Creative and Stylistic Devices Employed by Children During a Storybook Narrative Task: A Cross-Cultural Study

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of culture on the creative and stylistic features children employ when producing narratives based on wordless picture books. Method: Participants included 60 first- and second-grade African American, Latino American, and Caucasian children. A subset of narratives based on wordless picture books collected as part of a larger study was coded and analyzed for the following creative and stylistic conventions: organizational style (topic centered, linear, cyclical), dialogue (direct, indirect), reference to character relationships (nature, naming, conduct), embellishment (fantasy, suspense, conflict), and paralinguistic devices (expressive sounds, exclamatory utterances). Results: Many similarities and differences between ethnic groups were found. No significant differences were found between ethnic groups in organizational style or use of paralinguistic devices. African American children included more fantasy in their stories, Latino children named their characters more often, and Caucasian children made more references to the nature of character relationships. Conclusion: Even within the context of a highly structured narrative task based on wordless picture books, culture influences children’s production of narratives. Enhanced understanding of narrative structure, creativity, and style is necessary to provide ecologically valid narrative assessment and intervention for children from diverse cultural backgrounds

Habitable Zones in the Universe

Habitability varies dramatically with location and time in the universe. This was recognized centuries ago, but it was only in the last few decades that astronomers began to systematize the study of habitability. The introduction of the concept of the habitable zone was key to progress in this area. The habitable zone concept was first applied to the space around a star, now called the Circumstellar Habitable Zone. Recently, other, vastly broader, habitable zones have been proposed. We review the historical development of the concept of habitable zones and the present state of the research. We also suggest ways to make progress on each of the habitable zones and to unify them into a single concept encompassing the entire universe.Comment: 71 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; to be published in Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres; table slightly revise

Use of Dried Blood Spots to Elucidate Full-Length Transmitted/Founder HIV-1 Genomes.

BACKGROUND: Identification of HIV-1 genomes responsible for establishing clinical infection in newly infected individuals is fundamental to prevention and pathogenesis research. Processing, storage, and transportation of the clinical samples required to perform these virologic assays in resource-limited settings requires challenging venipuncture and cold chain logistics. Here, we validate the use of dried-blood spots (DBS) as a simple and convenient alternative to collecting and storing frozen plasma. METHODS: We performed parallel nucleic acid extraction, single genome amplification (SGA), next generation sequencing (NGS), and phylogenetic analyses on plasma and DBS. RESULTS: We demonstrated the capacity to extract viral RNA from DBS and perform SGA to infer the complete nucleotide sequence of the transmitted/founder (TF) HIV-1 envelope gene and full-length genome in two acutely infected individuals. Using both SGA and NGS methodologies, we showed that sequences generated from DBS and plasma display comparable phylogenetic patterns in both acute and chronic infection. SGA was successful on samples with a range of plasma viremia, including samples as low as 1,700 copies/ml and an estimated ∼50 viral copies per blood spot. Further, we demonstrated reproducible efficiency in gp160 env sequencing in DBS stored at ambient temperature for up to three weeks or at -20°C for up to five months. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the use of DBS as a practical and cost-effective alternative to frozen plasma for clinical trials and translational research conducted in resource-limited settings

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV