An Exploratory Look at Supermarket Shopping Paths

We present analyses of an extraordinary new dataset that reveals the path taken by individual shoppers in an actual grocery store, as provided by RFID (radio frequency identification) tags located on their shopping carts. The analysis is performed using a multivariate clustering algorithm not yet seen in the marketing literature that is able to handle data sets with unique (and numerous) spatial constraints. This allows us to take into account physical impediments (such as the location of aisles and other inaccessible areas of the store) to ensure that we only deal with feasible paths. We also recognize that time spent in the store plays an important role, leading to different cluster configurations for short, medium, and long trips. The resulting three sets of clusters identify a total of 14 canonical path types that are typical of grocery store travel, and we carefully describe (and cross-validate) each set of clusters These results dispel certain myths about shopper travel behavior that common intuition perpetuates, including behavior related to aisles, end-cap displays, and the racetrack. We briefly relate these results to previous research (using much more limited datasets) covering travel behavior in retails stores and other related settings

The Importance of Religion for Parents Coping with a Chronically Ill Child

This study examines differences in the stability and consequences of religious coping among parents (N = 102) of chronically ill children. Analyses revealed that changes in religious patterns due to a child\u27s illness were reflected in changes in other, non-religious coping resources. Specifically, parents whose pre-illness religious patterns were satisfactory did not alter their use of other coping resources, whereas parents who reported changes in their religious patterns also made changes in their use of familial financial and social support systems

Parameter Transfer for Quantum Approximate Optimization of Weighted MaxCut

Finding high-quality parameters is a central obstacle to using the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA). Previous work partially addresses this issue for QAOA on unweighted MaxCut problems by leveraging similarities in the objective landscape among different problem instances. However, we show that the more general weighted MaxCut problem has significantly modified objective landscapes, with a proliferation of poor local optima. Our main contribution is a simple rescaling scheme that overcomes these deleterious effects of weights. We show that for a given QAOA depth, a single "typical" vector of QAOA parameters can be successfully transferred to weighted MaxCut instances. This transfer leads to a median decrease in the approximation ratio of only 2.0 percentage points relative to a considerably more expensive direct optimization on a dataset of 34,701 instances with up to 20 nodes and multiple weight distributions. This decrease can be reduced to 1.2 percentage points at the cost of only 10 additional QAOA circuit evaluations with parameters sampled from a pretrained metadistribution, or the transferred parameters can be used as a starting point for a single local optimization run to obtain approximation ratios equivalent to those achieved by exhaustive optimization in $96.35\%$ of our cases

Ongoing Gas Stripping in the Virgo Cluster Spiral NGC 4522

The Virgo cluster galaxy NGC 4522 is one of the best spiral candidates for ICM-ISM stripping in action. Optical broadband and H-alpha images from the WIYN telescope of the highly inclined galaxy reveal a relatively undisturbed stellar disk and a peculiar distribution of H-alpha emission. Ten percent of the H-alpha emission arises from extraplanar HII regions which appear to lie within filamentary structures >3 kpc long above one side of the disk. The filaments emerge from the outer edge of a disk of bright H-alpha emission which is abruptly truncated beyond 0.35R(25). Together the truncated H-alpha disk and extraplanar H-alpha filaments are reminiscent of a bow shock morphology, which strongly suggests that the interstellar medium (ISM) of NGC 4522 is being stripped by the gas pressure of the intracluster medium (ICM). The galaxy has a line-of-sight velocity of 1300 km/sec with respect to the mean Virgo cluster velocity, and thus is expected to experience a strong interaction with the intracluster gas. The existence of HII regions apparently located above the disk plane suggests that star formation is occuring in the stripped gas, and that newly formed stars will enter the galaxy halo and/or intracluster space. The absence of HII regions in the disk beyond 0.35R(25), and the existence of HII regions in the stripped gas suggest that even molecular gas has been effectively removed from the disk of the galaxy.Comment: to appear in The Astronomical Journal, 16 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Local brain connectivity and associations with gender and age

ABSTRACTRegional homogeneity measures synchrony of resting-state brain activity in neighboring voxels, or local connectivity. The effects of age and gender on local connectivity in healthy subjects are unknown. We performed regional homogeneity analyses on resting state BOLD time series data acquired from 58 normal, healthy participants, ranging in age from 11 to 35 (mean 18.1±5.0 years, 32 males). Regional homogeneity was found to be highest for gray matter, with brain regions within the default mode network having the highest local connectivity values. There was a general decrease in regional homogeneity with age with the greatest reduction seen in the anterior cingulate and temporal lobe. Greater female local connectivity in the right hippocampus and amygdala was also noted, regardless of age. These findings suggest that local connectivity at the millimeter scale decreases during development as longer connections are formed, and underscores the importance of examining gender differences in imaging studies of healthy and clinical populations

Establishment of a Spaceport Network Architecture

Since the beginning of the space age, the main actors in space exploration have been governmental agencies, enabling a privileged access to space, but with very restricted and rare missions. The last decade has seen the rise of space tourism, and the founding of ambitious private space mining companies, showing the beginnings of a new exploration era, that is based on a more generalized and regular access to space and which is not limited to the Earth's vicinity. However, the cost of launching sufficient mass into orbit to sustain these inspiring challenges is prohibitive, and the necessary infrastructures to support these missions is still lacking. To provide easy and affordable access into orbital and deep space destinations, there is the need to create a network of spaceports via specific waypoint locations coupled with the use of natural resources, or In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), to provide a more economical solution. As part of the International Space University Space Studies Program 2012, the international and intercultural team of Operations and Service Infrastructure for Space (OASIS) proposes an interdisciplinary answer to the problem of economical space access and transportation. This paper presents a summary of a detailed report [1] of the different phases of a project for developing a network of spaceports throughout the Solar System in a timeframe of 50 years. The requirements, functions, critical technologies and mission architecture of this network of spaceports are outlined in a roadmap of the important steps and phases. The economic and financial aspects are emphasized in order to allow a sustainable development of the network in a public-private partnership via the formation of an International Spaceport Authority (ISPA). The approach includes engineering, scientific, financial, legal, policy, and societal aspects. Team OASIS intends to provide guidelines to make the development of space transportation via a spaceports logistics network feasible, and believes that this pioneering effort will revolutionize space exploration, science and commerce, ultimately contributing to permanently expand humanity into space

Evaluation of human chorionic gonadotropin as a replacement for GnRH in an ovulation synchronization protocol before fixed-time insemination

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the difference between gonadotropinreleasing hormone (GnRH) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) given at the beginning of a timed AI protocol and their effects on fertility. In Experiment 1, beef cows (n = 672) at six different locations were assigned randomly to treatments based on age, body condition, and days postpartum. On day −10, cattle were treated with GnRH or hCG and a progesterone-releasing controlled internal drug release (CIDR) insert was placed in the vagina. An injection of PGF2α was given and CIDR inserts were removed on day −3. Cows were inseminated at one fixed timed at 62 hr (day 0) after CIDR insert removal. Pregnancy was diagnosed at 33 days (range of 32 to 35) after insemination to determine pregnancy rates. For cows that were pregnant after the first insemination, a second pregnancy diagnosis was conducted 35 days (range of 33 to 37) after the first diagnosis to determine pregnancy survival. Pregnancy rates were reduced by the hCG injection compared with the GnRH injection (39.1 vs. 53.5%). In Experiment 2, cattle were assigned randomly to three treatments, balanced evenly across the two treatments (GnRH vs. hCG) applied in Experiment 1. Cows were injected with GnRH, hCG, or saline seven days before the first pregnancy diagnosis of cows inseminated in Experiment 1. At the time of pregnancy diagnosis, cattle found not pregnant (n = 328) were given PGF2α and inseminated 56 hours later. A second pregnancy diagnosis was conducted 35 days (range of 33 to 37) after the second insemination to determine pregnancy rate at the second AI. Injections of GnRH, hCG, or saline had no effect on pregnancy rates of cows already pregnant to the first insemination. Pregnancy rates after second insemination in cows given an injection of hCG or GnRH, however, tended to be reduced. Percentage of cows pregnant after two timed inseminations exceeded 60% without any need to detect estrus