Is Brazil really a catholic country? What opinions about abortion, sex between individuals who are not married to each other, and homosexuality say about the meaning of catholicism in three Brazilian cities

The idea of being a Catholic country is quite widespread throughout the nation. What does it mean to be Catholic in Brazil? Do Catholics follow the Catholic Doctrine? The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between religion and religious involvement (measured by religious affiliation and service attendance) and opinions about abortion, sex between individuals who are not married to each other, and homosexuality in São Paulo, Porto Alegre, and Recife. Data come from the survey “Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals,” carried out in 2006. Results suggest that Brazilian Catholics are a very heterogeneous group with respect to opinions about abortion and sex between individuals who are not married to each other. In addition, service attendance among Catholics and those opinions are strongly correlated, except for the case of homosexuality, a topic which Catholics tend to have the same opinions about, irrespective of their religious involvement. Committed Protestants are, by far and away, the most conservative group.Brazil

Time's Barbed Arrow: Irreversibility, Crypticity, and Stored Information

We show why the amount of information communicated between the past and future--the excess entropy--is not in general the amount of information stored in the present--the statistical complexity. This is a puzzle, and a long-standing one, since the latter is what is required for optimal prediction, but the former describes observed behavior. We layout a classification scheme for dynamical systems and stochastic processes that determines when these two quantities are the same or different. We do this by developing closed-form expressions for the excess entropy in terms of optimal causal predictors and retrodictors--the epsilon-machines of computational mechanics. A process's causal irreversibility and crypticity are key determining properties.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Solid serous microcystic adenoma of the pancreas

BACKGROUND: Cystic neoplasms of the pancreas are less common than solid tumors, and portend a better prognosis. They can be divided into serous and mucinous subtypes, with the former behaving less aggressively and generally considered benign. Of the serous neoplasms, serous microcystic adenoma is the most common. An extremely rare solid variant of serous microcystic adenoma lacking secretory capability has been described. Herein, we present the fourth described case of this solid variant and review the literature. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a case of a 62 year-old man with a history of abdominal pain, who on CT scan was found to have a solid mass at the junction of the head and body of the pancreas. The patient was offered resection for diagnosis and treatment, and subsequently underwent distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy. Based on gross pathology, histology and immunohistochemistry, the mass was determined to be a solid serous microcystic adenoma. CONCLUSION: Solid serous microcystic adenoma shows similar histologic and immunohistologic features to its classic cystic counterpart, but lacks any secretory functionality. It appears to behave in a benign manner, and as such, surgical resection is curative for patients with this tumor. Furthermore, until more cases of solid SMA are identified to further elucidate its natural history and improve the reliability of preoperative diagnosis, surgical resection of this solid pancreatic tumor should be considered standard therapy in order to exclude malignancy

Synchronization and Control in Intrinsic and Designed Computation: An Information-Theoretic Analysis of Competing Models of Stochastic Computation

We adapt tools from information theory to analyze how an observer comes to synchronize with the hidden states of a finitary, stationary stochastic process. We show that synchronization is determined by both the process's internal organization and by an observer's model of it. We analyze these components using the convergence of state-block and block-state entropies, comparing them to the previously known convergence properties of the Shannon block entropy. Along the way, we introduce a hierarchy of information quantifiers as derivatives and integrals of these entropies, which parallels a similar hierarchy introduced for block entropy. We also draw out the duality between synchronization properties and a process's controllability. The tools lead to a new classification of a process's alternative representations in terms of minimality, synchronizability, and unifilarity.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl

The Epigenome of Evolving Drosophila Neo-Sex Chromosomes: Dosage Compensation and Heterochromatin Formation

Sex chromosomes originated from autosomes but have evolved a highly specialized chromatin structure. Drosophila Y chromosomes are composed entirely of silent heterochromatin, while male X chromosomes have highly accessible chromatin and are hypertranscribed as a result of dosage compensation. Here, we dissect the molecular mechanisms and functional pressures driving heterochromatin formation and dosage compensation of the recently formed neo-sex chromosomes of Drosophila miranda. We show that the onset of heterochromatin formation on the neo-Y is triggered by an accumulation of repetitive DNA. The neo-X has evolved partial dosage compensation and we find that diverse mutational paths have been utilized to establish several dozen novel binding consensus motifs for the dosage compensation complex on the neo-X, including simple point mutations at pre-binding sites, insertion and deletion mutations, microsatellite expansions, or tandem amplification of weak binding sites. Spreading of these silencing or activating chromatin modifications to adjacent regions results in massive mis-expression of neo-sex linked genes, and little correspondence between functionality of genes and their silencing on the neo-Y or dosage compensation on the neo-X. Intriguingly, the genomic regions being targeted by the dosage compensation complex on the neo-X and those becoming heterochromatic on the neo-Y show little overlap, possibly reflecting different propensities along the ancestral chromosome that formed the sex chromosome to adopt active or repressive chromatin configurations. Our findings have broad implications for current models of sex chromosome evolution, and demonstrate how mechanistic constraints can limit evolutionary adaptations. Our study also highlights how evolution can follow predictable genetic trajectories, by repeatedly acquiring the same 21-bp consensus motif for recruitment of the dosage compensation complex, yet utilizing a diverse array of random mutational changes to attain the same phenotypic outcome

Many Roads to Synchrony: Natural Time Scales and Their Algorithms

We consider two important time scales---the Markov and cryptic orders---that monitor how an observer synchronizes to a finitary stochastic process. We show how to compute these orders exactly and that they are most efficiently calculated from the epsilon-machine, a process's minimal unifilar model. Surprisingly, though the Markov order is a basic concept from stochastic process theory, it is not a probabilistic property of a process. Rather, it is a topological property and, moreover, it is not computable from any finite-state model other than the epsilon-machine. Via an exhaustive survey, we close by demonstrating that infinite Markov and infinite cryptic orders are a dominant feature in the space of finite-memory processes. We draw out the roles played in statistical mechanical spin systems by these two complementary length scales.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures: http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~cmg/compmech/pubs/kro.htm. Santa Fe Institute Working Paper 10-11-02

Laparoscopic Distal Pancreatectomy with Splenic Conservation: An Operation without Increased Morbidity

Objectives. The advent of minimally invasive techniques was marked by a paradigm shift towards the use of laparoscopy for benign distal pancreatic masses. Herein we describe one center's experience with laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy. Methods. A retrospective chart review was performed for all distal pancreatectomies completed laparoscopically from 1999 to 2009. Outcomes from those cases completed with a concurrent splenectomy were compared to the spleen-preserving procedures. Results. Twenty-four patients underwent laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy. Seven had spleen-conserving operations. There was no difference in the mean estimated blood loss (316 versus 285 mL, P = .5) or operative time (179 versus 170 minutes, P = .9). The mean tumor size was not significantly different (3.1 versus 2.2 cm, P = .9). There was no difference in the average hospital stay (7.1 versus 7.0 days, P = .7). Complications in the spleen-preserving group included one iatrogenic colon injury, two pancreatic fistulas, and two cases of iatrogenic diabetes. In the splenectomy group, two developed respiratory failure, three acquired iatrogenic diabetes, and two suffered pancreatic fistulas (71% versus 41%, P = .4). Conclusions. The laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy is a safe operation with a low morbidity. Splenic conservation does not significantly increase the morbidity of the procedure

How Hidden are Hidden Processes? A Primer on Crypticity and Entropy Convergence

We investigate a stationary process's crypticity---a measure of the difference between its hidden state information and its observed information---using the causal states of computational mechanics. Here, we motivate crypticity and cryptic order as physically meaningful quantities that monitor how hidden a hidden process is. This is done by recasting previous results on the convergence of block entropy and block-state entropy in a geometric setting, one that is more intuitive and that leads to a number of new results. For example, we connect crypticity to how an observer synchronizes to a process. We show that the block-causal-state entropy is a convex function of block length. We give a complete analysis of spin chains. We present a classification scheme that surveys stationary processes in terms of their possible cryptic and Markov orders. We illustrate related entropy convergence behaviors using a new form of foliated information diagram. Finally, along the way, we provide a variety of interpretations of crypticity and cryptic order to establish their naturalness and pervasiveness. Hopefully, these will inspire new applications in spatially extended and network dynamical systems.Comment: 18 pages, 18 figures; http://csc.ucdavis.edu/~cmg/compmech/pubs/iacp2.ht

Variations in the slope of the resolved star-forming main sequence: a tool for constraining the mass of star-forming regions

The correlation between galaxies’ integrated stellar masses and star formation rates (the ‘star formation main sequence’, SFMS) is a well-established scaling relation. Recently, surveys have found a relationship between the star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass surface densities on kpc and sub-kpc scales (the ‘resolved SFMS’, rSFMS). In this work, we demonstrate that the rSFMS emerges naturally in Feedback In Realistic Environments 2 (FIRE-2) zoom-in simulations of Milky Way-mass galaxies. We make SFR and stellar mass maps of the simulated galaxies at a variety of spatial resolutions and star formation averaging time-scales and fit the rSFMS using multiple methods from the literature. While the absolute value of the SFMS slope (α_(MS)) depends on the fitting method, the slope is steeper for longer star formation time-scales and lower spatial resolutions regardless of the fitting method employed. We present a toy model that quantitatively captures the dependence of the simulated galaxies’ α_(MS) on spatial resolution and use it to illustrate how this dependence can be used to constrain the characteristic mass of star-forming clumps