C.T. Elvey (1899-1970)

The death of Dr. C.T. Elvey occurred in Tucson, Arizona, on 25 March 1970. He was Director of the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska from 1952 to 1963, Vice-President for Research and Advanced Study from 1961 to 1963, and University Research Professor and Special Assistant to the President from 1963 until his retirement in 1967. ... Dr. Elvey moved to Alaska in 1952 to become Head of the Department of Geophysics and Director of the Geophysical Institute. He personally undertook a study of the morphology of the aurora, contributed to the design of an all-sky camera for the IGY, and formulated a unifying policy for the Institute based on the theme of 'particle bombardment of the atmosphere'. ... His research proposal of 1958 for conjugate point studies proved to be a far-sighted suggestion which gave the Institute a handsome lead in this field; such studies are still in progress at the Institute, though in more elaborate forms today than Chris originally envisioned. In 1961 he created the Advisory Committee which has been influential in determining broad (scientific and other) policies of the Institute over the years. ... The rise of the Geophysical Institute from a small and rather unsettled group early in the 1950's to its position of prominence in high latitude research in the 1960's is surely its own indisputable testimony to effective leadership and scientific direction during the intervening decade. He came to Alaska with a distinguished career already behind him, yet he carved a new career in the far North. Chris Elvey will be missed by his colleagues round the world, by the many friends he made in Alaska and especially by those of us who came to know him - and the integrity he stood for - so well

Molecular evolution of the Bovini tribe (Bovidae, Bovinae): Is there evidence of rapid evolution or reduced selective constraint in Domestic cattle?

BACKGROUND: If mutation within the coding region of the genome is largely not adaptive, the ratio of nonsynonymous (dN) to synonymous substitutions (dS) per site (dN/dS) should be approximately equal among closely related species. Furthermore, dN/dS in divergence between species should be equivalent to dN/dS in polymorphisms. This hypothesis is of particular interest in closely related members of the Bovini tribe, because domestication has promoted rapid phenotypic divergence through strong artificial selection of some species while others remain undomesticated. We examined a number of genes that may be involved in milk production in Domestic cattle and a number of their wild relatives for evidence that domestication had affected molecular evolution. Elevated rates of dN/dS were further queried to determine if they were the result of positive selection, low effective population size (N(e)) or reduced selective constraint. RESULTS: We have found that the domestication process has contributed to higher dN/dS ratios in cattle, especially in the lineages leading to the Domestic cow (Bos taurus) and Mithan (Bos frontalis) and within some breeds of Domestic cow. However, the high rates of dN/dS polymorphism within B. taurus when compared to species divergence suggest that positive selection has not elevated evolutionary rates in these genes. Likewise, the low rate of dN/dS in Bison, which has undergone a recent population bottleneck, indicates a reduction in population size alone is not responsible for these observations. CONCLUSION: The effect of selection depends on effective population size and the selection coefficient (N(e)s). Typically under domestication both selection pressure for traits important in fitness in the wild and Ne are reduced. Therefore, reduced selective constraint could be responsible for the observed elevated evolutionary ratios in domesticated species, especially in B. taurus and B. frontalis, which have the highest dN/dS in the Bovini. This may have important implications for tests of selection such as the McDonald-Kreitman test. Surprisingly we have also detected a significant difference in the supposed neutral substitution rate between synonymous and noncoding sites in the Bovine genome, with a 30% higher rate of substitution at synonymous sites. This is due, at least in part, to an excess of the highly mutable CpG dinucleotides at synonymous sites, which will have implications for time of divergence estimates from molecular data

A method to optimize a typology-based classification system

This study sought to provide guidelines for implementing typology-based qualitative analysis of human movement patterns. Fifteen participant-analysts were instructed how to classify treading water behaviours into eight different categories using a training set of videos. They were later provided with two additional sets of videos called validation, and test sets. Results first identified reliable (n=9), and not reliable (n=6) analysts. A decision study outlined that one analyst was sufficient to reliably categorize the behaviours in the ‘reliable’ analyst group, whereas up to four were necessary in the ‘unreliable’ group. These data provided new insights into more objective qualitative analysis methods for understanding human movement behaviours

App-Based Longitudinal Infectious Disease Curriculum for Pediatrics Residency

BACKGROUND: Infectious disease comprises 7% of the American Board of Pediatrics general pediatrics board exam and covers hundreds of different organisms that cause disease. Covering each of these topics all together in one presentation at our weekly academic afternoon quickly becomes overwhelming. Additionally, we understand residents have dozens of other responsibilities. Our aim was to develop a longitudinal weekly curriculum that could be replicated at other programs that would deliver the required material to all residents, allow residents to cover material quickly at their own pace, and improve Infectious Disease sub-scores on the in training exam. METHODS: Starting in summer 2019, the Pediatrics and Medicine-Pediatrics chiefs at University of Oklahoma-Tulsa School of Community Medicine have developed a longitudinal infectious disease curriculum that uses technology to aid in education. Every week, a short board-style quiz is released to the residents via Google Classroom, which gets pushed directly to the phones of our residents. Each week a different organism or group of organisms is covered, focusing on the most common organisms on the test. Google classroom allows us to attach study guides, the appropriate Red Book chapters, and YouTube videos that explain each topic, allowing for residents to review topics and answer questions at their own pace. RESULTS: We have recommended, but have not required our 24 residents to complete each assignment. Since beginning the project, 58% of our residents have completed at least 75% of the assignments with an average score of 70%. Initial participation was robust, but as the busy winter season approached, participation rates decreased. Reminder notifications, and an incentive was introduced in the winter which temporarily improved participation from 54% to 75-83%. Our academic benchmark is to measure average infectious disease In-Training Exam sub-scores per class in comparison to our baseline test in June 2018 and 2019. CONCLUSION: Educating residents on infectious disease as a year-long longitudinal curriculum has the potential to be an effective way to present material relevant to the ABP General Pediatrics exam. Providing this content as an mobile-app based curriculum allows for self-pacing and interactive content. Our first cycles have shown residents will voluntarily participate in this curriculum and the seasonal limitations of voluntary participation, with possible steps programs could take to improve participation. The extent to which this curriculum improves ITE sub-scores will be determined at the next exam this summer. We hope this information can be used by other programs wishing to implement similar curricula.N

Development and validation of a robust automated analysis of plasma phospholipid fatty acids for metabolic phenotyping of large epidemiological studies.

A fully automated, high-throughput method was developed to profile the fatty acids of phospholipids from human plasma samples for application to a large epidemiological sample set (n > 25,000). We report here on the data obtained for the quality-control materials used with the first 860 batches, and the validation process used. The method consists of two robotic systems combined with gas chromatography, performing lipid extraction, phospholipid isolation, hydrolysis and derivatization to fatty-acid methyl esters, and on-line analysis. This is the first report showing that fatty-acid profiling is an achievable strategy for metabolic phenotyping in very large epidemiological and genetic studies.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Sentencing as craftwork and the binary epistemologies of the discretionary decision process

This article contends that it is time to take a critical look at a series of binary categories which have dominated the scholarly and reform epistemologies of the sentencing decision process. These binaries are: rules versus discretion; reason versus emotion; offence versus offender; normative principles versus incoherence; aggravating versus mitigating factors; and aggregate/tariff consistency versus individualized sentencing. These binaries underpin both the 'legal-rational' tradition (by which I mean a view of discretion as inherently suspect, a preference for the use of philosophy of punishment justifications and an explanation of the decision process through factors or variables), and also the more recent rise of the 'new penology'. Both approaches tend to rely on 'top-down' assumptions of change, which pay limited attention to the agency of penal workers. The article seeks to develop a conception of sentencing craftwork as a social and interpretive process.1 In so doing, it applies and develops a number of Kritzer's observations (in this issue) about craftwork to sentencing. These craftwork observations are: problem solving (applied to the rules - discretion and reason - emotion dichotomies); skills and techniques (normative penal principles and the use of cognitive analytical assumptions); consistency (tariff versus individualized sentencing); clientele (applied to account giving and the reality of decision making versus expression). By conceiving of sentencing as craftwork, the binary epistemologies of the sentencing decision process, which have dominated (and limited) the scholarly and policy sentencing imaginations, are revealed as dynamic, contingent, and synergistic. However, this is not to say that such binaries are no more than empty rhetoric concealing the reality of the decision process. Rather, these binaries serve as crucial legitimating reference points in the vocabulary of sentencing account giving

Estimating the bispectrum of the Very Small Array data

We estimate the bispectrum of the Very Small Array data from the compact and extended configuration observations released in December 2002, and compare our results to those obtained from Gaussian simulations. There is a slight excess of large bispectrum values for two individual fields, but this does not appear when the fields are combined. Given our expected level of residual point sources, we do not expect these to be the source of the discrepancy. Using the compact configuration data, we put an upper limit of 5400 on the value of f_NL, the non-linear coupling parameter, at 95 per cent confidence. We test our bispectrum estimator using non-Gaussian simulations with a known bispectrum, and recover the input values.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures, replaced with version accepted by MNRAS. Primordial bispectrum recalculated and figure 11 change

A ten-year follow-up of a study of memory for the attack of September 11, 2001: Flashbulb memories and memories for flashbulb events.

Within a week of the attack of September 11, 2001, a consortium of researchers from across the United States distributed a survey asking about the circumstances in which respondents learned of the attack (their flashbulb memories) and the facts about the attack itself (their event memories). Follow-up surveys were distributed 11, 25, and 119 months after the attack. The study, therefore, examines retention of flashbulb memories and event memories at a substantially longer retention interval than any previous study using a test-retest methodology, allowing for the study of such memories over the long term. There was rapid forgetting of both flashbulb and event memories within the first year, but the forgetting curves leveled off after that, not significantly changing even after a 10-year delay. Despite the initial rapid forgetting, confidence remained high throughout the 10-year period. Five putative factors affecting flashbulb memory consistency and event memory accuracy were examined: (a) attention to media, (b) the amount of discussion, (c) residency, (d) personal loss and/or inconvenience, and (e) emotional intensity. After 10 years, none of these factors predicted flashbulb memory consistency; media attention and ensuing conversation predicted event memory accuracy. Inconsistent flashbulb memories were more likely to be repeated rather than corrected over the 10-year period; inaccurate event memories, however, were more likely to be corrected. The findings suggest that even traumatic memories and those implicated in a community's collective identity may be inconsistent over time and these inconsistencies can persist without the corrective force of external influences.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Psychological Association via http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge000005

Long-Term Memory for the Terrorist Attack of September 11: Flashbulb Memories, Event Memories, and the Factors That Influence Their Retention

More than 3,000 individuals from 7 U.S. cities reported on their memories of learning of the terrorist attacks of September 11, as well as details about the attack, 1 week, 11 months, and/or 35 months after the assault. Some studies of flashbulb memories examining long-term retention show slowing in the rate of forgetting after a year, whereas others demonstrate accelerated forgetting. This article indicates that (a) the rate of forgetting for flashbulb memories and event memory (memory for details about the event itself) slows after a year, (b) the strong emotional reactions elicited by flashbulb events are remembered poorly, worse than nonemotional features such as where and from whom one learned of the attack, and (c) the content of flashbulb and event memories stabilizes after a year. The results are discussed in terms of community memory practices.James S. McDonnell FoundationNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (grant R01- MH0066972