Simple Sum Research Articles

Simulation of Ionizing/Displacement Synergistic Effects on NPN Bipolar Transistors Irradiated by Mixed Neutrons and Gamma Rays

Transistors working in complex radiation environments such as space are simultaneously irradiated by neutrons and gamma rays. But the mechanism of the synergistic radiation effect between the two rays is still unclear. Based on TCAD, the synergistic radiation effects of ionizing/displacement damage caused by mixed neutrons and gamma rays are simulated. The results demonstrate that the synergistic effects are more serious than the simple sum of the two radiation effects due to their mutual enhancement. The change of the carrier recombination rate in the device at different positions shows that the displacement effects increase the peak value of surface recombination rate; meanwhile, the ionizing dose effects enhance the recombination process in bulk silicon. The mechanism of this phenomenon is that positive charges from the oxide layer and interface enhance the recombination of carriers in bulk, and the reduced carrier lifetime caused by defects from bulk makes carriers more likely to be trapped by the interface traps. In addition, the simulation result which shows the influence of temperature on the synergistic effects indicates that the synergistic effects are more sensitive to the lower temperature.

Психологічна готовність студентської молоді до екологічної та споживчої поведінки

The article analyzes the peculiarities of the formation and development of psychological readiness of student youth for environmental and consumer behavior. The psychological analysis of the content and essence of the phenomenon of "psychological readiness" is carried out. It is stated that the level of development of psychological readiness of student youth for ecological and consumer behavior will largely depend on the ecological future of mankind and their own ecologically appropriate behavior in response to current or future environmental threats. It is proved that shortcomings and mistakes in the attitude to the natural environment, misconceptions about the inexhaustibility of natural resources, shifting responsibility for the consequences of environmentally inappropriate behavior to others, usually related to personal qualities and psychological unpreparedness of students for environmental and consumer behavior. It is established that the formation of psychological readiness of student youth for ecological and consumer behavior involves the formation of such necessary ecological attitudes, personality traits that provide the individual with the opportunity to prefer eco-friendly behavior and consciously manifest it. At the same time, it is not necessary to reduce the formation of readiness for the development of certain personal qualities in student youth, to their simple sum. Readiness is expressed in a high level of development of independence in the process of choosing and demonstrating environmental coping strategies as ways to overcome environmental threats. It is determined that the psychological readiness of student youth for environmental and consumer behavior is manifested in the presence of: the necessary environmental knowledge, skills and abilities, environmental intelligence and thinking; environmentally sound qualities (environmental discipline, organization and responsibility) that help to activate pro-environmental behavior; sustainable positive attitude to the necessity and importance of the manifestation of eco-appropriate behavior and the desire to constantly develop their environmental knowledge and skills; internal need to demonstrate pro-environmental behavior. It is stated that the ecological position of student youth influences ecological and consumer behavior through ecological control, which is expressed in ecological self-efficacy and ecological internality. The ecological position, given the dominance of the well-being of other individuals, influences the ecological and consumer behavior of student youth by increasing self-efficacy in the environmental sphere. The position of dominating the well-being of others activates pro-environmental norms, which encourages the assessment of eco-destructive actions as unacceptable. Ecological position influences ecological and consumer behavior indirectly through subjective connection with nature.

Психологічна готовність студентської молоді до екологічної та споживчої поведінки

The article analyzes the peculiarities of the formation and development of psychological readiness of student youth for environmental and consumer behavior. The psychological analysis of the content and essence of the phenomenon of "psychological readiness" is carried out. It is stated that the level of development of psychological readiness of student youth for ecological and consumer behavior will largely depend on the ecological future of mankind and their own ecologically appropriate behavior in response to current or future environmental threats. It is proved that shortcomings and mistakes in the attitude to the natural environment, misconceptions about the inexhaustibility of natural resources, shifting responsibility for the consequences of environmentally inappropriate behavior to others, usually related to personal qualities and psychological unpreparedness of students for environmental and consumer behavior. It is established that the formation of psychological readiness of student youth for ecological and consumer behavior involves the formation of such necessary ecological attitudes, personality traits that provide the individual with the opportunity to prefer eco-friendly behavior and consciously manifest it. At the same time, it is not necessary to reduce the formation of readiness for the development of certain personal qualities in student youth, to their simple sum. Readiness is expressed in a high level of development of independence in the process of choosing and demonstrating environmental coping strategies as ways to overcome environmental threats. It is determined that the psychological readiness of student youth for environmental and consumer behavior is manifested in the presence of: the necessary environmental knowledge, skills and abilities, environmental intelligence and thinking; environmentally sound qualities (environmental discipline, organization and responsibility) that help to activate pro-environmental behavior; sustainable positive attitude to the necessity and importance of the manifestation of eco-appropriate behavior and the desire to constantly develop their environmental knowledge and skills; internal need to demonstrate pro-environmental behavior. It is stated that the ecological position of student youth influences ecological and consumer behavior through ecological control, which is expressed in ecological self-efficacy and ecological internality. The ecological position, given the dominance of the well-being of other individuals, influences the ecological and consumer behavior of student youth by increasing self-efficacy in the environmental sphere. The position of dominating the well-being of others activates pro-environmental norms, which encourages the assessment of eco-destructive actions as unacceptable. Ecological position influences ecological and consumer behavior indirectly through subjective connection with nature.

The relationship between night-time light and socioeconomic factors in China and India.

This paper re-examines the relationships between night-time light (NTL) and gross domestic product (GDP), population, road networks, and carbon emissions in China and India. Two treatments are carried out to those factors and NTL, which include simple summation in each administrative region (total data), and summation normalized by region area (density data). A series of univariate regression and multiple regression experiments are conducted in different countries and at different scales, in order to find the changes in the relationship between NTL and every parameter in different situations. Several statistical metrics, such as R2, Mean Relative Error (MRE), multiple regression weight coefficient, and Pearson's correlation coefficient are given special attention. We found that GDP, as a comprehensive indicator, is more representative of NTL when the administrative region is relatively comprehensive or highly developed. However, when these regions are unbalanced or undeveloped, the representation of GDP becomes weak and other factors can have a more important influence on the multiple regression. Differences in the relationship between NTL and GDP in China and India can also be reflected in some other factors. In many cases, regression after normalization with the administrative area has a higher R2 value than the total regression. But it is highly influenced by a few highly developed regions like Beijing in China or Chandigarh in India. After the scale of the administrative region becomes fragmented, it is necessary to adjust the model to make the regression more meaningful. The relationship between NTL and carbon emissions shows obvious difference between China and India, and among provinces and counties in China, which may be caused by the different electric power generation and transmission in China and India. From these results, we can know how the NTL is reflected by GDP and other factors in different situations, and then we can make some adjustments.

Central limit theorem and almost sure results for the empirical estimator of superquantiles/CVaR in the stationary case

In this paper, we show that the difference between the empirical estimator and the Conditional value-at-risk can be written as a simple partial sum + a residual term. Starting from this decomposition, we prove a central limit theorem and some almost sure results for the empirical estimator, for a large class of stationary sequences. We also construct a confidence interval with asymptotic level , and we study its coverage level through two different sets of simulation.

Pinocchio: A language for action representation

The development of a language of action representation is a central issue for cognitive robotics, motor neuroscience, ergonomics, sport, and arts with a double goal: analysis and synthesis of action sequences that preserve the spatiotemporal invariants of biological motion, including the associated goals of learning and training. However, the notation systems proposed so far only achieved inconclusive results. By reviewing the underlying rationale of such systems, it is argued that the common flaw is the choice of the ‘primitives’ to be combined to produce complex gestures: basic movements with a different degree of “granularity”. The problem is that in motor cybernetics movements do not add: whatever the degree of granularity of the chosen primitives their simple summation is unable to produce the spatiotemporal invariants that characterize biological motion. The proposed alternative is based on the Equilibrium Point Hypothesis and, in particular, on a computational formulation named Passive Motion Paradigm, where whole-body gestures are produced by applying a small set of force fields to specific key points of the internal body schema: its animation by carefully selected force fields is analogous to the animation of a marionette using wires or strings. The crucial point is that force fields do add, thus suggesting to use force fields as a consistent set of primitives instead of basic movements. This is the starting point for suggesting a force field-based language of action representation, named Pinocchio in analogy with the famous marionette. The proposed language for action description and generation includes three main modules: 1) Primitive force field generators, 2) a Body-Model to be animated by the primitive generators, and 3) a graphical staff system for expressing any specific notated gesture. We suggest that such language is a crucial building block for the development of a cognitive architecture of cooperative robots.

Cognition and Thinking of Conflict and Integration in the Operation of Social System

The view that society is an organic whole has been widely accepted that society is not a collection of individual individuals or a simple sum, but a community of various groups linked by specific relationships and ties. In the social organism, the elements that make up the society depend on and coordinate with each other, at the same time, there are contradictions and conflicts. Social conflict is a characteristic "morbidity" of modern industrial society, therefore, the ability to reconcile various contradictions and conflicts of interest is an important condition for the sound functioning and development of a society, and any society is faced with the task of social integration. In Western societies, social integration is regarded as the process of social integration or the ultimate state of this process. The British philosopher Herbert Spencer introduced the concept of social integration, arguing that at a late stage of social evolution, society had become so complex that it was impossible for each sector to adjust itself, and that "social integration" was needed to perform the function of coordination and control within society. Social integration is a state of differentiation and unification of different sectors of a country, which includes the social coordination of differences. Emile Durkheim systematically studies social integration, distinguishing two types of social integration, namely mechanical solidarity based on socio-cultural homogeneity and organic solidarity based on complementary roles and mutual commitment. In the light of the Anomie of social order in the development of human society, social scientists and Marxism used different methods and tools to investigate and put forward solutions to the problem. Comte advocates the use of science and natural law to achieve social integration. Durkheim highlights and emphasizes social consensus. Coser advocates releasing hostility through social safety valves. Parsons proposes to maintain the basic values and norms shared by members of society to avoid socially divisive conflicts. The use of ideology for social integration has worked well in some cases and has not been effective in others. Ultimately, the root causes of conflict must be analyzed through socio-economic relationships, drawing on various integration theories and tailoring the remedy to the specific situation in order to achieve the goal of effective social integration.

Financial Innovation and Role of Divisia, the Causal Relations among Money, Interest and Macroeconomic Indicators: Evidence from Pakistan

This study investigates the causal relations among money, interest rate, and key macroeconomic variables, based on annual data from 1980 to 2019 by using the Granger causality test. In this study, we have constructed Divisia Superlative weighted monetary Index for Pakistan’s economy and investigated its causality with entire macroeconomic indicators. The outcomes of this research reveal that before financial innovation interest rate causes better compared to simple sum and superlative Divisia Sum, while, post reforms the causal performance of Superlative Divisia Sum is better compared to Simple Sum and rate of interest. Furthermore, the combined effect of both pre and post-reform Divisia Sum shows the best causality performance with key macroeconomic indicators as compared to its counterpart in case of macroeconomic stability. Policy implications that come out from this study that regulatory authorities may use these monetary aggregates (Divisia) targeting, which make a strong association among the money and key macroeconomic variables for sustainable development goals and best monetary policy implication. Therefore, it is concluded that, after financial innovation in Pakistan’s role of divisia monetary aggregate shows strong relation with economic variables. Moreover, superlative monetary aggregates show better results in case of predictability, information content, and policy regime change. The divisia monetary aggregate is also supportive, which provides accurate information to policymakers about the movement of monetary policy shocks observers due to expansionary and constructional monetary policy shocks. So, properly measurable, monetary aggregates never lose their capability to describe fluctuation on aggregate bases, which indicates an important omission from standard model and best policy discussion. So, the latest policy adopts to increase the money growth instead of the conventional once (simple sum). This school of thought is very much supported by evidence, that properly measured money (Divisia Index), helps in forecasting the movement of Shocks observers (Macroeconomic Indicators).

Linear and non-linear summation of responses to visual and olfactory cues in male Drosophila melanogaster

The decision-making and navigating abilities of animals assist them in surviving in an environment with multimodal stimuli, but how the nervous system integrates multisensory information remains unknown. Thus, we chose to study summation, a main mode of integration in Drosophila melanogaster. We investigated whether summation of the responses to visual and olfactory cues was linear or non-linear and explored the significance of both patterns. By a population assay, we quantitatively characterized male Drosophila’s spatial steering behavior in response to visual and olfactory cues. Based on a pioneer study from previous research, we hypothesized that the response to concurrent presentation of visual and olfactory cues would be a simple linear summation of cues presented separately. The visual stimulus in our study was 250 lux white light, and the five attractive odorants were 1-hexanol, acetoin, ethyl acetate, 2,3-butanedione, and isopentyl acetate. The results showed that the performance of 1-hexanol, ethyl acetate, and isopentyl acetate supported the hypothesis. These phenomena indicate that visual and olfactory information are relayed to descending neurons in the ventral nerve cord to direct behavior separately, suggesting independent sensorimotor pathways between these odorants and light. However, acetoin demonstrated inhibition, and 2,3-butanedione demonstrated synergy with light. These phenomena indicate that information first be relayed to some higher site in brain for multisensory integration and computation then be relayed to descending neurons in the ventral nerve cord to direct behavior. Therefore, the results indicate that the integration pattern of phototaxis and odortaxis may depend on the specific odorant. In addition, our data suggest that the integration pattern may not depend on odorant representation by glomeruli in the antennal lobes. Instead, integration pattern may depend on some higher order of odorant processing center, where information could be more efficiently and accurately processed. Our experiment contributes to understanding neural circuits and information processing in insects and more complex species.

A survey on Benders Decomposition methods applied to Assembly Line Balancing Problems

The assembly line balancing problem (ALBP) assigns tasks to (work)stations to manufacture products. It divides the station loads as evenly as possible since any bottleneck defines the production rate of a flow shop system. The sum of task processing times represents the station load in the classical Simple Assembly Line Balancing Problem (SALBP). Thus, the most loaded station imposes a lower bound on the line's cycle time. However, the simple sum of processing times is only valid under several assumptions. For instance, more realistic ALBPs may contain stochastic data, multiple workers per station, or depend on the production sequence. Hence, the station load computation involves further scheduling decisions for this latter class of problems. In order to tackle these ALBPs with practical extensions, several literature contributions have recently employed Benders decomposition (BD) algorithms. The BD structure allows a division of the formulation into two or more levels. More specifically, this framework permits the decoupling of task assignment decisions and cycle time assessments. In the field of ALBPs, various stochastic and sequence-dependent problems have successfully applied this approach. This paper provides a literature review of these methods, the different formulations, implementation details, and improvement ideas.

ЕКОНОМІКО-МАТЕМАТИЧНІ МЕТОДИ В АНАЛІЗІ ПОКАЗНИКІВ ГІДНОЇ ПРАЦІ В РЕГІОНАЛЬНОМУ КОНТЕКСТІ

The features of calculating the regional human development index in Ukraine at national level are discussed in this article. Research actuality is related to performing periodic evaluation of level of regional human development as a component of social and economic development of Ukraine with an eye to identification of tendencies and adjustments of strategic plans of development of separate regions. The stages of evolution of methodical approaches to the calculation of integral values of indexes of «Decent Work» block are considered. On certain indexes the estimation of working conditions is done. The graphic method RADAR is proposed to use when evaluating the level of regional human development. This method is used for determination of index of competitiveness of regions, and it is based on the calculation of area of the polygon built using the values of indexes. The index is calculated using indicators combined into six blocks (population reproduction; social status; comfortable life; welfare; decent work; education). The indicators of the “Decent Work” block (employment level of the population; unemployment rate; the part of workers whose salary is less than 1,5 of the subsistence minimums; the part of workers who work in conditions that do not meet sanitary and hygienic standards; the ratio of average and minimum salaries; the level of social insurance) are considered and the block is used to evaluate working conditions. The comparative analysis of the received results of calculation of index of regional human development is presented based on two methodical approaches: the simple sum of the standardized values of indexes and the RADAR method. The petalous diagrams are built for the regions-leaders and for outsiders, that were identified as such for investigated period using different methodical approaches. The research of the estimations of level of human development, which received using different methods, showed differences in rating of regions based on indexes of the «Decent Work» block. The results of the performed comparative analysis showed that the different economic and mathematical methods should be used for evaluation of the level of human development in order to justify the administrative decision regarding the further development of working conditions.

Binocular Summation Is Intact in Intermittent Exotropia After Surgery.

Purpose: To determine binocular summation of surgically treated intermittent exotropia (IXT) patients by measuring the contrast threshold.Methods: We recruited 38 surgically treated IXT patients aged 8–24 years and 20 age-matched healthy controls. All participants had normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity (Snellen ≥ 20/20) in both eyes. The IXT patients had undergone the surgery at least a year prior to the study. Twenty-one of them obtained good alignment and 17 experienced a recurrence of exotropia. We measured the observers' monocular and binocular contrast sensitivities (CS) at six spatial frequencies (1.5, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 cycles/degree) as an index of visual information processing at the threshold level. Binocular summation was evaluated against a baseline model of simple probability summation based on the CS at each spatial frequency and the area under the log contrast sensitivity function (AULCSF).Results: The exo-deviation of IXTs with good alignment was −6.38 ± 3.61 prism diopters (pd) at 33 cm and −5.14 ± 4.07 pd at 5 m. For the patients with recurrence, it was −23.47 ± 5.53 pd and −21.12 ± 4.28 pd, respectively. There was no significant difference in the binocular summation ratio (BSR) between the surgically treated IXT patients, including those with good alignment and recurrence, and normal controls at each spatial frequency [F(2,55) = 0.416, P = 0.662] and AULCSF [F(2,55) = 0.469, P = 0.628]. In addition, the BSR was not associated with stereopsis (r = −0.151, P = 0.365).Conclusion: Our findings of normal contrast sensitivity binocular summation ratio in IXT after surgical treatment suggest that the ability of the visual cortex in processing binocular information is intact at the contrast threshold level.

Effect of single and multilayered Ti3C2TX MXene as a catalyst and adsorbent on enhanced sonodegradation of diclofenac and verapamil

Single and multilayered Ti3C2TX MXene (referred to as SLM and MLM in this study, respectively) was applied as catalysts in the ultrasonic (US) process to treat selected pharmaceutical compounds including diclofenac and verapamil (VRP). Due to solid surface, elemental composition, and functional groups of Ti3C2TX MXene, the free OH• production was increased by 48.8% for the US treatment with SLM and 59.8% for the US treatment with MLM compared with the US-only treatment. Additionally, adsorption affected the performance during the US treatment in the presence of the catalyst. Thus, the US treatment in the presence of Ti3C2TX MXene had an enhanced performance not only because of increased oxidation but also because of adsorption, particularly between positively charged VRP and negatively charged Ti3C2TX MXene. Moreover, although the degradation of the performance was higher for SLM (85.1%) than for MLM (81.8%), by improving the dispersion and reducing the size via sonication, the US treatment in the presence of MLM showed the highest synergy effect. In other words, the US treatment in the presence of MLM showed higher performance than the simple sum of oxidation and adsorption. These findings confirm that the US treatment in the presence of MLM may be a promising technology to treat various pharmaceuticals as a more degradable, strongly reusable, and less toxic process.

Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30)

PurposeThe aim of this study was to analyze the internal structure of the EORTC QLQ-C30, to examine the validity and normative data for cancer patients.MethodExploratory and Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to explore the scale’s dimensionality and test for strong measurement invariance across sex and tumor site. All the analyses were based on a multicenter cohort of 931 patients who completed the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-18) and the EORTC QLQ-C30.ResultsOur findings indicate that the EORTC QLQ-C30 has acceptable psychometric properties and an internal structure that is well accounted for a bifactor model: a general factor that evaluates quality of life and a group factor that would analyze physical health that would be defined by physical function, role function, and fatigue. The result of the multi-group CFA revealed a strong invariance according to sex, tumor, and over time. Reliability of the EORTC exceeding 0.86 and the simple sum of the items of the scale was a good indicator of oncology patients’ quality of life. Both factors correlate closely with depression, anxiety, and psychological distress and are sensitive to change, especially the quality of life, with a significant decrease in the post-test.ConclusionThe Spanish version of the EORTC QLQ-C30 proved to be a valid, reliable instrument to appraise quality of life in cancer patients. The normative data collected from this study may be useful for the early detection of initial symptoms of deterioration of quality of life in oncology patients.

A Cluster-based Method to Quantify Individual Heterogeneity in Tuberculosis Transmission.

Recent evidence suggests transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) may be characterized by extreme individual heterogeneity in secondary cases (i.e., few cases account for the majority of transmission). Such heterogeneity implies outbreaks are rarer but more extensive and has profound implications in infectious disease control. However, discrete person-to-person transmission events in tuberculosis (TB) are often unobserved, precluding our ability to directly quantify individual heterogeneity in TB epidemiology. We used a modified negative binomial branching process model to quantify the extent of individual heterogeneity using only observed transmission cluster size distribution data (i.e., the simple sum of all cases in a transmission chain) without knowledge of individual-level transmission events. The negative binomial parameter k quantifies the extent of individual heterogeneity (generally, indicates extensive heterogeneity, and as transmission becomes more homogenous). We validated the robustness of the inference procedure considering common limitations affecting cluster size data. Finally, we demonstrate the epidemiologic utility of this method by applying it to aggregate US molecular surveillance data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The cluster-based method reliably inferred k using TB transmission cluster data despite a high degree of bias introduced into the model. We found that the TB transmission in the United States was characterized by a high propensity for extensive outbreaks (; 95% confidence interval = 0.09, 0.10). The proposed method can accurately quantify critical parameters that govern TB transmission using simple, more easily obtainable cluster data to improve our understanding of TB epidemiology.

Entropy analysis of Boolean network reduction according to the determinative power of nodes

Boolean networks are utilized to model systems in a variety of disciplines. The complexity of the systems under exploration often necessitates the construction of model networks with large numbers of nodes and unwieldy state spaces. A recently developed, entropy-based method for measuring the determinative power of each node offers a new method for identifying the most relevant nodes to include in subnetworks that may facilitate analysis of the parent network. We develop a determinative-power-based reduction algorithm and deploy it on 36 network types constructed through various combinations of settings with regards to the connectivity, topology, and functionality of networks. We construct subnetworks by eliminating nodes one-by-one beginning with the least determinative node. We compare entropy ratios between these subnetworks and the parent network and find that, for all network types, the change in network entropies (sums of conditional node entropies) follows a concave down decreasing curve, and the slightest reductions in network entropy occur with the initial reductions which eliminate the nodes with the least determinative power. Comparing across the three network characteristics, we find trends in the rates of decrease in the entropy ratios. In general, the decline occurs more slowly in networks with degree values assigned from a power-law distribution and canalyzing functions of higher canalization depth. We compare results of the determinative-power-based reduction with those of a randomized reduction and find that, in forming subnetworks with maximal network entropy, the determinative-power-based method performs as well as or better than the random method in all cases. Lastly, we compare findings based on this conditional-entropy-based calculation of network entropy with those of an alternative calculation using simple sums of (independent) node entropies to demonstrate the vast differences resulting from the two approaches.

Closed‐form hydraulic conductivity equations for multimodal unsaturated soil hydraulic properties

AbstractClosed‐form expressions of the hydraulic conductivity function for linearly superposed subretention (multimodal) functions were derived for arbitrary sets of the Brooks and Corey (BC), van Genuchten (VG), and Kosugi (KO) water retention models. The generalized Mualem hydraulic conductivity model was evaluated using the mathematical approach of Priesack and Durner. Three types of modification to the multimodel were also proposed. Firstly, the derived conductivity equations can be simplified when the submodel parameters, for the BC model, for the VG model, and for the KO model have the same (common) value (denoted as CH). Secondly, as in the case of the modified single VG and KO models, a hypothetical air‐entry head near saturation can be introduced for the multimodal VG and KO models to prevent unrealistic reductions in the hydraulic conductivity near saturation when the VG n parameter approaches its lower limit of n = 1. Furthermore, the multimodal hydraulic conductivity functions become a simple sum of conductivity subfunctions when the exponent r is unity (such as for Burdine's model), which leads to independent tortuosity effects for each submodel. The models are illustrated for two soils: a highly aggregated Kumamoto Andisol and a relatively unimodal dune sand. The dual‐(BC, VG, KO) and the VG1BC2 models equally represented the water retention data of the Andisol, with similar hydraulic conductivity curves. The dual‐BC‐CH, dual‐VG‐CH, and VG1BC2‐CH models fitted the water retention data of the dune sand well, with the hydraulic conductivity curves of the dual‐porosity model being similar to those of the Fayer and Simmons (FS) model.

Changes in nerve conduction studies predate clinical symptoms onset in early onset Val30Met hereditary ATTR amyloidosis.

Hereditary amyloidosis related to transthyretin (ATTR) is a rare and progressive disease that, despite the phenotypic heterogeneity, a length-dependent sensorimotor axonal neuropathy (ATTR-PN) is the classic hallmark. Timely diagnosis is paramount for early treatment implementation. Sixty-nine asymptomatic gene carriers (Val30Met) were assessed during a 4-year period to identify those remaining asymptomatic versus those converting to ATTRV30M-PN. Conversion to symptomatic was defined as presenting with two definite symptoms of ATTRV30M-PN. Composite neurophysiological scores of sensory (SNS), motor (MNS), and sympathetic skin response (SSRS) amplitudes were used to assess neuropathy progression. We used mixed-effects modeling and ordinal logistic regression to assess neurophysiological evolution over time. Of all asymptomatic gene carriers, 55.1% (n=38/69) converted over the period of this analysis. The progression of the SNS relative to baseline was different between groups (asymptomatic gene carriers vs. converters), the decline being greater in the converter group (time × group interaction p=0.040), starting about 2years before symptom onset. No significant change occurred regarding MNS or SSRS. Moreover, the percentage of cases with an annual decline on the SNS of at least 25%, gradually and significantly increased in the converter group, representing a 1.92 increase in risk of developing symptoms for those with such reduction on the last evaluation. A simple composite neurophysiological sum score can predict the onset of ATTRV30M-PN symptoms by as much as 2years, highlighting the importance of a systematic follow-up of asymptomatic gene carriers, allowing a timely diagnosis, and management of symptomatic disease.

Testing the value of expert insight: Comparing local versus general expert judgment models

AbstractExpert judges often claim to utilize expert insight to tailor judgments to maximize predictive validity for a specific context. We evaluated multi‐organizational assessment data regarding the prediction of supervisory ratings of job performance from ratings on individual assessment dimensions, finding no evidence that the average expert assessor effectively tailored judgments to specific organizations to maximize prediction. Expert judgment was outperformed in all organizational contexts by linear models of expert judgment, optimal weighted regression models, as well as simple sum composites. Critically, the dimension weighting policies of the expert assessors were not consistent with optimal weights for predicting job performance at any organization. We discuss why expertise tends not to contribute to predictive validity and describe methods for improving overall judgmental accuracy.

Neutrino mass ordering determination through combined analysis with JUNO and KM3NeT/ORCA

The neutrino mass ordering (NMO) is one of the fundamental questions in neutrino physics. KM3NeT/ORCA and JUNO are two neutrino oscillation experiments both aiming at measuring the NMO with different approaches: ORCA with atmospheric neutrinos traversing the Earth and JUNO with reactor neutrinos. This contribution presents the potential of determining the NMO through a combined analysis of JUNO and ORCA data. In a joint fit, the NMO sensitivity is enhanced beyond the simple sum of the sensitivities of each experiment due to the tension between the respective Δm 31 2 best fit values obtained when the wrong ordering is assumed, together with good constraints on this parameter measurement by both experiments. From this analysis, we expect the true NMO to be determined with 5σ significance after 1–2 years of data taking by both experiments for the current global best-fit values of the oscillation parameters, while maximally 6 years will be needed for any other parameter set.