For millions of Americans, working at home isn't an option. NBC News identified seven occupations in which employees are at especially high risk of COVID-19.

Some Democrats took "Believe Women" literally until Joe Biden was accused. Now they're relearning that guilt-by-accusation doesn't serve justice.

Philippe Gagnon, Alain Desgagné, Mylène Bédard.

Source: Bayesian Analysis, Volume 15, Number 2, 389--414.

Abstract:
Linear regression is ubiquitous in statistical analysis. It is well understood that conflicting sources of information may contaminate the inference when the classical normality of errors is assumed. The contamination caused by the light normal tails follows from an undesirable effect: the posterior concentrates in an area in between the different sources with a large enough scaling to incorporate them all. The theory of conflict resolution in Bayesian statistics (O’Hagan and Pericchi (2012)) recommends to address this problem by limiting the impact of outliers to obtain conclusions consistent with the bulk of the data. In this paper, we propose a model with super heavy-tailed errors to achieve this. We prove that it is wholly robust, meaning that the impact of outliers gradually vanishes as they move further and further away from the general trend. The super heavy-tailed density is similar to the normal outside of the tails, which gives rise to an efficient estimation procedure. In addition, estimates are easily computed. This is highlighted via a detailed user guide, where all steps are explained through a simulated case study. The performance is shown using simulation. All required code is given.

Abhirup Datta, Sudipto Banerjee, James S. Hodges, Leiwen Gao.

Source: Bayesian Analysis, Volume 14, Number 4, 1221--1244.

Abstract:
Hierarchical models for regionally aggregated disease incidence data commonly involve region specific latent random effects that are modeled jointly as having a multivariate Gaussian distribution. The covariance or precision matrix incorporates the spatial dependence between the regions. Common choices for the precision matrix include the widely used ICAR model, which is singular, and its nonsingular extension which lacks interpretability. We propose a new parametric model for the precision matrix based on a directed acyclic graph (DAG) representation of the spatial dependence. Our model guarantees positive definiteness and, hence, in addition to being a valid prior for regional spatially correlated random effects, can also directly model the outcome from dependent data like images and networks. Theoretical results establish a link between the parameters in our model and the variance and covariances of the random effects. Simulation studies demonstrate that the improved interpretability of our model reaps benefits in terms of accurately recovering the latent spatial random effects as well as for inference on the spatial covariance parameters. Under modest spatial correlation, our model far outperforms the CAR models, while the performances are similar when the spatial correlation is strong. We also assess sensitivity to the choice of the ordering in the DAG construction using theoretical and empirical results which testify to the robustness of our model. We also present a large-scale public health application demonstrating the competitive performance of the model.

Luis Gutiérrez, Andrés F. Barrientos, Jorge González, Daniel Taylor-Rodríguez.

Source: Bayesian Analysis, Volume 14, Number 2, 649--675.

Abstract:
We propose a Bayesian nonparametric strategy to test for differences between a control group and several treatment regimes. Most of the existing tests for this type of comparison are based on the differences between location parameters. In contrast, our approach identifies differences across the entire distribution, avoids strong modeling assumptions over the distributions for each treatment, and accounts for multiple testing through the prior distribution on the space of hypotheses. The proposal is compared to other commonly used hypothesis testing procedures under simulated scenarios. Two real applications are also analyzed with the proposed methodology.

M. W. McLean, M. P. Wand.

Source: Bayesian Analysis, Volume 14, Number 2, 371--398.

Abstract:
We build on recent work concerning message passing approaches to approximate fitting and inference for arbitrarily large regression models. The focus is on regression models where the response variable is modeled to have an elaborate distribution, which is loosely defined to mean a distribution that is more complicated than common distributions such as those in the Bernoulli, Poisson and Normal families. Examples of elaborate response families considered here are the Negative Binomial and $t$ families. Variational message passing is more challenging due to some of the conjugate exponential families being non-standard and numerical integration being needed. Nevertheless, a factor graph fragment approach means the requisite calculations only need to be done once for a particular elaborate response distribution family. Computer code can be compartmentalized, including that involving numerical integration. A major finding of this work is that the modularity of variational message passing extends to elaborate response regression models.

Nathan B. Cruze, Andreea L. Erciulescu, Balgobin Nandram, Wendy J. Barboza, Linda J. Young.

Source: Statistical Science, Volume 34, Number 2, 301--316.

Abstract:
In the United States, county-level estimates of crop yield, production, and acreage published by the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA NASS) play an important role in determining the value of payments allotted to farmers and ranchers enrolled in several federal programs. Given the importance of these official county-level crop estimates, NASS continually strives to improve its crops county estimates program in terms of accuracy, reliability and coverage. In 2015, NASS engaged a panel of experts convened under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) for guidance on implementing models that may synthesize multiple sources of information into a single estimate, provide defensible measures of uncertainty, and potentially increase the number of publishable county estimates. The final report titled Improving Crop Estimates by Integrating Multiple Data Sources was released in 2017. This paper discusses several needs and requirements for NASS county-level crop estimates that were illuminated during the activities of the CNSTAT panel. A motivating example of planted acreage estimation in Illinois illustrates several challenges that NASS faces as it considers adopting any explicit model for official crops county estimates.

London : Cleanair (33 Stillness Rd, London, SE23 1NG), [198-?]

[London?], [199-?]

1897.

[London], 2019.

They’re already going out of stock.

Jasper Akerboom
Oct 3, 2012; 32:13819-13840
Cellular

Irune Diaz-Aparicio
Feb 12, 2020; 40:1453-1482
Development Plasticity Repair

Benjamin E. Reese
Mar 2, 2005; 25:2167-2175
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Georg S. Kranz
Nov 12, 2014; 34:15466-15475
Systems/Circuits

Michele Bellesi
May 24, 2017; 37:5263-5273
Cellular

KM Harris
Jul 1, 1992; 12:2685-2705
Articles

Jasper Akerboom
Oct 3, 2012; 32:13819-13840
Cellular

Jessica A. Gorski
Aug 1, 2002; 22:6309-6314
BRIEF COMMUNICATION

HG Kuhn
Mar 15, 1996; 16:2027-2033
Articles

Geoffrey M. Boynton
Jul 1, 1996; 16:4207-4221
Articles

Italian translation of Press Release about BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens giving a speech on "Money in the digital age: what role for central banks?" (6 February 2018)

Italian version of BIS Press Release - BIS Quarterly Review, 1 March 2020 - Definire il futuro dei pagamenti: Rassegna trimestrale BRI

French translation of Press Release about BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens giving a speech on "Money in the digital age: what role for central banks?" (6 February 2018)

French translation of press release - the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is finalising stress-testing principles, reviews ways to stop regulatory arbitrage behaviour, agrees on annual G-SIB list, discusses leverage ratio, crypto-assets, market risk framework and implementation, 20 September 2018.

Spanish translation of the BIS press release about the BIS Quarterly Review, March 2018

Spanish version of Press release about CPMI and the Markets Committee issuing a report on "Central bank digital currencies" (12 March 2018)

Spanish version of Press release about new members joining the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (19 March 2018)

These days are either the most trying time for encouraging employee engagement or the best we could expect. With so many people working remotely, many businesses need extra ways to communicate with the rank and file, and this might present a prime opportunity to try new things. We make a big deal of engaging the customer, and in most CRM circles engagement outranks simple customer experience.

Oracle and Zoom just entered a deal that for once is more about technological audacity than about dollars -- a partnership to host Zoom on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. In just a few months -- basically since the beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic -- Zoom has seen demand for its service grow from about 10 million daily meeting participants to more than 300 million.

Welcoming remarks by Mr Fernando Restoy, Chairman, Financial Stability Institute, Bank for International Settlements, at the FSI-IADI conference on crisis management, resolution and deposit insurance: what's next and how to prepare, Basel, 4 September 2019.

Exiting low inflation traps by "consensus": nominal wages and price stability - Speech by Luiz A Pereira da Silva and Benoît Mojon, based on the keynote speech at the Eighth High-level Policy Dialogue between the Eurosystem and Latin American Central Banks, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, 28-29 November 2019.

Mitochondrial fission catalyzed by dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) is necessary for mitochondrial biogenesis and maintenance of healthy mitochondria. However, excessive fission has been associated with multiple neurodegenerative disorders, and we recently reported that mice with smaller mitochondria are sensitized to ischemic stroke injury. Although pharmacological Drp1 inhibition has been put forward as neuroprotective, the specificity and mechanism of the inhibitor used is controversial. Here, we provide genetic evidence that Drp1 inhibition is neuroprotective. Drp1 is activated by dephosphorylation of an inhibitory phosphorylation site, Ser637. We identify Bβ2, a mitochondria-localized protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) regulatory subunit, as a neuron-specific Drp1 activator in vivo. Bβ2 KO mice of both sexes display elongated mitochondria in neurons and are protected from cerebral ischemic injury. Functionally, deletion of Bβ2 and maintained Drp1 Ser637 phosphorylation improved mitochondrial respiratory capacity, Ca²⁺ homeostasis, and attenuated superoxide production in response to ischemia and excitotoxicity in vitro and ex vivo. Last, deletion of Bβ2 rescued excessive stroke damage associated with dephosphorylation of Drp1 S637 and mitochondrial fission. These results indicate that the state of mitochondrial connectivity and PP2A/Bβ2-mediated dephosphorylation of Drp1 play a critical role in determining the severity of cerebral ischemic injury. Therefore, Bβ2 may represent a target for prophylactic neuroprotective therapy in populations at high risk of stroke.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT With recent advances in clinical practice including mechanical thrombectomy up to 24 h after the ischemic event, there is resurgent interest in neuroprotective stroke therapies. In this study, we demonstrate reduced stroke damage in the brain of mice lacking the Bβ2 regulatory subunit of protein phosphatase 2A, which we have shown previously acts as a positive regulator of the mitochondrial fission enzyme dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1). Importantly, we provide evidence that deletion of Bβ2 can rescue excessive ischemic damage in mice lacking the mitochondrial PKA scaffold AKAP1, apparently via opposing effects on Drp1 S637 phosphorylation. These results highlight reversible phosphorylation in bidirectional regulation of Drp1 activity and identify Bβ2 as a potential pharmacological target to protect the brain from stroke injury.

It has been proposed that people can generate probabilistic predictions at multiple levels of representation during language comprehension. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG), in combination with representational similarity analysis, to seek neural evidence for the prediction of animacy features. In two studies, MEG and EEG activity was measured as human participants (both sexes) read three-sentence scenarios. Verbs in the final sentences constrained for either animate or inanimate semantic features of upcoming nouns, and the broader discourse context constrained for either a specific noun or for multiple nouns belonging to the same animacy category. We quantified the similarity between spatial patterns of brain activity following the verbs until just before the presentation of the nouns. The MEG and EEG datasets revealed converging evidence that the similarity between spatial patterns of neural activity following animate-constraining verbs was greater than following inanimate-constraining verbs. This effect could not be explained by lexical-semantic processing of the verbs themselves. We therefore suggest that it reflected the inherent difference in the semantic similarity structure of the predicted animate and inanimate nouns. Moreover, the effect was present regardless of whether a specific word could be predicted, providing strong evidence for the prediction of coarse-grained semantic features that goes beyond the prediction of individual words.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Language inputs unfold very quickly during real-time communication. By predicting ahead, we can give our brains a "head start," so that language comprehension is faster and more efficient. Although most contexts do not constrain strongly for a specific word, they do allow us to predict some upcoming information. For example, following the context of "they cautioned the...," we can predict that the next word will be animate rather than inanimate (we can caution a person, but not an object). Here, we used EEG and MEG techniques to show that the brain is able to use these contextual constraints to predict the animacy of upcoming words during sentence comprehension, and that these predictions are associated with specific spatial patterns of neural activity.

Synaptic dysfunction provoking dysregulated cortical neural circuits is currently hypothesized as a key pathophysiological process underlying clinical manifestations in Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative tauopathies. Here, we conducted PET along with postmortem assays to investigate time course changes of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic constituents in an rTg4510 mouse model of tauopathy, which develops tau pathologies leading to noticeable brain atrophy at 5-6 months of age. Both male and female mice were analyzed in this study. We observed that radiosignals derived from [¹¹C]flumazenil, a tracer for benzodiazepine receptor, in rTg4510 mice were significantly lower than the levels in nontransgenic littermates at 2-3 months of age. In contrast, retentions of (E)-[¹¹C]ABP688, a tracer for mGluR5, were unaltered relative to controls at 2 months of age but then gradually declined with aging in parallel with progressive brain atrophy. Biochemical and immunohistochemical assessment of postmortem brain tissues demonstrated that inhibitory, but not excitatory, synaptic constituents selectively diminished without overt loss of somas of GABAergic interneurons in the neocortex and hippocampus of rTg4510 mice at 2 months of age, which was concurrent with enhanced immunoreactivity of cFos, a well-characterized immediate early gene, suggesting that impaired inhibitory neurotransmission may cause hyperexcitability of cortical circuits. Our findings indicate that tau-induced disruption of the inhibitory synapse may be a critical trigger of progressive neurodegeneration, resulting in massive neuronal loss, and PET assessments of inhibitory versus excitatory synapses potentially offer in vivo indices for hyperexcitability and excitotoxicity early in the etiologic pathway of neurodegenerative tauopathies.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In this study, we examined the in vivo status of excitatory and inhibitory synapses in the brain of the rTg4510 tauopathy mouse model by PET imaging with (E)-[¹¹C]ABP688 and [¹¹C]flumazenil, respectively. We identified inhibitory synapse as being significantly dysregulated before brain atrophy at 2 months of age, while excitatory synapse stayed relatively intact at this stage. In line with this observation, postmortem assessment of brain tissues demonstrated selective attenuation of inhibitory synaptic constituents accompanied by the upregulation of cFos before the formation of tau pathology in the forebrain at young ages. Our findings indicate that selective degeneration of inhibitory synapse with hyperexcitability in the cortical circuit constitutes the critical early pathophysiology of tauopathy.

Biases in sensory perception can arise from both experimental manipulations and personal trait-like features. These idiosyncratic biases and their neural underpinnings are often overlooked in studies on the physiology underlying perception. A potential candidate mechanism reflecting such idiosyncratic biases could be spontaneous alpha band activity, a prominent brain rhythm known to influence perceptual reports in general. Using a temporal order judgment task, we here tested the hypothesis that alpha power reflects the overcoming of an idiosyncratic bias. Importantly, to understand the interplay between idiosyncratic biases and contextual (temporary) biases induced by experimental manipulations, we quantified this relation before and after temporal recalibration. Using EEG recordings in human participants (male and female), we find that prestimulus frontal alpha power correlates with the tendency to respond relative to an own idiosyncratic bias, with stronger α leading to responses matching the bias. In contrast, alpha power does not predict response correctness. These results also hold after temporal recalibration and are specific to the alpha band, suggesting that alpha band activity reflects, directly or indirectly, processes that help to overcome an individual's momentary bias in perception. We propose that combined with established roles of parietal α in the encoding of sensory information frontal α reflects complementary mechanisms influencing perceptual decisions.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The brain is a biased organ, frequently generating systematically distorted percepts of the world, leading each of us to evolve in our own subjective reality. However, such biases are often overlooked or considered noise when studying the neural mechanisms underlying perception. We show that spontaneous alpha band activity predicts the degree of biasedness of human choices in a time perception task, suggesting that alpha activity indexes processes needed to overcome an individual's idiosyncratic bias. This result provides a window onto the neural underpinnings of subjective perception, and offers the possibility to quantify or manipulate such priors in future studies.

To determine whether Cav1.2 voltage-gated Ca²⁺ channels contribute to astrocyte activation, we generated an inducible conditional knock-out mouse in which the Cav1.2 α subunit was deleted in GFAP-positive astrocytes. This astrocytic Cav1.2 knock-out mouse was tested in the cuprizone model of myelin injury and repair which causes astrocyte and microglia activation in the absence of a lymphocytic response. Deletion of Cav1.2 channels in GFAP-positive astrocytes during cuprizone-induced demyelination leads to a significant reduction in the degree of astrocyte and microglia activation and proliferation in mice of either sex. Concomitantly, the production of proinflammatory factors such as TNFα, IL1β and TGFβ1 was significantly decreased in the corpus callosum and cortex of Cav1.2 knock-out mice through demyelination. Furthermore, this mild inflammatory environment promotes oligodendrocyte progenitor cells maturation and myelin regeneration across the remyelination phase of the cuprizone model. Similar results were found in animals treated with nimodipine, a Cav1.2 Ca²⁺ channel inhibitor with high affinity to the CNS. Mice of either sex injected with nimodipine during the demyelination stage of the cuprizone treatment displayed a reduced number of reactive astrocytes and showed a faster and more efficient brain remyelination. Together, these results indicate that Cav1.2 Ca²⁺ channels play a crucial role in the induction and proliferation of reactive astrocytes during demyelination; and that attenuation of astrocytic voltage-gated Ca²⁺ influx may be an effective therapy to reduce brain inflammation and promote myelin recovery in demyelinating diseases.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Reducing voltage-gated Ca²⁺ influx in astrocytes during brain demyelination significantly attenuates brain inflammation and astrocyte reactivity. Furthermore, these changes promote myelin restoration and oligodendrocyte maturation throughout remyelination.

Microglial cells are considered as sensors of brain pathology by detecting any sign of brain lesions, infections, or dysfunction and can influence the onset and progression of neurological diseases. They are capable of sensing their neuronal environment via many different signaling molecules, such as neurotransmitters, neurohormones and neuropeptides. The neuropeptide VGF has been associated with many metabolic and neurological disorders. TLQP21 is a VGF-derived peptide and has been shown to signal via C3aR1 and C1qBP receptors. The effect of TLQP21 on microglial functions in health or disease is not known. Studying microglial cells in acute brain slices, we found that TLQP21 impaired metabotropic purinergic signaling. Specifically, it attenuated the ATP-induced activation of a K⁺ conductance, the UDP-stimulated phagocytic activity, and the ATP-dependent laser lesion-induced process outgrowth. These impairments were reversed by blocking C1qBP, but not C3aR1 receptors. While microglia in brain slices from male mice lack C3aR1 receptors, both receptors are expressed in primary cultured microglia. In addition to the negative impact on purinergic signaling, we found stimulating effects of TLQP21 in cultured microglia, which were mediated by C3aR1 receptors: it directly evoked membrane currents, stimulated basal phagocytic activity, evoked intracellular Ca²⁺ transient elevations, and served as a chemotactic signal. We conclude that TLQP21 has differential effects on microglia depending on C3aR1 activation or C1qBP-dependent attenuation of purinergic signaling. Thus, TLQP21 can modulate the functional phenotype of microglia, which may have an impact on their function in health and disease.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The neuropeptide VGF and its peptides have been associated with many metabolic and neurological disorders. TLQP21 is a VGF-derived peptide that activates C1qBP receptors, which are expressed by microglia. We show here, for the first time, that TLQP21 impairs P2Y-mediated purinergic signaling and related functions. These include modulation of phagocytic activity and responses to injury. As purinergic signaling is central for microglial actions in the brain, this TLQP21-mediated mechanism might regulate microglial activity in health and disease. We furthermore show that, in addition to C1qBP, functional C3aR1 responses contribute to TLQP21 action on microglia. However, C3aR1 responses were only present in primary cultures but not in situ, suggesting that the expression of these receptors might vary between different microglial activation states.

Structural plasticity of dendritic spines is a key component of the refinement of synaptic connections during learning. Recent studies highlight a novel role for the NMDA receptor (NMDAR), independent of ion flow, in driving spine shrinkage and LTD. Yet little is known about the molecular mechanisms that link conformational changes in the NMDAR to changes in spine size and synaptic strength. Here, using two-photon glutamate uncaging to induce plasticity at individual dendritic spines on hippocampal CA1 neurons from mice and rats of both sexes, we demonstrate that p38 MAPK is generally required downstream of non-ionotropic NMDAR signaling to drive both spine shrinkage and LTD. In a series of pharmacological and molecular genetic experiments, we identify key components of the non-ionotropic NMDAR signaling pathway driving dendritic spine shrinkage, including the interaction between NOS1AP (nitric oxide synthase 1 adaptor protein) and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), nNOS enzymatic activity, activation of MK2 (MAPK-activated protein kinase 2) and cofilin, and signaling through CaMKII. Our results represent a large step forward in delineating the molecular mechanisms of non-ionotropic NMDAR signaling that can drive shrinkage and elimination of dendritic spines during synaptic plasticity.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Signaling through the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) is vitally important for the synaptic plasticity that underlies learning. Recent studies highlight a novel role for the NMDAR, independent of ion flow, in driving synaptic weakening and dendritic spine shrinkage during synaptic plasticity. Here, we delineate several key components of the molecular pathway that links conformational signaling through the NMDAR to dendritic spine shrinkage during synaptic plasticity.

As FAO launches dedicated webpages on post-2015, here are seven things to know about the process and how FAO is playing its part. 7 - Post-2015 development agenda - The name refers to the process through which Member States agree on a new global development framework to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight goals that followed the UN Millennium Declaration [...]

In the face of changing weather driven by climate change and the increasing demand for food, Conservation Agriculture (CA) aims to achieve sustainable and profitable agriculture and improve farmers’ livelihoods. Here are five things you need to know. 1. CA observes three main principles that you should remember Direct seeding involves growing crops without mechanical seedbed preparation and with minimal soil disturbance [...]

Whether we categorize uneaten food as “lost” or “wasted” depends on where it goes out of the food supply chain. Imagine how everything we eat travels across a food supply chain, a complex journey that stretches from farm to table. Studies show that an astounding 1/3 of all the food we produce for human consumption never actually reaches our plates. Most [...]

“Children subjected to child labour need our support and action so they can enjoy their right to education and health and become productive farmers and workers as adults to escape poverty and hunger.” - José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director- General  Child labour is not unique to a particular country, ethnicity, culture, or ideology. Today, there are about 100 million boys [...]

On the frontline of climate change, effects are real and measurable. As climate change evolves, food and agriculture need to follow suit. Rising temperatures, changes in rainfall, erratic weather patterns and the prevalence of pests and diseases resulting from climate change threaten agricultural productivity and therefore undermine global food security. Simultaneously, the world’s population is growing steadily and expected to reach [...]

Climate change is what most of us perceive as the top global threat, and the dangers it poses affect present and future generations alike.  How global warming is threatening the planet has been a theme in children’s books for all ages for some time.   How everyone, especially today’s youth, can make a difference to the future of the world [...]