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Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder caused by a premutation of the FMR1 gene on the X chromosome. Despite the pervasive physical and cognitive effects of FXTAS, no studies have examined language in symptomatic males and females, limiting utility as an outcome measure in clinical trials of FXTAS. The goal of this work is to determine (a) the extent to which male and female FMR1 premutation carriers with FXTAS symptoms differ in their language use and (b) whether language production predicts FXTAS symptoms. Thirty-one individuals with the FMR1 premutation (21M, 10F), ages 58-85 years with some symptoms of FXTAS, were recruited from a larger cross-sectional study. Participants completed a five-minute monologic language sample. Language transcripts were assessed for rate of dysfluencies, lexical-semantics, syntax, and speech rate. Multivariable linear and ordinal regressions were used to predict FXTAS-associated symptoms, cognitive functioning, and executive functioning. Males and females did not differ in their language use. Language production predicted FXTAS symptom severity, cognitive functioning, and executive functioning. Language production difficulties may co-occur with FXTAS-associated symptoms and may be a viable outcome measure in future clinical trials, with future research needed.

When you preach, you know from experience that what happens in the preaching event is uncontrollable and, therefore, full of mystery. The liturgy and the sermon are part of it and are related to something that happens, but we know this ‘something’ is uncontrollable. Investigation and reflection on resonance in preaching are on the trail of the mystery of the sermon as an event. We know that something mysterious happens when we preach that cannot be controlled by the preachers or listeners. In this article, I discuss the concept of uncontrollability in Hartmut Rosa’s scholarly contributions and mystery in the work of John de Gruchy. I then discuss four Christmas sermons of the Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, in search of the mystery of uncontrollability. In trying to understand preaching that resonates, I ask: How does the preaching event reflect the aspects of uncontrollability and transcendence in Archbishop Makgoba’s sermons? Archbishop Makgoba is known for his thought-provoking sermons that often delve into complex issues. The mystery in his sermons lies in his ability to explore profound spiritual concepts and connect them to everyday life. He uses metaphorical language to convey deeper meanings, leaving room for interpretation and contemplation. The mystery in his sermons also stems from his engagement with the unknown aspects of faith and the divine, encouraging his audience to grapple with the mysteries of existence.

Co-founded in 2017 by authors Claudia Rankine and Beth Loffreda, The Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII) is an interdisciplinary collective of artists, writers, knowledge-producers, and activists. The institute’s historic 2018 symposium ‘On Whiteness’ convened a dazzling array of thinkers, artists, and activists. The essays that resulted from the event, collected here, seek to examine whiteness as a source of often unquestioned or even unobserved power, and make visible variations of this dangerous ideology that has been intentionally positioned as neutral., https://www.librarystack.org/on-whiteness/?ref=unknown

Co-founded in 2017 by authors Claudia Rankine and Beth Loffreda, The Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII) is an interdisciplinary collective of artists, writers, knowledge-producers, and activists. The institute’s historic 2018 symposium ‘On Whiteness’ convened a dazzling array of thinkers, artists, and activists. The essays that resulted from the event, collected here, seek to examine whiteness as a source of often unquestioned or even unobserved power, and make visible variations of this dangerous ideology that has been intentionally positioned as neutral., https://www.librarystack.org/on-whiteness/?ref=unknown

Co-founded in 2017 by authors Claudia Rankine and Beth Loffreda, The Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII) is an interdisciplinary collective of artists, writers, knowledge-producers, and activists. The institute’s historic 2018 symposium ‘On Whiteness’ convened a dazzling array of thinkers, artists, and activists. The essays that resulted from the event, collected here, seek to examine whiteness as a source of often unquestioned or even unobserved power, and make visible variations of this dangerous ideology that has been intentionally positioned as neutral., https://www.librarystack.org/on-whiteness/?ref=unknown

In einem gemeinsamen Debattenbeitrag vom September 2022 in der größten Tageszeitung Dänemarks, der konservativen Jyllands Posten, haben die Vorsitzenden des Nationalrats für ländliche Entwicklung sowie der Klima-, Umwelt- und Planungssauschüsse des Landesverbandes der dänischen Gemeinden dazu aufgefordert, »die Energiewende einen Wendepunkt für die Entwicklung ländlicher Gebiete werden zu lassen« (Jyllands Posten 2022). Sie beschreiben darin den Ausbau von Infrastrukturen zur Nutzung erneuerbarer Energien, der auf den ersten Blick als unvereinbar mit dem »guten Leben auf dem Land« (ebd.) erscheint, als einzigartige Chance für den Kampf gegen den Klimawandel und für die Zukunft des ländlichen Raumes. Dabei fordern sie die dänische Regierung dazu auf, ernsthafte Lösungen auf den Weg zu bringen, die der ländlichen Entwicklung dienen, die den Mehrwehrt erneuerbarer Energien den betroffenen Gemeinden anstatt den Infrastrukturbetreibern zukommen lassen, sowie nicht zuletzt auch die ländlichen Bürger*innen einbinden, um undemokratische Entscheidungsprozesse zu vermeiden und den sozialen Zusammenhang zu stärken. Der Aufruf mahnt an, »Lösungen zu priorisieren«, die lokale Gemeinden und Gemeinschaften »entwickeln«, »anstatt [diese] abzuwickeln« (ebd.). Dieser Beitrag deutet auf zwei wesentliche Aspekte hin: Erstens, und anderen europäischen Ländern ähnlich, sind ländliche Räume in Dänemark auch von gravierenden Folgen des Strukturwandels betroffen, wobei der bisherige Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien scheinbar als nicht oder nur unzureichend mit ländlicher Entwicklung in Verbindung gebracht wurde. Zweitens ist die Wahlmöglichkeit zwischen zwei Visionen zum Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien angedeutet. Eine Vision, in der die Infrastrukturen zum Fortbestehen und zur Entwicklung der Lebensqualität im ländlichen Raum beitragen, und eine Vision, in der der massive Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien dem guten Leben auf dem Land entgegensteht, diesen gefährdet oder gar verdrängt. Das Beis

California has increasingly emphasized efforts to develop voluntary agreements (VAs) with water users as a means of achieving regulatory goals in certain watersheds. In theory, a VA can combine the protectiveness of a regulatory backstop with the creativity and flexibility of a negotiated deal to produce outcomes as good as, or better than, those achievable through strict application of regulatory requirements alone. However, reality has not always measured up to this ideal. This policy paper uses the Bay-Delta watershed as a case study to inform five principles to guide the appropriate use and evaluation of VAs.

Welcome to this draft first volume overview of our Safer Agentic AI Foundations guidelines, a work in progress. Our Working Group of 25 experts ( see https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12966081/) is releasing these guidelines under a Creative Commons license, allowing free use and application by all and for the benefit of humanity. Our Working Group has employed a Weighted Factors Methodology to map the factors which can drive or inhibit safety in agentic systems, based on fundamental principles. We have used this same process many times previously to generate a range of global standards, certifications, and guidelines for improving ethical qualities in AI systems. We hope that this overview of the driving and inhibitory factors in agentic AI systems—those capable of independent decision-making and action—will provide a strengthened awareness of the complexities involved. These issues should be accounted for when dealing with these advanced forms of machine intelligence. We very much welcome your comments, feedback, and informal peer review. Your input will be carefully considered as we develop the final guidelines. Should you also desire further information on agentic AI and its safety, we will be pleased to accommodate your request. We expect to release the full guidelines by November 2024. You can reach us at the addresses below and keep informed of our developments via our mailing list. Thank you for your interest and engagement.

The Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) is a community-driven standard for the organization of data and metadata from a growing range of neuroscience modalities. This paper is meant as a history of how the standard has developed and grown over time. We outline the principles behind the project, the mechanisms by which it has been extended, and some of the challenges being addressed as it evolves. We also discuss the lessons learned through the project, with the aim of enabling researchers in other domains to learn from the success of BIDS.

We study the impact of bond exchange listing in U.S. publicly traded corporate bond markets. We find that listed corporate bonds have lower estimated bid-ask spreads than unlisted corporate bonds. Specifically, we show that listed bonds have estimated spreads of $0.14 lower than unlisted bond spreads. We find that execution venue matters for listed bonds, and that listed bond executions on the NYSE have higher trading costs than listed bond executions off-NYSE. We show that listed bonds are more volatile than unlisted bonds. Last, we study bond trading around earnings announcements and find a slight increase (decrease) in overall (institutional) volume on earnings announcement days compared to non-announcement days.

We study the impact of bond exchange listing in U.S. publicly traded corporate bond markets. We find that listed corporate bonds have lower estimated bid-ask spreads than unlisted corporate bonds. Specifically, we show that listed bonds have estimated spreads of $0.14 lower than unlisted bond spreads. We find that execution venue matters for listed bonds, and that listed bond executions on the NYSE have higher trading costs than listed bond executions off-NYSE. We show that listed bonds are more volatile than unlisted bonds. Last, we study bond trading around earnings announcements and find a slight increase (decrease) in overall (institutional) volume on earnings announcement days compared to non-announcement days.

The availability of large, public, multi-modal astronomical datasets presents an opportunity to execute novel research that straddles the line between science of AI and science of astronomy. Photometric redshift estimation is a well-established subfield of astronomy. Prior works show that computer vision models typically outperform catalog-based models, but these models face additional complexities when incorporating images from more than one instrument or sensor. In this report, we detail our progress creating Mantis Shrimp, a multi-survey computer vision model for photometric redshift estimation that fuses ultra-violet (GALEX), optical (PanSTARRS), and infrared (UnWISE) imagery. We use deep learning interpretability diagnostics to measure how the model leverages information from the different inputs. We reason about the behavior of the CNNs from the interpretability metrics, specifically framing the result in terms of physically-grounded knowledge of galaxy properties., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 1 table. Submitted to AI4Differential Equations in Science Workshop at ICLR24. Public repository unavailable while under institutional review

The Far- and Lyman-Ultraviolet Imaging Demonstrator (FLUID) is a rocket-borne arcsecond-level ultraviolet (UV) imaging instrument covering four bands between 92 -- 193 nm. FLUID will observe nearby galaxies to find and characterize the most massive stars that are the primary drivers of the chemical and dynamical evolution of galaxies, and the co-evolution of the surrounding galactic environment. The FLUID short wave channel is designed to suppress efficiency at Lyman-$\alpha$ (121.6 nm), while enhancing the reflectivity of shorter wavelengths. Utilizing this technology, FLUID will take the first ever images of local galaxies isolated in the Lyman ultraviolet (90 -- 120 nm). As a pathfinder instrument, FLUID will employ and increase the TRL of band-selecting UV coatings, and solar-blind UV detector technologies including microchannel plate and solid state detectors; technologies prioritized in the 2022 NASA Astrophysical Biennial Technology Report. These technologies enable high throughput and high sensitivity observations in the four co-aligned UV imaging bands that make up the FLUID instrument. We present the design of FLUID, status on the technology development, and results from initial assembly and calibration of the FLUID instrument., Comment: Accepted to JATIS, March 18, 2024

Droughts are becoming more frequent and intense in California. Many California watersheds experience seasonal water scarcity nearly every year. To protect water rights, human health and safety, and the environment from serious harm, California’s State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) needs to be able to routinely curtail unlawful water uses. But it has struggled to carry out this basic function, running into resource constraints and technical, legal, and political barriers. This report describes the legal context for and history of curtailments in California. It also recommends actions the SWRCB and State Legislature can take to build a framework for fair and effective curtailment in California.

Global declines in bird and arthropod abundance highlights the importance of understanding the role of food limitation and arthropod community composition for the performance of insectivorous birds. In this study, we link data on nestling diet, arthropod availability and nesting performance for the Coastal Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus sandiegensis), an at-risk insectivorous bird native to coastal southern California and Baja Mexico. We used DNA metabarcoding to characterize nestling diets and monitored 8 bird territories over two years to assess the relationship between arthropod and vegetation community composition and bird reproductive success. We document a discordance between consumed prey and arthropod biomass within nesting territories, in which Diptera and Lepidoptera were the most frequently consumed prey taxa but were relatively rare in the environment. In contrast other Orders (e.g., Hemiptera, Hymenoptera)were abundant in the environment but were absent from nestling diets. Accordingly, variation in bird reproductive success among territories was positively related to the relative abundance of Lepidoptera (but not Diptera), which were most abundant on 2 shrub species (Eriogonum fasciculatum, Sambucus nigra) of the 9 habitat elements characterized (8 dominant plant species and bare ground). Bird reproductive success was in turn negatively related to two invasive arthropods whose abundance was not associated with preferred bird prey, but instead possibly acted through harassment (Linepithema humile; Argentine ants) and parasite transmission or low nutritional quality (Armadillidium vulgare; "pill-bug"). These results demonstrate how multiple aspects of arthropod community structure can influence bird performance through complementary mechanisms, and the importance of managing for arthropods in bird conservation efforts.

Scholars believe that we are amid one of the greatest cultural revolutions since the mass production of books in Gutenberg around 1450. The art of book printing, which originated in Central Europe, turned the world on its head within 10 years. The mass production of books resulted in most people in Europe learning to read in less than one generation, which has led to major changes in all areas of social life and has affected the lives of millions of people for over a hundred years. According to these same scholars, we currently find ourselves in a similar position through what is known as the AI (artificial intelligence). In this article, the researcher wants to come to a better understanding of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and AI as part of it and the way they challenge preachers. The central research question is: In our pursuit to speak the truth of Jesus Christ to the powerful economic elite, what are the challenges and opportunities that the 4IR is posing to preachers?

Understanding environmental attitudes (EAs) has been viewed as prerequisite to changing environmental behaviour and is a particularly salient topic in the context of higher educational institutions which play an important role in shaping students’ worldviews. As such, the study aimed to explore EAs of undergraduate students at three different campuses of a South African University (n = 1283) and to examine how these EAs differ in terms of students’ demographic characteristics. A structured questionnaire was used to collect biographical data, and EAs were assessed via the Revised New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP) and the Environmental Attitudes Inventory (Short form) (EAI- 24). Results indicated that students’ EAs lean more towards utilization, which is an anti-environmental factor, than to the pro-environmental factor of preservation. Furthermore, demographic factors such as gender and ethnicity were significantly, but often a-stereotypically associated with students’ EAs. These results have practical implications for tailoring environmental-based interventions aimed at enhancing pro-environmental attitudes among students. However, the results also raise concerns about the cross-cultural validity and efficacy of some EA-related measuring instruments and environmental organizations, and suggest that a need exists to develop culturally sensitive EA measures, as well as environmental organizations that incorporate a greater focus on social justice and indigenous knowledge systems.

Understanding environmental attitudes (EAs) has been viewed as prerequisite to changing environmental behaviour and is a particularly salient topic in the context of higher educational institutions which play an important role in shaping students’ worldviews. As such, the study aimed to explore EAs of undergraduate students at three different campuses of a South African University (n = 1283) and to examine how these EAs differ in terms of students’ demographic characteristics. A structured questionnaire was used to collect biographical data, and EAs were assessed via the Revised New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP) and the Environmental Attitudes Inventory (Short form) (EAI- 24). Results indicated that students’ EAs lean more towards utilization, which is an anti-environmental factor, than to the pro-environmental factor of preservation. Furthermore, demographic factors such as gender and ethnicity were significantly, but often a-stereotypically associated with students’ EAs. These results have practical implications for tailoring environmental-based interventions aimed at enhancing pro-environmental attitudes among students. However, the results also raise concerns about the cross-cultural validity and efficacy of some EA-related measuring instruments and environmental organizations, and suggest that a need exists to develop culturally sensitive EA measures, as well as environmental organizations that incorporate a greater focus on social justice and indigenous knowledge systems.

This thesis was written with the aims to better understand the spatial relation between the Scanian iron Age bog bodies and the archaeological remains within the surrounding landscape, which in turn would lead to a new theory of understanding the cultural and social aspects of the bog body phenomenon, specifically by applying the liminality perspective. This was done by approaching the material through a wider macro perspective, as opposed to the normally individual-focused micro perspective most used in the bog body research. By applying the spatial perspective as the method, while analysing the relations between the bog body find sites (the key sites), and the archaeological remains within the surrounding landscape (the selected areas), certain spatial patterns emerged which displayed a change through time, and a rather low presence of contemporary archaeological remains within these areas during the recorded peak of the bog body phenomenon. Which may indicate that the people of this time viewed these special places in a certain way, different to the rest of the landscape. Thus, leading to the conclusions that these places, may have been regarded as not belonging to neither the world of the living nor the dead, which in turn may indicate that the people deposited there may have served a secondary liminal purpose to being sacrificial offerings.

Gustaf III var en komplex person, djupt engagerad i 1700-talets politiska, filosofiska och kulturella frågor. Hans brev, skrivelser och tal visar honom som en författare med stor variation och precision. Som regent, mecenat och mångsidig författare var Gustaf III sin tids viktigaste kulturpersonlighet, enigmatisk och kontroversiell såväl då som nu. I citatsamlingen Dixit presenteras Gustaf III:s ord och tankar, tematiskt indelade i ämnen som liv och död, kärlek och vänskap, lycka, resor, mode, politik och revolutioner.

Far ultraviolet (FUV) emission lines from dwarf stars are important driving sources of photochemistry in planetary atmospheres. Properly interpreting spectral features of planetary atmospheres critically depends on the emission of its host star. While the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of K- and M-type stars have been extensively characterized by previous observational programs, the full X-ray to infrared SED of F-type stars has not been assembled to support atmospheric modeling. On the second flight of the Suborbital Imaging Spectrograph for Transition-region Irradiance from Nearby Exoplanet host stars (SISTINE-2) rocket-borne spectrograph, we successfully captured the FUV spectrum of Procyon A (F5 IV-V) and made the first simultaneous observation of several emission features across the FUV bandpass (1010 - 1270 and 1300 - 1565 \r{A}) of any cool star. We combine flight data with stellar models and archival observations to develop the first SED of a mid-F star. We model the response of a modern Earth-like exoplanet's upper atmosphere to the heightened X-ray and extreme ultraviolet radiation within the habitable zone of Procyon A. These models indicate that this planet would not experience significant atmospheric escape. We simulate observations of the Ly$\alpha$ transit signal of this exoplanet with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). While marginally detectable with HST, we find that H I Ly$\alpha$ transits of potentially habitable exoplanets orbiting high radial velocity F-type stars could be observed with HWO for targets up to 150 pc away., Comment: 22 Pages, 13 Figures, 3 Tables, to be published in ApJ

Ultraviolet observations of Ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs), exoplanets with temperatures over 2000\,K, provide us with an opportunity to investigate if and how atmospheric escape shapes their upper atmosphere. Near-ultraviolet transit spectroscopy offers a unique tool to study this process owing to the presence of strong metal lines and a bright photospheric continuum as the light source against which the absorbing gas is observed. WASP-189b is one of the hottest planets discovered to date, with a day-side temperature of about 3400\,K orbiting a bright A-type star. We present the first near-ultraviolet observations of WASP-189b, acquired with the Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment ($CUTE$). $CUTE$ is a 6U NASA-funded ultraviolet spectroscopy mission, dedicated to monitoring short-period transiting planets. WASP-189b was one of the $CUTE$ early science targets and was observed during three consecutive transits in March 2022. We present an analysis of the $CUTE$ observations and results demonstrating near-ultraviolet (2500--3300~\AA) broadband transit depth ($1.08^{+0.08}_{-0.08}\%$) of about twice the visual transit depth indicating that the planet has an extended, hot upper atmosphere with a temperature of about 15000\,K and a moderate mass loss rate of about \SI{4e8}{\kg\per\second}. We observe absorption by Mg{\sc ii} lines ($R_p/R_s$ of $0.212^{+0.038}_{-0.061}$) beyond the Roche lobe at $>$4$\sigma$ significance in the transmission spectrum at a resolution of 10~\AA, while at lower resolution (100~\AA), we observe a quasi-continuous absorption signal consistent with a "forest" of low-ionization metal absorption dominated by Fe{\sc ii}. The results suggest an upper atmospheric temperature ($\sim15000$\,K), higher than that predicted by current state-of-the-art hydrodynamic models., Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Atmospheric escape is a fundamental process that affects the structure, composition, and evolution of many planets. The signatures of escape are detectable on close-in, gaseous exoplanets orbiting bright stars, owing to the high levels of extreme-ultraviolet irradiation from their parent stars. The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a CubeSat mission designed to take advantage of the near-ultraviolet stellar brightness distribution to conduct a survey of the extended atmospheres of nearby close-in planets. The CUTE payload is a magnifying NUV (2479~--~3306 Ang) spectrograph fed by a rectangular Cassegrain telescope (206mm x 84mm); the spectrogram is recorded on a back-illuminated, UV-enhanced CCD. The science payload is integrated into a 6U Blue Canyon Technology XB1 bus. CUTE was launched into a polar, low-Earth orbit on 27 September 2021 and has been conducting this transit spectroscopy survey following an on-orbit commissioning period. This paper presents the mission motivation, development path, and demonstrates the potential for small satellites to conduct this type of science by presenting initial on-orbit science observations. The primary science mission is being conducted in 2022~--~2023, with a publicly available data archive coming on line in 2023., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, AJ - accepted

We present the on-orbit performance of the Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment ($CUTE$). $CUTE$ is a 6U CubeSat that launched on September 27th, 2021 and is obtaining near-ultraviolet (NUV, 2480 A -- 3306 A) transit spectroscopy of short-period exoplanets. The instrument comprises a 20 cm $\times$ 8 cm rectangular Cassegrain telescope, an NUV spectrograph with a holographically ruled aberration-correcting diffraction grating, and a passively cooled, back-illuminated NUV-optimized CCD detector. The telescope feeds the spectrograph through an 18$'$ $\times$ 60$''$ slit. The spacecraft bus is a Blue Canyon Technologies XB1, which has demonstrated $\leq$ 6$''$ jitter in 56% of $CUTE$ science exposures. Following spacecraft commissioning, an on-orbit calibration program was executed to characterize the $CUTE$ instrument's on-orbit performance. The results of this calibration indicate that the effective area of $CUTE$ is $\approx$ 19.0 -- 27.5 cm$^{2}$ and that the average intrinsic resolution element is 2.9 A across the bandpass. This paper describes the measurement of the science instrument performance parameters as well as the thermal and pointing characteristics of the observatory.

The Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) is a community-driven standard for the organization of data and metadata from a growing range of neuroscience modalities. This paper is meant as a history of how the standard has developed and grown over time. We outline the principles behind the project, the mechanisms by which it has been extended, and some of the challenges being addressed as it evolves. We also discuss the lessons learned through the project, with the aim of enabling researchers in other domains to learn from the success of BIDS.

As part of their training all medical students and residents have to pass basic surgical tasks such as knot tying, needle-passing, and suturing. Their assessment is typically performed in the operating room by surgical faculty where mistakes and failure by the student increases the operation time and cost. This evaluation is quantitative and has a low margin of error. Simulation has emerged as a cost effective option but it lacks assessment or requires additional expensive hardware for evaluation. Apps that provide training videos on surgical knot trying are available to students but none have evaluation. We propose a cascaded neural network architecture that evaluates a student's performance just from a video of themselves simulating a surgical knot tying task. Our model converts video frame images into feature vectors with a pre-trained deep convolutional network and then models the sequence of frames with a temporal network. We obtained videos of medical students and residents from the Robert Wood Johnson Hospital performing knot tying on a standardized simulation kit. We manually annotated each video and proceeded to do a five-fold cross-validation study on them. Our model achieves a median precision, recall, and F1-score of 0.71, 0.66, and 0.65 respectively in determining the level of knot related tasks of tying and pushing the knot. Our mean precision score averaged across different probability thresholds is 0.8. Both our F1-score and mean precision score are 8% and 30% higher than that of a recently published study for the same problem. We expect the accuracy of our model to further increase as we add more training videos to the model thus making it a practical solution that students can use to evaluate themselves., Comment: To appear in proceedings of 11th IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI) 2023

The Baldwin, Philips, & Terlevich diagram of [O III]/H$\beta$ vs. [N II]/H$\alpha$ (hereafter N2-BPT) has long been used as a tool for classifying galaxies based on the dominant source of ionizing radiation. Recent observations have demonstrated that galaxies at $z\sim2$ reside offset from local galaxies in the N2-BPT space. In this paper, we conduct a series of controlled numerical experiments to understand the potential physical processes driving this offset. We model nebular line emission in a large sample of galaxies, taken from the SIMBA cosmological hydrodynamic galaxy formation simulation, using the CLOUDY photoionization code to compute the nebular line luminosities from H II regions. We find that the observed shift toward higher [O III]/H$\beta$ and [N II]/H$\alpha$ values at high redshift arises from sample selection: when we consider only the most massive galaxies $M_* \sim 10^{10-11} M_\odot$, the offset naturally appears, due to their high metallicities. We predict that deeper observations that probe lower-mass galaxies will reveal galaxies that lie on a locus comparable to $z\sim 0$ observations. Even when accounting for sample selection effects, we find that there is a subtle mismatch between simulations and observations. To resolve this discrepancy, we investigate the impact of varying ionization parameters, H II region densities, gas-phase abundance patterns, and increasing radiation field hardness on N2-BPT diagrams. We find that either decreasing the ionization parameter or increasing the N/O ratio of galaxies at fixed O/H can move galaxies along a self-similar arc in N2-BPT space that is occupied by high-redshift galaxies., Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

Hintergrund: Regelmäßige Bewegung und spezifisches Training sind wichtige Bausteine in der Therapie rheumatischer Erkrankungen, weil ein gesundheitlicher Nutzen für die Patient*innen nachgewiesen ist. Basierend auf den internationalen Empfehlungen der WHO für Gesunde, geben die „2018 EULAR Empfehlungen zu körperlicher Aktivität von Menschen mit entzündlich-rheumatischen und degenerativen Erkrankungen“ erstmals evidenzbasierte Empfehlungen zu Gestaltung, Durchführung und Implementierung von Bewegungsübungen bei diesen Patient*innen. Ziel: Übersetzung ins Deutsche und sprachliche Validierung in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Methoden: Eine professionelle Übersetzung der EULAR Bewegungsempfehlungen ins Deutsche wurde durch deutschsprachige Experten*innen aus allen 3 Ländern überarbeitet. Die Validierung erfolgte in einem Feldtest mit Rheumatolog*innen, Ergo- und Physiotherapeut*innen, Pflegefachpersonen und medizinischen Fachangestellten aus der Rheumatologie. In den 3 Ländern wurden jeweils 8 strukturierte Interviews zu Verständlichkeit, Wortwahl, Vollständigkeit und Umsetzbarkeit durchgeführt. Die Experten*innen diskutierten die Änderungsvorschläge, bis jeweils ein Konsens erreicht wurde. Zuletzt gaben sie den Grad ihrer Zustimmung zu der finalen Übersetzungsversion an. Ergebnisse: Die professionelle Übersetzung wurde substanziell überarbeitet. Aufgrund der Ergebnisse der Feldtests wurden verschiedene Änderungen einzelner Worte sowie Umformulierungen zur besseren Verständlichkeit vorgenommen. Der Grad der Zustimmung lag mit durchschnittlichen Bewertungen zwischen 10 (SD 0,0) und 8,9 (SD 1,5) insgesamt sehr hoch. Diskussion: Die vorliegende sprachlich validierte deutschsprachige Version der 2018 EULAR Bewegungsempfehlungen kann und soll dazu beitragen, Fachpersonal darin zu unterstützen, körperliche Aktivität bei Menschen mit entzündlich-rheumatischen und degenerativen Erkrankungen zu fördern.

Christine Wimbauer und Mona Motakef: Prekäre Arbeit, prekäre Liebe: Über Anerkennung und unsichere Lebensverhältnisse. Frankfurt am Main u.a. Campus Verlag 2020. 978-3-593-51240-2

I takt med en ökande individualism i samhället ställs nya krav på dagens organisationer, där medbestämmande och personlig utveckling önskas från medarbetare. Det kan dock innebära en paradox för militära organisationer när deras kärna så tydligt grundar sig i kollektivistiska värden och en anda av laget före jaget. Samtidigt finns höga förväntningar på militär personal att kunna påverka sig själva att agera och pusha sig igenom utmanande uppgifter, vilket är särskilt påtagligt i extrema miljöer som internationella insatser. Den här studien har undersökt om självledarskap är ett verktyg som militär personal använt för att kunna prestera under sina insatser. Trots att studier visat på positiva effekter av självledarskap i påfrestande förhållanden, har få studier undersökt huruvida det kan vara effektfullt i militära kontexter. Det kan samtidigt visa på att självledarskap inte nått militära organisationer än. Därmed har studien även undersökt synen på självledarskap hos Försvarsmaktens personal. Genom att ha intervjuat sex militärer som genomfört sin insats i Mali har studien kunnat visa på att flera strategier av självledarskap används i extrema miljöer. Den avvikelse som kunde urskiljas var att självmålsättning och självbelöning inte är lika synligt som övriga. Det kan delvis förklaras utifrån kollektivistiska värderingar där personalen redan motiveras av och känner stor tillhörighet till organisatoriska mål, men även att extrema miljöer medför hög arbetsbelastning och lite utrymme för återhämtning.

Zielgruppe des Projektes CatMesNEET (Catalogue de mesures pour NEETs) sind Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene mit NEET-Status in Luxemburg. Die Abkürzung NEET steht hier für „Not in Education, Employment or Training“ und meint Jugendliche, die keine Schule besuchen, keiner Arbeit nachgehen und sich nicht in beruflicher Ausbildung befinden.Es besteht kein nationaler Überblick über Zertifikate, die für die Teilnahme an einer Maßnahme vergeben werden. Diese Lücke soll ebenfalls in der Studie geschlossen werden. Zum einen wird erhoben, welche Massnahmen ein Zertifikat vergeben und zum anderen, worauf diese Zertifikate abzielen. In der ersten Feldphase wurde von Jugend- und Sozialarbeitern kommuniziert, dass Zertifikate durchaus einen wichtigen Stellenwert bei der Suche nach einem Ausbildungs- und Arbeitsplatz haben können. Ziel der Studie ist es daher, ein klares und differenziertes Bild der bestehenden Maßnahmen zur Unterstützung der in Luxemburg lebenden jungen Menschen mit einem problematischen NEET-Status im Alter zwischen 15 und 29 Jahren zu geben. Da der Fokus der Forschung auf Maßnahmen für junge Menschen mit NEET-Status liegt, wird auf individueller Ebene angesetzt, nämlich an der jeweiligen Situation der Betroffenen. Dies bedeutet, dass der Frage nachgegangen wird, welche Maßnahmen Jugendlichen helfen können, um ihrem NEET-Status zu überwinden. Es ist allerdings wichtig, darauf hinzuweisen, dass es auch auf einer strukturellen arbeitsmarktpolitischen Ebene Maßnahmen bedarf, die die NEET-Rate erheblich senken könnten. Daher gilt es festzuhalten, dass es sich bei der NEET-Thematik nicht nur um eine Problematik handelt, die auf individueller Ebene gelöst werden kann, sondern dass diese auch Maßnahmen auf struktureller arbeitsmarkt-, sozial-, und bildungspolitischer Ebene verlangt.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, older people have been in the spotlight of the public debate. Given their higher risk of severe outcomes of the disease, they have been described as especially vulnerable and as a burden to others and society. We thus wanted to investigate how older people’s perception of their own age, that is their subjective age, as well as their Covid-19 related risks and worries were related during the pandemic and whether these relationships varied according to participants’ subjective health. We used data from the longitudinal CRISIS study which was conducted in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg in June and October 2020. Participants were aged 60–98 and responded on questionnaires regarding their subjective age, worry of falling ill with Covid-19, perceived risk of contracting the virus, perceived risk of falling seriously ill if they contracted Covid-19, as well as their subjective health and covariates. Three cross-lagged panel models were constructed to explore the longitudinal, bidirectional relationships between the variables. Cross-sectionally, a higher subjective age was related to more perceived risk of a serious course of disease. Longitudinally, subjective age and worry did not show any significant association over time, and neither did subjective age and perceived risk of contracting the virus. However, subjective health significantly moderated the relationship of worry and subjective age, showing different trajectories in the relationship depending on whether subjective health was good or bad. Higher perceived risk of falling seriously ill increased subjective age over time. Again, subjective health moderated this relationship: the perceived risk of falling seriously ill affected subjective age only for those with better subjective health. Our findings show the interactive relationship between subjective age and Covid-19 related cognitions and emotions and provide guidance for identifying older people that are most susceptible for negativ

Zielgruppe des Projektes CatMesNEET (Catalogue de mesures pour NEETs) sind Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene mit NEET-Status in Luxemburg. Die Abkürzung NEET steht hier für „Not in Education, Employment or Training“ und meint Jugendliche, die keine Schule besuchen, keiner Arbeit nachgehen und sich nicht in beruflicher Ausbildung befinden.Es besteht kein nationaler Überblick über Zertifikate, die für die Teilnahme an einer Maßnahme vergeben werden. Diese Lücke soll ebenfalls in der Studie geschlossen werden. Zum einen wird erhoben, welche Massnahmen ein Zertifikat vergeben und zum anderen, worauf diese Zertifikate abzielen. In der ersten Feldphase wurde von Jugend- und Sozialarbeitern kommuniziert, dass Zertifikate durchaus einen wichtigen Stellenwert bei der Suche nach einem Ausbildungs- und Arbeitsplatz haben können. Ziel der Studie ist es daher, ein klares und differenziertes Bild der bestehenden Maßnahmen zur Unterstützung der in Luxemburg lebenden jungen Menschen mit einem problematischen NEET-Status im Alter zwischen 15 und 29 Jahren zu geben. Da der Fokus der Forschung auf Maßnahmen für junge Menschen mit NEET-Status liegt, wird auf individueller Ebene angesetzt, nämlich an der jeweiligen Situation der Betroffenen. Dies bedeutet, dass der Frage nachgegangen wird, welche Maßnahmen Jugendlichen helfen können, um ihrem NEET-Status zu überwinden. Es ist allerdings wichtig, darauf hinzuweisen, dass es auch auf einer strukturellen arbeitsmarktpolitischen Ebene Maßnahmen bedarf, die die NEET-Rate erheblich senken könnten. Daher gilt es festzuhalten, dass es sich bei der NEET-Thematik nicht nur um eine Problematik handelt, die auf individueller Ebene gelöst werden kann, sondern dass diese auch Maßnahmen auf struktureller arbeitsmarkt-, sozial-, und bildungspolitischer Ebene verlangt.

The first chapter of this paper provides an introduction to the content and sets the context for the research, as well as providing personal reflections from the researcher. The second chapter of this document presents a systematic literature review, exploring the impact of mindfulness-based interventions in secondary education settings. Four databases were systematically searched with explicit consideration of inclusion and exclusion criteria and key terminology. 16 articles were identified and critically appraised. Studies took place predominantly in the USA, with two studies taking place in Spain and one in Thailand. Whilst findings between studies varied, critical evaluation of the papers suggested a correlation between mindfulness and improved well-being, including improved emotional awareness and reduced levels of anxiety, though the outcomes measured within each study differed. The impact of intervention was further evaluated by four key factors: the style of analysis, the impact of the environment, the effect of relationships and the frequency of the intervention sessions. Studies utilise correlational data making it impossible to infer causality, and therefore indicating a need for further research considering the effect of mindfulness, particularly in less represented groups, such as students in alternative provision (AP) settings or in countries outside of the USA. There appeared to be a paucity of literature considering the voices of young people (YP) completing mindfulness interventions, with many adopting a quantitative approach, which would also be a helpful focus for future research. The concept of well-being has become increasingly relevant in recent years, not least within the realm of education. Current understanding is that academic support alone is not enough to provide YP with the tools to thrive in later life. Research shows that many YP are struggling with their mental health but barriers to accessing services mean that they are often not rec

B cells fulfill an important role in the adaptive immunity. Upon activation and immunoglobulin (IG) class switching, these cells function in the humoral immunity compartment as plasma cells. For clinical applications, it can be important to quantify (switched) B cells accurately in a variety of body fluids and tissues of benign, inflammatory and malignant origin. For decades, flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry (IHC) have been the preferred methods for quantification. Although these methods are widely used, both depend on the accessibility of B cell epitopes and therefore require intact (fixed) cells. Whenever samples are low in quantity and/or quality, accurate quantification can be difficult. By shifting the focus from epitopes to DNA markers, quantification of B cells remains achievable. During differentiation and maturation, B cells are subjected to programmed genetic recombination processes like VDJ rearrangements and class switch recombination (CSR), which result in deletion of specific sequences of the IGH locus. These cell type-specific DNA “scars” (loss of sequences) in IG genes can be exploited as B cell markers in digital PCR (dPCR) based quantification methods. Here, we describe a novel, specific and sensitive digital PCR-based method to quantify mature and switched B cells in DNA specimens of benign and (copy number unstable) malignant origin. We compared this novel way of B cell quantitation with flow cytometric and immunohistochemical methods. Through cross-validation with flow cytometric sorted B cell subpopulations, we gained quantitative insights into allelic involvement in different recombination processes in the IGH locus. Our newly developed method is accurate and independent of the cellular context, offering new possibilities for quantification, even for (limited) small samples like liquid biopsies.

Face recognition technology has advanced significantly in recent years due largely to the availability of large and increasingly complex training datasets for use in deep learning models. These datasets, however, typically comprise images scraped from news sites or social media platforms and, therefore, have limited utility in more advanced security, forensics, and military applications. These applications require lower resolution, longer ranges, and elevated viewpoints. To meet these critical needs, we collected and curated the first and second subsets of a large multi-modal biometric dataset designed for use in the research and development (R&D) of biometric recognition technologies under extremely challenging conditions. Thus far, the dataset includes more than 350,000 still images and over 1,300 hours of video footage of approximately 1,000 subjects. To collect this data, we used Nikon DSLR cameras, a variety of commercial surveillance cameras, specialized long-rage R&D cameras, and Group 1 and Group 2 UAV platforms. The goal is to support the development of algorithms capable of accurately recognizing people at ranges up to 1,000 m and from high angles of elevation. These advances will include improvements to the state of the art in face recognition and will support new research in the area of whole-body recognition using methods based on gait and anthropometry. This paper describes methods used to collect and curate the dataset, and the dataset's characteristics at the current stage.

Recent global growth in the interest of smart cities has led to trillions of dollars of investment toward research and development. These connected cities have the potential to create a symbiosis of technology and society and revolutionize the cost of living, safety, ecological sustainability, and quality of life of societies on a world-wide scale. Some key components of the smart city construct are connected smart grids, self-driving cars, federated learning systems, smart utilities, large-scale public transit, and proactive surveillance systems. While exciting in prospect, these technologies and their subsequent integration cannot be attempted without addressing the potential societal impacts of such a high degree of automation and data sharing. Additionally, the feasibility of coordinating so many disparate tasks will require a fast, extensible, unifying framework. To that end, we propose FaRO2, a completely reimagined successor to FaRO1, built from the ground up. FaRO2 affords all of the same functionality as its predecessor, serving as a unified biometric API harness that allows for seamless evaluation, deployment, and simple pipeline creation for heterogeneous biometric software. FaRO2 additionally provides a fully declarative capability for defining and coordinating custom machine learning and sensor pipelines, allowing the distribution of processes across otherwise incompatible hardware and networks. FaRO2 ultimately provides a way to quickly configure, hot-swap, and expand large coordinated or federated systems online without interruptions for maintenance. Because much of the data collected in a smart city contains Personally Identifying Information (PII), FaRO2 also provides built-in tools and layers to ensure secure and encrypted streaming, storage, and access of PII data across distributed systems.

I takt med en ökande individualism i samhället ställs nya krav på dagens organisationer, där medbestämmande och personlig utveckling önskas från medarbetare. Det kan dock innebära en paradox för militära organisationer när deras kärna så tydligt grundar sig i kollektivistiska värden och en anda av laget före jaget. Samtidigt finns höga förväntningar på militär personal att kunna påverka sig själva att agera och pusha sig igenom utmanande uppgifter, vilket är särskilt påtagligt i extrema miljöer som internationella insatser. Den här studien har undersökt om självledarskap är ett verktyg som militär personal använt för att kunna prestera under sina insatser. Trots att studier visat på positiva effekter av självledarskap i påfrestande förhållanden, har få studier undersökt huruvida det kan vara effektfullt i militära kontexter. Det kan samtidigt visa på att självledarskap inte nått militära organisationer än. Därmed har studien även undersökt synen på självledarskap hos Försvarsmaktens personal. Genom att ha intervjuat sex militärer som genomfört sin insats i Mali har studien kunnat visa på att flera strategier av självledarskap används i extrema miljöer. Den avvikelse som kunde urskiljas var att självmålsättning och självbelöning inte är lika synligt som övriga. Det kan delvis förklaras utifrån kollektivistiska värderingar där personalen redan motiveras av och känner stor tillhörighet till organisatoriska mål, men även att extrema miljöer medför hög arbetsbelastning och lite utrymme för återhämtning.