Improvements in a Hybrid Stochastic/Deterministic Method for Transient Three-Dimensional Neutron Transport

This research develops an improved methodology (and corresponding code) for solving the time-dependent, three-dimensional Boltzmann Transport Equation with explicit representation of delayed neutrons. These improvements are incorporated in a modified version of the code TDKENO, entitled TDKENO-M. Specifically, these improvements are: 1. Incorporate the improved quasistatic methodology into an existing quasistatic framework. Specifically, include the flux shape derivative in the fixed source term instead of being neglected. Also, compute the point kinetics parameters deterministically by their inner product definitions. 2. Incorporate a hierarchy of three different integration time intervals for the numerical solution of the coupled set of ordinary differential equations. The shape function is assumed to vary linearly over the largest time interval. The second largest time interval is used for determining the point kinetics parameters. Finally, the smallest time step is used for solving the point kinetics equations. 3. Apply TDKENO-M to benchmark problems to determine the accuracy of the method. Particularly, TDKENO-M is applied to one- and three-dimensional benchmark problems to evaluate its neutronic capabilities. 4. Combine input requirements into a single input file so that TDKENO-M is less cumbersome to execute. 5. Develop the ability to restart a calculation at an intermediate problem time. 6. Develop a user-friendly manual for using TDKENO-M which describes in detail the input requirements as well as the output files, subroutines, modules, and the calculational flow. Results show that TDKENO-M is quite accurate in comparison with benchmark calculations (less than 2% error in power trace for ANL Benchmark 16-A1) with as much as a factor of 500 reduction in CPU time relative to TDKENO

Towards a More Comprehensive View of the Use of Power Between Couple Members in Adolescent Romantic Relationships

This study investigated the construct of power in adolescent romantic couples using multiple measures. The project examined gender differences in power, created models of powerlessness for each gender, and examined relations between power and aggression and relationship quality. Participants were 90 heterosexual couples, aged 14-18 years old, living in rural areas in Utah and Arizona. Couple members completed surveys assessing attitudes and behaviors in their relationships and a video-recall procedure in which partners rated their own and their partner\u27s behaviors during problem solving discussion. Few gender differences emerged in reports of perpetration of aggression, but boyfriends reported higher levels of emotional vulnerability and lower levels of resource control for several power-related outcomes. Structural equation modeling yielded models that appeared to capture the construct of powerlessness, with different models emerging for boyfriends and girlfriends. Finally, stepwise regressions revealed strong associations between measures of power and relationship outcomes with interesting gender differences

Does Empathic Accuracy Mediate the Relationships Between Individual Psychological Characteristics and Adolescent Romantic Relationship Functioning?

This study investigated empathic accuracy in adolescent romantic relationships. The project examined the relationships between psychological characteristics and relationship outcomes (i.e., satisfaction and aggression) to determine if the relationships were mediated by empathic accuracy. Participants were 92 heterosexual couples aged 14-18 years old who lived in rural areas in Utah and Arizona. Couple members completed surveys assessing attitudes and behaviors in their relationships and a video-recall procedure in which partners rated their own and their partner\u27s behaviors during problem-solving discussion. Empathic accuracy was generally not related to psychological characteristics or outcomes. It became apparent that there were limitations with the methodology used to measure empathic accuracy. Due to the very strong correlations between participants\u27 ratings of themselves and their ratings of their partners, ratings of self and partner were collapsed for each interaction variable to capture interpretations/biases employed by the participants in evaluating aspects of their interactions. The global video-recall ratings were then analyzed to determine if they mediated the relationships between psychological characteristics and outcomes. Rejection sensitivity emerged as an important psychological characteristic, and interpretations of conflict and sarcasm mediated the relationship between rejection sensitivity and outcomes of aggression and satisfaction

My IGY in Antarctica

Dr Charles Bentley is the A.P. Crary Professor Emeritus of Geophysics, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Bentley joined the Arctic Institute of North America in 1956 to participate in International Geophysical Year (IGY)-related activities in the Antarctic. He wintered over consecutively in 1957 and 1958 at Byrd Station, a station in the interior of West Antarctica that housed 24 men each winter - 12 Navy support people and 12 civilian scientists/technicians. During the austral summers, he also participated in over-snow traverses, first as co-leader, then leader (the other coleader went home after the first year). These traverses consisted of six men and three vehicles, and lasted several months. These traverses covered more than 1609 kilometers (1000 miles) of largely unmapped and unphotographed terrain. During these traverses, connections to Byrd Station were by radio (daily, when the transmission conditions were good enough) and roughly every 2 weeks by resupply flight

A Novel Approach for the Simultaneous Analysis of Common and Rare Variants in Complex Traits

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been successful in detecting common genetic variants underlying common traits and diseases. Despite the GWAS success stories, the percent trait variance explained by GWAS signals, the so called “missing heritability” has been, at best, modest. Also, the predictive power of common variants identified by GWAS has not been encouraging. Given these observations along with the fact that the effects of rare variants are often, by design, unaccounted for by GWAS and the availability of sequence data, there is a growing need for robust analytic approaches to evaluate the contribution of rare variants to common complex diseases. Here we propose a new method that enables the simultaneous analysis of the association between rare and common variants in disease etiology. We refer to this method as SCARVA (simultaneous common and rare variants analysis). SCARVA is simple to use and is efficient. We used SCARVA to analyze two independent real datasets to identify rare and common variants underlying variation in obesity among participants in the Africa America Diabetes Mellitus (AADM) study and plasma triglyceride levels in the Dallas Heart Study (DHS). We found common and rare variants associated with both traits, consistent with published results

Legal aspects of ability grouping, tracking, and classification

While some school officials have concluded that ability grouping causes mere problems than it selves and thus have abandoned such practices within the schools, many school systems continue to utilize various forms of ability or achievement grouping. Even in those schools where ability grouping is not practiced, various forms of student classification and sorting are employed throughout the school day. The purpose of this study is to provide school officials with a comprehensive set of data concerning both the educational and the legal issues associated with ability grouping, tracking, and classification practices in order that they can make decisions concerning these practices which are educationally and legally sound. Even though the major educational questions concerning ability grouping are reviewed in this study, it is not intended that this study reach any conclusions regarding the educational advantages or disadvantages of such practices; rather, the purpose is to identify those educational issues associated with ability grouping and tracking which might become litigious in the future

Editorial: Genome wide association studies and genomic selection for crop improvement in the era of Big Data

The exploitation of the genetic diversity of crops is essential for breeding purposes, as the identification of useful/beneficial alleles for target traits within plant genetic resources allows the development of new varieties capable of responding to the challenges of global agriculture (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2010). Whole genome re-sequencing, genome skimming, fractional genome sequencing strategies, and high-density genotyping arrays enable large-scale assessment of genetic diversity for a wide range of species, including major and “orphan” crops (D’Agostino and Tripodi, 2017; Rasheed et al., 2017). This is however of limited value unless associated with adaptation and functional improvement of crops. Recently, several advances in high-throughput phenotyping have overcome the “phenotyping bottleneck” (Walter et al., 2015; Pieruschka and Schurr, 2019; Song et al., 2021), making available robust phenotypic data points acquired following the precise characterization of the agronomic and physiological attributes of crops. More and more studies are taking advantage of these scientific advances and of data science techniques to uncover the genome-to-phenome relationship and unlock the breeding potential of plant genetic resources. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and genomic selection (GS) are powerful data science approaches to investigate marker-trait associations (MTAs) for the basic understanding of simple and complex adaptive and functional traits (Liu and Yan, 2019; Voss-Fels et al., 2019; Varshney et al., 2021). Both approaches accelerate the rate of genetic gain in crops and reduce the breeding cycle in a cost-effective manner. For this Research Topic we sought high-quality contributions, covering various aspects of genomics-assisted-breeding: increase in yield, improvement of nutritional content and end-use quality of crops, climate-smart agriculture, cropping systems in agriculture. We did not miss to ask for contributions on technical challenges related to the design of GWAS and GS experiments and data analysis

The Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document for Tidal Corrections

This Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document deals with the tidal corrections that need to be applied to range measurements made by the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS). These corrections result from the action of ocean tides and Earth tides which lead to deviations from an equilibrium surface. Since the effect of tides is dependent of the time of measurement, it is necessary to remove the instantaneous tide components when processing altimeter data, so that all measurements are made to the equilibrium surface. The three main tide components to consider are the ocean tide, the solid-earth tide and the ocean loading tide. There are also long period ocean tides and the pole tide. The approximate magnitudes of these components are illustrated in Table 1, together with estimates of their uncertainties (i.e. the residual error after correction). All of these components are important for GLAS measurements over the ice sheets since centimeter-level accuracy for surface elevation change detection is required. The effect of each tidal component is to be removed by approximating their magnitude using tidal prediction models. Conversely, assimilation of GLAS measurements into tidal models will help to improve them, especially at high latitudes