Innovations in Open Grantmaking

Grantmaking, in short, plays a vital role in helping our government, our researchers, and our communities confront 21st-century challenges. Despite grantmaking's importance, we have a decidedly 20th-century system in place for deciding how we make these billions of dollars of crucial public investments. To make the most of limited funding—and help build confidence in the ability of public investments to make a positive difference—it is essential for our government agencies to try more innovative approaches to designing, awarding, and measuring their grantmaking activities.Innovations in Open Grantmaking seeks to provide inspiration and early proof of concept regarding innovative practices at every stage of the grantmaking process. The examples and lessons included can act as suggested guidelines for future research and experimentation around more openly and effectively providing access to public money

Truncation of the Inner Accretion Disk around a Black Hole at Low Luminosity

Most black hole binaries show large changes in X-ray luminosity caused primarily by variations in mass accretion rate. An important question for understanding black hole accretion and jet production is whether the inner edge of the accretion disk recedes at low accretion rate. Measurements of the location of the inner edge (Rin) can be made using iron emission lines that arise due to fluorescence of iron in the disk, and these indicate that Rin is very close to the black hole at high and moderate luminosities (near 1% of the Eddington luminosity, Ledd). Here, we report on X-ray observations of the black hole GX 339-4 in the hard state by Suzaku and the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) that extend iron line studies to 0.14% Ledd and show that Rin increases by a factor of >27 over the value found when GX 339-4 was bright. The exact value of Rin depends on the inclination of the inner disk (i), and we derive 90% confidence limits of Rin > 35 Rg at i = 0 degrees and Rin > 175 Rg at i = 30 degrees. This provides direct evidence that the inner portion of the disk is not present at low luminosity, allowing for the possibility that the inner disk is replaced by advection- or magnetically-dominated accretion flows.Comment: Accepted for ApJ Letters, 5 pages, 4 figure

Evidence for a strong 19.5 Hz flux oscillation in Swift BAT and Fermi GBM gamma-ray data from GRB 211211A

The gamma-ray burst (GRB) GRB~211211A is believed to have occurred due to the merger of two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole, despite its duration of more than a minute. Subsequent analysis has revealed numerous interesting properties including the possible presence of a $\sim 22$~Hz quasiperiodic oscillation (QPO) during precursor emission. Here we perform timing analysis of Fermi and Swift gamma-ray data on GRB~211211A and, although we do not find a strong QPO during the precursor, we do find an extremely significant 19.5~Hz flux oscillation, which has higher fractional amplitude at higher energies, in a $\sim 0.2$~second segment beginning $\sim 1.6$~seconds after the start of the burst. After presenting our analysis we discuss possible mechanisms for the oscillation.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

Failing to Engage: Parents’ Acceptance of the Promotion of Unhealthy Foods to Children

Six focus groups were conducted with parents and children to explore issues relating to the promotion of unhealthy foods to children. While general discontent with food advertising was expressed by parents and children, none of the parents reported ever making a formal complaint and most exhibited a begrudging acceptance of the current rates of advertising of unhealthy foods and the manner in which these foods are promoted. The primary reasons for this acceptance were found to be (i) an understanding that businesses need to promote their products to ensure their survival, (ii) an assumption that parents should be capable of overcoming the negative effects of advertising, (iii) the perceived value of competitions, toys, and other give-aways, and (iv) the increasing availability of healthy product variations

Blue carbon stock in Scottish saltmarsh soils

In this study, we provide an estimate of the quantity of organic carbon (OC) held within the surficial soils (top 10 cm and 15 cm) of Scotland’s extensive saltmarsh habitats. This work builds upon the Scottish Saltmarsh Survey (Haynes, 2016) by integrating the mapped extent of saltmarsh vegetation types with field-derived measurements of soil dry bulk density and OC obtained from a diverse range of saltmarsh soils across Scotland (Ruranska et al., 2020). This approach has enabled a new surficial OC stock estimation to be made for the soils within Scotland’s saltmarshes.Publisher PD

Planet Four: Terrains - Discovery of Araneiforms Outside of the South Polar Layered Deposits

We present the results of a systematic mapping of seasonally sculpted terrains on the South Polar region of Mars with the Planet Four: Terrains (P4T) online citizen science project. P4T enlists members of the general public to visually identify features in the publicly released Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter CTX images. In particular, P4T volunteers are asked to identify: 1) araneiforms (including features with a central pit and radiating channels known as 'spiders'); 2) erosional depressions, troughs, mesas, ridges, and quasi-circular pits characteristic of the South Polar Residual Cap (SPRC) which we collectively refer to as 'Swiss cheese terrain', and 3) craters. In this work we present the distributions of our high confidence classic spider araneiforms and Swiss cheese terrain identifications. We find no locations within our high confidence spider sample that also have confident Swiss cheese terrain identifications. Previously spiders were reported as being confined to the South Polar Layered Deposits (SPLD). Our work has provided the first identification of spiders at locations outside of the SPLD, confirmed with high resolution HiRISE imaging. We find araneiforms on the Amazonian and Hesperian polar units and the Early Noachian highland units, with 75% of the identified araneiform locations in our high confidence sample residing on the SPLD. With our current coverage, we cannot confirm whether these are the only geologic units conducive to araneiform formation on the Martian South Polar region. Our results are consistent with the current CO2 jet formation scenario with the process exploiting weaknesses in the surface below the seasonal CO2 ice sheet to carve araneiform channels into the regolith over many seasons. These new regions serve as additional probes of the conditions required for channel creation in the CO2 jet process. (Abridged)Comment: accepted to Icarus - Supplemental data files are available at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/mschwamb/planet-four-terrains/about/results - Icarus print version available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001910351730055

The types and aspects of front-of-pack food labelling schemes preferred by adults and children.

There is strong interest in front-of-pack labels (FoPLs) as a potential mechanism for improving diets, and therefore health, at the population level. The present study examined Australian consumers' preferences for different types and attributes of FoPLs to provide additional insights into optimal methods of presenting nutrition information on the front of food packets. Much research to date has focused on two main types of FoPLs - those expressing daily intake values for specific nutrients and those utilising 'traffic light' colour coding. This study extends this work by: (i) including the new Health Star Rating system recently introduced in Australia and New Zealand; (ii) allowing a large sample of consumers to self-nominate the evaluation criteria they consider to be most important in choosing between FoPLs; (iii) oversampling consumers of lower socioeconomic status; and (iv) including children, who consume and purchase food in their own right and also influence their parents' food purchase decisions. A cross-sectional online survey of 2058 Australian consumers (1558 adults and 500 children) assessed preferences between a daily intake FoPL, a traffic light FoPL, and the Health Star Rating FoPL. Across the whole sample and among all respondent subgroups (males vs females; adults vs children; lower socioeconomic status vs medium-high socioeconomic status; normal weight vs overweight/obese), the Health Star Rating was the most preferred FoPL (44%) and the daily intake guide was the least preferred (20%). The reasons most commonly provided by respondents to explain their preference related to ease of use, interpretive content, and salience. The findings suggest that a simple to use, interpretive, star-based food label represents a population-based nutrition promotion strategy that is considered helpful by a broad range of consumers

Upper Esophageal Sphincter Response to Laryngeal Adductor Reflex Elicitation in Humans

Objective: The laryngeal adductor reflex (LAR) is an important mechanism to secure the airways from potential foreign body aspiration. An involvement of the upper esophageal sphincter (UES) in terms of a laryngo-UES contractile reflex has been identified after laryngeal mucosa stimulation. However, the LAR–UES relationship has not yet been fully explained. This study aimed to determine the magnitude, latency, and occurrence rate of the UES pressure response when the LAR is triggered in order to elucidate the functional relationship between the larynx and the UES. Methods: This prospective study included seven healthy volunteers (5 female, 2 male, age 22–34 years). Laryngeal penetration was simulated by eliciting the LAR 20 times in each individual by applying water-based microdroplets onto the laryngeal mucosa. UES pressures were measured simultaneously using high-resolution manometry. Results: Two distinct pressure phases (P1, P2) associated with the LAR were identified. P1 corresponded with a short-term UES pressure decrease in two subjects and a pressure increase in five subjects occurring 200 to 500 ms after the stimulus. In P2, all subjects experienced an increase in UES pressure with a latency time of approximately 800 to 1700 ms and an average of 40 to 90 mmHg above the UES resting tone. Conclusion: Foreign bodies penetrating the laryngeal inlet lead to a reflex contraction of the UES. Phase P1 could be a result of vocal fold activity caused by the LAR, leading to pressure changes in the UES. The constriction during P2 could strengthen the barrier function of the UES in preparation to a subsequent cough that may be triggered to clear the airways. Level of Evidence: 4 Laryngoscope, 2020. © 2020 The Authors. The Laryngoscope published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society Inc, "The Triological Society" and American Laryngological Association (ALA)

A method to search for long duration gravitational wave transients from isolated neutron stars using the generalized FrequencyHough

We describe a method to detect gravitational waves lasting $O(hours-days)$ emitted by young, isolated neutron stars, such as those that could form after a supernova or a binary neutron star merger, using advanced LIGO/Virgo data. The method is based on a generalization of the FrequencyHough (FH), a pipeline that performs hierarchical searches for continuous gravitational waves by mapping points in the time/frequency plane of the detector to lines in the frequency/spindown plane of the source. We show that signals whose spindowns are related to their frequencies by a power law can be transformed to coordinates where the behavior of these signals is always linear, and can therefore be searched for by the FH. We estimate the sensitivity of our search across different braking indices, and describe the portion of the parameter space we could explore in a search using varying fast Fourier Transform (FFT) lengths.Comment: 15 figure

A randomized trial assessing the effects of health claims on choice of foods in the presence of front-of-pack labels

Background: As a public health intervention, front-of-pack labels (FoPLs) have the potential to reach large numbers of consumers and promote healthier food choices. Of the different FoPLs, those that summarize a product's overall nutritional profile tend to be most effective in guiding healthier choices. However, information is lacking as to whether FoPLs are as effective when nutrient or health claims also appear on-pack. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine how the choice of foods of varying levels of healthfulness (less healthy, moderately healthy, and healthier) is affected by the appearance of various FoPLs (Daily Intake Guide, Multiple Traffic Lights, Health Star Rating) when shown in combination with different claim conditions (no claim, nutrient claim, general-level health claim, and higher-level health claim). Design: Adults and children (n = 2069) completed a discrete-choice experiment online. Respondents were shown 8 choice sets, each containing 4 alternatives of the same food type (cookies, cornflakes, pizza, or yogurt) of varying levels of healthfulness and were asked which product they would likely purchase (or they could select none). Respondents were randomly assigned to view 1 of the 3 FoPLs across all choice sets. Claim type and healthfulness varied within choice sets in accordance with a D-efficient design. Results: The probability of choosing a healthy product and avoiding an unhealthy product was greatest when only an FoPL (especially the Health Star Rating) appeared on-pack. The addition of a nutrient or health claim did not affect the likelihood of picking healthier products but did increase the likelihood of selecting less healthy foods across all FoPL conditions. Conclusions: FoPLs are most effective in helping consumers make better food choices when nutrient and health claims are not present. Policies are required to control how nutrient and health claims are applied to less healthy foods. This trial was registered as ACTRN12617000015347 (www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Resgistration/TrialReview.aspx?id=372055&isReview=true)