Threats to Impartiality in Capital Jury Selection: Addressing Dead-Serious Falsifications

The American Bar Association (ABA) filed an amicus brief1 in the Boston Marathon bombing case that took direct aim at current jury selection procedures within the context of highly publicized capital trials. It strongly recommended that knowledge about the case, including pretrial publicity, be carefully investigated. Moreover, the brief flatly stated that assertions of fairness and impartiality by venirepersons are “not reliable.”2 Is this true? What can social science tell us about the objectivity, truthfulness, and personal perspectives (e.g., biases or viewpoints) of potential jurors—in general, and on a case-by-case basis

Automatic segmentation of the left ventricle cavity and myocardium in MRI data

A novel approach for the automatic segmentation has been developed to extract the epi-cardium and endo-cardium boundaries of the left ventricle (lv) of the heart. The developed segmentation scheme takes multi-slice and multi-phase magnetic resonance (MR) images of the heart, transversing the short-axis length from the base to the apex. Each image is taken at one instance in the heart's phase. The images are segmented using a diffusion-based filter followed by an unsupervised clustering technique and the resulting labels are checked to locate the (lv) cavity. From cardiac anatomy, the closest pool of blood to the lv cavity is the right ventricle cavity. The wall between these two blood-pools (interventricular septum) is measured to give an approximate thickness for the myocardium. This value is used when a radial search is performed on a gradient image to find appropriate robust segments of the epi-cardium boundary. The robust edge segments are then joined using a normal spline curve. Experimental results are presented with very encouraging qualitative and quantitative results and a comparison is made against the state-of-the art level-sets method

The Grizzly, September 5, 2013

New Policy Changes • Social Host to Event Director • Printing with Bear Bucks • Grizzly Launches Web Redesign • Farmers Market Location Changes • Community Service • Travel Blog Preview • Ursinus Alumni Return for Work • Opinion: Smart Phone Addiction Can Harm Our Social Lives; North and New Need Single Sex Hall Options Too • Code of Conduct for Athletes Now an Official Contract • Football Preview: Experienced Bears Major Asset • Field Hockey Looks to Regain Conference Dominancehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1884/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, September 19, 2013

New UC Faculty Members\u27 Plans • Sustainability Week at UC • Ursinus Image Beyond Campus • Tuition Based on Other Colleges\u27 Numbers • Honored Professor • Family Day Brings Food, Fun • Student Groups Spread School Spirit • Opinion: Ursinus Needs a Practical Living Course; Community Service Belongs in the Curriculum • Olympics 2020: Tokyo Wins Bid Over Istanbul • Athletic Communications Promotes UC Athletes • Football, Field Hockey, Men\u27s Soccer Take Home Winshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1886/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, November 21, 2013

UCARE Service Opportunities • Wismer\u27s Upcoming Holiday Meals • Wonderful Town Musical to Integrate Three Departments • Jingle Jog 5K Race • Gospel Choir Wants to Extend Reach • Integrating Students : New Professor Looks to Meld Research and Hands-On Learning • Improv Group Ready to Wing It • Opinion: Break Out of Your Stifling Clique; Increase Support for the Learning Disabled • Field Hockey Finishes Impressive Season • UC Swimming Making Mark in Centennial • Mixture of Wins and Losses for UC Teamshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1894/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, September 26, 2013

Courtyard Pilot Program Extended • Much Ado About UC Drama • Extern Program • Marks Discusses Online Education • Live Music at Reimert • Community Yard Sale This Weekend • New Film Professor Joins the Campus • Enactus Prepares for a New Year • Opinion: Make the Most of Your Ursinus Years; School Spirit Should Extend Beyond Campus • Senior Spotlight: Jenna Stover • Topic of Injuries Overshadowing Football Season • Family Day Rounduphttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1887/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, October 24, 2013

Ursinus Receives Largest Private Donation in History • Parking at Ursinus • History Department Takes Students to Gettysburg • Pennsylvania Senator Rafferty and Representative Vereb Speak in Bear\u27s Den • UC Students Volunteer to Plant Trees for Non-Profit • UC Energy Games • UC Jazz Ensemble Performance • New Galleries at the Berman • Opinion: Don\u27t Take Safety for Granted in Reimert; Slut-Shaming Persists as a Double Standard • Controversy Surrounding 2014 Winter Games • McIntyre Striving for Excellence, On and Off Court • Centennial Conference: Where the Bears Standhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1890/thumbnail.jp

Inner disc rearrangement revealed by dramatic brightness variations in the young star PV Cep

Young Sun-like stars at the beginning of the pre-main sequence (PMS) evolution are surrounded by accretion discs and remnant protostellar envelopes. Photometric and spectroscopic variations of these stars are driven by interactions of the star with the disc. Time scales and wavelength dependence of the variability carry information on the physical mechanisms behind these interactions. We conducted multi-epoch, multi-wavelength study of PV Cep, a strongly variable, accreting PMS star. By combining our own observations from 2004-2010 with archival and literature data, we show that PV Cep started a spectacular fading in 2005, reaching an I_C-band amplitude of 4 mag. Analysis of variation of the optical and infrared fluxes, colour indices, and emission line fluxes suggests that the photometric decline in 2005-2009 resulted from an interplay between variable accretion and circumstellar extinction: since the central luminosity of the system is dominated by accretion, a modest drop in the accretion rate could induce the drastic restructuring of the inner disc. Dust condensation in the inner disc region might have resulted in the enhancement of the circumstellar extinction.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication by MNRAS. 3 online tables adde

Sample size calculation for microarray experiments with blocked one-way design

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One of the main objectives of microarray analysis is to identify differentially expressed genes for different types of cells or treatments. Many statistical methods have been proposed to assess the treatment effects in microarray experiments.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we consider discovery of the genes that are differentially expressed among <it>K </it>(> 2) treatments when each set of <it>K </it>arrays consists of a block. In this case, the array data among <it>K </it>treatments tend to be correlated because of block effect. We propose to use the blocked one-way ANOVA <it>F</it>-statistic to test if each gene is differentially expressed among <it>K </it>treatments. The marginal p-values are calculated using a permutation method accounting for the block effect, adjusting for the multiplicity of the testing procedure by controlling the false discovery rate (FDR). We propose a sample size calculation method for microarray experiments with a blocked one-way design. With FDR level and effect sizes of genes specified, our formula provides a sample size for a given number of true discoveries.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The calculated sample size is shown via simulations to provide an accurate number of true discoveries while controlling the FDR at the desired level.</p

Genome architecture enables local adaptation of Atlantic cod despite high connectivity

Adaptation to local conditions is a fundamental process in evolution; however, mechanisms maintaining local adaptation despite high gene flow are still poorly understood. Marine ecosystems provide a wide array of diverse habitats that frequently promote ecological adaptation even in species characterized by strong levels of gene flow. As one example, populations of the marine fish Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) are highly connected due to immense dispersal capabilities but nevertheless show local adaptation in several key traits. By combining population genomic analyses based on 12K single nucleotide polymorphisms with larval dispersal patterns inferred using a biophysical ocean model, we show that Atlantic cod individuals residing in sheltered estuarine habitats of Scandinavian fjords mainly belong to offshore oceanic populations with considerable connectivity between these diverse ecosystems. Nevertheless, we also find evidence for discrete fjord populations that are genetically differentiated from offshore populations, indicative of local adaptation, the degree of which appears to be influenced by connectivity. Analyses of the genomic architecture reveal a significant overrepresentation of a large ~5 Mb chromosomal rearrangement in fjord cod, previously proposed to comprise genes critical for the survival at low salinities. This suggests that despite considerable connectivity with offshore populations, local adaptation to fjord environments may be enabled by suppression of recombination in the rearranged region. Our study provides new insights into the potential of local adaptation in high gene flow species within fine geographical scales and highlights the importance of genome architecture in analyses of ecological adaptation