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CluSim: a python package for calculating clustering similarity
No full textClustering is a primary method to reveal the structure of data (Jain, Murty, & Flynn, 1999). To understand, evaluate, and leverage data clusterings, we need to quantitatively compare them. Clustering comparison is the basis for method evaluation, consensus clustering, and tracking the temporal evolution of clusters, among many other tasks. For instance, the evaluation of a clustering method is usually achieved by comparing the method’s result to a planted reference clustering, assuming that the more similar the method’s solution is to the reference clustering, the better the method. Despite the importance of clustering comparison, no consensus has been reached for a standardized assessment; each similarity measure rewards and penalizes different criteria, sometimes producing contradictory conclusions
Co-prescription network reveals social dynamics of opioid doctor shopping
No full textThis paper examines network prominence in a co-prescription network as an indicator of opioid doctor shopping (i.e., fraudulent solicitation of opioids from multiple prescribers). Using longitudinal data from a large commercially insured population, we construct a network where a tie between patients is weighted by the number of shared opioid prescribers. Given prior research suggesting that doctor shopping may be a social process, we hypothesize that active doctor shoppers will occupy central structural positions in this network. We show that network prominence, operationalized using PageRank, is associated with more opioid prescriptions, higher predicted risk for dangerous morphine dosage, opioid overdose, and opioid use disorder, controlling for number of prescribers and other variables. Moreover, as a patient’s prominence increases over time, so does their risk for these outcomes, compared to their own average level of risk. Results highlight the importance of co-prescription networks in characterizing high-risk social dynamics
Radial growth response s of tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) to climate in the eastern United States
Get PDFTulip poplar is an important component of the eastern deciduous forest and one of the few diffuse‐porous tree species with indeterminate apical growth in North America for which there are substantial dendroecological data. This dendroecological study evaluated correlations between radial growth of tulip poplar and monthly, seasonal, and annual climate variables and how these correlations varied across time and spatial climate gradients. The strongest and most spatially consistent correlations were with climate variables related to site water balance, especially precipitation. Growth was positively correlated with climate variables related to site water balance during the months of May through July of the year the annual ring forms and during the previous year growing season and autumn. Growth was negatively correlated with prior year growing season maximum temperature, but positively correlated with prior winter minimum temperature. There was some evidence of temporal variation in growth–climate associations between 1900 and 2016, but the climate variables with the strongest associations were consistent across different time periods. Correlations with climate variables related to water stress increased from east to west as precipitation decreased, but there was no spatial trend in correlations with growing season temperature from north to south as temperature increases. Strength of positive correlations with winter temperature increased from north to south. Growth of tulip poplar will likely be adversely affected if drought frequency or severity increases during the twenty‐first century. Increased winter temperature would likely have a positive influence on growth during the subsequent growing season in some parts of the species range. Radial growth of tulip poplar is most affected by climate conditions during a narrow time period early in the growing season, similar to results obtained for multiple oak species and a few other diffuse‐porous species in eastern North America. Simulation modelers might consider the phenology of these correlations to formulate more biologically realistic tree climate response functions
Experiencing Chen Yi’s Music: Local and Cosmopolitan Reciprocities in Ning for Pipa, Violin and Cello (2002)
No full textChen Yi’s music, particularly her Ning for Pipa, Violin and Cello (2002), constructs reciprocities in compositional and aesthetic practice, and in the social-relational dynamics of musical contrast, performative and commemorative impulses. One aim of my paper is to suggest how Chen’s music offers multiple affiliations for music listeners, such that the local emerges in the cosmopolitan and vice versa. Events and textures emerge from, and become emblematic in emotional (affective) characters, in multiple orientations and receptions. Chen counterpoints and integrates the durational patterning suggestive of irregular Chinese “Ba Ban” tunes and more regular melodic models extending from popular song (e.g., the “Mo Li Hua” tune in Ning). Moving between, displacing and traversing—these emerging associations, narratives, encounters and migrations, entangle listening experiences of self and community, borderland and nation, and trauma and place
The fountain of knowledge: an epistemological perspective on the growth of U.S. SBIR-funded firms
No full textThe premise of this paper is that a basis for firms receiving Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) research awards to develop commercializable technologies is not only their proposed creative ideas but also their endowment of attendant knowledge necessary to develop the technology being proposed. Based on this premise, we propose that those firms that have higher growth rates attributable to their SBIR awards are also those firms that are more creative and have more knowledge endowments. Empirically, we quantify a firms creativity and its sources of research knowledge in terms of its past experiences, and we find that firms with more technical experience and sector experience are those that have realized higher growth rates from their SBIR-funded research
Choosing and enjoying violence in narratives
No full textWe use an interactive story design in which participants read short stories and make two consecutive plot choices about whether protagonists commit low- or high-violence actions. Our study has four main findings. 1) People who choose high violence report greater satisfaction with the story, while those switching to or staying with no violence show lower satisfaction. 2) However, when participants encounter these stories without choices, they reliably rate higher-violence stories as less satisfying than lower-violence stories. 3) Regret seems to account for the low satisfaction of those who choose or switch to low violence. 4) There is a large segment of people (up to 66%) who can be persuaded by different story contexts (genre, perspective) to choose extreme violence in interactive fiction and as a consequence of their choice feel satisfaction. We hypothesize that people who opt for high violence enjoy the story as a result of their choice. Overall, we suggest that choosing violence serves as a gateway for enjoyment by creating an aesthetic zone of control detached from morality
The Implementation of Randomization Requires Corrected Analyses. Comment on "Comprehensive Nutritional and Dietary Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorder- Randomized, Controlled 12-Month Trial, Nutrients 2018, 10, 369"
No full textWe commend Adams et al. [1] for undertaking a lengthy intervention with a randomized design. However, we have concerns about the implementation of the randomization and analysis of results. Using block randomization, the authors enrolled 37 participants to the treatment and 30 to the non-treatment groups. In response to our email asking how block randomization led to these discrepant group sizes, the corresponding author added that they balanced participants between high and low “ABA therapy” and by age, and paired siblings to the same treatment groups, then randomly assigned within each batch. We thank the author for communicating these details; however, this raises three specific concerns regarding the randomization and/or the extent to which the analyses used are correct given the randomization
Spin in the abstract in "Impact of motivational interviewing on outcomes of an adolescent obesity treatment: Results from the MI Values randomized controlled pilot trial"
No full textCascade decays of heavy Higgs bosons through vectorlike quarks in two Higgs doublet models
No full textWe study cascade decays of heavy neutral Higgs bosons through vectorlike quarks. We focus on scenarios where decay modes into pairs of vectorlike quarks are not kinematically open which extends the sensitivity of the LHC to larger masses. Assuming only mixing with the third family of standard model quarks the new decay modes of heavy Higgs bosons are: and where () is the new up-type (down-type) quark mass eigenstate. In the numerical analysis we assume the CP even Higgs boson in the two Higgs doublet model type-II but the signatures are relevant for many other scenarios. We identify the region of the parameter space where these decay modes are significant or can even dominate, and thus they provide the best opportunities for the simultaneous discovery of a new Higgs boson and vectorlike quarks. We further explore the reach of the High Luminosity LHC for two representative decay modes, and , and found that cross sections at a 0.1 fb level can be probed with simple cut based analyses. We also find that the rates for Higgs cascade decays can be much larger than the rates for a single production of vectorlike quarks. Furthermore, the reach for vectorlike quarks in Higgs cascade decays and pair production extends to comparable masses
Athletic Training Service Characteristics for Patients With Ankle Sprains Sustained During High School Athletics
No full textContext Limited information exists on the amount and type of care provided by athletic trainers (ATs) treating athletes who sustained ankle sprains in the high school setting. Objective To describe AT services provided for patients with ankle sprains injured in high school athletics. Design Descriptive epidemiology study. Setting Athletic training facility (ATF) visits and AT services collected from 147 high schools in 26 states. Patients or Other Participants High school student-athletes participating in 13 boys' and 14 girls' sports who sustained a diagnosed ankle sprain during the 2011−2012 through 2013−2014 academic years. The ATs documented 3213 ankle sprains. Main Outcome Measure(s) Number of ATF visits and individual AT services and mean ATF visits (per injury) and AT services (per injury) were calculated by sport and for time-loss injuries (participation-restriction time of at least 24 hours) and non–time-loss injuries (participation-restriction time <24 hours). Results During the 3-year period, 19 925 ATF visits were reported, with an average of 6 (interquartile range = 1−7) ATF visits per ankle sprain. Most ATF visits were for non–time-loss injuries (65.1%). Football accounted for the largest proportions of ankle sprains (27.3%) and ATF visits (35.0%). In total, 71 404 AT services were provided for ankle sprains. Therapeutic activities or exercise were the most common AT services (47.4%), followed by neuromuscular reeducation (16.6%), strapping (14.2%), and modalities (11.5%). An average of 22 (interquartile range = 4−28) AT services were reported per ankle sprain. The average number of AT services per injury was higher among patients with time-loss than non–time-loss injuries (35 versus 19; P < .001). Conclusions The ATs provided a variety of services to treat high school athletes who had sustained ankle sprains, including therapeutic exercises and neuromuscular reeducation, which were supported by research. However, ATs should consider using manual therapy (use supported by grade B evidence) and therapeutic exercise more (use supported by grade A evidence)