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The Effects of Forecasts on the Accuracy and Precision of Expectations
No full textQuantitative forecasts have become increasingly prominent as tools for aiding public understanding of sociopolitical trends. But how much, and what, do people learn from quantitative forecasts? In this note, we show through a preregistered survey experiment that real forecasts of the 2022 French presidential election significantly affect expectations of the election result. The direction of that effect hinges on how the forecast is presented. Voters become more accurate and precise in their predictions of each candidate’s vote share when given forecast information in the form of projected vote share. Forecasts presented as numerical probabilities make such expectations less accurate and less precise. When combined, the effects of both forms on vote share expectations tend to cancel out, but jointly boost voters’ ability to identify likely winners. Our findings have implications for the public communication of quantitative information
Medical image classification by incorporating clinical variables and learned features
No full textMedical image classification plays an important role in medical imaging. In this work, we present a novel approach to enhance deep learning models in medical image classification by incorporating clinical variables without overwhelming the information. Unlike most existing deep neural network models that only consider single-pixel information, our method captures a more comprehensive view. Our method contains two main steps and is effective in tackling the extra challenge raised by the scarcity of medical data. Firstly, we employ a pre-trained deep neural network served as a feature extractor to capture meaningful image features. Then, an exquisite discriminant analysis is applied to reduce the dimensionality of these features, ensuring that the low number of features remains optimized for the classification task and striking a balance with the clinical variables information. We also develop a way of obtaining class activation maps for our approach in visualizing models' focus on specific regions within the low-dimensional feature space. Thorough experimental results demonstrate improvements of our proposed method over state-of-the-art methods for tuberculosis and dermatology issues for example. Furthermore, a comprehensive comparison with a popular dimensionality reduction technique (principal component analysis) is also conducted.</p
Mental health outcomes associated with childhood exposure to domestic violence and abuse in low- and middle-income countries
No full textDNA fragment length analysis using vibrational spectroscopy
No full textCurrent cell-free DNA analysis methods are costly and complex, limiting clinical use. This study demonstrates vibrational spectroscopy as a novel, efficient tool for DNA fragment length prediction, advancing precision biomedical diagnostics and monitoring
Searching for Ithaca: the geography and psychological benefits of nostalgic places
No full textWhat are the places for which people are most nostalgic? We explored the physical and psychological characteristics of places that evoke nostalgia. In Study 1 (N = 200 U.K. residents), we used self-reports and dictionary methods to capture the diversity of such places. Blue landscapes, located near sea, ocean, rivers, and lakes, emerged as the most frequent nostalgic places. In Studies 2 (N = 398 U.S. residents) and 3 (N = 400 U.S. residents), we experimentally contrasted nostalgic places against ordinary ones. Self-reports, language, and geolocation data painted the portrait of typical nostalgic places: Set in a blue landscape, they vary in size between a building and a town, and are less grey and more green than ordinary places. Nostalgic places are further away from one’s current location, yet they appear psychologically closer than ordinary ones. Place nostalgia (vs. control) furthermore increases social connectedness, meaning in life, self-continuity, self-esteem, and authenticity. Future research could examine place nostalgia across different geographies, cultures, or countries
Levitation and controlled MHz rotation of a nanofabricated rod by a high-NA metalens
No full textAn optically levitated nanoparticle in a vacuum provides an ideal platform for ultra-precision measurements and fundamental physics studies because of the exceptionally high-quality factor and rich motion modes, which can be engineered by manipulating the optical field and the geometry of the nanoparticle. Nanofabrication technology with the ability to create arbitrary nanostructure arrays offers a precise way of engineering the optical field and the geometry of the nanoparticle. Here, for the first time, we optically levitate and rotate a nanofabricated nanorod via a nanofabricated a-Si metalens which strongly focuses a 1550 nm laser beam with a numerical aperture of 0.953. By manipulating the laser beam’s polarization, the levitated nanorod’s translation frequencies can be tuned, and the spin rotation mode can be switched on and off. Then, we showed the control of rotational frequency by changing the laser beam’s intensity and polarization as well as the air pressure. Finally, a MHz spin rotation frequency of the nanorod is achieved in the experiment. This is the first demonstration of controlled optical spin in a metalens-based compact optical levitation system. Our research holds promise for realizing scalable on-chip integrated optical levitation systems
Indigenous collective rights to consultation and representative speech
No full textIndigenous participatory rights, as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), are collective rights for Indigenous Peoples to have a say in decisions affecting them – something these communities are envisaged as doing “through their own representative institutions” (Article 19). However, the conditions of group representation are not clearly spelled out in the UNDRIP or in commentaries on its provisions. Our article addresses this in two inter-connected ways. First, we distinguish genuine spokesperson speech from three other kinds of representative speech (speaking about the group, speaking as a group member, and speaking in behalf of a group). Second, we identify two minimal conditions of genuine spokesperson speech: that the spokesperson be authorised by the group in whose name they speak, and that the spokesperson speaks for the group willingly and knowingly. While relatively simple in theory, each of these conditions throws up a number of questions, such as who gets to authorise a spokesperson and how individuals might be compelled into acting as spokesperson. We conclude the paper by turning briefly to the issue of how states and the law ought to better ensure that Indigenous Peoples areable to have a say through their proper spokespersons
The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT – XVI. Mapping the Galactic magnetic field with pulsar observations
No full textMeasuring the magnetic field of the Milky Way reveals the structure and evolution of the Galaxy. Pulsar rotation measures (RMs) provide a means to probe this Galactic magnetic field (GMF) in three dimensions. We use the largest single-origin data set of pulsar measurements, from the MeerKAT Thousand-Pulsar-Array, to map out GMF components parallel to pulsar lines of sight. We also present these measurements for easy integration into the consolidated RM catalogue, RMTable. Focusing on the Galactic disc, we investigate competing theories of how the GMF relates to the spiral arms, comparing our observational map with five analytic models of magnetic field structure. We also analyse RMs to extragalactic radio sources, to help build-up a three-dimensional picture of the magnetic structure of the Galaxy. In particular, our large number of measurements allows us to investigate differing magnetic field behaviour in the upper and lower halves of the Galactic plane. We find that the GMF is best explained as following the spiral arms in a roughly bisymmetric structure, with antisymmetric parity with respect to the Galactic plane. This picture is complicated by variations in parity on different spiral arms, and the parity change location appears to be shifted by a distance of 0.15 kpc perpendicular to the Galactic plane. This indicates a complex relationship between the large-scale distributions of matter and magnetic fields in our Galaxy. Future pulsar discoveries will help reveal the origins of this relationship with greater precision, as well as probing the locations of local magnetic field inhomogenities.</p
High-light-inducible proteins control associations between chlorophyll synthase and the Photosystem II biogenesis factor Ycf39
No full textThe biogenesis of Photosystem II is a complicated process requiring numerous auxiliary factors to assist in all steps of its assembly. The cyanobacterial protein Ycf39 forms a stress-induced complex with 2 small chlorophyll-binding, High-light-inducible proteins C and D (HliC and HliD), and has been reported to participate in the insertion of chlorophyll molecules into the central D1 subunit of Photosystem II. However, how this process is organized remains unknown. Here, we show that Ycf39 and both HliC and HliD can form distinct complexes with chlorophyll synthase (ChlG) in the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. We isolated and characterized ChlG complexes from various strains grown under different conditions and provide a mechanistic view of the docking of Ycf39 to ChlG via HliD and the structural role of HliC. In the absence of stress, chlorophyll is produced by the ChlG-HliD2-ChlG complex, which is stabilized by chlorophyll and zeaxanthin molecules bound to the HliD homodimer. The switch to high light leads to stress pressure and greatly elevated synthesis of HliC, resulting in the replacement of HliD homodimers with HliC-HliD heterodimers. Unlike HliD, HliC cannot interact directly with ChlG or Ycf39. Therefore, the original ChlG-HliD2-ChlG complex is converted into a ChlG-HliD-HliC hetero-trimer that presumably binds transiently to Ycf39 and the nascent D1 polypeptide. We speculate that this molecular machinery promotes the delivery of chlorophyll to D1 upon high-light-induced chlorophyll deficiency. The HliD homodimers formed under standard, nonstress growth conditions and attached to ChlG could serve as an emergency chlorophyll reserve.</p
Extensive folding variability between homologous chromosomes in mammalian cells
No full textGenetic variation and 3D chromatin structure have major roles in gene regulation. Due to challenges in mapping chromatin conformation with haplotype-specific resolution, the effects of genetic sequence variation on 3D genome structure and gene expression imbalance remain understudied. Here, we applied Genome Architecture Mapping (GAM) to a hybrid mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) line with high density of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). GAM resolved haplotype-specific 3D genome structures with high sensitivity, revealing extensive allelic differences in chromatin compartments, topologically associating domains (TADs), long-range enhancer-promoter contacts, and CTCF loops. Architectural differences often coincide with allele-specific differences in gene expression, and with Polycomb occupancy. We show that histone genes are expressed with allelic imbalance in mESCs, and are involved in haplotype-specific chromatin contacts marked by H3K27me3. Conditional knockouts of Polycomb enzymatic subunits, Ezh2 or Ring1, show that one-third of ASE genes, including histone genes, is regulated through Polycomb repression. Our work reveals highly distinct 3D folding structures between homologous chromosomes, and highlights their intricate connections with allelic gene expression
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