The Impact of Outcome Intentions on Reading and Multitasking Performances

This study investigated undergraduate students’ reading comprehension between two outcome intentions and three media multitasking conditions. The two outcome intentions were for accuracy and completion. The three multitasking conditions included silence, video background, and video test conditions. One hundred thirty university students participated in the study. Every participant completed two sets of reading, with two different intentions and in two different conditions. Results showed that the participants performed better in reading (a) when they strived for completion than for accuracy, (b) that the addition of an unobtrusive video (video background) did not inhibit the processing of the primary reading task, and (c) that those who strived for task accuracy might have actually benefited from the addition of the background video. Implications of the results on multimedia design and student assessment are discussed

Discrete Second Order Adjoints in Atmospheric Chemical Transport Modeling

Atmospheric chemical transport models (CTMs) are essential tools for the study of air pollution, for environmental policy decisions, for the interpretation of observational data, and for producing air quality forecasts. Many air quality studies require sensitivity analyses, i.e., the computation of derivatives of the model output with respect to model parameters. The derivatives of a cost functional (defined on the model output) with respect to a large number of model parameters can be calculated efficiently through adjoint sensitivity analysis. While the traditional (first order) adjoint models give the gradient of the cost functional with respect to parameters, second order adjoint models give second derivative information in the form of products between the Hessian of the cost functional and a user defined vector. In this paper we discuss the mathematical foundations of the discrete second order adjoint sensitivity method and present a complete set of computational tools for performing second order sensitivity studies in three-dimensional atmospheric CTMs. The tools include discrete second order adjoints of Runge Kutta and of Rosenbrock time stepping methods for stiff equations together with efficient implementation strategies. Numerical examples illustrate the use of these computational tools in important applications like sensitivity analysis, optimization, uncertainty quantification, and the calculation of directions of maximal error growth in three-dimensional atmospheric CTMs

Nordic Mediation Research

This open access book presents twelve unique studies on mediation from researchers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, respectively. Each study highlights important aspects of mediation, including the role of children in family mediation, the evolution and ambivalent application of restorative justice in the Nordic countries, the confusion of roles in court-connected mediation, and the challenges in dispute systems. Over the past 20-30 years, mediation has gained in popularity in many countries around the world and is often heralded as a suitable and cost-effective mode of conflict resolution. However, as the studies in this volumes show, mediation also has a number of potential drawbacks. Parties’ self-determination may be jeopardized, affected third parties are involved in an inadequate way, and the legal regulations may be flawed. The publication can inspire research, help professionals and policymakers in the field and be used as a textbook

Penalties and Rewards for Fair Learning in Paired Kidney Exchange Programs

A kidney exchange program, also called a kidney paired donation program, can be viewed as a repeated, dynamic trading and allocation mechanism. This suggests that a dynamic algorithm for transplant exchange selection may have superior performance in comparison to the repeated use of a static algorithm. We confirm this hypothesis using a full scale simulation of the Canadian Kidney Paired Donation Program: learning algorithms, that attempt to learn optimal patient-donor weights in advance via dynamic simulations, do lead to improved outcomes. Specifically, our learning algorithms, designed with the objective of fairness (that is, equity in terms of transplant accessibility across cPRA groups), also lead to an increased number of transplants and shorter average waiting times. Indeed, our highest performing learning algorithm improves egalitarian fairness by 10% whilst also increasing the number of transplants by 6% and decreasing waiting times by 24%. However, our main result is much more surprising. We find that the most critical factor in determining the performance of a kidney exchange program is not the judicious assignment of positive weights (rewards) to patient-donor pairs. Rather, the key factor in increasing the number of transplants, decreasing waiting times and improving group fairness is the judicious assignment of a negative weight (penalty) to the small number of non-directed donors in the kidney exchange program.Comment: Shorter version accepted in WINE 202

Development of Human Muscle Protein Measurement with MRI

It is known that micro-gravity has a strong influence on the human musculoskeletal system. A number of studies have shown that significant changes in skeletal muscles occur in both space flight and bedrest simulation. In our 5 week bedrest study, the cross-sectional area of soleus-gastrocnemius decreased about 12% while the cross-sectional area of anterior calf muscles decreased about 4%. Using volume measurements, these losses increased after 17 weeks to approximately 30% and 21% respectively. Significant muscle atrophy was also found on the SL-J crew members after only 8 days in space. It is important that these effects are fully understood so that countermeasures can be developed. The same knowledge might also be useful in preventing muscle atrophy related to other medical problems. A major problem with anatomical measurements of muscle during bed rest and microgravity is the influence of fluid shifts and water balance on the measurement of muscle volume, especially when the exposure duration is short and the atrophy is relatively small. Fluid shifts were documented in Skylab by visual observations of blood vessel distention, rapid changes in limb volume, center of mass measurements and subjective descriptions such as puffy faces and head fullness. It has been reported that the muscle water content of biopsied soleus muscles decreased following 8 hours of head down tilt bed rest. Three aspects of fluid shifts that can affect volume measurements are: first, the shift of fluid that occurs whenever there is a change from upright to a recumbent position and vice versa; second, the potential for fluid accumulation in the lower limbs resulting from muscle damage caused by overextending atrophied muscle or swelling caused by deconditioned precapillary sphincter muscles during reambulation; third, the net change of hydration level during and after bed rest or spaceflight. Because of these transitory fluid shifts, muscle protein is expected to represent muscle capacity better than does muscle volume. The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of using MRI to quantify of muscle protein and water content changes in muscle

Autoantibodies neutralizing type I IFNs underlie West Nile virus encephalitis in ∼40% of patients

Mosquito-borne West Nile virus (WNV) infection is benign in most individuals but can cause encephalitis in \u3c1% of infected individuals. We show that ∼35% of patients hospitalized for WNV disease (WNVD) in six independent cohorts from the EU and USA carry auto-Abs neutralizing IFN-α and/or -ω. The prevalence of these antibodies is highest in patients with encephalitis (∼40%), and that in individuals with silent WNV infection is as low as that in the general population. The odds ratios for WNVD in individuals with these auto-Abs relative to those without them in the general population range from 19.0 (95% CI 15.0-24.0, P value \u3c10-15) for auto-Abs neutralizing only 100 pg/ml IFN-α and/or IFN-ω to 127.4 (CI 87.1-186.4, P value \u3c10-15) for auto-Abs neutralizing both IFN-α and IFN-ω at a concentration of 10 ng/ml. These antibodies block the protective effect of IFN-α in Vero cells infected with WNV in vitro. Auto-Abs neutralizing IFN-α and/or IFN-ω underlie ∼40% of cases of WNV encephalitis

Nonclassic lipoid congenital adrenal hyperplasia masquerading as familial glucocorticoid deficiency

Context: Familial glucocorticoid deficiency (FGD) is an autosomal recessive disorder resulting from resistance to the action of ACTH on the adrenal cortex. Affected individuals are deficient in cortisol and, if untreated, are likely to succumb to hypoglycemia and/or overwhelming infection. Mutations of the ACTH receptor (MC2R) and the melanocortin 2 receptor accessory protein (MRAP), FGD types 1 and 2 respectively, account for approximately 45% of cases. Objective: A locus on chromosome 8 has previously been linked to the disease in three families, but no underlying gene defect has to date been identified. Design: The study design comprised single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping and mutation detection. Setting: The study was conducted at secondary and tertiary referral centers. Patients: Eighty probands from families referred for investigation of the genetic cause of FGD participated in the study. Interventions: There were no interventions. Results: Analysis by single-nucleotide polymorphism array of the genotype of one individual with FGD previously linked to chromosome 8 revealed a large region of homozygosity encompassing the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein gene, STAR. We identified homozygous STAR mutations in this patient and his affected siblings. Screening of our total FGD patient cohort revealed homozygous STAR mutations in a further nine individuals from four other families. Conclusions: Mutations in STAR usually cause lipoid congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a disorder characterized by both gonadal and adrenal steroid deficiency. Our results demonstrate that certain mutations in STAR (R192C and the previously reported R188C) can present with a phenotype indistinguishable from that seen in FGD