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Given the high rates of vaccine hesitancy, web-based medical misinformation about vaccination is a serious issue. We sought to understand the nature of Google searches leading to medical misinformation about vaccination, and guided by fuzzy-trace theory, the characteristics of misinformation pages related to comprehension, inference-making, and medical decision-making. We collected data from web pages presenting vaccination information. We assessed whether web pages presented medical misinformation, had an overarching gist, used narrative, and employed emotional appeals. We used Search Engine Optimization tools to determine the number of backlinks from other web pages, monthly Google traffic, and Google Keywords. We used Coh-Metrix to measure readability and Gist Inference Scores (GIS). For medical misinformation web pages, Google traffic and backlinks were heavily skewed with means of 138.8 visitors/month and 805 backlinks per page. Medical misinformation pages were significantly more likely than other vaccine pages to have backlinks from other pages, and significantly less likely to receive at least one visitor from Google searches per month. The top Google searches leading to medical misinformation were "the truth about vaccinations," "dangers of vaccination," and "pro con vaccines." Most frequently, pages challenged vaccine safety, with 32.7% having an overarching gist, 7.7% presenting narratives, and 17.3% making emotional appeals. Emotional appeals were significantly more common with medical misinformation than other high-traffic vaccination pages. Misinformation pages had a mean readability grade level of 11.5, and a mean GIS of - 0.234. Low GIS scores are a likely barrier to understanding gist, and are the "Achilles' heel" of misinformation pages.

The zonal and meridional overturning circulations of buoyancy-forced basins are studied in an eddy-resolving model. The zonal overturning circulation (ZOC) is driven by the meridional gradient of buoyancy at the surface and stratification at the southern boundary. The ZOC, in turn, produces zonal buoyancy gradients through upwelling and downwelling at the western and eastern boundaries, respectively. The meridional overturning circulation (MOC) is driven by these zonal gradients rather than being directly driven by meridional gradients. Eddies lead to a broadening of the upwelling and downwelling limbs of the ZOC, as well as a decoupling of the locations of vertical and diapycnal transport. This broadening is more prominent on the eastern boundary, where westward-moving eddies transport warm water away from a poleward-flowing eastern boundary current. Most of the diapycnal downwelling occurs in the “swash zone”—the region where the isopycnals intermittently come in contact with the surface and lose buoyancy to the atmosphere. A scaling for the overturning circulations, which depends on the background stratification and the surface buoyancy gradient, is derived and found to be an excellent fit to the numerical experiments.

Robert Reilly’s America on Trial presents a lengthy defense of the principles of the American Founding against recent critiques, especially focusing on those written from a Catholic perspective. His book finds a place in a larger discussion of American Catholic political thought that has been going on for more than a century. I first situate Reilly’s book within that debate, and then argue that Reilly’s account is correct on most counts. Some loose ends remain, but they can be dealt with by expanding some of the points that Reilly has already made. I think, though, that other points not even raised by Reilly’s critics will require further reflection by future American Catholic political thinkers. In 2020, the sensus communis in America has ceased to be “cool and deliberate,” a desideratum for the regime mentioned in Federalist 63; we need to figure out ways to make it cool again.

The middle position between two extremes is not always the right position to take. This sounds un-Aristotelian, because Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean is familiar to us; that is, the rule of thum...

Background Actinic Keratosis is an intraepidermal neoplasm that represents the second most common reason for dermatologic visits in the United States. Sustained clearance with existing therapies is highly variable. Objective To assess the effects of combination and monotherapy with photodynamic therapy (PDT), grenz ray therapy, and PDT with microneedling (microchannel skin system) for actinic damage of the dorsal forearms and hands. Methods Full ethics approval was obtained through a Human Subjects Committee. Four patients with diffuse actinic field damage on their forearms and hands were recruited for the study. The dorsal forearm and hand from the elbow to the metacarpophalangeal joint were divided into four equal sections. Section 1 was treated with PDT. Section 2 was treated with grenz ray. Section 3 was treated with PDT plus microneedling. Section 4 was treated with grenz ray and PDT with microneedling. Lesion counts were recorded with transparent grids, photographed and evaluated by the same investigator at baseline, 1, 2, 3 and 6 months. Results At month 6 post treatment, lesion counts, as a per cent reduction from baseline, were 91.7% in section 1 (PDT); 97.3% in section 2 (grenz ray); 92.9% in section 3 (PDT + microneedle); and 93.9% in section 4 (grenz ray + PDT + microneedle). Conclusion The greatest reduction occurred in the grenz ray monotherapy section and the second greatest reduction in the grenz ray, PDT, microneedling section. Further research on the efficacy of grenz ray therapy for field treatment of actinic keratosis of the forearms and hands is needed.

We examine the use of intuition versus analytical thinking in auditor risk assessment using a task that requires auditors to assess a group of impairment indicators. We expect that auditor intuition, rooted in the subconscious, more likely reacts to impairment indicator risk than does auditor analytical thinking. Results from two different experiments support this expectation for less‐experienced audit seniors. These seniors are more likely to assess step‐zero impairment indicators as signaling potential impairment when prompted to think intuitively versus analytically. In contrast, a third experiment finds that experienced seniors are more likely to assess step‐zero impairment indicators as signaling potential impairment when prompted to think analytically versus intuitively. This is consistent with the more experienced but still non‐expert seniors possessing developed analytical thinking, but struggling to effectively use their intuition. Our results inform theory by suggesting under what conditions auditor intuition and analytical thinking produce differential risk sensitivity. Furthermore, our results inform practice, given regulators' stated focus on auditor skepticism and impairment assessments. L'intuition par rapport au raisonnement analytique dans le cadre des tests de depreciation Nous examinons le recours a l'intuition comparativement au raisonnement analytique lorsque les auditeurs evaluent les risques, en mettant en oeuvre une tâche au cours de laquelle ils doivent evaluer une serie d'indicateurs de depreciation. Nous nous attendons a ce que l'intuition des auditeurs, ancree dans leur subconscient, soit plus susceptible que leur raisonnement analytique de reagir a un risque associe a un indicateur de depreciation. Les resultats de deux experiences distinctes soutiennent cette prediction dans le cas des charges de mission moins experimentes. Ceux‐ci sont plus susceptibles de conclure que certains indicateurs de depreciation a l’etape zero du test revelent une depreciation possible lorsqu'ils sont invites a reflechir de facon intuitive plutot qu'analytique. A l'inverse, une troisieme experience etablit que les charges de mission experimentes sont plus susceptibles d'estimer que ce type d'indicateurs a l’etape zero revelent une depreciation possible lorsqu'ils sont invites a reflechir de facon analytique plutot qu'intuitive. Ce resultat est coherent avec celui des charges de mission plus experimentes, mais qui ne sont pas encore des experts de la depreciation, qui possedent de fortes capacites de reflexion analytique, mais peinent a recourir efficacement a leur intuition. Nos resultats enrichissent la theorie en indiquant dans quelles conditions l'intuition ainsi que le raisonnement analytique des auditeurs produisent des niveaux de sensibilite differents aux risques. En outre, nos resultats renseignent la pratique comptable, etant donne l'accent mis par les organismes de reglementation sur le scepticisme des auditeurs et l’evaluation de la depreciation.

Minorities at increased risk for Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) frequently have low awareness and use of genetic counseling and testing (GCT). Making sure that evidence-based interventions (EBIs) reach minorities is key to reduce disparities.Genetic counselors (n = 20) were recruited nationally; at-risk Latinas and Blacks (n = 21) were recruited in Washington DC and Virginia. They completed theAt-risk women had a significantly higher acceptability (Findings illustrate the process of integrating fidelity and adaptation considerations to ensure that EBIs retain their core components while enhancing the fit to minoritized clinical populations. Future studies will test the efficacy of the adapted

Observer error and agreement rates for craniometrics, odontometrics, and cranial and dental morphological traits have been inconsistently evaluated on three-dimensional cranial reconstructions and almost never assessed on subadult individuals. This study uses a computed tomography (CT) scan sample of 12 subadults aged between birth and 20 years from the Subadult Virtual Anthropology Database (SVAD) to evaluate intra- and inter-observer error and agreement rates associated to these four types of data on virtual crania. Forty-eight cranial landmarks, 33 standard inter-landmark distances (ILDs), 13 cranial macromorphoscopic traits, four permanent and four deciduous dental landmarks and measurements per tooth, and 21 permanent and 12 deciduous dental morphological traits were collected on each individual. Results matched or improved on published standards for dry bones, teeth, or dental casts. Technical Error of Measurement (TEM) associated with metric data ranged from 0.00 mm to 0.99 mm and relative TEM ranged from 0% to 5.76%. Cohen's kappa coefficient values for agreement on morphological traits scores were above K = 0.5 for 90% of the traits. Type III cranial landmarks showed higher error rates than Type I and II cranial landmarks. Agreement on dental morphology scores seemed influenced by observer experience and rater agreement improved when using di- or tri-chotomized grades. Skeletal maturity did not significantly affect error rates, meaning most craniofacial and dental metrics and morphological traits can be reliably obtained from virtual subadult crania.

Previous work to find an association between variations of annually averaged Florida Current transport and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) have yielded negative results (Meinen et al. 2010). Here we show that Florida current in winter is impacted by displacements in the positions of the Azores High and the Icelandic Low, the constituent pressure centers of the NAO. As a one-dimensional representation of North Atlantic atmospheric circulation, the NAO index does not distinguish displacements of the pressure centers from fluctuations in their intensity. Florida Current transport is significantly correlated with Icelandic Low longitude with a lag of less than one season. We carried out perturbation experiments in the ECCOv4 model to investigate these correlations. These experiments reveal that east-west shifts of the Icelandic Low perturb the wind stress in mid-latitudes adjacent to the American coast, driving downwelling (through longshore winds) and offshore sea level anomalies (through wind stress curl) which travel to the Florida Straits within the same season. Florida Current transport is also correlated with the latitude variations of both the Icelandic Low and the Azores High with a lag of four years. Regression analysis shows that latitude variations of the Icelandic Low and the Azores High are associated with positive wind stress curl anomalies over extended regions in the ocean east of Florida. Rossby wave propagation from this region to the Florida Straits has been suggested as a mechanism for perturbing FCT transport in several previous studies (DiNezio et al. 2009; Czeschel et al. 2012; Frajka-Williams et al. 2013; Domingues et al. 2016, 2019).

Three patient education texts from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) were subjected to a Coh-Metrix analysis, then further analyzed to obtain Gist Inference Scores (GIS), a new measure of the likelihood that readers will make appropriate inferences about a text's bottom-line meaning. In the GIS formula, the Coh-Metrix psycholinguistic variables referential cohesion, deep cohesion, and latent semantic analysis (LSA) verb overlap increase GIS because cohesive texts that describe related actions are likely to induce gist representations. The Coh-Metrix variables word concreteness, imagability for content words, and hypernymy for nouns and verbs are negatively weighted because they tend to promote verbatim mental representations. NCI texts were modified for a cloze procedure with every tenth word replaced by a blank starting with the second sentence. Participants in two studies received all three cloze-modified texts. Fuzzy-Trace Theory suggests that people are more likely to comprehend high GIS texts "in their own words," and thus fill-the-blanks with multiple words that differ from those omitted by the cloze procedure expressing comparable meaning. In Study One, non-native English speakers appropriately filled blanks with different words at the same rate for all three texts of low-, medium-, and high-GIS. In Study Two, replicating previous findings, for high GIS texts, native English speakers filled blanks appropriately with words other than those removed significantly more often than for medium- or low-GIS texts. High GIS texts apparently afford readers more semantic and lexical flexibility, but non-native English speakers may be ill-equipped to capitalize on this characteristic of high GIS texts.

Locally-advanced periocular basal cell carcinoma (BCC) pose many therapeutic challenges due to the need to preserve functionality and cosmesis of the orbit and periocular area. Surgical excision and subsequent orbital exenteration are two recognized modalities of treatment. Vismodegib is currently an FDA-approved monotherapy for locally-advanced and metastatic BCC. We present a case of the use of vismodegib as neoadjuvant therapy prior to surgical excision of a locally-advanced periocular recurrent BCC in a 75-year-old male. The patientrsquo;s tumor successfully responded to vismodegib allowing surgical excision with clear margins. The orbit was saved in a patient who otherwise would have required complete orbital exenteration. J Drugs Dermatol. 20(5):552-554. doi:10.36849/JDD.5661.

The path of the Gulf Stream as it leaves the continental shelf near Cape Hatteras is marked by a sharp gradient in ocean temperature known as the North Wall. The latitude location of the Gulf Stream North Wall (GSNW) has previously been estimated by subjective analysis of daily maps of sea surface temperatures. Recently, Watelet et al. (2017) presented an objective procedure by fitting an error function to the SST profile across the Gulf Stream at 81 longitude positions. The fit smooths over not only the GSNW but also the much colder waters from the Labrador Sea on the continental shelf. Watelet et al.’s procedure is therefore likely to misidentify the shelf-slope front as the Gulf Stream North Wall, leading to a systematic northward bias the in North Wall position.

We developed a method to automatically assess texts for features that help readers produce gist inferences. Following fuzzy-trace theory, we used a procedure in which participants recalled events under gist or verbatim instructions. Applying Coh-Metrix, we analyzed written responses in order to create gist inference scores (GISs), or seven variables converted to Z scores and averaged, which assess the potential for readers to form gist inferences from observable text characteristics. Coh-Metrix measures reflect referential cohesion and deep cohesion, which increase GIS because they facilitate coherent mental representations. Conversely, word concreteness, hypernymy for nouns and verbs (specificity), and imageability decrease GIS, because they promote verbatim representations. Also, the difference between abstract verb overlap among sentences (using latent semantic analysis) and more concrete verb overlap (using WordNet) should enhance coherent gist inferences, rather than verbatim memory for specific verbs. In the first study, gist condition responses scored nearly two standard deviations higher on GIS than did the verbatim condition responses. Predictions based on GIS were confirmed in two text analysis studies of 50 scientific journal article texts and 50 news articles and editorials. Texts from the Discussion sections of psychology journal articles scored significantly higher on GIS than did texts from the Method sections of the same journal articles. News reports also scored significantly lower than editorials on the same topics from the same news outlets. GIS proved better at discriminating among texts than did alternative formulae. In a behavioral experiment with closely matched text pairs, people randomly assigned to high-GIS versions scored significantly higher on knowledge and comprehension.

Although basing instruction on learning trajectories (LTs) is often recommended, there is little direct evidence regarding the premise of a LT approach—that instruction should be presented (only) one LT level beyond a child’s present level. We evaluated this hypothesis in the domain of early shape composition. One group of preschoolers, who were at least two levels below the target instructional LT level, received instruction based on an empirically validated LT. The counterfactual (skip-levels) group received an equal amount of instruction focused only on the target level. At posttest, children in the LT condition exhibited significantly greater learning than children in the skip-levels condition, mainly on near-transfer items; no child-level variables were significant moderators. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

The Gulf Stream is bounded to the north by a strong temperature front known as the North Wall. The North Wall is subject to variability on a wide range of temporal and spatial scales—on interannual time scales, the dominant mode of variability is a longitudinally coherent north–south migration. North Wall variability since 1970 has been characterized by regular oscillations with a period of approximately nine years. This periodic variability, and its relationship to major modes of Atlantic climate variability, is examined in the frequency domain. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Atlantic meridional mode (AMM) both covary with the North Wall on decadal time scales. The NAO leads the North Wall by about one year, whereas the covariability between the North Wall and the AMM is synchronous (no lag). Covariability between the North Wall and the NAO is further examined in terms of the centers of action comprising the NAO: the Icelandic low and Azores high. It is found that the strength of the Icelandic low and its latitude as well as the strength of the Azores high play a role in decadal North Wall variability.

An eastern boundary current (EBC) system driven by a large-scale meridional buoyancy gradient is simulated using an idealized eddy-resolving model. The EBC system consists of a pair of stacked meridional currents that flow poleward near the surface and equatorward at intermediate depths. Buoyancy advection in the EBC is primarily balanced by the shedding of eddies, with anticyclonic, warm-core eddies dominating near the surface and cyclonic, cold-core eddies found at intermediate depths. These boundary eddies play a significant role in both the eastern boundary circulation—by helping to trap the EBC near the coast—and the large-scale circulation through their effect on the downwelling limb of the overturning circulation. Momentum and thickness budgets analyzed using the thickness-weighted average framework highlight the role of eddy form drag in shaping and maintaining the EBC. The efficiency of the form drag increases dramatically at the offshore flank of the EBC. This zonal variation of the form drag is essential for maintaining a swift, narrow EBC. The essential physics of the EBC are illustrated using a simple, semianalytical model.

Impacts from human-induced direct-use perturbations on coral colonies are on the rise. Despite significant incidences of coral disease on a global-wide basis, too few studies have verified the sources of diseases affecting coral colonies. To determine if branching coral communities are prone to infection with black band disease, brown band disease, and white syndrome, this study compared the prevalence of coral disease between Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zones in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia. We found evidence for coral disease on 9.06% of sites, with white syndrome being the most prevalent, found on 5.46% of sites, brown band found on 2.90% of sites, and black band found on 1.45% of sites. Coral disease of any kind, specifically black band and white syndrome, were significantly less abundant in areas where line fishing was permitted than where it was prohibited. Moreover, there was an interaction between fishing regulations and location, such that fishing regulations did not predict the presence of disease offshore, but inshore coral disease was significantly more prevalent where line fishing was prohibited than where line fishing was permitted. Coral disease was most frequently found in General Use, Scientific Research Open to the Public, and Marine National Park Zones; and reliably least commonly found in Habitat Protection, Conservation Park, and Preservation Zones. There were also differences among Marine Park Management Zones with coral disease most prevalent in the Cairns/Cooktown (Offshore) zone and least prevalent in the Mackay/Capricorn (Offshore) zone. Cairns/Cooktown (Offshore and Inshore) were the highest zones for black band and brown band, and Mackay/Capricorn (Inshore) was the highest management zone for white syndrome.

The path of the Gulf Stream as it leaves the continental shelf near Cape Hatteras is marked by a sharp gradient in ocean temperature known as the North Wall. Previous work in the literature has considered processes related to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in triggering latitudinal displacements of the North Wall position. This paper presents evidence that the Atlantic meridional mode (AMM) also impacts interannual variations of the North Wall position. The AMM signal from the tropics propagates to the Gulf Stream near the 200-m depth, and there are two time scales for this interaction. Anomalous Ekman suction induced by AMM cools the tropical Atlantic. The cold water in the Caribbean Sea is entrained into the currents feeding the Gulf Stream, and this cooling signal reaches the North Wall within a year. A second mechanism involves cold anomalies in the western tropical Atlantic, which initially propagate westward as baroclinic planetary waves, reaching the Gulf Stream and resulting in a southward shift in the North Wall position after a delay of about one year. In an analysis for the period 1961–2015, AMM’s signal dominates North Wall fluctuations in the upper 300 m, while NAO is the major influence below ~500 m; the influence of both the teleconnections is seen between 300 and 500 m. The relationship between the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and the North Wall is investigated for the 2005–15 period and found to be statistically significant only at the sea surface in one of the three North Wall indices used.

Tropical modes of variability, including the Madden‐Julian Oscillation (MJO) and the El Nino‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO), are challenging to represent in climate models. Previous studies sug...

Idealized models can reveal insights into Earth’s climate system by reducing its complexities. However, their potential is undermined by the scarcity of fully coupled idealized models with components comparable to contemporary, comprehensive Earth System Models. To fill this gap, we compare and contrast the climates of two idealized planets which build on the Simpler Models initiative of the Community Earth System Model (CESM). Using the fully coupled CESM, the Aqua configuration is ocean‐covered except for two polar land caps, and the Ridge configuration has an additional pole‐to‐pole grid‐cell‐wide continent. Contrary to most sea surface temperature profiles assumed for atmosphere‐only aquaplanet experiments with the thermal maximum on the equator, the coupled Aqua configuration is characterized by a global cold belt of wind‐driven equatorial upwelling, analogous to the eastern Pacific cold tongue. The presence of the meridional boundary on Ridge introduces zonal asymmetry in thermal and circulation features, similar to the contrast between western and eastern Pacific. This zonal asymmetry leads to a distinct climate state from Aqua, cooled by ∼2°C via the radiative feedback of clouds and water vapor. The meridional boundary of Ridge is also crucial for producing a more Earth‐like climate state compared to Aqua, including features of atmospheric and ocean circulation, the seasonal cycle of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, and the meridional heat transport. The mean climates of these two basic configurations provide a baseline for exploring other idealized ocean geometries, and their application for investigating various features and scale interactions in the coupled climate system.

Lagrangian methods have been used to estimate the lateral eddy diffusivity in the ocean using surface drifter and subsurface float tracks and using the numerical particles advected by satellite-derived velocity fields. The diffusivity is estimated from the rate of dispersion of these particles. Accurate point-wise estimates of diffusivity generally require averages over a large number of drifters or floats, but the distribution of drifters and floats is generally sparse and many tracks of drifters are contaminated by winds. On the other hand, the convergence time for the particle-based diffusivity is on the order of a month for both in situ and numerical particles, which makes the estimates inefficient and allows for the accumulation of measurement error. Studies of vortex-dominated 2D turbulence have found that particle dispersion is dominated by the movement of coherent eddies, and that the dispersion rate of coherent eddies themselves can provide accurate estimates of the Lagrangian diffusivity. We found that the potential vorticity diffusivity in two-layer quasigeostrophic turbulence can also be accurately estimated by the rate of dispersion of coherent eddies, and this estimate converges more than four times faster than the diffusivity estimated from particles inserted uniformly in the flow. If this result also holds for oceanic mesoscale turbulence, it can form the basis for a potentially useful technique for diagnosing mesoscale diffusivity based on the tracks of coherent mesoscale eddies. This presentation examines the relation between the dispersion of coherent eddies and tracer diffusivity in an idealized configuration of Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model which contains multiple gyres, boundary currents, and a zonally reentrant channel flow analogous to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The coherent eddies are identified and tracked from the sea surface height snapshots, and the diffusivity estimated from coherent eddies is compared to the tracer diffusivity diagnosed by a tracer inversion method. The diffusivity inferred from dispersion of coherent eddies generally converges within 15 days. Direct comparison of two diffusivity estimates is not straightforward, since the tracer-based diffusivity varies vertically. Approaches for reconciling the two estimates are discussed. This study shows the possibility of relating the Lagrangian movement of coherent eddies to the Eulerian tracer diffusivity.

Background Despite steady gains in life expectancy, individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease still experience rapid pulmonary decline throughout their clinical course, which can ultimately end in respiratory failure. Point-of-care tools for accurate and timely information regarding the risk of rapid decline is essential for clinical decision support. Objective This study aims to translate a novel algorithm for earlier, more accurate prediction of rapid lung function decline in patients with CF into an interactive web-based application that can be integrated within electronic health record systems, via collaborative development with clinicians. Methods Longitudinal clinical history, lung function measurements, and time-invariant characteristics were obtained for 30,879 patients with CF who were followed in the US Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Patient Registry (2003-2015). We iteratively developed the application using the R Shiny framework and by conducting a qualitative study with care provider focus groups (N=17). Results A clinical conceptual model and 4 themes were identified through coded feedback from application users: (1) ambiguity in rapid decline, (2) clinical utility, (3) clinical significance, and (4) specific suggested revisions. These themes were used to revise our application to the currently released version, available online for exploration. This study has advanced the application’s potential prognostic utility for monitoring individuals with CF lung disease. Further application development will incorporate additional clinical characteristics requested by the users and also a more modular layout that can be useful for care provider and family interactions. Conclusions Our framework for creating an interactive and visual analytics platform enables generalized development of applications to synthesize, model, and translate electronic health data, thereby enhancing clinical decision support and improving care and health outcomes for chronic diseases and disorders. A prospective implementation study is necessary to evaluate this tool’s effectiveness regarding increased communication, enhanced shared decision-making, and improved clinical outcomes for patients with CF.

OBJECTIVES A fundamental assumption in biological anthropology is that living individuals will present with different growth than non-survivors of the same population. The aim is to address the question of whether growth and development data of non-survivors are reflective of the biological consequences of selective mortality and/or stress. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study compares dental development and skeletal growth collected from radiographic images of contemporary samples of living and deceased individuals from the United States (birth to 20 years) and South Africa (birth to 12 years). Further evaluation of deceased individuals is used to explore differential patterns among manners of death (MOD). RESULTS Results do not show any significant differences in skeletal growth or dental development between living and deceased individuals. However, in the South African deceased sample the youngest individuals exhibited substantially smaller diaphyseal lengths than the living sample, but by 2 years of age the differences were negligible. In the US sample, neither significant nor substantial differences were found in dental development or diaphyseal length according to MOD and age (>2 years of age), though some long bones in individuals

Tropical cyclones (TCs) are perhaps the most powerful example of air-sea interaction. Although TC-induced energy exchange has been hypothesized to be a signicant agent of ocean heat transport under...

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) acknowledges that developing independent estimates likely reduces the influence of management bias when auditing accounting estimates. We test this notion, finding evidence that both confirms and contradicts the PCAOB’s perspective. We find that auditors developing an independent estimate after receiving management’s persuasion tactic are, indeed, less susceptible to the tactic’s biasing influence. However, auditors developing an independent estimate before receiving management’s persuasion tactic remain susceptible to the tactic’s biasing influence. Recency effects explain these results. A supplemental experiment that omits independent estimate development confirms this theory. Without an independent estimate, auditors exhibit primacy effects. Our research informs auditing estimates, regulatory guidance, and the de-biasing ability of independent expectations.

Early life exposure to air pollution poses a significant risk to brain development from direct exposure to toxicants or via indirect mechanisms involving the circulatory, pulmonary or gastrointestinal systems. In children, exposure to traffic related air pollution has been associated with adverse effects on cognitive, behavioral and psychomotor development. We aimed to determine whether childhood exposure to traffic related air pollution is associated with regional differences in brain volume and cortical thickness among children enrolled in a longitudinal cohort study of traffic related air pollution and child health. We used magnetic resonance imaging to obtain anatomical brain images from a nested subset of 12 year old participants characterized with either high or low levels of traffic related air pollution exposure during their first year of life. We employed voxel-based morphometry to examine group differences in regional brain volume, and with separate analyses, changes in cortical thickness. Smaller regional gray matter volumes were determined in the left pre- and post-central gyri, the cerebellum, and inferior parietal lobe of participants in the high traffic related air pollution exposure group relative to participants with low exposure. Reduced cortical thickness was observed in participants with high exposure relative to those with low exposure, primarily in sensorimotor regions of the brain including the pre- and post-central gyri and the paracentral lobule, but also within the frontal and limbic regions. These results suggest that significant childhood exposure to traffic related air pollution is associated with structural alterations in brain.