“What I tweet is not what I think”: towards a comprehensive multi-version two-way agenda-setting framework

While the traditional agenda-setting theory assumes that a unified issue salience pattern (“the agenda”) will transfer from news media to the public, the emergence of the Internet has challenged this classic communication theory in three ways: by providing two versions of the public agenda (i.e., self-reported issue importance measured by a survey versus social media expressions), by affording two versions of the media agenda (i.e., presented on news websites versus on organizations’ Twitter accounts), and by enabling potential two-way agenda-setting effects. This dissertation aims to construct a multi-version two-way agenda-setting framework via (1) elaborating on the theoretical and practical reasons behind the proposed framework and (2) empirically testing the framework by combining survey and digital texts data around the 2020 US presidential election. The results show an imbalanced two-way agenda-setting relationship, with the traditional media-to-public direction still stronger than the reverse. While the two versions of the media agenda were similar to each other, what people thought was found to be different from what they tweeted. This dissertation also explored the moderating effects of issue-, media-, and individual-level characteristics on the direction and strength of the agenda-setting effects. The issue-wise comparison showed stronger effects in both directions among obtrusive issues, compared to non-obtrusive issues. Interestingly, traditional, non-digital-native media presented a slightly stronger two-way agenda-setting relationship between their news tweets and citizens' tweets compared to digital-native media. This difference, however, was not found in news websites. Individuals with specific characteristics, such as being females, being older, being white, as well as having lower income, lower opinion leadership, and lower social capital, were more likely to influence and be influenced by the media agendas compared to their counterparts. Also, while the well-educated population followed the agenda of news websites more closely, the group with a lower education level followed news tweets on more issues. Finally, the last chapter discusses theoretical, methodological, and practical implications.传统的议程设置理论假设统一的议题显著性（“议程”）将从新闻媒体转移到公众心中，但互联网的出现从三个方面挑战了这一经典传播理论：通过提供两个版本的公共议程（即问卷调查中受访者自我汇报的议题重要性与社交媒体表达中体现的议题显著性），通过提供两种版本的媒体议程（即新闻网站上与在机构推特账户上展示的议题显著性），及通过使双向议程设置作用成为可能。本论文旨在通过（1）阐述所提出框架背后的理论和实践原因，（2）结合 2020 年美国大选前后的数字文本数据对该框架进行实证测试，来构建一个多版本的双向议程设置框架。本论文的结果显示了一种不平衡的双向议程设置关系：传统媒体对公众的议程设置作用（即传统议程设置方向）仍然强于反向议程设置。虽然媒体议程的两个版本彼此相似，但人们所想与他们在推特上发布的内容并不相同。 本论文还探讨了议题、媒体和个人层面特征对议程设置效果的方向和强度的调节作用。议题特征层面的比较表明，与非侵入性问题相比，侵入性问题在两个方向上都有更强的议程设置作用。有趣的是，与数字原生媒体相比，传统的非数字原生媒体在其新闻推文和公民推文之间呈现出略强的双向议程设置关系。然而，在新闻网站中没有发现这种媒体间差异。具有特定特征的个人，例如女性、年长、白人、收入较低、意见领导力较低和社会资本较低的受访者，更可能影响媒体议程并受其影响。此外，虽然受过良好教育的人群更密切地关注新闻网站的议程，但教育水平较低的人群更关注新闻推文中的议题。最后一章讨论了本论文在理论、方法和实践上的意义和贡献

Distribution of fast radio burst dispersion measures in CHIME/FRB Catalog 1: implications on the origin of FRBs

Recently, CHIME/FRB project published its first fast radio burst (FRB) catalog (hereafter, Catalog 1), which totally contains 536 unique bursts. With the help of the latest set of FRBs in this large-size catalog, we aim to investigate the dispersion measure (DM) or redshift ($z$) distribution of the FRB population, and solution of this problem could be used to clarify the question of FRB origin. In this study, we adopted the M\&E 2018 model, to fit the observed $z$ distribution of FRBs in Catalog 1. In the M\&E 2018 model, we are mostly interested in the $\Phi(z)$ function, i.e., number of bursts per proper time per comoving volume, which is represented by the star formation rate (SFR) with a power-law index $n$. Our estimated value of $n$ is $0.0_{-0.0}^{+0.6}$ ($0.0_{-0.0}^{+2.1}$) at the 68 (95) per cent confidence level, implying that the FRB population evolves with redshift consistent with, or faster than, the SFR. Specially, the consistency of the $n$ values estimated by this study and the SFR provides a potential support for the hypothesis of FRBs originating from young magnetars.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy Report

Case Report: A novel FGFR1 fusion in acute B-lymphoblastic leukemia identified by RNA sequencing

8p11 myeloproliferative syndrome is a rare hematological malignancy with aggressive course caused by the various translocation of FGFR1. In this study, a novel FGFR1 fusion was identified by RNA sequencing in a 28-year-old male patient with acute B-lymphoblastic leukemia. The patient harbors an in-frame fusion between KIF5B exon 15 and FGFR1 exon 10. The FGFR1 fusion and its protein expression was validated by Sanger sequencing and Western blot. Meanwhile, cytogenetic analysis reported a normal karyotype and targeted DNA sequencing identified no driver mutations, respectively. Despite he achieved complete remission after induction regimen, a relapse occurred and he became refractory to chemotherapy, and salvage haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation failed to control the progressive disease. In conclusion, we present the first case of KIF5B-FGFR1 fusion in hematological malignancy. These findings extend the spectrum of translocation in 8p11 myeloproliferative syndrome, and demonstrate the great prospect of RNA sequencing in clinical practice again

A Load Switching Group based Feeder-level Microgrid Energy Management Algorithm for Service Restoration in Power Distribution System

This paper presents a load switching group based energy management system (LSG-EMS) for operating microgrids on a distribution feeder powered by one or multiple grid-forming distributed energy resources. Loads on a distribution feeder are divided into load switching groups that can be remotely switched on and off. The LSG-EMS algorithm, formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem, has an objective function of maximizing the served loads while minimizing the total number of switching actions. A new set of topology constraints are developed for allowing multiple microgrids to be formed on the feeder and selecting the optimal supply path. Customer comfort is accounted for by maximizing the supply duration in the customer preferred service period and enforcing a minimum service duration. The proposed method is demonstrated on a modified IEEE 33-bus system using actual customer data. Simulation results show that the LSG-EMS successfully coordinates multiple grid-forming sources by selecting an optimal supply topology that maximizes the supply period of both the critical and noncritical loads while minimizing customer service interruptions in the service restoration process.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures, submitted to 2021 IEEE PES General Meetin

Effects of rest interval and training intensity on jumping performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis investigating post-activation performance enhancement

Background: There is no clear agreement regarding the ideal rest interval and training intensity to optimize post-activation performance enhancement (PAPE) after barbell squat (BS). Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of rest interval and training intensity on jumping performance due to PAPE.Methods: Searches were performed in PubMed, Web of Science, and EBSCO databases. We included studies that satisfied the following criteria: (1) eligible studies should be randomized controlled trials; (2) eligible studies should investigate the acute effect of barbell squat-induced PAPE on jump performance; (3) eligible studies should use countermovement jump, squat jump, or vertical jump as the outcome measure.Results: From 2518 search records initially identified, 19 studies were eligible for meta-analysis. Our meta-analysis results showed that BS had no significant effect on improving jumping performance due to PAPE (Cohen’s d = 0.09, p = 0.08). Subgroup analysis showed that rest interval between 0–1 min was detrimental to jumping performance (Cohen’s d = −0.33, p < 0.01), while rest intervals between 4–7 min (Cohen’s d = 0.31, p < 0.01) and 8-9 min (Cohen’s d = 0.26, p = 0.02) provided favorable jumping performance outcomes. In addition, low-intensity and moderate-intensity BS had no significant effect on jump performance, while high-intensity BS showed results consistent with rest interval.Conclusion: Our study indicated that both low-intensity and moderate-intensity BS failed to induce PAPE, and it is recommended that future studies use high-intensity BS to induce PAPE. A rest interval of 4–9 min had a beneficial impact on jump height, and an interval range of 4–7 min seems to be the best rest interval between conditioning activity and jumping performance

CE-BLAST makes it possible to compute antigenic similarity for newly emerging pathogens

Major challenges in vaccine development include rapidly selecting or designing immunogens for raising cross-protective immunity against different intra-or inter-subtypic pathogens, especially for the newly emerging varieties. Here we propose a computational method, Conformational Epitope (CE)-BLAST, for calculating the antigenic similarity among different pathogens with stable and high performance, which is independent of the prior binding-assay information, unlike the currently available models that heavily rely on the historical experimental data. Tool validation incorporates influenza-related experimental data sufficient for stability and reliability determination. Application to dengue-related data demonstrates high harmonization between the computed clusters and the experimental serological data, undetectable by classical grouping. CE-BLAST identifies the potential cross-reactive epitope between the recent zika pathogen and the dengue virus, precisely corroborated by experimental data. The high performance of the pathogens without the experimental binding data suggests the potential utility of CE-BLAST to rapidly design cross-protective vaccines or promptly determine the efficacy of the currently marketed vaccine against emerging pathogens, which are the critical factors for containing emerging disease outbreaks.Peer reviewe

A Novel Feeder-level Microgrid Unit Commitment Algorithm Considering Cold-load Pickup, Phase Balancing, and Reconfiguration

This paper presents a novel 2-stage microgrid unit commitment (Microgrid-UC) algorithm considering cold-load pickup (CLPU) effects, three-phase load balancing requirements, and feasible reconfiguration options. Microgrid-UC schedules the operation of switches, generators, battery energy storage systems, and demand response resources to supply 3-phase unbalanced loads in an islanded microgrid for multiple days. A performance-based CLPU model is developed to estimate additional energy needs of CLPU so that CLPU can be formulated into the traditional 2-stage UC scheduling process. A per-phase demand response budget term is added to the 1st stage UC objective function to meet 3-phase load unbalance limits. To reduce computational complexity in the 1st stage UC, we replace the spanning tree method with a feasible reconfiguration topology list method. The proposed algorithm is developed on a modified IEEE 123-bus system and tested on the real-time simulation testbed using actual load and PV data. Simulation results show that Microgrid-UC successfully accounts for CLPU, phase imbalance, and feeder reconfiguration requirements.Comment: 10 pages, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Smart Gri