New & Noteworthy, February 2020

Contents include: Toward and Intersectional Praxis of Arts Administration and Dramaturgy; #LMDA20 // Conference Countdown; LMDA Grants and Awards; Upcoming Regional Events.https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/lmdanewsletter/1037/thumbnail.jp

LMDA New and Noteworthy, April 2021

Contents include: LMDA 2021 Conference Update; International Dramaturgy Lab Check In; Dramaturging the Phoenix 2.0: A Renewed Challenge for LMDA Members; Thank You, Five (Podcast): Spotlighting Dramaturgy; Renew Your Membership Today!; Region Facebook Groups.https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/lmdanewsletter/1056/thumbnail.jp

Eye-tracking the time‐course of novel word learning and lexical competition in adults and children

Lexical competition is a hallmark of proficient, automatic word recognition. Previous research suggests that there is a delay before a new spoken word becomes engaged in this process, with sleep playing an important role. However, data from one method--the visual world paradigm--consistently show competition without a delay. We trained 42 adults and 40 children (aged 7-8) on novel word-object pairings, and employed this paradigm to measure the time-course of lexical competition. Fixations to novel objects upon hearing existing words (e.g., looks to the novel object biscal upon hearing “click on the biscuit”) were compared to fixations on untrained objects. Novel word-object pairings learned immediately before testing and those learned the previous day exhibited significant competition effects, with stronger competition for the previous day pairings for children but not adults. Crucially, this competition effect was significantly smaller for novel than existing competitors (e.g., looks to candy upon hearing “click on the candle”), suggesting that novel items may not compete for recognition like fully-fledged lexical items, even after 24 hours. Explicit memory (cued recall) was superior for words learned the day before testing, particularly for children; this effect (but not the lexical competition effects) correlated with sleep-spindle density. Together, the results suggest that different aspects of new word learning follow different time courses: visual world competition effects can emerge swiftly, but are qualitatively different from those observed with established words, and are less reliant upon sleep. Furthermore, the findings fit with the view that word learning earlier in development is boosted by sleep to a greater degree

Exploring medical cannabis use in individuals with a traumatic brain injury

Aim: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common neurological condition, which can present with a wide range of neuropsychological symptoms. Treating this broad spectrum of symptoms represents a significant medical challenge. In part because of this, there is growing interest in the use of medical cannabis to treat the sequelae of TBI, as medical cannabis has been used to treat multiple associated conditions, such as pain. However, medical cannabis represents a heterogeneous collection of therapies, and relatively little is known about their effectiveness in treating TBI symptoms. The aim of the present study was therefore to assess medical cannabis use in patients with TBI. Methods: In the present study, a retrospective chart review was conducted of patterns of cannabis use and TBI symptoms in individuals who used medical cannabis to treat TBI-related symptoms. All subjects were recruited from a medical cannabis clinic, where cannabis was authorized by physicians, using licensed cannabis products. A total of 53 subjects provided written consent to have their charts reviewed. Results: Neuropsychiatric conditions, including depression, pain, and anxiety were frequent in this group. The most common forms of medical cannabis consumption at intake included smoking, vaping, and oral ingestion. Patients used a combination of high tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)/low cannabidiol (CBD) and low THC/high CBD products, typically 1–3 times per day. Medical cannabis appeared to be relatively well-tolerated in subjects, with few serious side effects. At follow-up, subjects self-reported improvements in TBI symptoms, although these were not statistically significant when assessed using validated questionnaires. Conclusions: Overall findings indicate modest potential benefits of medical cannabis for TBI, but further research will be required to validate these results

LMDA New & Noteworthy, May 2020

Contents include: #LMDA2020 // Conference Countdown; Managing Life and Work in the Time of COVID-19: Thoughts from the LMDA Executive Committee; The Kennedy Center Dramaturgy Intensive: Learn from the best. Work with the best; Regional Events; Your Dramaturgy Ad Here; Pandemic Response: Resources for Artists in the U.S. and Canada (link).https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/lmdanewsletter/1033/thumbnail.jp

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN

Genetic Diversity and Association Studies in US Hispanic/Latino Populations: Applications in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos

US Hispanic/Latino individuals are diverse in genetic ancestry, culture, and environmental exposures. Here, we characterized and controlled for this diversity in genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). We simultaneously estimated population-structure principal components (PCs) robust to familial relatedness and pairwise kinship coefficients (KCs) robust to population structure, admixture, and Hardy-Weinberg departures. The PCs revealed substantial genetic differentiation within and among six self-identified background groups (Cuban, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Central and South American). To control for variation among groups, we developed a multi-dimensional clustering method to define a “genetic-analysis group” variable that retains many properties of self-identified background while achieving substantially greater genetic homogeneity within groups and including participants with non-specific self-identification. In GWASs of 22 biomedical traits, we used a linear mixed model (LMM) including pairwise empirical KCs to account for familial relatedness, PCs for ancestry, and genetic-analysis groups for additional group-associated effects. Including the genetic-analysis group as a covariate accounted for significant trait variation in 8 of 22 traits, even after we fit 20 PCs. Additionally, genetic-analysis groups had significant heterogeneity of residual variance for 20 of 22 traits, and modeling this heteroscedasticity within the LMM reduced genomic inflation for 19 traits. Furthermore, fitting an LMM that utilized a genetic-analysis group rather than a self-identified background group achieved higher power to detect previously reported associations. We expect that the methods applied here will be useful in other studies with multiple ethnic groups, admixture, and relatedness

The Embedding Problem for Markov Models of Nucleotide Substitution

10.1371/journal.pone.0069187PLoS ONE87-POLN

Synergizing expectation and execution for stroke communities of practice innovations

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Regional networks have been recognized as an interesting model to support interdisciplinary and inter-organizational interactions that lead to meaningful care improvements. Existing communities of practice within the a regional network, the Montreal Stroke Network (MSN) offers a compelling structure to better manage the exponential growth of knowledge and to support care providers to better manage the complex cases they must deal with in their practices. This research project proposes to examine internal and external factors that influence individual and organisational readiness to adopt national stroke best practices and to assess the impact of an e-collaborative platform in facilitating knowledge translation activities.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We will develop an e-collaborative platform that will include various social networking and collaborative tools. We propose to create online brainstorming sessions ('jams') around each best practice recommendation. Jam postings will be analysed to identify emergent themes. Syntheses of these analyses will be provided to members to help them identify priority areas for practice change. Discussions will be moderated by clinical leaders, whose role will be to accelerate crystallizing of ideas around 'how to' implement selected best practices. All clinicians (~200) involved in stroke care among the MSN will be asked to participate. Activities during face-to-face meetings and on the e-collaborative platform will be documented. Content analysis of all activities will be performed using an observation grid that will use as outcome indicators key elements of communities of practice and of the knowledge creation cycle developed by Nonaka. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted among users of the e-collaborative platform to collect information on variables of the knowledge-to-action framework. All participants will be asked to complete three questionnaires: the typology questionnaire, which classifies individuals into one of four mutually exclusive categories of information seeking; the e-health state of readiness, which covers ten domains of the readiness to change; and a community of practice evaluation survey.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>This project is expected to enhance our understanding of collaborative work across disciplines and organisations in accelerating implementation of best practices along the continuum of care, and how e-technologies influence access, sharing, creation, and application of knowledge.</p

The ATLAS SCT Optoelectronics and the Associated Electrical Services

The requirements for the optical links of the ATLAS SCT are described. From the individual detector modules to the first patch panel, the electrical services are integrated with the optical links to aid in mechanical design, construction and integration. The system architecture and critical elements of the system are described. The optical links for the ATLAS SCT have been assembled and mounted onto the carbon fibre support structures. The performance of the system as measured during QA is summarised and compared to the final performance obtained after mounting modules onto the support structures