Wallacefischer9723

High rates of false-positive conclusions can arise for instance when overdispersion in count data is not controlled appropriately or when randomization procedures ignore existing non-independencies in the data. Hence, newly developed statistical methods not only bring new opportunities, but they can also pose new threats to reliability. We argue that violating the normality assumption bears risks that are limited and manageable, while several more sophisticated approaches are relatively error prone and particularly difficult to check during peer review. Scientists and reviewers who are not fully aware of the risks might benefit from preferentially trusting Gaussian mixed models in which random effects account for non-independencies in the data.On March 16, 2020, the US Government introduced strict social distancing protocols for the United States in an effort to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. This had an immediate major effect on the job market, with millions of Americans forced to find alternative ways to make a living from home. As online labor markets like Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) play a major role in social science research, concerns have been raised that the pandemic may be reducing the diversity of subjects participating in experiments. Here, we investigate this possibility empirically. Specifically, we look at 15,539 responses gathered in 23 studies run on MTurk between February and July 2020, examining the distribution of gender, age, ethnicity, political preference, and analytic cognitive style. click here We find notable changes on some of the measures following the imposition of nationwide social distancing participants are more likely to be less reflective (as measured by the Cognitive Reflection Test), and somewhat less likely to be white, Democrats (traditionally over-represented on MTurk), and experienced with MTurk. Most of these differences are explained by an influx of new participants into the MTurk subject pool who are more diverse and representative - but also less attentive - than previous MTurkers.Genome-wide studies are prone to false positives due to inherently low priors and statistical power. One approach to ameliorate this problem is to seek validation of reported candidate genes across independent studies genes with repeatedly discovered effects are less likely to be false positives. Inversely, genes reported only as many times as expected by chance alone, while possibly representing novel discoveries, are also more likely to be false positives. We show that, across over 30 genome-wide studies that reported Drosophila and Daphnia genes with possible roles in thermal adaptation, the combined lists of candidate genes and orthologous groups are rapidly approaching the total number of genes and orthologous groups in the respective genomes. This is consistent with the expectation of high frequency of false positives. The majority of these spurious candidates have been identified by one or a few studies, as expected by chance alone. In contrast, a noticeable minority of genes have been identified by numerous studies with the probabilities of such discoveries occurring by chance alone being exceedingly small. For this subset of genes, different studies are in agreement with each other despite differences in the ecological settings, genomic tools and methodology, and reporting thresholds. We provide a reference set of presumed true positives among Drosophila candidate genes and orthologous groups involved in response to changes in temperature, suitable for cross-validation purposes. Despite this approach being prone to false negatives, this list of presumed true positives includes several hundred genes, consistent with the "omnigenic" concept of genetic architecture of complex traits.Indigo Naturalis, also known as Qing Dai (QD) is a compound obtained from Indigofera tinctoria, Isatis tinctoria, and Polygonum tinctoria and is known to ameliorate refractory ulcerative colitis (UC) by an unknown mechanism. QD maintains both homeostasis and the integrity of colon epithelia in mice that have experimentally induced colitis. The primary component of QD, indigo, comprises 42.4% of the compound. Indigo efficiently suppresses rectal bleeding and reduces the erosion of the colon epithelium, whereas it does not reduce weight loss or increase survival in a certain condition. Indigo is a ligand of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), which is involved in the anti-colitis activity of QD. Here we investigate the effects of indigo on wound (erosion) closure in colon epithelial cells. Oral administration of indigo induced expression of Cytochrome P450 1A1 (Cyp1a1) in the colon but not in the liver, suggesting that indigo stimulates AhR from the luminal side of the colon. The erosion-closure activity tested in the scratch assays using Caco-2 cells was accelerated by addition of QD and indigo to the culture medium. QD and indigo also induced nuclear localization of AhR and expression of CYP1A1 in the Caco-2 cells. Acceleration of scratch wound closure was abolished by addition of the AhR-antagonist CH223191. Cell proliferation and actin polymerization were also shown to contribute to erosion closure. The results suggest that indigo exerts its erosion-healing effects by increasing proliferation and migration of colon epithelial cells via activation of AhR in intestinal epithelia.Military-connected families face many challenges associated with military life transitions, including deployment separations. We report on a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of Families OverComing Under Stress-Early Childhood (FOCUS-EC) delivered through an in-home, virtual telehealth platform. FOCUS-EC is a trauma-informed, family-centered preventive intervention designed to promote family resilience and well-being. Military-connected families with 3- to 6-year-old children (194 mothers; 155 fathers; 199 children) were randomized to FOCUS-EC or an online education condition. Parent psychological health symptoms, child behavior, parenting, and parent-child relationships were examined by parent-report and observed interaction tasks for up to 12 months. Longitudinal regression models indicated that FOCUS-EC families demonstrated significantly greater improvements than online education families in parent-reported and observational measures of child behavior, parenting practices, and parent-child interaction, as well as greater reductions in parent posttraumatic stress symptoms.