Supersymmetry of 𝒫𝒯-symmetric tridiagonal Hamiltonians

We extend the study of supersymmetric tridiagonal Hamiltonians to the case of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians with real or complex conjugate eigenvalues. We find the relation between matrix elements of the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian [Formula: see text] and its supersymmetric partner [Formula: see text] in a given basis. Moreover, the orthogonal polynomials in the eigenstate expansion problem attached to [Formula: see text] can be recovered from those polynomials arising from the same problem for [Formula: see text] with the help of kernel polynomials. Besides its generality, the developed formalism in this work is a natural home for using the numerically powerful Gauss quadrature techniques in probing the nature of some physical quantities such as the energy spectrum of [Formula: see text]-symmetric complex potentials. Finally, we solve the shifted [Formula: see text]-symmetric Morse oscillator exactly in the tridiagonal representation.

Using Named Entity Recognition to Identify Substances Used in Self-Medication of Opioid Withdrawal: Natural Language Processing Study of Reddit Data (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Abrupt cessation of opioid use can cause withdrawal symptoms, ranging from moderate to severe. People often continue opioid misuse to avoid these symptoms. Many people who use opioids self-treat withdrawal symptoms with a wide range of substances, some of which could help and some potentially harm. Little is known about the substances people use or their effects. OBJECTIVE To validate a methodology for identifying substances used to treat symptoms of opioid withdrawal by a community of people who use opioids on the social media site Reddit. METHODS We developed a named entity recognition model and used it to extract substances and effects from nearly 4 million comments from the r/opiates and r/OpiatesRecovery subreddits. We categorized effects as (1) DSM-5 symptoms of opioid withdrawal, e.g., body aches, (2) effects of opioid use, e.g., euphoria, (3) neither, or (4) other. In this analysis, we focused on those effects which are symptoms of opioid withdrawal and substances which are potential remedies for those withdrawal symptoms. To identify these subsets, we began by deduplicating substances and effects using a combination of clustering on word embeddings and manual review. We then built a bipartite network of substance and effect co-occurrence. For each of 16 effects identified as DSM-5 symptoms of opioid withdrawal, we identified the top 10 substances most strongly associated with the effect, based on a weighted average of edge count and positive pointwise mutual information. We classified these symptom and potential remedy pairs as (1) common treatments, (2) not accepted practice but potentially useful, (3) natural/home remedies, (4) causes, or (5) other. We developed the Withdrawal Remedy Explorer app to facilitate further exploration of the data. RESULTS Our named entity recognition model achieved F1 scores of 92.1 (substances) and 81.7 (effects) on holdout data. After deduplication, we identified 458 unique substances and 253 unique effects. Of 130 potential remedies strongly associated with withdrawal symptoms, 41.54% were common, accepted treatments for the symptom; 13.08% were not accepted practice, but could be useful given their pharmacology; 10.00% were natural/home remedies; 5.38% were causes of the symptom; and 30.00% were other. We identified both potentially promising new remedies (e.g., gabapentin for body aches) and potentially common but harmful remedies (e.g., antihistamines for restless leg syndrome). CONCLUSIONS Social media is a promising source of data on self-medication of opioid withdrawal. Many of the withdrawal remedies discussed by Reddit users are either clinically proven or potentially useful. These results suggest that this methodology is a valid way to study the self-treatment behavior of an online community of people who use opioids. Our Withdrawal Remedy Explorer app provides a platform to use this data for pharmacovigilance, identification of new treatments, and better understanding the needs of people undergoing opioid withdrawal. Furthermore, this approach could be applied to many other disease states where people self-manage their symptoms (to any degree) and discuss their experiences online.

The Experimental Multispecies Household

Under what conditions have people in the past come to arrange their domestic lives more intentionally, and what role have the sciences played in this process? To address this question, this essay examines the transformation of human homes into experimental sites for the study of animal behavior. Between 1880 and 1920, the “insectarium” became both a popular toy and a key tool for the scientific study of the social insects. At the same time, social change and feminist politics were calling into question bourgeois norms of domesticity. In this context, the enterprise of domestic entomology took the rigid, seemingly timeless idea of a “natural home” and transformed it into a research question: how malleable were insects’ home-making instincts? The essay argues that the idea of behavioral plasticity as it emerged in entomology circa 1900 reflected and informed an experimental, multispecies approach to human homemaking. In this way, the essay demonstrates the value of studying the history of science together with the history of private life.

Reflections on the Role of Ubuntu as an Antidote to Afro-Phobia

This article argues that xenophobic acts towards black foreigners remain a human rights challenge in South Africa. Foreign nationals, mostly black Africans, continue to experience physical attacks, discrimination and looting of businesses, as well as targeted crime. Prevalent xenophobic attitudes continue to trouble the conscience of all well-meaning South Africans. There is ample evidence that xenophobia has morphed into afro-phobia, the hatred of black foreigners. Xenophobia continues to evolve and attackers are increasingly linking the presence of foreign nationals to socio-economic challenges facing the country. This article argues that, even though South Africa's Constitution does not expressly identify Ubuntu as a national value, it does recognize customary law and many of its provisions are anchored in Ubuntu philosophy. This article proposes Ubuntu, or African “humanness” whose “natural home” should be located in South Africa, as a pragmatic social intervention and a morally sustainable solution to address xenophobia that would be acceptable to both South Africans and foreign nationals.

Graduate Education in Statistics and Data Science: The Why, When, Where, Who, and What

Organizing a graduate program in statistics and data science raises many questions, offering a variety of opportunities while presenting a multitude of choices. The call for graduate programs in statistics and data science is overwhelming. How does it align with other (future) study programs at the secondary and postsecondary levels? What could or should be the natural home for data science in academia? Who meets the entry criteria, and who does not? Which strategic choices inevitably play a prominent role when developing a curriculum? We share our views on the why, when, where, who and what.

NATURAL HOME REMEDIES MAY ACT AS POTENTIAL IMMUNOMODULATORS TO PROTECT AGAINST SARS-COV-2 INFECTION

Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is primarily caused by Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2). The infection begins with flu like symptoms with respiratory problems but in severe cases it affects cardiovascular system and excretory systems. On March 11, 2020 World Health organization (WHO) announced this disease as pandemic. Researchers are working continuously to find a proper treatment in the form of an effective vaccine or drugs/medicines but till date these are not available in the market and mainly symptomatic treatment is provided to COVID-19 patients. Under these circumstances, Ministry of Health and AYUSH, India has released advisory to people to use natural home remedies as potential alternative treatment. Home remedies are easily available at home in the form of spices and herbs e.g. citrus fruits, garlic, ginger, turmeric, ashwagandha, mulethi, tulsi, oregano, ginseng etc and have immunomodulatory effects as evidenced by ayurvedic literature and scientific publications. As per WHO guidelines the use of herbs within permissible limit would be helpful to manage COVID-19 but its overuse may have harmful effects. In the present article authors attempted to draw the attention of readers about the easy availability and affordability of home remedies to boost immunity and general well being of our body to fight against COVID-19.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND FAKE NEWS ON CORONA VIRUS: A REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Social media is the 21st-century media that has given every user an equal opportunity to publish news without passing through any form of gatekeeping, editorial, or professional scrutiny. This means that it has become a natural home for the spread of fake news even on the recent coronavirus with its consequent health implications. The authors deployed available materials and literature to discuss the burning issues surrounding fake news as misleading information on social media, especially how social media has become a natural home for fake news on coronavirus. More so, this paper reviewed the literature on the effects of fake news on coronavirus and then motivations for sharing fake news online as a way to provide a start-off point for an understanding of why social media misinformation on Corona virus has spread. The authors concluded by presenting a gap in literature, in addition to a research agenda for studies on the spread of health-related disinformation in Nigeria.

Trend of respiratory pathogens during the COVID-19 epidemic: comparison between 2020 and the last 5 years

In China, the first SARS-CoV-2 infection was diagnosed in Wuhan on December 8. Spreads in other regions have occurred since the end of January, happens to be the start of Lunar New Year holiday. In this study, we analyzed the prevalence of common respiratory pathogens in children with respiratory infections during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and compared them with the time trends from 2016 to 2019. Overall, results obtained indicate that the time trend of other respiratory infections were significantly different from previous years, especially the pattern of influenza and Mycoplasma pneumonia. Therefore, in the current scenario of COVID-19 pandemic, other common pathogens testing should not be excluded. The natural home isolation period in new year holiday may weaken the transmission of common respiratory viruses.

Toward an Evolutionary and Sustainability Perspective of the Innovation Ecosystem: Revisiting the Panarchy Model

This paper proposes an evolutionary and sustainability perspective of the innovation ecosystem. This study revisits the Panarchy model in order to generate new perspectives on the innovation ecosystem. The Panarchy model describes the evolutionary nature of complex adaptive systems relying on four phases, without, however, being deterministic: exploitation, conservation, decline, and reorganization. When ecosystems face important shocks, adaptive mechanisms and properties within the ecosystem lead the ecosystem to a new reorganization phase, which gives birth to another exploitation phase. In this perspective, the innovation ecosystem allows the avoidance of technology lock-ins and structural and organizational rigidity by providing mechanisms to enhance both resilience and competitiveness. Innovation ecosystem sustainability relies on two major dual forces: the exploitative function and the generative or autopoiesis function. Therefore, evolutionary and sustainability perspectives remain the “natural home” for developing works and models about the innovation ecosystem, and instrumental for policy-makers and practitioners involved in innovation management.