Although the efficacies of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, i.e., the virus that causes Covid-19, have been publicized and praised, and although they are assumed to encourage vaccine compliance, little ...is known about how well these figures are understood by the general public. Our study aims to fill this gap by investigating whether laypeople have an adequate grasp of what vaccine efficacy means and, if not, which misconceptions and consequences are the most common. To this end, we carried out three online behavioral experiments involving 1800 participants overall. The first, exploratory experiment, with a sample of 600 UK participants, allowed us to document, by means of both an open-ended question and a multiple-choice question, a common misinterpretation of the efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines as the non-incidence rate among the vaccinated. We formally demonstrated that this error leads to a systematic overestimation of the probability of individuals who are vaccinated developing Covid-19. The second experiment confirmed the prevalence of this misinterpretation in a new sample of 600 UK and Italian participants, by means of a slightly different multiple-choice question that included more response options. Finally, in a third experiment, involving another 600 UK and Italian participants, we investigated the behavioral implications of the documented error and showed that it might undermine the general positive attitude toward vaccines as well as the intention to get vaccinated. On the whole, the results of this study reveal a general misunderstanding of vaccine efficacy that may have serious consequences for the perceived benefits of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and, thus, the willingness to be vaccinated.
•Vaccine efficacy (VE) is routinely confused with the non-incidence rate among vaccinated people.•This error leads to an overestimation of the probability of developing Covid-19 when vaccinated.•Commission of this error is predictive for lower behavioral intention of receiving the vaccine.•Complementing VE with the non-incidence rate could raise understanding and vaccine adherence.
Plant-based analogs have been developed to mimic foods from animal sources by using ingredients from vegetable sources. Among the strategies to produce plant-based structures is the gelation of ...mixtures between plant proteins and polysaccharides. In this study, our aim was to investigate gels of pea proteins and gellan gum with high protein concentration and the addition of salt (potassium and sodium chloride). In the first step, a qualitative mapping was performed to select pea protein and gellan gum concentrations to produce self-sustainable gels. After that, the effect of salt addition was investigated for the formulations containing 10-15 % (wt) pea protein and 0.5-1 % (wt) gellan gum. The results showed that the gels containing potassium ions were more rigid and less deformable, with lesser water loss by syneresis. The morphological analysis showed a spatial exclusion of pea protein from the gel network mainly structured by the gellan gum. While potassium ions led to a more compact network, calcium ions promoted higher pores in the structure. Depending on the composition, the mechanical properties of gels were similar to some products from animal sources. So, the information obtained from these gels can be applied to the structuring of formulations in the development of plant-based analogs.
Abstract
LiteBIRD, the Lite (Light) satellite for the study of B-mode polarization and Inflation from cosmic background Radiation Detection, is a space mission for primordial cosmology and ...fundamental physics. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) selected LiteBIRD in May 2019 as a strategic large-class (L-class) mission, with an expected launch in the late 2020s using JAXA’s H3 rocket. LiteBIRD is planned to orbit the Sun–Earth Lagrangian point L2, where it will map the cosmic microwave background polarization over the entire sky for three years, with three telescopes in 15 frequency bands between 34 and 448 GHz, to achieve an unprecedented total sensitivity of $2.2\, \mu$K-arcmin, with a typical angular resolution of 0.5○ at 100 GHz. The primary scientific objective of LiteBIRD is to search for the signal from cosmic inflation, either making a discovery or ruling out well-motivated inflationary models. The measurements of LiteBIRD will also provide us with insight into the quantum nature of gravity and other new physics beyond the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. We provide an overview of the LiteBIRD project, including scientific objectives, mission and system requirements, operation concept, spacecraft and payload module design, expected scientific outcomes, potential design extensions, and synergies with other projects.
Abstract
Temporal networks are essential for modeling and understanding time-dependent systems, from social interactions to biological systems. However, real-world data to construct meaningful ...temporal networks are expensive to collect or unshareable due to privacy concerns. Generating arbitrarily large and anonymized synthetic graphs with the properties of real-world networks, namely surrogate networks, is a potential way to bypass the problem. However, it is not easy to build surrogate temporal networks which do not lack information on the temporal and/or topological properties of the input network and their correlations. Here, we propose a simple and efficient method that decomposes the input network into star-like structures evolving in time, used in turn to generate a surrogate temporal network. The model is compared with state-of-the-art models in terms of similarity of the generated networks with the original ones, showing its effectiveness and its efficiency in terms of execution time. The simplicity of the algorithm makes it interpretable, extendable and scalable.
With this contribution we show the readout electronics for kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) that we are developing based on commercial IQ transceivers from National Instruments and using a Virtex ...5 class FPGA. It will be the readout electronics of the COSmic Monopole Observer (COSMO) experiment, a ground based cryogenic Martin–Puplett Interferometer searching for the cosmic microwave background spectral distortions. The readout electronics require a sampling rate in the range of tens of kHz, which is both due to a fast rotating mirror modulating the signal and the time constant of the COSMO KIDs. In this contribution we show the capabilities of our readout electronics using Niobium KIDs developed by Paris Observatory for our 5 K cryogenic system. In particular, we demonstrate the capability to detect 23 resonators from frequency sweeps and to readout the state of each resonator with a sampling rate of about 8 kHz. The readout is based on a finite-state machine where the first two states look for the resonances and generate the comb of tones, while the third one performs the acquisition of phase and amplitude of each detector in free running. Our electronics are based on commercial modules, which brings two key advantages: they can be acquired easily and it is relative simple to write and modify the firmware within the LabView environment in order to meet the needs of the experiment.
Sensitivity Modeling for LiteBIRD Allys, E.; Arnold, K.; Auguste, D. ...
Journal of low temperature physics,
2023, Letnik:
211, Številka:
5-6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
LiteBIRD
is a future satellite mission designed to observe the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation in order to probe the inflationary universe.
LiteBIRD
is set to observe the ...sky using three telescopes with transition-edge sensor bolometers. In this work we estimated the LiteBIRD instrumental sensitivity using its current design. We estimated the detector noise due to the optical loadings using physical optics and ray-tracing simulations. The noise terms associated with thermal carrier and readout noise were modeled in the detector noise calculation. We calculated the observational sensitivities over fifteen bands designed for the LiteBIRD telescopes using assumed observation time efficiency.
In the arterial circulation, regions of disturbed flow (DF), which are characterized by flow separation and transient vortices, are susceptible to atherogenesis, whereas regions of undisturbed ...laminar flow (UF) appear protected. Coordinated regulation of gene expression by endothelial cells (EC) may result in differing regional phenotypes that either favor or inhibit atherogenesis. Linearly amplified RNA from freshly isolated EC of DF (inner aortic arch) and UF (descending thoracic aorta) regions of normal adult pigs was used to profile differential gene expression reflecting the steady state in vivo. By using human cDNA arrays, ≈2,000 putatively differentially expressed genes were identified through false-discovery-rate statistical methods. A sampling of these genes was validated by quantitative realtime PCR and/or immunostaining en face. Biological pathway analysis revealed that in DF there was up-regulation of several broad-acting inflammatory cytokines and receptors, in addition to elements of the NF-κB system, which is consistent with a proinflammatory phenotype. However, the NF-κB complex was predominantly cytoplasmic (inactive) in both regions, and no significant differences were observed in the expression of key adhesion molecules for inflammatory cells associated with early atherogenesis. Furthermore, there was no histological evidence of inflammation. Protective profiles were observed in DF regions, notably an enhanced antioxidative gene expression. This study provides a public database of regional EC gene expression in a normal animal, implicates hemodynamics as a contributory mechanism to athero-susceptibility, and reveals the coexistence of pro- and antiatherosclerotic transcript profiles in susceptible regions. The introduction of additional risk factors may shift this balance to favor lesion development.
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