistance in the borehole heat exchanger where the fluid flows. As the resistance in the conventional borehole heat exchanger (CBHE) accumulates with the length increase, the pumping power increases, resulting in energy loss and affecting the operation of the entire geothermal system. A bionic borehole heat exchanger (BBHE) is designed using a circular groove as a bionic unit based on the bionic non-smooth surface hypothesis. Its structural characteristics are the circular groove’s depth, width, and slot pitch. Where the fluid faces the least resistance, minimization of the pressure drop was the optimization goal. Based on the outcomes of a CFD numerical simulation and genetic algorithm optimization study. These are the BBHE’s ideal structural parameters: diameter is 60 mm, 66 mm for the groove width, 418 mm for the slot pitch, and 80 mm for the groove depth. Compared to the CBHE, under identical numerical simulation settings, the fluid resistance reduction rate of BBHE can reach 13%. Increasing fluid velocity in the BBHE can increase the temperature transmission rate. The study’s findings can serve as a reliable source of scientific information for the use and management of geothermal energy.

‘Fat boys make you feel thinner!’: fat GBQ men’s comfort and stigma in UK bear spaces

Despite heightened stigmatisation of fatness in gay/bisexual/queer (GBQ) men’s spaces, geographers have yet to explore the nexus of men, sexualities, and fatness. ‘Bear’ is a term used to describe a set of global identities, communities and bodies of GBQ men who are usually large and hairy. Spaces created and used by Bears have been described as inclusive of fat GBQ men, but no geographic research has investigated such men’s experiences in themThis paper presents findings from ‘Bearspace’, a study of Bear spaces in the UK from 2018 to 2020. It shows that ‘comfort’ was how fat GBQ men framed their experiences of both Bear spaces (‘comfortable’) and mainstream LGBTQ spaces (‘uncomfortable’), and that this meant ‘standing out’ or ‘fitting in’ amongst a majority of proximate thin or fat bodies respectively. However the paper also demonstrates that fat stigma persists in Bear spaces, and thatit is part of how Bear spaces are produced as comfortable for most fat GBQ men, through their awareness that they are not the fattest man present. The paper concludes by asserting the significance of differences between spatially proximate fat bodies for the relational conceptualisation of fatness and fat stigma, and for making fat-inclusive spaces.

Completing the A2 Andrews–Schilling–Warnaar Identities

Abstract We study the Andrews–Schilling–Warnaar sum-sides for the principal characters of standard (i.e., integrable, highest weight) modules of ${\operatorname {A}}_2^{(1)}$. These characters have been studied recently by Corteel, Dousse, Foda, Uncu, Warnaar, and Welsh. We prove complete sets of identities for moduli $5$ through $8$ and $10$. The cases of moduli $6$ and $10$ are new. Our proofs use Corteel–Welsh recursions for cylindric partitions and certain relations satisfied by the Andrews–Schilling–Warnaar sum-sides. We further show that at all moduli, a complete set of conjectures may be deduced using certain explicit “seed” conjectures. These seed conjectures are obtained by appropriately truncating our conjectures for the “infinite” level. Additionally, for moduli $3k$, we use an identity of Weierstraß to deduce new sum-product identities starting from the results of Andrews–Schilling–Warnaar.

Morphology and ultrastructure of the Balbiani body in the oocytes of closely related bush cricket species. Shared features reveal important aspect of functioning

Balbiani bodies (Bbs) are female germline-specific organelle assemblages usually composed of mitochondria, Golgi complexes, elements of endoplasmic reticulum and accumulations of fine granular material, termed the nuage. Here we present results of morphological and ultrastructural analysis of the Bb of four bush crickets nested in four subfamilies of the family Tettigonidae. This study has revealed that Bbs of closely related species (belonging to the defined evolutionary line) are morphologically rather different. In two species (Meconema meridionale and Pholidoptera griseoaptera) the Bb has the form of a hollow hemisphere that covers a part of the germinal vesicle surface. In contrast, the Bb of Conocephalus fuscus and Leptophyes albovittata is less distinct and surrounds the whole or the majority of the germinal vesicle surface. Aside from this difference, the Bbs of all four studied species are built of identical sets of organelles and, most importantly, share one significant feature: close association of mitochondria and nuage accumulations. We show additionally that mitochondria remaining in direct contact with the nuage are characterized by distinct morphologies e.g. elongated, dumbbell shaped or bifurcated. In the light of our results and literature survey, the ancestral function of the Bb is discussed.