Social uncertainty is heterogeneous and sometimes valuable

To win friends, help the needy, avoid exploitation or influence strangers, people must make decisions that are inherently uncertain. In their compelling and insightful perspective on resolving social uncertainty1, FeldmanHall and Shenhav (henceforth F&S) join a growing movement combining computational approaches with social psychological theory. F&S identify a range of negative and positive aspects of social uncertainty. Here we offer additional ways to think about social uncertainty and suggest potential avenues for future research

The Benefits and Costs of a Rose-Colored Hindsight

Self-serving biases lead people to see themselves and their future through rose-colored glasses. New research by Kouchaki and Gino suggests this rosy view also extends backward: memories of unethical behavior are less vivid than memories of good deeds. This so-called “unethical amnesia” has many individual benefits, but also carries social costs

Planning for Transition in Special Education

The purpose of this study is to investigate special educators’ perceptions of transition plans for students with disabilities. The research also investigated parents’ perception of transition plans for their students’ with special needs. The researcher examined the barriers that can effect transition planning. Previous research indicates that parents of diverse learners feel unprepared for this time period after post-secondary education. Educators may feel ill-equipped to prepare students for this time. Additionally, previous research indicated that the severity of the disability has a direct correlation to the success or lack thereof of student transition after post-secondary education. Furthermore, research indicated the importance of parental advocacy when drafting and executing transition plans for diverse learners. To investigate perceptions, I administered a survey to special education teachers who are currently employed at a Chicago Public High Schools and high schools within the suburban Chicago public high schools. A survey was also administered to parents of students with disabilities who attend a therapeutic Chicago Park District Program. The results of my study indicated that the barriers to effective transition planning included: lack of community resources, student’s self-efficacy, and school district support

Extinctions of aculeate pollinators in Britain and the role of large-scale agricultural changes

Pollinators are fundamental to maintaining both biodiversity and agricultural productivity, but habitat destruction, loss of flower resources, and increased use of pesticides are causing declines in their abundance and diversity. Using historical records we assessed the rate of extinction of bee and flower-visiting wasp species in Britain, from the mid 19th century to the present. The most rapid phase of extinction appears to be related to changes in agricultural policy and practice beginning in the 1920s, before the agricultural intensification prompted by the Second World War, often cited as the most important driver of biodiversity loss in Britain. Slowing of the extinction rate from the 1960s onwards may be due to prior loss of the most sensitive species and/or effective conservation programs

The Area Distribution of Solar Magnetic Bright Points

Magnetic Bright Points (MBPs) are among the smallest observable objects on the solar photosphere. A combination of G-band observations and numerical simulations is used to determine their area distribution. An automatic detection algorithm, employing 1-dimensional intensity profiling, is utilized to identify these structures in the observed and simulated datasets. Both distributions peak at an area of $\approx$45000 km$^2$, with a sharp decrease towards smaller areas. The distributions conform with log-normal statistics, which suggests that flux fragmentation dominates over flux convergence. Radiative magneto-convection simulations indicate an independence in the MBP area distribution for differing magnetic flux densities. The most commonly occurring bright point size corresponds to the typical width of intergranular lanes.Comment: Astrophysical Journal, accepte

The clinical impact of serrated colorectal polyps

Serrated polyps (SPs) of the colorectum pose a novel challenge to practicing gastroenterologists. Previously thought benign and unimportant, there is now compelling evidence that SPs are responsible for a significant percentage of incident colorectal cancer worldwide. In contrast to conventional adenomas, which tend to be slow growing and polypoid, SPs have unique features that undermine current screening and surveillance practices. For example, sessile serrated polyps (SSPs) are flat, predominately right-sided, and thought to have the potential for rapid growth. Moreover, SSPs are subject to wide variations in endoscopic detection and pathologic interpretation. Unfortunately, little is known about the natural history of SPs, and current guidelines are based largely on expert opinion. In this review, we outline the current taxonomy, epidemiology, and management of SPs with an emphasis on the clinical and public health impact of these lesions

Identification of histoplasma -specific peptides in human urine

pre-printHistoplasmosis is a severe dimorphic fungus infection, which is often difficult to diagnose due to similarity in symptoms to other diseases and lack of specific diagnostic tests. Urine samples from histoplasma-antigen-positive patients and appropriate controls were prepared using various sample preparation strategies including immunoenrichment, ultrafiltration, high-abundant protein depletion, deglycosylation, reverse-phase fractions, and digest using various enzymes. Samples were then analyzed by nanospray tandem mass spectrometry. Accurate mass TOF scans underwent molecular feature extraction and statistical analysis for unique disease makers, and acquired MS/MS data were searched against known human and histoplasma proteins. In human urine, some 52 peptides from 37 Histoplasma proteins were identified with high confidence. This is the first report of identification of a large number of Histoplasma-specific peptides from immunoassay-positive patient samples using tandem mass spectrometry and bioinformatics techniques. These findings may lead to novel diagnostic markers for histoplasmosis in human urine