Activation of optimally and unfavourably oriented faults in a uniform local stress field during the 2011 Prague, Oklahoma, sequence

The orientations of faults activated relative to the local principal stress directions can provide insights into the role of pore pressure changes in induced earthquake sequences. Here, we examine the 2011 M 5.7 Prague earthquake sequence that was induced by nearby wastewater disposal. We estimate the local principal compressive stress direction near the rupture as inferred from shear wave splitting measurements at spatial resolutions as small as 750 m. We find that the dominant azimuth observed is parallel to previous estimates of the regional compressive stress with some secondary azimuths oriented subparallel to the strike of the major fault structures. From an extended catalogue, we map ten distinct fault segments activated during the sequence that exhibit a wide array of orientations. We assess whether the five near-vertical fault planes are optimally oriented to fail in the determined stress field. We find that only two of the fault planes, including the M   5.7 main shock fault, are optimally oriented. Both the M 4.8 foreshock and M   4.8 aftershock occur on fault planes that deviate 20–29° from the optimal orientation for slip. Our results confirm that induced event sequences can occur on faults not optimally oriented for failure in the local stress field. The results suggest elevated pore fluid pressures likely induced failure along several of the faults activated in the 2011 Prague sequence

Misremembering pain: A memory blindness approach to adding a better end.

How people remember feeling in the past informs future decisions; however, memory for past emotion is subject to a number of biases. Previous research on choice blindness has shown that people often fail to notice when they are exposed to misinformation about their own decisions, preferences, and memories. This type of misinformation can influence how they later remember past events. In the present study, we examined the memory blindness effect in a new domain: memory for pain. Participants (N = 269) underwent a cold-pressor task and rated how much pain, distress, and positive and negative affect they had experienced. Later, participants were shown their pain ratings and asked to explain them. Some of the participants were shown lower pain ratings than they had actually made. In a second session, participants recalled how painful the task had been and how much distress and positive and negative affect they remembered experiencing. The results indicated that the majority of participants who were exposed to misinformation failed to detect the manipulation, and subsequently remembered the task as being less painful. The participants in the misinformation condition were not overall more willing to repeat the study tasks, but the participants who recalled less distress, less negative affect, and more positive affect were more willing to repeat the study tasks again in a future experiment. These results demonstrate the malleability of memory for painful experiences and that willingness to repeat aversive experiences may depend more on memory for affective reactions to the original experience than on memory for the physical pain itself

Brief of Amicus Curiae Professors Elizabeth A. Clark, Robert F. Cochran, Jr., Carl H. Esbeck, David F. Forte, Richard W. Garnett, Christopher C. Lund, Michael W. McConnell, Michael P. Moreland, Robert J. Pushaw, and David A., Skeel, Supporting Petitioners

The case concerns the church autonomy doctrine based on the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, which declares that courts may not inquire into matters of church government or into disputes of faith and doctrine. Will McRaney was fired from a leadership position in the Southern Baptist Convention because of a conflict over policies relating to the expansion of the Baptist faith. He sued the Southern Baptist Convention in tort. The district court dismissed the suit on the grounds of the church autonomy doctrine. The Fifth Circuit reversed the district court\u27s dismissal as premature, asserting that there were possible neutral principles of law independent of the church autonomy doctrine that might be applicable to the case. The amicus brief in support of a petition of certiorari to the Supreme Court argues that the district court was correct in determining that the church autonomy doctrine requires dismissal of the suit

Prospective acceptability of digital phenotyping among pregnant and parenting people with opioid use disorder: A multisite qualitative study

BackgroundWhile medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) effectively treat OUD during pregnancy and the postpartum period, poor treatment retention is common. Digital phenotyping, or passive sensing data captured from personal mobile devices, namely smartphones, provides an opportunity to understand behaviors, psychological states, and social influences contributing to perinatal MOUD non-retention. Given this novel area of investigation, we conducted a qualitative study to determine the acceptability of digital phenotyping among pregnant and parenting people with opioid use disorder (PPP-OUD).MethodsThis study was guided by the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability (TFA). Within a clinical trial testing a behavioral health intervention for PPP-OUD, we used purposeful criterion sampling to recruit 11 participants who delivered a child in the past 12  months and received OUD treatment during pregnancy or the postpartum period. Data were collected through phone interviews using a structured interview guide based on four TFA constructs (affective attitude, burden, ethicality, self-efficacy). We used framework analysis to code, chart, and identify key patterns within the data.ResultsParticipants generally expressed positive attitudes about digital phenotyping and high self-efficacy and low anticipated burden to participate in studies that collect smartphone-based passive sensing data. Nonetheless, concerns were noted related to data privacy/security and sharing location information. Differences in participant assessments of burden were related to length of time required and level of remuneration to participate in a study. Interviewees voiced broad support for participating in a digital phenotyping study with known/trusted individuals but expressed concerns about third-party data sharing and government monitoring.ConclusionDigital phenotyping methods were acceptable to PPP-OUD. Enhancements in acceptability include allowing participants to maintain control over which data are shared, limiting frequency of research contacts, aligning compensation with participant burden, and outlining data privacy/security protections on study materials

Should adjustment for covariates be used in prevalence estimations?

Background Adjustment for covariates (also called auxiliary variables in survey sampling literature) is commonly applied in health surveys to reduce the variances of the prevalence estimators. In theory, adjusted prevalence estimators are more accurate when variance components are known. In practice, variance components needed to achieve the adjustment are unknown and their sample estimators are used instead. The uncertainty introduced by estimating variance components may overshadow the reduction in the variance of the prevalence estimators due to adjustment. We present empirical guidelines indicating when adjusted prevalence estimators should be considered, using gender adjusted and unadjusted smoking prevalence as an illustration. Methods We compare the accuracy of adjusted and unadjusted prevalence estimators via simulation. We simulate simple random samples from hypothetical populations with the proportion of males ranging from 30% to 70%, the smoking prevalence ranging from 15% to 35%, and the ratio of male to female smoking prevalence ranging from 1 to 4. The ranges of gender proportions and smoking prevalences reflect the conditions in 1999–2003 Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS) data for Massachusetts. From each population, 10,000 samples are selected and the ratios of the variance of the adjusted prevalence estimators to the variance of the unadjusted (crude) ones are computed and plotted against the proportion of males by population prevalence, as well as by population and sample sizes. The prevalence ratio thresholds, above which adjusted prevalence estimators have smaller variances, are determined graphically. Results In many practical settings, gender adjustment results in less accuracy. Whether or not there is better accuracy with adjustment depends on sample sizes, gender proportions and ratios between male and female prevalences. In populations with equal number of males and females and smoking prevalence of 20%, the adjusted prevalence estimators are more accurate when the ratios of male to female prevalences are above 2.4, 1.8, 1.6, 1.4 and 1.3 for sample sizes of 25, 50, 100, 150 and 200, respectively. Conclusion Adjustment for covariates will not result in more accurate prevalence estimator when ratio of male to female prevalences is close to one, sample size is small and risk factor prevalence is low. For example, when reporting smoking prevalence based on simple random sampling, gender adjustment is recommended only when sample size is greater than 200

A modified Delphi approach to develop a trial protocol for antibiotic de-escalation in patients with suspected sepsis

Background: Early administration of antibiotics in sepsis is associated with improved patient outcomes, but safe and generalizable approaches to de-escalate or discontinue antibiotics after suspected sepsis events are unknown. Methods: We used a modified Delphi approach to identify safety criteria for an opt-out protocol to guide de-escalation or discontinuation of antibiotic therapy after 72 hours in non-ICU patients with suspected sepsis. An expert panel with expertise in antimicrobial stewardship and hospital epidemiology rated 48 unique criteria across 3 electronic survey rating tools. Criteria were rated primarily based on their impact on patient safety and feasibility for extraction from electronic health record review. The 48 unique criteria were rated by anonymous electronic survey tools, and the results were fed back to the expert panel participants. Consensus was achieved to either retain or remove each criterion. Results: After 3 rounds, 22 unique criteria remained as part of the opt-out safety checklist. These criteria included high-risk comorbidities, signs of severe illness, lack of cultures during sepsis work-up or antibiotic use prior to blood cultures, or ongoing signs and symptoms of infection. Conclusions: The modified Delphi approach is a useful method to achieve expert-level consensus in the absence of evidence suifficient to provide validated guidance. The Delphi approach allowed for flexibility in development of an opt-out trial protocol for sepsis antibiotic de-escalation. The utility of this protocol should be evaluated in a randomized controlled trial

Gender and sexual orientation differences in cognition across adulthood : age is kinder to women than to men regardless of sexual orientation

Despite some evidence of greater age-related deterioration of the brain in males than in females, gender differences in rates of cognitive aging have proved inconsistent. The present study employed web-based methodology to collect data from people aged 20-65 years (109,612 men; 88,509 women). As expected, men outperformed women on tests of mental rotation and line angle judgment, whereas women outperformed men on tests of category fluency and object location memory. Performance on all tests declined with age but significantly more so for men than for women. Heterosexuals of each gender generally outperformed bisexuals and homosexuals on tests where that gender was superior; however, there were no clear interactions between age and sexual orientation for either gender. At least for these particular tests from young adulthood to retirement, age is kinder to women than to men, but treats heterosexuals, bisexuals, and homosexuals just the same

Case report: Fractional brain tumor burden magnetic resonance mapping to assess response to pulsed low-dose-rate radiotherapy in newly-diagnosed glioblastoma

BackgroundPulsed low-dose-rate radiotherapy (pLDR) is a commonly used reirradiation technique for recurrent glioma, but its upfront use with temozolomide (TMZ) following primary resection of glioblastoma is currently under investigation. Because standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has limitations in differentiating treatment effect from tumor progression in such applications, perfusion-weighted MRI (PWI) can be used to create fractional tumor burden (FTB) maps to spatially distinguish active tumor from treatment-related effect.MethodsWe performed PWI prior to re-resection in four patients with glioblastoma who had undergone upfront pLDR concurrent with TMZ who had radiographic suspicion for tumor progression at a median of 3 months (0-5 months or 0-143 days) post-pLDR. The pathologic diagnosis was compared to retrospectively-generated FTB maps.ResultsThe median patient age was 55.5 years (50-60 years). All were male with IDH-wild type (n=4) and O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) hypermethylated (n=1) molecular markers. Pathologic diagnosis revealed treatment effect (n=2), a mixture of viable tumor and treatment effect (n=1), or viable tumor (n=1). In 3 of 4 cases, FTB maps were indicative of lesion volumes being comprised predominantly of treatment effect with enhancing tumor volumes comprised of a median of 6.8% vascular tumor (6.4-16.4%).ConclusionThis case series provides insight into the radiographic response to upfront pLDR and TMZ and the role for FTB mapping to distinguish tumor progression from treatment effect prior to redo-surgery and within 20 weeks post-radiation

Global collision-risk hotspots of marine traffic and the world’s largest fish, the whale shark

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Womersley, F. C., Humphries, N. E., Queiroz, N., Vedor, M., da Costa, I., Furtado, M., Tyminski, J. P., Abrantes, K., Araujo, G., Bach, S. S., Barnett, A., Berumen, M. L., Bessudo Lion, S., Braun, C. D., Clingham, E., Cochran, J. E. M., de la Parra, R., Diamant, S., Dove, A. D. M., Dudgeon, C. L., Erdmann, M. V., Espinoza, E., Fitzpatrick, R., González Cano, J., Green, J. R., Guzman, H. M., Hardenstine, R., Hasan, A., Hazin, F. H. V., Hearn, A. R., Hueter, R. E., Jaidah, M. Y., Labaja, J., Ladinol, F., Macena, B. C. L., Morris Jr., J. J., Norman, B. M., Peñaherrera-Palmav, C., Pierce, S. J., Quintero, L. M., Ramırez-Macías, D., Reynolds, S. D., Richardson, A. J., Robinson, D. P., Rohner, C. A., Rowat, D. R. L., Sheaves, M., Shivji, M. S., Sianipar, A. B., Skomal, G. B., Soler, G., Syakurachman, I., Thorrold, S. R., Webb, D. H., Wetherbee, B. M., White, T. D., Clavelle, T., Kroodsma, D. A., Thums, M., Ferreira, L. C., Meekan, M. G., Arrowsmith, L. M., Lester, E. K., Meyers, M. M., Peel, L. R., Sequeira, A. M. M., Eguıluz, V. M., Duarte, C. M., & Sims, D. W. Global collision-risk hotspots of marine traffic and the world’s largest fish, the whale shark. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(20), (2022): e2117440119, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2117440119.Marine traffic is increasing globally yet collisions with endangered megafauna such as whales, sea turtles, and planktivorous sharks go largely undetected or unreported. Collisions leading to mortality can have population-level consequences for endangered species. Hence, identifying simultaneous space use of megafauna and shipping throughout ranges may reveal as-yet-unknown spatial targets requiring conservation. However, global studies tracking megafauna and shipping occurrences are lacking. Here we combine satellite-tracked movements of the whale shark, Rhincodon typus, and vessel activity to show that 92% of sharks’ horizontal space use and nearly 50% of vertical space use overlap with persistent large vessel (>300 gross tons) traffic. Collision-risk estimates correlated with reported whale shark mortality from ship strikes, indicating higher mortality in areas with greatest overlap. Hotspots of potential collision risk were evident in all major oceans, predominantly from overlap with cargo and tanker vessels, and were concentrated in gulf regions, where dense traffic co-occurred with seasonal shark movements. Nearly a third of whale shark hotspots overlapped with the highest collision-risk areas, with the last known locations of tracked sharks coinciding with busier shipping routes more often than expected. Depth-recording tags provided evidence for sinking, likely dead, whale sharks, suggesting substantial “cryptic” lethal ship strikes are possible, which could explain why whale shark population declines continue despite international protection and low fishing-induced mortality. Mitigation measures to reduce ship-strike risk should be considered to conserve this species and other ocean giants that are likely experiencing similar impacts from growing global vessel traffic.Funding for data analysis was provided by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through a University of Southampton INSPIRE DTP PhD Studentship to F.C.W. Additional funding for data analysis was provided by NERC Discovery Science (NE/R00997/X/1) and the European Research Council (ERC-AdG-2019 883583 OCEAN DEOXYFISH) to D.W.S., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under PTDC/BIA/28855/2017 and COMPETE POCI-01–0145-FEDER-028855, and MARINFO–NORTE-01–0145-FEDER-000031 (funded by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Program [NORTE2020] under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund–ERDF) to N.Q. FCT also supported N.Q. (CEECIND/02857/2018) and M.V. (PTDC/BIA-COM/28855/2017). D.W.S. was supported by a Marine Biological Association Senior Research Fellowship. All tagging procedures were approved by institutional ethical review bodies and complied with all relevant ethical regulations in the jurisdictions in which they were performed. Details for individual research teams are given in SI Appendix, section 8. Full acknowledgments for tagging and field research are given in SI Appendix, section 7. This research is part of the Global Shark Movement Project (https://www.globalsharkmovement.org)