cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Orchestrating the expression levels of sperm mRNAs reveals CCDC174 as an important determinant of semen quality and bull fertility
Creators: name: Sellappan Selvaraju
name: Divakar Swathi
name: Laxman Ramya
name: Maharajan Lavanya
name: Santhanahalli Siddalingappa Archana
name: Muniandy Sivaram
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Cell Biology
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Physiology
subject: Ecology
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Developmental Biology

description: Bulls with acceptable semen quality vary in actual field fertility and this can be elucidated by studying the expression levels of mRNAs in the sperm. The present study aimed at assessing the variations in the sperm gene expression levels of PRM1, CCDC174, RPL36A, TMCO2, SWI5 and OIT3 in bulls differing in fertility status. Frozen semen samples from Holstein-Friesian bulls were classified into high-fertile (n = 8, average field conception rate = 46.1 ± 0.51, p n = 7, average field conception rate = 39.4 ± 0.69) groups. In the post-thaw semen samples, sperm kinematics, structural and functional membrane integrities, mitochondrial membrane potential and chromatin distribution were analyzed. The sperm total RNA was subjected to gene expression studies by Real-Time PCR. Multivariate regression analysis was performed using gene expression levels and conception rates. The sperm functional attributes did not differ significantly between the groups. The relative mRNA levels (fold change) of CCDC174 (6.20), RPL36A (4.66), SWI5 (1.86) and OIT3 (1.53) were higher in high-fertile bulls. Further, the expression level of the CCDC174 gene was significantly (p = 0.02) up-regulated in high-fertile bulls. The fertility prediction multivariate model with genes, CCDC174, RPL36A, TMCO2 and OIT3 had the maximum coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.68) with the field conception rate. This model had 93.3% bull fertility prediction accuracy with 100% sensitivity and 87.5% specificity. The study suggests that the expression level of CCDC174 can be used as a potential marker for assessing bull fertility.
Transcriptomic features of T cell-barren tumors are conserved across diverse tumor types
Creators: name: Routh, Eric D.
name: Pullikuth, Ashok K.
name: Jin, Guangxu
name: Chifman, Julia
name: Chou, Jeffery W.
name: D'Aǵostino, Ralph B.J.
name: Seino, Kenichiro
name: Wada, Haruka
name: Print, Cristin
name: Zhang, Wei
name: Lu, Yong
name: Miller, Lance D.
Publisher: name: Frontiers in Immunology
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 32
subject: Biomedical and clinical sciences
classificationCode: 3204
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine

description: Background: Understanding how tumors subvert immune destruction is essential to the development of cancer immunotherapies. New evidence suggests that tumors limit anti-tumor immunity by exploiting transcriptional programs that regulate intratumoral trafficking and accumulation of effector cells. Here, we investigated the gene expression profiles that distinguish immunologically “cold” and “hot” tumors across diverse tumor types. Methods: RNAseq profiles of tumors (n = 8,920) representing 23 solid tumor types were analyzed using immune gene signatures that quantify CD8+ T cell abundance. Genes and pathways associated with a low CD8+ T cell infiltration profile (CD8-Low) were identified by correlation, differential expression, and statistical ranking methods. Gene subsets were evaluated in immunotherapy treatment cohorts and functionally characterized in cell lines and mouse tumor models. Results: Among different cancer types, we observed highly significant overlap of genes enriched in CD8-Low tumors, which included known immunomodulatory genes (e.g., BMP7, CMTM4, KDM5B, RCOR2) and exhibited significant associations with Wnt signaling, neurogenesis, cell-cell junctions, lipid biosynthesis, epidermal development, and cancer-testis antigens. Analysis of mutually exclusive gene clusters demonstrated that different transcriptional programs may converge on the T cell-cold phenotype as well as predict for response and survival of patients to Nivo treatment. Furthermore, we confirmed that a top-ranking candidate belonging to the TGF-β superfamily, BMP7, negatively regulates CD8+ T cell abundance in immunocompetent murine tumor models, with and without anti-PD-L1 treatment. Conclusions: This study presents the first evidence that solid tumors of diverse anatomical origin acquire conserved transcriptional alterations that may be operative in the T cell-cold state. Our findings demonstrate the potential clinical utility of CD8-Low tumor-associated genes for predicting patient immunotherapy outcomes and point to novel mechanisms with potential for broad therapeutic exploitation.
A Possible Origin of kHZ QPOs in Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
Creators: name: Kato, Shoji
name: Machida, Mami
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: A possible origin of kHz QPOs in low-mass X-ray binaries is proposed. Recent numerical MHD simulations of accretion disks with turbulent magnetic fields of MRI definitely show the presence of two-armed spiral structure in quasi-steady state of accretion disks. In such deformed disks, two-armed ($m=2$) c-mode ($n=1$) oscillations are excited by wave-wave resonant instability. Among these excited oscillations, the fundamental in the radial direction ($n_r=0$) will be the higher kHz QPO of a twin QPOs, and the first overtone ($n_r=1$) in the radial direction will be the lower kHz QPO of the twin. A possible cause of the twin high-frequency QPOs (HFQPOs) in BH X-ray binaries is also discussed.
description: 20 pages, 6 figures; To be published in Publ. Aston. Soc. Japan, Vol. 72 (2020)
The dependence of the pairwise velocity dispersion on galaxy properties
Creators: name: Li, Cheng
name: Jing, Y. P.
name: Kauffmann, Guinevere
name: Boerner, Gerhard
name: White, Simon D. M.
name: Cheng, F. Z.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: (abridged) We present measurements of the pairwise velocity dispersion (PVD) for different classes of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For a sample of about 200,000 galaxies, we study the dependence of the PVD on galaxy properties such as luminosity, stellar mass (M_*), colour (g-r), 4000A break strength (D4000), concentration index (C), and stellar surface mass density (μ_*). The luminosity dependence of the PVD is in good agreement with the results of Jing & Börner (2004) for the 2dFGRS catalog. The value of σ_{12} measured at k=1 h/Mpc decreases as a function of increasing galaxy luminosity for galaxies fainter than L*, before increasing again for the most luminous galaxies in our sample. Each of the galaxy subsamples selected according to luminosity or stellar mass is divided into two further subsamples according to colour, D4000, C and μ_*. We find that galaxies with redder colours and higher D4000, C, and μ_* values have larger PVDs on all scales and at all luminosities/stellar masses. The dependence of the PVD on parameters related to recent star formation(colour, D4000) is stronger than on parameters related to galaxy structure (C, μ_*), especially on small scales and for faint galaxies. The reddest galaxies and galaxies with high surface mass densities and intermediate concentrations have the highest pairwise peculiar velocities, i.e. these move in the strongest gravitational fields. We conclude that the faint red population located in rich clusters is responsible for the high PVD values that are measured for low-luminosity galaxies on small scales.
description: 14 pages, 13 figures; reference updated and text slightly changed to match the published version; data of measurements of power spectrum and PVD available at http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~leech/papers/clustering/
Mixed Land Use Aquifer Protection from Nitrate and Sodium Contamination
Creators: name: Harper, Carolyn R.
name: Willis, Cleve E.
name: Harper, Carolyn R.
name: Willis, Cleve E.
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 1992
Subjects: subject: Agricultural and Food Policy
subject: Environmental Economics and Policy
subject: Land Economics/Use
subject: Groundwater
subject: Pollution
subject: Nitrates
subject: Sodium
subject: GIS

description: Regression analysis is applied to estimate loadings of nitrate and sodium from various land uses in mixed land use aquifers in Massachusetts. The model is then used to illustrate how well-intended local groundwater protection policies which fail to , recognize land use substitution and cross pollutant effects may be misdirected.
rARMING AND WATER QUALITY: A SURVEY OF JACKSON COUNTY PRODUCERS
Creators: name: Jowers, Ed
name: Griffith, Kenneth
name: Graham, Wendy
name: Jowers, Ed
name: Griffith, Kenneth
name: Graham, Wendy
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 1992
Subjects: Environmental Economics and Policy
Resource /Energy Economics and Policy

description: County in 1991. The survey is sponsored by the Jackson County Extension service and the Soil Conservation Service, in conjunction with the University of Florida. We hope to learn more about how you farm, and about what types of information or assistance we might provide to make your job easier. Currently we are designing a five-year program on Farming and Water Quality in Jackson County. It would help ua to know more about your opinions on how the environment and your farm are linked. We welcome your ideas on this program. The results from this survey will be used to tailor the program to meet your needs·.
Bookscripts: MAY 2022
Creators: name: Dyakova, Ludmila
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: cinema
Bulgarian cinema

description: Review of Film Critic Lyudmila Dyakova on the Book by Associate Professor Andronika Martonova, "Between Migration and Unidentity: The Exotic Other and the New Bulgarian Cinema: Towards the Cultural Fields of Identity, Difference, and the Same/Other Discourse"

The book is part of the Screen Arts Sector project at the Institute for the Study of Arts, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, titled "Post-totalitarian Bulgarian Cinema – Models and Identities." The project was realized with financial support from the Scientific Research Fund (Grant No. DN 20/4, issued on December 11, 2017), under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nadejda Marinchevska.
Fingerprints of spin-current physics on magnetoelectric response in the spin-$1/2$ magnet Ba$_2$CuGe$_2$O$_7$
Creators: name: Ono, Ryota
name: Nikolaev, Sergey
name: Solovyev, Igor
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The single-site anisotropy vanishes for the spin-1/2 as a consequence of Kramers degeneracy. We argue that similar property holds for the magnetically induced electric polarization P, which should depend only on the relative orientation of spins in the bonds but not on the direction of each individual spin. Thus, for insulating multiferroic compounds, P can be decomposed in terms of pairwise isotropic, antisymmetric, and anisotropic contributions, which can be rigorously derived in the framework of the superexchange (SE) theory, in an analogy with the spin Hamiltonian. The SE theory also allows us to identify the microscopic mechanism, which stands behind each contribution. The most controversial and intriguing one is antisymmetric or spin-current mechanism. In this work, we propose that the disputed magnetoelectric (ME) properties of Ba2CuGe2O7 can be explained solely by the spin-current mechanism, while other contributions are either small or forbidden by symmetry. First we explicitly show how the cycloidal spin order induces the experimentally observed P in the direction perpendicular to the xy plane, which can be naturally explained by the spin-current mechanism operating in the out-of-plane bonds. Then, we unveil previously overlooked ME effect, where the application of the magnetic field perpendicular to the plane not only causes the incommensurate-commensurate transition, but also flips P into the plane due to the spin-current mechanism operating in the neighboring bonds within this plane. In both cases, the magnitude and direction of P can be controlled by rotating the spin pattern in the xy plane. Our analysis is based on a realistic spin model, which was rigorously derived from the first-principles calculations and supplemented with the new algorithm for the construction of localized Wannier functions obeying the crystallographic symmetry of Ba2CuGe2O7.
description: 17 pages, 8 figures
Do sexual partners talk to each other about HIV? exploring factors associated with HIV-related partner communication among men and women in Tanzania
Creators: name: Fonner, Virginia A.
name: Kilonzo Mbwambo, Jessie Kazeni
name: Kennedy, Caitlin E.
name: Kerrigan, Deanna
name: Sweat, Michael D.
Publisher: name: American University
Year: 2023

description: Communication between sexual partners is an important component of HIV prevention and occurs within a broader context of socio-culturally defined gender norms and dynamics. We analyzed cross-sectional data from a community-based random sample of men and women living in Kisarawe, Tanzania to understand factors related to partner communication about HIV. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses, disaggregated by gender, included variables at the individual-, relational-, and community-levels. Individuals who knew their HIV-positive status prior to the study were excluded as the focus was on risk communication, not HIV status disclosure. Of 524 participants, 129 women (43.3%) and 96 men (42.5%) reported HIV-related communication with their most recent sexual partner. For women but not men, individual-level socioeconomic factors—including education, possession of a household radio, and employment—and relational-level factors—including partner age and type—were significantly associated with partner communication. At the community level, being socially engaged was positively correlated with partner communication across genders (aOR = 2.02, 95% CI 1.05–3.89, p = 0.03 for men and aOR = 1.74, 95% CI 1.03–2.95, p = 0.04 for women). For women, having less discriminatory attitudes toward people living with HIV and favorable perceived norms of HIV-related communication were significantly associated with partner communication. For men, agreeing that women should be allowed to work outside the home was significantly correlated with partner communication (aOR = 6.02, 95% CI 2.23–16.24, p < 0.001). Findings suggest a link between gender dynamics and partner communication, with individual and relational factors being associated with communication for women and community-level factors being associated with communication for both genders.
Additional details about mathematical models from Evolutionary dynamics of culturally transmitted, fertility-reducing traits
Creators: name: Wodarz, Dominik
name: Stipp, Shaun
name: Hirshleifer, David
name: Komarova, Natalia L.
Publisher: name: The Royal Society
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Evolutionary Biology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: 60102 Bioinformatics
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: 60801 Animal Behaviour
subject: 10202 Biological Mathematics
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: Human populations in many countries have undergone a phase of demographic transition, characterized by a major reduction in fertility at a time of increased resource availability. A key stylized fact is that the reduction in fertility is preceded by a reduction in mortality and a consequent increase in population density. Various theories have been proposed to account for the demographic transition process, including maladaptation, increased parental investment in fewer offspring, and cultural evolution. None of these approaches, including formal cultural evolutionary models of the demographic transitions, have addressed a possible direct causal relationship between a reduction in mortality and the subsequent decline in fertility. We provide mathematical models in which low mortality favours the cultural selection of low fertility traits. This occurs because reduced mortality slows turnover in the model, which allows the cultural transmission advantage of low fertility traits to outrace their reproductive disadvantage. For mortality to be a crucial determinant of outcome, a cultural transmission bias is required where slow reproducers exert higher social influence. Computer simulations of our models that allow for exogenous variation in the death rate can reproduce the central features of the demographic transition process, including substantial reductions in fertility within only one to three generations. A model assuming continuous evolution of reproduction rates through imitation errors predicts fertility to fall below replacement levels if death rates are sufficiently low. This can potentially explain the very low preferred family sizes in Western Europe.
Radical right parties and their welfare state stances – not so blurry after all?
Creators: name: Enggist, Matthias
name: Pinggera, Michael
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: 29999 Physical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: Geology
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
subject: 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Science Policy
subject: 111714 Mental Health
subject: FOS: Health sciences

description: Recent literature shows that radical right parties (RRPs) present moderate or blurry economic stances. However, this paper argues that this blurriness is restricted to only one of the two main conflicts of contemporary welfare politics, namely questions centring on welfare generosity. In contrast, when it comes to the goals and principles the welfare state should meet, RRPs take a clear stance favouring consumption policies such as old age pensions over social investment, in accordance with their voters’ preferences. The empirical analysis based on new, fine-grained coding of welfare stances in party manifestos and original data on voters’ perceptions of party stances in seven European countries supports this argument. RRPs de-emphasise how much welfare state they want while consistently and clearly defending the traditional welfare state’s consumptive focus against recalibration proposals. These findings have important implications for party competition and welfare politics.
Do sexual partners talk to each other about HIV? exploring factors associated with HIV-related partner communication among men and women in Tanzania
Creators: name: Fonner, Virginia A.
name: Kilonzo Mbwambo, Jessie Kazeni
name: Kennedy, Caitlin E.
name: Kerrigan, Deanna
name: Sweat, Michael D.
Publisher: name: AIDS and Behavior
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 42
subject: Health sciences
subject: FOS: Health sciences

description: Communication between sexual partners is an important component of HIV prevention and occurs within a broader context of socio-culturally defined gender norms and dynamics. We analyzed cross-sectional data from a community-based random sample of men and women living in Kisarawe, Tanzania to understand factors related to partner communication about HIV. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses, disaggregated by gender, included variables at the individual-, relational-, and community-levels. Individuals who knew their HIV-positive status prior to the study were excluded as the focus was on risk communication, not HIV status disclosure. Of 524 participants, 129 women (43.3%) and 96 men (42.5%) reported HIV-related communication with their most recent sexual partner. For women but not men, individual-level socioeconomic factors—including education, possession of a household radio, and employment—and relational-level factors—including partner age and type—were significantly associated with partner communication. At the community level, being socially engaged was positively correlated with partner communication across genders (aOR = 2.02, 95% CI 1.05–3.89, p = 0.03 for men and aOR = 1.74, 95% CI 1.03–2.95, p = 0.04 for women). For women, having less discriminatory attitudes toward people living with HIV and favorable perceived norms of HIV-related communication were significantly associated with partner communication. For men, agreeing that women should be allowed to work outside the home was significantly correlated with partner communication (aOR = 6.02, 95% CI 2.23–16.24, p < 0.001). Findings suggest a link between gender dynamics and partner communication, with individual and relational factors being associated with communication for women and community-level factors being associated with communication for both genders.
Isotropically conducting (hidden) quantum Hall stripe phases in a two-dimensional electron gas
Creators: name: Huang, Yi
name: Sammon, M.
name: Zudov, M. A.
name: Shklovskii, B. I.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Quantum Hall stripe (QHS) phases, predicted by the Hartree-Fock theory, are manifested in GaAs-based two-dimensional electron gases as giant resistance anisotropies. Here, we predict a ``hidden'' QHS phase which exhibits \emph{isotropic} resistivity whose value, determined by the density of states of QHS, is independent of the Landau index $N$ and is inversely proportional to the Drude conductivity at zero magnetic field. At high enough $N$, this phase yields to an Ando-Unemura-Coleridge-Zawadski-Sachrajda phase in which the resistivity is proportional to $1/N$ and to the ratio of quantum and transport lifetimes. Experimental observation of this border should allow one to find the quantum relaxation time.
description: 5 pages, 3 figures
Non-quantized Dirac monopoles and strings in the Berry phase of anisotropic spin systems
Creators: name: Bruno, Patrick
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2004
Subjects: subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The Berry phase of an anisotropic spin system that is adiabatically rotated along a closed circuit C is investigated. It is shown that the Berry phase consists of two contributions: (i) a geometric contribution which can be interpreted as the flux through C of a non-quantized Dirac monopole, and (ii) a topological contribution which can be interpreted as the flux through C of a Dirac string carrying a non-quantized flux, i.e., a spin analogue of the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Various experimental consequences of this novel effect are discussed.
description: 4 pages, 3 figures (RevTeX + eps); v2 (revised paper): 4 pages, 4 figures
Supplemental file S1 - description of procedures from A poor substitute for the real thing: captive-reared monarch butterflies are weaker, paler and have less elongated wings than wild migrants
Creators: name: Davis, Andrew K.
name: Farran M. Smith
name: Ballew, Ashley
Publisher: name: The Royal Society
Year: 2020
Subjects: Environmental Science
Developmental Biology

description: For many animals and insects that are experiencing dramatic population declines, the only recourse for conservationists is captive-rearing. To ensure success, reared individuals should be biologically indistinct from those in the wild. We tested if this is true with monarch butterflies, Danaus plexippus, which are increasingly being reared for release by citizens and commercial breeders. Since late-summer monarchs should be as migration capable as possible for surviving the arduous long-distance migration, we evaluated four migration-relevant traits across two groups of captive-reared monarchs (n = 41 and 42) and one group of wild-caught migrants (n = 41). Monarchs (descendants of wild individuals) were reared from eggs to adulthood either in a warm indoor room next to a window, or in an incubator that mimicked late-summer conditions. Using an apparatus consisting of a perch mounted to an electronic force gauge, we assessed ‘grip strength' of all groups, then used image analysis to measure forewing size, pigmentation and elongation. In three of the four traits, reared monarchs underperformed compared to wild ones, even those reared under conditions that should have produced migration-ready individuals. The average strength of reared monarchs combined was 56% less than the wild group, even when accounting for size. Their orange wing colour was paler (an indicator of poor condition and flight ability) and their forewings were less elongated (elongation is associated with migration propensity) than wild monarchs. The reason(s) behind these effects is unknown but could stem from the frequent disturbance and/or handling of reared monarchs, or the fact that rearing removes the element of natural selection from all stages. Regardless, these results explain prior tagging studies that showed reared monarchs have lower migratory success compared to wild.
Intrinsic Spectral Geometry of the Kerr-Newman Event Horizon
Creators: name: Engman, Martin
name: Soto, Ricardo Cordero
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: Differential Geometry (math.DG)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 58J50 (Primary); 83C15; 83C57 (Secondary)

description: We uniquely and explicitly reconstruct the instantaneous intrinsic metric of the Kerr-Newman Event Horizon from the spectrum of its Laplacian. In the process we find that the angular momentum parameter, radius, area; and in the uncharged case, mass, can be written in terms of these eigenvalues. In the uncharged case this immediately leads to the unique and explicit determination of the Kerr metric in terms of the spectrum of the event horizon. Robinson's ``no hair" theorem now yields the corollary: One can ``hear the shape" of noncharged stationary axially symmetric black hole space-times by listening to the vibrational frequencies of its event horizon only.
description: Final version with improved abstract, updated references, corrected typos, and additional discussion
Economic benefits and costs of surgery for filarial hydrocele in Malawi
Creators: name: Sawers, Larry
name: Stillwaggon, Eileen
name: Chiphwanya, John
name: Mkwanda, Square Z.
name: Betts, Hannah
name: Martindale, Sarah
name: Kelly-Hope, Louise A.
Publisher: name: American University
Year: 2023

description: Background Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is endemic in 72 countries of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Ameri-cas. An estimated 25 million men live with the disabling effects of filarial hydrocele. Hydro-cele can be corrected with surgery with few complications. For most men, hydrocelectomy reduces or corrects filarial hydrocele and permits them to resume regular activities of daily living and gainful employment. Methodology and principal findings This study measures the economic loss due to filarial hydrocele and the benefits of hydrocelect-omy and is based on pre-and post-operative surveys of patients in southern Malawi. We find the average number of days of work lost due to filarial hydrocele and daily earnings for men in rural Malawi. We calculate average annual lost earnings and find the present discounted value for all years from the time of surgery to the end of working life. We estimate the total costs of surgery. We compare the benefit of the work capacity restored to the costs of surgery to determine the benefit-cost ratio. For men younger than 65 years old, the average annual earnings loss attrib-uted to hydrocele is US$126. The average discounted present value of lifetime earnings loss for those men is US$1684. The average budgetary cost of the hydrocelectomy is US$68. The ratio of the benefit of surgery to its costs is US$1684/US$68 or 24.8. Sensitivity analysis demon-strates that the results are robust to variations in cost of surgery and length of working life. Conclusion The lifetime benefits of hydrocelectomy–to the man, his family, and his community–far exceed the costs of repairing the hydrocele. Scaling up subsidies to hydrocelectomy cam-paigns should be a priority for governments and international aid organizations to prevent and alleviate disability and lost earnings that aggravate poverty among the many millions of men with filarial hydrocele.
Closeness of the reduced density matrix of an interacting small system to the Gibbs state
Creators: name: Wang, Wen-ge
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: I study the statistical description of a small quantum system, which is coupled to a large quantum environment in a generic form and with a generic interaction strength, when the total system lies in an equilibrium state described by a microcanonical ensemble. The focus is on the difference between the reduced density matrix (RDM) of the central system in this interacting case and the RDM obtained in the uncoupled case. In the eigenbasis of the central system's Hamiltonian, it is shown that the difference between diagonal elements is mainly confined by the ratio of the maximum width of the eigenfunctions of the total system in the uncoupled basis to the width of the microcanonical energy shell; meanwhile, the difference between off-diagonal elements is given by the ratio of certain property of the interaction Hamiltonian to the related level spacing of the central system. As an application, a sufficient condition is given, under which the RDM may have a canonical Gibbs form under system-environment interactions that are not necessarily weak; this Gibbs state usually includes certain averaged effect of the interaction. For central systems that interact locally with many-body quantum chaotic systems, it is shown that the RDM usually has a Gibbs form. I also study the RDM which is computed from a typical state of the total system within an energy shell.
description: 15 pages, no figure, published version
Economic benefits and costs of surgery for filarial hydrocele in Malawi
Creators: name: Sawers, Larry
name: Stillwaggon, Eileen
name: Chiphwanya, John
name: Mkwanda, Square Z.
name: Betts, Hannah
name: Martindale, Sarah
name: Kelly-Hope, Louise A.
Publisher: name: Public Library of Science
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 42
subject: Health sciences
subject: FOS: Health sciences

description: Background Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is endemic in 72 countries of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Ameri-cas. An estimated 25 million men live with the disabling effects of filarial hydrocele. Hydro-cele can be corrected with surgery with few complications. For most men, hydrocelectomy reduces or corrects filarial hydrocele and permits them to resume regular activities of daily living and gainful employment. Methodology and principal findings This study measures the economic loss due to filarial hydrocele and the benefits of hydrocelect-omy and is based on pre-and post-operative surveys of patients in southern Malawi. We find the average number of days of work lost due to filarial hydrocele and daily earnings for men in rural Malawi. We calculate average annual lost earnings and find the present discounted value for all years from the time of surgery to the end of working life. We estimate the total costs of surgery. We compare the benefit of the work capacity restored to the costs of surgery to determine the benefit-cost ratio. For men younger than 65 years old, the average annual earnings loss attrib-uted to hydrocele is US$126. The average discounted present value of lifetime earnings loss for those men is US$1684. The average budgetary cost of the hydrocelectomy is US$68. The ratio of the benefit of surgery to its costs is US$1684/US$68 or 24.8. Sensitivity analysis demon-strates that the results are robust to variations in cost of surgery and length of working life. Conclusion The lifetime benefits of hydrocelectomy–to the man, his family, and his community–far exceed the costs of repairing the hydrocele. Scaling up subsidies to hydrocelectomy cam-paigns should be a priority for governments and international aid organizations to prevent and alleviate disability and lost earnings that aggravate poverty among the many millions of men with filarial hydrocele.
Border residents' perceptions of crime and security in El Paso, Texas
Creators: name: Castaneda-Tinoco, Ernesto
name: Chiappetta, Casey
Publisher: name: American University
Year: 2023

description: Research has continued to show the overall safety of the U.S. border region contrary to the widespread belief about the insecurity of the U.S.-Mexico border and frequent claims for the need to secure the border in order to prevent the spread of violence into the rest of the country. Rarely do we ask how border residents feel about safety and crime, which could shed significant light on the claims that the border is an insecure warzone posing a threat to the entire country. While calls to secure national borders are common, outsiders' perceptions of an unsafe border are not supported by official crime rates and statistics, Border Patrol apprehensions, or the everyday experiences of people in American cities along the U.S.-Mexico border. This paper investigates the perception of crime and security, as expressed by the residents of El Paso, Texas, a large city located along the U.S.-Mexico border and directly across from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Data come from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded survey that asked 919 residents about their perceptions of crime, sense of security and safety in their neighborhood and the city in general. The results show that the overwhelming majority of border city residents feel safe and that those who are undocumented and raised in El Paso are the most likely to report feeling safe or very safe. We also find that the foreign-born population had a statistically significant lower felony conviction rate than those who were U.S.-born, an important qualifier in discussions over immigration and its connection with violence and crime. Contrary to sensationalized claims about border violence, residents of El Paso do not display any of the sense of insecurity experienced in neighboring Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. We present hypotheses about possible causes for these low levels of violence in the U.S.-side of the border and discuss the dissonance between the reality on the border and perception outside of the border region.
Epiphytic hydroids on Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows are winner organisms under future ocean acidification conditions: evidence from a CO2 vent system (Ischia Island, Italy)
Creators: name: C. Gravili
name: F. Cozzoli
name: M. C. Gambi
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
subject: 39999 Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences
subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Inorganic Chemistry

description: Effects of ocean acidification (OA) on the plant phenology and colonization/settlement pattern of the hydrozoan epibiont community of the leaves of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica have been studied at volcanic CO2 vents off Ischia (Italy). The study was conducted in shallow Posidonia stands (2.5–3.5 m depth), in three stations on the north and three on the south sides of the vent’s area (Castello Aragonese vents), distributed along a pH gradient. At each station, 10–15 P. oceanica shoots were collected every three months for one-year cycle (Sept 2009–2010). The shoot density of Posidonia beds in the most acidified stations along the gradient (pH Sertularia perpusilla, Plumularia obliqua, Clytia hemisphaerica). All hydroids species showed a clear tolerance to low pH levels, including chitinous and non-calcifying forms, likely favoured also by the absence of competition for substratum with the calcareous forms of epiphytes selected against OA.
A study of the energy evolution of event shape distributions and their means with the DELPHI detector at LEP
Creators: name: The DELPHI Collaboration
name: Abdallah, J.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2003
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Infrared and collinear safe event shape distributions and their mean values are determined in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies between 45 and 202 GeV. A phenomenological analysis based on power correction models including hadron mass effects for both differential distributions and mean values is presented. Using power corrections, alpha_s is extracted from the mean values and shapes. In an alternative approach, renormalisation group invariance (RGI) is used as an explicit constraint, leading to a consistent description of mean values without the need for sizeable power corrections. The QCD beta-function is precisely measured using this approach. From the DELPHI data on Thrust, including data from low energy experiments, one finds beta_0 = 7.86 +/- 0.32 for the one loop coefficient of the beta-function or, assuming QCD, n_f = 4.75 +/- 0.44 for the number of active flavours. These values agree well with the QCD expectation of beta_0=7.67 and n_f=5. A direct measurement of the full logarithmic energy slope excludes light gluinos with a mass below 5 GeV.
description: 45 pages, 17 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J. C
Border residents' perceptions of crime and security in El Paso, Texas
Creators: name: Castaneda-Tinoco, Ernesto
name: Chiappetta, Casey
Publisher: name: Social Sciences
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 44
subject: Human society
classificationCode: 4402
subject: Criminology
subject: FOS: Law

description: Research has continued to show the overall safety of the U.S. border region contrary to the widespread belief about the insecurity of the U.S.-Mexico border and frequent claims for the need to secure the border in order to prevent the spread of violence into the rest of the country. Rarely do we ask how border residents feel about safety and crime, which could shed significant light on the claims that the border is an insecure warzone posing a threat to the entire country. While calls to secure national borders are common, outsiders' perceptions of an unsafe border are not supported by official crime rates and statistics, Border Patrol apprehensions, or the everyday experiences of people in American cities along the U.S.-Mexico border. This paper investigates the perception of crime and security, as expressed by the residents of El Paso, Texas, a large city located along the U.S.-Mexico border and directly across from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Data come from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded survey that asked 919 residents about their perceptions of crime, sense of security and safety in their neighborhood and the city in general. The results show that the overwhelming majority of border city residents feel safe and that those who are undocumented and raised in El Paso are the most likely to report feeling safe or very safe. We also find that the foreign-born population had a statistically significant lower felony conviction rate than those who were U.S.-born, an important qualifier in discussions over immigration and its connection with violence and crime. Contrary to sensationalized claims about border violence, residents of El Paso do not display any of the sense of insecurity experienced in neighboring Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. We present hypotheses about possible causes for these low levels of violence in the U.S.-side of the border and discuss the dissonance between the reality on the border and perception outside of the border region.
Controlled Optofluidic Crystallization of Colloids Tethered at Interfaces
Creators: name: Caciagli, Alessio
name: Singh, Rajesh
name: Joshi, Darshana
name: Adhikari, R.
name: Eiser, Erika
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
subject: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We report experiments that show rapid crystallization of colloids tethered to an oil-water interface in response to laser illumination. This light-induced transition is due to a combination of long-ranged thermophoretic pumping and local optical binding. We show that the flow-induced force on the colloids can be described as the gradient of a potential. The nonequilibrium steady state due to local heating thus admits an effective equilibrium description. The optofluidic manipulation explored in this work opens novel ways to manipulate and assemble colloidal particles
description: Published version
Effect of pion thermal width on the sigma spectrum
Creators: name: Hidaka, Yoshimasa
name: Morimatsu, Osamu
name: Nishikawa, Tetsuo
name: Ohtani, Munehisa
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2003
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study the effect of thermal width of $π$ on the spectral function of $σ$ applying a resummation technique called optimized perturbation theory at finite temperature ($T$) to ${\cal O}(4)$ linear sigma model. In order to take into account finite thermal width of $π$, we replace the internal pion mass in the self-energy of $σ$ with that of complex pole found in a previous paper. The obtained spectral function for $T\aplg 100 {\rm MeV}$ turns out to possess two broad peaks. Although a sharp peak at $σ\toππ$ threshold was observed in the one-loop calculation without pion thermal width, the peak is proved to be smeared out. We also search for the poles of the $σ$ propagator and analyze the behavior of the spectral function with these poles.
description: 5 pages, 6 figures
Supplement Figures from Predicting the short-term success of human influenza virus variants with machine learning
Creators: name: Hayati, Maryam
name: Biller, Priscila
name: Colijn, Caroline
Publisher: name: The Royal Society
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Evolutionary Biology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: 60102 Bioinformatics
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: Computational Biology

description: Seasonal influenza viruses are constantly changing and produce a different set of circulating strains each season. Small genetic changes can accumulate over time and result in antigenically different viruses; this may prevent the body’s immune system from recognizing those viruses. Due to rapid mutations, in particular, in the haemagglutinin (HA) gene, seasonal influenza vaccines must be updated frequently. This requires choosing strains to include in the updates to maximize the vaccines’ benefits, according to estimates of which strains will be circulating in upcoming seasons. This is a challenging prediction task. In this paper, we use longitudinally sampled phylogenetic trees based on HA sequences from human influenza viruses, together with counts of epitope site polymorphisms in HA, to predict which influenza virus strains are likely to be successful. We extract small groups of taxa (subtrees) and use a suite of features of these subtrees as key inputs to the machine learning tools. Using a range of training and testing strategies, including training on H3N2 and testing on H1N1, we find that successful prediction of future expansion of small subtrees is possible from these data, with accuracies of 0.71–0.85 and a classifier ‘area under the curve’ 0.75–0.9.
Incorporating uncertainty into USDA commodity price forecasts
Creators: name: Adjemian, Michael K.
name: Bruno, Valentina G.
name: Robe, Michel A.
Publisher: name: American University
Year: 2023

description: From 1977 through April 2019, USDA published monthly season-average price (SAP) forecasts for key agricultural commodities in the form of intervals meant to indicate forecasters' uncertainty but without attaching a confidence level. In May 2019, USDA eliminated the intervals and began publishing a single point estimate—a value that has a very low probability of being realized. We demonstrate how a density forecasting format can improve the usefulness of USDA price forecasts and explain how such a methodology can be implemented. We simulate 21 years of out-of-sample density-based SAP forecasts using historical data, with forward-looking, backward-looking, and composite methods, and we evaluate them based on commonly-accepted criteria. Each of these approaches would offer USDA the ability to portray richer and more accurate price forecasts than its old intervals or its current single point estimates. Backward-looking methods require little data and provide significant improvements. For commodities with active derivatives markets, option-implied volatilities (IVs) can be used to generate forward-looking and composite models that reflect (and adjust dynamically to) market sentiment about uncertainty—a feature that is not possible using backward-looking data alone. At certain forecast steps, a composite method that combines forward- and backward-looking information provides useful information regarding farm-level prices beyond that contained in IVs.
Additional file 2 of Preference for initiation of end-of-life care discussion in Indonesia: a quantitative study
Creators: name: Eng, Venita
name: Hewitt, Victoria
name: Kekalih, Aria
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Biophysics
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Molecular Biology
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Developmental Biology
subject: Science Policy

description: Additional file 2.
Incorporating uncertainty into USDA commodity price forecasts
Creators: name: Adjemian, Michael K.
name: Bruno, Valentina G.
name: Robe, Michel A.
Publisher: name: American Journal of Agricultural Economics
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 38
subject: Economics

description: From 1977 through April 2019, USDA published monthly season-average price (SAP) forecasts for key agricultural commodities in the form of intervals meant to indicate forecasters' uncertainty but without attaching a confidence level. In May 2019, USDA eliminated the intervals and began publishing a single point estimate—a value that has a very low probability of being realized. We demonstrate how a density forecasting format can improve the usefulness of USDA price forecasts and explain how such a methodology can be implemented. We simulate 21 years of out-of-sample density-based SAP forecasts using historical data, with forward-looking, backward-looking, and composite methods, and we evaluate them based on commonly-accepted criteria. Each of these approaches would offer USDA the ability to portray richer and more accurate price forecasts than its old intervals or its current single point estimates. Backward-looking methods require little data and provide significant improvements. For commodities with active derivatives markets, option-implied volatilities (IVs) can be used to generate forward-looking and composite models that reflect (and adjust dynamically to) market sentiment about uncertainty—a feature that is not possible using backward-looking data alone. At certain forecast steps, a composite method that combines forward- and backward-looking information provides useful information regarding farm-level prices beyond that contained in IVs.