Concurrent Validity of the Gambling Functional Assessment (GFA):Correlations with the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS)and Indicators of Diagnostic Efficiency

Concurrent validity of the recently introduced Gambling Functional Assessment (GFA) was assessed by comparison with the long-used South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) in two nonclinical adult samples (N = 201, 49% female; N=101, 74% female). Correlations between GFA total scores and its four content scores with SOGS scores were promising (r = .04 to .61), with the content score relating to Escape yielding the highest correlations (.45, .61) and the score relating to Attention yielding the lowest. Performance in the second sample, where the SOGS-defined base rate of pathological gambling (28.7%) was high, was best for Escape scores, which efficiently categorized SOGS-defined cases. The present data suggest that the GFA content area of Escape shows promise at classifying pathological versus nonpathological gambling, while the GFA as a whole may be a useful treatment tool, allowing clinicians to identify the mechanisms that may be maintaining gambling in their patients seeking treatment for pathological gambling

Constraints on present-day Basin and Range deformation from space geodesy

We use new space geodetic data from very long baseline interferometry and satellite laser ranging combined with other geodetic and geologic data to study contemporary deformation in the Basin and Range province of the western United States. Northwest motion of the central Sierra Nevada block relative to stable North America, a measure of integrated Basin and Range deformation, is 12.1±1.2 mm/yr oriented N38°W±5° (one standard error), in agreement with previous geological estimates within uncertainties. This velocity reflects both east-west extension concentrated in the eastern Basin and Range and north-northwest directed right lateral shear concentrated in the western Basin and Range. Ely, Nevada is moving west at 4.9±1.3 mm/yr relative to stable North America, consistent with dip-slip motion on the north striking Wasatch fault and other north striking normal faults. Comparison with ground-based geodetic data suggests that most of this motion is accommodated within ∼50 km of the Wasatch fault zone. Paleoseismic data for the Wasatch fault zone and slip rates based on seismic energy release in the region both suggest much lower slip rates. The discrepancy may be explained by some combination of additional deformation away from the Wasatch fault itself, aseismic slip, or a seismic rate that is anomalously low with respect to longer time averages. Deformation in the western Basin and Range province is also largely confined to a relatively narrow boundary zone and in our study area is partitioned into the eastern California shear zone, accommodating 10.7±1.6 mm/yr of north-northwest directed right-lateral shear, and a small component (∼1 mm/yr) of west-southwest - east-northeast extension. A slip rate budget for major strike-slip faults in our study area based on a combination of local geodetic or late Quaternary geologic data and the regional space geodetic data suggests the following rates of right-lateral slip: Owens Valley fault zone, 3.9±1.1 mm/yr; Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault zone, 3.3±2.2 mm/yr; White Mountains fault zone in northern Owens Valley, 3.4±1.2 mm/yr; Fish Lake Valley fault zone, 6.2±2.3 mm/yr. In the last few million years the locus of right-lateral shear in the region has shifted west and become more north trending as slip on the northwest striking Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault zone has decreased and is increasingly accommodated on the north-northwest striking Owens Valley fault zone

Norovirus Epidemiology and Duration of Shedding in Michigan, 2007-2008

Background: In the United States, an estimated 23 million cases of norovirus (NoV) are reported each year, and although mortality is low, the morbidity and economic impact are substantial. Methods: RT-PCR and sequencing were used for identification of NoV genotypes obtained from outbreak and sporadic cases. RT Quant PCR was used to determine the viral load in fecal specimens. In order to rule out bacterial infection as the cause for acute gastroenteritis (AGE), bacterial culture for Salmonella, E.coli O157, Shigella, Campylobacter and Clostridium difficile was performed by standard laboratory procedures. The duration of NV shedding was investigated with longitudinal sampling in the sporadic cases and an evaluation of the association between viral load and days since clinical onset in the outbreak-associated cases. Results: We describe the epidemiology and strain identification for NoV circulating in Michigan during 2007-8 in concurrent sporadic and outbreak-associated cases. In 2007- 8, 138 norovirus outbreaks (3,437 cases) were reported to the MDCH. Among the 47 outbreak specimens sequenced, GI was identified in 14 (29.8%) and GII in 33 (70.2%). The predominant type was GII.4, found in 23 of the 33 (69.6%) GII specimens. The statistical analysis of outbreak-associated cases showed that neither NoV type nor number of days post-onset were associated with NoV log concentration. Among the sporadic cases, the repeated measures analysis of variance showed that NoV type (I or II) was not associated with log titer (P = 0.90), but that the number of weeks post-onset was statistically associated with declining log titer at p = 0.0005. Conclusion: We found no predominant strain difference between concurrent sporadic and outbreak-associated cases. Prevalent strains of NoV were shed in high concentration for at least two weeks past disease onset, suggesting that current public health recommendations for 2-3 days home isolation following clinical recovery may need to be lengthened

Defining cellular complexity in human autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease by multimodal single cell analysis

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the leading genetic cause of end stage renal disease characterized by progressive expansion of kidney cysts. To better understand the cell types and states driving ADPKD progression, we analyze eight ADPKD and five healthy human kidney samples, generating single cell multiomic atlas consisting of ~100,000 single nucleus transcriptomes and ~50,000 single nucleus epigenomes. Activation of proinflammatory, profibrotic signaling pathways are driven by proximal tubular cells with a failed repair transcriptomic signature, proinflammatory fibroblasts and collecting duct cells. We identify GPRC5A as a marker for cyst-lining collecting duct cells that exhibits increased transcription factor binding motif availability for NF-κB, TEAD, CREB and retinoic acid receptors. We identify and validate a distal enhancer regulating GPRC5A expression containing these motifs. This single cell multiomic analysis of human ADPKD reveals previously unrecognized cellular heterogeneity and provides a foundation to develop better diagnostic and therapeutic approaches

Large-alphabet encoding for higher-rate quantum key distribution

The manipulation of high-dimensional degrees of freedom provides new opportunities for more efficient quantum information processing. It has recently been shown that high-dimensional encoded states can provide significant advantages over binary quantum states in applications of quantum computation and quantum communication. In particular, high-dimensional quantum key distribution enables higher secret-key generation rates under practical limitations of detectors or light sources, as well as greater error tolerance. Here, we demonstrate high-dimensional quantum key distribution capabilities both in the laboratory and over a deployed fiber, using photons encoded in a high-dimensional alphabet to increase the secure information yield per detected photon. By adjusting the alphabet size, it is possible to mitigate the effects of receiver bottlenecks and optimize the secret-key rates for different channel losses. This work presents a strategy for achieving higher secret-key rates in receiver-limited scenarios and marks an important step toward high-dimensional quantum communication in deployed fiber networks. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing AgreementU.S. Air Force [FA8721-05-C-0002, FA8702-15-D-0001]; Air Force Office of Scientific Research Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative [FA9550-14-1-0052]; Air Force Research Laboratory RITA [FA8750-14-2-0120, N00014-16-C-2069]Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Reducing SS- duality to TT- duality

The infrared limit of $D=4,~~N=4$ Yang-Mills theory with compact gauge group $G$ compactified on a two-torus is governed by an effective superconformal field theory. We conjecture that this is a certain orbifold involving the maximal torus of $G$. Yang-Mills $S$-duality makes predictions for all correlators of this effective conformal field theory. These predictions are shown to be implied by the standard $T$-duality of the conformal field theory. Consequently, Montonen-Olive duality between electric and magnetic states reduces to the standard two-dimensional duality between momentum and winding states.Comment: 13 pages, harvmac, no figures. (Some Comments added. Some references added.

Dielectric and thermal relaxation in the energy landscape

We derive an energy landscape interpretation of dielectric relaxation times in undercooled liquids, comparing it to the traditional Debye and Gemant-DiMarzio-Bishop pictures. The interaction between different local structural rearrangements in the energy landscape explains qualitatively the recently observed splitting of the flow process into an initial and a final stage. The initial mechanical relaxation stage is attributed to hopping processes, the final thermal or structural relaxation stage to the decay of the local double-well potentials. The energy landscape concept provides an explanation for the equality of thermal and dielectric relaxation times. The equality itself is once more demonstrated on the basis of literature data for salol.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 41 references, Workshop Disordered Systems, Molveno 2006, submitted to Philosophical Magazin

Fivebrane Instantons and R2R^2 couplings in N=4N=4 String Theory

We compute the gravitational coupling $F_1$ for IIA string theory on $K3 \times T^2$ and use string-string duality to deduce the corresponding term for heterotic string on $T^6$. The latter is an infinite sum of gravitational instanton effects which we associate with the effects of Euclidean fivebranes wrapped on $T^6$. These fivebranes are the neutral fivebranes or zero size instantons of heterotic string theory.Comment: 16 pages, harvmac, no figure