Matter Made Even: As You Like It

George Bernard Shaw, writing in 1890, complained that a new production of As You Like It had been ruined by the producer\u27s having attempted to reduce the play\u27s length by the common method of cutting out a bit here and chunk there until the lines are few enough to fit. But somehow, he went on, the shorter you make your play in this fashion, the more tedious it becomes

Matter Made Even: As You Like It

George Bernard Shaw, writing in 1890, complained that a new production of As You Like It had been ruined by the producer\u27s having attempted to reduce the play\u27s length by the common method of cutting out a bit here and chunk there until the lines are few enough to fit. But somehow, he went on, the shorter you make your play in this fashion, the more tedious it becomes

Minimax bounds for sparse PCA with noisy high-dimensional data

We study the problem of estimating the leading eigenvectors of a high-dimensional population covariance matrix based on independent Gaussian observations. We establish a lower bound on the minimax risk of estimators under the $l_2$ loss, in the joint limit as dimension and sample size increase to infinity, under various models of sparsity for the population eigenvectors. The lower bound on the risk points to the existence of different regimes of sparsity of the eigenvectors. We also propose a new method for estimating the eigenvectors by a two-stage coordinate selection scheme.Comment: 1 figur

Online Mindfulness Training Increases Well-Being, Trait Emotional Intelligence, and Workplace Competency Ratings: A Randomized Waitlist-Controlled Trial

A randomized waitlist-controlled trial was conducted to assess the effectiveness of an online 8-week mindfulness-based training program in a sample of adults employed fulltime at a Fortune 100 company in the United States. Baseline measures were collected in both intervention and control groups. Following training, the intervention group (N = 37) showed statistically significant increases in resilience and positive mood, and significant decreases in stress and negative mood. There were no reported improvements in the wait-list control group (N = 65). Trait mindfulness and emotional intelligence (EI) were also assessed. Following the intervention mindfulness intervention participants reported increases in trait mindfulness and increases on all trait EI facets with the exception of empathy. The control group did not report any positive changes in these variables, and reported reductions in resilience and increases in negative mood. Finally, both self and colleague ratings of workplace competencies were collected in the intervention group only and provided preliminary evidence that mindfulness training enhanced performance on key leadership competencies including competencies related to decisiveness and creativity. The present study demonstrates the effectiveness of an online-based mindfulness training program for enhancing well-being, self-perceptions of emotional intelligence, and workplace performance

Profile of Corporate Social Media Consumer Segments

The trade and academic literature is replete with commentary about the need for companies to develop promotional strategies and to adopt media platforms that are more engaging and conversational with customers than the traditional top-down company directed one-way communication strategies of the past (Thomas, Peters, Howell and Robbins, 2012; Foster, West and Francescucci 2011; Deighton and Kornfeld, 2009). This viewpoint is supported by Christodoulides (2008) who reported that many customers view information about a company or brand that they obtained from blogs, social networking sites and the like as being more relevant, believable and important to them in their interactions with the company than similar company provided information. Social media savvy customers are by all counts a highly diverse lot and reaching them effectively requires the use of different messages for different groups (Heo and Cho, 2009; Stern, Rao and Gould 1990). For example, some social media users follow a wide variety of posts and enjoy the benefits of special offers while others have mixed feelings about being marketed to on social media websites. Interestingly, this new brand of customer also expects businesses to really know them, their life cycles, their personalities and the goods and services that they desire (Beauchamp 2013)

Corporate Social Media: A Typology of Consumers

Abstract - This consumer segmentation schema is developed using 1) number of businesses followed and 2) companies’ social posts as direct influence toward purchase decisions, as defining behaviors. The use of a theoretical progression prospective, which tracks the development of the customer engagement construct, is central to our development. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods reveals types of consumer groups and their interactions, perceptions, and involvement with Corporate Social Media (CSM). Cluster analysis produces five distinct consumer segments, and a process to help managers more effectively achieve marketing goals. The use of additional consumer metrics are recommended for future research

Immunogenicity of unprocessed and photooxidized bovine and human osteochondral grafts in collagen-sensitive mice

BACKGROUND: Autologous and allogeneic osteochondral grafts have been used to repair damaged or diseased cartilage. There are drawbacks to both of these methods, however. Another possible source for osteochondral grafting is photooxidized xenograft scaffolds. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the adaptive immune response to unprocessed and photooxidized xenogeneic osteochondral grafts in a collagen-sensitive mouse model. METHODS: Unprocessed and photooxidized bovine and human osteochondral grafts were used. The grafts were implanted subcutaneously in collagen-sensitive DBA/1LacJ mice for four or twelve weeks. ELISPOT assays were conducted with spleen cells to evaluate the number of collagen-specific T cells that produce IL-2, IL-4, IL-5 or IFN-γ. Serum was collected and ELISA assays were performed to determine the titers of collagen-specific and total IgG, IgG1, IgG2a, or IgM antibodies. Histology was conducted on the retrieved osteochondral grafts. RESULTS: Results indicated that, with respect to adaptive T cell immunity, the photooxidized bovine grafts, unprocessed human grafts and photooxidized human grafts did not induce a significant response to collagen. The unprocessed bovine grafts, however, were slightly more immunogenic, inducing a weak immune response. With respect to antibody production, the bovine grafts were less immunogenic than the human grafts. Bovine collagen-specific IgG antibodies were not induced by these grafts, but production of IgM after twelve weeks was observed with both the unprocessed and photooxidized bovine grafts. In contrast, photooxidized human osteochondral grafts induced IgG1 and IgG2a antibodies, while the unprocessed human grafts did not. Pre-existing human collagen-specific IgM antibodies were present in all mice, including sham-operated negative controls that did not receive an implant. Histological analysis revealed some degree of fibrous encapsulation and inflammatory infiltrations in both bovine and human implants, whether unprocessed or photooxidized. CONCLUSION: Both bovine and human cartilage grafts showed weak, but clear immunogenicity in the DBA/1LacJ mice, indicating that immunogenic collagen was still contained in the grafts, even after cleaning and photooxidation. The process of photooxidation is still important in osteochondral grafting, since it stabilizes the surface of the cartilage by cross-linking the collagen fibers, and allows for immediate load bearing and joint resurfacing

Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) Tumors Display Large Expansion of Double Positive (DP) CD4+CD8+ T Cells With Expression of Exhaustion Markers

Checkpoint inhibitors target the inhibitory receptors expressed by tumor-infiltrating T cells in order to reinvigorate an anti-tumor immune response. Therefore, understanding T cell composition and phenotype in human tumors is crucial. We analyzed by flow cytometry tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) from two independent cohorts of patients with different cancer types, including RCC, lung, and colon cancer. In healthy donors, peripheral T cells are usually either CD4+ or CD8+ with a small percentage of CD4+ CD8+ DP cells (<5%). Compared to several other cancer types, including lung, and colorectal cancers, TILs from about a third of RCC patients showed an increased proportion of DP CD4+CD8+ T cells (>5%, reaching 30–50% of T cells in some patients). These DP T cells have an effector memory phenotype and express CD38, 4-1BB, and HLA-DR, suggesting antigen-driven expansion. In fact, TCR sequencing analysis revealed a high degree of clonality in DP T cells. Additionally, there were high levels of PD-1 and TIM-3 expression on DP T cells, which correlated with higher expression of PD-1 and TIM-3 in conventional single positive CD8 T cells from the same patients. These results suggest that DP T cells could be dysfunctional tumor-specific T cells with the potential to be reactivated by checkpoint inhibitors

Two Aldehyde Clearance Systems Are Essential to Prevent Lethal Formaldehyde Accumulation in Mice and Humans.

Reactive aldehydes arise as by-products of metabolism and are normally cleared by multiple families of enzymes. We find that mice lacking two aldehyde detoxifying enzymes, mitochondrial ALDH2 and cytoplasmic ADH5, have greatly shortened lifespans and develop leukemia. Hematopoiesis is disrupted profoundly, with a reduction of hematopoietic stem cells and common lymphoid progenitors causing a severely depleted acquired immune system. We show that formaldehyde is a common substrate of ALDH2 and ADH5 and establish methods to quantify elevated blood formaldehyde and formaldehyde-DNA adducts in tissues. Bone-marrow-derived progenitors actively engage DNA repair but also imprint a formaldehyde-driven mutation signature similar to aging-associated human cancer mutation signatures. Furthermore, we identify analogous genetic defects in children causing a previously uncharacterized inherited bone marrow failure and pre-leukemic syndrome. Endogenous formaldehyde clearance alone is therefore critical for hematopoiesis and in limiting mutagenesis in somatic tissues