The letter of the law is its literal meaning. Here, the spirit of the law is its perceived intention. We tested the hypothesis that violating the spirit of the law accounts for culpability above and beyond breaking the mere letter. We find that one can incur culpability even when the letter of the law is not technically broken. We examine this effect across various legal contexts and discuss the implications for future research directions.

Sensory-based subtypes among autistic children have been well documented, but little is known about longitudinal sensory subtypes beyond autistic populations. This prospective study aimed to identify subtypes based on trajectories of parent-reported sensory features measured at 6–19 months, 3–4, and 6–7 years of age among a community-based birth cohort (N = 1,517), and to examine their associations with school-age clinical and adaptive/maladaptive outcomes on a subset sample (N = 389). Latent class growth analysis revealed five trajectory subtypes varying in intensity and change rates across three sensory domains. In contrast to an Adaptive-All Improving subtype (35%) with very low sensory features and overall better school-age outcomes, an Elevated-All Worsening subtype (3%), comprised of more boys and children of parents with less education, was associated with most elevated autistic traits and poorest adaptive/maladaptive outcomes. Three other subtypes (62% in total) were generally characterized by stable or improving patterns of sensory features at mild to moderate levels, and challenges in certain outcome domains. Our findings indicate that characterizing children based on early sensory trajectories may contribute to earlier detection of subgroups of children with sensory challenges who are more likely to experience developmental challenges by school age, followed by early targeted interventions for improved long-term outcomes.

Effects of plasma non-uniformities and kinetic dispersiveness on the spontaneous excitation of geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) by reversed shear Alfvén eigenmode (RSAE) are investigated numerically. It is found that, due to the turning points induced by the shear Alfvén continuum structure, the nonlinear excitation of GAM is a quasiexponentially growing absolute instability. As the radial dependence of GAM frequency and pump RSAE mode structure are accounted for, the radially inward propagating GAM is preferentially excited, leading to core localized thermal plasma heating by GAM collisionless damping. Our work, thus, suggests that GAM excitation plays a crucial role in not only RSAE nonlinear saturation, but also anomalous fuel ion heating in future reactors.

Weakly collisional plasmas are subject to nonlinear relaxation processes, which can operate at rates much faster than the particle collision frequencies. This causes the plasma to respond like a magnetised fluid despite having long particle mean free paths. In this Letter the effective collisional mechanisms are modelled in the plasma kinetic equation to produce density, pressure and magnetic-field responses to compare with spacecraft measurements of the solar wind compressive fluctuations at 1 AU. This enables a measurement of the effective mean free path of the solar wind protons, found to be ${\approx }4 \times 10^{5}$ km, which is approximately $10^{3}$ times shorter than the collisional mean free path. These measurements are shown to support the effective fluid behaviour of the solar wind at scales above the proton gyroradius and demonstrate that effective collision processes alter the thermodynamics and transport of weakly collisional plasmas.

We study how firms alter investment projects to mitigate exposure to political uncertainty. We examine deal-level merger data and find that, in addition to delaying and forgoing merger announcements, acquirers shift merger announcements earlier in time to avoid the period between announcement and effective dates overlapping an election, shift targets geographically away from election states, decrease the size of election-year deals, and shift from equity to cash financing for election-year deals. These results are stronger for acquirers with tighter financial constraints and deals more likely to be financed with equity and show financing matters to firms’ responses to election uncertainty.

The great demographic pressure brings tremendous volume of beef demand. The key to solve this problem is the growth and development of Chinese cattle. In order to find molecular markers conducive to the growth and development of Chinese cattle, sequencing was used to determine the position of copy number variations (CNVs), bioinformatics analysis was used to predict the function of ZNF146 gene, real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used for CNV genotyping and one-way analysis of variance was used for association analysis. The results showed that there exists CNV in Chr 18: 47225201-47229600 (5.0.1 version) of ZNF146 gene through the early sequencing results in the laboratory and predicted ZNF146 gene was expressed in liver, skeletal muscle and breast cells, and was amplified or overexpressed in pancreatic cancer, which promoted the development of tumour through bioinformatics. Therefore, it is predicted that ZNF146 gene affects the proliferation of muscle cells, and then affects the growth and development of cattle. Furthermore, CNV genotyping of ZNF146 gene was three types (deletion type, normal type and duplication type) by Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (qPCR). The association analysis results showed that ZNF146-CNV was significantly correlated with rump length of Qinchuan cattle, hucklebone width of Jiaxian red cattle and heart girth of Yunling cattle. From the above results, ZNF146-CNV had a significant effect on growth traits, which provided an important candidate molecular marker for growth and development of Chinese cattle.

Background: Isolated central nervous system lymphomas (CNS-L) has non-specific clinical presentations causing delays in diagnosis and treatment. This retrospective case series aims to characterize these challenges in the inpatient setting. Methods: Chart review of biopsy-proven CNS-L cases (n=10) presenting to Vancouver General Hospital from 2018-2020: diffuse (8/10) and intravascular (2/10) large B-cell lymphomas were included. Results: Median age was 69 years (31-83); 50% were female; 9/10 immunocompetent, 1/10 had well-controlled HIV. Neurologic symptoms at presentation: ataxia (7/10), paresis (4/10), dysphagia (4/10), dysarthria (2/10), and cognitive decline (4/10). Median time from symptom onset to admission with paresis, ataxia, dysphagia, or dysarthria was 3 days (1-14), compared to 84 days (28-384) with transient/vague symptoms. Median time from admission to biopsy was 25 days (5-148). 4/10 received steroid prior to biopsy. 1/10 had solitary lesion on MRI, 8/10 had ≥2 lesions. Diagnosed on lumbar puncture (0/10), skin biopsy (1/10), vitreous biopsy (1/10), brain biopsy (8/10), autopsy (1/10). 4/10 survived, 6/10 died; median time from admission to mortality was 133 days (61-342). Conclusions: Many factors lead to delays in diagnosis and treatment of CNS-L, including non-specific clinical presentations and time to brain biopsy for definitive diagnosis. Earlier recognition and reducing biopsy delays may help achieve earlier diagnosis.

Background: Quantitative and objective neurophysiological assessment can help to define the predominant phenomenology and provide diagnoses with prognostic and therapeutic implications. We evaluated retrospectively the indications and final diagnoses of movement disorder neurophysiological evaluations in a specialized movement disorders centre. Methods: Reports from 2003 to 11/2021 were reviewed. The indications were classified according to predominant phenomenology, and the diagnosis of each study was categorized in subgroups of each phenomenology. Results: A total of 525 reports were evaluated. The mean age of patients was 51 years (range 5 – 89 years), and 50% were women. The most common indication was functional movement disorders (33%), followed by jerky movements (25%), tremor (20%), unsteadiness (6%), stiff person syndrome (4%), and other less common indications (12%). The most prevalent diagnoses were functional movement disorder (37%), followed by tremor (28%), comprising of essential (6%), dystonic (5%), cerebellar (4%), parkinsonian (3%) and other types of tremors (10%); and myoclonus (21%), including cortical (8%), subcortical (3%) and undefined (10%) types. Conclusions: This 17-year experience showed that neurophysiological testing can help in the diagnosis of movement disorders. More standardized techniques will encourage the widespread use of neurophysiology to evaluate movement disorders.

The ability of plants to absorb CO2 for photosynthesis and transport water from root to shoot depends on the reversible swelling of guard cells that open stomatal pores in the epidermis. Despite decades of experimental and theoretical work, the biomechanical drivers of stomatal opening and closure are still not clearly defined. We combined mechanical principles with a growing body of knowledge concerning water flux across the plant cell membrane and the biomechanical properties of plant cell walls to quantitatively test the long-standing hypothesis that increasing turgor pressure resulting from water uptake drives guard cell expansion during stomatal opening. To test the alternative hypothesis that water influx is the main motive force underlying guard cell expansion, we developed a system dynamics model accounting for water influx. This approach connects stomatal kinetics to whole plant physiology by including values for water flux arising from water status in the plant .

The goal for many PhD students in archaeology is tenure-track employment. Students primarily receive their training by tenure-track or tenured professors, and they are often tacitly expected—or explicitly encouraged—to follow in the footsteps of their advisor. However, the career trajectories that current and recent PhD students follow may hold little resemblance to the ones experienced by their advisors. To understand these different paths and to provide information for current PhD students considering pursuing a career in academia, we surveyed 438 archaeologists holding tenured or tenure-track positions in the United States. The survey, recorded in 2019, posed a variety of questions regarding the personal experiences of individual professors. The results are binned by the decade in which the respondent graduated. Evident patterns are discussed in terms of change over time. The resulting portraits of academic pathways through the past five decades indicate that although broad commonalities exist in the qualifications of early career academics, there is no singular pathway to obtaining tenure-track employment. We highlight the commonalities revealed in our survey to provide a set of general qualifications that might provide a baseline set of skills and experiences for an archaeologist seeking a tenure-track job in the United States.

Precision and accuracy of quantitative scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) methods such as ptychography, and the mapping of electric, magnetic, and strain fields depend on the dose. Reasonable acquisition time requires high beam current and the ability to quantitatively detect both large and minute changes in signal. A new hybrid pixel array detector (PAD), the second-generation Electron Microscope Pixel Array Detector (EMPAD-G2), addresses this challenge by advancing the technology of a previous generation PAD, the EMPAD. The EMPAD-G2 images continuously at a frame-rates up to 10 kHz with a dynamic range that spans from low-noise detection of single electrons to electron beam currents exceeding 180 pA per pixel, even at electron energies of 300 keV. The EMPAD-G2 enables rapid collection of high-quality STEM data that simultaneously contain full diffraction information from unsaturated bright-field disks to usable Kikuchi bands and higher-order Laue zones. Test results from 80 to 300 keV are presented, as are first experimental results demonstrating ptychographic reconstructions, strain and polarization maps. We introduce a new information metric, the maximum usable imaging speed (MUIS), to identify when a detector becomes electron-starved, saturated or its pixel count is mismatched with the beam current.