Information Gaps and Misinformation in the 2022 Elections

The prob­lem of elec­tion misin­form­a­tion is vast. Part of the prob­lem occurs when there is high demand for inform­a­tion about a topic, but the supply of accur­ate and reli­able inform­a­tion is inad­equate to meet that demand. The result­ing inform­a­tion gap creates oppor­tun­it­ies for misin­form­a­tion to emerge and spread.One major elec­tion inform­a­tion gap developed in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic drove many states to expand access to voting by mail. Inad­equate public know­ledge about the process left room for disin­form­a­tion mongers to spread false claims that mail voting would lead to wide­spread fraud. Elec­tion offi­cials could not fill inform­a­tion gaps with accur­ate inform­a­tion in time. As is now well known, no less than former Pres­id­ent Trump promoted these false claims, among others, to deny the 2020 pres­id­en­tial elec­tion results and provoke the Janu­ary 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.In 2022, false narrat­ives about a stolen 2020 elec­tion persist, even as an unpre­ced­en­ted spate of restrict­ive voting law changes across the coun­try has created fresh inform­a­tion gaps and, thus, fresh oppor­tun­it­ies for misin­form­a­tion. Since 2020, at least 18 states have shrunk voting access, often in ways that dramat­ic­ally alter proced­ures voters might remem­ber from the past. Mean­while, lies and vitriol about the 2020 elec­tion have affected percep­tions of elec­tion admin­is­tra­tion in ways that complic­ate work to defend against misin­form­a­tion.This paper iden­ti­fies some of the most signi­fic­ant inform­a­tion gaps around elec­tions in 2022 and new devel­op­ments in elec­tions over­sight that will make it harder to guard against misin­form­a­tion. Ulti­mately, it recom­mends strategies that elec­tion offi­cials, journ­al­ists, social media compan­ies, civic groups, and indi­vidu­als can and should use to prevent misin­form­a­tion from filling gaps in public know­ledge. Lessons from other subjects, such as Covid-19 vaccine ingredi­ents and tech­no­lo­gies, show how timely responses and proact­ive "preb­unk­ing" with accur­ate inform­a­tion help to mitig­ate misin­form­a­tion

Picking Up Speed: Continuous-Time Lidar-Only Odometry using Doppler Velocity Measurements

Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) lidar is a recently emerging technology that additionally enables per-return instantaneous relative radial velocity measurements via the Doppler effect. In this letter, we present the first continuous-time lidar-only odometry algorithm using these Doppler velocity measurements from an FMCW lidar to aid odometry in geometrically degenerate environments. We apply an existing continuous-time framework that efficiently estimates the vehicle trajectory using Gaussian process regression to compensate for motion distortion due to the scanning-while-moving nature of any mechanically actuated lidar (FMCW and non-FMCW). We evaluate our proposed algorithm on several real-world datasets, including publicly available ones and datasets we collected. Our algorithm outperforms the only existing method that also uses Doppler velocity measurements, and we study difficult conditions where including this extra information greatly improves performance. We additionally demonstrate state-of-the-art performance of lidar-only odometry with and without using Doppler velocity measurements in nominal conditions. Code for this project can be found at: https://github.com/utiasASRL/steam_icp.Comment: Submitted to RA-

Rising CO2 and warming reduce global canopy deman for nitrogen

Nitrogen (N) limitation has been considered as a constraint on terrestrial carbon uptake in response to rising CO2 and climate change. By extension, it has been suggested that declining carboxylation capacity (Vcmax) and leaf N content in enhanced-CO2 experiments and satellite records signify increasing N limitation of primary production. We predicted Vcmax using the coordination hypothesis, and estimated changes in leaf-level photosynthetic N for 1982–2016 assuming proportionality with leaf-level Vcmax at 25˚C. Whole-canopy photosynthetic N was derived using satellite-based leaf area index (LAI) data and an empirical extinction coefficient for Vcmax, and converted to annual N demand using estimated leaf turnover times. The predicted spatial pattern of Vcmax shares key features with an independent reconstruction from remotely-sensed leaf chlorophyll content. Predicted leaf photosynthetic N declined by 0.27 % yr-1, while observed leaf (total) N declined by 0.2–0.25 % yr-1. Predicted global canopy N (and N demand) declined from 1996 onwards, despite increasing LAI. Leaf-level responses to rising CO2, and to a lesser extent temperature, may have reduced the canopy requirement for N by more than rising LAI has increased it. This finding provides an alternative explanation for declining leaf N that does not depend on increasing N limitation

Medical imaging for plantar heel pain:a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Medical imaging can be used to assist with the diagnosis of plantar heel pain. The aim of this study was to synthesise medical imaging features associated with plantar heel pain. METHODS: This systematic review and meta-analysis conducted searches in MEDLINE, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, Embase and the Cochrane Library from inception to 12th February 2021. Peer-reviewed articles of cross-sectional observational studies written in English that compared medical imaging findings in adult participants with plantar heel pain to control participants without plantar heel pain were included. Study quality and risk of bias was assessed using the National Institutes of Health quality assessment tool for observational cohort and cross-sectional studies. Sensitivity analyses were conducted where appropriate to account for studies that used unblinded assessors. RESULTS: Forty-two studies (2928 participants) were identified and included in analyses. Only 21% of studies were rated ‘good’ on quality assessment. Imaging features associated with plantar heel pain included a thickened plantar fascia (on ultrasound and MRI), abnormalities of the plantar fascia (on ultrasound and MRI), abnormalities of adjacent tissue such as a thickened loaded plantar heel fat pad (on ultrasound), and a plantar calcaneal spur (on x-ray). In addition, there is some evidence from more than one study that there is increased hyperaemia within the fascia (on power Doppler ultrasound) and abnormalities of bone in the calcaneus (increased uptake on technetium-99 m bone scan and bone marrow oedema on MRI). CONCLUSIONS: People with plantar heel pain are more likely to have a thickened plantar fascia, abnormal plantar fascia tissue, a thicker loaded plantar heel fat pad, and a plantar calcaneal spur. In addition, there is some evidence of hyperaemia within the plantar fascia and abnormalities of the calcaneus. Whilst these medical imaging features may aid with diagnosis, additional high-quality studies investigating medical imaging findings for some of these imaging features would be worthwhile to improve the precision of these findings and determine their clinical relevance. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13047-021-00507-2

Discovery of a TiO emission band in the infrared spectrum of the S star NP Aurigae

We report on the discovery of an infrared emission band in the Spitzer spectrum of the S-type AGB star NP Aurigae that is caused by TiO molecules in the circumstellar environment. We modelled the observed emission to derive the temperature of the TiO molecules (\approx 600 K), an upper limit on the column density (\approx 10^17.25 cm^{-2}) and a lower limit on the spatial extent of the layer that contains these molecules. (\approx 4.6 stellar radii). This is the first time that this TiO emission band is observed. A search for similar emission features in the sample of S-type stars yielded two additional candidates. However, owing to the additional dust emission, the identification is less stringent. By comparing the stellar characteristics of NP Aur to those of the other stars in our sample, we find that all stars with TiO emission show large-amplitude pulsations, s-process enrichment, and a low C/O ratio. These characteristics might be necessary requirements for a star to show TiO in emission, but they are not sufficient.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, letter to the edito

Global datasets of leaf photosynthetic capacity for ecological and earth system research

The maximum rate of Rubisco carboxylation (Vcmax) determines leaf photosynthetic capacity and is a key parameter for estimating the terrestrial carbon cycle, but its spatial information is lacking, hindering global ecological research. Here, we convert leaf chlorophyll content (LCC) retrieved from satellite data to Vcmax, based on plants’ optimal distribution of nitrogen between light harvesting and carboxylation pathways. We also derive Vcmax from satellite (GOME-2) observations of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) as a proxy of leaf photosynthesis using a data assimilation technique. These two independent global Vcmax products agree well (r 2=0.79, RMSE=15.46 μmol m-2 s -1 25 , P<0.001) and compare well with 3672 ground-based measurements (r2=0.68, RMSE=13.55 μmol m-2 s -1 and P<0.001 for SIF; r2=0.55, RMSE=17.55 μmol m-2 s -1 and P<0.001 for LCC). The LCC-derived Vcmax product is also used to constrain the retrieval of Vcmax from TROPOMI SIF data to produce an optimized Vcmax product using both SIF and LCC information. The global distributions of these products are compatible with Vcmax computed from an ecological optimality theory using meteorological variables, but importantly reveal additional information on the influence of land cover, irrigation, soil pH and leaf nitrogen on leaf photosynthetic capacity. These satellite-based approaches and spatial Vcmax products are primed to play a major role in global ecosystem research. The three remote sensing Vcmax products based on SIF, LCC and SIF+LCC are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6466968 (Chen et al., 2020) and the code for implementing the ecological optimality theory is available at https://github.com/SmithEcophysLab/optimal_vcmax_R (Smith, 2020)