Candidate exoplanet host HD131399A: a nascent Am star

Direct imaging suggests that there is a Jovian exoplanet around the primary A-star in the triple-star system HD131399. We investigate a high-quality spectrum of the primary component HD131399A obtained with FEROS on the ESO/MPG 2.2m telescope, aiming to characterise the star's atmospheric and fundamental parameters, and to determine elemental abundances at high precision and accuracy. The aim is to constrain the chemical composition of the birth cloud of the system and therefore the bulk composition of the putative planet. A hybrid non-local thermal equilibrium (non-LTE) model atmosphere technique is adopted for the quantitative spectral analysis. Comparison with the most recent stellar evolution models yields the fundamental parameters. The atmospheric and fundamental stellar parameters of HD131399A are constrained to Teff=9200+-100 K, log g=4.37+-0.10, M=1.95+0.08-0.06 Msun, R=1.51+0.13-0.10 Rsun, and log L/Lsun=1.17+-0.07, locating the star on the zero-age main sequence. Non-LTE effects on the derived metal abundances are often smaller than 0.1dex, but can reach up to ~0.8dex for individual lines. The observed lighter elements up to calcium are overall consistent with present-day cosmic abundances, with a C/O ratio of 0.45$\pm$0.07 by number, while the heavier elements show mild overabundances. We conclude that the birth cloud of the system had a standard chemical composition, but we witness the onset of the Am phenomenon in the slowly rotating star. We furthermore show that non-LTE analyses have the potential to solve the remaining discrepancies between observed abundances and predictions by diffusion models for Am stars. Moreover, the present case allows mass loss, not turbulent mixing, to be identified as the main transport process competing with diffusion in very young Am stars.Comment: 5 pages + 3 pages appendix, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

Nurses\u27 Own Birth Experiences Influence Labor Support Attitudes and Behaviors

Objective To describe the attitudes of intrapartum nurses about the importance of and intent to provide professional labor support (PLS); barriers to PLS, such as perceived subjective norms and perceived behavioral control; and relationships among attitudes, behaviors, and nurse and site characteristics. Design A cross-sectional, mixed-methods, descriptive design was guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior. Setting Three hospital sites in one region of a single Midwestern state. Participants Sixty intrapartum nurses participated. Methods The Labor Support Questionnaire and demographic questionnaire were administered online. The Labor Support Questionnaire is used to measure attitudes about the importance of and intended behaviors associated with labor support. Results Nurse Caring Behaviors was the highest rated PLS dimension. Participants\u27 own personal birth experiences and length of current intrapartum experience were positively correlated with attitudes about and intent to provide PLS. Barriers to PLS included staffing, documentation, physicians, use of epidural analgesia, doulas, and birth plans. Conclusion Personal birth and work experience influenced attitudes about and intent to provide PLS and demonstrated the relationships described in the Theory of Planned Behavior. Intrapartum nurses may benefit from an examination of their personal experiences to see how they might influence attitudes about PLS. Enhanced training and expanded labor and birth experience for novice nurses or students may improve attitudes and intended behavior with regard to PLS. Further investigations of the factors that affect integration of PLS into care are important to promote healthy birth outcomes

GEOMETRY AND RUNNING OF THE ALPINE SKI FIS WORLD CUP GIANT SLALOM PART THREE - VELOCITY AS A FUNCTION OF GEOMETRY

In order to evaluate setting of a giant slalom (GS) course one might use qualitative words such as: slow, medium, fast. This way of evaluation is subjective and inacurate. An objective method of describing a giant slalom course setting uses geometric data: distances between turning poles of the gates, angles of deviation and angles of incline. If one has a distance of running (through measurements of gate setting) and time of running (from video recording) then one can calculate velocities of running. This enables quantification of course setting. First experiments were done for Greek skiers, then for the best skiers in the world (Erdmann et al. 2000, Erdmann et al. 2001) The aim of this paper was to obtain objective way of evaluation of giant slalom course

INVESTIGATIONS ON TECHNIQUE AND TACTICS OF RACE WALKING DURING OLYMPIC GAMES ATHENS 2004 – FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT

The paper presents preliminary information devoted to the investigations on technique and tactics of race walkers participating at distances of 20 (males and females) and 50 (males) km during Olympic Games ‘Athens 2004’

Vapnik-Chervonenkis density in some theories without the independence property, I

We recast the problem of calculating Vapnik-Chervonenkis (VC) density into one of counting types, and thereby calculate bounds (often optimal) on the VC density for some weakly o-minimal, weakly quasi-o-minimal, and $P$-minimal theories.Comment: 59

Two-period linear mixed effects models to analyze clinical trials with run-in data when the primary outcome is continuous: Applications to Alzheimer\u27s disease.

Introduction: Study outcomes can be measured repeatedly based on the clinical trial protocol before randomization during what is known as the run-in period. However, it has not been established how best to incorporate run-in data into the primary analysis of the trial. Methods: We proposed two-period (run-in period and randomization period) linear mixed effects models to simultaneously model the run-in data and the postrandomization data. Results: Compared with the traditional models, the two-period linear mixed effects models can increase the power up to 15% and yield similar power for both unequal randomization and equal randomization. Discussion: Given that analysis of run-in data using the two-period linear mixed effects models allows more participants (unequal randomization) to be on the active treatment with similar power to that of the equal-randomization trials, it may reduce the dropout by assigning more participants to the active treatment and thus improve the efficiency of AD clinical trials

Death receptor-based enrichment of Cas9-expressing cells

Background: The CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system has greatly facilitated and expanded our capacity to engineer mammalian genomes, including targeted gene knock-outs. However, the phenotyping of the knock-out effect requires a high DNA editing efficiency. Results: Here, we report a user-friendly strategy based on the extrinsic apoptosis pathway that allows enrichment of a polyclonal gene-edited cell population, by selecting Cas9-transfected cells that co-express dominant-negative mutants of death receptors. The extrinsic apoptosis pathway can be triggered in many mammalian cell types, and ligands are easy to produce, do not require purification and kill much faster than the state-of-the-art selection drug puromycin. Stringent assessment of our advanced selection strategy via Sanger sequencing, T7 endonuclease I (T7E1) assay and direct phenotyping confirmed a strong and rapid enrichment of Cas9-expressing cell populations, in some cases reaching up to 100 % within one hour. Notably, the efficiency of target DNA cleavage in these enriched cells reached high levels that exceeded the reliable range of the T7E1 assay, a conclusion that can be generalized for editing efficiencies above 30 %. Moreover, our data emphasize that the insertion and deletion pattern induced by a specific gRNA is reproducible across different cell lines. Conclusions: The workflow and the findings reported here should streamline a wide array of future low- or high-throughput gene knock-out screens, and should largely improve data interpretation from CRISPR experiments

The Development of an Embedded Figures Test for the Detection of Feigned Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Adulthood

OBJECTIVES: It has been shown that an increasing number of adults deliberately feign attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which demonstrates the need for new tests designed to detect feigned ADHD. METHODS: An Embedded Figures Test (EFT) was developed for the detection of feigned ADHD in adulthood. EFT performance of 51 adults with ADHD was compared to the performance of 52 matched healthy individuals, as well as to 268 undergraduate students who were randomly allocated in a simulation design to one of four experimental conditions, i.e. a control group, a naïve simulation group, a symptom-coached simulation group or a test-coached simulation group. Furthermore, an independent sample of 11 adults with ADHD as well as a sample of 17 clinicians experienced in the work with adults with ADHD were assessed for further validation of the EFT. RESULTS: The EFT was relatively easy to perform for both patients with ADHD and healthy comparisons as shown by low error rates and non-significant group differences. However, simulation groups differed from patients with ADHD by significant and large effects. An EFT index for the prediction of feigned ADHD was derived based on logistic regression coefficients. Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) demonstrated good classification accuracy of feigned ADHD relative to ADHD (AUC = 94.8%), i.e. high sensitivity (88%) and specificity (90%). CONCLUSIONS: This study supports the utility of the EFT for the detection of feigned adult ADHD

A polynomial-time algorithm for optimizing over N-fold 4-block decomposable integer programs

In this paper we generalize N-fold integer programs and two-stage integer programs with N scenarios to N-fold 4-block decomposable integer programs. We show that for fixed blocks but variable N, these integer programs are polynomial-time solvable for any linear objective. Moreover, we present a polynomial-time computable optimality certificate for the case of fixed blocks, variable N and any convex separable objective function. We conclude with two sample applications, stochastic integer programs with second-order dominance constraints and stochastic integer multi-commodity flows, which (for fixed blocks) can be solved in polynomial time in the number of scenarios and commodities and in the binary encoding length of the input data. In the proof of our main theorem we combine several non-trivial constructions from the theory of Graver bases. We are confident that our approach paves the way for further extensions